i_need_contribute
|
Country, |
Total |
New |
Total |
|
World |
217,884,827 |
+520,352 |
4,523,257 |
|
39,946,708 |
+119,642 |
656,393 |
|
|
32,767,820 |
+30,251 |
438,592 |
|
|
20,752,281 |
+10,466 |
579,643 |
|
|
6,901,152 |
+18,325 |
182,429 |
|
|
6,757,650 |
+26,476 |
132,485 |
|
|
6,746,283 |
+3,795 |
114,308 |
|
|
6,366,438 |
+19,557 |
56,458 |
|
|
5,178,889 |
+5,358 |
111,607 |
|
|
4,960,744 |
+33,780 |
107,151 |
|
|
4,907,264 |
+2,006 |
124,883 |
|
|
4,847,298 |
+5,163 |
84,146 |
|
|
4,534,499 |
+4,257 |
129,146 |
|
|
4,079,267 |
+5,436 |
132,491 |
|
|
3,947,016 |
+6,805 |
92,671 |
|
|
3,335,700 |
+6,837 |
258,165 |
|
|
2,888,385 |
+151 |
75,340 |
|
|
2,770,575 |
+5,644 |
81,830 |
|
|
2,284,940 |
+749 |
53,738 |
|
|
2,149,591 |
+364 |
198,263 |
|
|
1,976,202 |
+22,366 |
33,330 |
|
|
1,938,743 |
+2,171 |
17,998 |
|
|
1,881,213 |
+6,778 |
20,764 |
|
|
1,725,357 |
+19,268 |
16,382 |
|
|
1,678,948 |
+81 |
30,404 |
|
|
1,638,330 |
+501 |
36,923 |
|
|
1,497,261 |
+3,724 |
26,109 |
|
|
1,496,257 |
+6,444 |
26,918 |
|
|
1,454,364 |
+19,314 |
15,946 |
|
|
1,190,063 |
+15,972 |
11,399 |
|
|
1,180,952 |
+1,643 |
25,368 |
|
|
1,156,281 |
+3,800 |
25,670 |
|
|
1,097,452 |
+699 |
34,539 |
|
|
1,061,488 |
+7,960 |
7,043 |
|
|
1,036,019 |
+1,072 |
17,730 |
|
|
856,049 |
+2,676 |
12,540 |
|
|
812,227 |
+521 |
30,057 |
|
|
796,259 |
+1,098 |
10,398 |
|
|
785,149 |
+5,222 |
9,222 |
|
|
761,124 |
+1,902 |
10,730 |
|
|
759,952 |
+2,335 |
7,278 |
|
|
717,374 |
+993 |
2,039 |
|
|
687,076 |
+1,120 |
10,782 |
|
|
662,752 |
+2,165 |
23,430 |
|
|
646,513 |
+6,075 |
5,219 |
|
|
601,226 |
+775 |
8,048 |
|
|
583,658 |
+2,343 |
13,600 |
|
|
545,033 |
+1,915 |
7,329 |
|
|
544,225 |
+221 |
8,539 |
|
|
501,201 |
+61 |
32,244 |
|
|
490,056 |
+254 |
18,411 |
|
|
480,364 |
+1,058 |
3,768 |
|
|
465,799 |
+740 |
11,886 |
|
|
461,145 |
+1,454 |
5,492 |
|
|
458,455 |
+51 |
15,742 |
|
|
457,037 |
+371 |
7,054 |
|
|
453,689 |
+2,090 |
18,840 |
|
|
449,489 |
+14,224 |
11,064 |
|
|
436,081 |
+4,562 |
8,991 |
|
|
421,103 |
+3,107 |
5,592 |
|
|
409,736 |
+184 |
2,418 |
|
|
395,883 |
+3,583 |
15,287 |
|
|
394,791 |
+49 |
12,548 |
|
|
384,778 |
+86 |
6,029 |
|
|
373,330 |
+139 |
8,331 |
|
|
351,065 |
+1,292 |
5,092 |
|
|
350,017 |
+158 |
4,007 |
|
|
344,850 |
+762 |
2,580 |
|
|
339,816 |
+2,411 |
3,675 |
|
|
337,577 |
+1,254 |
8,839 |
|
|
334,343 |
+1,218 |
4,010 |
|
|
307,471 |
+1,678 |
4,213 |
|
|
306,810 |
+693 |
4,660 |
|
|
302,239 |
+107 |
4,063 |
|
|
298,165 |
+353 |
4,547 |
|
|
288,162 |
+263 |
16,727 |
|
|
272,453 |
+112 |
1,388 |
|
|
267,204 |
+216 |
6,397 |
|
|
266,657 |
+143 |
4,449 |
|
|
250,051 |
+1,483 |
2,284 |
|
|
241,611 |
+275 |
4,830 |
|
|
235,298 |
+346 |
4,720 |
|
|
232,571 |
+205 |
602 |
|
|
211,080 |
+2,209 |
931 |
|
|
206,145 |
+94 |
3,599 |
|
|
195,574 |
+412 |
5,240 |
|
|
191,805 |
+460 |
2,455 |
|
|
175,624 |
+294 |
5,901 |
|
|
175,589 |
+152 |
2,524 |
|
|
158,389 |
+1,349 |
814 |
|
|
156,927 |
+3,134 |
2,261 |
|
|
155,639 |
+795 |
1,075 |
|
|
113,588 |
+311 |
501 |
|
|
94,842 |
+23 |
4,636 |
|
|
28,967 |
+127 |
718 |
|
|
14,508 |
+43 |
139 |
Retrieved from：https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
A woman holds a small bottle labelled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
Britain's GSK (GSK.L) and South Korea's SK Bioscience (302440.KS) said on Tuesday the drugmakers have begun a late-stage trial of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate to assess immune response when compared with AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) approved shot.
