World Health Organization (WHO) Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan attends a press conference organised by the Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak on July 3, 2020 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. (FABRICE COFFRINI / POOL / AFP)
SYDNEY / JERUSALEM / YANGON / SINGAPORE / ANKARA / TOKYO / NEW DELHI / WELLINGTON / VIENTIANE / ISLAMABAD / ALMATY / BANGKOK / MANILA / HANOI – COVID-19 in India may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity with a low or moderate level of transmission going on, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO) Soumya Swaminathan said.
Swaminathan made the comments in an interview with a local news portal The Wire on Tuesday.
"We may be entering some kind of stage of endemicity where there is low-level transmission or moderate level transmission going on but we are not seeing the kinds of exponential growth and peaks that we saw a few months ago," Swaminathan said.
The endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a virus. It's very different to the epidemic stage when the virus overwhelms a population.
"As far as India is concerned that seems to be what is happening and because of the size of India and heterogeneity of population and immunity status in different parts of the country in different pockets. It is very very feasible that the situation may continue like this with ups and downs in different parts of the country, particularly where there are more susceptible population," she said.
Passengers travel in a suburban train after the government allowed fully vaccinated people against the COVID-19 of all ages to travel in local trains in Mumbai on Aug 15, 2021.
(INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP)
During April-May this year, India witnessed a devastating second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
Swaminathan hoped that by the end of 2022, "we would be in that position that we have achieved vaccine coverage, say 70 percent, and then countries can get back to normal."
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 32,512,366 on Wednesday, as 37,593 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, 648 deaths were recorded since Tuesday morning, taking the death toll to 435,758.
Afghanistan
In the first week following the Taliban conquest of Kabul, COVID-19 vaccinations in Afghanistan have dropped by 80 percent, the UN agency UNICEF said, warning that half of the few doses delivered to the country so far are close to expiry.
In the week starting on Aug 15, 30,500 people had been vaccinated in 23 of the 34 provinces of the country, whereas the previous week 134,600 people were inoculated in 30 provinces, according to figures provided by UNICEF, which coordinates the rollout of COVID-19 shots distributed across the world by the World Health Organization (WHO) vaccine program Covax.
Nearly 2 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine delivered to Afghanistan, which is about half of the total so far, expire in November, the UNICEF spokesperson said.
WHO data show that only 1.2 million doses had been administered as of Aug 20 in Afghanistan, which has a population of 40 million.
A commercial business is closed in Sydney on Aug 13, 2021, as greater Sydney continues a weeks-long COVID-19 lockdown. (PHOTO / AP)
Australia
Sydney's COVID-19 infections hit a daily record on Wednesday, putting parts of the health system under pressure, officials said, calling for vaccinations to be stepped up to stem the tide of hospital admissions.
Despite two months of lockdowns in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) state reported 919 new cases amid a growing Delta variant outbreak, taking Australia's daily case numbers to a new pandemic high just below 1,000. A total of 113 people in the state are in intensive care, with 98 of those unvaccinated.
Australia, grappling to control a third wave of the coronavirus, has locked down more than half of its 25 million population, including its largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, and is accelerating an initially sluggish vaccine rollout.
Around 31 percent of people aged over 16 have been fully vaccinated, while 54 percent have had at least one dose.
In neighbouring Victoria, new cases fell for a second straight day to 45, down from 50 a day earlier, as officials sought to boost the vaccine rollout by allowing anyone over 16 to book an appointment from Wednesday.
Indonesia
Indonesia has approved Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the Southeast Asian country, Penny Lukito, the head of the food and drug agency (BPOM), told parliament on Wednesday.
Political elites in the country are admitting to getting a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines, defying calls from the health ministry as most of the country haven’t received even their first shot.
Military Chief Hadi Tjahjanto and East Kalimantan Governor Isran Noor said they’ve received their third jabs during a meeting with President Joko Widodo, at a time when booster shots are only given to healthcare workers. In the live-streamed event on Tuesday, the president said he hasn’t gotten a third dose and that he’s waiting for the Pfizer Inc vaccine.
A medic from Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service prepares a booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine in Tel Aviv, Israel on Aug 14, 2021. (TSAFRIR ABAYOV / AP)
Israel
On July 30, Israel began administering a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine to people over 60, the first country to do so. The country expanded its COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to those over 30 years old on Aug 24, broadening its booster campaign to fend off the coronavirus Delta variant.
