Weekly global COVID-19 cases surpass 10 mn
SWITZERLAND, INDIA, PAKISTAN, BANGLADESH: Almost twice as many people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past seven days as the pandemic’s previous weekly record thanks to a tsunami of Omicron, the new variant, that has swamped every aspect of daily life in many parts of the globe.
The highly mutated and infectious variant drove cases to a record 10 million in the seven days through Sunday, almost double the previous record of 5.7 million seen during in a week in late April.
Soaring infections – with a record number of cases reported from Australia and the US to Italy and France – disrupted the holiday season a year after vaccines first started rolling out.
Meanwhile, India started vaccinating children aged 15 to 18 against COVID-19 as it quickly expands its inoculation effort to cover the world’s largest adolescent population amid fears the Omicron variant will drive a new surge of infections.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF estimates India has the largest population of adolescents in the world with about 253 million of them.
The US is expanding COVID-19 boosters as it confronts the Omicron surge, with the Food and Drug Administration allowing extra Pfizer shots for children ages 12-15.
French MPs on Monday began debating draft legislation that would require most people to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter public spaces such as bars, restaurants and long-distance public transport.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the right measures were in place to tackle the surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant given the high levels of vaccination in the country.
Meanwhile, as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the country, Pakistani authorities have warned that Omicron-driven fifth wave has started.
The National Command and Operation Centre, the principal body governing the policies and implementation of the national COVID-19 effort of Pakistan, held a meeting on Monday and discussed the epidemic curve chart data, national vaccine strategy and disease prevalence across the country after 708 cases were recorded in a single day – the highest since October 30 when 733 infections were detected, The News International reported. Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s COVID-19 positivity rate, or the percentage of people who test positive for the virus, has increased to 2.91 per cent, the highest in nearly three months, according to the country’s Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Bangladesh reported its first three cases of COVID-19 on March 8, 2020, and the first death was reported in the country 10 days later. The daily positivity rate reached a high of 2.97 per cent on October 7 last year.
– THE HINDUSTAN TIMES, IANS,THE MALAY MAIL