The trial will enrol around 4,000 candidates globally and test SK's COVID-19 vaccine candidate, GBP510, in combination with GSK's vaccine booster following positive early-stage data earlier this month.
Results from the GSK-SK study are expected in the first half next year, and the vaccine will be supplied worldwide through the World Health Organization-led vaccine sharing programme COVAX if approved, the companies said.
Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/gsk-sk-bioscience-start-late-stage-trials-covid-19-vaccine-2021-08-31/
Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Norihisa Tamura attends a news conference in Tokyo, Japan, September 16, 2020. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Japan's health minister said on Tuesday it was highly likely that foreign matter found in Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccines in the southern prefecture of Okinawa were caused when needles were stuck into the vials.
Some Moderna shots were temporarily halted in Okinawa on Sunday after foreign materials were discovered in vials and syringes. The health ministry said later needles may have been incorrectly inserted into vials, breaking off bits of the rubber stopper.
"Whatever the reason (for the foreign matter) we have heard that there is no safety or other issues," health minister Norihisa Tamura told reporters, adding that it was not uncommon for foreign material to enter a vial with other vaccines.
"We will continue to gather information and report back," he added.
Japan is facing its biggest wave of COVID-19 infections so far during the pandemic, driven by the highly transmissable Delta variant.
A race to boost inoculations has been hampered by delays in imported vaccines and the discovery of the contaminants in some Moderna doses that prompted the suspension of three batches last week.
Taro Kono, the minister in charge of the inoculation campaign, said on Tuesday he wanted to speed up shipments of vaccines to municipalities that had been forced to put a halt reservations due to shortages.
The government is considering when and how to give out booster shots that may be needed to maintain immunity against the virus but is focusing for now on completing the first two shots for the public, Kono told reporters.
Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-health-minister-says-okinawa-vaccine-contaminants-likely-needle-stick-2021-08-31/
By Sangmi Cha
A South Korean elderly woman receives her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Seoul, South Korea April 1, 2021. Chung Sung-Jun/Pool via REUTERS
South Korea plans to begin giving out COVID-19 booster shots from October, joining several countries that have approved such doses amid resurgent infections and concern that vaccine protection wanes over time.
The plan will kick in once an October target for full vaccination of 70% of the population is achieved, as authorities aim to boost the rate above 80% with coverage for pregnant women and minors aged between 12 and 17 in the fourth quarter.
Initial booster doses will go to those with weakened immune systems or deemed to be at high risk. Others will receive them six months after full vaccination, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.
"We will start with booster shots for high-risk groups such as the elderly and virus-prevention, medical personnel and gradually expand inoculation in line with expert recommendation and decisions by health authorities," President Moon Jae-in told his top aides on Monday.
Although the World Health Organization has repeatedly urged a delay in booster doses, arguing that the world's most vulnerable people should be fully vaccinated first, several countries have approved them, citing data on waning protection.
Vaccine booster doses will be made widely available to Americans in September, while nations from France and Germany to Israel have decided to offer them to older adults and those with weak immunity.
Evidence is growing that protection from COVID-19 vaccines ebbs after six months or more, especially in older people with underlying health conditions. read more
In June, South Korea said it planned to secure more mRNA vaccines for booster doses next year for the entire population, on top of its already agreed 106 million doses from Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N)/(22UAy.DE) and Moderna (MRNA.O).
South Korea has struggled to rein in daily COVID-19 cases as it battles its worst wave of infections since early July.
Monday's 1,372 new cases take its tally of infections to 251,421, with a death toll of 2,285.
By Monday, at least 56.5% of the population of 52 million had received at least one vaccine dose, while 29.6% had completed the inoculation.
Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-begin-offering-covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-october-2021-08-31/
By Tess McClure in Christchurch
New Zealand has recorded another drop in Covid cases with director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield saying it was a ‘reassuring indication’ that lockdown was working. Photograph: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
New cases of Covid-19 have continued to drop in New Zealand, in a promising early indication that the country’s strict lockdown is working and its latest outbreak may be coming under control.
The country announced 49 new cases on Tuesday – dropping for the second day in a row, down from 53 cases on Monday and 83 on Sunday. It is the lowest number of new cases reported in the country in six days.
Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the drop “does provide a further reassuring indication that our public health measures are rapidly slowing the spread of the virus.”
According to the latest modelling, Bloomfield said “the reproduction rate of the virus in this outbreak is now looking like it is remaining under one, which means cases will continue to decline.”
Asked whether New Zealanders should be celebrating the latest results, prime minister Jacinda Ardern said she would ask New Zealanders to “hold that thought.”
“Every day for me is, another step, a bit of progress, but [it’s] too early. For me I want to see sustained reductions over a period of time and I think actually most people want to see that. It is good not to see some of those high numbers we were only a few days ago.”
“It’s another step. We’ve still got a journey to go through.”
New Zealand has been in a strict level 4 lockdown since 17 August, when a single case of Covid-19 was detected in the general population. Since then, the total number of cases in the outbreak has grown to 612.
“The seriousness of Covid-19 infection is also very visible to us,” Bloomfield said, with 33 people in hospital, including eight in intensive care of whom two were on ventilators. “These hospitalisations obviously have an outward ripple effect on our communities and whānau [families], and my thoughts are with those individuals and their whānau. It’s also sobering that of the current Auckland outbreak six cases are under the age of one.”
Ardern said “We have an 18-year-old in hospital right now. I don’t think anyone can assume that they are safe from this virus, so we all have a job to do so. My request would be that we need everyone from all walks of life to do their best and to be the best role models that they can be.”
Officials are still hunting for how the virus got into the community. While the first cases have been traced, via genomic testing, to a single quarantine facility in Auckland, they have not yet been able to identify exactly how someone outside the facility was infected.
Ardern said that “all of the obvious sources of transmission – people to people contact – it would be fair to say that we’ve ruled most, if not all, of them out”.
She said officials were now investigating theories of how the virus could transmit through the air, without person to person transmission.
A number of people have been evacuated from west Auckland due to flooding this morning. Ardern said that those emergency evacuations overrode pandemic alert levels.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/31/new-zealand-covid-update-cases-drop-to-49-in-reassuring-indication-lockdown-is-working
People queue outside a coronavirus vaccination centre in Cape Town, South Africa. The new C.1.2 Covid variant has been detected in all provinces, but at a low rate. Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters
A new Covid variant detected in South Africa has made headlines around the world.
On Monday the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa issued an alert about the “C.1.2 lineage”, saying it had been detected in all provinces in the country, but at a relatively low rate.
C.1.2 was first detected in May, the alert said, but Delta is still the dominant variant spreading in South Africa and the world.
A pre-print, non peer-reviewed paper published about the variant said C.1.2 “has since been detected across the majority of the provinces in South Africa and in seven other countries spanning Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania”.
The C.1.2 lineage has drawn the attention of scientists because despite its low rate in the population, it possesses mutations within the genome similar to those seen in variants of interest and variants of concern, like the Delta variant, as well as some additional mutations.
So what do we know about the new variant, and how concerned should we be?
Not yet. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases is continuing to monitor the frequency of C.1.2 and examine how it behaves. Tests to assess the impact of the mutations it possesses on infectiousness and vaccine resistance are still under way. So far, the virus has not fulfilled the WHO criteria to qualify as a “variant of concern” or “variant of interest”.
Variants of concern, such as Delta, are those that show increased transmissibility, virulence or change in clinical disease, and a decreased effectiveness of public health and social measures.
Variants of interest are those shown to cause community transmission in multiple clusters, and which have been detected in multiple countries, but have not yet necessarily proven to be more virulent or transmissible.
A virologist and lecturer in immunology and infectious diseases with the University of Sydney’s Central Clinical School, Dr Megan Steain, said it’s because of the particular mutations that C.1.2 contains.
“It contains quite a few key mutations that we see in other variants that have gone on to become variants of interest or concern,” Steain said. “Any time we see those particular mutations come up, we’d like to keep an eye on the variant to see what it’s going to do. These mutations may affect things like whether it evades the immune response, or transmits faster.”
It will take some time for scientists to do the laboratory tests to see whether the virus is in fact fitter, she said.
“While we can say that it has a few key mutations that have led to other variants being more infectious, often what we find is the mutations work in synergy together which can overall lead to a fitter virus, potentially, or a weaker virus.
“All these studies in the lab take quite a while. There is a lot of work to be done.”