In the past 10 days, the pandemic is abating among the first age group, more than a million of whom have received a third vaccine dose, according to Israeli health ministry data and scientists interviewed by Reuters.
The rate of disease spread among vaccinated people age 60 and over – known as the reproduction rate – began falling steadily around Aug 13 and has dipped below 1, indicating that each infected person is transmitting the virus to fewer than one other person. A reproduction rate of less than 1 means an outbreak is subsiding.
"The numbers are still very high but what has changed is that the very high increase in the rate of infections and severe cases has diminished, as has the pace at which the pandemic is spreading," said Eran Segal, data scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and an adviser to the government.
"This is likely due to the third booster shots, an uptake in people taking the first dose and the high number of people infected per week, possibly up to 100,000, who now have natural immunity," Segal said.
Israel's total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases climbed to 1,010,055 on Tuesday, amid a rapid resurgence of the pandemic since later June. The death toll from the coronavirus in Israel rose by 24 to 6,880.
Shigeru Omi, President of the Japan Community Health Care Organization, alongside Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (not pictured), attends a news conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on June 17, 2021. (ISSEI KATO / POOL / AFP)
Japan
The Japanese government declared Wednesday to expand the COVID-19 state of emergency to Hokkaido, Miyagi, Gifu, Aichi, Mie, Shiga, Okayama and Hiroshima.
The measures will come into effect on Friday in the newly added eight prefectures and last through Sept 12 in all areas under the state of emergency.
The COVID-19 state of emergency has already been covering Tokyo and 12 other prefectures amid the country's latest resurgence of infections.
Separately, Japan's top medical adviser blasted International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Wednesday for visiting Tokyo again at a time the country is further expanding emergency curbs in its struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
The unusually blunt statement from a Japanese official underscores the frustration felt by many as the government grapples to bring infections under control. Citizens are growing weary of life under restrictions and companies are ignoring repeated requests to promote work-from-home.
"We had said over and over 'What kind of message will the Olympics send to the public?'" Shigeru Omi, the immunologist who chairs the government's coronavirus advisory panel that approved the emergency plan, said in a parliamentary session.
"We're asking people to work from home more. If (IOC) President Bach needs to give a speech (for the Paralympics), why couldn't he do it remotely? Why does he have to bother coming all the way here?" Omi said, drawing applause from a few lawmakers for his remarks.
Bach attended the Paralympics' opening ceremony on Tuesday.
Omi and others in the medical community opposed holding the 2020 Games and warned that infections could spread as the public interpreted hosting the Games as a sign that it was safe enough to go about their normal activities.
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan said on Wednesday it would ban unvaccinated people from shopping malls, restaurants and cafes on weekends in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19.
People wanting to shop or eat out will have to show a "green" status on a mobile app, proving that they have had a shot, or a recent negative test or have recovered from the disease within the past three months, the government said.
The order comes into effect on Saturday.
The country is planning to reopen schools next month. Most of them have been closed since March 2020.
Kazakhstan has reported 823,189 COVID-19 cases with 8,643 related deaths. It has fully vaccinated 5.1 million people, just over a quarter of its population.
A man receives a dose of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Vientiane, Laos, June 17, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
Laos
Lao Ministry of Health reported 952 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, the highest ever daily tally since the outbreak began in March last year.
Deputy Director General of the Department of Communicable Diseases Control under the Lao Ministry of Health, Sisavath Soutthaniraxay, told a press conference in Lao capital Vientiane on Wednesday that 3,127 tests had been conducted over the past 24 hours, with 952 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed.
Myanmar
The Chinese Embassy to Myanmar on Tuesday donated 140 oxygen concentrators to Myanmar's Ministry of Health to help the country fight COVID-19, according to a release from the ministry.
Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Chen Hai believed that the donation could contribute to prevention, control and treatment measures of COVID-19 in Myanmar in its fight against the pandemic.
According to the figures released by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, Myanmar reported 2,506 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 378,377.
This picture shows empty streets during a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in Wellington, New Zealand on Aug 18, 2021. (MARTY MELVILLE / AFP)
New Zealand
New Zealand recorded 62 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total number of infections in the latest outbreak to 210 as the government scrambled to scale up vaccinations amid growing criticism.
Most of the cases are in the largest city Auckland, while 12 are in the capital Wellington, the Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said at a news conference.
The virus outbreak prompted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to order a strict level 4 national lockdown.
