Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	177,398,834	+370,681	3,838,029
USA	34,352,185	+12,580	615,717
India	29,632,261	+62,226	379,601
Brazil	17,543,853	+88,992	491,164
France	5,744,589	+3,235	110,530
Turkey	5,342,028	+5,955	48,879
Russia	5,236,593	+14,185	127,180
UK	4,581,006	+7,673	127,917
Italy	4,247,032	+1,255	127,101
Argentina	4,172,742	+27,260	86,615
Colombia	3,802,052	+24,452	96,965
Spain	3,745,199	+3,432	80,579
Germany	3,725,303	+1,102	90,638
Iran	3,049,648	+10,216	82,351
Poland	2,877,819	+215	74,626
Mexico	2,455,351	+1,175	230,185
Ukraine	2,224,992	+1,014	51,769
Peru	2,007,477	+3,225	189,261
Indonesia	1,927,708	+8,161	53,280
South Africa	1,761,066	+8,436	58,087
Netherlands	1,674,628	+1,032	17,715
Czechia	1,665,313	+179	30,252
Chile	1,487,239	+4,576	30,865
Canada	1,404,093	+808	25,972
Philippines	1,327,431	+5,389	22,963
Iraq	1,264,301	+4,618	16,762
Romania	1,079,879	+103	31,957
Belgium	1,076,579	+241	25,093
Pakistan	943,027	+838	21,782
Portugal	859,045	+973	17,049
Israel	839,701	+11	6,428
Bangladesh	833,291	+3,319	13,222
Hungary	807,102	+57	29,935
Japan	776,307	+936	14,126
Jordan	744,377	+500	9,614
Serbia	715,147	+132	6,976
Malaysia	667,876	+5,419	4,069
Austria	648,849	+117	10,668
Nepal	612,202	+1,681	8,506
UAE	601,950	+2,127	1,734
Lebanon	542,819	+170	7,804
Morocco	524,475	+476	9,217
Saudi Arabia	468,175	+1,269	7,606
Ecuador	439,374	+235	21,061
Bulgaria	420,654	+161	17,932
Greece	416,195	+794	12,459
Bolivia	409,106	+2,152	15,614
Belarus	406,861	+501	2,995
Kazakhstan	402,996	+757	4,180
Paraguay	396,149	+2,667	11,069
Slovakia	391,087	+49	12,446
Panama	389,173	+848	6,452
Tunisia	372,221	+1,997	13,656
Croatia	358,677	+96	8,160
Georgia	355,368	+1,092	5,083
Costa Rica	345,312	+1,708	4,407
Uruguay	343,615	+2,797	5,089
Azerbaijan	335,264	+68	4,958
Kuwait	331,013	+1,487	1,831
Palestine	311,948	+258	3,542
Denmark	290,333	+222	2,527
Lithuania	277,946	+133	4,349
Ethiopia	274,480	+134	4,257
Egypt	274,404	+609	15,691
Guatemala	273,730	+1,740	8,500
Ireland	267,344	+283	4,941
Bahrain	260,334	+811	1,246
Slovenia	256,581	+112	4,408
Moldova	255,878	+48	6,156
Venezuela	254,116	+1,233	2,865
Honduras	248,115	+387	6,653
Oman	238,566	+2,126	2,565
Sri Lanka	228,256	+2,334	2,315
Armenia	223,805	+82	4,489
Qatar	220,033	+146	579
Thailand	202,264	+3,000	1,485
Libya	189,555	+271	3,166
Kenya	176,137	+456	3,428
Nigeria	167,095	+17	2,117
Cuba	160,594	+1,537	1,106
S. Korea	148,647	+374	1,992
Myanmar	146,051	+225	3,248
Latvia	136,247	+143	2,464
Algeria	134,115	+373	3,588
Albania	132,469	+8	2,454
Estonia	130,599	+61	1,266
Norway	128,499	+222	789
Zambia	115,824	+2,690	1,444
Kyrgyzstan	111,343	+514	1,905
Uzbekistan	104,113	+300	709
Montenegro	99,988	+24	1,602
Ghana	94,699	+80	790
Finland	93,923	+73	964
Afghanistan	93,765	+493	3,705
China	91,471	+20	4,636
Mongolia	80,733	+2,386	380
Cyprus	73,311	+64	374
Suriname	18,825	+226	418
Vietnam	11,212	+402	61

 

 

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

 

 

 

Fake coronavirus tests may have helped fuel Indian outbreaks

By Sameer Yasir

 

Devotees gathering for the Kumbh Mela festival in Haridwar, India, in April.Credit...Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

The Indian authorities launched an investigation after an internal government report concluded that some private agencies responsible for coronavirus testing on pilgrims at a sprawling Hindu festival forged at least 100,000 results.

