i_need_contribute
|
Country, |
Total |
New |
Total |
|
World |
209,341,287 |
+647,084 |
4,393,507 |
|
37,896,582 |
+137,307 |
640,093 |
|
|
32,285,101 |
+35,201 |
432,552 |
|
|
20,417,204 |
+38,218 |
570,718 |
|
|
6,642,559 |
+20,958 |
172,110 |
|
|
6,504,978 |
+28,114 |
112,864 |
|
|
6,322,241 |
+26,852 |
131,149 |
|
|
6,118,508 |
+21,692 |
53,507 |
|
|
5,096,443 |
+8,172 |
109,405 |
|
|
4,874,169 |
+3,247 |
123,688 |
|
|
4,733,602 |
+14,336 |
82,739 |
|
|
4,517,243 |
+50,228 |
99,108 |
|
|
4,449,606 |
+5,273 |
128,510 |
|
|
3,892,479 |
+20,741 |
120,013 |
|
|
3,837,188 |
+5,382 |
92,403 |
|
|
3,108,438 |
+7,172 |
248,652 |
|
|
2,885,676 |
+221 |
75,306 |
|
|
2,624,254 |
+10,685 |
77,993 |
|
|
2,267,219 |
+890 |
53,296 |
|
|
1,906,434 |
+2,306 |
17,920 |
|
|
1,793,372 |
+8,778 |
19,815 |
|
|
1,765,675 |
+10,035 |
30,462 |
|
|
1,676,518 |
+210 |
30,376 |
|
|
1,630,330 |
+398 |
36,438 |
|
|
1,457,698 |
+1,727 |
26,719 |
|
|
1,444,270 |
+19,631 |
13,077 |
|
|
1,433,396 |
+7,535 |
24,547 |
|
|
1,159,945 |
+14,854 |
15,431 |
|
|
1,154,879 |
+1,420 |
25,299 |
|
|
1,105,300 |
+3,221 |
24,573 |
|
|
1,088,053 |
+544 |
34,359 |
|
|
1,006,588 |
+2,118 |
17,584 |
|
|
956,310 |
+6,775 |
6,704 |
|
|
948,442 |
+20,128 |
7,973 |
|
|
810,549 |
+45 |
30,042 |
|
|
785,697 |
+1,066 |
10,239 |
|
|
772,394 |
+9,041 |
11,242 |
|
|
737,294 |
+2,456 |
10,354 |
|
|
734,816 |
+1,484 |
7,177 |
|
|
704,000 |
+1,115 |
2,006 |
|
|
701,345 |
+6,869 |
7,751 |
|
|
670,372 |
+866 |
10,757 |
|
|
626,750 |
+1,062 |
22,025 |
|
|
584,896 |
+1,178 |
7,988 |
|
|
543,749 |
+4,206 |
13,220 |
|
|
539,698 |
+569 |
8,431 |
|
|
536,609 |
+9,772 |
4,156 |
|
|
490,462 |
+6,208 |
6,483 |
|
|
483,025 |
+597 |
18,198 |
|
|
462,794 |
+597 |
3,625 |
|
|
457,023 |
+181 |
15,473 |
|
|
448,924 |
+656 |
6,970 |
|
|
435,940 |
+1,405 |
18,395 |
|
|
434,081 |
+1,932 |
5,269 |
|
|
417,620 |
+3,823 |
11,219 |
|
|
407,139 |
+256 |
2,395 |
|
|
393,610 |
+74 |
12,546 |
|
|
383,505 |
+133 |
6,007 |
|
|
373,175 |
+3,322 |
5,188 |
|
|
367,409 |
+341 |
8,288 |
|
|
365,683 |
+3,609 |
6,434 |
|
|
360,291 |
+3,306 |
13,623 |
|
|
332,622 |
+886 |
2,562 |
|
|
327,684 |
+1,496 |
5,059 |
|
|
320,922 |
+967 |
3,830 |
|
|
319,831 |
+1,327 |
8,440 |
|
|
300,581 |
+173 |
4,007 |
|
|
293,301 |
+9,605 |
6,472 |
|
|
290,818 |
+856 |
4,495 |
|
|
290,766 |
+560 |
4,458 |
|
|
286,894 |
+2,276 |
3,956 |
|
|
285,577 |
+112 |
16,630 |
|
|
271,130 |
+105 |
1,384 |
|
|
262,589 |
+345 |
6,320 |
|
|
261,804 |
+318 |
4,433 |
|
|
235,171 |
+357 |
4,713 |
|
|
229,697 |
+269 |
601 |
|
|
226,854 |
+1,373 |
2,173 |
|
|
222,894 |
+1,488 |
4,354 |
|
|
202,787 |
+358 |
3,550 |
|
|
188,663 |
+695 |
4,867 |
|
|
184,955 |
+1,303 |
884 |
|
|
183,444 |
+357 |
2,229 |
|
|
172,668 |
+341 |
2,457 |
|
|
163,452 |
+995 |
5,574 |
|
|
145,761 |
+747 |
810 |
|
|
144,764 |
+846 |
987 |
|
|
140,325 |
+154 |
2,565 |
|
|
140,071 |
+1,033 |
1,748 |
|
|
137,514 |
+358 |
1,279 |
|
|
136,598 |
+451 |
2,468 |
|
|
122,699 |
+154 |
3,288 |
|
|
121,046 |
+958 |
4,156 |
|
|
118,647 |
+665 |
995 |
|
|
109,665 |
+412 |
464 |
|
|
107,041 |
+548 |
1,651 |
|
|
97,186 |
+62 |
2,905 |
|
|
94,472 |
+42 |
4,636 |
|
|
26,802 |
+161 |
689 |
|
|
13,511 |
+105 |
121 |
Retrieved from：https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
By David Shepardson
People wear masks while riding on the subway as cases of the infectious coronavirus Delta variant continue to rise in New York City, New York, U.S., August 2, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
President Joe Biden's administration confirmed late on Tuesday it plans to extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through Jan. 18 to address ongoing COVID-19 risks.
