Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	191,200,057	+445,277	4,105,555
USA	34,963,907	+9,513	624,746
India	31,143,595	+38,325	414,141
Brazil	19,376,574	+34,126	542,262
Russia	5,958,133	+25,018	148,419
France	5,867,730	+12,532	111,472
Turkey	5,529,719	+7,680	50,554
UK	5,433,939	+48,161	128,708
Argentina	4,756,378	+6,935	101,549
Colombia	4,639,466	+18,206	116,307
Italy	4,287,458	+3,127	127,867
Spain	4,100,222	+31060	81,096
Germany	3,752,219	+985	91,896
Iran	3,523,263	+22,184	87,161
Poland	2,881,424	+69	75,215
Indonesia	2,877,476	+44,721	73,582
Mexico	2,654,699	+12,631	236,240
South Africa	2,295,095	+11,215	66,859
Ukraine	2,244,495	+299	52,726
Peru	2,093,754	+1,629	195,146
Netherlands	1,798,570	+10,135	17,776
Czechia	1,671,029	+197	30,338
Chile	1,599,879	+1,398	34,514
Philippines	1,507,755	+5,411	26,714
Iraq	1,491,712	+8,698	17,830
Canada	1,423,177	+259	26,499
Bangladesh	1,103,989	+11,578	17,894
Romania	1,081,632	+44	34,253
Pakistan	989,275	+2,607	22,781
Portugal	930,685	+3,261	17,207
Malaysia	916,561	+10,710	7,019
Israel	851,723	+755	6,449
Japan	838,432	+3,886	15,040
Jordan	761,225	+675	9,896
Serbia	718,590	+125	7,083
Nepal	667,109	+1,223	9,550
UAE	660,978	+1,529	1,898
Austria	653,735	+323	10,729
Morocco	557,632	+2,144	9,450
Lebanon	550,942	+450	7,885
Tunisia	546,233	+5,435	17,527
Saudi Arabia	509,576	+1,055	8,075
Kazakhstan	488,905	+5,493	4,956
Ecuador	476,065	+850	21,953
Bolivia	461,714	+896	17,443
Greece	457,312	+1,558	12,826
Paraguay	444,992	+565	14,288
Belarus	434,362	+953	3,326
Bulgaria	422,965	+35	18,174
Panama	422,678	+721	6,703
Thailand	403,386	+11,397	3,341
Slovakia	392,100	+29	12,524
Georgia	387,481	+1,286	5,551
Kuwait	385,762	+1,189	2,221
Uruguay	378,875	+142	5,883
Croatia	361,595	+107	8,238
Azerbaijan	338,438	+255	4,992
Dominican Republic	337,575	+428	3,916
Guatemala	333,827	+701	9,914
Denmark	306,100	+641	2,542
Venezuela	292,779	+1,063	3,377
Sri Lanka	284,932	+1,420	3,779
Ireland	284,510	+1,179	5,018
Cuba	281,887	+6,279	1,905
Lithuania	279,753	+83	4,404
Ethiopia	277,696	+81	4,357
Bahrain	267,882	+86	1,380
Slovenia	258,190	+21	4,425
Moldova	257,946	+43	6,226
Myanmar	229,521	+5,285	5,000
Armenia	227,430	+132	4,566
Qatar	224,278	+118	599
Libya	221,495	+4,061	3,281
Kenya	192,758	+323	3,775
Zambia	185,649	+977	3,084
S. Korea	177,951	+1,451	2,057
Nigeria	169,532	+203	2,127
Algeria	153,309	+1,099	3,938
Kyrgyzstan	149,029	+1,373	2,175
Mongolia	147,253	+1,466	734
Afghanistan	141,499	+887	6,213
Latvia	138,159	+33	2,543
Norway	134,339	+109	796
Albania	132,686	+21	2,456
Estonia	131,848	+41	1,271
Uzbekistan	119,388	+507	796
Namibia	112,160	+743	2,506
Montenegro	100,662	+40	1,623
Finland	100,156	+180	978
Mozambique	99,412	+1,260	1,118
Ghana	98,817	+382	812
China	92,246	+33	4,636
Cyprus	91,196	+858	385
Vietnam	53,830	+5,926	254
Suriname	24,272	+96	611
Aruba	11,235	+12	108

 

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

 

 

 

Healthcare workers in England may be able to skip self-isolation orders

 

A sign is seen on a road in Covent Garden ahead of a further easing of lockdown restrictions for England on April 12, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in London, Britain, April 6, 2021. REUTERS/TobyMelville/File Photo

Frontline health and social care workers in England may be able to carry on working even if they are exposed to someone with COVID-19, the government said on Monday as minister seek to ease pressure on the health service caused by rising infections.

