Country, | Total | New | Total |
Other | Cases | Cases | Deaths |
World | 227,222,667 | 563,418 | 4,672,402 |
USA | 42,479,780 | 164,509 | 685,023 |
India | 33,345,873 | 30,361 | 443,960 |
Brazil | 21,034,610 | 14,780 | 588,640 |
UK | 7,312,683 | 30,597 | 134,647 |
Russia | 7,194,926 | 18,841 | 195,041 |
France | 6,926,604 | 9,144 | 115,829 |
Turkey | 6,738,890 | 28,224 | 60,641 |
Iran | 5,360,387 | 19,731 | 115,619 |
Argentina | 5,232,358 | 2,510 | 113,969 |
Colombia | 4,934,568 | 1,570 | 125,753 |
Spain | 4,922,249 | 3,723 | 85,638 |
Italy | 4,618,040 | 4,830 | 130,100 |
Indonesia | 4,178,164 | 3,948 | 139,682 |
Germany | 4,117,263 | 13,047 | 93,397 |
Mexico | 3,528,972 | 12,929 | 269,015 |
Poland | 2,895,225 | 769 | 75,454 |
South Africa | 2,869,201 | 4,667 | 85,469 |
Ukraine | 2,325,796 | 4,640 | 54,550 |
Philippines | 2,282,931 | 16,909 | 35,741 |
Peru | 2,163,312 | 1,018 | 198,860 |
Malaysia | 2,030,935 | 19,495 | 22,009 |
Netherlands | 1,977,016 | 2,354 | 18,090 |
Iraq | 1,963,264 | 3,895 | 21,631 |
Czechia | 1,684,357 | 556 | 30,421 |
Japan | 1,650,198 | 6,157 | 16,894 |
Chile | 1,645,233 | 401 | 37,261 |
Canada | 1,559,410 | 4,289 | 27,305 |
Bangladesh | 1,536,341 | 1,901 | 27,058 |
Thailand | 1,420,340 | 13,798 | 14,765 |
Pakistan | 1,212,809 | 2,727 | 26,938 |
Belgium | 1,212,106 | 1,725 | 25,477 |
Israel | 1,202,212 | 5,219 | 7,452 |
Sweden | 1,142,770 | 14,698 | |
Romania | 1,130,586 | 4,004 | 35,215 |
Portugal | 1,058,347 | 1,247 | 17,882 |
Morocco | 910,991 | 2,642 | 13,729 |
Kazakhstan | 848,318 | 2,930 | 10,491 |
Serbia | 838,512 | 7,628 | 7,633 |
Switzerland | 818,710 | 2,604 | 11,010 |
Hungary | 816,222 | 371 | 30,114 |
Jordan | 810,559 | 1,116 | 10,574 |
Nepal | 780,824 | 1,332 | 10,991 |
Cuba | 768,497 | 7,437 | 6,523 |
UAE | 730,743 | 608 | 2,068 |
Austria | 715,893 | 2,624 | 10,856 |
Tunisia | 696,279 | 873 | 24,337 |
Vietnam | 645,640 | 10,585 | 16,186 |
Greece | 622,761 | 2,406 | 14,311 |
Lebanon | 615,532 | 844 | 8,218 |
Georgia | 587,551 | 2,515 | 8,347 |
Saudi Arabia | 546,251 | 88 | 8,640 |
Guatemala | 519,986 | 4,230 | 12,859 |
Belarus | 508,514 | 1,923 | 3,953 |
Ecuador | 505,628 | 32,491 | |
Costa Rica | 499,461 | 2,725 | 5,889 |
Sri Lanka | 496,423 | 5,466 | 11,699 |
Bolivia | 495,612 | 340 | 18,603 |
Bulgaria | 477,161 | 1,862 | 19,809 |
Azerbaijan | 463,326 | 6,167 | |
Panama | 463,086 | 316 | 7,159 |
Paraguay | 459,461 | 70 | 16,118 |
Myanmar | 438,951 | 2,424 | 16,784 |
Kuwait | 410,960 | 59 | 2,435 |
Slovakia | 399,978 | 760 | 12,566 |
Uruguay | 387,156 | 128 | 6,045 |
Croatia | 386,891 | 1,835 | 8,463 |
Palestine | 377,134 | 2,366 | 3,856 |
Ireland | 368,712 | 5,155 | |
Honduras | 354,970 | 1,329 | 9,400 |
Dominican Republic | 354,169 | 282 | 4,022 |
Denmark | 353,431 | 370 | 2,617 |
Venezuela | 350,795 | 1,064 | 4,245 |
Libya | 327,803 | 1,433 | 4,469 |
Ethiopia | 327,066 | 1,687 | 5,035 |
Lithuania | 311,181 | 1,328 | 4,743 |
Oman | 303,268 | 45 | 4,090 |
Egypt | 294,482 | 531 | 16,908 |
Slovenia | 279,219 | 1,366 | 4,479 |
S. Korea | 277,989 | 2,079 | 2,380 |
Moldova | 277,854 | 1,153 | 6,559 |
Bahrain | 273,977 | 61 | 1,388 |
Mongolia | 263,446 | 2,737 | 1,066 |
Armenia | 250,559 | 756 | 5,056 |
Kenya | 244,826 | 446 | 4,949 |
Qatar | 235,054 | 159 | 604 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 223,957 | 1,030 | 10,131 |
Zambia | 208,161 | 112 | 3,636 |
Algeria | 200,770 | 242 | 5,630 |
Nigeria | 200,356 | 299 | 2,640 |
North Macedonia | 184,893 | 616 | 6,339 |
Norway | 179,450 | 969 | 841 |
Kyrgyzstan | 177,389 | 81 | 2,578 |
Uzbekistan | 166,025 | 604 | 1,169 |
Botswana | 165,644 | 2,337 | |
Albania | 159,423 | 992 | 2,557 |
Afghanistan | 154,361 | 78 | 7,183 |
Mozambique | 149,671 | 191 | 1,898 |
Latvia | 148,485 | 697 | 2,628 |
Estonia | 147,881 | 525 | 1,315 |
Finland | 134,827 | 522 | 1,051 |
Suriname | 35,208 | 571 | 780 |
Aruba | 15,155 | 26 | 156 |
Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
By Michael Erman
A vial labelled with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine is seen in this illustration picture taken March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists said on Wednesday that booster doses of Pfizer's (PFE.N) COVID-19 vaccine may not be needed, even though the third shot generates a higher immune response in recipients.
