coronavirus vaccination
Covid-19: Bangladesh reports highest ever single-day deaths with 96
Bangladesh reported 96 deaths during a 24-hour period until Wednesday morning, shattering all of its previous single-day death counts.
The latest fatalities pushed up the local tally to 9,987 since the first death was reported on March 18 last year, a handout from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said. The mortality rate stood at 1.42 percent.
However, the number of daily cases fell to 5,185 from Tuesday’s 6,028. Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8. Since then, 703,170 cases have been confirmed.
The country has conducted 5,095,613 covid tests, including 24,825 new ones, since the beginning of the outbreak.
Also read: Fresh lockdown in Bangladesh: Experts skeptical about having any great result
The daily infection rate stood at 20.89 percent.
So far, the health authorities reported 591,299 recoveries (84.09 percent), including 5,333 in the last 24 hours.
Daily cases fall, body count rises
Bangladesh saw a spike in the number of daily cases in recent days that was followed by record single-day death counts.
On Wednesday, the country registered its highest number of deaths from the virus for the fourth time in five days. The figure was 69 on Tuesday, 83 on Monday, 78 on Sunday and 77 on Saturday.
Coronavirus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March.
Hospitals overflowing
The steady rise in new cases put severe pressure on the health system which is struggling to accommodate so many patients.
Of the 96 deaths reported, 94 had died at hospitals and two at home.
Hospitals treating Covid-19 patients in Dhaka and elsewhere are running out of general and ICU beds.
Hospitals in Dhaka metropolitan area have 4,286 general beds and 59 ICU beds. Of them, only 526 general and 12 ICU beds are available, according to DGHS data.
Also read: Bangladesh put under complete lockdown amid Covid spike
Overall, there are 10,614 general beds for treating coronavirus patients in the country and more than half of them (5,688) are occupied.
There are 792 ICU beds in total but only 137 are available at the moment.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her new year address, said the ICU facilities are being increased and the areas of coronavirus patient treatment are being expanded.
She said steps have been taken for uninterrupted oxygen supply in public specialised hospitals.
Emphasis on health guidelines
People’s apathy towards health rules has been blamed as one of the main reasons for the sudden rise in coronavirus cases. The infection rate had fallen below 5 percent earlier this year.
Repeated requests of the health experts and the government fell on deaf ears. The people carried on as usual, hardly sticking to basic health rules as they continued to throng shopping malls, places of entertainment and other public gatherings.
Sheikh Hasina urged everyone to be careful and ensure protection for themselves, their family members and neighbours.
“Gatherings have to be avoided and everyone should wear a mask when going outside,” she said. “If everyone follows health guidelines, it’ll be possible to keep the pandemic under control, Inshallah.”
Covid-19 in Bangladesh: 69 more die, 6,028 infected
The number of Covid-19 deaths in Bangladesh fell slightly in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, after registering a record breaking single-day death count for the past two days.
The country saw 83 Covid-related deaths on Monday and 78 on Sunday.
Now the fatalities from Covid-19 rose to 9,891 with the new deaths but the mortality rate remained static at 1.42 percent for the fourth consecutive day, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said in a handout.
The deadly virus claimed 568 lives in January this year, 281 in February and 638 in March. On March 18 last year, Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus death, sparking alarm across the country.
During the 24-hour reporting period, 6,028 new cases were recorded in Bangladesh, pushing up the caseload to 697,985.
Also read: Covid-19: Bangladesh shatters single-day death count record again
The infection rate, however, slipped to 18.29 percent from Monday’s 20.59 percent.
As of now, 5,070,788 samples, including 32,955 in the last 24 hours, have been tested.
Bangladesh has been seeing a record number of infections with daily case count surpassing 7,000-mark earlier this month before falling significantly on April 10 and April 11.
Stalled at first jab: Vaccine shortages hit poor countries
As many as 60 countries, including some of the world’s poorest, might be stalled at the first shots of their coronavirus vaccinations because nearly all deliveries through the global program intended to help them are blocked until as late as June.
COVAX, the global initiative to provide vaccines to countries lacking the clout to negotiate for scarce supplies on their own, has in the past week shipped more than 25,000 doses to low-income countries only twice on any given day. Deliveries have all but halted since Monday.
During the past two weeks, according to data compiled daily by UNICEF, fewer than 2 million COVAX doses in total were cleared for shipment to 92 countries in the developing world — the same amount injected in Britain alone.
On Friday, the head of the World Health Organization slammed the “shocking imbalance” in global COVID-19 vaccination. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus said that while one in four people in rich countries had received a vaccine, only one in 500 people in poorer countries had gotten a dose.
