With an eye 45% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 i cases in most states, Americans across the country gathered with family and friends at parades, picnics and barbecues over the weekend to mark nineteenth federal holiday.
But around the world it’s not such a rosy picture. Almost 85% of all doses of COVID-19 are administered globally in high- and upper-middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.
Less than 1% of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated, and the continent is recording a sharp increase in cases, according to the WHO. Twenty-two African countries recorded an increase in the number of cases by more than 20% last week, and several nations reported the highest number of new weekly cases since the start of the pandemic.
“Africa is in the middle of a blown third wave. The sobering trajectory of the growing cases should encourage everyone to take urgent action,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. statement. “In India and elsewhere, we have seen how quickly COVID-19 can recover and overcome health systems. Thus, public health measures must be rapidly increased to find, test, isolate and care for patients and to find their contacts quickly.”
The a highly contagious Delta variant it has been recorded in 14 African countries. President Joe Biden and the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday warned of a variant could pose a new threat to public health in the United States
Also in the news:
►Member of the Uganda Olympic team is banned from entering Japan after a positive test for COVID-19. It is the first infection recorded among athletes arriving for the Tokyo Games, which begin in five weeks.
► On Sunday, the United States sent 2.5 million doses of Modernine COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, tripling an earlier promise.
►Milkha Singh, one of India’s first sports superstars and ace sprinter to overcome a children’s tragedy and become the country’s most famous athlete, died late Friday from complications from COVID-19. He was 91 years old.
📈 Today’s issues: The United States has more than 33.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 601,700 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. In total, there are more than 178 million cases and more than 3.86 million deaths. More than 149 million Americans are fully vaccinated – nearly 45% of the population, According to the CDC.
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Arizona reports a large increase in infections and deaths
Saturday in Arizona reported 641 new COVID-19 cases and 16 additional deaths, the second-largest single day since June 2.
This is a small jump, especially considering that infections in the country are on a declining trend. Arizona also lags behind most of the country in terms of vaccination, recording 49% of adults who received at least one injection compared to 53% nationwide, according to CDC data.
Governor Doug Ducey issued an executive order earlier this week to prevent state public universities and community colleges from requiring students to be vaccinated, submit vaccination documents, be tested, or forced to wear masks. No college in the state had a request, but Arizona State University announced it could implement it.
“The vaccine works. But the vaccine is the choice,” Ducey said on Twitter hours after the policy was announced. “This policy is, at worst, social engineering. Health policy should be based on science, not on signaling virtues. In America, freedom wins.”
– Elinor Aspegren
The same mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines can help treat cancer
The fight against COVID-19 has proven to be a great boon in the field of cancer research: mRNA has become almost a household term, it has been proven that technology can work and it has been shown that mRNA can be created very quickly and on an extremely large scale.
Companies like Moderna and Pfizer’s partner BioNTech use mRNA to encourage the bodies of cancer patients to make vaccines that will – hopefully – prevent recurrences and treatments designed to fight advanced tumors.
If they prove effective, which won’t be known for at least another year or two, they could be added to an arsenal of immune therapies designed to force the body to fight its own tumors.
“We feel pretty good when we enroll patients in these trials and hopefully they will eventually be able to show improved outcomes,” said Dr. Ryan Sullivan, a melanoma specialist from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Read more.
– Karen Weintraub
Protesters are calling for Brazilian policy because the number of deaths in the country is 500,000 higher
Anti-government protesters took to the streets of cities across Brazil on Saturday, while the number of confirmed nations since COVID-19 rose by over half a million. It is a tragedy that many critics blame for President Jair Bolsonar’s attempt to keep the disease to a minimum.
Thousands of people gathered in Rio de Janeiro, waving flags reading “Bolsonaro is coming out.” Other marchers posted placards reading, “500,000 deaths. He’s guilty.” Similar marches were held in at least 22 of the 26 Brazilian states.
Critics of Bolsonaro’s message that the locking measures harmed companies, as well as his promotion of a denial of treatment like hydroxychloroquine, contributed to the high death toll and a sluggish vaccine campaign that completely inoculated less than 12% of the population. The country, with about 213 million people a day, records nearly 100,000 new infections and 2,000 deaths.
Mass public viewings of the Olympic Games at 6 locations that will be used for vaccination have been canceled
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike says plans to massively monitor the Olympics at six locations have been canceled as concerns about a coronavirus pandemic amid amid one of the slowest vaccine launches in the developed world grow.
“These are necessary measures to achieve the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo,” Koike told reporters after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
The sites included Inokashira and Yoyogi Parks, as well as the University of Tokyo, which watched a live broadcast of the matches, which open on July 23. Koike said the sites would instead be offered as vaccination sites.
CDC Director: The Delta variant is likely to become dominant in the US
The coronavirus pandemic continues to decline in many parts of the United States, but the spread of a highly contagious Delta variant among unvaccinated could pose a new threat to public health, warned President Joe Biden and head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.
During a coronavirus update in the press, Biden described the Delta variant as “more easily transmitted, potentially more deadly and especially dangerous to young people.” Although Biden took the opportunity to recognize the “bright summer” ahead of those vaccinated, he said there was cause for concern among people living in “countries with lower vaccination rates.”
“People who get seriously ill and hospitalized because of COVID-19 are the ones who are not fully vaccinated,” Biden said. “The new variant will leave unvaccinated people even more vulnerable than they were a month ago.”
CDC Director dr. Rochelle Walensky shared Biden’s concerns during a visit to Good Morning America on Friday. Walensky said greater portability of the Delta variant is likely to help it become the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the U.S. in the near future.
Contribution: Associated Press
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