A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) spokesperson confirmed the extension, first reported by Reuters. "The purpose of TSA’s mask directive is to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation," the spokesperson said
Major U.S. airlines were informed of the planned extension on a call with TSA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday, four people briefed on the matter said.
The current TSA transportation mask order runs through Sept 13.
The extension reflects the impact of the highly transmissible Delta variant and is an acknowledgement that transit remains potentially risky, especially for unvaccinated people.
The move comes as U.S. airlines are grappling with whether to require employees to be vaccinated, while Canada said last week it plans to require all airline passengers to be vaccinated.
On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN there was no discussion "at this time" about requiring vaccines for domestic airline passengers.
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Sara Nelson said the TSA mask mandate extension "will help tremendously to keep passengers and aviation workers safe."
The current CDC order, which has been in place since soon after Biden took office in January, requires the use of face masks on nearly all forms of public transportation.
It requires face masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis and ride-shares and at transportation hubs such as airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations, and seaports.
The requirements have been the source of some friction, especially aboard U.S. airlines, where some travelers have refused to wear masks. The Federal Aviation Administration, which has instituted a "zero tolerance" enforcement effort on unruly passengers, said on Tuesday that since Jan. 1 it has received reports from airlines of 2,867 passengers refusing to wear masks.
TSA last month told Congress that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there have been over 85 physical assaults on TSA officers.
In some U.S. states, transportation hubs are among the only places where masks are still required. The CDC reversed course on July 27 and said fully vaccinated Americans should go back to wearing masks in all indoor public places in regions where the coronavirus is spreading rapidly.
The CDC recommendation currently applies to about 94% of U.S. counties.
The CDC on Tuesday cited the Delta variant's transmissibility in a statement explaining the mask mandate. "Wearing a well-fitting mask that covers your nose and mouth is a way to prevent germs from spreading between yourself and other people," it said.
A group of Republican lawmakers in July introduced legislation to prohibit mask mandates for public transport, and other Republicans want the CDC to exempt fully vaccinated Americans from the requirements.
The CDC mask order has no expiration date. The agency in June made a minor tweak to its rules, saying it would no longer require travelers to wear masks in outdoor transit hubs and in outdoor spaces on ferries and buses.
Last month, the CDC official who signed the mask order, Marty Cetron, told Reuters the transit mask mandates have been effective - and noted that children 11 and under cannot yet be vaccinated.
"Masks are really powerful and we should make sure they're part of our arsenal," Cetron said. "The truth is that the unvaccinated portion that's out there is extremely vulnerable."
United Airlines (UAL.O) said earlier this month it will require its 67,000 U.S. employees to get vaccinated by Oct. 25.