The vaccine shortage stems mostly from India’s decision to stop exporting vaccines from its Serum Institute factory, which produces the overwhelming majority of the AstraZeneca doses that COVAX counted on to supply around a third of the global population at a time coronavirus is spiking worldwide.
Also read: Shocking imbalance in Covid vaccine distribution: WHO
COVAX will only ship vaccines cleared by WHO, and countries are increasingly impatient. Supplies are dwindling in some of the first countries to receive COVAX shipments, and the expected delivery of second doses in the 12-week window currently recommended is now in doubt. In a statement, the vaccine alliance known as GAVI told The Associated Press that 60 countries are affected by the delays.
In vaccination tents set up at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, many of those who arrived for their first jabs were uneasy about when the second would arrive.
“My fear if I don’t get the second dose, my immune system is going to be weak, hence I might die,” said Oscar Odinga, a civil servant.
Internal WHO documents obtained by the AP show the uncertainty about deliveries “is causing some countries to lose faith in the COVAX (effort).” That is prompting WHO to consider speeding up its endorsement of vaccines from China and Russia, which have not been authorized by any regulators in Europe or North America.
The WHO documents show the U.N. agency is facing questions from COVAX participants about allotments in addition to “uncertainty about whether all those who were vaccinated in round 1 are guaranteed a second dose.”
WHO declined to respond specifically to the issues raised in the internal materials but has previously said countries are “very keen” to get vaccines as soon as possible and insisted it hasn’t heard any complaints about the process.
Also read: Are some Covid-19 vaccines more effective than others?
Concern over the link between the AstraZeneca shot and rare blood clots has also “created nervousness both around its safety and efficacy,” WHO noted. Among its proposed solutions is a decision to “expedite review of additional products” from China and Russia.
WHO said last month it might be possible to greenlight the Chinese vaccines by the end of April.
Some experts have noted that Sinopharm and Sinovac, two Chinese-made vaccines, lack published data, and there are reports of people needing a third dose to be protected.
“If there is something that we miss from not having thoroughly evaluated the risks of serious adverse events from these vaccines, that would undermine the confidence in all the good products that we’re using that we know are safe,” said Dora Curry, director of health equity and rights at CARE International.
Other experts worried that delays could erode faith in governments that were particularly efficient in their vaccination programs and were counting on second doses soon.
“In the absence of high vaccination coverage globally, we risk dragging out the pandemic for several more years,” said Lavanya Vasudevan, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute. “Every day that the virus is in circulation is an opportunity for it to mutate into a more deadly variant.”
Also read: COVAX reaches over 100 economies, 42 days after first international delivery
Earlier this month, the WHO appealed to rich countries to urgently share 10 million doses to meet the U.N. target of starting COVID-19 vaccinations in every country within the first 100 days of the year. So far, countries have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to COVAX. But there are simply no doses to buy, and no country has agreed to immediately share what it has.
Bilateral donations of doses tend to go along political lines, rather than to countries with the most infections, and they aren’t nearly enough to compensate for the goals that COVAX has set out. Think Global Health, a data site managed by the Council on Foreign Relations, identified 19 countries that have donated a total of 27.5 million doses to 102 nations as of Thursday.
“You can make a strong argument that we’re better off making donations in crisis and getting the pandemic under control than vaccinating low-risk groups at home,” said Thomas Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. Bollyky said COVAX was both a great disappointment and the only available option for most the world.
According to the International Rescue Committee, COVID-19 cases and deaths last month surged in numerous crisis-hit countries: by 322% in Kenya, 379% in Yemen and 529% in northeast Syria.
On Thursday, the agencies behind COVAX — WHO, vaccines alliance GAVI and CEPI, a coalition for epidemic preparedness — celebrated their delivery of 38 million lifesaving vaccines to more than 100 countries.
Brook Baker, a vaccines expert at Northeastern University, said the laudatory message was misplaced.
Also read: Countries worldwide hit new records for virus cases, deaths
“Celebrating doses sufficient for only 19 million people, or 0.25% of global population, is tone deaf,” he said, adding it was time for WHO and partners to be more honest with countries.
“WHO and GAVI have repeatedly overpromised and underdelivered, so why should we believe that they will suddenly be able to ramp up production and deliveries in a couple of months?” he said.
Outside the vaccination tents in Nairobi on Thursday, Dr. Duncan Nyukuri, an infectious disease physician, tried to reassure people getting their first dose.
