Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	185,825,562	+456,829	4,017,385
USA	34,643,902	+16,429	621,873
India	30,708,570	+45,674	405,057
Brazil	18,909,037	+54,022	528,611
France	5,794,665	+4,081	111,259
Russia	5,682,634	+23,962	140,041
Turkey	5,459,923	+5,160	50,048
UK	4,990,916	+32,548	128,301
Argentina	4,593,763	+19,423	97,439
Colombia	4,426,811	+24,229	110,578
Italy	4,265,714	+1,010	127,718
Spain	3,897,996	+17,384	80,969
Germany	3,740,541	+986	91,665
Iran	3,304,135	+17,212	85,261
Poland	2,880,503	+103	75,114
Mexico	2,549,862	+7,989	233,958
Indonesia	2,379,397	+34,379	62,908
Ukraine	2,238,974	+610	52,537
South Africa	2,112,336	+21,427	63,039
Peru	2,071,637	+2,586	193,743
Netherlands	1,696,480	+3,646	17,760
Czechia	1,668,340	+109	30,331
Chile	1,576,336	+1,871	33,328
Philippines	1,450,101	+4,280	25,459
Canada	1,418,632	+552	26,387
Iraq	1,397,100	+8,777	17,413
Belgium	1,089,105	+742	25,194
Romania	1,081,090	+60	34,098
Bangladesh	977,568	+11,162	15,593
Pakistan	966,007	+1,517	22,469
Portugal	896,026	+3,285	17,126
Israel	844,378	+486	6,429
Japan	809,553	+1,669	14,884
Hungary	808,338	+44	29,999
Malaysia	799,790	+7,097	5,768
Jordan	754,927	+646	9,800
Serbia	717,196	+103	7,063
Austria	651,008	+107	10,719
Nepal	650,162	+2,077	9,291
UAE	644,114	+1,513	1,847
Lebanon	546,366	+401	7,867
Morocco	537,253	+1,279	9,341
Saudi Arabia	496,516	+1,207	7,921
Ecuador	465,029	+1,078	21,728
Tunisia	464,914	+9,823	15,735
Bolivia	448,213	+1,851	17,013
Kazakhstan	442,291	+2,711	4,516
Paraguay	432,801	+1,434	13,645
Greece	430,960	+1,816	12,739
Belarus	423,519	+998	3,214
Bulgaria	422,298	+60	18,129
Panama	411,226	+1,222	6,599
Slovakia	391,780	+45	12,516
Costa Rica	377,091	+1,279	4,753
Uruguay	374,665	+646	5,758
Georgia	372,685	+1,392	5,395
Kuwait	369,227	+1,585	2,059
Croatia	360,483	+141	8,224
Azerbaijan	336,684	+127	4,979
Palestine	314,869	+89	3,577
Guatemala	308,273	+2,954	9,573
Thailand	301,172	+6,519	2,387
Denmark	296,885	+689	2,538
Egypt	282,582	+161	16,332
Venezuela	280,980	+1,167	3,239
Oman	280,235	+1,675	3,356
Lithuania	278,990	+39	4,396
Ethiopia	276,683	+85	4,338
Ireland	275,571	+533	5,006
Honduras	270,020	+1,020	7,149
Sri Lanka	268,676	+1,243	3,351
Bahrain	266,797	+112	1,367
Slovenia	257,550	+73	4,422
Moldova	257,187	+82	6,203
Armenia	225,801	+140	4,531
Qatar	222,918	+158	596
Cuba	214,577	+3,664	1,405
Libya	198,142	+1,248	3,223
Kenya	186,959	+506	3,705
Myanmar	175,923	+3,947	3,570
Zambia	169,003	+1,871	2,618
Nigeria	168,110	+110	2,122
S. Korea	162,753	+1,212	2,033
Algeria	143,032	+585	3,786
Latvia	137,747	+48	2,534
Kyrgyzstan	134,501	+1,198	2,063
Norway	132,574	+211	796
Albania	132,557	+13	2,456
Estonia	131,299	+42	1,270
Mongolia	130,452	+1,998	646
Cyprus	80,588	+952	380
Vietnam	23,071	+1,007	102
Suriname	22,788	+207	559

 

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

 

 

 

A fast-growing Covid surge is flooding Fiji’s health facilities with patients, and other international news 

By Natasha Frost

 

A health officer directed residents for coronavirus testing in Suva, Fiji, in June. Daily reports of confirmed Covid cases have rocketed upward in recent weeks.Credit...Leon Lord/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Fiji, which got through the first year of the pandemic almost untouched, is now battling one of the fastest-growing Covid-19 outbreaks in the world.