The festival, Kumbh Mela, which ran throughout April, is widely believed to be responsible for a coronavirus surge in many parts of India, as the pilgrims returning from the festival tested positive days after returning to their villages.

The festival drew millions of faithful to the town of Haridwar on the banks of the river Ganges in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

“We have constituted a four-members committee that will submit its report in two weeks,” Dr. Arjun Singh Sengar, a Haridwar health officer who was in charge of testing for Kumbh Mela, said in an interview. “Initial investigations are pointing toward lapses and fake results.”

Dr. Sengar said that out of 251,000 tests in his district, only 2,273 were positive.

But health experts questioned those numbers, saying the state government underreported positive cases. That suggested it was safe to take part in the pilgrimage, despite evidence that the largely unmasked crowds provided an ideal environment for the virus to spread.

According to a sprawling government report on the lab that conducted rapid antigen tests during the festival, at least 100,000 test results out of 400,000 were fake.

Despite warnings by public health experts and doctors, the regional government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party advertised the festival in newspapers, inviting pilgrims from across the country.

Before the event, Uttarakhand’s top elected official, Tirath Singh Rawat, mingled with huge crowds of pilgrims, without a mask. When questioned during one of his three visits to the holy site, Mr. Rawat said, “Faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus.”

He tested positive for the coronavirus two days after his last visit to the Ganges.

Officials in Uttarakhand began investigating the test results after a man in the neighboring state of Punjab received a negative test from the health department in Uttarakhand, even though he had not visited the state. He filed a complaint with the Indian Council of Medical Research, a top government body.

Officials alerted the state government, which is now leading the investigation and has stopped payments to dozens of private laboratories and agencies involved in testing.

Testing scams have been a persistent problem in India.

Some, according to a report by the state, have simply filled log books with fake names and addresses, then charged the state government for the service.

In Haridwar, the report found that some sample collectors listed for the festival had never even visited the town.

The authorities said they found phone numbers used multiple times to register pilgrims who were tested, and private agencies carrying out the tests wrote fictional addresses for people who were supposedly tested on their arrival for a dip in the holy waters.

When officials called the numbers in the logs, they found they were false.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/world/india-fake-coronavirus-covid-tests.html

 

 

 

England’s delayed reopening is a blow to culture and nightlife

By Alex Marshall

 

A closed “Cinderella” in London in February. Andrew Lloyd Webber has said the musical will reopen “come hell or high water.”Credit...Matt Dunham/Associated Press

LONDON — Andrew Lloyd Webber last week promised to open his musical “Cinderella” in London’s West End on June 25 — even if it were illegal to do so.

“We are going to open come hell or high water,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. If Britain’s government tried to stop him because of rising coronavirus cases, he had one response, he added: “We will say: Come to the theater and arrest us.”

Now, Mr. Lloyd Webber, 73, has his chance to go to prison — although he doesn’t appear to want to take it.

On Monday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said that social distancing would continue in England until July 19, at least — almost a month later than originally planned.

The decision, announced at a televised news conference, was made because of a rise in coronavirus cases linked to the Delta variant. An average of 7,278 cases per day were reported in United Kingdom in the last week, an increase of 127 percent from the average two weeks ago. Deaths are rising but still very low, with an average of nine a day over two weeks.

Scientists remain at odds over exactly how serious a threat it poses in Britain, however, with some arguing that the most dire predictions about rising hospitalizations underestimate the effect even the current level of vaccinations has on breaking the link between the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

“I think it’s sensible to wait just a little bit longer,” Mr. Johnson said, adding that the delay would allow more people to be fully vaccinated.

The delay was a gut punch to the British cultural world, which has been desperately seeking an end to social distancing.

