i_need_contribute
|
Country, |
Total |
New |
Total |
|
World |
175,605,115 |
+435,033 |
3,788,409 |
|
34,275,783 |
+14,880 |
614,007 |
|
|
29,273,338 |
+91,266 |
363,097 |
|
|
17,215,159 |
+89,802 |
482,135 |
|
|
5,729,967 |
+4,475 |
110,270 |
|
|
5,313,098 |
+6,408 |
48,524 |
|
|
5,167,949 |
+11,699 |
125,278 |
|
|
4,542,986 |
+7,393 |
127,867 |
|
|
4,239,868 |
+2,079 |
126,855 |
|
|
4,066,156 |
+27,628 |
83,941 |
|
|
3,729,458 |
+4,623 |
80,465 |
|
|
3,718,617 |
+2,747 |
90,283 |
|
|
3,665,137 |
+29,302 |
94,046 |
|
|
3,003,112 |
+12,398 |
81,672 |
|
|
2,876,667 |
+382 |
74,447 |
|
|
2,441,866 |
+3,855 |
229,353 |
|
|
2,219,824 |
+1,785 |
51,507 |
|
|
1,995,257 |
+4,054 |
187,847 |
|
|
1,885,942 |
+8,892 |
52,373 |
|
|
1,722,086 |
+9,147 |
57,410 |
|
|
1,669,121 |
+1,561 |
17,705 |
|
|
1,664,649 |
+248 |
30,217 |
|
|
1,453,478 |
+7,708 |
30,339 |
|
|
1,398,275 |
+1,477 |
25,873 |
|
|
1,293,687 |
+7,485 |
22,312 |
|
|
1,242,540 |
+4,684 |
16,648 |
|
|
1,079,427 |
+133 |
31,531 |
|
|
1,073,358 |
+1,183 |
25,061 |
|
|
937,434 |
+1,303 |
21,529 |
|
|
855,432 |
+910 |
17,043 |
|
|
839,630 |
+45 |
6,428 |
|
|
820,395 |
+2,576 |
12,989 |
|
|
806,591 |
+206 |
29,896 |
|
|
767,808 |
+2,242 |
13,841 |
|
|
742,178 |
+479 |
9,570 |
|
|
714,462 |
+210 |
6,945 |
|
|
647,971 |
+283 |
10,650 |
|
|
639,562 |
+5,671 |
3,684 |
|
|
601,687 |
+2,874 |
8,238 |
|
|
591,613 |
+2,190 |
1,717 |
|
|
542,169 |
+229 |
7,785 |
|
|
522,765 |
+376 |
9,192 |
|
|
462,528 |
+1,286 |
7,519 |
|
|
436,023 |
+2,153 |
20,949 |
|
|
420,090 |
+100 |
17,887 |
|
|
413,170 |
+750 |
12,370 |
|
|
402,819 |
+966 |
2,949 |
|
|
397,976 |
+1,144 |
4,124 |
|
|
396,814 |
+3,839 |
15,247 |
|
|
390,809 |
+116 |
12,433 |
|
|
385,353 |
+841 |
6,419 |
|
|
384,989 |
+2,758 |
10,412 |
|
|
362,658 |
+2,373 |
13,305 |
|
|
358,245 |
+184 |
8,110 |
|
|
351,954 |
+705 |
4,996 |
|
|
338,048 |
+2,041 |
4,298 |
|
|
334,992 |
+75 |
4,951 |
|
|
330,027 |
+3,622 |
4,862 |
|
|
323,357 |
+1,709 |
1,810 |
|
|
311,018 |
+228 |
3,524 |
|
|
288,704 |
+475 |
2,522 |
|
|
277,224 |
+214 |
4,327 |
|
|
273,678 |
+280 |
4,231 |
|
|
271,047 |
+755 |
15,510 |
|
|
267,447 |
+1,785 |
8,388 |
|
|
265,754 |
+398 |
4,941 |
|
|
256,103 |
+195 |
4,393 |
|
|
255,954 |
+1,034 |
1,188 |
|
|
255,661 |
+60 |
6,147 |
|
|
247,847 |
+1,083 |
2,781 |
|
|
243,467 |
+671 |
6,559 |
|
|
230,219 |
+1,640 |
2,467 |
|
|
223,460 |
+76 |
4,478 |
|
|
219,281 |
+143 |
574 |
|
|
216,134 |
+2,738 |
2,011 |
|
|
188,386 |
+229 |
3,155 |
|
|
187,538 |
+2,310 |
1,375 |
|
|
174,285 |
+624 |
3,362 |
|
|
155,487 |
+18 |
5,468 |
|
|
153,578 |
+1,158 |
1,057 |
|
|
146,303 |
+611 |
1,979 |
|
|
144,876 |
+161 |
3,237 |
|
|
135,584 |
+196 |
2,443 |
|
|
132,426 |
+11 |
2,452 |
|
|
132,355 |
+321 |
3,552 |
|
|
130,364 |
+54 |
1,266 |
|
|
127,676 |
+210 |
789 |
|
|
108,667 |
+494 |
1,869 |
|
|
105,909 |
+2,146 |
1,332 |
|
|
102,605 |
+243 |
702 |
|
|
99,890 |
+23 |
1,596 |
|
|
93,613 |
+93 |
964 |
|
|
91,337 |
+21 |
4,636 |
|
|
87,716 |
+1,824 |
3,412 |
|
|
17,546 |
+233 |
384 |
|
|
11,069 |
+1 |
107 |
|
|
9,784 |
+219 |
55 |
Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Health care workers waiting to receive the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine in Johannesburg in March.Credit...Themba Hadebe/Associated Press
Only seven African nations, most of them small, are expected to meet the World Health Organization’s goal that every country worldwide vaccinate 10 percent of its people against the coronavirus by September. It is a dire prospect for a continent where vaccine supplies are being quickly depleted, and governments are battling a resurgence in infections.
The global health body said on Thursday that inoculation coverage remained at about 2 percent continentwide — and about 1 percent in sub-Saharan Africa — even as some rich nations across the world administered shots to a majority of their people.
