Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	238,632,258	+301,587	4,867,010
USA	45,204,373	+24,694	733,575
India	33,971,293	+19,018	450,814
Brazil	21,575,820	+8,639	601,047
UK	8,154,306	+34,574	137,735
Russia	7,775,365	+28,647	216,415
Turkey	7,444,552	+28,370	66,180
France	7,056,511	+3,991	117,052
Iran	5,702,890	+11,256	122,592
Argentina	5,265,859	+331	115,473
Colombia	4,972,236	+1,518	126,623
Italy	4,700,316	+2,278	131,301
Germany	4,329,382	+5,951	95,033
Indonesia	4,227,932	+894	142,651
Mexico	3,720,545	+6,153	281,958
Poland	2,922,401	+1,527	75,869
South Africa	2,912,145	+648	88,317
Philippines	2,666,562	+12,159	39,624
Ukraine	2,541,257	+11,344	58,493
Malaysia	2,339,594	+7,373	27,329
Peru	2,184,264	+675	199,672
Iraq	2,023,761	+1,652	22,563
Netherlands	2,023,691	+2,258	18,204
Thailand	1,710,884	+10,817	17,691
Japan	1,710,394	+777	17,927
Czechia	1,699,743	+665	30,501
Chile	1,662,433	+1,063	37,564
Canada	1,658,989	+1,727	28,203
Bangladesh	1,562,359	+481	27,688
Romania	1,356,640	+10,400	39,420
Israel	1,305,510	+960	7,912
Pakistan	1,257,955	+767	28,106
Portugal	1,075,312	+499	18,041
Serbia	1,005,168	+4,803	8,737
Morocco	939,187	+386	14,457
Cuba	918,383	+3,604	7,851
Kazakhstan	903,924	+1,863	11,530
Vietnam	839,662	+3,528	20,555
Jordan	833,471	+1,072	10,811
Nepal	802,198	+565	11,231
Austria	761,218	+1,675	11,096
UAE	737,766	+111	2,113
Tunisia	709,834	+197	25,028
Greece	676,799	+1,320	15,135
Georgia	634,053	+2,490	9,246
Lebanon	630,180	+619	8,385
Guatemala	579,489	+680	14,027
Belarus	557,772	+1,979	4,289
Saudi Arabia	547,591	+59	8,745
Sri Lanka	526,383	+720	13,331
Bulgaria	520,862	+621	21,656
Bolivia	503,735	+303	18,795
Azerbaijan	492,179	+1,032	6,664
Myanmar	478,651	+1,318	18,134
Panama	469,082	+119	7,267
Paraguay	460,203	+13	16,206
Slovakia	425,569	+1,162	12,731
Croatia	417,858	+908	8,772
Palestine	413,410	+550	4,236
Kuwait	412,079	+31	2,454
Ireland	403,157	+1,384	5,280
Uruguay	390,038	+103	6,064
Venezuela	383,376	+1,110	4,617
Dominican Republic	365,558	+495	4,067
Denmark	363,900	+544	2,669
Ethiopia	354,476	+443	5,990
Lithuania	351,939	+1,805	5,231
Libya	346,176	+725	4,775
S. Korea	331,519	+1,594	2,575
Mongolia	325,390	+2,068	1,436
Egypt	312,413	+837	17,695
Moldova	306,647	+670	7,024
Oman	303,965	+50	4,102
Slovenia	301,458	+489	4,613
Bahrain	275,654	+57	1,390
Armenia	272,356	+1,151	5,549
Kenya	251,152	+95	5,181
Qatar	237,424	+65	607
Zambia	209,347	+11	3,654
Nigeria	207,694	+76	2,747
Algeria	204,597	+107	5,853
North Macedonia	194,891	+316	6,831
Norway	193,562	+287	871
Kyrgyzstan	179,281	+95	2,619
Uzbekistan	178,259	+425	1,269
Albania	174,968	+325	2,768
Latvia	171,276	+1,359	2,801
Estonia	164,618	+815	1,394
Cyprus	119,642	+94	559

 

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

 

 

 

Brazil's unvaccinated president misses soccer match

 

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro gestures during the ceremony for the Modernization of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil October 7, 2021. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

 

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Sunday he was not allowed to attend a league match between Santos and Gremio because the home club did not allow unvaccinated supporters into their stadium.

The soccer match was Santos' first with supporters present since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the club insisted it would only permit entry of vaccinated people or those who had a negative PCR test.

