Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	227,804,789	+574,795	4,683,459
USA	42,634,054	+151,142	688,486
India	33,380,522	+34,649	444,278
Brazil	21,069,017	+34,407	589,277
UK	7,339,009	+26,911	134,805
Russia	7,214,520	+19,594	195,835
France	6,934,732	+8,128	115,894
Turkey	6,767,008	+28,118	60,903
Iran	5,378,408	+18,021	116,072
Argentina	5,234,851	+2,493	114,101
Colombia	4,936,052	+1,484	125,782
Spain	4,926,324	+4,075	85,739
Italy	4,623,155	+5,117	130,167
Indonesia	4,181,309	+3,145	139,919
Germany	4,129,138	+11,875	93,454
Mexico	3,542,189	+13,217	269,912
Poland	2,895,947	+722	75,464
South Africa	2,873,415	+4,214	85,779
Ukraine	2,331,540	+5,744	54,651
Philippines	2,304,192	+21,261	36,018
Peru	2,164,380	+1,068	198,891
Malaysia	2,049,750	+18,815	22,355
Netherlands	1,979,114	+2,098	18,097
Iraq	1,967,187	+3,923	21,683
Czechia	1,684,885	+526	30,427
Japan	1,657,004	+6,806	16,959
Chile	1,645,820	+587	37,293
Canada	1,564,089	+4,679	27,325
Bangladesh	1,538,203	+1,862	27,109
Thailand	1,434,237	+13,897	14,953
Pakistan	1,215,821	+3,012	27,004
Belgium	1,215,114	+3,008	25,486
Israel	1,208,403	+6,191	7,465
Romania	1,135,027	+4,441	35,286
Portugal	1,059,409	+1,062	17,888
Morocco	913,423	+2,432	13,775
Kazakhstan	851,661	+3,343	10,549
Serbia	846,114	+7,602	7,664
Hungary	816,680	+458	30,118
Jordan	811,463	+904	10,586
Nepal	781,989	+1,165	11,002
Cuba	776,125	+7,628	6,601
UAE	731,307	+564	2,069
Austria	718,091	+2,198	10,870
Tunisia	697,421	+1,142	24,383
Vietnam	656,129	+10,489	16,425
Greece	625,083	+2,322	14,354
Lebanon	616,179	+647	8,224
Georgia	589,727	+2,176	8,390
Saudi Arabia	546,336	+85	8,645
Guatemala	521,093	+1,107	12,907
Belarus	510,481	+1,967	3,966
Costa Rica	502,362	+2,901	5,919
Sri Lanka	498,694	+2,271	11,817
Bolivia	496,032	+420	18,616
Bulgaria	478,885	+1,724	19,876
Azerbaijan	467,173	+1,783	6,227
Panama	463,459	+373	7,166
Paraguay	459,524	+63	16,120
Myanmar	440,741	+1,790	16,869
Kuwait	411,018	+58	2,436
Slovakia	400,348	+370	12,566
Croatia	388,260	+1,369	8,472
Uruguay	387,299	+143	6,046
Palestine	379,635	+2,501	3,871
Ireland	371,301	+1,413	5,179
Honduras	355,942	+972	9,438
Denmark	353,744	+313	2,619
Venezuela	352,055	+1,260	4,261
Libya	328,856	+1,053	4,480
Ethiopia	328,735	+1,669	5,059
Lithuania	312,495	+1,314	4,757
Oman	303,309	+41	4,092
Egypt	295,051	+569	16,921
Slovenia	280,544	+1,325	4,486
S. Korea	279,930	+1,941	2,386
Moldova	279,143	+1,289	6,569
Bahrain	274,041	+64	1,388
Mongolia	266,680	+3,234	1,074
Armenia	251,323	+764	5,075
Kenya	245,337	+511	4,961
Qatar	235,187	+133	604
Zambia	208,267	+106	3,636
Algeria	200,989	+219	5,651
Nigeria	200,957	+601	2,647
North Macedonia	185,450	+557	6,367
Norway	180,432	+982	841
Kyrgyzstan	177,484	+95	2,581
Botswana	172,252	+6,608	2,343
Uzbekistan	166,644	+619	1,175
Albania	160,365	+942	2,563
Afghanistan	154,487	+126	7,186
Mozambique	149,804	+133	1,902
Latvia	149,081	+596	2,632
Estonia	148,391	+510	1,320
Finland	135,314	+487	1,051
Zimbabwe	127,368	+285	4,560
Namibia	126,537	+39	3,456
Montenegro	124,485	+730	1,822
Suriname	35,817	+609	788
Aruba	15,177	+22	156

 

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

 

 

 

United says about 90% of U.S. staff vaccinated ahead of company deadline

 

A United Airlines Boeing 737-800 sits at a gate after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., June 5, 2019. REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski/File Photo

 

United Airlines (UAL.O) said on Thursday that close to 90% of its U.S.-based employees had uploaded proof of COVID-19 vaccinations ahead of the company's Sept. 27 deadline.