The Biden administration, citing the highly transmissible Delta variant and rising daily COVID-19 cases, has refused to lift any international travel restrictions that bar most non-U.S. citizens from the United States.
Airline officials think it will be weeks or even months before the administration lifts any existing travel restrictions.
Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/exclusive-us-expected-extend-transportation-mask-mandate-through-jan-18-sources-2021-08-17/
By Brad Brooks
Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, whose state is engulfed in a fourth COVID surge, tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday but so far has no symptoms of the illness, his office said.
Abbott, a Republican who is locked in battle with some local leaders over his ban on mask mandates in schools, is isolating, his office said. The governor, who is fully vaccinated, is also receiving a monoclonal antibody treatment.
"I test myself everyday, and today is the first day that I tested positive," Abbott said in a video posted on Twitter. "Also want you to know that I have received the COVID-19 vaccine, and that may be one reason why I'm really not feeling any symptoms right now."
On Monday night Abbott spoke before a crowd of hundreds at an indoor Republican Party event in suburban Dallas where few wore masks. On Tuesday, the governor tweeted a photo of himself meeting with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, brother of the legendary Texas strummer Stevie Ray Vaughan.
"Everyone that the governor has been in close contact with today has been notified," said Mark Miner, Abbott's communications director. "Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott tested negative."
The statement did not give any indication as to when the governor contracted the virus.
The news of Abbott's infection came on the same day that officials in Houston said they would pay $100 to anybody receiving their first dose of a COVID vaccine and as hospitals in the area are expected this week to surpass records for the number of COVID patients in their care.
Vaccines protect people from serious illness, hospitalizations and death after contracting the coronavirus, but vaccinated people can still be infected and pass it on.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county that encompasses Houston, implored residents to take advantage of the $100 incentive, which she said would last at least until August 31.
"We have got to step up, enough is enough!" Hidalgo said at a press conference.
Hidalgo said the Harris County program had $2.3 million and was being funded by money from the American Rescue Plan. It comes after the administration of President Joe Biden in July asked local governments to make such payments to boost lagging vaccination rates across the country.
Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, CEO of the Harris Health hospital system, appeared alongside Hidalgo on Tuesday and said his facilities now had more COVID patients than ever.
"This is the worst surge that we have faced as a community," he said. "I am begging you - do the right thing. Get yourself vaccinated."
DELTA VARIANT
The Texas Department of State Health Services said that earlier this month it requested five mortuary trailers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in case hospitals need support in storing COVID victims' bodies. So far, none have requested the use of the trailers, it said in an email.
The highly infectious Delta variant continues to rampage across Texas and other states with low levels of vaccinations.
The United States has registered more than 37 million cases of COVID since the pandemic began. The rate at which new cases are being added is faster than ever, according to a Reuters tally. It took just 18 days through Monday for 2 million new cases to be reported - the quickest such jump on record.
Florida has its highest level of COVID patients in hospitals, with 16,832 patients, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The spread of the Delta variant is already disrupting the new school year in some of the hardest-hit states.
In Tampa, Florida, nearly 5,600 students and over 300 employees of a single school district were in isolation or quarantine on Tuesday because of catching or being exposed to COVID. The Hillsborough County School Board said it would hold an emergency school board meeting on Wednesday to determine the best way to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has banned mask mandates in schools, though some superintendents have bucked his order.
In Louisiana, where Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards has ordered that masks be used indoors statewide, including in schools, more than 3,000 students in New Orleans were isolated or quarantining, the Orleans Parish school district reported.
While those numbers are high, Dr. Benjamin Springgate, the school district's medical advisor, told NOLA.com that COVID transmission in schools remains uncommon.
Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/world/us/texas-governor-tests-positive-covid-19-houston-offers-vaccine-incentive-2021-08-17/
By Renju Jose
A lone man wearing a protective face mask sits at an unusually quiet State Library as the state of Victoria looks to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Melbourne, Australia, July 16, 2021. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders
Sydney's Delta outbreak has not peaked and residents must brace for more deaths, authorities said on Wednesday, as Australia's largest city continued to break records for new daily infections despite a nearly two-month lockdown.
"We haven't seen the worst of it and the way that we stop this is by everybody staying at home," New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the state capital.
NSW reported its biggest daily rise of 633 new cases, including 545 in Sydney, eclipsing the state's previous daily high of 478 hit on Monday. Sixty people have died since the first Delta case was reported in Sydney on June 16, including three confirmed on Wednesday.
