Sunday, August 1:
Nigeria receives 4M vaccine doses from the US
Nigeria received four million doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine from the United States as the West African nation steps up efforts to battle the third wave of infections.
The doses, which came on two planes, were received by officials from the UN children agency UNICEF on behalf of Nigeria at the airport in the capital Abuja, an AFP video reporter at the scene said.
It was the second batch of vaccines to arrive in Africa’s most populous nation after four million doses were delivered in March under the Covax scheme.
Rome region website hacked, affecting vaccine bookings
The website of Lazio, the Italian region that includes Rome, was down after being hit by a cyberattack, meaning that people could no longer use it to book a Covid vaccine.
“A hacker attack is underway… all defense and verification operations are ongoing to avoid prolonging the cut in services,” the region said on its Twitter account.
“Operations concerning vaccinations may be slowed down.”
The region’s website, www.regione.lazio.it, was still down on Sunday morning.
The site for booking vaccinations was also unavailable.
Cambodia to mix vaccines as booster shots
Cambodia will begin offering a booster shot against Covid-19, switching between the AstraZeneca and Chinese vaccines in an effort to fight the spread of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country.
Prime Minister Hun Sen, launching the vaccination campaign for 12-17 years old, said that the third dose will be offered to between 500,000 to one million frontline workers as a priority.
“People who have already been vaccinated with Sinopharm and Sinovac should be given AstraZeneca as the third booster dose,” Hun Sen said in a speech that was broadcast on social media. “For Cambodians who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Sinovac should be given as the third dose,” he added.
Hun Sen also said the country will purchase more AstraZeneca vaccines through Covax for the booster shots and the recent US-funded Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be used to vaccinate indigenous peoples in northeastern Cambodia.
Cambodia has launched a lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand this week in a bid to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in the Southeast Asian country.
Chinese cities test millions as virus cases surge
Chinese cities rolled out mass testing of millions of people and imposed fresh travel restrictions as health authorities battled to contain the country’s most widespread coronavirus outbreak in months.
China reported 75 new cases with 53 local transmissions, with a cluster linked to an eastern airport now reported to have spread to over 20 cities and more than a dozen provinces.
The outbreak is geographically the largest to hit China in several months after the country’s successes in largely snuffing out the pandemic within its borders last year.
That record has been thrown into jeopardy after the fast-spreading Delta variant broke out at Nanjing airport in eastern Jiangsu province in July.
Authorities have now conducted three rounds of testing on the city’s 9.2 million residents and placed hundreds of thousands under lockdown, in an effort to curb an outbreak Beijing has blamed on the highly contagious Delta variant and the peak tourist season.
Sumatran tigers at Jakarta zoo recovering from the virus
Two Sumatran tigers at an Indonesian zoo were recovering after they tested positive in mid-July, the Jakarta government said in a statement, adding that authorities were trying to find out how they were infected.
Tino, a 9-year old tiger, and Hari, a 12-year old, were tested for coronavirus after both showed flu-like symptoms, had trouble breathing and lost their appetite, the statement said.
The tigers had undergone around 10 to 12 days of treatment and were gradually showing signs of recovery, Jakarta’s Head of the Parks and City Forest Office, Suzi Marsitawati, said.
“Their appetites have returned and they are back to being active,” Suzi said, although both tigers remain under close observation.
She said authorities are doing tracking and tracing to figure out how the tigers were infected.
6 banished from Olympics for breaking Covid rules
Tokyo Olympics organizers say they have banished six people, including two silver medalists from the country of Georgia, for breaking rules designed to protect against Covid-19 cases.
Toshiro Muto, the games chief executive, says it was a “clear and serious violation” of the so-called playbooks of health and safety rules for two Georgian judokas to go sightseeing.
Vazha Margvelashvili and Lasha Shavdatuashvili were seen near Tokyo Tower on Tuesday after their events were finished.
Muto says the Georgian embassy in Tokyo has apologized for the incident.
The other four were accredited contractors from Britain and the United States arrested for allegedly using cocaine before the Olympics opened.
Muto says there have been eight cases of games credentials being temporarily suspended.
In four cases, organizers collected a “signed pledge” from people suspected of breaking rules. Ten strict warnings were issued, Muto says.
Brazil registers 37,582 new cases, 910 deaths
Brazil has registered 37,582 new cases of coronavirus over the last 24 hours, reaching 19.92 million cases.
The country had 910 new Covid-19 deaths in the period and the pandemic death toll reached 556,370.
Germany’s cases rise by 2,097
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has increased by 2,097 to 3,771,262, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.
The reported death toll rose by 1 to 91,659, the tally showed.
Australia’s New South Wales reports 239 locally acquired cases
Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales has recorded 239 Covid-19 infections of the highly transmissible Delta variant, matching the record daily number of cases in the current outbreak seen on Thursday.
There are 222 people in hospital, 54 of them in intensive care and 25 requiring ventilation, state authorities said. The total number of cases in the outbreak, which began in mid-June, has reached 3,427.
Neighboring Queensland reported nine new locally acquired cases in a new outbreak of the Delta strain, its highest daily number in a year, the state’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles said. Parts of the state were put in a three-day snap lockdown on Saturday.
Mexico posts 18,809 new infections, 450 more deaths
Mexico has recorded18,809 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 450 fatalities, according to the health ministry, bringing the total figures to 2,848,252 infections and 240,906 deaths.
El Salvador detects the first case of Delta variant
El Salvador has detected its first case of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, Health Minister Francisco Alabi said.
Israelis protest as rising cases trigger new rules
Several hundred Israelis have demonstrated in Tel Aviv against new coronavirus restrictions and vaccines as positive cases and hospitalizations rose to levels not seen in months.
The health ministry reported Saturday that 2,435 new Covid cases had been recorded the day before – the highest number since March – driven by the more contagious Delta variant.
There were 326 hospitalizations, the highest since April, although well below the January peak when more than 2,000 people were being hospitalized daily.
Israel has in recent days rolled out a booster vaccine shot for older citizens, reimposed mask requirements indoors and restored “green pass” restrictions requiring vaccine certificates for entering enclosed spaces such as gyms, restaurants and hotels.
The rise in infections is a step back after Israel’s world-leading vaccine campaign drove down new Covid-19 cases from 10,000 a day to fewer than 100.
Florida breaks record with more than 21,000 new cases
Florida has reported 21,683 new cases of Covid-19, the US state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to federal health data released Saturday, as its theme park resorts again started asking visitors to wear masks indoors.
The state has become the new national epicenter for the virus, accounting for around a fifth of all new cases in the US.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted mandatory mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and along with the state Legislature, has limited local officials’ ability to impose restrictions meant to stop the spread of Covid-19.
DeSantis on Friday barred school districts from requiring students to wear masks when classes resume next month.
The latest numbers were recorded on Friday and released on Saturday on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. The figures show how quickly the number of cases is rising in the Sunshine State: only a day earlier, Florida reported 17,093 new daily cases. The previous peak in Florida had been 19,334 cases reported on Jan. 7, before the availability of vaccinations became widespread.
The Florida Hospital Association said Friday that statewide Covid-19 hospitalizations are nearing last year’s peak, and one of the state’s largest health care systems, AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division, this week advised it would no longer be conducting non-emergency surgeries in order to free up resources for Covid-19 patients.