United has taken a tough stance on employees who decline to get vaccinated and in early August became the first U.S. carrier to announce it would mandate vaccines for employees.

The company also said about 95% of its U.S.-based management was fully vaccinated.

United Chief Executive Scott Kirby told CNN the airline would not require vaccines for airline passengers on its own but would follow a government mandate if adopted.

Kirby said it "feels like a more efficient approach" for employers to mandate vaccines rather than create a "huge infrastructure" at airports to prove passengers have been vaccinated.

Last week, United said employees who receive religious exemptions from the company for COVID-19 vaccinations would be placed on temporary, unpaid personal leave from Oct. 2.

Chicago-based United said nearly 20,000 employees had uploaded records since the company announced its mandatory vaccination policy.

The Biden administration said on Monday that most federal employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no later than Nov. 22, pushing large employers to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly. read more

Some airline officials told Reuters they are waiting to see a Labor Department emergency temporary standard (ETS) detailing rules for large private-sector firms on vaccines or COVID-19 testing before deciding on employee rules.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told travel executives on Wednesday that the ETS order is expected in "a matter of weeks. ... We have been told in October."

Airlines are also waiting for guidance due by Sept. 24 from the Biden administration about whether they are covered under an executive order mandating vaccines for federal contractors.

Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) said on Thursday it told employees it would offer roughly two days of pay to employees who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and share their vaccination status by Nov. 15.

Southwest said that starting on Nov. 16, employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to be eligible for quarantine pay.

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/united-says-about-90-staff-vaccinated-ahead-company-deadline-2021-09-16/

 

 

 

France suspends 3,000 health staff as Europe targets vaccine refusal

By Matthieu Protard and Ingrid Melander

 

Medical workers work in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are treated at Cambrai hospital, France, April 1, 2021. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

 

PARIS, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Hospitals, care homes and health centres have suspended around 3,000 workers across France for failing to comply with mandatory COVID vaccination, the government said on Thursday, as countries around Europe weigh how far to go to combat the pandemic.

While Italy is set to announce later on Thursday that proof of vaccination or a negative test will be compulsory for all workers, going further than any other country in the region, the Netherlands plans a similar step - but only to go to bars or clubs.

Britain, meanwhile, says it is highly likely to require front-line health and social care workers in England to be vaccinated as part of a plan to contain the virus during winter.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron's decision in mid-July to require a similar health pass to go anywhere from restaurants to gyms and museums, and make the jab mandatory for health workers, has massively increased vaccination take-up.

With the mandate for workers in hospitals and care homes taking effect on Wednesday, its very concrete impact - unvaccinated staff forbidden to work - started to be felt.

According to local daily Nice Matin, nearly 450 health workers - out of 7,500 - have been suspended in just one hospital in the city of Nice, in southern France.

The government, however, shrugged off the impact.

"It hasn't been chaos, far from it," Health Minister Olivier Veran told French RTL radio, adding there were 27 million workers in the sector.

There have been a few cases where it has affected care, he said, like the use of an MRI being briefly complicated, but most suspended staff work in support roles, limiting the impact.

"Most of the suspensions are only temporary ... many have decided to get vaccinated as they see that the vaccination mandate is a reality," Veran said.

But unions warn of likely disruptions to care, and just a few absentees in a team is enough to trigger a crisis, Emmanuel Chignon, a care home manager in Bordeaux told Reuters this week, pointing to how hard it was to hire staff in the sector.

"If we can't replace the carers who leave, the work will fall on the others, and I fear an unvirtuous circle, with tiredness, exhaustion and an increase in absenteeism," he said.

MANDATORY

In Italy, where vaccination for health workers was made mandatory at the end of March, some have been suspended, but with numbers nowhere near those seen in France.

As of Sept. 16, some 728 doctors in all of Italy had been suspended for failing to be vaccinated, the Italian doctors' federation said.

