COVID-19 victims’ toll racing towards 100m
UAE reports 3,566 new cases, 4,051 recoveries, 7 deaths and 87,720 more doses of vaccine have been administered; new test, giving results in five minutes, ‘invented’.
A warning from Astrazeneca that initial supplies of its COVID-19 vaccinations to Europe will be lower than expected has sparked new concern over the rollout of inoculations, with some countries planning for a sharp drop in deliveries.
Friday’s announcement by the British pharmaceutical firm followed another last week by Pfizer, which said it would delay shipments of its vaccine for up to a month due to works at its key plant in Belgium.
The companies’ warnings come with worry deepening over new COVID-19 variants, particularly one that emerged in Britain and which is more infectious than the original strain.
Overall, Europe has now recorded more than 692,000 deaths and nearly 32 million infections.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention has announced that 87,720 doses of the #COVID-19 vaccine were given in the past 24 hours.
The total number of doses provided up to Saturday stands at 2,426,793 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 24.54 doses per 100 people.
The MOHAP announced that it conducted 174,172 additional COVID-19 tests and detected 3,566 new cases.
According to the Ministry, the infected The ministry also announced 7 deaths due to COVID-19 complications It also noted that an additional 4,051 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19.
A new test, considered a breakthrough, which determines whether one is infected with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in five minutes from the normal 30 minutes, has been invented.
University of Birmingham-college of Life and Environmental Sciences (UOB-UK Campus) Biotechnology professor Dr Tim Dafforn said this new method is still useful in answer to Gulf Today’s question of its relevance, in relation to the rollout of vaccines in some countries, against the infectious and mutated SARS-COV2. He added the new method has nothing to do with the entry of the new SARS-COV2 variant. The laboratory research totalled nine months in 2020. Its brainchild is Uob-chemistry PHD student Jake Carter.
The Chinese city of Wuhan marked one year since the start of its traumatic 76-day coronavirus lockdown Saturday, while the pandemic raged elsewhere and governments scrambled to put in place new measures.
Thousands of Hong Kongers in Jordan, one of the city’s poorest and most densely-packed districts, were ordered to stay home Saturday unless they can show a negative test, in the city’s first lockdown.
Around the world, more than 2.1 million people have died of COVID-19 since it emerged in China in December 2019, with over 98 million infected.
US President Joe Biden on Friday said “well over 600,000” Americans could die of the coronavirus as he stepped up federal aid in the world’s worst-hit country, while less wealthy nations anticipated beter access to tests and vaccines thanks to several international deals.
“The virus is surging. We’re at 400,000 dead, expected to reach well over 600,000,” Biden told a news conference, giving his highest estimate yet for the US outbreak’s eventual toll.
His new administration boosted stimulus handouts as well as payments to help families buy food, with more poor children going hungry ater the school lunches they depended on disappeared as classrooms shutered.
The World Health Organisation has repeatedly warned that richer countries are hogging the vaccine. But there was good news Friday for poorer nations, as the WHO and pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer announced a deal for up to 40 million initial doses of the Pfizer-biontech vaccine to be made available to them through the Covax global pool.
In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a new strain of the virus that has swept his country and beyond could be more deadly as well as more transmissible, with the variant having spread to more than 60 countries already.
A group of British doctors have writen to England’s chief medical officer to tell him to cut the gap between doses of the Pfizer and Biontech vaccine to six weeks from up to 12.
Britain is prioritising giving first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, allowing up to 12 weeks before a second dose, to give the maximum number of people some initial protection.
But Pfizer and Biontech have warned they have no evidence their vaccine would continue to be protective if the second dose is given more than 21 days ater the first.