Country,	Total	New	Total
Other	Cases	Cases	Deaths
World	230,841,615	528,265	4,731,736
USA	43,404,877	133,620	699,748
India	33,562,034	31,957	446,080
Brazil	21,283,567	36,473	592,357
UK	7,530,103	34,460	135,621
Russia	7,333,557	19,706	200,625
France	6,971,493	6,794	116,309
Turkey	6,932,453	28,168	62,307
Iran	5,477,229	17,433	118,191
Argentina	5,245,265	2,034	114,684
Colombia	4,945,203	1,581	126,006
Spain	4,940,824	2,840	86,085
Italy	4,645,853	3,970	130,488
Indonesia	4,198,678	2,720	140,954
Germany	4,175,557	11,165	93,770
Mexico	3,585,565	12,521	272,580
Poland	2,899,888	882	75,523
South Africa	2,889,298	2,967	86,500
Philippines	2,417,419	15,592	37,228
Ukraine	2,362,559	6,754	55,161
Peru	2,169,427	996	199,108
Malaysia	2,142,924	14,990	24,565
Netherlands	1,989,805	1,900	18,132
Iraq	1,984,399	2,906	21,949
Czechia	1,687,448	599	30,446
Japan	1,681,120	1,767	17,276
Chile	1,648,550	524	37,379
Canada	1,589,602	3,870	27,537
Bangladesh	1,547,176	1,376	27,313
Thailand	1,511,357	11,252	15,753
Israel	1,247,633	4,259	7,592
Pakistan	1,230,238	2,333	27,374
Belgium	1,226,682	1,797	25,524
Romania	1,165,886	7,045	35,851
Sweden	1,147,879		14,767
Portugal	1,063,991	891	17,933
Morocco	923,924	1,702	14,040
Serbia	886,543	7,201	7,885
Kazakhstan	867,366	2,411	10,860
Switzerland	830,251	1,894	11,035
Cuba	825,351	7,151	6,978
Hungary	819,021	501	30,143
Jordan	816,574	1,028	10,637
Nepal	787,828	1,251	11,059
UAE	733,643	318	2,080
Austria	728,696	2,022	10,933
Vietnam	718,963	11,527	17,781
Tunisia	702,503	1,696	24,654
Greece	638,921	2,325	14,575
Lebanon	619,950	718	8,253
Georgia	600,412	2,016	8,664
Saudi Arabia	546,735	54	8,679
Guatemala	537,987	4,243	13,185
Belarus	522,275	1,989	4,041
Costa Rica	515,931	2,547	6,128
Sri Lanka	508,672	1,342	12,376
Ecuador	507,020		32,666
Bolivia	497,676	290	18,672
Bulgaria	487,588	850	20,251
Azerbaijan	476,409	1,356	6,370
Panama	465,147	366	7,183
Paraguay	459,720	25	16,138
Myanmar	451,663	1818	17,266
Kuwait	411,316	38	2,442
Slovakia	404,982	1,180	12,589
Croatia	395,097	1,812	8,539
Palestine	390,369	1,899	3,968
Uruguay	388,068	146	6,049
Ireland	379,366	1,429	5,209
Honduras	360,598	830	9,561
Venezuela	358,462	1,140	4,346
Dominican Republic	356,042	321	4,031
Denmark	355,603	346	2,634
Ethiopia	336,762	1,489	5,254
Libya	334,049	985	4,560
Lithuania	319,281	1,402	4,849
Oman	303,512	22	4,093
Egypt	298,988	692	17,043
S. Korea	290,983	1,720	2,419
Slovenia	286,267	1,186	4,514
Moldova	285,321	1,371	6,632
Mongolia	283,956	3,416	1,146
Bahrain	274,524	72	1,388
Armenia	254,709	273	5,181
Kenya	247,358	402	5,018
Qatar	235,907	138	604
Bosnia and Herzegovina	229,360	1255	10,353
Zambia	208,676	77	3,639
Nigeria	203,081	377	2,666
Algeria	202,122	174	5,739
North Macedonia	188,113	491	6,511
Norway	184,609	799	850
Kyrgyzstan	177,941	72	2,595
Botswana	173,788		2,354
Uzbekistan	169,989	522	1,203
Albania	165,096	820	2601
Afghanistan	154,800	44	7,194
Latvia	151,917	674	2,665
Estonia	151,292	687	1,335
Mozambique	150,280	79	1,906
Finland	137,594	477	1,062
Australia	90,372	1,662	1,186
Suriname	38,769	632	825