The FDA staff members said in a document prepared for outside advisors that it is still unproven that the efficacy of Comirnaty - the COVID-19 vaccine Pfizer developed with Germany's BioNTech SE - is declining.
"Some observational studies have suggested declining efficacy of Comirnaty over time against symptomatic infection or against the Delta variant, while others have not," they said in the document.
"However, overall, data indicate that currently U.S.-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States."
The FDA staff did say the booster dose met pre-specified conditions the regulator had set to show that the shot was generating an immune response.
However, they said in the document that licensure for the boosters should also consider ability to prevent hospitalization and death, as well as the dynamics of the pandemic in the United States.
The agency released the document on Wednesday for consideration by a committee of outside experts who will meet on Friday to decided whether to recommend if U.S regulators should approve the extra round of shots.
The FDA staff view reflects that of many scientists who have questioned whether the boosters are necessary broadly, even as President Joe Biden has pushed for the additional shots in the face of surging hospitalizations and deaths caused by the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Biden set a Sept. 20 target to begin administering 100 million booster shots in the United States.
After the FDA meets, a panel of advisors to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to meet next week to make its recommendation, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
PFIZER ARGUES BOOSTER APPROVAL
Pfizer, in a document it prepared for the meeting, argued that U.S. regulators should approve a booster shot of its vaccine for use six months after the second dose due to waning effectiveness over time.
Pfizer said data from its own clinical trials showed that the vaccine's efficacy diminished by around 6% every two months after the second dose. It also said the incidence of breakthrough COVID-19 cases in that trial was higher among people who received their shots earlier.
The company also pointed to real world data from Israel and the United States showing declining effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The U.S drugmaker said in a roughly 300-participant clinical trial, the third dose generated a better immune response than the second. It also pointed to data from the booster program recently started in Israel to show that a third dose restores high levels of protection from the virus.
Earlier this week, two top FDA vaccine scientists were among the authors of an article saying they do not believe the current data supports giving the shots. One of those scientists - Marion Gruber, director of the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review - will be speaking at Friday's meeting.
Some U.S. officials are hoping boosters might prevent mild cases and reduce transmission of the virus as well as reducing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, which could hasten America's recovery.
Some countries have already begun COVID-19 booster campaigns. The United States authorized extra shots for people with vulnerable immune systems last month.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-says-third-covid-19-shot-warranted-fda-document-2021-09-15/
A sign is seen at a community vaccination centre during the coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong, China February 22, 2021. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
A panel of health experts advising the Hong Kong government has recommended children aged 12-17 should get only one dose of BioNTech's (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccine after reports of heart inflammation side effects.
Professor Lau Yu-lung, who chairs a health committee advising the government on its vaccination programme, told public broadcaster RTHK the side effect was more prevalent than originally thought.
