World Health Organization (WHO)
Childhood vaccination rates plummeted in S Asia
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major reductions in childhood vaccinations in South Asia, with coverage of basic vaccination dropping by 6 per cent from 2019 to 2020, according to World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.
More than 5.3 million children in South Asia missed out on essential vaccines through routine immunization services in 2020 – nearly 1.9 million more than in 2019, said official data published by WHO and UNICEF on Thursday.
This is the highest number of under-vaccinated children since 2014.
Read: Reopening of schools cannot wait: UNICEF, UNESCO
Between 2019 and 2020, the South Asia region experienced a sharp decline in children receiving three doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine, falling from 90% to 84%.
The percentage of children covered by three doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine had increased steadily from 6 per cent in 1980 to a record high of 90 per cent in 2019 in South Asia.
“It is heartbreaking to see this reversal in child vaccinations due to COVID-19 in a region where tremendous progress was being made, thanks to political will and collective action,” said George Laryea-Adjei, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia.
“Nearly 4.4 million children are not even receiving a single dose of a vaccine that can protect them from deadly diseases, which is almost twice as many as the previous year. This is a huge setback for children in South Asia, as it puts their lives at risk, and leads to unspeakable suffering.”
The majority of countries in South Asia experienced drops in childhood vaccination rates.
The rates for DTP3 reduced by 9 per cent points in Nepal; 7 per cent points in Pakistan; 6 per cent points in India; 3 per cent points in Sri Lanka and 2 per cent points in Bhutan and Afghanistan.
However, robust recovery efforts mounted in many countries towards the end of the year helped to blunt the impacts of overall declines. In India, for example, vaccination drives in remote areas are helping to reach missed children.
Globally, the data shows that just 10 countries account for 62 per cent of all under- or unvaccinated children globally. India – particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic – had the highest number of unprotected children worldwide at 3.5 million, an increase of 1.4 million.
Pakistan had 1.3 million unprotected children in 2020, an increase of 0.4 million.
Concerningly, most of these children did not receive a single vaccine during the year, an indication that the most vulnerable, hard-to-reach children are paying the steepest price for pandemic-related disruptions to vaccine access.
At nearly 4.4 million, in 2020 South Asia recorded the highest number of children having failed to receive any routine vaccination in the past ten years. More than 3 million of these “zero-dose children” in 2020 lived in India.
Measles remains a concern, as well as outbreaks of diseases like diphtheria and yellow fever which can spread quickly where people are unvaccinated.
Read:Narayanganj fire: Unicef mourns death of children
In South Asia, coverage for the first dose of the measles vaccine fell from 92 per cent in 2019 to 88 per cent in 2020.
This is well below the 95 per cent recommended by WHO to protect against measles.
South Asia has had lengthy school closures, which have had significant ramifications for several vaccines such as HPV, which is critical for the achievement of cervical cancer elimination, and which is offered to children and adolescents at school.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, childhood vaccination rates against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, measles and polio had increased steadily for more than a decade in South Asia, as opposed to other regions in the world where coverage rates mostly stagnated.
However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many health facilities and personnel were diverted to support the COVID-19 response.
In some countries, health facilities have been closed or hours reduced, while some families may have delayed seeking healthcare because of safety fears.
As the health community attempts to recover lost ground due to COVID-19 related disruptions, UNICEF, WHO and partners are supporting government efforts to strengthen immunization systems in the region by:
Restoring services so countries can safely deliver routine immunization services during the COVID-19 pandemic;
Helping health workers communicate actively with caregivers to explain the importance of vaccinations;
Rectifying coverage and immunity gaps, including identifying communities and people who have been missed during the pandemic.
Beyond disruptions to immunization, other essential healthcare services in South Asia also experienced severe disruptions in 2020.
Research commissioned by UNICEF has estimated that in 2020, 228,000 children died due to disruptions to essential healthcare services in South Asia.
Read: ILO, UNICEF record first increase in child labour in two decades
The main killers of children in South Asia are diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea, which are both preventable and treatable when essential health services are operational, and families feel safe to use them.
“COVID-19 related disruptions are not just affecting vaccination efforts, but also other critical maternal and child health services. Today, the biggest health threat to children in South Asia is not from COVID-19, but from the childhood diseases which continue to kill children in the region,” added Laryea-Adjei.
“UNICEF calls on governments to invest in essential maternal and child health services, to ensure the most vulnerable children don't succumb to preventable diseases while COVID-19 rages on.”