The delay leaves “thousands of jobs hanging in the balance,” Julian Bird, chief executive of UK Theater, a trade body, said in a statement. A quarter of nighttime businesses cannot survive longer than a month without new government support, the Night Times Industries Association, which represents clubs and pubs, said in a news release.

The biggest blow may be to England’s nightclubs, which were told for the fourth time that they could not reopen at all, even with distancing. Nightclubs in Britain have been closed since March 2020, and over 150 events were planned in London alone for the weekend of June 25, including a sold-out 42-hour-long party at Fabric, a famed club that can hold 1,500 people.

Those were all immediately canceled.

“It’s really, really frustrating,” Cameron Leslie, one of Fabric’s founders, said in a telephone interview. He had hired over 100 staff over the past month, expecting to reopen, and now was not able to furlough them.

“You can only be pushed and tested so far before our entire sector can’t respond anymore,” Leslie added.

Stuart Glen, the founder of The Cause, another London club, said in a telephone interview that the delay would cost him “hundred of thousands” of pounds and force him to rearrange 40 events. He’d had enough, he said. “I think everyone should riot if July doesn’t happen,” he said. “They can’t control people like this,” he added.

“It’s so devastating for so many people,” said Yousef Zahar, a D.J. and co-owner of Circus, a nightclub based in Liverpool, that in May held two pilot events featuring 6,000 maskless dancers.

Theaters, museums and music venues were allowed to reopen with distancing last month, but larger venues and all nightclubs have remained firmly shut. Mr. Lloyd Webber has repeatedly said that glitzy productions like “Cinderella” — which has a 34-strong cast and is already weeks into rehearsals — are financially unviable in half-full theaters.

For those hoping to attend the opening of“Cinderella,” it was still unclear if the show would go on.

“We’re working hard behind the scenes to make sure everyone gets to the ball,” the show’s producers said in a statement posted on Twitter.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/world/europe/britain-delay-reopening-theaters-nightclubs.html

 

 

 

Unvaccinated in Pakistan? You might lose your cellphone service

By Zia ur-Rehman

 

Government employees waiting for vaccines in Peshawar on Friday. The government in another Pakistani province, Sindh, said it would stop paying unvaccinated government workers.Credit...Muhammad Sajjad/Associated Press

Concerned about the slow pace of coronavirus vaccinations, the Pakistani authorities have decided to take drastic measures, including blocking people’s cellphone service in two provinces and suspending the salaries of some government employees who have not been vaccinated.

They say the measures are needed to address deep skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines, and about inoculations more broadly.

Pakistan has long struggled with disinformation about vaccines that have been proven safe and effective, particularly for polio. Parents commonly refuse polio immunization for their children, falsely believing that the vaccine is harmful and part of an American plot to sterilize the children.

That refusal has made Pakistan the last refuge for the polio virus in the world, besides neighboring Afghanistan.

And now conspiracy theories about the side effects of the coronavirus vaccine have become widespread in Pakistan.

“I have heard that people, after getting the coronavirus jab, will die within the two years,” said Ehsan Ahmed, a truck driver in Karachi. “It is the reason that in our extended family of at least 25 people, no one is willing to vaccinate themselves.”

The government has set a goal of vaccinating between 45 million and 65 million people by the end of this year, and it recently announced plans to spend $1.1 billion to procure doses.

However, as of Tuesday, Pakistan had fully vaccinated roughly 3 million people — less than 2 percent of its population — since the vaccination drive started on Feb. 3, according to government data.

The country has recorded nearly 22,000 deaths from Covid-19 and nearly one million people have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic.

In an effort to compel people to get shots, the local authorities in two provinces — Punjab and Sindh — have announced plans to block the cellphone service of residents who refuse.

“The government is trying its best to facilitate people in getting the vaccine,” the information minister in Sindh, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, said. He called the decision to not get a shot “unacceptable.”

The authorities have not announced when the order will take effect or how it will be enforced.

At the same time, the government in Sindh has directed its finance ministry to stop paying government employees who have not been vaccinated, starting in July.

Since the measures were announced, reports of fake vaccination certificates have soared.

This week, the police in the port city of Karachi arrested a person involved in selling forged vaccination certificates at the city’s largest vaccination center.