Cases of COVID-19 are surging in Britain, causing hundreds of thousands of workers to be told they need to spend 10 days at home because they have been identified as a close contact of someone with the disease.

That has caused staff shortages in schools, businesses and the healthcare system.

To ease the burden on the healthcare system, where the rise in cases is also causing increased workload, the government announced an exemption for fully-vaccinated staff in exceptional circumstances.

The new rules will apply to staff whose absence would cause a significant risk of harm. Those considered eligible will need to test negative for the virus, and take daily tests throughout the period they would have been required to isolate for.

"As we learn to live with this virus, it's important that we ensure frontline staff can keep providing the best possible care and support to people up and down the country," said health minister Sajid Javid, who is himself in isolation after testing positive on Saturday.

England is due to lift almost all coronavirus restrictions on Monday to help restart the economy, but has warned that while vaccines have reduced death and hospitalisation rates, new infections could rise to record levels of 100,000 cases per day.

Devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland make their own policy.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/healthcare-workers-england-may-be-able-skip-self-isolation-orders-2021-07-18/

 

 

 

Some parts of China are requiring vaccines not just for students but for their families as well

By Vivian Wang

 

Waiting to be vaccinated in the Chinese region of Guangxi last month.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Some local governments in China have begun requiring that all students — and their families — be vaccinated before the students can return to school in the fall, as part of an aggressive campaign to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by the end of the year.

Notices shared by some municipalities in the southern region of Guangxi said that the requirements would apply to family members registered to the same household as any student from preschool through high school.

“We request that the masses of unvaccinated people hurry up and get vaccinated, and avoid affecting your child’s schooling,” a notice in the city of Beiliu said.

School officials in various regions around the world have made vaccination a requirement for returning to in-person classes. Still, the extension of the requirement to family members underscored the urgency with which China is pressing to reach herd immunity, even as some residents — as in the rest of the world — question the concept of compulsory vaccination.

In addition to the schooling requirements, local governments have said that unvaccinated people will soon be barred from nursing homes, museums, libraries and other public venues. A county in Jiangxi Province said that people without at least one shot of the vaccine would not be allowed in supermarkets. The Beiliu notice said that unvaccinated farmers would not be allowed to operate stalls.

China’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start, partly because of skepticism about the vaccines as well as a lack of urgency, as the number of cases there remains very low. But the government, through a mix of carrot and stick measures, has greatly accelerated uptake, and the National Health Commission said last week that more than 1.4 billion doses had been administered, covering about half of the population.

Still, the new requirements prompted some backlash online. A local government in the eastern province of Zhejiang retracted a ban on unvaccinated people in certain public venues after pushback; an official in Jiangxi told the state news media that the ban was only “in principle” and was intended to motivate people.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/18/world/covid-variant-vaccine-updates/some-parts-of-china-are-requiring-vaccines-not-just-for-students-but-for-their-families-as-well

 

 

 

Thai protesters criticize the government’s handling of outbreak, and other news from around the world

By  Muktita Suhartono and Jennifer Jett

 

A protester threw a pyrotechnic device at riot police during a rally on Sunday to demand the resignation of Thailand's prime minister.Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times

Demonstrators in Thailand clashed with the police on Sunday as they defied coronavirus restrictions to protest the government and its handling of the pandemic.

More than 1,000 people in Bangkok, the capital, gathered in the afternoon at the Democracy Monument, a Thai icon that has been a focus of activism for decades, and then marched or drove to Government House, which contains the offices of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. They demanded the resignation of Mr. Prayuth, who took power in a 2014 military coup, as well as more funding to fight the virus and the distribution of an mRNA vaccine, like the highly effective ones developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Smaller demonstrations took place in provinces around the country on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of the first of a wave of student-led pro-democracy protests that drew hundreds of thousands of people into the nation’s streets until a government crackdown and an increase in infections.

The Sunday protests came two days after the government, citing the pandemic, announced a nationwide ban on public gatherings of more than five people. Violations are punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of about $1,200.