Dispiriting setback: COVID deaths, cases rise again globally
COVID-19 deaths and cases are on the rise again globally in a dispiriting setback that is triggering another round of restrictions and dampening hopes for a return to normal life.
The World Health Organization reported Wednesday that deaths climbed last week after nine straight weeks of decline. It recorded more than 55,000 lives lost, a 3% increase from the week before.
Cases rose 10% last week to nearly 3 million, with the highest numbers recorded in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Britain, WHO said.
The reversal has been attributed to low vaccination rates, the relaxation of mask rules and other precautions, and the swift spread of the more-contagious delta variant, which WHO said has now been identified in 111 countries and is expected to become globally dominant in the coming months.
Read:US COVID-19 cases rising again, doubling over three weeks
Sarah McCool, a professor of public health at Georgia State University, said the combination amounts to a “recipe for a potential tinderbox.”
“It’s important that we recognize that COVID has the potential for explosive outbreaks,” warned Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University.
Amid the surge, the death toll in hard-hit Argentina surpassed 100,000. Daily coronavirus deaths in Russia hit record highs this week. In Belgium, COVID-19 infections, driven by the delta variant among the young, have almost doubled over the past week. Britain recorded a one-day total of more than 40,000 new cases for the first time in six months.
In Myanmar, crematoriums are working morning to night. In Indonesia, which recorded almost 1,000 deaths and over 54,000 new cases Wednesday, up from around 8,000 cases per day a month ago, people near Jakarta are pitching in to help gravediggers keep up.
“As the diggers are too tired and do not have enough resources to dig, the residents in my neighborhood decided to help,” Jaya Abidin said. “Because if we do not do this, we will have to wait in turn a long time for a burial.”
In the U.S., with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, newly confirmed infections per day have doubled over the past two weeks to an average of about 24,000, though deaths are still on a downward trajectory at around 260 a day.
Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the U.S., reported its fifth straight day Tuesday of more than 1,000 new cases.
Tokyo is under a fourth state of emergency ahead of the Summer Games this month, with infections climbing fast and hospital beds filling up. Experts have said caseloads could rise above 1,000 before the Olympics and multiply to thousands during the games.
The spike has led to additional restrictions in places like Sydney, Australia, where the 5 million residents will remain in lockdown through at least the end of July, two weeks longer than planned. South Korea has placed the Seoul area under its toughest distancing rules yet because of record case levels.
Parts of Spain, including Barcelona, moved to impose an overnight curfew. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said masks will be required on buses and trains even after other restrictions in England are lifted next week. Italy warned all those going abroad that they might have to quarantine before returning home.
Read: Immunized but banned: EU says not all COVID vaccines equal
Chicago announced that unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas must either quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test.
Connecticut lawmakers voted Wednesday to again extend Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency declarations, despite pushback from Republicans and some Democrats who argued it is time to get back to normal. Among other things, the move keeps in place orders requiring masks in certain settings.
An Alabama military base has ordered troops to show proof of vaccination before they can go maskless as the state sees an uptick in COVID-19 cases, a rise attributed to low vaccination rates. The measure was put in place Tuesday at Fort Rucker, home to the Army’s aviation program.
As troubling as the figures are around the world, they are still well below the alarming numbers seen earlier this year.
Seven months into the vaccination drive, global deaths are down to around 7,900 a day, after topping out at over 18,000 a day in January, according to Johns Hopkins data. Cases are running at around 450,000 a day, down by half since their peak in late April.
WHO acknowledged that many countries are now facing “considerable pressure” to lift all remaining precautions but warned that failing to do it the right way will just give the virus more opportunity to spread.
Pressure is growing worldwide to boost vaccination rates to counter the rise.
“If you have been waiting, if you have been on the fence, sign up and get that shot as soon as possible,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi pleaded.
Eighteen-year-old actress and singer Olivia Rodrigo appeared at the White House on Wednesday as part of an effort by President Joe Biden to persuade more young people. Getting a vaccination is something “you can do more easily than ever before,” she said.
While nearly 160 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, or over 55% of the population, young adults have shown less interest.
Read:FDA adds warning about rare reaction to J&J COVID-19 vaccine
Ohio is planning another prize program to encourage vaccinations, and Gov. Mike DeWine urged the government to give the vaccines full approval instead of just emergency authorization to ease people’s doubts.