To achieve the 10 percent target for each country on the continent, Africa would need an extra 225 million doses, said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the W.H.O. regional director for Africa. In total, nine out of 10 African nations will miss out on this global vaccination goal, the agency estimated.
The seven countries are the Seychelles, Morocco, Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Zimbabwe. An additional six countries — Tunisia, Ghana, Lesotho, Rwanda, Kenya and Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland — could reach the target if they receive enough supply to keep up with their current pace of vaccination, the W.H.O. said.
“This will really require a massive effort,” Dr. Moeti acknowledged, saying that “without a significant boost” in the availability of vaccines, “many African lives are at stake.”
The announcement came as Africa is set to surpass five million virus cases, with Covid having claimed 133,000 lives so far, according to official statistics. While testing is often limited, known cases have also increased, with 94,145 new ones reported in the past week — a 26 percent increase from the previous week, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Countries including Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia have reported a surge in cases, while some, such as Uganda, reintroduced lockdowns to stem the spread of the virus. The Africa C.D.C. also said deaths on the continent increased by 2 percent over the past week, and many more countries have reported detecting the variants first reported in South Africa, Britain and India. As cases and deaths rise, many nations have reported exhausting most of the vaccines they received through Covax, a global vaccine initiative. The W.HO. said that 14 African nations have utilized between 80 percent and 100 percent of their doses.
Still, only 35.9 million Covid vaccine doses have been administered in the continent, according to the Africa C.D.C., with the majority given in a few countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa, and in the Western Sahara region. Burundi, Eritrea and Tanzania have yet to give a single shot while Chad and Togo only started administering jabs last week.
While some countries faced shortages, others were not rolling out campaigns quickly. Twenty nations have used less than half of their doses, the W.H.O. estimated, while 12 nations have more than 10 percent of their doses facing expiration.
But on Thursday, both the W.H.O. and the Africa C.D.C. welcomed President Biden’s decision to donate 500 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to poorer nations, including those in the African Union. Countries like France and corporations like Mastercard have also promised to finance, deliver or help produce Covid vaccines in Africa.
“It’s a monumental step forward,” Dr. Moeti said of the U.S. effort, which Mr. Biden announced in Europe on Thursday. “We are now seeing wealthy nations begin to turn promises into action. The hope of a shared future without Covid-19 is starting to shine a little bit more brightly.”
The vaccines are set to start shipping in August, with 200 million doses set for delivery by the end of this year, while the other 300 million will be delivered early next year, according to a White House fact sheet.
Dr. John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa C.D.C., welcomed the decision but said he did not know when or how many vaccines Africa would receive. He urged member states to prepare storage facilities for the Pfizer vaccine and prioritize big cities once those doses arrive. He gave the example of Rwanda, which he said had received over 102,000 Pfizer doses and rolled them out quickly.
“We have to use a combination of vaccines to win this battle against Covid-19,” Mr. Nkengasong said at a news conference on Thursday. “We are at war and you go to war with what you have, not what you need.”