"I wanted to watch the Santos game now and they told me you have to be vaccinated," Bolsonaro said in a video posted on the website of the Metropoles news portal. "Why?"

Bolsonaro, who has refused to get vaccinated and encouraged others to follow his lead, claimed he had antibodies because he had already contracted COVID-19.

It was unclear whether Bolsonaro, a keen football fan who spent the weekend near Santos, tried to go to the game or whether his complaint was a general one about the need for what he called "vaccine passports."

A spokesman for Santos said the club had not been approached by the president's team and that all fans must follow the country's sanitary regulations.

More than 600,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Brazil.

 

Retrieved from:  https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-unvaccinated-president-misses-soccer-match-2021-10-10/

 

 

 

An E.U. official blames Russia for delays in approving the Sputnik vaccine

By Valerie Hopkins

 

Getting a dose of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Moscow in July.Credit...Tatyana Makeyeva/Reuters

 

The Russian authorities have repeatedly delayed inspections by the European Union’s main drug regulator that are required for the approval of its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, the bloc’s ambassador to Russia told the country’s news media on Friday.

Moscow has criticized the bloc for not approving the vaccine’s use sooner, but the ambassador, Markus Ederer, said that the extended timeline was not politically motivated.

“The Russian side has repeatedly postponed the timing of the inspection requested by the E.M.A., which slows down the process,” Mr. Ederer told the local outlet RBC, referring to the European Medicines Agency. “These are the facts.”

Sputnik V has been approved for use in more than 70 countries, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund that backed the vaccine’s development. But it has not been approved by the European regulator or the World Health Organization. That creates difficulties for Russians traveling to the European Union and to the United States.

 

Mr. Ederer pushed back against regular assertions by the Russian authorities that the lack of approval was political.

“This is a technical rather than a political process,” he said. “When Russian officials talk about the process being delayed and politicized by the European side, I sometimes think they are largely referring to themselves, because it is they who make this about politics.”

Russia’s health ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency TASS on Friday that the European regulator had received the required documents by the end of September. E.M.A. officials could visit in December, it said.

Separately, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization said on Friday that the agency was “near” to resolving outstanding issues with certifying Sputnik V.

“We are slowly solving most of the issues,” the spokeswoman, Fadéla Chaib, said at a news briefing in Geneva, without elaborating on a timeline.

 

Russia’s health minister, Mikhail Murashko, said last week that all that remained for the W.H.O. certification was some paperwork. Once the United Nations agency receives all of the necessary data and inspects the production sites, it can schedule a meeting to validate a vaccine for an emergency-use listing.

In Russia, vaccine skepticism and nonchalance about the virus have led to climbing infection rates. On Friday, the country recorded a record 936 Covid deaths and 27,246 new infections.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/world/europe/covid-russia-sputnik-vaccine-eu.html

 

 

 

Mozambique closes its popular beaches despite low Covid infections

By Lynsey Chutel

 

While wealthier countries with higher coronavirus vaccination rates are increasingly reopening their borders and their economies, nations with more restricted vaccine access are having to make tougher moves.

In Mozambique, that has meant closing popular beaches this week over fears of spreading the virus, less than two weeks after they were cautiously reopened. The authorities fear that beaches along the Indian Ocean — which are at the center of the country’s tourism industry and its communal life — could become infection hot spots or encourage a lax attitude toward Covid-19 regulations.

Just 5 percent of Mozambique’s adult population is fully vaccinated against the virus, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the authorities have warned that life cannot yet return to normal, even as temperatures rise and summer approaches.

The Mozambican government announced the closure on Wednesday, immediately shuttering 18 beaches around the capital, Maputo, and in resort towns like Xai Xai and Tofo, for at least two weeks.

It’s a stark contrast with neighboring South Africa, which has the continent’s highest number of Covid-19 infections but has eased restrictions and kept its beaches open as vaccination rates climb steadily. Other popular Indian Ocean tourist destinations, like the islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles, have welcomed the return of tourists after successful vaccination campaigns.

Mozambique has recorded an average of just 30 daily coronavirus cases in the last seven days and no new Covid deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Still, the country, which has recorded 150,899 cases since the start of the pandemic, has enforced strict measures to keep infections low.