“If you receive the first dose and you fail to receive the second dose, this does not mean that your body will be any weaker or you will be at an increased risk of getting any infection,” he said. “What it means is your body will have developed some immunity against the coronavirus infection. But this immunity is not as good as somebody who has received both doses.”
No region in the world spared as virus cases, deaths surge
Hospitals in Turkey and Poland are filling up fast. Pakistan is restricting domestic travel to contain a surge in coronavirus infections. Even Thailand, which has weathered the pandemic far better than many nations, is now struggling to contain a new COVID-19 spike.
The only exceptions to the deteriorating worldwide situation are countries that have advanced vaccination programs, mostly notably Israel and Britain. Even the U.S., which is a vaccination leader globally, is seeing a small uptick in new cases, and the White House announced Friday that it would send federal help to Michigan to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation transmission rate.
The World Health Organization said Friday that it’s concerned about infection rates that are rising in every global region, driven by new virus variants and too many nations coming out of lockdown too soon.
“We’ve seen rises (in cases) worldwide for six weeks. And now, sadly, we are seeing rises in deaths for the last three weeks,” Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman, said at a briefing in Geneva.
In its latest weekly epidemiological update, the WHO said over 4 million COVID-19 cases were reported in the last week. New deaths increased by 11% compared to last week, with over 71,000 reported.
Also read: Countries worldwide hit new records for virus cases, deaths
The increasing infections, hospitalizations and deaths extend to countries where vaccinations are finally gaining momentum. That leaves even bleaker prospects for much of the world, where large-scale vaccination programs remain a more distant prospect.
In Turkey, which is among the badly hit countries, most new cases of the virus can be traced to a variant first found in Britain.
Ismail Cinel, head of the Turkish Intensive Care Association, said the surge was beginning to strain the nation’s relatively advanced health care system and “the alarm bells are ringing” for intensive care units, which are not yet at full capacity.
“The mutant form of the virus is causing more harm to the organs,” Cinel said. “While 2 out of 10 patients were dying previously, the number is now 4 out of 10. And if we continue this way, we will lose six.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan eased COVID-19 restrictions in early March to minimize pain to his nation’s ailing economy. The new spike forced him to announce renewed restrictions, such as weekend lockdowns and the closure of cafes and restaurants during Ramadan, which starts April 13.
Also read: Global Covid cases top 132 million
Turkish medical groups say the reopening in March was premature and that the new measures do not go far enough. They have been calling for full lockdowns during the holy Muslim month.
In the U.S. capital, President Joe Biden’s administration outlined how the federal government planned to help Michigan better administer the doses already allocated to the state, as well as expand testing capacity and the availability of drugs. The effort will not include any extra vaccine doses, a move Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sought.
Doses are currently allocated to states proportionally by population. Whitmer has called for extra doses to be shifted to states like hers experiencing a sharp rise in cases.
The death toll in Iran is also rising, prompting new restrictions that will take effect for 10 days in 257 cities beginning Saturday. They involve the closure of all parks, restaurants, confectionaries, beauty salons, malls and bookstores.
Authorities in Pakistan, which is in the middle of a third surge of infections, are restricting inter-city transportation on weekends starting at midnight Friday as part of measures aimed at limiting coronavirus cases and deaths.
Also read: COVAX reaches over 100 economies, 42 days after first international delivery
Elsewhere in Asia, authorities in Thailand on Friday ordered new restrictions in an effort to contain a growing coronavirus outbreak just days before the country’s traditional Songkran New Year’s holiday, when millions of people travel.
Japan, meanwhile, announced tougher measures ahead of the Summer Olympics.
In Germany, Poland and other countries in the 27-member European Union, vaccination programs are finally ramping up after a slow start in the first three months of the year due to delivery shortages.
Thousands of German medical practices joined the vaccination campaign this week. That helped Germany reach its second consecutive daily record on Thursday of almost 720,000 doses administered — meaning that 14.7% of the population has now received at least one dose and 5.8% have received both shots.
Yet German health officials are warning of a steep rise in intensive care patients and are calling for stronger action to contain infections.
Also read: Governments give varying advice on AstraZeneca vaccine
Lothar Wieler, the head of Germany’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, said nearly 4,500 COVID-19 patients are receiving intensive care, with the number increasing by 700 over the past week — a 20% rise.
Neighboring Poland is also seeing a dramatic spike in deaths, and hospitals have been forced to turn away cancer and other patients as ICU and other hospital beds are taken by COVID-19 patients. Hospitalizations of virus patients there have jumped 20% in the past two weeks.
