Medicine i_need_contribute
COVID-19 news update Apr/13
source:WorldTraditionalMedicineFrum 2021-04-13 [Medicine]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Country,
Other

Total
Cases

New
Cases

Total
Deaths

World

137,249,443

+588,271

2,958,241

USA

31,990,143

+56,522

576,298

India

13,686,073

+160,694

171,089

Brazil

13,521,409

+38,866

355,031

France

5,067,216

+8,536

99,135

Russia

4,649,710

+8,320

103,263

UK

4,373,343

+3,568

127,100

Turkey

3,903,573

+54,562

34,182

Italy

3,779,594

+9,789

114,612

Spain

3,370,256

+7,446

76,525

Germany

3,021,064

+11,523

79,110

Poland

2,586,647

+12,013

58,481

Colombia

2,552,937

+16,739

66,156

Argentina

2,551,999

+19,437

57,957

Mexico

2,280,213

+1,793

209,338

Iran

2,093,452

+23,311

64,764

Ukraine

1,861,105

+7,856

37,301

Peru

1,653,320

+5,626

55,230

Czechia

1,581,184

+976

27,918

Indonesia

1,571,824

+4,829

42,656

South Africa

1,559,113

+655

53,356

Netherlands

1,357,340

+6,675

16,791

Chile

1,082,920

+6,421

24,483

Canada

1,071,016

+10,858

23,356

Romania

1,008,490

+2,323

25,248

Iraq

932,899

+7,953

14,757

Belgium

925,476

+2,989

23,473

Philippines

876,225

+11,378

15,149

Israel

836,158

+225

6,304

Portugal

827,765

+271

16,918

Pakistan

725,602

+4,584

15,501

Hungary

725,241

+5,077

23,708

Bangladesh

691,957

+7,201

9,822

Jordan

669,300

+3,565

7,855

Serbia

645,173

+2,965

5,773

Austria

578,950

+1,943

9,706

Japan

506,286

+2,883

9,400

Morocco

502,277

+175

8,909

Lebanon

497,854

+1,008

6,703

UAE

485,675

+1,928

1,533

Saudi Arabia

399,277

+842

6,765

Bulgaria

375,115

+3,122

14,619

Slovakia

371,168

+106

10,630

Malaysia

362,173

+1,317

1,333

Panama

358,792

+181

6,167

Ecuador

347,070

+253

17,298

Belarus

336,881

+843

2,363

Greece

297,086

+1,606

8,961

Croatia

292,938

+422

6,333

Georgia

288,755

+359

3,883

Azerbaijan

287,144

+1,151

3,944

Bolivia

282,095

+525

12,451

Nepal

280,524

+496

3,053

Tunisia

272,940

+1,079

9,332

Kazakhstan

271,809

+2,290

3,236

Palestine

270,856

+2,724

2,883

Dominican Republic

258,039

+341

3,392

Kuwait

248,729

+1,635

1,412

Moldova

241,820

+603

5,409

Ireland

241,330

+385

4,785

Denmark

238,306

+514

2,443

Paraguay

237,542

+2,250

4,889

Ethiopia

230,944

+1,948

3,208

Slovenia

226,786

+287

4,126

Lithuania

226,783

+597

3,697

Egypt

211,307

+818

12,487

Armenia

203,327

+510

3,753

Guatemala

203,309

+238

7,020

Honduras

195,780

+255

4,804

Qatar

190,998

+973

335

Venezuela

175,812

+925

1,795

Oman

173,029

+1,480

1,789

Libya

168,676

+851

2,828

Nigeria

163,837

+38

2,061

Bahrain

157,729

+1,267

562

Uruguay

147,173

+2,531

1,533

Kenya

146,156

+486

2,368

Myanmar

142,596

+20

3,206

North Macedonia

142,034

+190

4,262

Albania

128,518

+125

2,321

Algeria

118,645

+129

3,134

Estonia

114,443

+269

1,037

S. Korea

110,146

+587

1,770

Latvia

107,818

+210

1,990

Norway

104,269

+648

687

Sri Lanka

95,394

+263

598

Montenegro

94,419

+150

1,381

China

90,426

+16

4,636

Kyrgyzstan

90,372

+145

1,528

Zambia

90,064

+35

1,227

Cuba

87,385

+854

467

Uzbekistan

85,114

+192

634

Finland

82,278

+225

874

Mozambique

68,792

+34

791

Luxembourg

63,880

+230

772

Cyprus

52,033

+528

273

Thailand

33,610

+985

97

Malta

29,661

+47

402

Aruba

10,076

+26

92

Suriname

9,316

+14

182

Vietnam

2,705

+12

35

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

Global Covid-19 cases increase for the 7th consecutive week, WHO chief says 

From CNN’s Naomi Thomas

 

Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquaters on March 11, 2020, in Geneva.

Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a daily press briefing on COVID-19 virus at the WHO headquaters on March 11, 2020, in Geneva. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

There have now been seven consecutive weeks of increasing Covid-19 cases and four weeks of increasing deaths globally, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said during a news briefing in Geneva Monday. 

“In January and February the world saw six consecutive weeks of declining cases,” Tedros said. “We have now seen seven consecutive weeks of increasing cases and four weeks of increasing deaths. Last week was the fourth highest number of cases in a single week so far.”

Several countries in Asia and the Middle East have seen large case increases, he said. 

Increases are occurring despite more than 780 million vaccine doses being administered globally, he said, adding that vaccines are a vital and powerful tool, but not the only one. 

He emphasized that public health measures – mask wearing, physical distancing, ventilation, hand hygiene, surveillance, testing, tracing and isolation – work to stop infections and save lives. 

“Confusion, complacency and inconsistency in public health measures and their application are driving transmission and costing lives,” Tedros said. “It takes a consistent, coordinated and comprehensive approach.” 

 

 

 

England re-opens as Germany struggles to contain cases

From CNN's Anna Stewart and Fred Pleitgen

 

People queue outside Nike Town on Oxford Street in London, as shops reopen following coronavirus restrictions easing on April 12.

People queue outside Nike Town on Oxford Street in London, as shops reopen following coronavirus restrictions easing on April 12. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Non-essential shops opened their doors in England Monday, as the government continued to ease the country out of lockdown.

England's gyms, zoos and hairdressers also reopened, while restaurants and pubs will welcome customers outdoors. 

Lengthy lines formed outside shops on London’s Oxford Street ahead of the reopening on Monday morning, which forms part of the second step of the UK's plan to exit lockdown by the summer.

But not everyone will be back to enjoy the easing. Some businesses are permanently shut and only 40% of venues have outdoor space.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the easing as “major step forward” for England’s “roadmap to freedom."

Across the continent in Germany, the situation is dramatically different.

Germany's ICUs are at near peak capacity, according to Christian Karagiannidis, the director of the German intensive care association.

Karagiannidis warned over the weekend that even with a hard lockdown, case numbers in the country will rise for the next 10-14 days, adding that healthcare workers are “breaking down.”

He called for immediate action to deal with the rise in infection.

Germany has recorded more than three million total cases of Covid-19 during the pandemic and 78,500 deaths.

Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier said that the newer UK variant is making it more difficult for the country to control the virus' spread.

Last week the country's health minister Jens Spahn said Germany plans to open talks with Russia about acquiring doses of its coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, if the shot is approved by EU regulators.

 

 

 

India's daily cases surge as millions gather for religious pilgrimage

From CNN's Jessie Yeung and Esha Mitra

 

Hindu devotees packed the streets of Haridwar, in northern India, on Monday for the largest religious pilgrimage on Earth, in scenes that defied social distancing rules just as Covid-19 infections soared in the country.

As many as five million visitors were expected to descend on the city Monday -- an auspicious day in the ongoing Kumbh Mela religious festival, which was delayed this year due to the pandemic.

At the festival, devotees wash away their sins in the river's sacred waters, which are believed to turn into "amrita" -- the nectar of immortality -- on auspicious days like Monday.

At least 650,000 people had already taken a dip in the river by early Monday, according to police Insp. Gen. Sanjay Gunjyal.

Throughout the day, there will be an estimated 11,000 to 18,000 people in the water at any time, spread across the 15 main riverbanks, said Mukesh Thakur, a senior police official.

