COVID 19

Global Covid-19 death toll tops 5 million – latest updates

Published

3 years ago

01/11/2021

MNN

Covid-19 has infected more than 247 million people and killed over 5 million globally. Here are the virus-related updates for November 1.

Global Covid-19 deaths pass 5M in less than 2 years

The number of people who have died from the Covid-19 has exceeded 5 million worldwide in less than two years, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Data from the US-based school showed more than 246.7 million have been infected by the virus that emerged in China in December 2019, and has since spread to every corner of the world.

With nearly 46 million infections and over 745,800 deaths, the US remains the country with the highest number of infections and deaths.

Putin asks army to help fight pandemic as cases spiral

President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia may need the army’s help to build field hospitals as Russia battles a surge in infections that has led to a nationwide workplace shutdown.

“The situation in the country is very difficult,” Putin said in remarks to Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and other top brass.

“More than 40,000 cases (a day). This has never happened.”

Jon Bon Jovi tests positive, cancels concert

Jon Bon Jovi has tested positive during a rapid test just before he was set to perform a concert in Miami Beach.

An announcer took to the stage to give the crowd the bad news just before Saturday night’s concert at Loews South Beach was set to begin, WSVN in Miami reported.

Bon Jovi, 59, and his bandmates took rapid tests just before the concert and Bon Jovi tested positive. He is fully vaccinated.

Greece reports record high daily infections

Greece has recorded 5,449 new infections in the past 24 hours, authorities said, the highest single-day figure since the pandemic began early last year.

Another 52 people died over the past day, taking the total to 15,990 among 747,595 cases.

Netherlands to impose new curbs as infections jump

The Netherlands has imposed new restrictions this week in a bid to curb a recent surge in infections, health minister Hugo de Jonge said.

“We can’t escape having to take new measures”, De Jonge said.

“The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals is rising fast.”

South Korea eases curbs, imposes vaccine passports

New rules aimed at moving South Koreans toward “living with Covid-19” have came into effect, with the easing of a range of curbs and the introduction of vaccine passports at high-risk venues such as gyms, saunas and bars.

The switch of focus comes as more than 75 percent of the country’s population has been fully vaccinated.

The first phase of the revised rules is due to last for a month, with plans to scrap all restrictions by February.

Singapore may see 2,000 Covid-19 deaths annually

Singapore could see as many 2,000 Covid-19 deaths annually over time, mainly among the elderly, but it was focused on avoiding excess mortality.

Janil Puthucheary, a senior minister of state in parliament, made the remarks on Monday as the country battles its biggest surge in infections.

At 0.2 percent Singapore’s Covid-19 case fatality rate is similar to the rate of deaths from pneumonia before the pandemic struck, said the minister.

It is also lower than other countries where cases surged before vaccination, he said.

“But it does mean that over time, the absolute number of deaths from Covid-19 will rise despite the best possible medical care,” he said.

Puthucheary did not specify for how many years that estimate might apply.

Russia reports 1,155 deaths from Covid-19

Russia has reported 1,155 additional virus-related deaths and 40,402 new cases in the past 24 hours.

The Russian capital brought in its strictest Covid-19 related lockdown measures in more than a year on Thursday as nationwide one-day pandemic deaths and infections hit new highs amid slow vaccination take-up across the world’s biggest country.

Sri Lanka rolls out booster jabs

Sri Lankan authorities began to roll out Covid-19 booster shots to frontline workers as the South Asian nation’s top medical association warned of a possible virus surge.

Pfizer booster jabs will be given initially to workers in the health, security and travel sectors, before including those above 60 years of age, the health ministry said on Monday.

About 62 percent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to the ministry’s statistics.

The number of Covid-19 patients and deaths have increased during the last week compared to one week ago.

Hopes high as tourists touch down for Thailand re-opening

Overseas tourists began pouring into Bangkok and the holiday island of Phuket as Thailand kickstarted its tourism industry after 18 months of Covid curbs.

Thai authorities have given the green light to vaccinated tourists from over 60 “low-risk” countries to skip hotel quarantine, providing the sector a much-needed lifeline.

Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport and Phuket’s international terminal were the first on Monday morning to receive visitors, with mostly European tourists greeted by staff dressed in personal protective equipment to process their documents.

The coronavirus pandemic hammered the kingdom’s tourism-reliant economy, which last year saw its worst performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis as arrivals dwindled more than 80 percent.

Australia eases international border restrictions for first time in pandemic

Australia eased its international border restrictions for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic, allowing some of its vaccinated public to travel freely and many families to reunite, sparking emotional embraces at Sydney’s airport.