Harris, from the WHO, said the world knows how to fight these surges. She cited good news from the U.K., where new coronavirus cases dropped 60% in March amid a strong vaccination program, “but we have to do it all.”
“We have to keep on social distancing. We have to avoid indoor crowded settings. We have to keep wearing the masks, even if vaccinated,” she said. “People are misunderstanding, seeming to think that vaccination will stop transmission. That is not the case. We need to bring down the transmission while giving the vaccination the chance to stop the severe disease.”
Are some Covid-19 vaccines more effective than others?
Do some Covid-19 vaccines work more effectively than others?
It’s hard to tell since they weren’t directly compared in studies. But experts say the vaccines are alike on what matters most: preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
“Luckily, all these vaccines look like they’re protecting us from severe disease,” said Dr Monica Gandhi of the University of California, San Francisco, citing study results for five vaccines used around the world and a sixth that’s still in review.
Also read: Countries worldwide hit new records for virus cases, deaths
And real-world evidence as millions of people receive the vaccines show they’re all working very well.
Still, people might wonder if one is better than another since studies conducted before the vaccines were rolled out found varying levels of effectiveness. The problem is they don’t offer apples-to-apples comparisons.
Consider the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, found to be about 95% effective at preventing illness. Studies for those shots counted a Covid-19 case whether it was mild, moderate or severe — and were conducted before worrisome mutated versions of the virus began circulating.
Also read: Governments give varying advice on AstraZeneca vaccine
Then Johnson & Johnson tested a single-dose vaccine and didn’t count mild illnesses. J&J’s shot was 66% protective against moderate to severe illness in a large international study. In just the U.S., where there’s less spread of variants, it was 72% effective. More importantly, once the vaccine’s effect kicked in it prevented hospitalization and death.
AstraZeneca’s two-dose vaccine used in many countries has faced questions about the exact degree of its effectiveness indicated by studies. But experts agree those shots, too, protect against the worst outcomes.
Also read: COVAX reaches over 100 economies, 42 days after first international delivery
Around the world, hospitalizations are dropping in countries where vaccines have been rolling out including Israel, England and Scotland — regardless of which shots are given. And the US government’s first look at real-world data among essential workers provided further evidence that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are highly protective -- 90% -- against infections whether there were symptoms or not.
Countries worldwide hit new records for virus cases, deaths
Nations around the world set new records Thursday for COVID-19 deaths and new coronavirus infections, and the disease surged even in some countries that have kept the virus in check. In the United States, Detroit leaders began making a plan to knock on every door to persuade people to get shots.
Brazil this week became just the third country, after the U.S. and Peru, to report a 24-hour tally of COVID-19 deaths that exceeded 4,000. India hit a peak of almost 127,000 new cases in 24 hours, and Iran set a new coronavirus infection record for the third straight day, reporting nearly 22,600 new cases.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to get vaccinated, writing in a tweet: “Vaccination is among the few ways we have to defeat the virus. If you are eligible for the vaccine, get your shot soon.”
The U.S. has now fully vaccinated nearly 20% of its adult population, and New Mexico became the first state to get shots in the arms of 25% of its residents — milestones that are still far off for many hard-hit countries.
Also read: Global Covid cases top 132 million
In India, home to 1.4 billion people, only 11 million are fully vaccinated. In Brazil, less than 3% of the country’s 210 million people have received both doses, according to Our World in Data, an online research site.
South Korea reported 700 more cases, the highest daily jump since Jan. 5. Health authorities were expected to announce measures to strengthen social distancing following a meeting Friday.
In Thailand, which has reported only 95 deaths during the pandemic, health officials reported the country’s first local cases of the coronavirus variant first detected in Britain. The news comes at a time when only 1% of the population has been vaccinated and as Thais prepare to celebrate the traditional Songkran New Year’s holiday next week, typically a time of widespread travel.
That variant is more contagious, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that it is now the most common variant in the United States, raising concerns it will drive infections and cause more people to get sick.
Also read: Governments give varying advice on AstraZeneca vaccine
Michigan has averaged more than 7,000 new cases a day — a number that makes the state second in the nation behind New York. Michigan also has the highest number of new cases per capita, with 1 of every 203 state residents getting diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 31 and April 7, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
In Detroit, which is about 80% Black, officials said they plan to start visiting homes to talk about the importance of protecting themselves from the virus with vaccinations and how to sign up to receive the shots.
“We’re going to knock on every residential door in the city, making sure every Detroiter knows how to make an appointment,” Victoria Kovari, an executive assistant to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, told The Detroit News.
