People who have just been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine exercise in an observation lounge during a vaccination drive for people ages 30 to 39 in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
TOKYO — International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has arrived in Tokyo as Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihde Suga announced a state of emergency that could result in a ban on fans at the games.
The state of emergency will run Monday through Aug. 22. Suga says it’s needed to “prevent the resurgence of the future spread on cases across the country.”
Tokyo reported 920 new cases on Wednesday, up from 714 a week earlier. Only 15% of the Japanese population are fully vaccinated.
The focus of the emergency is a request for bars, restaurants and karaoke parlors serving alcohol to close. Tokyo residents are expected to face stay-home requests and watch the games on TV from home.
The IOC and local organizers are attempting to hold the games during a pandemic despite opposition from the Japanese public and medical community. The postponed Tokyo Olympics are set to open on July 23.
__
MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:
— Global COVID-19 deaths top 4 million amid rush to vaccinate, a suicide in Peru
— Japan to declare virus emergency lasting through Olympics
An exterior banner paid for by the State of California encourages residents to wear a mask in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 7, 2021. Los Angeles County public health officials have urged people to resume wearing masks indoors regardless of their vaccination status. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
— Soccer may be driving increase in virus in England’s men
— What vaccinated people need to know about taking precautions at hotels
— Follow more of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
BERLIN — German authorities say more than 40% of the population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
However, the pace of the country’s vaccination campaign has eased off. Calls are growing for more creative efforts to reach people who haven’t made appointments to get inoculated, ranging from vaccinations at events to an incentive lottery offering prizes.
Germany’s disease control center says more than 33.9 million people — 40.8% of the population — are fully vaccinated. Nearly 47.9 million — 57.6% of the population — have received at least one shot.
The government wants people to get vaccinated because of the risk posed by the more contagious delta variant, which is now dominant among Germany’s relatively low number of new cases.
Health Minister Jens Spahn tweeted, “With a view to the fall and winter, every vaccination counts now!”
The disease control center says there were an average 710,000 vaccinations per day last week, down from 800,500 a week earlier.
Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks during a press conference at his official residence in Tokyo, Thursday, July 8, 2021. Suga declared the fourth state of emergency would go in effect on Monday and last through Aug. 22. This means the Olympics, opening on July 23 and running through Aug. 8, will be held entirely under emergency measures. (Nicolas Datiche/Pool Photo via AP)
LONDON — A closely monitored coronavirus infection survey indicates that men gathering to watch England’s progress in soccer’s European Championship may be a reason why women were less likely to test positive for the virus in recent days.
Interim findings covering June 24 to July 5 from Imperial College London and polling firm Ipsos Mori showed infections quadrupled since the previous so-called React-1 study. According to the survey, one in 170 people in England is infected, and there was a recent doubling time of six days.
Professor Paul Elliott, director of the React program at Imperial’s School of Public Health, said the prevalence of the virus also was higher in men — 0.7% against 0.5% for women. He speculated that men gathering at homes and pubs to watch the Euros was one reason for the trend.
The study was conducted before tens of thousands of spectators watched England beat Denmark 2-1 in a semifinal match on Wednesday evening at London’s Wembley Stadium. England’s win prompted scenes of wild jubilation elsewhere as fans celebrated the national team making its first final in a major tournament since the 1966 World Cup. In Sunday’s final, England will play Italy, again at Wembley.
SYDNEY — Australia is attempting to accelerate its sluggish COVID-19 vaccination rollout by encouraging Sydney residents to get their second AstraZeneca shot after two months instead of three.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday he encouraged people to take a second dose of AstraZeneca after two months given a growing cluster of the delta variant that has locked down Sydney for at least three weeks.
Only 10% of Australians over the age of 16 are fully vaccinated. That combined with Australia recording fewer than 31,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began leaves the population particularly vulnerable to the delta variant, which was first identified in India and is thought more contagious than the original virus and other variants.