 

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

 

 

 

U.S. CDC advisers could vote on Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster on Thursday

By Julie Steenhuysen

 

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

 

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel could vote on the use of a third shot of Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and partner BioNTech SE's (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, an agency official said at a public meeting of the panel on Wednesday.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is meeting on Sept 22-23 to weigh which populations would most benefit from a third shot as it awaits a decision on authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Pfizer has asked the FDA to approve the third shot for all people aged 16 and over, but a panel of outside advisors to the FDA last Friday said there was only evidence for a shot being needed by people aged 65 and older. The FDA has not yet said how it plans to proceed.

The CDC panel considered presentations from staff showing how the vaccine worked in different age groups and populations, including older adults, those whose jobs put them at increased risk for exposure such as healthcare workers, and adults with underlying medical conditions.

Several of the presentations showed vaccine efficacy in older adults against hospitalization was falling, impacted both by the Delta variant and possible waning of vaccine efficacy over time.

Pfizer officials reviewed the case it presented last week to the FDA advisory panel arguing that a booster is needed for all populations.

CDC staff also reviewed U.S. studies on vaccine effectiveness across U.S. populations and found significant declines in effectiveness against infection for vaccines based on messenger RNA technology during the period when the Delta variant was predominant.

The studies also showed protection from hospitalization declined more in those vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine than the one made by Moderna Inc. (MRNA.O) during the time when the Delta variant was predominant.

Similar patterns of reduced vaccine effectiveness were seen in the general adult population.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-cdc-advisers-could-vote-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-booster-thursday-2021-09-22/

 

 

 

England's top medic says COVID-19 transmission highest in children

By Alistair Smout

 

People queue outside a vaccination centre for young people and students at the Hunter Street Health Centre, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, June 5, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls

 

 England's Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Wednesday that COVID-19 transmission was currently highest in 12- to 15-year-olds, and that almost all unvaccinated children would get infected at some point.

All those in the12-15 age bracket in England are to be offered a COVID-19 vaccine after Whitty and his colleagues said last week that children would benefit from reduced disruption to their education.

"There is definitely substantial transmission happening in this age group," Whitty told lawmakers. "In fact, the age group we're talking about is the one in which the highest rate of transmission is currently occurring, as far as we can tell."

Britain reported 34,460 new COVID cases on Wednesday, and has averaged over 20,000 new daily cases since late June.

Whitty said the vaccine advice focussed purely on the benefit to the children, and had not been made for political reasons or for the benefit of more vulnerable adults.

Although around half of children have probably already had COVID-19, he said, protection may wane and a vaccination programme would be less disruptive to schools than if the children caught COVID-19.

"The great majority of children who have not currently had COVID are going to get it at some point," he said.

"It won't necessarily be in the next two or three months but they will get it sooner or later because this is incredibly infectious and because immunity wanes, we're not going to see a situation where it just sort of stops at a certain point."

Whitty said vaccines would reduce the risk of infection by 50%, possibly more.

The highly transmissible Delta variant, now dominant in Britain, has made health officials around the world reassess how the pandemic is managed, and especially the impact of vaccines on transmission.

"We do not think it is possible to stop completely transmission," Wei Shen Lim, COVID-19 chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, told the lawmakers.

"That does not mean that there will be no impact on transmission."

 

Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/english-official-says-covid-19-transmission-highest-children-2021-09-22/

 

 

 

Brazilian health minister tests positive for Covid-19 while in New York for UN meeting

By Rodrigo Pedroso and Jessie Yeung, CNN

 

Brazilian Minister of Health Marcelo Queiroga has tested positive for Covid-19 while in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Brazilian president's office announced Tuesday evening.

