The UK has recorded a further 31,795 coronavirus cases, bringing the total of infections to 5,669,770. It follows a further drop in cases on Friday, when 36,389 new cases of Covid-19 and a further 64 deaths were reported. The daily death total is not yet available for Saturday, due to technical difficulties in processing England deaths data. Public Health England said 46,519,998 people have now received the 1st dose of a Covid vaccine and 36,953,691 have received a 2nd dose.The latest infection increase comes as the government expanded the daily test scheme to replace self-isolation for emergency service workers, including police, fire, border and transport workers. The “test to return to work” scheme means those who have received an NHS Covid 19 app alert to self-isolate, or have been called by Test and Trace, will be able to continue working if they test negative for coronavirus.
India reports 39,742 new COVID-19 cases in last 24 hours: government
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India reported 39,742 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, a government statement said on Sunday.The COVID-19 death toll rose by 535 deaths in the last 24 hours, with the total reaching 420,551, health ministry data showed.
Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases rise by 1,919 – RKI
BERLIN, July 24 (Reuters) – The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,919 to 3,754,511, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Saturday.
Italy records further 5,000 cases
Italy reported 5,140 daily infections on Saturday compared to 5,143 on Friday. It also recorded five coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 17 the day before, the country’s health ministry said.Italy has registered 127,942 deaths linked to Covid-19 since its outbreak emerged in February last year, Reuters reports.The country has reported more than 4.3 million cases to date.
Vietnam records worst daily caseload
Vietnam’s health ministry has reported 7,968 new cases on Saturday; the second consecutive day it has posted its worst daily increase. More than two-thirds of the cases are in Ho Chi Minh City, Reuters quotes the ministry as saying.
Highest daily death toll yet in Tunisia
Tunisia suffered 317 deaths in the last 24 hours, its worst daily toll since the start of the pandemic, its health ministry has said. According to Reuters, the ministry also reported 5,624 new cases, increasing concerns about the country’s ability to fight the pandemic, with intensive care units in hospitals completely full and a lack of oxygen supplies. The vaccination campaign is moving slowly.
Russia has suffered 799 deaths its worst daily toll.
Moscow also reported 23,947 new cases. The country has been in the grip of a surge in cases that authorities blame on the more contagious Delta variant, though some officials have suggested in recent days that cases, at least in Moscow, have started to decline.
Malaysia suffers worst day for new cases
Malaysia’s health ministry has reported 15,902 new cases; the highest number of daily infections since the beginning of the pandemic. This brings the cumulative number of cases in the country to 996,393, Reuters reports.
Spain is reporting more than 25,000 new cases a day
Spain is currently one of Europe’s hot spots for new infections. Spain is reporting more than 25,000 new cases a day now compared with 3,400 a day a month ago, according to Our World in Data. “A month ago, when we let go of the most of the restrictions, we didn’t call it ‘Freedom Day’ like England, but basically it was a fairly big move toward more freedom,” Rafael Bengoa, former Director for Health Systems at WHO and one of Spain’s leading public health experts, told the AP. That is one of the reasons that we have the present epidemiological situation.”
Brazil adds 38,091 COVID cases, 1,108 deaths
Brazil’s Health Ministry confirmed on Saturday that 1,108 fatalities were attributed to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the total coronavirus-caused death toll to 549,448.During the day, Brazil’s caseload reached 19,670,534 after 38,091 people tested positive for the virus, while the cumulative number of recoveries increased to a total of 18,340,760. On the vaccination front, over 37 million people have been fully vaccinated, accounting for nearly 17.5% of the Brazilian population, while 46.6% have received their first dose of the jab.