“The reality is we now have two Ohios,” said Bruce Vanderhoff, the state’s chief medical officer. “An Ohio that is vaccinated and protected on the one hand, and an Ohio that is unvaccinated and vulnerable to delta on the other.”
Michigan already started a COVID-19 vaccine sweepstakes and announced the first four $50,000 winners Wednesday. Bigger prizes, including a $2 million jackpot, are coming.
In Missouri, second only to Arkansas with the worst COVID-19 diagnosis rate over the past week, political leaders in and around St. Louis have stepped up efforts to get people vaccinated through gift cards and by enlisting beauty salons and barbershops to dispense information.
As global COVID-19 deaths top 4 million, a suicide in Peru
On the last day of Javier Vilca’s life, his wife stood outside a hospital window with a teddy bear, red balloons and a box of chocolates to celebrate his birthday, and held up a giant, hand-scrawled sign that read: “Don’t give up. You’re the best man in the world.”
Minutes later, Vilca, a 43-year-old struggling radio journalist who had battled depression, jumped four stories to his death — the fifth suicide by a COVID-19 patient at Peru’s overwhelmed Honorio Delgado hospital since the pandemic began.
Vilca became yet another symbol of the despair caused by the coronavirus and the stark and seemingly growing inequities exposed by COVID-19 on its way to a worldwide death toll of 4 million, a milestone recorded Wednesday by Johns Hopkins University.
At the hospital where Vilca died on June 24, a single doctor and three nurses were frantically rushing to treat 80 patients in an overcrowded, makeshift ward while Vilca gasped for breath because of an acute shortage of bottled oxygen.
“He promised me he would make it,” said Nohemí Huanacchire, weeping over her husband’s casket in their half-built home with no electricity on the outskirts of Arequipa, Peru’s second-largest city. “But I never saw him again.”
Read:13 die in Peru disco stampede during police raid amid coronavirus lockdown
The number of lives lost around the world over the past year and a half is about equal to the population of Los Angeles or the nation of Georgia. It is three times the number of victims killed in traffic accidents around the globe per year. By some estimates, it is roughly the number of people killed in battle in all of the world’s wars since 1982.
Even then, the toll is widely believed to be an undercount because of overlooked cases or deliberate concealment.
More than six months after vaccines became available, reported COVID-19 deaths worldwide have dropped to around 7,900 a day, after topping out at over 18,000 a day in January. The World Health Organization recorded just under 54,000 deaths last week, the lowest weekly total since last October.
While vaccination campaigns in the U.S. and parts of Europe are ushering in a period of post-lockdown euphoria, and children there are being inoculated so that they can go back to summer camp and school, infection rates are still stubbornly high in many parts of South America and Southeast Asia. And multitudes in Africa remain unprotected because of severe vaccine shortages.
Also, the highly contagious delta variant is spreading rapidly, setting off alarms, driving up case counts in places and turning the crisis increasingly into a race between the vaccine and the mutant version.
The variant has been detected in at least 96 countries. Australia, Israel, Malaysia, Hong Kong and other places have reimposed restrictions to try to suppress it.
The variants, uneven access to vaccines and the relaxation of precautions in some wealthier countries are “a toxic combination that is very dangerous,” warned Ann Lindstrand, a top immunization official at WHO.
Instead of treating the crisis as a “me-and-myself-and-my-country” problem, she said, “we need to get serious that this is a worldwide problem that needs worldwide solutions.”
While the U.S. missed President Joe Biden’s goal of getting at least one shot into 70% of American adults by the Fourth of July, deaths nationwide are down sharply to around 200 per day, from a peak of over 3,400 per day in January.
And the U.S. economy has been roaring back, with growth this year forecast to be the fastest in almost seven decades. Even cruise ships, an early vector for the virus’s spread, are resuming voyages after a hiatus of more than a year.
In Britain, despite persistent fears about the delta variant, Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to lift all remaining restrictions this month. Britain this week recorded a one-day total of more than 30,000 new infections for the first time since January.
Read: Citing pandemic, judge agrees to free ex-Peru leader on bail
Elsewhere in Europe, tens of thousands of soccer fans in several cities were able to watch in person their national teams compete in the European Championship a year after the tournament was postponed, though attendance in some stadiums was severely restricted.
In parts of the developing world, it is a story of desperation.
In Latin America, just 1 in 10 people have been fully vaccinated, contributing to a rise in cases in countries such as Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia and Uruguay. Meanwhile, the virus is penetrating remote areas of Africa that were previously spared, contributing to a sharp rise in cases.