Queiroga was part of Jair Bolsonaro's Presidential Committee, according to the statement, which added he was "doing well." So far, other members of the Brazilian delegation have tested negative for the virus.

Queiroga told CNN affiliate CNN Brasil on Tuesday that he would quarantine in New York for 14 days, and wouldn't leave the United States with other members of his delegation. Some delegation members have canceled their participation due to the risk of infecting members from other countries, Queiroga said.

Queiroga, a cardiologist, is Brazil's fourth health minister since the coronavirus pandemic began. He was appointed earlier this year.

He had been vaccinated with the Chinese-made CoronaVac vaccine, the minister said last week. He did not say when he received the shot.

CNN Brasil was first to report on the minister's condition ahead of the release of the presidential statement.

A spokesman for the UN secretary-general declined to comment, saying they had "a contact tracing protocol in place in case of cases arising" at the UN headquarters.

Earlier this week, Queiroga came under fire for responding to protesters in New York with an obscene gesture, according to CNN Brasil. Videos went viral on social media, showing the moment he appeared in the window of a minibus and gestured to protesters in front of the residence of the Brazilian Mission at the UN, CNN Brasil reported.

Even before UNGA began on Tuesday, there were concerns the international gathering might pose a health risk -- especially with much of the US still battling severe Covid-19 outbreaks. The US government issued a letter in August encouraging world leaders to consider joining virtually, and not in person, to help avoid "a super spreader event."

Still, more than 100 heads of state and government arrived in person for the event -- with some of them unvaccinated.

Most vocal among them has been President Bolsonaro, who has long downplayed the severity of the pandemic and advocated for the use of unproven drugs. Last week, he declared point-blank on social media that he would not get vaccinated because he had once contracted the virus.

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro fulfilled the tradition of delivering the first speech at the meeting, with the rest of the Brazilian delegation in attendance. The President has so far had meetings with several leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Queiroga also shook hands with Johnson on Monday.

Photos posted by Gilson Neto, Brazil's tourism minister, show members of the Brazilian delegation eating pizza outdoors in New York on Sunday. Nearly all were unmasked.

Shortly after the announcement that Queiroga had tested positive, Bolsonaro released a video on Twitter showing himself greeting and shaking hands with supporters in front of the hotel where he is staying, without wearing a mask.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/americas/brazil-health-minister-covid-unga-intl-hnk/index.html

 

 

 

Covid-19 death rate more than 4 times higher in least vaccinated states than in most vaccinated

By Madeline Holcombe and Deidre McPhillips, CNN

 

The average rate of Covid-19 deaths in the 10 least vaccinated states was more than four times higher over the past week than the rate in the 10 most vaccinated states, according to a CNN analysis.

In the least vaccinated states, roughly eight people out of every 100,000 residents died of Covid-19 over the past week, compared with only about two out of every 100,000 people in the 10 most vaccinated states.

CNN used data from Johns Hopkins University and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the analysis.

Less vaccinated states tend to have higher hospitalization rates, too.

The latest data from the US Department of Health and Human Services shows an average of 39 Covid-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in the 10 least vaccinated states, nearly three times higher than the average rate of 14 per 100,000 people in the 10 most vaccinated states.

The states with the lowest vaccination rates have fully vaccinated less than 45% of their residents. They are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html

 

 

 

England’s Covid travel rules spark outrage around the world

Tom Phillips and Flávia Milhorance in Rio de Janeiro and Emmanuel Akinwotu

 

Refusal to recognise vaccines given across Latin America, Africa and south Asia has been denounced as ‘discriminatory’

People stand in a queue as they wait to receive a dose of Covid vaccine in Siliguri, West Bengal, India.Photograph: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images

 

England’s new Covid travel rules and refusal to recognise vaccines administered across huge swaths of the world have sparked outrage and bewilderment across Latin America, Africa and south Asia, with critics denouncing what they called an illogical and discriminatory policy.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, described England’s new rules, unveiled last Friday, as “a new simplified system for international travel”. “The purpose is to make it easier for people to travel,” Shapps said.