Italy is now set to go much further and announce on Thursday that a "Green pass" - showing someone has received at least one vaccine dose, tested negative or recently recovered from the virus - will be mandatory for all public and private sector workers. Failure to have a Green Pass will result in workers being suspended and losing their pay. read more

In other countries, like the Netherlands, opinion polls show a majority of the public favouring mandatory vaccination for health workers, with the workers themselves mostly opposed to it, and the government has said it will not take such measures.

However a pass showing proof of vaccination or a recent negative coronavirus test is set to be required there as of Sept 25 to go to bars, restaurants, clubs or cultural events.

Although polls have shown that a majority of the Dutch support the measure, the pass is strongly opposed by the around 30% of the population who have so far refused to be vaccinated. Critics say the measure is meant to force people to get the jab.

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/around-3000-health-workers-suspended-france-over-vaccination-minister-2021-09-16/

 

 

 

Singapore PM gets COVID-19 booster shot, urges others to follow

 

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (not pictured) hold a joint news conference in Singapore, August 23, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool/Files

 

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday he had received a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot and urged other elderly people to come forward to get a shot amid a new wave of infections across the city-state.

"Cases are increasing rapidly. A booster jab will strengthen your protection against COVID-19," Lee, 69, said in a post on his Facebook page. The Southeast Asia country has started giving boosters to the elderly and immunocompromised groups this week.

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-pm-gets-covid-19-booster-shot-urges-others-follow-2021-09-17/

 

 

 

At U.S. nursing homes, aides were the least likely workers to be vaccinated, a study shows

By Reed Abelson

 

Erika Shaver-Nelson, left, the activities director at Chaparral House, a nursing home in Berkeley, Calif., speaking with a resident in March.Credit...Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

Nursing home aides — the staff members who provide the most direct care to residents — were the least likely to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by mid-July, according to a new analysis of U.S. facilities.

The study underscores the influence that President Biden’s new federal mandate for all health care workers may have on populations like the elderly in nursing homes who are vulnerable to coronavirus infections, experts say.

The findings are “alarming and reason for pause,” said Brian McGarry, a health researcher at the University of Rochester and one of the authors of the analysis, which appeared in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine on Thursday.

Low vaccination rates among nursing home workers in some areas have fueled concern about fresh outbreaks among staff and residents in these facilities, even with high numbers of vaccinated residents. Covid deaths among nursing home staff and residents accounted for nearly one third of the nation’s pandemic fatalities as of June 1, and vaccination rates among staff average around 63 percent, according to the latest federal data.

But slightly under half of the certified nursing assistants were fully vaccinated, according to the analysis, which looked at federal vaccination data through July 18. That was before many nursing homes, states and cities began imposing mandates.

According to the study, in nursing homes overall, 61 percent of nurses, both registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, were vaccinated, compared with 71 percent of therapists and 77 percent of doctors and independent practitioners like physician assistants or nurse practitioners.

Some large nursing homes were starting to mandate vaccinations as the Delta variant began tearing through their communities and coming into nursing homes. Genesis HealthCare, one of the nation’s largest nursing-home operators, required vaccinations in August and said it had “met our deadline of 100 percent vaccinated staff, as promised — excluding the small number of individuals who received medical or religious exemptions.”

Nationally, about two-thirds of adults are now fully vaccinated, according to federal data.

David Grabowski, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and one of the study’s authors, said few nursing homes have mandates in place so far. While homes’ vaccination rates have ticked up slightly, the overall rate for nursing homes has hovered at just a little above 60 percent in the last couple of months even as the Delta variant took hold and drove up new cases among staff and residents.

The nursing home industry, which had been opposed to a mandate aimed specifically at its workers, favors the broader U.S. mandate. “We applaud President Biden for expanding Covid-19 vaccination requirements to all Medicare and Medicaid-certified health care settings as well as larger businesses,” said Mark Parkinson, the chief executive of the American Health Care Association, a major nursing home trade group, in a statement at the time.

“Despite rampant misinformation spreading online, the industry has made significant progress toward increasing the number of nursing home staff who are vaccinated since the beginning of the year,” the group said.

The researchers also looked at characteristics of the nation’s 15,000 nursing homes to determine which facilities had the most success in vaccinating their workers. While the vaccination rates of the county where they were located played a significant role, the researchers also found that traits like higher quality ratings from the Medicare program, the nonprofit status of the facility and a long-tenured staff also seemed to lead to higher rates.

“That gives us some suggestion that facility culture and leadership may play a role,” Dr. McGarry said, and management at these nursing homes may be better able to work with their staff to increase vaccine acceptance.