The authorities reopened the beaches on Sept. 23 as the country emerged from a third wave of infections, although the reopening came with a warning that the easing of restrictions did not mean the end of the pandemic. Officials continued to impose strict regulations on beaches in particular, banning the consumption of alcohol, gatherings and games, and imposing a 5 p.m. closing time.

Beachgoers were warned that flouting the rules would lead to swift action. And that came this week as a government spokesman, Filimão Suazi, announced the closing of some of Mozambique’s most popular beaches, blaming “bad behavior.”

Mozambique entered its third wave of infections earlier this year, with over 4,400 new cases reported in the first week of July. With only three doctors per 100,000 people, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique, the country’s health facilities were strained. The authorities moved quickly to close schools, limit shopping times at markets and impose an overnight curfew.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/08/world/africa/covid-mozambique-beaches.html

 

 

 

Brazil’s Covid-19 death toll passes 600,000

By Flávia Milhorance

 

A Brazilian flag was added to a display representing the 600,000 people who have died from Covid-19 in Brazil on Friday at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.Credit...Bruna Prado/Associated Press

 

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil surpassed the grim landmark of more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths this week, making its death toll second only to the United States.

The country’s official tally of fatalities reached 600,493 late on Friday, more than a year and a half after the beginning of the pandemic in Brazil, according to a consortium of major media companies that have been collecting data from local governments. The United States has recorded 712,822 deaths, according to a New York Times database.

Brazil’s vaccination campaign appears to have slowed the progress of the coronavirus, experts said. It took only 36 days for the country to go from 300,000 to 400,000 deaths, and 51 days for the disease to claim the next 100,000 victims, a point passed on June 19. The most recent 100,000 Covid-19 victims died over 111 days. 

Natália Pasternak, a microbiologist who is the president of the Instituto Questão de Ciência, a Brazilian nongovernmental organization, said the country was on track to control the pandemic if it continued to vaccinate people at the same rate.

“We have to have a responsible optimism in the country with the advance of vaccination,” Ms. Pasternak said in Portuguese. “This is thanks to a very good national immunization program, built up decades ago, and a population extremely favorable to the vaccine.”

Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, a conservative populist, has drawn heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic. He repeatedly played down the threat of the virus, railed against quarantine measures, declined to be vaccinated himself and defended the use of ineffective treatments. His government was also slow to secure access to coronavirus vaccines even as Covid overwhelmed hospitals across the country.

Most Brazilians are willing to get immunized against the virus, polls show. Even though the initial campaign to vaccinate the population was hampered earlier in the year by a shortage of doses, health workers had managed to fully immunize 46 percentof Brazilians by Friday, the data from the media consortium shows.

The United States surpassed 700,000 deaths from Covid-19 earlier this month. Its death toll rose over the summer as the highly contagious Delta variant spread, despite an ample supply of vaccines. Brazil, India, and Mexico follow in the ranking of total deaths, according to The New York Times database.

Questions have been raised about the quality of the data released by the Brazilian government, because of delays and omissions. But the group of major media companies, the Consórcio de Veículos de Imprensa, has been collecting information from regional governments and releasing it daily since April 2020.

neighborhoods, like the Saúde area in Rio Janeiro, where there are frequent outdoor concerts.

Some public health experts, however, have said it is too early to relax measures intended to stop the virus from spreading. “Brazil shouldn’t start releasing now, removing the restriction on the use of masks, giving people a false sense of security, because it’s not over,” Ms. Pasternak said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/world/americas/covid-brazil-600000-dead.html

 

 

 

Moderna, Racing for Profits, Keeps Covid Vaccine Out of Reach of Poor

By Rebecca Robbins

 

A Moderna Covid-19 vaccination in Nairobi, Kenya, a middle-income country where the United States has donated doses.Credit...Simon Maina/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

Moderna, whose coronavirus vaccine appears to be the world’s best defense against Covid-19, has been supplying its shots almost exclusively to wealthy nations, keeping poorer countries waiting and earning billions in profit.

After developing a breakthrough vaccine with the financial and scientific support of the U.S. government, Moderna has shipped a greater share of its doses to wealthy countries than any other vaccine manufacturer, according to Airfinity, a data firm that tracks vaccine shipments.

About one million doses of Moderna’s vaccine have gone to countries that the World Bank classifies as low income. By contrast, 8.4 million Pfizer doses and about 25 million single-shot Johnson & Johnson doses have gone to those countries.

Of the handful of middle-income countries that have reached deals to buy Moderna’s shots, most have not yet received any doses, and at least three have had to pay more than the United States or European Union did, according to government officials in those countries.