They cost around $12.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/world/pakistan-vaccine-cellphones.html

 

 

 

The C.D.C. says the Delta virus variant is now a ‘variant of concern.’

By  Roni Caryn Rabin

 

A Covid-19 Memorial Wall in London on Tuesday. England’s full reopening has been delayed because of a significant rise in cases linked to the Delta variant.Credit...Andy Rain/EPA, via Shutterstock

Federal health officials have classified the Delta variant of the coronavirus now circulating in the United States as a “variant of concern,” sounding the alarm because it spreads rapidly and may partially sidestep certain antibody treatments.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday emphasized that the authorized vaccines are highly effective against the variant, however, and urged all Americans who have not yet been inoculated to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible.

In England, the swift spread of Delta variant has forced government officials to postpone the lifting of pandemic restrictions, called Freedom Day, which was to be June 21. Now the government will maintain some restrictions for four additional weeks.

Reports from the United Kingdom indicate that single doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccine are only 33 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 caused by the Delta variant.

In the United States, just 44 percent of citizens are fully vaccinated, according to a database maintained by The Times. In California and New York, states in which vaccination rates are higher, governors are moving to lift restrictions altogether.

“Even though our case counts are declining and people are getting vaccinated, we still have roughly half our population that is unvaccinated,” said Summer Galloway, a Covid-19 adviser to the C.D.C. and executive secretary of the SARS-CoV-2 Interagency Group, which characterizes emerging variants for the U.S. government.

“We have circulation of a more transmissible variant that is definitely a concern, and our bottom line message here is we want to make sure people are taking this seriously and are getting vaccinated as soon as they’re eligible and it’s available to them.”

The Delta variant, also known as B.1.617.2, is now one of six variants of concern. The virus first was identified in India in December, and by June was found in 54 countries. It was detected in the U.K. in late March. Public Health England called it a variant of concern on April 28, and the World Health Organization followed suit in May.

In the United States, the proportion of coronavirus infections attributed to the Delta variant has increased rapidly, from 2.7 percent during the two-week period ending May 22 to nearly 10 percent of cases during the two-week period ending June 5, according to modeling studies used by the C.D.C.

The rapid rise is “the number one driver for classifying this as a variant of concern,” Dr. Galloway said. Data from the U.K. suggest that the Delta variant is at least 50 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant, also called B.1.1.7, she added.

There is still uncertainty about whether the Delta variant causes more severe disease, increasing the risk of hospitalization and death, Dr. Galloway said: “We don’t have hard data to say there is a definitive increase in disease severity, but there is potential for that and we don’t want to rule that out.”

The Delta variant “has rapidly become the dominant variant in England,” accounting for more than 90 percent of new infections, scientists recently reported. The variant contains a mutation in the viral genes that direct production of its spike protein, called the L452R substitution. That mutation is shared by other variants and may make monoclonal antibody treatments less effective.

Scientists determined that the odds of the Delta variant spreading among members of a household was 64 percent greater than that of the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in Britain, which itself is considered both more contagious and more deadly than other variants.

The trajectory of the Delta variant in the United States is unpredictable, but it could present serious challenges, particularly in regions like the South, where vaccination rates are low, and in the more than 100 U.S. counties where fewer than 20 percent of the population is vaccinated, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

“This virus continues to throw curveballs at us,” he said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/06/15/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-mask/the-cdc-says-the-delta-virus-variant-is-now-a-variant-of-concern

 

 

 

Medical problems can persist long after infection with the virus, even among those who don’t get Covid, a study found

By Pam Belluck

 

Triage tent in Los Angeles for those with Covid-19 symptoms earlier this year.Credit...Isadora Kosofsky for The New York Times

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have sought medical care for post-Covid health problems that they had not been diagnosed with before becoming infected with the coronavirus, according to the largest study to date of long-term symptoms in Covid-19 patients.

The study, tracking the health insurance records of nearly 2 million people in the United States who contracted the coronavirus last year, found that one month or more after their infection, 23 percent of them sought medical treatment for new conditions.

Those affected were all ages, including children. Their most common new health problems were pain, including in nerves and muscles; breathing difficulties; high cholesterol; malaise and fatigue; and high blood pressure.