New Health Ministry statistics indicated that, on average, the Pfizer shot — the vaccine given to nearly all Israelis — is now just 39% effective against infection, while being only 41% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID. Previously, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was well over 90% effective against infection. Israel’s research show the shot was highly effective in avoiding serious illness, at 91.4% effectiveness. The Israeli statistics also appeared to paint a picture of protection that gets weaker as months pass after vaccination, due to fading immunity. People vaccinated in January were said to have just 16% protection against infection now, while in those vaccinated in April, effectiveness was at 75%. Reacting to the Israeli figures on Thursday, epidemiologist Nadav Davidovitch, a Ben-Gurion University professor and leader of Israel’s doctors’ union, told The Times of Israel, “What we see is that the vaccine is less effective in preventing transmission, but it’s easy to overlook that it’s still very effective in preventing hospitalization and severe cases.” Davidovitch added: “It’s still excellent, very good in preventing severe cases and death, but less so in preventing transmission. And this is why we can’t rely on vaccinations alone, but also need Green Passes, testing, masks, and the like.” Davidovitch stressed that all figures should be treated as preliminary and with limited relevance given the relatively small numbers of positive patients at the moment. “It’s quite early to comment, as the number of positive people is still quite low,” he said. He spoke after ministers approved reinstating the Green Pass, limiting attendance at large events to those who are vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19, or who present a valid negative test result. The renewed restrictions will apply to both indoor and outdoor events with over 100 participants, starting on July 29. The requirement to present proof of vaccination, recovery or a negative test from the past 72 hours will only apply to people older than 12. Under that age, there will be no restrictions. The decision was approved by the so-called coronavirus cabinet, a high-level ministerial forum tasked with leading the government’s pandemic response. It must still be ratified by the government, and is set to be voted on Sunday during the weekly cabinet meeting.
SEOUL, July 25 (Yonhap) — Kia Corp., South Korea’s second-biggest carmaker, said Sunday it will suspend one of its eight domestic plants on Monday as dozens of workers at the factory were infected with COVID-19 in recent days. The No. 1 Sohari plant’s suspension may be extended depending on the result of coronavirus tests on its workers, a company spokesman said. The Sohari plant in Gwangmyeong, just south of Seoul, has an annual output capacity of 320,000 units and mainly produces the Stinger sports car, the K9 flagship sedan and the Carnival minivan. In May, Kia halted the No. 2 Sohari plant that makes the Stonic subcompact SUV for two days due to semiconductor shortages. Kia has eight domestic plants in Korea and seven overseas ones — three in China and one each in the United States, Slovakia, Mexico and India. Their overall capacity is 3.84 million units.
ATHENS (Reuters) – Police fired tear gas and water canon to disperse crowds protesting against coronavirus vaccinations in Athens on Wednesday. About 1,500 people took part in the protest outside parliament, the second in a week against Greece’s COVID-19 inoculation drive. A rally last Wednesday drew more than 5,000 people, some of them waving Greek flags and wooden crosses. The protests were prompted by a government decision earlier in July ordering the mandatory vaccination of healthcare workers and nursing home staff. The government has suggested other groups, such as teachers, may need to be vaccinated in the fall. Infections in Greece have been rising in recent weeks, and authorities reported almost 3,000 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 463,473 people. More than 12,800 have died.
Thousands of people protested in cities across Italy Saturday against the government’s introduction of restrictions on unvaccinated people as Rome tries to slow an upturn in Covid-19 infections.”Freedom!” and “Down with the dictatorship!” chanted Italian flag-waving demonstrators from Naples in the south to Turin in the north, while rain-soaked protesters in Milan shouted “No Green Pass!”. The vast majority were not wearing masks. The Green Pass, which is an extension of the EU’s digital Covid certificate, will be required from August 6 to enter cinemas, museums, indoor swimming pools or sports stadiums, or eat indoors at restaurants. It will serve as proof bearers have either been vaccinated, undergone a recent negative Covid-19 test, or recovered from a coronavirus infection. Business owners are expected to enforce the rules or face stiff fines under the measure adopted by the cabinet this week as it attempts to protect the slowly recovering economy and prevent further lockdowns. A proposal to make the pass mandatory for travelling by train, coach or plane is expected to be re-evaluated in September. “Better to die free than live like slaves!” read one placard held up outside Milan’s Gothic cathedral, while another in Rome’s historic centre read “Vaccines set you free” over a picture of the gates to Auschwitz. Protesters in Genova were wearing yellow Star of David badges declaring them “unvaccinated”. Demonstrations had been announced on social media for Saturday in at least 80 cities. The decision Thursday to make the pass mandatory for many activities saw a boom in vaccine bookings, up 200 percent in Italy’s smaller regions, according to Covid-19 emergency chief Francesco Figliuolo. Italy, one of the hardest-hit by the pandemic in Europe, reported over 5,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, and five deaths.