But none of those factors alone appeared to be critical in a nursing home’s success. “A lot of things seemed to matter a little bit,” he said.

Most influential may be the president’s decision earlier this month to impose a new federal mandate requiring all health care workers to be vaccinated. Nursing home workers may no longer be able to “job shop” as easily to find employment where vaccines are not mandated.

“The mandate takes all those things off the board and says everyone has to do it,” he said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/health/nurses-aides-vaccination-rate.html

 

 

 

African public health experts call for the U.N. General Assembly to speed the delivery of vaccines

By Shashank Bengali

 

A Kenyan man received a dose of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, donated by Britain, at the Makongeni Estate in Nairobi in August.Credit...Brian Inganga/Associated Press

 

As world leaders prepared to gather at the United Nations General Assembly, African public health experts called on Thursday for action to speed up delivery of Covid-19 vaccines to their continent, where according to the World Health Organization, only 3.6 percent of people have been fully inoculated against the disease so far.

Shortfalls in supplies from Covax, the global vaccine-sharing initiative, have left African countries with just half the doses they need to meet the global target of fully vaccinating 40 percent of their populations by the end of 2021. Inequities in the distribution of vaccines remain stark: Africa is home to about 17 percent of the world’s people, but only 2 percent of the nearly six billion shots administered so far have been given in Africa, according to the W.H.O.

“As the U.N. General Assembly meets next week, I urge African leaders to call on them to ensure equitable access to vaccines,” Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija, chairwoman of the African Vaccine Delivery Alliance, said in an online news conference on Thursday. “Ask the rich countries: Where are Africa’s vaccines? Where are the vaccines for the low- and middle-income countries of the world?”

Wealthy countries globally have supplied only a fraction of the doses they promised to Covax. That shortfall is one of the main reasons Covax slashed its forecast last week for the number of doses it would have available this year. Worldwide, 80 percent of shots that have been administered have been in high- and upper-middle-income countries, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. Only 0.4 percent of doses have been administered in low-income countries.

Another reason, experts said, is that India, with the world’s biggest pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, has halted coronavirus vaccine exports while it tries to inoculate more of its own people.

“Export bans and vaccine hoarding still have a chokehold on the lifeline of vaccine supplies to Africa,” Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the W.H.O.’s director for Africa, said at the news conference. “As long as wealthy countries lock Covax and the African Union out of the market, Africa will miss its vaccination goals.”

Dr. Moeti repeated the W.H.O.’s demand that countries postpone administering booster shots to healthy people until the end of the year, so that more vaccine doses can be supplied to countries that are still struggling to administer initial doses. Yet a growing number of countries are proceeding with plans for booster programs.

Dr. Moeti added that African nations had significantly expanded their delivery capacity, administering 13 million doses last week, more than triple the figures from previous weeks. Even so, at their current pace the countries will not reach the 40 percent vaccination target until next March, she said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/world/africa/coronavirus-vaccine-africa.html

 

 

 

Italy extends its health-pass requirement to cover most workers, public and private

By Gaia Pianigiani and Emma Bubola

 

A teacher, left, presented her health certificate, known as a Green Pass, to be checked by a school worker at the Isacco Newton high school in Rome on Monday. Credit...Andrew Medichini/Associated Press

Italy will require its residents to show a health pass to go to work, the government announced Thursday. It is the first country in Europe to require coronavirus vaccination certificates so widely.

“It’s an extraordinary endeavor,” Italy’s public administration minister, Renato Brunetta, said Thursday night. “It’s all the human capital in the country.”

Starting in mid-October, a requirement that already applies to some essential workers will expand to cover anyone working in factories, public offices, shops, restaurants and other settings. That is 23 million people, Mr. Brunetta said.

Individuals will have to be able to show that they have received at least one dose of vaccine, or have recently recovered from Covid-19, or else take a swab virus test every two days. Those who test positive must stay home on sick leave. Employers will be in charge of checking certificates, and workers who do not comply with the health pass requirement can be suspended from their jobs and fined up to 1,500 euros ($1,760).

Earlier this year, Italy was the first country in Europe to make vaccination compulsory for health care workers. That measure was extended last week to cover anyone working in a hospital, nursing home or school, all university students, and all adults who enter school buildings.

After the government made health certificates compulsory for teachers over the summer, the proportion who were vaccinated increased substantially, government statistics show.

Italian officials have set a goal of fully vaccinating 80 percent of the eligible population by the end of September. Scientists differ on whether that proportion will be high enough to check the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus, which is predominant now in Italy.