Only 22% of Detroit residents have received at least one vaccine dose compared to 38% for all of Michigan, according to Michigan’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Also read: COVAX reaches over 100 economies, 42 days after first international delivery
Other Midwestern states have seen troubling signs in recent days, including a school district in Iowa where 127 students and five staff members tested positive for the coronavirus or are presumed positive.
In Massachusetts, where the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases has risen to over 2,100 new cases per day, the Massachusetts Public Health Association called on Republican Gov. Charlie Baker to reinstate public health measures. The group urged Baker to limit indoor dining capacity and other indoor activities, saying the rise in cases and hospitalizations followed Baker’s decision to loosen those restrictions.
“We are currently in a race between the vaccines and the variants,” Carlene Pavlos, the group’s executive director said Thursday. “Without these public health measures, even more innocent lives will be needlessly lost.”
Fully vaccinated people can travel safely again, CDC says
Add travel to the activities vaccinated Americans can safely enjoy again, according to new U.S. guidance issued Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to say fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. without getting tested for the coronavirus or going into quarantine afterward.
Still, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky urged caution and said she would “advocate against general travel overall" given the rising number of infections.
“If you are vaccinated, it is lower risk,” she said.
According to the CDC, nearly 100 million people in the U.S. — or about 30% of the population — have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose.
Also read: Fully-vaccinated people can gather without masks: CDC
The agency had said it would update its guidance as more people got vaccinated and evidence mounted about the protection the shots provide.
“Every day you get more data, and you change your guidance," said Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska's College of Public Health.
The CDC is sticking to its guidance for unvaccinated people to avoid unnecessary travel. If they do travel, the agency says to get tested one to three days before the trip, and three to five days after. People should also stay home and quarantine for seven days after travel, even if their COVID-19 test is negative, the agency says.
The new guidance says:
— Fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S., without getting tested for the coronavirus or quarantining. People should still wear a mask, socially distance and avoid crowds, the agency says.
— For international travel, the agency says vaccinated people do not need to get a COVID-19 test before leaving, unless the destination country requires it.
— For travelers coming into the U.S., vaccinated people should still get a negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight, and be tested three to five days after arrival. They do not need to quarantine. The agency noted the potential introduction of virus variants and differences in vaccine coverage around the world for the cautious guidance on overseas travel.
Also read: CDC: Strong evidence in-person schooling can be done safely
Already, air travel in the United States has been picking back up. Although traffic remains down by nearly half from a year ago, more than 1 million travelers daily have been going through U.S. airports in recent weeks.
Airlines do not require COVID-19 tests or proof of vaccination for travel in the U.S.
The CDC cited recent research on the real-world effects of the vaccines for its updated guidance. Last month, the agency said fully vaccinated people could visit with each other indoors without wearing masks or social distancing. It also said vaccinated people could visit with unvaccinated people from a single household under similar conditions, as long as the unvaccinated individuals were at low risk for severe illness if infected.
The U.S. began its vaccine rollout in mid-December. Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses given a few weeks apart. A one-shot vaccine by Johnson & Johnson was given the green light by regulators at the end of February.
No uncertainty over receiving vaccine doses: Finance Minister
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal has ruled out any uncertainty over receiving vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd.
“We’ve already paid for the vaccine. So... we’ll get it,” he told reporters while briefing virtually on the Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase on Wednesday.
Also read: Vaccine drive to continue with AstraZeneca shot: Health Secretary
He informed that the second dose of vaccine will be administered in time.
He also said that the health minister had also attended the purchase body meeting and did not express any apprehension over uncertainty about receiving the vaccine doses.
Also read: Virus variants, vaccine inequity responsible for rising Covid caseload: WHO
Mustafa Kamal also turned down the idea of going for lockdown to contain coronavirus transmission. He said there will be no need for any such measures as the vaccination programme has been continuing.
“Once vaccination is completed, the situation will improve,” he said. “The countries, which are running the vaccination programme, are witnessing a fall in infection.”
Also read: Modi to bring 12 lakh more vaccine doses as gift for Bangladesh
Responding to a question on World Bank’s economic growth projection at 3.6 percent, the Finance Minister said the donor agency makes such projection on quarterly basis and the government does it annually.
Bangladesh makes Covid vaccine mandatory for Hajj pilgrims
The government has made coronavirus vaccination mandatory for people willing to perform Hajj later this year.
Covid situation worsening in Bangladesh, another 26 die in 24 hours
As the Coronavirus infection cases keep rising in Bangladesh, 26 more deaths and 1,719 new cases were reported in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, mounting concerns among people.