China locked down a coastal city of 4.5 million people to halt an outbreak of the Covid-19 Delta variant after it detected a dozen cases.
Residents of Xiamen, in the southeastern province of Fujian, are banned from leaving other than in exceptional circumstances. The city, a manufacturing hub for electronics from companies including ABB and Schneider Electric, closed off all residential compounds, while cinemas, bars, gyms, and libraries halted business.
An all-star panel of scientists from around the world cautioned that most people won’t need a booster shot because vaccines are performing well. That view was backed up by the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 envoy, who warned that low vaccination rates outside rich countries make vaccine-evading variants increasingly likely.
Key developments:
Canberra extends lockdown by 4 weeks
Australia’s capital Canberra will extend its lockdown until at least October 15, after recording 22 new cases of Covid-19 Tuesday. The territory entered lockdown in early August after detecting one Covid-19 case, as the Delta outbreak that’s roiling Sydney spread.
Residents of Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney, totaling almost half the Australian population, are all enduring prolonged lockdowns as health authorities scramble to increase the vaccination rate before easing restrictions. New South Wales, the most populous state, recorded an additional 1,127 cases, decreasing the 7-day moving average to its lowest in a week.
Japan Finance minister calls for easing of restrictions
Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters that the government should ease restrictions to contain the virus as the economy can’t grow unless consumers are able to spend more. He said companies also needed to hand a greater share of their earnings to workers for the economy to grow and should use the growing pile of retained profits for investment.
Thailand to boost domestic travel
Thailand’s government is expected to start its stimulus programs to boost domestic travel on October 15, Tourism Minister Piphat Ratchakitprakarn said Tuesday. He reiterated plans to open five key provinces, including the capital Bangkok, to foreign tourists from October 1, with 21 provinces to follow October 15. He said rising coronavirus cases in Phuket stemmed from active case detected in migrant workers and fishery workers, which should be dealt with by the end of September.
Thailand reported 11,786 new infections on Tuesday, the lowest single-day increase since July 20. The infection count has dropped in recent weeks and the government is gearing up to reopen more provinces to vaccinated visitors and more businesses next month. It’s accelerating its vaccination drive in key regions, including the capital Bangkok. More than 95 percent of residents there have received their first shot and 36 percent are fully inoculated, compared to about 38 percent and 17 percent nationwide.
France cites J&J breakthrough infections
France has experienced what its health regulator ANSM called an “important number” of breakthrough cases among those who received Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. France, which has administered about 1 million doses of J&J’s Janssen vaccine so far, has seen 32 breakthroughs, 29 of which were severe cases, according to a report from ANSM Monday. Four people died of Covid-19 after getting the vaccine, the regulator said. ANSM is conducting further investigations.
Italy to start giving third doses next week
Italy will start administering third doses of Covid-19 vaccines to its most vulnerable citizens starting September 20, the country’s virus emergency czar said on Monday.
Indonesia eases curbs as infections slow
Indonesia eased virus restrictions further as it reported the fewest new cases since May, which was before the spread of the Delta variant led to its worst outbreak.
Restrictions will be relaxed in more areas across the country, including in Bali, with cinemas allowed to reopen with 50 percent maximum capacity for some cities. There were 2,577 new cases confirmed on Monday, the least since May 15. Deaths have also eased, with 276 fatalities reported on Monday, compared with the three-month low of 188 on Sunday.
Scientists cautious on vaccine boosters
Covid-19 vaccines work so well that most people don’t yet need a booster, an all-star panel of scientists from around the world said in a review that’s likely to fuel the debate over whether to use them.
Governments would be better served to focus on immunizing the unvaccinated and to wait for more data on which boosters, and at what doses, would be most effective, the authors, who included two prominent US Food and Drug Administration experts, argued in the medical journal The Lancet.
WHO envoy warns of risk of variants
Variants that can eventually evade Covid vaccines are increasingly likely with vast parts of the world unprotected, and rich countries should hold back on booster doses until others catch up, according to a special envoy to the World Health Organization.
“Variants that can beat the protection offered by vaccines are bound to emerge all over the world in the coming months and years,” David Nabarro, the WHO envoy, said in an interview Monday with Bloomberg Television. “This is an ongoing battle, and we need to work together.”
Bloomberg News