Vaccine only answer to variants slowing world economic recovery
VENICE: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday she was “very concerned” about the risk that new variants of coronavirus could pose to the global economic recovery from the pandemic.
“We are very concerned about the Delta variant and other variants that could emerge and threaten recovery,” she told reporters following a G20 meeting in Venice, Italy.
“We are a connected global economy, what happens in any part of the world affects all other countries.”
In their final statement issued late Saturday, G20 finance ministers warned that the spread of new variants was a “downside risk” to the economic recovery, while also warning of the dangers of differing paces of vaccination campaigns.
“We recognise the importance of working together to speed the process of vaccination and have the goal of wanting to vaccinate 70 per cent of the world’s population next year,” Yellen said.
UAE CASES: The Ministry of Health and Prevention ( MOHAP) announced that it conducted 280,747 additional COVID-19 tests and detected 1,518 new coronavirus cases.
MOHAP also announced six deaths due to COVID-19 complications.
The Ministry also noted that an additional 1,490 individuals had fully recovered from COVID-19.
The Ministry also announced that 18,407 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered during the past 24 hours.
The total number of doses provided up to Sunday stands at 15,934,124 with a rate of vaccine distribution of 161.11 doses per 100 people.
GLOBAL CASES TOPS 186m: The overall global COVID-19 caseload has topped 186 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.02 million and vaccinations soared to over 3.41 billion, according to the Johns Hopkins University.
In its latest update on Sunday morning, the University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload, death toll and the total number of vaccine doses administered stood at 186,393,041, 4,024,591 and 3,413,396,451, respectively.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 33,847,474 and 607,135, respectively, according to the CSSE.
INDIA INFECTIONS: India reported on Sunday 41,506 new COVID-19 cases and 895 deaths due to the virus in the last 24 hours, according to data from the health ministry, with active cases at 454,118.
The South Asian nation’s total infections now stand at 30,837,222, while the death toll reached 408,040, according to news agency reports.
MASK-WEARING TO CONTINUE IN UK: Britain’s vaccines minister says that people in England are expected to continue wearing Masks indoors from July 19 even though the legal requirement to do so would be dropped.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will confirm Monday whether most coronavirus restrictions including social distancing and mandatory mask-wearing will be lited the following week as widely expected.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said new guidance will be issued Monday on mask-wearing. He said there will be “an expectation of people to wear Masks indoors, in crowded places, on public transport” instead of a legal requirement.
ISRAEL OFFER BOOSTER DOSE: Israel said on Sunday it will begin offering a third dose of Pfizer Inc’s vaccine to adults with weak immune systems but it was still weighing whether to make the booster available to the general public.
The rapid spread of the Delta variant has sent vaccination rates in Israel back up as new infections have risen over the past month from single digits to around 450 a day, and the country has moved to fast-track its next Pfizer shipment.
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said that effective immediately, adults with impaired immune systems who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine could get a booster shot, with a decision pending on wider distribution.
AUSTRALIA DEATH: Australia reported its first locally contracted COVID-19 death of the year on Sunday and a 2021 record 77 new cases of the virus in the state of New South Wales, which is batling an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.
State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the numbers in and around the country’s biggest city Sydney, already under a hard lockdown, are expected to rise.
“I’ll be shocked if it’s less than 100 this time tomorrow, of additional new cases,” Berejiklian told a televised briefing.
On Saturday there were 50 cases, the previous 2021 record high. The recent outbreak stands at 566 cases.
RECORD INFECTIONS IN BANGLADESH: AUTHORIties in Bangladesh say the country has registered the highest number of COVID-19 casualties and positive cases in a single day.
The news comes amid concern that the coronavirus pandemic could worsen over the next seven days.
The government’s Directorate General of Health Services said that 230 people died and 11,874 tested positive on Sunday. That’s a singleday record on both counts.