The number of new coronavirus cases reported daily in the Pacific island nation of 900,000 people has soared into the hundreds over the past month, after never exceeding single digits before late May. Officials said the outbreak appeared to have begun after a case of the highly contagious Delta variant escaped the country’s isolation facilities.

As of Wednesday, the country was averaging 383 new cases a day, or 43 for every 100,000 people, according to a New York Times database. The 636 new cases reported on Wednesday set a record. Thirty-seven of the 39 Covid deaths reported in Fiji throughout the pandemic have occurred since the latest outbreak began.

The surge is swamping the country’s ability to cope. Fiji’s largest hospital is now exclusively treating Covid patients, and its mortuary is filled to capacity, the health ministry said on Monday. More than 1,000 Covid patients have been sent home from medical facilities to isolate themselves because the facilities had no space. The government is working to turn a sports arena outside Suva, the capital, into a makeshift clinic.

Repeated breaches of local health restrictions have given the virus entry points. More than 1,000 people have been arrested over breaches of a national curfew, and 48 people were arrested in a 24-hour period this week over breaches of mask requirements, according to the police. The government has declined to impose a lockdown to contain the outbreak.

About 31 percent of Fijians have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, but fewer than 5 percent are fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times database. Partial vaccination provides poor protection against the Delta variant.

Fiji, which is using the AstraZeneca vaccine, is depending on Australia and New Zealand to supply it with doses, but New Zealand’s medical regulatory body has not yet authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine, complicating the rollout. Instead, New Zealand has provided the country with 40 million New Zealand dollars, or $28 million, worth of aid and support.

“We have provided support in the form of P.P.E. and of course the commitment we’ve made around AstraZeneca vaccines, which is what Fiji are using for their rollout,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

James Fong, Fiji’s health secretary, said that some in the country were putting off seeking treatment for Covid symptoms, sometimes with deadly results.

“We are also sadly seeing people with severe disease die at home, or on the way to hospital, before our medical teams have a chance to administer what could potentially be lifesaving treatment,” Mr. Fong said.

In other news from around the world:

The United States, as part of its commitment to send vaccines to countries in need, will ship one million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Bolivia, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday. Another one million doses will be sent to Paraguay, she said. On Tuesday, Ms. Psaki announced that 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine would be shipped to Guatemala and two million doses of Moderna to Vietnam. On Friday, she said that 1.5 million doses of Moderna would be sent to El Salvador.

Spain on Wednesday reported some of its highest levels of new infections since February, and the government announced that it would distribute five million antigen test kits to regional administrations in a bid to identify cases among younger people, who are often asymptomatic. Carolina Darias, the health minister, said that nightlife was helping spread the virus, but warned against “demonizing” anybody. “We have to establish synergies with younger people,” she said.

A two-week lockdown in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, and its surrounding areas has been extended for another week, The Associated Press reported, Of the 27 people newly found to be infected with the Delta variant in the latest 24-hour period, only 13 had been in isolation while infectious, officials said. Only 9 percent of Australian adults are fully vaccinated, heightening fears that the Delta variant could quickly spread.

The number of coronavirus cases in Germany ticked up again on Wednesday after more than two months of steady decline, Reuters reported, citing official data. The Robert Koch Institute, a federal health agency, said that the Delta variant was involved in 59 percent of the country’s cases by the end of June. However, the country’s daily death toll has dropped by 42 percent over the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database. Sixty-one percent of Germany’s population is not fully vaccinated.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/05/world/covid-19-vaccine-coronavirus-updates/a-fast-growing-covid-surge-is-flooding-fijis-health-facilities-with-patients-and-other-international-news?smid=url-share-live

 

 

 

Delta, as expected, is now the dominant virus variant in the U.S., the C.D.C. estimates

By  Emily Anthes

 

Volunteers walked door to door last week, during an outreach campaign to inform residents of an upcoming coronavirus vaccination event in Birmingham, Ala.Credit...Elijah Nouvelage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is now the dominant variant in the United States, accounting for 51.7 percent of infections, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As health officials had predicted, the Delta variant has rapidly overtaken Alpha, the variant that spread through the United States this spring. Alpha, first detected in Britain, now makes up just 28.7 percent of infections, according to the C.D.C.

