Category: Medical

GENEVA— More than 12,500 coronavirus-related deaths were registered worldwide in the past 24 hours, making Thursday the deadliest day since July 2021, the World Health Organization said.

As of Feb 3, as many as 383,509,779 novel coronavirus cases and 5,690,824 coronavirus-associated deaths were registered across the globe.

The number of confirmed cases grew by 3,015,863 over the past day and the number of fatalities increased by 12,513. It was the highest daily fatality figure registered since July 21, 2021, when the novel coronavirus infection claimed the lives of 20,111 people all over the world.

The WHO statistics is based on officially confirmed data from the countries. The threshold of 350 million cases was crossed on Jan 25, of 300 million on Jan 8, of 250 million on Nov 9, of 200 million on Aug 5.

The biggest number of coronavirus cases was reported from the United States (74,787,329), followed by India (41,803,318), Brazil (25,620,209), France (19,322,157) and the United Kingdom (17,515,203). The biggest number of fatalities was reported from the United States (884,477), followed by Brazil (628,067), India (498,983), Russia (333,357) and Mexico (306,920).

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

As several European nations scale back or drop COVID-19 restrictions altogether, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging caution as the coronavirus remains.

Denmark lifted most of its COVID-19 restrictions Tuesday, including the use of masks in public places or requiring proof of vaccination to enter public venues, with government officials saying they no longer consider COVID-19 a “socially critical disease.” France, Britain and other European nations are following suit.

At a briefing Tuesday at the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is premature for any country either to surrender, or to declare victory over the pandemic.

Tedros said because of the omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, it remains highly transmissible and deadly. He said that in the 10 weeks since the omicron variant was identified, almost 90 million cases have been reported, more than in all of 2020. And he said the WHO is now starting to see a very worrying increase in deaths, in most regions of the world.

At same briefing, WHO COVID lead Maria Van Kerkhove urged nations to be cautious about lifting restrictions “all at once.” She suggested a more gradual process because many countries have not yet gone through the peak of their omicron surges, and others have low levels of vaccination coverage, especially among vulnerable populations.

WHO Emergencies Program chief Mike Ryan agreed with the call for a cautious approach, and noted all countries are not in the same place regarding the pandemic. He said countries that are making decisions to open more broadly also need to be sure they have the capacity to close back down just as quickly.

Ryan said, “It is important that we keep communities informed and maybe ensure that communities understand that measures may have to be reintroduced,” should COVID-19 cases make a rebound.

Source: Voice of America

An emerging version of the omicron variant of coronavirus does not seem more severe than the variant’s original version, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

Dr. Boris Pavlin of the WHO’s COVID-19 Response Team addressed the new variant in an online briefing as omicron’s more common BA.1 subvariant is replaced in Denmark and some other countries with the newer BA.2 subvariant.

“Looking at other countries where BA.2 is now overtaking, we’re not seeing any higher bumps in hospitalization than expected,” said Pavlin.

Pavlin said his remarks are based on data from Denmark, the first country where BA.2 surpassed BA.1. He added that vaccines continue to provide similar protection against the different forms of omicron.

The new iteration is more transmissible than the more common BA.1 variant, according to a Danish study that analyzed infections in more than 8,500 Danish households in December and January.

Denmark lifts most restrictions

But the spread of the new subvariant, which is also becoming dominant in India, Nepal, the Philippines and Qatar, did not stop Denmark Tuesday from lifting most pandemic restrictions.

Denmark, a country where more than 60% of its population over the age of 12 have received a third shot, said it no longer considers the COVID-19 outbreak “a socially critical disease” because the latest surge in infections is not placing a heavy burden on the country’s health system.

“I dare not say that it is a final goodbye to restrictions,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday on Danish radio. “We do not know what will happen in the fall, whether there will be a new variant.”

Elsewhere in Europe, Ireland has dropped most restrictions, while the Netherlands and other countries are relaxing containment measures.

Source: Voice of America

Malawi’s government says is registering low numbers of teenagers taking the COVID-19 vaccine. This is largely because parents and guardians are reluctant to give consent to have their children get the shot.

Malawi started administering the Pfizer vaccine to children ages 12 to 17 on January 1st to help contain the spread of the coronavirus among children.

Vaccination of teens requires health care providers to seek consent from parents.

Statistics show that fewer than 4,000 children were vaccinated as of Saturday, a figure health authorities said was not impressive.

The low response is blamed on parents refusing to give consent to health workers.

Mailesi Mhango is the district coordinator for the Expanded Program on Immunization in the Ministry of Health.

She says reluctance is more prevalent for children who go to public or government schools, where none of the youngsters has so far been vaccinated.

“For the privately owned schools, the response is better compared to government-run schools. I don’t know why. But for private schools, at least there is a positive response; many schools are booking us. ‘Can you come and vaccinate our learners?’ So, we are going to such schools and vaccinating them,” she said.

Willy Malimba, the president of the Teachers’ Union of Malawi, says it is a non-starter to expect teenage students to get the COVID-19 shot in schools.

