Covid-19 continued its rampage through Asia as more countries report infections brought about by the Delta variant. South Korea and Thailand reported record infections, and Australian lockdowns are failing to rein in growing outbreaks.
Thailand reported 13,002 new cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day increase since the pandemic began.
The new infections take the nation’s cumulative cases to 439,477, according to the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration. The country reported 108 fatalities and 8,248 recoveries.
South Korea reported a record 1,784 new cases in the past 24 hours, up from 1,278 the previous day, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s web site.
There were 1,726 local infections, with 599 new cases in Seoul and 450 in Gyeonggi province. About 32 percent of the population, or 16.4 million people, have received at least one vaccine dose, while 13 percent are completely vaccinated.
Japan’s top Covid-19 adviser, Shigeru Omi, said in a TV program on Tuesday that Tokyo’s daily coronavirus cases could hit a new record in the first week of August, potentially reaching a figure close to 3,000. This would overlap with the Tokyo Olympics, which run through August 8.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is set to visit Tokyo to discuss Covid measures for the games with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, according to Kyodo. The meeting is scheduled to take place between Thursday and Saturday.
Meanwhile, new cases continued to climb in Australia’s two largest cities on Wednesday as strict stay-at-home orders impacting half the nation failed to halt the spread of the Delta variant.
New South Wales state, home to Sydney, reported 110 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases. The source of 56 infections is currently unknown. Victoria state, which is home to Melbourne, recorded 22 new local cases.
Key developments:
WHO’s vaccination goal
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a global failure to share vaccines, tests and treatments is fueling a two-track pandemic. “The haves are opening up, while the have-nots are locking down,” he said in a speech at the International Olympic Committee Session.
Governments worldwide can end the pandemic if they vaccinate 70 percent of every country’s population by mid-2022, he said.
Delta now accounts for 83 percent of US cases
The Delta variant now makes up 83 percent of all sequenced Covid-19 cases in the US, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said in a Senate hearing. The new figure is up from 50 percent from the week of July 3. She said areas of the country with limited vaccination coverage are allowing spread of the highly transmissible variant.
“The majority of these deaths can be prevented with a simple, safe, available vaccine,” Walensky said.
Chinese city imposes mandatory tests
Nanjing, the capital of eastern Jiangsu province, now requires Covid tests for people leaving the city after Nanjing airport found nine positive samples from workers on Tuesday. The airport has canceled flights, put relevant staff under centralized quarantine and started contact tracing.
London workers want money to return to office
London office workers want an average pay rise of 5,100 pounds ($6,950), equivalent to the cost of some annual railway season tickets, to return to their desks full-time after the pandemic, according to a survey.
With Covid-19 restrictions leaving many offices empty, white-collar staffs have spent 16 months mostly working from home. Just 17 percent now say they actively want a full-time return to the office, research for workplace analytics firm Locatee shows.
One dose of J&J less effective against Delta
A study found Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine is much less effective against the Delta and Lambda variants than against the original virus, the New York Times reported. The lab-based findings, which haven’t been peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal, suggest the need for a second dose for the 13 million people who have received the inoculation. The authors of the study recommended an mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer Inc.-Biontech SE or Moderna Inc. as the second shot.
The results contrast those from smaller studies published by J&J earlier this month that suggested a single dose of its vaccine is effective against Delta even eight months after inoculation, the Times said. Seema Kumar, a J&J spokeswoman, told the newspaper that the new data “do not speak to the full nature of immune protection.”
The new study is credible because the authors don’t have ties to any vaccine makers, John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, told the Times.
Pelosi staffer, White House aide test positive
A senior spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a White House official have tested positive for Covid-19. Both had been fully vaccinated and are among several staffers in Congress and at the White House who’ve been recently infected.
The Pelosi staff member had no contact with the Speaker since being exposed, Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, said in a statement. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that contract tracing had determined that the infected staff there had no close contact with senior people or President Joe Biden.
NYC daily vaccination rate drops to 15,000
New York City’s vaccine administration rate has plunged to less than 15,000 a day, from more than 100,000 a day in mid-April, as cases increase.
The city has fully vaccinated 4.5 million residents, data show, falling short of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal of 5 million by June. The city reported a seven-day average of 576 confirmed and probable cases on July 18, more than double the average on July 6. Bloomberg News
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