Sharp drop predicted in Africa’s virus deaths
The World Health Organization expects the number of COVID-19 deaths in its Africa region to fall sharply this year, compared with 2021, the agency said.
WHO scientists reported the agency’s statistical modeling forecast about 23,000 COVID deaths in 2022 in the 47-nation region, which includes most of the African continent. That would be a decline of more than 90% from the roughly 350,000 deaths the organization now estimates occurred in 2021.
“We are turning the tide on last year’s catastrophically high COVID-19 death toll in the African region,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director.
One important factor contributing to the expected decline, Moeti said, was that vastly more people in Africa have had past infections than the official case counts would indicate — and therefore, many more people have some level of immunity that could protect them from severe illness or death, if not from being infected to begin with.
Since the pandemic began, the region has reported a total of 11.9 million infections and more than 253,000 deaths from the virus, according to the WHO. But the WHO study, published in The Lancet Global Health, found that there were probably 70 times that many cases that were never confirmed by testing.
For that reason, a bit more than half of the region’s population of 1.1 billion people probably acquired some level of immunity by the start of 2022, though only about 14% had been fully vaccinated. (The vaccination rate has since risen to 18%.)
A study by South African researchers, published last week but not yet peerreviewed, found that as many as 98% of people in that country had antibodies from either a past infection or vaccination or both.
POLAND Aid from EU tied to judicial reforms
The European Commission chief said Poland’s right-wing government is responsible for fully implementing the steps on independence of the judiciary that will make the disbursement of billions of euros in EU pandemic recovery grants and loans for the country possible.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in Warsaw this week to officially confirm the EU executive’s long-delayed approval of Poland’s pandemic recovery plan, which would enable conditional release of the funds.
She stressed that Poland’s ruling right-wing majority “is responsible for making sure that the milestones (regarding the judiciary) are met.”
Von der Leyen met with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and President Andrzej Duda, who authored a law that aims to remove the sticking points that held up the recovery plan’s approval for months.
The agreement on Poland’s recovery plan includes steps in ensuring judiciary independence that Poland needs to reach before any of the nearly 36 billion euros ($38.5 billion) can be made available.
“First payment will only be possible when the new law is in force” and all other conditions are met, von der Leyen said.
BRITAIN Prince Andrew contracts COVID
Prince Andrew has tested positive for COVID, the royal family announced.
The timing means the disgraced prince will miss events celebrating his mother Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee this weekend.
Andrew was not invited to Thursday’s parade through London or the ceremonial balcony appearance afterward. But he had been expected to appear at a National Service of Thanksgiving on Friday at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
In May, Buckingham Palace said that “after careful consideration” the queen had decided to only invite “working royals and their children” to the balcony. That meant Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle were also absent, though unlike Andrew, they got to participate in the parade.
Queen Elizabeth stripped Andrew of his military ties and royal duties in January. At the time, Andrew was fighting a lawsuit by alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who accused Andrew of raping her when she was 17.
Andrew settled the lawsuit for a reported $13.5 million in February and has only been seen in public once since: when he escorted Elizabeth at the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip.
COLORADO Hospitalizations spike across state
Colorado’s COVID-19 hospitalizations jumped 38% this week, and a rise in positive tests showed last week’s slowdown in confirmed new cases was just a blip. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported 225 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized across the state, up from 163 a week earlier.
That’s a significant increase compared to mid-April, when 77 people were receiving hospital care for COVID-19. Yet it’s much lower than the peak of the omicron wave in midJanuary, when 1,676 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state.
“It’s fair to assume the virus is fairly widespread,” said Beth Carlton, an associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health. “Whatever hope of a plateau there was last week is gone for now.”
The percentage of tests coming back positive resumed its fast rise after last week’s pause. As of Tuesday, it averaged 11.9% over the previous seven days.