He said experts therefore decided it was better for teenagers to get only one dose to "greatly reduce the chance of heart inflammation."
The city's Department of Health did not provide data on how many cases of heart inflammation side effects have been reported.
But RTHK said that more than 30 teenagers suffered inflammation of the heart since the government started administering the shot to those over 12 from June.
Hong Kong has been using two COVID-19 vaccines including Sinovac's (SVA.O)shot vaccinating adults, but teenagers are eligible to take the BioNTech vaccine only.
More than 50% of those aged 12-17 have been vaccinated but the government has not said how many doses have been administered so far.
Regulators in the United States, the European Union and the World Health Organization have said that mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer (PFE.N) and by Moderna (MRNA.O) are associated with rare cases of myocarditis or pericarditis, but that the benefits of the shots outweigh any risks.
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can limit the organ's ability to pump blood and can cause changes in heartbeat rhythms. Pericarditis is an inflammation of the lining around the heart.
Pfizer has said it recognised there could be rare reports of myocarditis after vaccinations, but such side effects were extremely rare.
BioNTech and its Chinese sales agent Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (600196.SS) did not immediately reply to Reuters' requests for comment.
The risk of myocarditis was 18.5 per million doses given among people aged 18 to 24 after their second Pfizer dose and 20.2 per million for that age group among Moderna second dose recipients. The risk decreases with age, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Around 65% of Hong Kong's residents have had their first vaccine dose, but the take up amongst elderly people remain low due to concerns of side effects.
Hong Kong has largely controlled the coronavirus with no locally transmitted cases in many weeks. The Asian financial hub has recorded around 12,100 cases in total and 213 deaths.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/hong-kong-panel-recommends-single-dose-biontechs-covid-19-shot-teenagers-2021-09-16/
By David Shepardson
White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients delivers remarks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
The United States is developing a "new system for international travel" that will include contact tracing for when it eventually lifts travel restrictions that bar much of the world's population from entering the country, a senior White House official said on Wednesday.
White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients told the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board the administration does not plan to immediately relax any travel restrictions citing COVID-19 Delta variant cases in the United States and around the world.
Reuters first reported early in August that the White House was developing vaccine entry requirements that could cover nearly all foreign visitors. The White House previously confirmed it was considering mandating vaccines for foreign international visitors.
"The American people need to trust that the new system for international travel is safer even as we - I mean at that point - we'll be letting in more travelers," Zients said on Wednesday, adding it will eventually replace existing restrictions.
"We are exploring considering vaccination requirements for foreign nationals traveling to the United States," Zients said.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said at the same meeting that the spike in COVID-19 cases is preventing lifting international travel restrictions. "We want to move to a metrics-based system," Raimondo said. "Before we can do that, we have to get a better handle on the domestic situation, which requires us to get everyone vaccinated."
Zients said the new plan would replace the current restrictions and would be "safer, stronger and sustainable." He did not lay out specific metrics for when the administration might relax restrictions.
"Vaccination rates matter here at home and other countries," Zients said, urging travel companies like airlines to quickly mandate employee vaccines.
Some industry officials fear the Biden administration may not lift travel restrictions for months or potentially until 2022.
The extraordinary U.S. travel restrictions were first imposed on China in January 2020 to address the spread of COVID-19. Numerous other countries have been added, most recently India, in May.
The administration wanted to lift travel restrictions "as soon as we can," Zients said.
CONTACT TRACING
Zients said the new system will include collecting contact tracing data from passengers traveling into the United States to enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to contact travelers if exposed to COVID-19.
The Trump administration in 2020 blocked an effort to require airlines to collect contact tracing information from U.S.-bound international passengers after some senior administration officials cited privacy concerns.
Zients said they want the new system to be "ready to press go on" when it is safe to lift restrictions. "We get the importance of this," Zients said.
The United States currently bars most non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.
The United States separately bars non-essential travel by most non-U.S. citizens at U.S. land borders with Mexico and Canada.
Critics say restrictions no longer make sense because some countries with high rates of COVID-19 infections are not on the restricted list while some countries on the list have the pandemic under control.
Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-plans-new-system-international-travel-2021-09-15/
By Helen Sullivan
Bus passengers in face masks in Singapore on Tuesday. Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
Singapore has reported its highest one-day Covid case total in more than a year, with 837 cases recorded on Tuesday.
In response to the growing outbreak, the government has paused reopening plans and reimposed some restrictions.
As of Tuesday, a total of 809 people were in hospital. Of these, 75 were seriously ill and required oxygen, and nine were in intensive care. The majority of seriously ill patients were older than 66, according to the Ministry of Health.