Still, overall, the average numbers of new virus cases and deaths across the country, as well as hospitalizations, are significantly down from the devastating peaks during previous national surges.

Delta was first detected in India. Research suggests that most vaccines still provide good protection against it and remain highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

In England, for instance, where the variant now causes almost all infections, case numbers have risen sharply in recent weeks, but hospitalization rates have increased more slowly and remain low. Next week, a final decision will be made about whether to lift most remaining restrictions in England, including mask rules, on July 19.

Studies suggest, however, that a single shot of a two-dose regimen provides only weak protection against Delta, and public health experts have been encouraging Americans to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible.

As of Wednesday, 67.2 percent of adults in the United States have had at least one vaccine dose, and 58.4 percent are fully vaccinated.

Still, vaccination coverage remains highly uneven, both in the United States and globally, and public health experts say Delta poses a serious threat to unvaccinated populations. On Tuesday, President Biden again urged Americans to get their shots, citing concerns about Delta. “It sounds corny, but it’s a patriotic thing to do,” he said.

Health experts say the Biden administration may need to take more aggressive action to encourage vaccination, including urging employers and schools to adopt vaccine mandates.

Despite the spread of the Delta variant, the country has been averaging fewer than 15,000 new coronavirus cases a day for nearly a month, the lowest levels since testing became widely available.

In recent days, however, the average number of new cases has started to trend slightly upward nationally, driven largely by localized outbreaks in places with low vaccination rates, including parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Nevada.

As the Delta variant has spread, the World Health Organization recently reiterated its longstanding guidance that everyone, vaccinated or not, should wear masks as a precaution. In the United States, however, the C.D.C. has not changed its advice that those who are fully vaccinated can skip masks in most situations.

On Tuesday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that the Biden administration was unlikely to impose new national mitigation measures, even if cases rise.

“The states are going to have to make evaluations and local communities are going to have to make evaluations about what’s in their interests,” she said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/health/delta-variant-cdc.html?smid=url-share-live

 

 

 

Haiti’s political turmoil may hamper efforts to contain the virus, the W.H.O. says

By Daniel Politi

 

A street market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last month.Credit...Joseph Odelyn/Associated Press

The assassination of President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti on Wednesday could complicate efforts to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in the Caribbean nation, which has yet to begin vaccinating its citizens, officials from the World Health Organization warned.

Carissa Etienne, the director of the Pan American Health Organization, which is part of the W.H.O., said her organization had made Haiti a priority in recent weeks as reported cases have surged.

“I am hopeful that the arrival of vaccines in the country can start to turn the tide of the pandemic and bring some relief to the Haitian people during these very difficult times,” Dr. Etienne said. “We continue to stand with them now and will redouble our efforts.”

Haiti did not experience the kind of surge early in the pandemic that many experts feared could devastate the country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. But the pandemic has grown worse in recent weeks, with a rise in reported cases that experts say is almost certainly an undercount, considering the country’s limited testing capacity.

Last month, Covid-19 claimed the life of René Sylvestre, the president of Haiti’s Supreme Court — a leading figure who might have helped to establish order in the wake of an assassination that has plunged the country into even deeper political uncertainty.

Dr. Etienne’s organization said in an email that while it was too soon to evaluate the impact of the assassination, “further deterioration of the security situation in Haiti could have a negative impact on the work that has been done to curtail Covid-19 infections,” as well as on vaccination plans.

The organization said that Haiti was also facing challenges from the start of hurricane season and the recent detection of the Alpha and Gamma virus variants on the island. Though “vaccines are expected to arrive shortly” in Haiti, the organization said it did not have a specific delivery date.

In June, Dr. Etienne urged the global community to do more to help Haiti cope with rising coronavirus cases and deaths. “The situation we’re seeing in Haiti is a cautionary tale in just how quickly things can change with this virus,” she said.

Haiti is an extreme example of the “stark inequities on vaccine access,” Dr. Etienne said. “For every success, there are several countries that have been unable to reach even the most vulnerable in their population.”

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, there are millions of people who “still don’t know when they will have a chance to be immunized,” she said.

She said the inequitable distribution of vaccines posed practical and moral problems.

“If we don’t ensure that countries in the South have the ability to vaccinate as much as countries in the North, this virus will keep circulating in the poorest nations for years to come,” Dr. Etienne said. “Hundreds of millions will remain at risk while the wealthier nations go back to normal. Obviously, this should not happen.”