The massive crowds are causing concern as India struggles to contain a worrying second wave, with cases rising dramatically every day.

 

 

 

Japan aims to secure 100 million vaccine doses by the end of June

From CNN's Eric Cheung in Hong Kong and Chie Kobayashi in Tokyo

 

An elderly woman receives a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Tokyo on April 12.
An elderly woman receives a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Tokyo on April 12. Stringer/Japan Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Japan will secure 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of June, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Monday.

The doses will cover all medical workers and elderly citizens in the country, Suga said.

"It is important to inoculate elderly people, who have a high severity rate (when infected by Covid-19), as soon as possible," he added.

The announcement came as Japan began a mass inoculation program for its 36 million elderly residents aged 65 or above on Monday, according to the Kyodo News Agency.

The agency said the elderly accounted for around 29% of the country's population.

Just 1.1 million people -- less than 1% of Japan's population -- have received at least the first dose of the vaccine as of last Friday, according to official statistics provided by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

The country has reported 506,237 cases of Covid-19 in total and 9,369 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University.

 

Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-04-13-21/index.html

 

 

 

Severe Covid cases surge in Gaza, with Ramadan about to begin

By Adam Rasgon

 

The positivity rate for Covid tests in Gaza has been running very high, a sign of rapid community spread. A health worker collected a nasal swab sample from a man in Gaza City on Monday.

The positivity rate for Covid tests in Gaza has been running very high, a sign of rapid community spread. A health worker collected a nasal swab sample from a man in Gaza City on Monday.Credit...Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Severe and critical cases of Covid-19 have hit record highs this week in the blockaded Gaza Strip, a development that health experts attributed to the proliferation of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in Britain.

Medical officials in the Hamas-run Health Ministry estimated that the variant now accounts for four out of five new cases in Gaza. They detected it in the densely populated territory for the first time in late March.

“We are in a dangerous place,” said Dr. Majdi Dhair, the director of the ministry’s preventive medicine department. “We expect more people to become infected and more people to enter hospitals. We ask God to pull us out of this situation.”

Over the past three weeks, severe cases — typically when a patient’s oxygen level falls to 94 percent or less — have risen to 219 from 58, according to ministry data. Critical cases, which can involve respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ dysfunction, jumped to 58 from 17.

On top of that, the ministry said on Monday that about 38 percent of the 4,700 virus test results it had received over the preceding 24 hours were positive — one of the highest rates in the past month.

Dr. Dhair said he believed that hospitals in Gaza were prepared to handle more severe and critical cases, but that they would probably have to postpone some surgical procedures to free up intensive care beds.

Devastated by years of conflict, Gaza’s hospitals were already dealing with challenging circumstances before the first cases of community transmission of the virus were discovered in the territory in August.

Gaza’s population is overwhelmingly young, and less than 1 percent of residents have been vaccinated so far.

The sharp rise in severe and critical cases has come just before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins on Tuesday. Traditionally during Ramadan, many Palestinians in Gaza would gather for large meals after sunset, pack streets in popular commercial districts and crowd into mosques for special evening prayers. But a number of those traditions will be prohibited this year because of the pandemic, the authorities said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/world/covid-gaza-ramadan.html

 

 

 

Thailand faces its worst virus outbreak as a major travel holiday begins

By Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono

 

Covid-19 vaccinations at a monastery in Bangkok this month.

Covid-19 vaccinations at a monastery in Bangkok this month.Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times

Thailand is facing its worst coronavirus outbreak just as millions of people head to their home provinces during the country’s biggest travel holiday.

The latest wave of infections, which has sent at least eight cabinet members into isolation, is centered in a Bangkok nightlife district said to be popular with government officials and wealthy partygoers. The country, which until now has largely kept the virus under control, set a record Monday for new daily cases with 985.

One top health official warned that Thailand could soon face as many as 28,000 new cases a day in the worst-case scenario. The government announced it would set up field hospitals as Covid-19 wards at existing facilities begin to fill up.

Officials ordered the closure of hundreds of bars and nightclubs, but critics say the government has been inconsistent in its efforts to bring the outbreak under control. The prime minister, Prayuth Chan-ocha, stopped short of banning travel between provinces for the Songkran holiday, which begins on Tuesday and marks the beginning of the Thai New Year.