Eighty-one per cent of the population is fully vaccinated – excluding under-12s, it is 90% – and the number of seriously ill patients is fairly low overall. Only four people have died in the past 28 days, all of whom were unvaccinated, according to the health ministry.
However, the number of those seriously ill is increasing. The number of patients requiring oxygen doubled to 54 on Sunday from two days before, an important gauge to judge whether the medical system could get overwhelmed.
Vladimir Putin in his office in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence. Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/Tass
Vladimir Putin has said he will have to spend “a few days” in self-isolation after dozens of people in his entourage fell ill with Covid-19, the Tass news agency reported.
Putin was speaking through a video link at a summit of a Russia-led security bloc which was held in Tajikistan. He had planned to attend in person before the news of the virus outbreak in his inner circle this week.
It was previously unclear how big the outbreak was and how long Putin would remain isolated.
“This is not just one person or two people, there are dozens of people,” he said.
“And now I have to remain in self-isolation for a few days.”
Here’s a roundup of the key developments:
· The European Union’s chief executive has warned that Covid vaccinations must be accelerated to avoid “a pandemic of the unvaccinated”. Speaking in Strasbourg, Ursula von der Leyen said in her state of the union address: “Let’s do everything possible [so] that this does not turn into a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
· Italy is to make a Covid-19 “green pass” mandatory for public and private sector workers, a minister said on Wednesday, becoming the first European country to do so as it tries to accelerate vaccination rates and stamp out infections.
· Thousands of unvaccinated French health workers face suspension without pay from Wednesday under a new Covid-19 law that punishes people in care professions who refuse to get immunised against the virus.
· Covid restrictions to the UK will return if the virus gets “out of control” again this year, the health secretary has said, with a dangerous new variant or the NHS at risk of being overwhelmed identified as the moment “plan B” could be triggered.
· A surge in coronavirus cases has pushed the healthcare system in the Canadian province of Alberta to the verge of collapse, as healthcare workers struggle against mounting exhaustion and a growing anti-vaccine movement in the region.
· Republican lawmakers in over half of US states have removed powers to protect the public against infectious diseases since the start of the pandemic, reports Kaiser Health News. A review by the news organisation found that at least 26 states have passed laws that permanently weaken government powers to protect public health.
· The director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has condemned the lack of distribution of Covid vaccines to African countries and called for stronger medical manufacturing capacity across the continent.
· Singapore has reported its highest one-day Covid case total in more than a year, with 837 cases recorded on Tuesday. In response to the growing outbreak, the government has paused reopening plans and reimposed some restrictions.
· The WHO special envoy for the global coronavirus response, David Nabarro, has praised the UK’s approach of “learning to live with the virus” but criticised the government for giving booster shots and doses to 12- to 15-year-olds.
· The European Union is donating an additional 200m vaccine doses to other countries in a bid to speed up global immunisation. EU chief executive Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to add to the 250m doses already promised with a further 200m doses by the middle of next year.
· Pfizer has said US regulators should approve a booster dose of the vaccine it developed with Germany’s BioNTech six months after the second dose, due to waning effectiveness of the shot over time, Reuters reports.
· The US is pushing for global leaders to support a target to get 70% of the world’s population vaccinated against Covid by 2022 in a bid to end the pandemic, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.
· The UK health secretary Sajid Javid has said that people in the public eye should be “very careful with their language” after Nicki Minaj drew widespread condemnation for spreading Covid misinformation on Twitter.
· Javid has said there are “no risk-free decisions” as he defended the government’s “sensible” autumn and winter plan. Asked why the government has not immediately introduced its more restrictive “plan B” amid warnings of a surge in hospitalisations, he told Sky News that although it is “right for the government to reassure people we have a plan”, vaccines are the “first line of defence”.
· Healthcare staff in England can decide whether children get a Covid vaccine against the wishes of their parents, according to government guidelines published on Wednesday that left some headteachers fearing protests at the school gates.
· Rates of Covid-19 have risen by a third in North America over the past week, due to surges in the US and Canada, where new infections have doubled in the province of Alberta, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.
· More than four million people stopped wearing face coverings in public in the UK this summer, official figures have revealed as a senior government scientific adviser warned Tuesday’s maskless cabinet meeting would be “toxic” to already falling public adherence to guidance.
· Vaccination clinics in England have been given orders to be ready to start delivering boosters jabs “as soon as possible”. NHS chiefs in England have sent a letter to all local health organisations providing instructions for an imminent start to the booster campaign, PA news reports.
I’m signing off now. Thanks so much for joining me today. This blog will be staying live but we are pausing for a while so please check back later.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/sep/15/coronavirus-live-news-france-health-worker-vaccine-mandate-comes-into-effect-healthcare-rationing-imminent-for-idaho