Peru has been one of the hardest hit by the virus, with the highest mortality of any country in the world as a percentage of its population.
In Arequipa, Vilca’s suicide was splashed across the front pages of the tabloids in the city of 1 million. His widow said his death was a protest against the deteriorating conditions faced by COVID-19 patients.
Nationwide, Peru has just 2,678 intensive care beds for a population of 32 million — a trifling number even by the low standards of Latin America. Nor was Vilca among the lucky 14% of Peruvians who have received a single dose of the vaccine.
Across the country, a new routine has emerged as people spend their days scrambling to fill heavy, green oxygen tanks bought on the black market that are a lifeline for sick loved ones. Some businesses have tripled the price for oxygen, forcing many people to plunder their savings or sell belongings.
From the hospital where Vilca took his life, “he’d call and say they were all abandoned. Nobody was paying attention,” his widow said, showing on her cellphone a photo her husband sent of himself in one of the rare moments he was lucky enough to have an oxygen mask.
Along with South America, which accounts for around 40% of the daily deaths from COVID-19, India has emerged as the other main driver of mortality. Even then, experts believe the roughly 1,000 deaths recorded daily in India are almost certainly an undercount.
In the state of Madhya Pradesh, with over 73 million people, one journalist found that that the spike in registered deaths from all causes in May alone was five times pre-pandemic levels and 67 times the official death toll from the virus for the month, which was 2,451.
Rich countries including Britain, the U.S. and France have promised to donate about 1 billion COVID-19 shots to help close the inequality gap. But experts say 11 billion are needed to immunize the world. Of the 3 billion doses that have been administered globally, less than 2% have been in the developing world.
Read:Eight Barcelona de Guayaquil fans die in bus crash in Peru
“Pledging to provide 1 billion doses is a drop in the ocean,” said Agnes Callemard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general. She slammed politicians for opting for “more of the same paltry half-measures and insufficient gestures.”
The U.N.-backed effort to distribute vaccines to poor countries, known as COVAX, has also faltered badly. Its biggest supplier, the Serum Institute of India, stopped exporting vaccines in March to deal with the epidemic on the subcontinent.
Meanwhile, countries including Seychelles, Chile and Bahrain, relying on Chinese-made vaccines, have seen outbreaks even after reaching relatively high levels of coverage, raising questions about the shots’ effectiveness.
Dora Curry, an Atlanta-based director of health equity at the charity CARE, said she is deeply worried that while children in Germany, France and the U.S. are getting immunized, relief is slow to arrive for people far more vulnerable in poor countries.
“If there were a way I could give that dose to somebody in Uganda, I would,” said Curry, who acknowledged she will probably have her 11-year-old daughter immunized when she is eligible. “But this just speaks to the problems with the distribution system we have.”
Experts question if WHO should lead pandemic origins probe
As the World Health Organization draws up plans for the next phase of its probe of how the coronavirus pandemic started, an increasing number of scientists say the U.N. agency it isn’t up to the task and shouldn’t be the one to investigate.
Numerous experts, some with strong ties to WHO, say that political tensions between the U.S. and China make it impossible for an investigation by the agency to find credible answers.
They say what’s needed is a broad, independent analysis closer to what happened in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The first part of a joint WHO-China study of how COVID-19 started concluded in March that the virus probably jumped to humans from animals and that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.” The next phase might try to examine the first human cases in more detail or pinpoint the animals responsible — possibly bats, perhaps by way of some intermediate creature.
Read:UK health minister resigns after breaching coronavirus rules
But the idea that the pandemic somehow started in a laboratory — and perhaps involved an engineered virus — has gained traction recently, with President Joe Biden ordering a review of U.S. intelligence within 90 days to assess the possibility.
Earlier this month, WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said that the agency was working out the final details of the next phase of its probe and that because WHO works “by persuasion,” it lacks the power to compel China to cooperate.
Some said that is precisely why a WHO-led examination is doomed to fail.
“We will never find the origins relying on the World Health Organization,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University. “For a year and a half, they have been stonewalled by China, and it’s very clear they won’t get to the bottom of it.”
Gostin said the U.S. and other countries can either try to piece together what intelligence they have, revise international health laws to give WHO the powers it needs, or create some new entity to investigate.
Read:UK to donate 100 mn coronavirus vaccine doses
The first phase of WHO’s mission required getting China’s approval not only for the experts who traveled there but for their entire agenda and the report they ultimately produced.
Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, called it a “farce” and said that determining whether the virus jumped from animals or escaped from a lab is more than a scientific question and has political dimensions beyond WHO’s expertise.
The closest genetic relative to COVID-19 was previously discovered in a 2012 outbreak, after six miners fell sick with pneumonia after being exposed to infected bats in China’s Mojiang mine. In the past year, however, Chinese authorities sealed off the mine and confiscated samples from scientists while ordering locals not to talk to visiting journalists.
Although China initially pushed hard to look for the coronavirus’s origins, it pulled back abruptly in early 2020 as the virus overtook the globe. An Associated Press investigation last December found Beijing imposed restrictions on the publication of COVID-19 research, including mandatory review by central government officials.
Read:Rise in UK coronavirus cases stoke concerns over 3rd wave
Jamie Metzl, who sits on a WHO advisory group, has suggested along with colleagues the possibility of an alternative investigation set up by the Group of Seven industrialized nations.
Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, said the U.S. must be willing to subject its own scientists to a rigorous examination and recognize that they might be just as culpable as China.
“The U.S. was deeply involved in research at the laboratories in Wuhan,” Sachs said, referring to U.S. funding of controversial experiments and the search for animal viruses capable of triggering outbreaks.
“The idea that China was behaving badly is already the wrong premise for this investigation to start,” he said. “If lab work was somehow responsible (for the pandemic), the likelihood that it was both the U.S. and China working together on a scientific initiative is very high.”
Xi Jinping -- Leading CPC to strive for a better world
"What we Chinese Communists are doing is to better the lives of the Chinese people, rejuvenate the Chinese nation, and promote peace and development for humanity."
Addressing over 600 representatives of political parties from over 120 countries at a high-level dialogue in 2017, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and president of China, laid out the historic mission of the world's largest political party.
Read:Interview: CPC offers significant governance experience, says PCI leader
Committed to the party's original aspiration, Xi is leading the CPC not only to build China into a modern socialist country but to create a better shared future for the world.
DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL
A day before the official centenary of the CPC on Thursday, China, after a 70-year fight, was officially declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, which marks the latest of the numerous achievements China has made under the CPC's leadership.
In February, Xi announced that China, with a population larger than 1.4 billion, had secured a complete victory against poverty, which was widely acclaimed as a miracle in the human history of poverty reduction.
While striving to improve the wellbeing of its own people, the CPC has also been committed to promoting the world's common development. In his 2017 New Year speech, Xi said the Chinese people "hope for a better life for people in other countries as well as for themselves." And he has been leading China to make that hope come true.
Whether in the fight against malaria or in poverty alleviation, China has over the past decades extended a helping hand to others, especially developing countries.
Back in 2000, Xi, then governor of southeastern China's Fujian Province, helped launch a pilot Juncao project to help improve the livelihood of the Papua New Guinean people.
Juncao, famed as "magic grass" and discovered by Chinese scientists, is an economical and environmentally friendly substitute for timber, which can be used as a substrate for growing mushrooms.
Eighteen years later, during Xi's state visit to the Oceanian country, the two countries signed another aid project using the grass technology. By 2023, the aid program is expected to lift 30,000 local people out of poverty.
Today, the Juncao project has taken root in over 100 countries, helping combat poverty in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the South Pacific region.
Meanwhile, from the decades-old Canton Fair to the 3-year-old China International Import Expo and to the newly launched China International Consumer Products Expo, high-end international expos have repeatedly demonstrated China's commitment to wider opening-up and mutual benefits.
Read: China sees remarkable achievements under CPC leadership, says Pakistani PM
AstraZeneca, Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta Covid-19 variants: Study
COVID-19 vaccines made by AstraZeneca NSE -0.48 % and the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly effective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19 causing virus, which were first identified in India, according to a scientific study, underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots.
The study by Oxford University researchers, published in the journal Cell, investigated the ability of antibodies in the blood from people, who were vaccinated with the two-shot regimens, to neutralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants, a statement said.
Read:Bangladesh to get $ 940 mln ADB loans for procuring Covid vaccine
"There is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current generation of vaccines will provide protection against the B.1.617 lineage," the paper said, referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code.
However, the concentration of neutralising antibodies in the blood was somewhat reduced, which may lead to some breakthrough infections, they cautioned.
Last week, an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca offer high protection of more than 90% against hospitalization from the Delta variant.