With only about 28% of people in NSW above 16 years of age fully vaccinated, state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant warned there would be more deaths if cases continued to rise.
Australia is in the grip of a third wave of infections that has exposed weaknesses in the country's vaccine rollout and forced more than half of its 25 million people into lockdown.
Only one-fourth of the adult population is fully vaccinated so far, putting pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison whose government missed its initial vaccine targets.
Sydney, Melbourne and the capital Canberra are under stay-at-home orders, pushing the A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy the brink of its second recession in as many years.
Victoria state, home to Melbourne, reported 24 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the same number as a day earlier, as authorities race to track infections with an unknown source.
VACCINATION PUSH
With just over 40,000 cases and 970 deaths, Australia has largely staved off the high COVID numbers seen in many other developed countries.
But efforts to contain the outbreak to Sydney have failed with the virus spreading to several regional towns where vaccination rates are low.
To ramp up the rollout, five vaccination teams of defence personnel are due to arrive in regional towns this week.
More than 500,000 Pfizer (PFE.N) doses, half of the supply procured from Poland over the weekend, have been moved to the 12 worst-affected suburbs in Sydney to vaccinate people aged below 40 years.
Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australias-victoria-reports-24-local-covid-19-cases-2021-08-17/
New Zealand will participate in a three-day lockdown in parts of the county and a seven-day lockdown in one particular area after the country’s first possible reported case of the Delta variant.CreditCredit...Jason Oxenham/New Zealand Herald, via Associated Press
New Zealand began a three-day nationwide lockdown after reporting its first coronavirus case in six months.
The snap lockdown, which started at 11:59 p.m. local time on Tuesday, was set off by the discovery of an infection in Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous city, that was believed to be the country’s first case of the more contagious Delta variant outside its strict quarantine system. Auckland and the nearby Coromandel Peninsula, which the infected person recently visited, entered a longer, seven-day lockdown.
A day later, the number of cases had risen to seven, one of whom involved a nurse at the country’s largest hospital. Genomic testing by health officials revealed a link to cases in the Australian state of New South Wales, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
It was not yet known how the man who tested positive had contracted the virus. He had not recently visited Australia and did not have any links to the country’s quarantine facilities at the border.
Early modeling suggests the cluster could grow to as many as 120 people, health officials said on Wednesday.
Under the lockdown rules, New Zealand’s toughest, residents must stay at home and all schools, public facilities and nonessential businesses are closed.
Ahead of the lockdown announcement, New Zealanders flocked to supermarkets to stock up, leaving toilet paper aisles bare, in scenes reminiscent of the earliest days of the pandemic. Roads out of Auckland were packed as people left the city for holiday homes in other parts of the country.
“I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for this eventuality and that we will now be putting in place that plan to contain and stamp out Covid-19 once again,” Ms. Ardern said at a news conference.
“Going hard and early has worked for us before,” she added.
Ms. Ardern warned that if New Zealand failed to act swiftly, it could end up in the same situation as New South Wales, which is reporting hundreds of new cases each day, more than at any other time during the pandemic. A lockdown now in its eighth week in Sydney, where the Delta-driven outbreak began, was extended to the entire state on Saturday.
“We are one of the last countries in the world to have the Delta variant in our community,” Ms. Ardern said. “This has given us the chance to learn from others.”
The New Zealand government previously indicated that it would respond to any cases of the Delta variant in the community with stringent lockdowns, in line with the country’s Covid-zero strategy. New Zealand has had among the fewest virus cases in the world, with a total of 2,927 cases and 26 deaths, according to a New York Times database.
Fears of a Delta outbreak in New Zealand have been heightened by the country’s relatively low vaccination rate. According to a New York Times database, 29 percent of New Zealand’s population has received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 17 percent is fully vaccinated. The person whose infection led to the three-day lockdown was unvaccinated.
The campaign is expected to accelerate in the final months of this year, with officials saying last week that all residents over the age of 16 would be able to book appointments starting Sept. 1. Vaccinations are currently open to those over age 40.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/world/australia/new-zealand-lockdown.html
By Léontine Gallois
Checking health passes at a bar in Bordeaux, France, on Wednesday. Certification is needed to gain access to many public spaces and services in the country, including nonemergency hospital treatment.Credit...Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A week after France introduced a coronavirus health pass that is required for entry to restaurants and other venues, the police around the country are investigating incidents of fraudulent documentation.