After keeping virus cases to a minimum for all of last year, Thailand is now facing its worst outbreak of the pandemic, fueled by the highly transmissible Alpha and Delta variants of the virus. On Sunday, the country reported a record 11,397 new infections, one day after it reported 141 deaths, a national record.

Protesters carried 141 mock body bags to mark the deaths, some of which were laid on a picture of Mr. Prayuth on the ground. Police officers tried to deter protesters with tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets. At 6 p.m., one of two times per day when the national anthem is broadcast on radio and television, some people instead sang “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical “Les Misérables.” Shortly afterward, organizers announced that the protest had ended.

Public frustration has grown over the economic impact of pandemic restrictions as well as the slow pace of vaccinations, with less than 5 percent of Thailand’s 70 million people fully inoculated, according to a New York Times database. Although Thailand has approved a number of vaccines for emergency use and is producing its own doses of the AstraZeneca shot, up to this point it has mainly administered the Sinovac vaccine developed in China, whose effectiveness against the variants appears to be weak.

Officials said last week that health care workers who had received Sinovac would also be inoculated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech shots to give them greater protection after hundreds of them became infected despite being fully vaccinated.

In other developments around the world:

Vietnam’s southern region, including its economic center, Ho Chi Minh City, began a two-week lockdown on Sunday because of rising coronavirus cases. About 97 million people live in Vietnam, but only around 4 million have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

The prime minister of South Korea said on Sunday that across the country, private gatherings would be limited to four people until Aug. 1. South Korea is seeing record numbers of coronavirus cases, and just 30 percent of its population has received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Ukraine and Bangladesh: Through the Covax program, the United States sent 2 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Ukraine on Friday, and planned to send 3.5 million doses to Bangladesh this weekend.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/18/world/covid-variant-vaccine-updates/thai-protesters-criticize-the-governments-handling-of-outbreak-and-other-news-from-around-the-world

 

 

 

Indonesia has become the new epicenter of the pandemic

By Fira Abdurachman, Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono

 

Covid-19 patients in a tent outside Dr. Sardjito General Hospital in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday.Credit...Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times

BEKASI, Indonesia — By the thousands, they sleep in hallways, tents and cars, gasping for air as they wait for beds in overcrowded hospitals that may not have oxygen to give them. Others see hospitals as hopeless, even dangerous, and take their chances at home.

Wherever they lie, as Covid-19 steals their breath away, their families engage in a frantic, daily hunt for scarce supplies of life-giving oxygen.

Indonesia has become the new epicenter of the pandemic, surpassing India and Brazil to become the country with the world’s highest known count of new infections. ​ The surge is part of a wave across Southeast Asia, where vaccination rates are low but countries had until recently contained the virus relatively well​. Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand are also facing their largest outbreaks yet and have imposed new restrictions, including lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.

In Indonesia, cases and deaths have skyrocketed in the past month as the highly contagious Delta variant sweeps through densely populated Java island, as well as Bali. In some regions, the coronavirus has pushed the medical system past its limits, though hospitals are taking emergency steps to expand capacity.

Bekasi Regional Public Hospital, where some Covid patients have waited days for treatment, has erected large tents on its grounds, with beds for up to 150 people. Nearby in Jakarta, the capital, a long line of people waited for hours outside a small dispensary, hoping to fill their portable tanks with oxygen.

Among them was Nyimas Siti Nadia, 28, who had been searching for oxygen for her aunt’s family, all sick with Covid.

“She is a doctor and she is afraid to go to a hospital because she knows the situation,” Ms. Nyimas said. “There are many instances where patients do not get beds or oxygen.”

On Thursday, the Indonesian authorities reported nearly 57,000 new cases, the highest daily total yet. On Friday, they reported a record 1,205 deaths, bringing the country’s official toll from the pandemic to more than 71,000. But some health experts say those figures vastly understate the situation.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/18/world/covid-variant-vaccine-updates/indonesia-has-become-the-new-epicenter-of-the-pandemic

 

 

 

Boris Johnson will quarantine after being exposed to the virus, though that wasn’t his initial plan

By Mark Landler

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain in London last week.Credit...Daniel Leal-Olivas/Reuters

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and his top finance official, Rishi Sunak, will go into quarantine on Sunday, only hours after Downing Street said that they would not do so after having been in contact with a cabinet minister who said he had tested positive for the coronavirus a day earlier.

