Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Friday – CBC.ca

The latest:

The Philippines placed its Manila capital region under a two-week lockdown on Friday as the Southeast Asian country’s Health Ministry reported 10,623 new coronavirus cases, the largest single-day jump in infections for almost four months.

The Philippines is battling one of Asia’s biggest COVID-19 outbreaks and has seen a steady rise in infections over the last two weeks that health officials have attributed to the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.

“The national government together with local governments should act aggressively, as if there is already community transmission,” Health Ministry spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told a news conference, referring to the highly contagious variant.

The surge has pushed the number of confirmed cases in the Philippines to more than 1.6 million, while the 247 additional deaths recorded on Friday brought the fatality count in the country to 28,673.

To enforce lockdown orders, police have set up quarantine checkpoints around the Manila capital region, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to more than 13 million people. Just 9.8 million people, or nearly nine per cent of the Philippines’ population of 110 million, have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Manila officials said they would use the two-week lockdown period to vaccinate four million people in the capital region. The Philippines is aiming to vaccinate up to 70 million people this year.

A total of 450 confirmed cases of the delta variant of COVID-19 have been detected in the Philippines. Experts believe the true figure could be much higher, however, because of a lack in genome sequencing capacity in the country.

— From Reuters, last updated at 6:55 a.m. ET

What’s happening in Canada

WATCH | Probe finds nursing home unprepared for COVID-19 outbreak: 

An independent probe by Saskatchewan’s ombudsman found Extendicare was ‘woefully unprepared’ for a COVID-19 outbreak that killed 39 residents at its Parkside nursing home in Regina. The report states 98 per cent of the nursing home’s residents contracted COVID-19 and workers cared for residents while showing symptoms. 2:04

What’s happening around the world

As of early Friday morning, more than 200.9 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported around the world, according to the coronavirus tracker maintained by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The reported global death toll stood at more than 4.2 million.

In Europe, visitors to Italy’s museums and theatres must show proof they’ve had a COVID-19 vaccine, prove they’ve recovered from the coronavirus or recently tested negative. A certification rule took effect countrywide on Friday. It also applies to gyms, inside restaurants, indoor swimming pools and crowded outdoor events such as concerts.

In Africa, Senegal’s Institut Pasteur of Dakar has reached a deal with U.S. company MedInstill for the bottling of COVID-19 shots, an EU document shows, marking a step to becoming a fully fledged maker of coronavirus vaccines for Africa.

In the Asia-Pacific region, China recorded another 80 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Friday, as the country seeks to control its widest flare-up since the original outbreak with a combination of lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions. Of the new cases, 58 were found in the eastern city of Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, where the highly contagious delta variant spread among airport workers in the provincial capital of Nanjing.

The update came as China’s president pledged that two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines would be supplied to the world through this year, increasing China’s commitment as the largest exporter of the shots. The figure likely includes the 770 million doses China has already donated or exported and it’s not clear if it includes a COVAX agreement for Chinese producers to supply 550 million doses.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese shots, the vast majority of which are from Sinopharm and Sinovac, have already been administered to people in many countries across the world. However, there are concerns about whether they protect adequately against the new, highly transmissible delta variant.

In the Middle East, Iran on Thursday reported 38,674 new cases, down slightly from Wednesday’s single-day high of 39,357. The country, which is dealing with another rapid uptick in cases, reported 434 additional deaths on Thursday.

In the Americas, United Airlines became the latest company to require all its U.S.-based employees to be fully vaccinated.

The news came after top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday the U.S. is working to give additional COVID-19 booster shots to Americans with compromised immune systems as quickly as possible, as cases of the novel coronavirus continue to rise.

The U.S. is joining Germany, France and Israel in giving booster shots, ignoring a plea by the World Health Organization to hold off until more people around the world can get their first shot.

WATCH | The push to reach unvaccinated Americans: 

With daily COVID-19 cases across the United States reaching a six-month high, President Joe Biden is pleading with unvaccinated Americans to change their minds about getting the shot. 2:00

— From The Associated Press, Reuters and CBC News, last updated at 10:50 a.m. ET

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