Ardern's reliance on strict border controls and snap lockdowns to eliminate the virus has been called into question amid the latest outbreak, which has occurred while few people have been vaccinated.
About 80 percent of the population has yet to be fully vaccinated. The government said a record 80,000 people were vaccinated on Wednesday and 50,000 others tested.
The government defended its elimination strategy, saying it was still the best option for New Zealand.
"It's too soon to throw in the towel. We’ve come this far – it would be an absolute waste for us to give up on this now," COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at a news conference.
"You will see changes in the medium term and in the way we manage the border. We do want to get to the point where lockdowns are not the answer to potential outbreaks in the community. But we are not there yet.”
New Zealand has had over 2,800 confirmed cases of COVID-19 so far and 26 related deaths.
Pakistan
Pakistan has reported 4,199 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said on Wednesday.
Amid the serious fourth wave of the pandemic, the overall tally of the infected people climbed to 1,135,858 across the country, the NCOC, the department leading the country's campaign against the pandemic, said in updated figures on its dashboard.
A total of 25,220 people died of COVID-19 in Pakistan, including 141 patients who lost their lives to the pandemic over the last 24 hours, the NCOC said.
Singapore
Singapore on Tuesday reported 111 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and five imported cases, bringing the total tally to 66,692, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a press release.
Of the local cases, 24 are linked to the North Coast Lodge cluster. Of the remaining 87 cases, 24 are linked to previous cases and have already been placed on quarantine. Thirty are linked to previous cases and were detected through surveillance and 33 are currently unlinked.
A health worker administers a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to a woman wearing rain suit in Bangkok, Thailand on Aug 25, 2021. (SAKCHAI LALIT / AP)
Thailand
As Thailand struggles with its worst coronavirus outbreak yet, researchers in the country have developed a machine to draw out COVID-19 vaccine doses more efficiently and optimize lower-than-expected supplies.
Using a robotic arm, the "AutoVacc" system can draw 12 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in four minutes from a vial, according to researchers at Chulalongkorn University, who made the machine that has been used at the university's vaccination centre since Monday.
That is up 20 percent from the standard 10 doses drawn manually, they said. The machine only works on AstraZeneca multi-dose vials currently and labels show each vial can provide 10 to 11 doses.
"The machine guarantees with accuracy that we can gain an extra 20 percent from each vaccine vial – from 10 to 12 doses," said Juthamas Ratanavaraporn, the lead researcher of the team at the university's Biomedical Engineering Research Center.
"The extra 20 percent that we get means that if we have AstraZeneca for 1 million people, this machine can increase the number of doses to 1.2 million people," said Juthamas.
So far, around 9 percent of Thailand's population of more than 66 million have been fully vaccinated, with the rollout hindered by lower-than-anticipated vaccine supplies.
Thailand reported 297 COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking its cumulative total past 10,000, official data showed Wednesday.
Total fatalities reached 10,085, with more than 8,000 of those coming in the past two months alone.
The Philippines
The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 13,573 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,883,088.
The DOH added that the death toll climbed to 32,492 after 228 more patients died from the viral disease, adding that seven laboratories failed to submit reports.
Turkey
Turkey on Tuesday reported 19,191 new COVID-19 cases, raising its tally of infections to 6,253,711, according to its health ministry.
The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 230 to 54,995.
Vietnam
Vietnam is offering patients who have recovered from the coronavirus a monthly allowance if they agree to stay on at stretched hospitals to help health workers struggling to cope with an influx of infected people.
After successfully containing COVID-19 for much of the pandemic, Vietnam is facing its worst outbreak to date driven by the virulent Delta variant, with a surge in cases and deaths ramping up pressure on health authorities.
The plan to bring in recovered patients was launched this week in Ho Chi Minh City, which is the epicentre of the current outbreak, accounting for half of the country's nearly 185,000 infections and 7,302 deaths, or about 80% of total fatalities.
Working alongside health workers, the role of the former patients in the programme, called "patient zero with patient zero", is to support public healthcare services.
"Participants will be provided with personal protective equipment, food, accommodation and a monthly allowance of 8 million dong (US$350.80)," according to a letter reviewed by Reuters that was sent from the head of a hospital taking part of the scheme to recovered COVID-19 patients.
In recent weeks, Vietnam's health ministry has dispatched 14,600 additional doctors and nurses to the city and its neighbouring provinces to support an overwhelmed medical system.