The abrupt reversal by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Sunak, Britain’s top two government officials, came after a swift and ferocious public backlash over their initial plans enter a special N.H.S. program that would have allowed them to continue to work in the office with daily testing.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Sunak were notified, or “pinged,” by the National Health Service after face-to-face meetings with the health secretary, Sajid Javid, who said on Saturday that he had tested positive and had mild symptoms of Covid-19.

The news of the testing arrangement brought immediate criticism, with some pointing out that it was only the latest example of senior officials playing by different rules. “How about the school teachers, transport workers and health workers getting a chance to be part of this test pilot or is it only for the privileged few?” Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, posted on Twitter.

By 11 a.m. in London, three hours after the original statement, both men had backed off.

The prime minister was at his country residence, Chequers, when he was notified by the N.H.S. and will now stay there. “He will not be taking part in the pilot program,” a spokesman said in a statement.

Mr. Sunak said on Twitter that “whilst the test and trace pilot is fairly restrictive, allowing only essential government business, I recognise that even the sense that the rules aren’t the same for everyone is wrong.”

The situation has raised further questions about the government’s plan to lift restrictions on Monday, even as cases have surged to more than 50,000 a day, largely because of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/18/world/covid-variant-vaccine-updates/boris-johnson-will-quarantine-after-being-exposed-to-the-virus-though-that-wasnt-his-initial-plan

 

 

 

Canada surpasses U.S. vaccination rate, after lagging for months

By Vjosa Isai

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada at a vaccination site in Montreal last week.Credit...Christinne Muschi/Reuters

Canada’s vaccination rate is now higher than the United States rate, as the country has overcome months of production and shipping delays that had left it lagging behind its southern neighbor.

Over 49 percent of eligible Canadians are fully vaccinated, and 70 percent had received at least one dose as of Saturday, according to the most recent figures available through the Our World in Data project.

The United States now trails Canada by about one percentage point among the fully vaccinated, who account for over 48 percent of its population, while only 55.5 percent have received at least one dose.

The European Union has also been catching up to the United States after lagging far behind until recently, with 55.7 percent of its citizens at least partly vaccinated. The E.U. still lags in its fully vaccinated rate, at under 43 percent.

As vaccinations even out in many Western countries, wealthy nations are leaving the rest of the world far behind. Only about 1 percent of people in low-income countries are even partly vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.

After steady growth through the winter and spring, the pace of U.S. vaccinations has remained relatively flat. President Biden, in a renewed push, called last week for employers to set up clinics at work and to offer paid time off for workers.

Vaccinations have plateaued in the United States as concerns have grown over the spread of the highly contagious Delta virus variant. After a sharp drop in virus cases, the average number of new daily cases across the United States seems to have leveled off, though they remain a fraction of their peak. Outbreaks have erupted in some parts of Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.

Canada’s vaccine uptick could be welcome news for travelers on both sides of the border. On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signaled that the country could be ready to accept fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents across its border for nonessential travel as of mid-August, according to a readout of his call with provincial leaders.

Mr. Trudeau also said Canada could open to fully vaccinated travelers across the world by early September if conditions continue to improve.

Canada’s vaccination rate has revved up after supply disruptions marred the early rollout, leading to a drop in poll-based public approval ratings for Mr. Trudeau in February.

After an early start, production issues at Pfizer and Moderna led to reduced shipments in winter — including some weeks in which no vaccine doses arrived at all.

Experts said that Canada’s start was always going to be sluggish because of several key factors, notably its decision last year to spread its 414 million orders among seven different companies to reduce risk rather than bet on a single vaccine in exchange for early delivery.

And Canada faced inherent disadvantages, too: primarily the lack of an established vaccine producer with headquarters in the country and its relatively limited production capacity to make the vaccines developed by foreign companies.

Canada’s northern Yukon and Northwest Territories are leading the country with the highest proportion of fully vaccinated residents, at over 59 percent, with two Atlantic provinces, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, lagging behind the others at about 30 percent, according to data from Canada’s public health agency.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/07/18/world/covid-variant-vaccine-updates/canada-surpasses-us-vaccination-rate-after-lagging-for-months

 

 

 

 

Australians believe states managing Covid pandemic better than Canberra, study finds

 

Australians have marked down the federal government for its handling of the pandemic over the course of the past year, while backing the more assertive approach taken by the states, new research shows.