Thousands of demonstrators have marched through London in a day of protests. Anti-lockdown and climate change demonstrations took place across Westminster, Lambeth and Southwark alongside some smaller protests. The Metropolitan Police arrested 12 people in raids in three areas of the capital on Friday and confiscated items linked to the protests. The arrests were “proactive action” to reduce the likelihood of criminal activity, the force added. Officers seized bamboo structures, lock-on equipment and other items. Those arrested have been taken into police custody as inquiries continue. Thousands of protesters were seen marching through the streets of central London on Saturday. Demonstrators packed the streets outside Downing Street. Flares were set off while crowds shouted “shame on you” followed by prolonged booing. Some protesters were seen throwing tennis balls at the Houses of Parliament. One protester, who did not wish to be named, said: “They have little messages on them. Most of them are not very nice.”
Anti-lockdown protesters have marched in major Australian cities, as Covid cases spiked to record numbers in Sydney and authorities warned of a “continuing and growing problem”. Thousands of angry, unmasked people marched through the Sydney central business district on Saturday afternoon demanding an end to the city’s lockdown, which is entering its fifth week. After protesters were dispersed, the New South Wales police minister, David Elliott, announced the formation of a strike force to identify each of the 3,500 protesters at the “super spreader” event. Elliott said 57 people were arrested and several police officers had been assaulted. “If we don’t see a [Covid] spike in the areas these protesters came from in the next week I’ll be very, very surprised,” Elliott said. “It was just a whole lot of halfwits.” Demonstrators broke through barriers in the Sydney CBD and threw plastic bottles at police. Similar scenes unfolded in Melbourne and Adelaide, which are both in lockdown, and Brisbane, which is not. As demonstrators were gathering in Sydney, the New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, revealed a record number of new coronavirus cases had been detected – 163 in the previous 24 hours – and pleaded with people to stay at home. “We really need our community, particularly in south-western and western Sydney, to stay at home, to hear the message and stay at home,” Hazzard said. The NSW police said officers from across central metropolitan region, assisted by specialist resources, were deployed in response to the unauthorised Sydney protest. “The NSW police force recognises and supports the rights of individuals and groups to exercise their rights of free speech and peaceful assembly, however, today’s protest is in breach of the current Covid-19 public health orders,” it said. “The priority for NSW police is always the safety of the wider community.” Hazzard condemned the planned protests as “really silly” on Saturday morning. “We live in a democracy and normally I am certainly one who supports people’s rights to protest … but at the present time we’ve got cases going through the roof and we have people thinking that’s OK to get out there and possibly be close to each other at a demonstration.” NSW police deputy commissioner Gary Worboys said police wanted to work with the organisers to make sure people were complying with public health orders and that it did not turn into a “disastrous” mass spreading event. In Melbourne, thousands of protesters turned out in the central business district chanting “freedom”.An AAP photographer on scene described the rally as initially “eerie” with the crowd maskless and verbally aggressive, but said the atmosphere later mellowed. Some protesters lit flares as they gathered outside Victoria’s Parliament House. Protesters held banners, including one that read: “This is not about a virus it’s about total government control of the people.” The protest was brought to a violent end by police. An AAP photographer wearing visible press accreditation was pepper sprayed as police cleared the rally, as were other photographers.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, had labelled the idea of protesting against the lockdown as “ridiculous”.