Post-Covid health problems were common even among people who had not gotten sick from the virus at all, the study found. While nearly half of patients who were hospitalized for Covid-19 experienced subsequent medical issues, so did 27 percent of people who had mild or moderate symptoms and 19 percent of people who said they were asymptomatic.

“One thing that was surprising to us was the large percentage of asymptomatic patients that are in that category of long Covid,” said Robin Gelburd, president of FAIR Health, a nonprofit organization that conducted the study based on what it says is the nation’s largest database of private health insurance claims.

More than half of the 1,959,982 patients whose records were evaluated reported no symptoms from their Covid infection. Forty percent had symptoms but didn’t require hospitalization, including 1 percent whose only symptom was loss of taste or smell; only 5 percent were hospitalized.

Ms. Gelburd said the fact that asymptomatic people can have post-Covid symptoms is important to emphasize, so that patients and doctors know to consider the possibility that some health issues may be aftereffects of the coronavirus. “There are some people who may not have even known they had Covid,” she said, “but if they continue to present with some of these conditions that are unusual for their health history, it may be worth some further investigation by the medical professional that they’re working with.”

The report analyzed records of people diagnosed with Covid-19 between February and December 2020, tracking them until February 2021. It found that 454,477 people consulted health providers for symptoms 30 days or more after their infection. FAIR Health said the analysis was evaluated by an independent academic reviewer but was not formally peer-reviewed.

The report “drives home the point that long Covid can affect nearly every organ system,” and that some patients may experience “chronic conditions that will last a lifetime,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of the research and development service at the VA St. Louis Health Care System, who was not involved in the new study.

The most common issue for which patients sought medical care was pain — including nerve inflammation and aches and pains associated with nerves and muscles — which was reported by more than 5 percent of patients, more than a fifth of those who reported post-Covid problems. Breathing difficulties were experienced by 3.5 percent of post-Covid patients. Nearly 3 percent sought treatment for symptoms that were labeled with diagnostic codes for malaise and fatigue.

Other new issues for patients, especially adults in their 40s and 50s, included high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Dr. Al-Aly said such health conditions, which have not been commonly considered aftereffects of the virus, make it “increasingly clear that post-Covid or long Covid has a metabolic signature marked by derangements in the metabolic machinery.”

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/06/15/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-mask/medical-problems-can-persist-long-after-infection-with-the-virus-even-among-those-who-dont-get-covid-a-study-found

 

 

 

Summary

 

Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:

· The US coronavirus death toll surpassed 600,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The country’s coronavirus death rate has significantly declined in recent months, as vaccines have become widely available, but hundreds of Americans are still dying of the virus each day.

· Joe Biden will mark a return to normalcy after the pandemic cookout on the National Mall for Independence day.“We welcome you to join us by hosting your own events to honor our freedom, salute those who have been serving on the frontlines, and celebrate our progress in fighting this pandemic,” the White House told state and local officials.

· Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland announced the end of the Covid-19 “state of emergency” in the state. All emergency mandates and restrictions, including mask requirements in schools, camps and childcare facilities, will lapse on 1 July. The state’s moratorium on evictions and some other policies including flexibility on driver’s license renewals will remain until 15 August.

· Biden has arrived in Geneva, Switzerland, where he will meet tomorrow with Vladimir Putin. The summit will mark Biden’s first in-person meeting with the Russian president since he took office in January. Biden also held a bilateral meeting with Swiss president Guy Parmelin earlier today.

· Newly released emails showed Donald Trump tried to enlist senior administration officials to help him overturn his defeat in the 2020 election. The documents show that the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, repeatedly instructed justice department officials to investigate false allegations of voter fraud. One senior justice department official described the requests as “pure insanity”.

· The EU and the US resolved a 17-year trade dispute over aircraft subsidies for Boeing and Airbus, which had been going on for nearly 17 years. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Biden announced the deal this morning, after meeting for the EU-US summit in Brussels. The agreement involves suspending tariffs on Boeing and Airbus for five years and working to guarantee an even playing field for the two companies.

· The White House unveiled its first ever national strategy to fight domestic terrorism. The framework, released today by the national security council, emphasized that domestic terrorism must be addressed in an “ideologically neutral” manner. The announcement comes five months after a violent, pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol, resulting in five deaths.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/jun/15/joe-biden-geneva-summit-putin-europe-us-politics-live