The findings are contained in a paper published by the Australia Institute which has been polling voters about the level of government they think is doing a better job of managing the Covid-19 crisis since August last year.

While the states were viewed as doing the better job at the outset – 31% compared with 25% for the federal government – the gap has substantially widened in recent months.

After tracking a gradual decline in the approval of the federal government’s handling of the pandemic, the July survey of more than 1,000 people found just 16% believe the federal government is outperforming the states, with the approval of the states surging to 42%. One in four people rate both levels of government as doing an equally good job, while 17% are unsure.

Across the states, Western Australia shows the biggest difference, with 61% of people saying the McGowan Labor government is doing a better job compared with 11% for the federal government.

In Victoria, which is currently undergoing its fifth lockdown, the gap is narrower, with 34% saying the state is doing a better job, and 25% nominating the federal government.

The polling also shows state border closures, which prime minister Scott Morrison described as putting “enormous stress and strain” on Australians, are proving incredibly popular, with 77% of voters in favour of the measure.

Across all states, about 40% of people strongly support state border closures, with support highest in WA and Queensland. Only 18% opposed them.

State elections held during the pandemic have favoured incumbents, with the WA, Queensland and Tasmanian elections held over the past 12 months all returning sitting premiers.

Bill Browne, senior researcher in the Australia Institute’s democracy and accountability program, said the Covid pandemic had highlighted a potential re-alignment of state-federal relations.

“Australia’s states are sometimes disparaged as relics or mendicants, dependent on the federal government, and unnecessary for a country the size of Australia,” Browne said.

“However, the states and territories have shone during the Covid-19 crisis with strong, strict and decisive responses, which have in turn won popularity with the public.

“The unprecedented support for Australia’s premiers is one of the standout stories of the pandemic.”

The Australia Institute research paper also suggests the country’s successful handling of the pandemic, which it says has been “excellent relative to other countries”, could be due in part to the federated structure, with states serving as “laboratories of democracy” for different policy approaches.

“The different shutdown, isolation, mask and border closure policies adopted by different state and territory governments have allowed for comparisons in pandemic response,” the paper says.

The paper’s release comes as New South Wales and Victoria trade barbs over their respective lockdowns, with the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, opting for a short, hard lockdown, and his NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian coming under fire for not doing the same earlier.

On Sunday, the NSW government announced 105 new Covid cases, with 27 that were infectious in the community, and put in place new restrictions to try to curb the outbreak.

Victoria reported 17 new cases, but no new chains of transmission.

Browne said the renewed public belief in state governments was a “political opportunity” for the states to take a greater leadership role, including on climate change, federal-state financial arrangements and reform of national cabinet.

“This renewed public belief is a huge political opportunity for our political leaders and community. It represents a once in a lifetime opportunity – the question of course is whether they can take it and what they choose to do with it,” Browne said.

He said the states, which had all committed to a net-zero emissions by 2050 target, were setting the standard for the federal government to follow, but so far it had failed to rise the challenge.

“The Morrison government is making noises about matching the states’ net-zero by 2050 target, but this is unlikely to be the end of state leadership on policy issues that have traditionally been seen as the federal government’s purview.”

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/19/australians-believe-states-managing-covid-pandemic-better-than-canberra-study-finds

 

 

 

Summary

 

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

· Six British athletes and two staff members from the athletics squad were forced to self-isolate after coming into close contact with a member of the public who had Covid-19 on their flight to Tokyo.

· Covid cases are increasing in every state in the United States, while millions remain unvaccinated against the highly contagious Delta variant, the US surgeon general warned.

· Tens of thousands of vaccinated Muslims circled Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Sunday for the second pared-back hajj in two years, but it is an event which has previously attracted 2.5 million people. The pilgrims remained socially distanced and wore masks as they walked.

· Questions are growing over the UK’s workplace pilot scheme, which allows certain government departments and other public bodies to avoid isolating after exposure to Covid.

· The Delta variant is continuing to spread rapidly in France, as the nation registered more than 12,500 new Covid cases on Sunday. It was the third day in a row that the daily case figure has exceeded 10,000, the Reuters news agency reported.

· Hospitals in the Spanish region of Catalonia could face “severe pressure” as Covid infections peak while some staff are off on holiday.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/jul/19/coronavirus-live-news-england-unlock-johnson-self-isolates-record-new-cases-in-thailand?page=with:block-60f4f4968f08bb57f5f79139#liveblog-navigation