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/world/africa/africa-covid-vaccine-who.html
By Reuters
Health workers check the blood pressure of residents before vaccination in Banda Aceh, Indonesia on June 10.
A jump in coronavirus cases on Indonesia's two most populous islands has health experts worried the worst could be yet to come, with few curbs on movement at a time when dangerous variants drive record fatalities elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Case numbers have risen sharply in Java and Sumatra three weeks after holidays that followed the Islamic fasting month, when millions ventured across the archipelago, ignoring a temporary travel ban.
In Kudus, central Java, cases skyrocketed 7,594% since then, according to Wiku Adisasmito of Indonesia's Covid-19 taskforce. Health care reinforcements have been brought in, but hospital capacity had hit 90%, local media reported.
Defriman Djafri, an epidemiologist from Andalas University in Padang, said fatalities in West Sumatra in May were the highest on record.
In Riau on Sumatra, daily cases more than doubled from early April to over 800 by mid-May, while the positivity rate was at 35.8% last week, said Wildan Asfan Hasibuan, an epidemiologist and provincial task force adviser.
Wildan attributed the spike to increased mobility and possible spread of coronavirus variants, which have driven big spikes in many countries.
The impact of variants is hard to determine in Indonesia, which has limited genomic sequencing capacity.
The country also has testing and tracing shortfalls, and its immunization drive has progressed slowly, with one in 18 people targeted for inoculations fully vaccinated so far.
Recent studies have also indicated cases could be far higher than the nearly 1.9 million known infections, among Asia's highest caseloads.
Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist from Australia's Griffith University, said Indonesia should take variants more seriously -- particularly the B.1.617.2 strain, first identified in India, which he said was in its early stage of spreading.
"If we don't change our strategy, we will face an explosion of cases in the community, mortality will increase," he said.
"It means sooner or later it will reach the more vulnerable ... we will face an explosion of cases which we cannot contain or respond to in our health facilities."
WASHINGTON — President Biden, under pressure to aggressively address the global coronavirus vaccine shortage, will announce as early as Thursday that his administration will buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and donate them among about 100 countries over the next year, according to people familiar with the plan.
Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/11/asia/coronavirus-variants-indonesia-clusters-intl-hnk/index.html
Boston Medical Center’s pediatric ambulatory department began sending mobile vaccination units into city neighborhoods last April.Credit...David Degner for The New York Times
Pediatricians are urging U.S. parents to get their children caught up on routine vaccinations, following a decline in the number of inoculations for diseases like measles as the pandemic forced restrictions, including shelter-at-home orders, last year.
New data from 10 jurisdictions that closely monitor immunizations confirm that the number of administered vaccine doses plunged between March and May of last year, especially among older children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.
Though vaccinations rebounded between June 2020 and September 2020, approaching pre-pandemic levels, the increase was not enough to make up for the earlier drop, the study found.
Vaccinations are required for attendance at most schools, camps and day care centers, but the authors of the C.D.C. study warned that the lag nonetheless “might pose a serious public health threat that would result in vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks.”
They expressed concern that the transition to remote learning during the pandemic may have hobbled enforcement of vaccination requirements, noting that even temporary declines in immunization can compromise herd immunity.
In 2018-2019, a measles outbreak occurred in Rockland County, N.Y., and nearby counties after measles vaccination coverage in area schools dropped to 77 percent, below the 93 percent to 95 percent figure needed to sustain herd immunity. “Pediatric outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have the potential to derail efforts to reopen schools” in the fall, the researchers added.
Parents should plan ahead and schedule appointments now so that their children can be protected, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, who chairs the committee on infectious diseases at the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“We should start thinking about it,” Dr. Maldonado said in a phone interview. “People forget. We have regular pertussis outbreaks every four or five years, and are just waiting to see another one.”
“We’re probably going to start seeing more infections, because kids are going to get back together and there’s going to be less masking and social distancing,” she added.
The C.D.C. analyzed data from nine states and New York City. In eight of the jurisdictions, some form of stay-at-home order was issued last spring.
The number of administered doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines (DTaP) dropped 15.7 percent among children under age 2, and 60 percent among those aged 2 to 6 in the spring of last year, compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019.
Doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) declined by 22.4 percent among 1-year-olds, and 63 percent among those aged 2 to 8.