But in many parts of the world there is anger and frustration at the government’s decision to recognise only vaccinations given in a select group of countries.

Under the new rules, travellers fully vaccinated with Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna or Janssen shots in the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea or an EU country will be considered “fully vaccinated” and exempt from quarantine when they arrive in England from an amber list country. But people who have been fully vaccinated with the same vaccines in Africa or Latin America, as well as other countries including India, will be considered “not fully vaccinated” and forced to quarantine for 10 days on arrival from an amber list country.

On Monday the Indian politician Shashi Tharoor announced he was pulling out of a series of appearances in England to protest the “offensive” decision to ask fully vaccinated Indians to quarantine.

“There isn’t a single person I have spoken to who isn’t angry about this. People are perplexed,” said one exasperated Latin American diplomat.

“How can a Pfizer or Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccine that is administered [in Latin America] not be sufficient for someone to be allowed in? I just don’t see how this can be acceptable. I simply cannot get my head around it,” they added. “I cannot explain what is behind this – I just know that it is very, very, very unfair.”

A west African diplomat condemned the restrictions as “discriminatory”. “[But] it’s not even the discrimination that concerns me the most, it’s the message it sends out,” they added.

“All around the world we’re struggling with vaccine hesitancy. There’s all sorts of fake news. When you say, ‘We are not going to accept the vaccine from Africa’, you lend credence to these kinds of theories. It’s only going to create a situation where it allows the pandemic to be prolonged.”

Ifeanyi Nsofor, a doctor and chief executive of a public health consultancy in Nigeria, said: “The UK is one of the largest funders of the Covax facility and now the UK is saying that the same vaccines they’ve sent, will now not be considered. It’s sad, it’s wrong, it’s discriminatory.”

“To me this is just another layer of Covid-19 vaccine inequity. We’ve been dealing with the fact that richer nations are hoarding vaccines, even when poorer countries can afford them they can’t access enough,” Nsofor added.

The new travel rules came as a severe blow to families who have spent many months separated from their England-based loved-ones because of the pandemic.

André Siqueira, a tropical diseases specialist from Rio de Janeiro, said he was desperate to see his four-year-old son who lives in London for the first time in a year. But the new rules made it almost impossible for him to travel to England – despite having been fully vaccinated in red-listed Brazil – since he would have to spend 10 days in an amber list country before spending another 10 days quarantining in England after he arrived.

“There is simply no plausible justification as to why they accept vaccines given in certain countries but not from others,” said Siqueira, 40. “It doesn’t make sense. There’s no logic to this kind of screening,” he said, noting that there had never been such distinctions for the yellow fever vaccine.

Maiara Folly, a UK-based Brazilian academic, said she was also shocked with the new rules. “I can’t see any health criteria to justify this,” said Folly, who runs the thinktank Plataforma Cipó and has been tracking UK travel guidelines for personal and professional reasons.

“I can’t see any reason other than a racial issue, a xenophobia issue,” added Folly, voicing fears that many fellow academics from Brazil – where more than 80 million people have now been fully vaccinated – would be unable to attend the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow because of the harsh rules.

Prof Helen Rees, a medical researcher and chair of the World Health Organization’s African Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (RITAG), called the lack of explanation for the new travel rules “unfortunate” and the restrictions “inexplicable”.

“Does the world do this for any other vaccines? Does the UK say we’re not going to recognise your polio vaccines from Pakistan? No. We accept that your vaccines are safely administered. If we’re worried that there are variants that are resistant to the vaccines, that’s happening all over the world. But the Delta variant is in 100 countries of the world and the vaccines do work against Delta.”

Rees said she hoped the decision would be reconsidered. “I’m not worried that this is cast in stone but I think it’s something that really must be discussed. Not least because if the world starts closing borders to what looks like poorer countries, what does that mean for inequality? For refugees? We can’t close our borders, we must trust the vaccines and we must trust the governments that are administering the vaccines.”