“Protest against this virus by staying at home, following the rules and getting out of lockdown,” he said. Victoria recorded 12 new locally acquired Covid-19 infections on Saturday, 10 of which were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period. All infections are linked to current outbreaks. Victoria has been in lockdown since 16 July. A car rally is also planned for locked-down Adelaide, the state capital of South Australia, with police warning they will make arrests over unlawful activity. On Saturday, the South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, has reported one new case of Covid-19, linked to the Tenafeate winery cluster. The state is in the middle of a seven-day lockdown, which Marshall says is on track to be lifted on Tuesday. The slow rate of Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout has been heavily criticised, with only 12.4% of the population fully vaccinated so far. Australia’s deputy chief medical officer, Michael Kidd, said the protests were putting lives at risk. “I’m very concerned if people are not following those restrictions … When that happens, there is the risk that we’ll get spread of Covid-19,” he said on Saturday. “This is even more imperative during this outbreak with the Delta variant than it was during the times last year when we saw similar protests.”
PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) – French anti-riot police fired teargas on Saturday as clashes erupted during protests in central Paris against COVID-19 restrictions and a vaccination campaign, television reported. Police sought to push back demonstrators near the capital’s Gare Saint-Lazare railway station after protesters had knocked over a police motorbike ridden by two officers, television pictures showed. Images showed a heavy police presence on the capital’s streets. Scuffles between police and demonstrators also broke out the Champs-Elysees thoroughfare, where teargas was fired and traffic was halted, the pictures showed. At another protest called by far-right politicians in west Paris, demonstrators opposed to anti-coronavirus measures carried banners reading “Stop the dictatorship”. Across France, protests were planned in cities including Marseille, Montpellier, Nantes and Toulouse. An official with France’s interior ministry said 161,000 people had demonstrated across the country on Saturday, up from 114,000 a week earlier.French lawmakers are due to vote this weekend on a bill drafted by the government aimed at setting up a health pass and mandatory vaccination for health workers.
As Israel struggles with a new surge of coronavirus cases, its health ministry reported on Thursday that the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine protection against infection by the coronavirus may have diminished significantly compared with this winter and early spring. Analyzing the government’s national health statistics, researchers estimated that the Pfizer shot was just 39 percent effective against preventing infection in the country in late June and early July, compared with 95 percent from January to early April. In both time periods, however, the shot was more than 90 percent effective in preventing severe disease. Israeli scientists cautioned that the new study is much smaller than the first and that it measured cases in a narrower window of time. As a result, a much larger range of uncertainties flank their estimates, which could also be skewed by a variety of other factors. Dr. Ran Balicer, the chairman of Israel’s Covid-19 National Expert Advisory Panel, said that the challenges of making accurate estimates of vaccine effectiveness were “immense.” He said that more careful analysis of the raw data was needed to understand what is going on.“I think that data should be taken very cautiously because of small numbers,” said Eran Segal, a biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who is a consultant to the Israeli government on vaccines. Nevertheless, the new estimates are raising concern both in Israel and elsewhere, including the United States, that the vaccine might be losing some of its effectiveness. Possible reasons include the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant or a waning of protection from the shots over time. Israel launched an aggressive campaign with the Pfizer vaccine in January and the country has achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 58 percent of the population fully vaccinated. At the start of the campaign, government researchers began estimating how much the shot reduced people’s risk of getting Covid-19.They published their results in May, based on records from Jan. 24 to April 3: They estimated that the vaccine was 95 percent effective in preventing infection from the coronavirus in the country. In other words, the risk of getting Covid-19 was nearly 100 percent reduced in vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated ones. The researchers also estimated that the vaccine was 97.5 percent effective against severe disease.From a peak of over 8,600 cases a day in January, cases plummeted in the following months until only a few dozen people were testing positive on a daily basis across Israel. The vaccine most likely played a part in that drop, along with the tight restrictions that the government imposed on travel and meetings.Israel began relaxing its restrictions in the spring. In late June, the cases surged again. Now, over a thousand people are testing