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/world/Haiti-covid-Jovenel-Moise-turmoil.html?smid=url-share-live

 

 

 

Britain’s health secretary foresees record cases after ‘Freedom Day,’ but cites ‘weakened’ link to illness

By Michael Levenson

 

A vaccination site at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last month.Credit...Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Britain could reach a record 100,000 new Covid cases per day, the country’s top health official acknowledged this week, even as he strongly defended the government’s plan to lift most virus restrictions on July 19.

The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said that vaccines had “severely weakened” the link between infections and hospitalizations and deaths.

About 51 percent of adults in Britain are fully vaccinated, according to data compiled from government sources by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. And despite a surge driven by the highly contagious Delta variant that has pushed average new cases past 27,000 a day, hospitalizations are in the hundreds and daily deaths remain in the lower double digits.

“The vaccine has been our wall of defense — jab by jab, brick by brick, we have been building a defense against this virus,” Mr. Javid told the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Mr. Javid spoke forcefully in support of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s bold experiment to jettison most virus restrictions — including capacity limits, social-distancing rules and mask mandates — even as cases are rising steeply and the highly contagious Delta variant is spreading globally.

Mr. Javid said modeling suggested that infections could be as high as 50,000 per day, double the current rate, on July 19, or “Freedom Day,” as it has been dubbed by the British press.

After that, Britain could reach 100,000 new cases per day, Mr. Javid said, although he cautioned that virus models are less certain further into the future.

Britain reported 27,334 new cases on Monday and 178,128 over the last week, an increase of 53 percent over the previous week.

In a speech to the House of Commons on Monday, Mr. Javid also warned that cases could rise, but said the vaccines would mitigate the worst effects of the virus.

“There is no risk-free — absolutely risk-free — way to move forward,” Mr. Javid said then. “But we do need to start returning things back towards normal and learning to live with Covid.”

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/07/world/covid-19-vaccine-coronavirus-updates/britains-health-secretary-foresees-record-cases-after-freedom-day-but-cites-weakened-link-to-illness?smid=url-share-live

 

 

 

Covid surge pushes Indonesia’s health system to the brink

By Gemma Holliani Cahya 

 

Officers unload oxygen tanks at an emergency oxygen station set up at a building in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia. Photograph: Adriana Adie/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Hospitals across the Indonesian island of Java are running out of oxygen, medicines, beds and even staff as a sharp rise in Covid cases pushes the country’s health system to the brink.

Indonesia, which is facing one of the worst outbreaks in Asia, announced 34,379 new cases and 1,040 fatalities on Wednesday, both record highs.

Senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said earlier this week he feared daily cases could reach as high as 70,000. The government said it was sourcing supplies of oxygen from Singapore to ease shortages.

“At worst, it [could reach] 60,000 to 70,000 cases per day, but I hope that doesn’t happen because our friends from police, military have done quite a good insulation,” Luhut said.

Hospitals across Java are already at a crisis point. Several have been forced to temporarily close their emergency rooms either because their oxygen stock is depleted, or because many of their staff have become ill, according to Indonesian media reports.

“It’s like a market outside the hospital … Even if you add 100 more beds it will not be enough. Patients are still going to flock to our hospital,” Syaiful Hidayat, the head of Covid-19 task force at Dr Slamet Martodirdjo regional hospital in Pamekasan, East Java, said on Tuesday.

The hospital is the largest in Pamekasan and is currently treating more than 100 Covid patients. The front yard has been converted into an emergency room, while the inside of the building is being used to isolate patients.

Although the hospital is fortunate that it can produce its own supply of liquid oxygen on site, additional oxygen tanks are still needed to support patients staying in tents.

The hospital is also facing staffing shortages after 10 of its doctors tested positive for Covid-19 this week. Emergency rooms that are usually taken care of by three doctors are now staffed by just one. On top of this, its supplies of remdesivir, the antiviral medicine, have run out.

“We usually use these injections for patients who are in critical condition,” said Syaiful, adding that they had been without the drug for 10 days.

Most people that have come to the hospital over the past two weeks arrived with very low oxygen saturation. “In these past two weeks 50 people died of Covid in this hospital. Most of them died before they had spent 24 hours being treated here,” he said.

A bed its rolled out from an emergency tent erected to accommodate a surge of Covid-19 patients at a hospital in Bekasi, West Java. Photograph: Achmad Ibrahim/AP

Syaiful believed the actual death toll in the area was higher. Many patients were forced to return home after seeing how full the hospital was, or after unsuccessfully waiting in the tents.