“Whatever will be, will be,” he said last week in explaining his decision. “The reason is it’s a matter that involves a huge number of people. The government will have to try to cope with that later.”

Dozens of provinces have imposed their own restrictions on travelers coming from Bangkok and other affected areas, prompting many Thais to cancel their trips. But many others set off over the weekend.

During earlier outbreaks, the government often acted quickly to require face masks, ban foreign tourists, impose quarantine restrictions and lock down hard-hit areas. It has reported fewer than 34,000 cases — mostly from a January surge traced to a seafood market near Bangkok — and just 97 deaths.

But it has been lax in testing and slow to vaccinate. So far, it has procured about 2.2 million doses and given at least one to about 500,000 people. Thailand’s population is 70 million.

Vaccine production is not expected to begin in earnest until June, when a manufacturer in Thailand is scheduled to begin producing 10 million doses a month of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Health officials were alarmed by the recent discovery of dozens of cases of the highly infectious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain. The finding highlighted the inadequacy of Thailand’s virus testing and suggested that its quarantine procedures have not been as effective as officials believed.

Tourism operators have been especially angered by the government’s lackadaisical approach to obtaining vaccine supplies. The tourism industry, which normally accounts for about 20 percent of the nation’s economy, is highly dependent on foreign visitors and has been calling for widespread vaccinations to speed its recovery.

The outbreak in Bangkok has also prompted questions about the activities of some top officials and their aides.

The transportation minister, Saksayam Chidchob, who was hospitalized with Covid-19, was criticized for not being forthcoming about his whereabouts during times when he may have been exposed to the virus. He denied visiting the gentlemen’s club at the center of the outbreak and said he believed he had contracted the virus from an aide.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/12/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases/thailand-faces-its-worst-virus-outbreak-as-a-major-travel-holiday-begins

 

 

 

Pandemic hits ‘critical point’ as Europe deaths top one million

 

Europe passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus deaths on Monday, as the World Health Organization warned that infections are rising exponentially despite widespread efforts aimed at stopping them, AFP reports.

The death toll across Europe’s 52 countries, compiled by AFP from official sources, totalled at least 1,000,288 by 1830 GMT.

“We are in a critical point of the pandemic right now,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19.

“The trajectory of this pandemic is growing... exponentially.

“This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, when we have proven control measures,” she told reporters.

The coronavirus has already killed more than 2.9 million people and infected nearly 136 million across the world.

 

 

 

Summary

 

In other news from around the world:

· The UK has reported the highest number of new Covid-19 cases since 1 April on Monday, with 3,568 new cases reported. A further 13 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19, taking the total number of deaths on the measure to 127,100.

· Turkey’s coronavirus taskforce will recommend a tougher set of restrictions as the country battles its third wave, health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday in comments reported by Reuters.

· Authorities are rolling out surge testing in parts of south London after cases of the South African Covid-19 variant were detected.

· The Canadian province of Ontario is shutting schools and moving to remote learning due to rising infection levels, premier Doug Ford said on Monday. He did not say when pupils would return to in-person teaching, Reuters reports.

· Ireland will only administer the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to people over 60, the country’s chief medical officer said Monday, after it was linked to rare blood clotting cases, according to AFP.

· Three Covid-19 patients died on Monday in an intensive care unit in Bucharest after the oxygen supply system failed, the emergency situations department (DSU) said in a statement reported by AFP.

· All over-50s in England have been offered a coronavirus vaccine a few days before the mid-April deadline set by the government – meaning the second phase of the rollout to younger cohorts can now begin.

· Brazil’s Supreme Court is set to approve a congressional inquiry into President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic but will leave the Senate to decide when it takes place, a source told Reuters.

· Confusion and complacency in addressing Covid-19 means the pandemic is a long way from being over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, the WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

· Japan has expanded its vaccination programme to people aged over 64, amid concern that the country is entering a fourth wave of coronavirus infections.

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/apr/13/coronavirus-live-news-europe-death-toll-passes-one-million-india-approves-russias-sputnik-v-vaccine?page=with:block-607527148f088c820d86514e#block-607527148f088c820d86514e