Sydney reported on Thursday 38 new cases involving the delta variant in the latest 24-hour period. That was the largest daily tally since a cluster emerged after a limousine driver tested positive on June 16. He is thought to have been infected while transporting a U.S. flight crew from Sydney airport. Around 400 cases are now linked to that driver.
Australian-manufactured AstraZeneca was supposed to become the backbone of Australia’s vaccination program when its rollout began in March. AstraZeneca was initially recommended for all adults in two doses 12 weeks apart.
The vaccine is now only recommended in Australia for adults over age 60 after two women aged 48 and 52 died from rare blood clots that were blamed on AstraZeneca’s product.
Tokyo Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa speaks during the five-party meeting in Tokyo on Thursday, July 8, 2021. (Behrouz Mehri/Pool Photo via AP)
ISLAMABAD– Britain says it will provide a new package of genomic sequencing support to help Pakistan’s fight against new variants of the coronavirus.
According to a statement released by the British Embassy, Pakistan will be able to draw on U.K. expertise and support to detect quickly new and potentially more dangerous virus variants.
Under an agreement with Pakistan announced Thursday,, the U.K. will share its expertise and will provide reagents – a substance that causes a chemical reaction in test tubes – and other technical support to Pakistan to increase the country’s genomic sequencing capacity.
The latest development comes amid a steady surge in CONVID-19 cases in Pakistan.
Since last year, Pakistan has reported 967,633 confirmed cases and 22,493 virus-related deaths.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Fiji’s medical system is showing signs of strain as a coronavirus outbreak grows. The Pacific island nation reported a record 791 new daily cases and three deaths.
The Ministry of Health says that due to the increase in cases, it will no longer test people for the virus in their homes in and around the capital. The ministry has also suspended all pregnancy services in and around Suva until July 26, saying people experiencing pregnancy emergencies or labor should go directly to Colonial War Memorial Hospital.
Fiji has reported 59 deaths since the outbreak of the delta variant in April, although officials aren’t counting 19 of those as virus fatalities because the patients had serious pre-existing conditions. Home to 940,000 people, Fiji had reported just two COVID-19 deaths before that.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic as long lines snake around testing stations in the capital, where the virus has accelerated following months of complacency.
The 1,275 new cases announced Thursday marked the second straight day above 1,200 and exceeded the previous one-day record of 1,240 set Christmas Day.
More than 1,000 of the infections were in the greater Seoul area, which is home to half the country’s 51 million people.
The viral surge is a worrisome development in a country where 70% of the people are still waiting for their first vaccine shot.
The country has struggled to maintain public vigilance with warmer temperatures and months of fatigue luring larger crowds to restaurants, bars and parks.
PORTLAND, Maine — Health officials in Maine say more than half the eligible population is now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in every county in the state.
Maine has one of the highest vaccination rates in the U.S. More than two-thirds of people age 12 and older are fully vaccinated.
Data from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services show that the state’s highest vaccination rate is in Cumberland County, which is the state’s most populated as home to Portland. The rate there is about 80%.
The county with the lowest rate of eligible people fully vaccinated is Somerset, a mostly rural area where the rate is about 53%. That’s still a higher number than many states.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — At least nine people who work at the California state Capitol have contracted the coronavirus, triggering a return of the mask mandate for lawmakers and staff.
Masks have been required in public spaces inside the Capitol throughout the pandemic. But fully vaccinated lawmakers and staff had been allowed to remove their masks in their offices.
Four of the new cases at the Capitol are people who were fully vaccinated.
State data shows such cases are rare. The state has confirmed just 8,699 coronavirus infections among the more than 20 million people vaccinated in the state.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
All orders are protected by SSL encryption – the highest industry standard for online security from trusted vendors.
Bizarre Sunlight Loophole Melts Belly Fat Fast! is backed with a 60 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee. If within the first 60 days of receipt you are not satisfied with Wake Up Lean™, you can request a refund by sending an email to the address given inside the product and we will immediately refund your entire purchase price, with no questions asked.