Almost 75 percent of Italians 12 and older have already received at least one dose of vaccine and at least 65 percent are fully vaccinated. But there are still 3 million people over 50 who are not protected yet, a figure that might undermine the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign as autumn approaches.

The health minister, Roberto Speranza, said on Thursday that the new policy was meant to make workplaces safer and to get more Italians vaccinated. “We are sure it will help us even more to push this vaccination campaign,” Mr. Speranza said.

French authorities plan to apply similar rules for essential and hospital workers. France’s health minister, Olivier Veran, said on Thursday that 3,000 health workers in the country had been suspended from their jobs for failing to comply with a vaccine requirement. France made vaccinations mandatory for nearly three million essential workers on Wednesday.

Since taking power in February, Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, has stepped up the country’s vaccination campaign, making it one of the government’s top priorities and pushing all Italians to get inoculated.

The nationalist League party — which is part of Italy’s broad coalition government — opposed the extension of the vaccine certificate requirement, but found little popular backing. A few anti-vaccine activists were arrested recently and accused of plotting violent protests. But by and large, Italians have embraced the health pass.

Mr. Draghi said earlier this month that he was considering making vaccinations compulsory for everyone. The Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are authorized for use in Italy.

In the United States, after the Food and Drug Administration gave its first full approval to a coronavirus vaccine — the one from Pfizer BioNTech— for people 16 and older, a number of public agencies and private employers moved to make vaccination mandatory.

In Italy, health certificates showing immunity or a recent negative test are already required to enter cinemas, theaters and museums, to dine indoors at restaurants, or to travel on high-speed trains or airplanes.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/world/italy-extends-its-health-pass-requirement-to-cover-most-workers-public-and-private.html

 

 

 

Summary

 

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

· The first civil lawsuit, over a notorious outbreak of coronavirus at the popular Austrian ski resort of Ischgl in March 2020, where thousands of people from 45 countries claim to have become infected, is set to begin in Vienna.

· Africa faces a 470m shortfall in Covid-19 vaccine doses this year after the Covax alliance cut its projected shipments, raising the risk of new and deadly variants, the WHO has said, warning it could take the world ‘back to square one’.

· Australia is to trial a home quarantine system for fully vaccinated international travellers arriving in Sydney, prime minister Scott Morrison has said, as the country moves to reopen its borders despite persistent Covid-19 cases.

· New Zealand will delay the reopening of its trans-Tasman travel bubble, as case numbers in Australia rise and numbers in New Zealand continue to drop.

· A British study will look into the immune responses of children to mixed schedules of different Covid-19 vaccines as officials try to determine the best approach to second doses in adolescents given a small risk of heart inflammation,

· The UK government is planning to slash the number of “red list” countries by up to half as part of plans to simplify England’s rules for international travel, with sources claiming it would incentivise vaccination

· France suspended 3,000 health workers without pay for refusing the Covid vaccine. The health minister, Olivier Véran, said the staff had been notified in writing before the government-imposed deadline to have at least one dose.

· Alberta’s premier announced sweeping new restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, admitting the Canadian province was gripped by a “crisis of the unvaccinated”. Alberta currently has the worst coronavirus outbreak in Canada.

· Care homes in England may be forced to close and thousands of staff risk losing their jobs if they decline to receive their first Covid-19 vaccine by the end of Thursday, ministers have been warned.

· Data shows that almost 664,000 people, or one in 500 people, living in the US have died from the virus since the pandemic began, following a surge of cases and hospitalisations, particularly in southern states, caused by a combination of the Delta variant and low vaccination rates.

· The White House offered to connect Nicki Minaj with one of the Biden administration’s doctors to address her questions about the Covid-19 vaccine, after the Trinidadian-born rapper’s erroneous tweet alleging the vaccine causes impotence went viral.

· The Italian government approved a decree making it obligatory for all public and private sector workers either to show proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from infection, a government source said on Thursday.

· A panel of health experts advising the Hong Kong government recommended children aged 12-17 should get only one dose of BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine after reports of heart inflammation side effects.

· Vaccinations are estimated to have directly averted about 230,800 hospital admissions in England, according to figures.

· All diplomats attending the UN general assembly in New York next week will have to provide proof of vaccination, the city government has confirmed, prompting an angry response from Russia.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/sep/17/coronavirus-live-news-austria-to-hear-first-lawsuit-over-resort-outbreak-africa-vaccine-shortfall-raises-risk-of-deadly-variants-who-warns