After 18 months of some of the world’s strictest coronavirus border policies, millions of Australians are now free to travel without a permit or the need to quarantine on arrival in the country.

Mexico reports 1,446 cases

Mexico’s health ministry reported 1,446 new confirmed virus cases and 89 more fatalities, bringing the country’s overall death toll from the pandemic to 288,365 and the total number of cases to 3,807,211.

Officials have said the ministry’s figures likely represent a significant undercount of both cases and deaths.

Brazil sees 130 more deaths

Brazil recorded 130 new deaths and 6,761 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.

Nearly 608,000 people have died from the virus in Brazil, official data show, the second highest official total in the world after the United States

White House press secretary tests positive, Biden negative

US President Joe Biden has tested negative for Covid-19, a White House spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman, speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, said the PCR test was taken as part of entry requirements for attendance at the COP26 conference in Britain.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki tested positive on Sunday, saying in a statement she had last seen President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

COVID 19

Japan provides USD 8.6 million through IOM Sri Lanka and Maldives

Published

2 years ago

20/10/2022

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in partnership with relevant ministries of the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) and the Government of Maldives (GoM) launched a regional project ‘Strengthening Capacity of Border Control for Responding to Infectious Diseases in Southwest Asia’ on 17 October 2022.

With a fund of USD 8.6 million, provided by the Government of Japan (GoJ), the project intends to strengthen overall border management capacities in Sri Lanka and the Republic of the Maldives to prevent the spread of infectious diseases that would otherwise impede the revitalization of human mobility.

The dramatic reduction in human mobility has been one of the most significant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had major economic and social impacts in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, which are heavily reliant upon income from international tourism, labour migration and business travel. The border closures and associated restrictions disrupted regular trade exchanges and impacted migration flows, as well as exposed border management agencies and cross-border communities to higher risks of infection.

Speaking on the timeliness of the project, H.E. MIZUKOSHI Hideaki, Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka said that “as Sri Lanka has been actively attracting international tourists and expects to see an increase in the number of tourists in the future, strengthening border control capacity to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases and ensure the safety of staff and travellers is a very meaningful initiative that will contribute significantly to economic recovery from the current economic crisis and further economic growth in Sri Lanka, where tourism is one of the main industries.”

The component of the project focusing on Sri Lanka will improve safety and security, and support process efficiency at primary points of entry (PoEs) to ensure more effective preparedness and proactive response to potential public health emergencies due to infectious disease outbreaks.

Designed to enable secure and safe operations at PoEs to augur international travel, boost traveller confidence and prompt a return to pre-pandemic levels of cross-border mobility, the project will address gaps in passenger processing and health screening systems at PoEs through a combination of new technology, infrastructure, procedures, training, and renovation works. This will streamline the management of traveller information, reduce waiting times, implement contactless processes and procedures by border control personnel. The project will also institute infection prevention measures and emergency response modalities and guarantee the safe disposal of potentially hazardous medical waste at PoEs, resulting in a safe environment for staff, travellers and crew while reducing harmful environmental and health impacts. Travellers and other personnel working at the PoEs will be the main beneficiaries of this initiative, aside from the airport and seaport workers and officials.

“Designed on the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, this project is anchored to IOM’s strategy on Migration and Sustainable Development and will support Sri Lanka and the Maldives to respond to future disease outbreaks and health threats,” said Sarat Dash, Chief of Mission to IOM Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He added, “IOM will work closely with its host government partners to harness the development benefits of migration while ensuring a hassle-free and dignified process for international travellers, including the migrant population.”

COVID 19

Could Omicron BA.2.75 sub-variant lead to a new global COVID-19 wave?

Published

2 years ago

06/07/2022

MNN

A new sub-lineage of the Omicron variant known as BA.2.75, which was first detected in India, has raised concerns among health experts, Indian media reported.

BA.2.75, which is said to be a second generation sub-variant of Omicron BA.2, has an 18 percent growth advantage over other Omicron sub-variants currently circulating in India, The Indian Express reported.

Sub-lineages of Omicron have been the dominant strains circulating across the globe, with new mutations continuously evolving.

BA.2.75 could be behind recent COVID-19 surge in India

BA.2.75 has been detected in about 10 states in India, which has been witnessing a surge in new infections in the last month or so, according to Indian media.

In the last 10 days, the number of new cases in the country has been hovering in the 15,000-19,000 range, while the number in the past few months stayed below 3,000.

Dr. Rajesh Karyakarte, a microbiologist at Pune’s B J Medical College and head of Maharashtra’s genome sequencing effort, and scientists elsewhere in India, have picked up three sub-variants, BA.2.74, BA.2.75, and BA.2.76, as the possible drivers for the current surge, according to The Indian Express.