"We are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data, alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Public Health England, provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have significant impact against the Delta variant," AstraZeneca executive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement.
Read: Bangladesh to get fair share of vaccines: US Congresswoman
The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease, the World Health Organization's chief scientist said on Friday.
The Oxford researchers also analysed the likelihood of reinfection in people who had previously had COVID-19.
Looking at the ability of antibodies in their blood samples to neutralize the variants, the risk of reinfection with the Delta variant appeared particularly high in individuals previously infected by the Beta and Gamma lineages that emerged in South Africa and Brazil, respectively.
By contrast, previous infection with the Alpha, or B117, variant first detected in Britain, conferred "reasonable" cross-protection against all variants of concern, lending itself as a template that next-generation vaccines could be molded on.
Read: Countries like Bangladesh need support for vaccine production: FM
"B117 might be a candidate for new variant vaccines to provide the broadest protection," the researchers said.
This article was first published in The Economic Times
Global Covid cases near 174 million
The global Covid-19 caseload has now surpassed 173.5 million, with the world still struggling to contain the second outbreak of the virus.
The total caseload and fatalities from the virus stand at 173,538,801 and 3,734,654, respectively, as of Tuesday morning, as per the latest data released by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
So far, 2,139,732,834 doses of vaccine have been administered across the globe, as per the university data.
The US has logged 33,377,632 cases and 597,946 fatalities to date, the highest death toll in the world, according to the university.
Read:US delivers emergency medical supplies to Bangladesh to combat COVID-19
India's total tally rose to 28,909,975, with 100,636 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, said the federal health ministry.
Besides, as many as 2,427 deaths since Sunday morning pushed the overall death toll to 349,186. This is the first time in the past 45 days when daily deaths due to the pandemic dipped to below the 2,500-mark.
Brazil registered 1,010 more deaths from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing up the nationwide tally to 474,414, the health ministry said on Monday.
A total of 37,156 new infections were detected during the period, raising the caseload to 16,984,218, the ministry said.
Brazil has the world's second-highest Covid death toll, after the United States, and the third-largest caseload, behind the United States and India.
Situation in Bangladesh
Amid the rising infections in frontier districts, Bangladesh on Monday reported 1,970 new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours.
The deadly virus also claimed 30 more lives during the period, pushing up the death toll to 12,869.
Read: Covid-19 in Bangladesh: New cases get close to 2,000; 30 more die
The total number of coronavirus cases climbed to 8,12,960 with the fresh ones.
Vaccination drive
Around 7,363 people have received the second dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the past 24 hours.
A total number of 42,16,696 people have so far got their dose of this vaccine, while the number is 58,20,015 for the first dose.
Besides, the total number of people receiving their first jab of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine reached 2,162 during the period.
Bangladesh launched its vaccination drive on February 7 with Oxford-AstraZeneca doses bought from India's Serum Institute.
So far, four vaccines – Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield), Sputnik-V, Sinopharm, and Pfizer-BioNTech – have got the approval for emergency use in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, seven million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine reached Bangladesh, and the governments of India and China gave 3.2 million doses and 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine as gifts, respectively.
Read:Indian cities unlocking after declining COVID-19 infections
However, the country, the prime recipient of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has suspended the registration for Covid-19 jabs due to vaccine shortage amid a delay in the arrival of shipments from India.
High vaccination can help reduce risk of variants: WHO
A top World Health Organization official estimated Monday that Covid vaccination coverage of at least 80% is needed to significantly lower the risk that “imported” coronavirus cases like those linked to new variants could spawn a cluster or a wider outbreak, reports AP.
Dr Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, told a news conference that ultimately, “high levels of vaccination coverage are the way out of this pandemic".
Many rich countries have been moving to vaccinate teenagers and children — who have lower risk of more dangerous cases of Covid-19 than the elderly or people with comorbidities — even as those same countries face pressure to share vaccines with poorer ones that lack them.
World Food Safety Day today
The World Food Safety Day is being observed in the country on Monday as elsewhere in the globe with an aim to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage food borne risks and contributing to food security.
This year’s theme, ‘Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow’, stresses that production and consumption of safe food has immediate and long-term benefits for people, the planet and the economy, according to WHO.
Read: FAO lauds Hasina's leadership in attaining food security in Bangladesh
Recognizing the systemic connections between the health of people, animals, plants, the environment and the economy will help us meet the needs of the future.