“This is a critical condition; we can’t rely only on hospitals … We have to make additional field hospitals with enough doctors and medicines for all patients,” he said.

Reports over the weekend suggested dozens of patients died after oxygen supplies ran out at Dr Sardjito general hospital, the largest hospital in Yogyakarta province. However, a statement by the hospital later said the patients had died due to their worsening condition, and that they were not denied oxygen.

At the Red Cross hospital in Bogor, West Java, Banon Sukoandari, the director of medical and nursing services, said the facility was struggling to secure enough oxygen, diagnostic resources, medical workers, medicines and protective health gears.

The most sought-after items were N95 masks to protect staff, Banon said.

“We need to prioritise when it comes to using the protective health gears so we can sustain it longer,” she said, “we have to use what we have right now to serve the patients.”

According to the Indonesian Medical Association’s risk mitigation team , at least 405 doctors have died from Covid since the start of the pandemic.

The mental and emotional toll of the crisis on health workers is immeasurable. “It’s never easy to see so many people die in a day and prepare them for their burial. They are not strangers. They are our patients. It always breaks our hearts,” Banon said.

Lapor Covid, a volunteer group that aims to improve data collection during the pandemic, reported that since June at least 311 people have died in self-isolation while waiting for hospital beds. This is based only on cases they have tracked; the real number may be higher.

Senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the government planned to increase oxygen supplies and had identified accommodation that could be converted into isolation facilities if needed.

On Monday, the health ministry spokeswoman Siti Nadia Tarmizi told the Guardian that additional measures “would improve the [oxygen] condition over this week”.

Several companies – including Samator Group, Air Liquide, Air Products, Iwatani Industrial Gas and Linde – had agreed to supply oxygen to hospitals, she said.

Nadia said Indonesia produced 1,500,000 tonnes of oxygen a year, or 125,000 tonnes in a month. Normally, 70%, was used by industry, while 30% was used for medical purposes. “We have the capacity [to produce oxygen],” Nadia said. “We’ll push converting medical oxygen up to 50%.”

She urged hospitals not to turn away patients, telling them to use whatever space is available. “Patients whose saturation is less than 95% and who have trouble breathing must go to hospitals to get medical help,” she said. “This is an emergency situation so if there no bed, they can use chairs, but they must be accepted at the health facility, because who will take care and observe them if they stay at home?”

“This is not an easy situation. We are not fine,” she added. Officials had hoped to control the outbreak through health protocols, she said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/08/covid-surge-pushes-indonesias-health-system-to-the-brink

 

 

 

Summary

 

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

·  The Delta variant now represents around 40% of new Covid-19 infections in France and could ruin the summer if a fourth wave of infections is allowed to build, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said. The share of this variant has doubled each week over the past three weeks, from 10% of infections three weeks ago to 20% last week and 40% this week, he said.

· Indonesia has set new daily records for both deaths and cases again, with 34,379 infections and 1,040 deaths. It is the third consecutive day of record new infections in Indonesia and the fourth straight day for record deaths.

· Turkmenistan’s healthcare ministry has said it is making Covid vaccination mandatory for all residents aged 18 and over. Exceptions would only be made for those with medical issues preventing inoculation.

· Vietnam will impose restrictions on its largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, for 15 days from Friday to tackle rising cases, according to state media reports.

· Cases are rising in the 22 countries of the eastern Mediterranean region due to limited vaccination, the spread of the Delta variant and increased travel, the World Health Organization has warned. Increasing infection levels follow two months of maintained decline.

· The UK has reported 32,548 new Covid cases, with the weekly tally double that of the previous seven days amid surging cases in the runup to the lifting of all restrictions on 19 July.

· A hospital in Uganda has allegedly refused to hand over the dead body of a patient to their relative without payment of medical bills, the Associated Press reports, as the country’s residents struggle with Covid healthcare costs.

· Bangladesh has reported its highest daily number of Covid deaths, with 201 fatalities registered as the south Asian country battles a surge in cases.

· Japan’s government is expected to issue a state of emergency this month in Tokyo that will likely remain in place throughout the Tokyo Olympics, according to financial newspaper Nikkei.

· Authorities in Myanmar have ordered people in several regions of the country’s largest city, Yangon, to stay at home as coronavirus cases surged to almost 4,000 infections on Wednesday. In early May, there were fewer than 50 daily.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/jul/07/coronavirus-live-news-china-reports-highest-cases-since-january-russia-reports-record-deaths