The three sub-variants have more than nine changes in the spike protein, and are expected to outnumber the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants, which were the most common until a few weeks ago, according to Karyakarte’s team.

Besides India, the strain has also been reported by several other countries, including Japan, Germany, the UK, Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, according to data from Nextstrain, an open-source platform of global pathogen genome data.

Does it cause more severe disease?

So far, there is no evidence to suggest that the BA.2.75 leads to a more severe form of infection, although scientists are at a very early stage to know about it.

Evidence on its transmissibility and immune evasiveness is also still preliminary and emerging, according to a statement from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday.

Why are health experts concerned?

While there is not much known about the new strain, health experts have raised concerns about it.

In a series of tweets, Dr. Shay Fleishon from the Central Virology Laboratory at Sheba Medical Center in Israel, said the sub-variant may be “alarming because it may imply a trend to come.”

He explained that in recent months, there has been a trend of second-generation variants based on Omicron sub-lineages BA.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, and BA.5.

He said until now the second-generation variants have only been found in a few cases within one region. But BA.2.75 has spread to multiple regions, the first of its kind to do so.

The BA.2.75 variant has new mutations in the spike protein, of which G446S and R493Q are of particular concern, as they give the variant the ability to evade several antibodies, dnaindia.com reported, citing unnamed experts.

This means it can infect people who have been vaccinated, or have been infected previously, the report said.

Research reveals that the R493Q mutation increases the strain’s ability to attach to ACE2, the protein that the COVID-19 virus uses to enter cells, according to the report.

Source: CGTN

COVID 19

Chinese experts caution against over-disinfection for COVID-19

Published

2 years ago

27/05/2022

MNN

Chinese health experts have cautioned against inappropriate disinfection practices to curb the spread of COVID-19, and called for minimizing the impact on people’s regular life when conducting necessary disinfection.

“We should avoid blind or excessive disinfection, and make it targeted. Disinfection is only necessary when the virus transmission can be cut off this way,” said Zhang Liubo, chief disinfection specialist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at a press conference on Friday afternoon.

“If we have multiple methods to block the spread of the virus, we can choose the safest, most effective, economical and convenient one. Disinfection is one of the available options,” he added.

For example, items not touched by the infected people in their homes can be sealed off and left unattended for a period of time, instead of getting disinfectant sprayed on them, according to Zhang.

During the battle against the latest Omicron wave in China, there have been media reports and online complaints about some questionable disinfecting approaches, such as workers in protective gear spraying disinfectant all over someone’s home.

Is indoor disinfection necessary?

In accordance with China’s Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, places and items contaminated by infectious disease pathogens should be strictly disinfected, said Lei Zhenglong, deputy head of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control at the National Health Commission.

Disinfection of places that may have been contaminated by the coronavirus, such as the living areas of the infected people, has played an important role in ensuring the safety of the environment, he said.

Zhang further explained that after the infected people were relocated to other places, there might still be living virus on the objects or in the environment that have been contaminated, which need to be sanitized.

Sometimes it’s difficult to determine whether there still exist living virus in the contaminated environment, because how long the virus can survive on the surfaces of objects is associated with a lot of factors, including the characteristics of the virus, the viral load, the temperature, humidity and the intensity of sunlight in the environment, he said.

Previous studies have shown that the novel coronavirus can live for two to three days on environmental surfaces, and even up to 28 days under certain conditions.

It is also possible that people can get COVID-19 by touching surfaces contaminated with the virus, both Chinese and foreign health authorities like the U.S. CDC have said.

Terminal disinfection of the contaminated places can ensure that the environment and the objects are free of living virus. Therefore, indoor disinfection of infected people’s homes is one of the effective measures to prevent against the virus transmission among family members.

Safe and effective disinfection stressed

Although proper disinfection of the contaminated environment is necessary, Lei pointed out that there have been problems in the disinfection practices in some places, like inadequate communication with the affected residents and improper operations.

It’s necessary to strengthen the training of proper disinfection procedures, as well as the supervision of the disinfection process, he said.

When organizing indoor disinfection of someone’s home, local health authorities should strictly follow relative technical specifications and procedures, and keep the residents informed about the whole process, so that they can understand and support the disinfection work, he added.

People should choose safe and effective disinfectants and disinfecting methods, Zhang said, adding that different methods should be adopted for different items and materials.

They should also protect the valuables and minimize the damage to the objects inside some’s home when conducting the disinfection work, he noted.

Source: CGTN