positive each day, leading Israel to restore some restrictions this week.Updated July 23, 2021, 2:47 p.m. ETSome of the people that tested positive for the coronavirus in the new surge were fully vaccinated. Epidemiologists had expected such breakthrough infections, as they do with all vaccines. Researchers at the Ministry of Health took another look at the effectiveness of the vaccine, limiting their analysis to the surge from June 6 to July 3. In that period, they estimated, the effectiveness of the vaccine at preventing infections was down to 64 percent. More recently, they ran another analysis. This time, they looked at cases between June 20 and July 17. In that period, they estimated, the vaccine’s effectiveness was even lower: just 39 percent against infection. Still, they estimated that the vaccine’s effectiveness against serious disease remained high, at 91.4 percent. If a vaccine has an effectiveness of 39 percent that does not mean that 61 percent of people who got vaccinated were infected by the coronavirus. Instead, it means the risk of getting infected is 39 percent less among vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated. So even at that lower percentage, the data shows that vaccinated people have significantly less risk of getting infected than unvaccinated people.The small number of people in the latest study means that the true effectiveness might be lower or higher. Making the numbers even more uncertain is the fact that the new surge has not yet spread evenly across the whole country. Travelers who have picked up the highly contagious Delta variant have brought it back to neighborhoods where vaccination rates are relatively high. Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S. The new outbreaks have yet to swamp communities of Orthodox Jews or Arab Israelis, where vaccination rates are lower. That imbalance may make the vaccine seem less effective than it really is. Also, the ages of people vaccinated vary significantly during the different time periods studied. For example, the people who got their vaccines in January were different than those who got them in April in one major respect: They were over 60. If more people who got vaccinated in January are now getting infected, it may not have to do with the vaccine itself, but with their advanced age — or some other factor that researchers have yet to take into consideration. Still, the new estimates have prompted some researchers to ponder what might be happening to the vaccines. The Delta variant grew more common in Israel in June, raising the possibility that it might be good at evading the vaccine. In Britain, where Delta began surging earlier in the year, researchers estimated the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the variant, based on a review of everyone in the United Kingdom who got vaccinated up till May 16. On Wednesday, they reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that it is 88 percent effective against symptomatic Covid-19 .Another possibility is that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is gradually becoming less potent. The Ministry of Health researchers found that people who were inoculated in January were having breakthrough infections at a greater rate than people vaccinated in April. If the vaccine is indeed waning after six months, the implications can be enormous. It can influence the Israeli government’s current deliberations about whether to give people a third shot. Dr. Segal says that if the vaccines are indeed losing some of their potency, then it might be wise to roll out boosters to fight the Delta-driven outbreak.“If a third booster is safe and if it seems that it really would give a benefit, I think this is something we should definitely do as quickly as possible,” he said.Dr. Balicer, who is also the chief innovation officer at Clalit Health Services, said that he and his colleagues are working on their own study on the effectiveness of the vaccine in Israel, using Clalit’s health care records to take into account such confounding factors.“I think there is definitely some waning, but not as much as hypothesized based on the crude data, and it’s not just waning to blame,” Dr. Balicer said. “We are now trying to figure it out in a clean way.”
(Bloomberg) — Japan’s Olympics organizers reported a record number of new daily coronavirus infections linked to the Games, including three athletes, bringing the total to 110 just hours before the opening ceremony is scheduled to start in a nearly empty stadium in Tokyo. Nineteen new Covid-19 cases connected to the event were reported on Friday, the highest daily figure since organizers start
Earlier this month, U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff withdrew from the Games because she contracted Covid-19, and two South African footballers tested positive at the athletes’ village. Toyota Motor Corp. has said it won’t air television advertisements in Japan during the Olympics and its president won’t attend the opening ceremony as concerns about holding the Games amid the pandemic mount. The Games, which will be the first to be held without spectators, have triggered fierce public opposition in Japan, where vaccination rates lag other developed countries. Tokyo is grappling with a surge in coronavirus cases, which prompted the government to declare a fourth state of emergency in the capital earlier this month. Tokyo reported 1,359 new daily infections on Friday, surpassing 1,000.