Yes. Covid-19 variants emerge all of the time and many of them disappear before they can become a real problem. Many virus variants are very fragile.
The key mutants are the ones that survive the changes and continue, and start to overgrow the variants of the past, which is what we saw with Delta.
“C.1.2 would have to be pretty good, pretty fit, and pretty fast to outcompete Delta at this stage,” Steain said. “I think we’re still very much at a point where this could die out, the prevalence is really low.
“We saw this with the Beta variant, and other variants of concern, where it looked like there could be a problem, they even had areas where they were transmitted and spread quite well. But then they haven’t really taken hold over time, and were overtaken by other variants of concern that are able to transmit faster. And so they just essentially die out.
“That could easily still happen with C.1.2.”
Using Delta as an example, it means it has gained some mutations which allow it to replicate faster and get into cells more efficiently.
“We refer to it as the ‘affinity’; the ability by which it’s able to grab on and attach to host cell receptors that allow the virus particles to enter into cells,” Steain said. “It’s better primed and ready-to-go to grab on to cells and get in and start an infection in the first place. And then it seems to replicate a bit faster as well, so it’s making more virus particles in a shorter period of time.”
“We can take an educated guess based on some of the mutations that it has, in that it’s similar to what we’ve seen in other variants like beta, as well as Delta,” Steain said.
“So we think, perhaps, the serum won’t neutralise as well as it would against an ancestral strain. But until we actually do those experiments it’s speculative really. We’ve got to bear in mind that the vaccine so far looks like it’s holding up really, really well in terms of preventing severe infection and hospitalisations and deaths from variants. They’re really good at preventing that.
She said there was no need to panic.
“It’s important, however, to keep an eye on the other variants that are out there and just watch and see how they go.”
South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases said: “We are being cautious about the implications, while we gather more data to understand virus of this lineage.
“Based on our understanding of the mutations in this variant, we suspect that it might be able to partially evade the immune response, but despite this, that vaccines will still offer high levels of protection against hospitalisation and death,” the institute said.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/31/what-is-c12-the-new-covid-variant-in-south-africa-and-should-we-be-worried
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
· New cases of Covid-19 have continued to drop in New Zealand, in a promising early indication that the country’s strict lockdown is working and its latest outbreak may be coming under control. The country reported 49 new cases on Tuesday, down from 53 a day earlier.
· Australia’s capital, Canberra, has extended its hard lockdown by a further two weeks as it struggles to contain a surge in the highly infectious Delta variant. New South Wales, meanwhile, reported 1,164 new infections, down slightly from a record 1,290 cases the day prior.
· Japan’s health minister says it is highly likely that foreign matter found in Moderna Inc Covid-19 vaccines in the southern prefecture of Okinawa came about when needles where stuck incorrectly into vials.
· Australia has reported a huge increase in illegal importations of ivermectin, which is typically used to deworm livestock, prompting health authorities to warn people against using it as a treatment for Covid-19.
· The EU has removed six countries, including the US, from a Covid “white list” of places whose tourists should be permitted entry without restrictions such as mandatory quarantine.
· The number of solid organ transplants fell dramatically around the world between 2019 and 2020, a study published in the Lancet Public Health journal has found, highlighting the widespread impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health services and patients.
· South African scientists have detected a new coronavirus variant that may have increased transmissibility. Scientists are yet to establish whether it is more contagious or able to overcome the immunity provided by vaccines or prior infection.
· Schools across Europe must stay open and be made safer for staff and children, the WHO and Unicef have demanded, as a new term gets under way with the highly transmissible Delta variant still dominant in the region.
· A third-dose booster shot of the Covid-19 vaccine is a way to keep the most vulnerable safe and “not a luxury”, the WHO has said. It urged European countries with excess vaccines to share them with other countries, particularly those in eastern Europe and Africa.
· Senior WHO officials fear there could be 236,000 more Covid deaths in Europe between now and 1 December on account of stagnating vaccination rates and low uptake in poorer countries.
· The UK has reported 26,476 new cases of Covid-19 between 24 August and 30 August, bringing reported cases up by 1.8% compared with the previous seven days.
· Two counties in the US state of Oregon, hit hard by Covid-19, are running out of space to hold bodies amid an intense surge in cases that is overwhelming the state’s healthcare system, forcing authorities to request refrigerated trucks to help handle the overflow.
· The Czech government will offer a booster Covid-19 vaccine to any previously vaccinated person. The jabs will be available from 20 September.
· France will provide 10m doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines for Africa over the next three months, President Emmanuel Macron’s office has announced.
· The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, tested negative for Covid-19 after being identified as a close contact of a person with the virus. Sturgeon was self-isolating pending a PCR test result but she was no longer doing so in accordance with current regulations.
Medicine