Recognizing the global burden of foodborne diseases, which affect individuals of all ages, in particular children under-5 and persons living in low-income countries, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed in 2018 that every 7 June would be World Food Safety Day.
In 2020, the World Health Assembly further passed a resolution to strengthen global efforts for food safety to reduce the burden of food borne disease.
WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly facilitate the observance of World Food Safety Day, in collaboration with Member States and other relevant organizations.
Food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers and consumers. Everyone has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and healthy.
Read: Campaign on right to food, health launched
Through the World Food Safety Day, WHO works to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of food borne diseases globally.
Marking World Food Safety Day, advocacy and research organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) urged to immediately finalize and implement the regulations on limiting trans fats in food.
Industrially produced transfat is a toxic food element that increases risks of premature deaths from heart diseases.
Around 500,000 people die across the globe each year due to transfat-induced heart diseases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has set the target to eliminate industrially produced transfat from the global food supply by 2023.
Read: UAE provides 50 mts humanitarian food aid to Bangladesh
The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority has prepared the draft “Regulations on Trans Fatty Acids Control in Foodstuffs, 2021”, but its finalization is still underway.
Underscoring World Food Safety Day, Executive Director of PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) ABM Zubair has said, “There is no alternative to safe food for nurturing a healthy generation. Eliminating trans fat from food can save the lives of thousands and it is also a cost effective measure for the government. Trans fat must be eliminated from the food chain immediately for ensuring safe food for all.”
Bangladesh seeks TRIPS waiver to ramp up Covid vaccine production
Bangladesh has called for a temporary waiver from certain obligations under the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for the production of vaccines, medicines and other health technologies to effectively respond to the pandemic.
Bangladesh made the demand in the just concluded 74th virtual session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) held in Geneva.
Read: US unveils strategy for global vaccine sharing with Bangladesh, India on list
Intellectual property is currently a barrier to swiftly scaling up and diversifying the production of Covid-19 health products, including vaccines.
Bangladesh said the pharmaceutical industries across the developing countries, including Bangladesh, capable of producing vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other medical equipment should get licenses as well as technology and technical know-how to produce the vaccines and health technologies for Covid-19 and those items should be provided to other developing countries free of cost.
Besides, Bangladesh highlighted the timely and swift actions taken by the government of Sheikh Hasina, including health measures and stimulus packages, to combat the socio-economic impacts posed by the pandemic.
A Bangladesh delegation, led by Zahid Maleque, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, and in direct collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh in Geneva, attended the virtual WHA, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
Read:COVAX Facility: Japan to provide 30mn vaccine doses to other countries
This year, the Assembly mainly focused on the production, supply and equitable distribution of vaccines to address the Covid-19 crisis.
COVAX Facility: Japan to provide 30mn vaccine doses to other countries
Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has expressed his country’s intention to provide around 30 million vaccine doses manufactured in Japan to other countries and regions, including through the COVAX Facility.
Prime Minister Suga who co-chaired the COVAX AMC (Advance Market Commitment) Summit virtually with Gavi Board Chair José Manuel Barroso on Wednesday said Japan will provide the vaccine doses at an appropriate time when the circumstances allow.
Read: UK recognises Bangladesh's Dr Jara as 'Vaccine Luminary'
The Japanese Prime Minister explained that Japan has always supported the efforts by the COVAX Facility, including through its financial contribution, amounting to US$ 200 million and announced Japan’s additional contribution of US$ 800 million.
In this context, as one of the largest contributors to the COVAX Facility, Japan welcomed the arrival of 106,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine to Bangladesh on May 31, which was made possible through the COVAX AMC.
Read:1 lakh-plus Pfizer vaccine doses reach Dhaka
Japan will continue to cooperate with Bangladesh to suppress the spread of the Covid-19 and overcome this unprecedented crisis, said the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka.
The Summit, held on Wednesday, was organised to raise additional funds to secure necessary vaccines for developing countries by the end of 2021, in order to ensure through the COVAX Facility equitable access to safe, effective and quality-assured vaccines thereby overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read: Bangladesh approves emergency use of Pfizer vaccine
Participants in the Summit include leaders and ministers from about 40 countries, including Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States of America, as well as António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General and other heads of international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and representatives from the civil society and the private companies such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Prime Minister Suga called for further solidarity and commitments from the international community in the fight against Covid-19, and expressed Japan’s full support for ensuring equitable access to safe and effective vaccines for as many people as possible with a view to achieving Universal Health Coverage guided by the principle of human security.