Asked to explain why vaccines administered in certain countries were acceptable but in others not, a government spokesperson said in a statement: “Our top priority remains protecting public health, and reopening travel in a safe and sustainable way, which is why vaccine certification from all countries must meet the minimum criteria taking into account public health and wider considerations.”

The statement did not make clear what those wider considerations were.

In response to international upset at the restrictions, the UK has now pledged to work with some countries to recognise their vaccine passports. On Wednesday, the UK high commission in Kenya released a joint statement with the Kenya health ministry, saying the UK recognised vaccines administered in the east African country.

The joint statement recognised there had been “significant public concern about the issue of vaccine certification” but added, “establishing a system to mutually recognise each other’s vaccine passport programme for travel takes time, particularly in an unprecedented pandemic”.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/23/englands-covid-travel-rules-spark-outrage-around-the-world

 

 

 

South Korea urges testing amid holiday surge fears

 

South Korean authorities warned people returning from a holiday to get tested even for the mildest Covid type symptoms, especially before clocking in for work amid a new surge in coronavirus cases in and around the capital, Reuters reports. 
The country, which has been grappling with a fourth wave of infections since early July, will on Friday roll back the allowance gatherings during the Chuseok holiday week to two people after 6 p.m. in the greater Seoul area.
Seoul saw 1,400 daily confirmed cases on average last week, up 11% from a record high of 1,268 the prior week, Vice Health Minister Kang Do-tae said on Wednesday.
Kang urged those returning from the three-day holiday, which started on Monday, to get tested to prevent transmission.
South Korea’s popular tourist island of Jeju saw an average of more than 41,000 visitors a day during the holiday, up from about 32,000 in the same period last year, the Jeju Tourism Association told Reuters. More than 258,000 people have visited the island in six days.
Despite the high daily case numbers, the mortality rate and severe cases have remained relatively low and steady at 0.83% and 312 respectively as of Wednesday, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) data showed.
The KDCA reported 1,716 new Covid cases on Wednesday, raising the total to 292,699 infections, with 2,427 deaths.
South Korea struggled to get vaccine supplies initially, but has supercharged its campaign in recent months, administering 71.2% of the 52 million population with at least one dose through Wednesday and fully inoculated 43.2%.

 

 

 

Summary

 

Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.

Alaska, which led most US states in coronavirus vaccinations months ago, took the drastic step on Wednesday of imposing crisis-care standards for its entire hospital system, declaring that a crushing surge in Covid patients has forced rationing of strained medical resources.

Meanwhile South Korean authorities warned people returning from a holiday to get tested even for the mildest Covid-like symptoms, especially before clocking in for work amid a new surge in coronavirus cases in and around the capital.

More on these stories shortly. In the meantime here are the other key recent developments:

· The United States will buy 500 million more coronavirus vaccine shots to donate to other countries, president Joe Biden has confirmed today.

· Global Covid cases have fallen in the past week, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed. There were 3.6 million new cases reported around the world last week, down from 4 million new infections the previous week.

· Health authorities in Germany are planning new rules under which unvaccinated workers would not receive compensation for lost pay if coronavirus measures forced them to quarantine.

· Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, who led the development of the UK’s Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, has warned governments and medical funding agencies have not learned the importance of pandemic preparedness.

· Police in the Canadian province of Quebec are searching for a man they suspect of punching a nurse in the face for giving his wife a Covid vaccine without his consent, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

· Ukraine is planning to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for certain professions, including teachers and employees of state institutions and local governments.

· In Australia, police in Melbourne have again fired non-lethal rounds and teargas at anti-Covid lockdown protesters to end an almost three-hour standoff at the city’s war memorial during a third straight day of demonstrations.

· Italy confirmed 67 deaths from Covid on Wednesday, the same number as the day before, its health ministry said.

· England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty has told MPs this afternoon that the Covid transmission rate is currently highest among children compared to all age groups.

· France has no plans at this stage to relax its health pass restrictions set up to deal with a fourth wave of Covid infections.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/sep/23/coronavirus-live-news-delta-crippling-alaskas-healthcare-system-south-korea-urges-testing-amid-holiday-surge-fears