“This time around, even when the government can decide to go to school to vaccinate learners, I am sure that school can be immediately closed because the learners, even the teachers will run away, unless they are fully sensitized. Otherwise, they are taking this issue as a negative issue because of the coming of this vaccine; it came with negatives,” he said.

Malimba recounts incidents where students have run away from suspected providers of the vaccine.

“Even myself I have been experiencing some situations whereby I was going to certain schools and when learners saw my car, they ran away and I was told from the head teachers that the learners are running away because they think that we are coming with the vaccine,” he said.

Government statistics show that only about 7.3 % of about 20 million people in Malawi are fully vaccinated, far from the required 60% to reach herd immunity.

The low uptake is largely attributed to myths that link COVID-19 vaccine to infertility and allegations that the vaccine is the government’s ploy to reduce the population.

In a statement Saturday, the co-chairperson for the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma, urged all parents and guardians to get their children aged 12 years and above inoculated.

He said doing so will protect these children from severe disease and hospitalization, even if they do become infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

Some parents say they are not ready for that at the moment.

Lindiwe Mwale, a mother of three children, two of them teenagers, is among the parents concerned.

She spoke via a messaging application from her home in Chiwembe Township in Blantyre.

“I am a parent who has vaccinated them before [with] other vaccines which are there, but for this one [COVID-19 vaccine] I really would not want to risk them by getting them vaccinated by a vaccine which is currently on trial. After all, the COVID-19 is not greatly affecting people of that age; many of them make it,” she said.

Mwale, who is vaccinated, also says with a drop in cases in Malawi, from about 700 daily cases previously to now 80 cases as of Saturday, she feels the pandemic poses no threat that would warrant vaccination of her children.

Health authorities say they are now planning to meet the parents and teachers and educate them on the importance of having children vaccinated against COVID-19.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA — The World Health Organization reports a significant drop in the number of new cases of COVID-19 in Africa for the first time since the omicron variant began widely circulating on the continent two months ago.

The coronavirus pandemic has infected nearly 10.5 million people in Africa and killed more than 234,000. World Health Organization officials say the latest figures reflect a 20 percent drop in coronavirus cases in the week up to January 16, and an 8 percent dip in deaths.

While the fourth omicron-fueled wave appears to have peaked, WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says the continent is not yet out of the pandemic woods. She says further monitoring is needed to determine whether the trend will be sustained.

“However, while four sub-regions reported a fall in new cases, we are closely monitoring the situation in North Africa, where cases spiked by 55 percent, and Tunisia and Morocco have both seen an exponential increase, overtaking South Africa as the countries with the most cases on the continent,” said Moeti.

The highly transmissible omicron variant triggered a sharp surge in the number of cases. But the severity of disease appears to be milder than that of previous strains. Nevertheless, Moeti says the continent has not yet turned the tide on the pandemic. She says there is no room for complacency.

She warns further pandemic waves are inevitable as long as the virus continues to circulate. She notes Africa remains particularly vulnerable because of its unequal access to life-saving vaccines. She says Africa faces similar impediments in gaining access to a full range of COVID-19 treatments.

The WHO has approved 11 therapeutics that can be used to treat COVID-19. It currently is reviewing the data on two oral antivirals, which have shown promising results in reducing the risk of hospitalization in some patients.

WHO regional director Moeti says she fears Africa once again may lose out in gaining access to those treatments because of their limited availability and high cost. For example, she notes two effective antibody treatments cost between $550 and $1,220 for a single dose.

“The deep inequity that left Africa at the back of the queue for vaccines must not be repeated with life-saving treatment,” said Moeti. “Universal access to diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics will pave the shortest path to the end of this pandemic.”

Moeti warns nations to prepare for the appearance of other transmissible, possibly more virulent strains of the coronavirus. She says the coronavirus will continue to mutate and pose an ongoing threat to nations if the inequitable distribution of life-saving vaccines and therapeutics between rich and poor countries is maintained.

Source: Voice of America

Two U.S. government agencies – space agency NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said Thursday 2021 was the sixth hottest year on record.

In separate reports, the agencies also said their data indicates the last eight years were the eight hottest since modern recordkeeping began. They also said global temperatures in 2021 were .85 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average. NOAA says last year was also the 45th year – since 1977 – average global temperatures rose above the 20th century average.

The agencies’ data shows global temperatures, averaged over a 10-year period to take out natural variability, are nearly 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than 140 years ago.

In an interview with reporters, NOAA analysis chief Russell Vose said it is “warmer now than any time in at least the past 2,000 years, and probably much longer.” He predicted 2022 would also be among the warmest years ever.

Both agencies attributed weather anomalies from the past year, like melting sea ice, severe wildfires, and record flooding, as attributable to the warming climate.

NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt told the Associated Press the long-term trend is “very, very clear. And it’s because of us. And it’s not going to go away until we stop increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

Source: Voice of America