HPV vaccine administration declined by more than 63 percent among youngsters aged 9 to 17, compared with the same period in 2018 and 2019; and doses of Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis) decreased by over 60 percent.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/health/children-vaccine-measles-cdc-covid-coronavirus.html
By Emily Anthes
Pedestrians in the coastal city of Netanya, Israel.Credit...Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
New data from Israel, which had the fastest Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the world, provides real-world evidence that widespread vaccination against the coronavirus can also protect people who are unvaccinated.
The Israeli study, which was published in the journal Nature Medicine on Thursday, took advantage of the fact that until recently Israel was only vaccinating people 16 or older. For every 20 percentage point increase in the share of 16- to 50-year-olds who were vaccinated in a community, the researchers found, the share of unvaccinated under 16s who tested positive for the virus fell by half.
“Vaccination provides benefits not only to the individual vaccine but also to people around them,” said Roy Kishony, a biologist, physicist and data scientist who studies microbial evolution and disease at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Dr. Kishony led the research with Dr. Tal Patalon, who heads KSM, the Maccabi Research and Innovation Center, in Israel. The first authors of the paper are Oren Milman and Idan Yelin, researchers in Dr. Kishony’s lab.
Israel began vaccinating adults in December of last year. Within nine weeks, it had vaccinated nearly half of its population.
The researchers examined the anonymized electronic health records of members of Maccabi Healthcare Services, an Israeli H.M.O. They analyzed vaccination records and virus test results between December 6, 2020, and March 9, 2021. The records came from 177 different geographic areas, which had varying rates of vaccination and vaccine uptake.
For each community, they calculated the share of adults, between the ages of 16 and 50, who were vaccinated at various time points. They also calculated the fraction of P.C.R. tests of children under 16 that came back positive.
They found a clear correlation: As more and more adults in a community got vaccinated, the share of children testing positive for the virus subsequently fell.
People who are vaccinated are significantly less likely to become infected with the virus. Research also suggests that even when vaccinated people do contract the virus, they may have lower viral loads, reducing their infectiousness. As a result, as more and more people get vaccinated, unvaccinated people become less likely to encounter infected, contagious people.
“The results are consistent with vaccinees not only not getting sick themselves, but also not transmitting the virus to others,” Dr. Kishony said. “Such effects can be amplified over multiple cycles of infections.”
In another recent paper, which has not yet been published in a scientific journal, researchers in Finland reported that after health care workers got vaccinated, unvaccinated members of their households were also less likely to contract the virus.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/health/vaccine-adults-children-israel-study.html
By Emily Schmall and Sameer Yasir
A hospital in Bhagalpur, in the Indian state of Bihar, last year. A review found that more than 9,000 people had died from Covid-related complications in the northern state since March 2020.Credit...Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
India’s coronavirus death toll shot up on Thursday after an audit unearthed thousands of uncounted fatalities in the northern state of Bihar, one of the largest and poorest states in the country.
The audit in Bihar showed that more than 9,000 people had died from Covid-related complications since March 2020, significantly higher than the 5,500 deaths originally reported.
The audit was ordered after a hearing on May 17 in the Bihar High Court in Patna, the state capital, in which a district commissioner reported that a single cremation ground had handled 789 bodies in a 13-day period in May. That number clashed sharply with the seven deaths in the whole of May that Tripurari Sharan, a top state-level official, had reported for that entire district.
The revised figures underline the doubts about the accuracy of the Indian government’s official coronavirus statistics. Even in normal times, only about one in five deaths in India is medically certified, experts say.
Opposition political parties in Bihar have accused the state’s top elected official, Nitish Kumar, and his administration of hiding the true death toll to mask failures to mitigate the deadly second wave that has battered India.
The high court in Bihar has been monitoring the state government’s pandemic response since early May after taking up a petition filed by an activist that complained of mismanagement.
But Bihar’s health minister, Mangal Pandey, told The New York Times that the updated numbers reflected a good-faith effort to uncover families eligible for monetary support from the government.
“The intention is to help everyone, not to hide the real death toll,” Mr. Pandey said. “We will leave no death unaccounted for.”
Elsewhere in India, such as in the western state of Gujarat, observers have reported a wide discrepancy between official coronavirus death numbers and the actual figures. While some states have issued revised numbers, no update comes close to Bihar’s. Still, experts say they believe that India’s total number, which because of the audit in Bihar rose by 6,148 deaths on Thursday to 359,676, is a vast undercount.
In other news from around the world:
The government of Singapore said on Thursday that it would ease some social restrictions after nearly a month of tough measures to contain a coronavirus outbreak fueled in part by the Delta variant, first detected in India. The city-state also said that it would expand its vaccination campaign, allowing anyone 12 and older to register for shots beginning on Friday and extending eligibility to the rest of the population in the coming months.
Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, will restrict access to shopping malls, restaurants, cafes and other public places to those who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus or who have recently tested negative, starting on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The new rules were announced late on Wednesday and come as the United Arab Emirates has seen daily cases rise during the past three weeks. The restrictions will also apply to gyms, hotels, public parks, beaches, swimming pools, entertainment centers, cinemas, and museums, Abu Dhabi’s media office said.
Germany’s vaccination confirmation app was introduced on Thursday, nearly half a year after inoculations started there. The app, called CovPass, will present a simple QR code confirming that the owner is fully vaccinated. Starting on Monday, doctors and pharmacies will be able to transcribe the usually handwritten entries from paper vaccine booklets into the digital app. At the same time, the Health Ministry announced tougher licensing rules and more spot checks, following accusations of fraud at its rapid virus-testing centers.
David Hasselhoff called for people to roll up their sleeves for the vaccine in an advertisement for Germany’s inoculation campaign. “I’ve found freedom in vaccination,” the former “Baywatch” star said in the clip, a reference to his 1989 version of the song “Looking for Freedom,” which became a smash success in Germany as the Berlin Wall fell and which he performed atop the Wall on New Year’s Eve that year. German health authorities believe that as much as 75 percent of the population will eventually get vaccinated.
Retrieved from: www.nytimes.com/live/2021/06/10/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-mask
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
· The US will purchase half a billion Covid-19 vaccine doses for lower income countries with no strings attached, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday. “Half a billion vaccines will start to be shipped in August, as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line,” Biden said at a news conference before the G7 summit in Britain.
· South Africa has entered its third wave of Covid-19 infections as the continent’s worst-hit country registered 9,149 new cases, Reuters reports. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NCID) said South Africa had exceeded the national 7-day moving average incidence of 5,959 cases as defined by the ministerial advisory committee (MAC).
· Covid-19 case rates have increased across every region in England with a sharp rise in the North West, new figures show. The latest weekly surveillance report from Public Health England (PHE), published on Thursday, shows that rates in north-west England increased to 149.6 cases per 100,000 people in the seven days to June 6, up week-on-week from 89.4, PA news reports. This is the highest for the region since the week ending February 21 and is also the highest of any region in England.
· The discovery of several thousand unreported deaths in the state of Bihar, India, has raised suspicion that many more coronavirus victims have not been included in official figures. The health department in Bihar revised its total Covid-19 related death toll to more than 9,429 from about 5,424 on Wednesday. The newly-reported deaths had occurred last month and state officials were investigating the lapse, a district health official said, blaming the oversight on private hospitals.
· The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said it was necessary to know the origins of Covid-19 and investigators needed to have full access to sites which could shed lights on the matter
· A rather bleak report from the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency says that the coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented and profound effect on human rights, fuelling racism and child abuse. The annual report says: “The pandemic and the reactions it triggered exacerbated existing challenges and inequalities in all areas of life, especially affecting vulnerable groups.”
· Ukraine has reiterated that it will not allow foreigners inoculated with the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik into the country if they do not also provide a negative test for the coronavirus.
· Bulgaria plans to lift the compulsory wearing of face masks in gyms, hairdressing salons, small shops and offices where all workers are vaccinated as coronavirus infections decrease.
· Denmark will ditch the use of masks in most public spaces and allow 25,000 fans to attend European Championship matches in Copenhagen
· Russia’s Covid numbers have been at a remarkably steady uniform level for months on end, but this week the official case tally is seeing a steady rise, and today was the highest number for three months at 11,699
· The EU decided not to take up an option to buy 100m doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in March, European officials have said.
· A 52-year-old woman from New South Wales who died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine is “likely” Australia’s second death from a rare and severe blood clotting syndrome linked to the Covid vaccine, Australia’s drugs regulator says.
· Hong Kong’s government said this morning that it would review its plan for a travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore in early July, after the proposal was derailed for a second time in May due to a surge of cases in Singapore.
· Singapore will start a phased easing of its Covid-19 restrictions from Monday its health ministry said, after domestic transmission of the virus slowed and the number of new cases declined.
· South Korea is considering plans to vaccinate workers at key businesses including chip and electronics firms to prevent disruptions to production, an official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.
· A cluster of infections across four Taiwan semiconductor factories is still growing, with 43 new cases reported today.
· A delay in Covid-19 vaccine deliveries to the Philippines has forced some cities in the capital region to close vaccination sites, complicating Manila’s efforts to ramp up its immunisation drive.
Medicine