 

Thailand and Colombia are paying a premium. Botswana’s doses are late. Tunisia couldn’t get in touch with Moderna.

Unlike Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, which have diverse rosters of drugs and other products, Moderna sells only the Covid vaccine. The Massachusetts company’s future hinges on the commercial success of its vaccine.

“They are behaving as if they have absolutely no responsibility beyond maximizing the return on investment,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Moderna executives have said that they are doing all they can to make as many doses as possible as quickly as possible but that their production capacity remains limited. All of the doses they produce this year are filling existing orders from governments like the European Union.

Even so, the Biden administration has grown increasingly frustrated with Moderna for not making its vaccine more available to poorer countries, two senior administration officials said. The administration has been pressing Moderna executives to increase production at U.S. plants and to license the company’s technology to overseas manufacturers that could make doses for foreign markets.

Moderna is now scrambling to defend itself against accusations that it is putting a priority on the rich.

On Friday, after The New York Times sent detailed questions about how few poor countries had been given access to Moderna’s vaccine, the company announced that it was “currently investing” to increase its output so it could deliver one billion doses to poorer countries in 2022. The company also said this past week that it would open a factory in Africa, without specifying when.

Moderna executives have been talking with the Biden administration about selling low-cost doses to the federal government, which would donate them to poorer countries, as Pfizer has agreed to do, the two senior officials said. The negotiations are continuing.

In an interview on Friday, Moderna’s chief executive, Stéphane Bancel, said “it is sad” that his company’s vaccine had not reached more people in poorer countries but that the situation was out of his control.

He said that Moderna tried and failed last year to get governments to kick in money to expand the company’s scant production capacity and that the company decides how much to charge based on factors including how many doses are ordered and how wealthy a country is. (A Moderna spokeswoman disputed Airfinity’s calculation that the company had provided 900,000 doses to low-income countries, but she didn’t provide an alternate figure.)

Nearly a year after Western countries began sprinting to vaccinate their populations, the focus in recent months has shifted to the severe vaccine shortages in many parts of the world. Dozens of poorer countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, had vaccinated less than 10 percent of their populations as of Sept. 30.

 

In August, for example, Johnson & Johnson faced rebukes from the director general of the World Health Organization and public health activists after The Times reported that doses of that shot produced in South Africa were being exported to wealthier countries.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/business/moderna-covid-vaccine.html?pageType=LegacyCollection&collectionName=Covid-19+Vaccines&label=Covid-19+Vaccines&module=hub_Band&region=inline&template=storyline_band_recirc

 

 

 

Summary

 

· New Zealand on a ‘knife-edge’ as Covid cases are expected to rise further. The island nation recorded 94 new infections over the weekend, as experts say an “exponential growth curve” will occur where new cases will quickly top 100 a day if the government stays its current course.

· The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says 187 million people in US are fully vaccinated.

· Dr Anthony Fauci warns the US must not ‘prematurely declare victory’ over Covid. As the holiday season approaches, the White House medical adviser urged caution in celebrating declining Covid cases.

· One in six of England’s most critically ill patients are unvaccinated pregnant women, new figures reveal. Twenty of the 118 patients with Covid who received extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (Ecmo) between July and September were mothers-to-be, NHS England said. Of these, 19 had not had a jab and the other had only had one dose of a vaccine. The health service is urging pregnant women to get fully vaccinated amid new evidence that the virus can cause serious problems for the mother-to-be and her baby in the later stages of pregnancy.

· Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, plans to “accelerate” the resumption of international travel and home quarantine sooner than planned, but only for those in the state of New South Wales.

· UK Health Security Agency chief executive Dr Jenny Harries has warned that people who catch flu and Covid at the same time this winter are twice as likely to die than those who only have coronavirus.

· Harries also said that it’s hard to predict what the next chapter of the pandemic will look like in the UK, as immunity from vaccines wanes among older people.

· Two million people in England have received a Covid booster jab, NHS England said. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, tweeted: “This is great progress which is helping to reinforce our wall of defence so we can keep the virus at bay.” Over-50s, younger adults with health conditions and frontline health and care workers are eligible for a third shot.

· Singapore’s health ministry reported 3,703 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic, while it recorded 11 new deaths.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/oct/11/covid-live-news-sydney-reopens-after-long-lockdown-new-zealand-braces-for-rising-cases