The French health authorities said 46 cases of false certificates are under investigation.
The passes show that the holder is vaccinated against Covid-19, has tested negative within the past 72 hours or has a certificate of recovery. The documents are needed to gain access to many public spaces and services in France, including restaurants, bars, museums, cinemas, major shopping centers and even nonemergency hospital treatment.
Last month, a contractor at a vaccination center in a suburb of Paris was sentenced to a year in prison for trafficking 200 false vaccination certificates. Her sentence was later reduced to home detention.
In Bordeaux, two employees of a vaccination center are facing charges of forgery after having been accused of selling false certificates. Using a forged Covid-19 pass is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 45,000 euros, about $53,000.
A similar phenomenon has been observed in the United States, where sellers have offered counterfeit or stolen vaccine cards on Etsy, eBay, Facebook and Twitter.
In France, fraudsters have also tried to create false certificates by hacking doctors’ computer systems. In one case, hackers infiltrated the account that a doctor outside Bordeaux used to register vaccination certificates. In another example, public prosecutors in Marseille are investigating reports that another doctor’s computer was hacked to create 178 fraudulent passes.
By Shalini Venugopal Bhagat and Mujib Mashal
A market in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday.Credit...Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
In the state of Maharashtra, one of the first places struck by India’s devastating second wave of Covid-19 this year, scientists are anxiously looking for signs of a third.
New laboratories in India’s financial capital, Mumbai, and in the city of Pune are searching for dangerous new variants. They have stepped up testing, to over 3,600 samples per month, from 134 in December last year, as they search for versions of the virus that could make the pandemic even harder to stop.
India is still far short of its goal to increase genome sequencing nationwide. While coronavirus cases and deaths have plunged, according to official numbers, the virus is continuing to spread in some parts of the country. A low vaccination rate and other factors have left India especially vulnerable to variants like Delta, which helped power India’s second wave this spring.
The second wave, which exploded across the country in April and May, exposed both the Delta variant’s increased communicability and India’s inability to cope. Official figures show that about 430,000 people have died since the virus hit early last year, though the numbers are widely considered unreliable and experts say the true toll may be in the millions. The second wave pushed the country’s medical system past its limits and led to anger over the government’s inability to handle the crisis.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/17/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine/indias-covid-19-numbers-have-fallen-a-third-wave-still-looms
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
· Roughly 11,000 “self-identified” US citizens still need to be evacuated from Afghanistan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The White House said earlier today that the Kabul airport is once again open and 3,500 US troops are now on the ground to assist evacuation efforts, after Taliban forces took control of the capital city.
· The state department encouraged American citizens still in Afghanistan to “shelter in place” until being contacted by the US embassy. Asked about US citizens who have had trouble getting to the Kabul airport due to safety concerns, state department spokesperson Ned Price said, “We tell them in our communications that their safety needs to be their top priority. If they feel that it is unsafe for them to make their way to the airport, they should not seek to do so.”
· The Pentagon said the speed of evacuation efforts “will pick up” in the coming days. Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor told reporters that the US military is looking to have a plane depart Kabul every hour, allowing for the evacuation of up to 9,000 people a day. According to Taylor, the US military has had “no hostile interactions, no attack and no threat by the Taliban” as evacuation efforts continue.
· National security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged the images coming out of Kabul over the past couple of days have been “heartbreaking”. Videos shared on social media have shown desperate Afghans trying to cling to US military planes as they leave the country. But Sullivan continued to defend Biden’s decision to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan, saying, “We were clear-eyed going in when we made this decision that it was possible that the Taliban would end up in control of Afghanistan.”
· Senate Democrats are calling on Joe Biden to help evacuate women leaders from Afghanistan. Two Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee, chairman Bob Menendez and member Jeanne Shaheen, organized a letter signed by 44 other senators of both parties. The letter calls on the administration to “create a humanitarian parole category specifically for women leaders,” as well as journalists and human rights defenders, among others.
· Texas governor Greg Abbott’s office announced that he has tested positive for Covid-19. The announcement followed Abbott’s attendance at a packed, indoor GOP event, where an estimated 600 people were in attendance.
· Chicago is reinstating an indoor mask mandate, joining a growing list of cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington DC.“With the highly transmissible Delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives,” Chicago health commissioner Allison Arwady said.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/aug/17/joe-biden-afghanistan-republicans-democrats-us-politics-live-latest-news
Medicine
