Novel coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 192.7 million people around the world, claiming at least 4.1 million lives. Here are updates for July 22:
Thursday, July 22:
Death rates soar in Southeast Asia as virus wave spreads
Indonesia has converted nearly its entire oxygen production to medical use just to meet the demand patients struggling to breathe.
Overflowing hospitals in Malaysia had to resort to treating patients on the floor. And in Myanmar’s largest city, graveyard workers have been labouring day and night to keep up with the grim demand for new cremations and burials.
In the last two weeks, the three Southeast Asian nations have now all surpassed India’s peak per capita death rate as a new coronavirus wave, fuelled by the virulent delta variant, tightens its grip on the region.
Indonesia, Myanmar, and Malaysia have been showing sharp increases since late June and their seven-day averages hit 4.37, 4.29 and 4.14 per million, respectively, on Wednesday.
Cambodia and Thailand have also seen strong increases in both coronavirus cases and deaths, but have thus far held the seven-day rate per million people to a lower 1.55 and 1.38, respectively.
Individual countries elsewhere have higher rates, but the increases are particularly alarming for a region that widely kept numbers low early in the pandemic.
Australia PM 'sorry' for slow vaccine rollout
Australia's prime minister apologised for the country's glacial vaccine rollout, as Sydney recorded a record jump in new coronavirus infections.
Scott Morrison is under fierce public pressure to improve a vaccination rate currently languishing around 11 percent, among the lowest rate of any rich nation.
After months of boasting about his "gold standard" pandemic response and insisting vaccine rollout was "not a race", Morrison bowed to critics.
"I'm sorry that we haven't been able to achieve the marks that we had hoped for at the beginning of this year. O f course I am," he said.
"I take responsibility for the vaccination programme. I also take responsibility for the challenges we've had. Obviously, some things are within our control, some things that are not."
His comments came as authorities in locked-down Sydney warned residents to brace for a spike in infections and long-term restrictions.
Taiwan orders further 36M Moderna vaccine doses
Taiwan has ordered a further 36 million doses of Moderna Inc's vaccine, the government said, as it seeks to lock in deliveries for the months ahead.
Taiwan has received about 9 million doses to date of Moderna and AstraZeneca Plc, including almost 6 million doses donated by Japan and the United States, enabling it to speed up its inoculation programme.
Cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng told reporters that the new order for Moderna vaccines, which comes on top of 5 million already ordered, was signed on Wednesday.
"This number is slightly more than the 30 million doses we had originally expected," Lo said, though he declined to say when they might start arriving. "We must strive for smooth delivery according to the scheduled time."
Speaking later on Thursday, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said the order consisted of 1 million doses for delivery by the end of this year, 20 million for next year, and 15 million for the year after that.
Moderna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
More than 20 percent of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have received at least one dose in the two-shot vaccine regimen.
China says WHO plan to audit labs is 'arrogant'
China says a WHO proposal to audit Chinese labs as part of further investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic showed "disrespect" and "arrogance towards science".
Last week, the World Health Organization said a second stage of the international probe should include audits of Chinese labs, amid increasing pressure from the United States for an investigation into a biotech lab in Wuhan.
The proposal outlined by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus included "audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initia l human cases identified in December 2019," referring to the Chinese city of Wuhan.
But China's vice health minister Zeng Yixin told reporters Thursday that he was "extremely surprised" by the plan, which he said showed "disrespect for common sense and arrogance towards science".
Long derided as a right-wing conspiracy theory and vehemently rejected by Beijing, the idea that Covid-19 may have emerged from a lab leak has been gaining momentum.
Germany's cases up by 1,890
The number of confirmed cases in Germany increased by 1,890 to 3,750,503, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed.
The reported death toll rose by 42 to 91,458, the tally showed.
Namibian cyclist Craven tests positive in Spain
The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year’s delay because of the pandemic:
One of the social media sensations of the Rio Olympics won’t be competing in Tokyo after Namibia’s Dan Craven tested positive in Spain, where the former professional cyclist lives with his family.
Even more devastating was the timing of it.
Craven told The Namibian newspaper that he had been trying to receive a vaccine through Spain’s national health care system, “but the bureaucratic system to get registered has just been crazy.”
“Two hours after I tested positive,” Craven said, “I got a phone call saying I can come in for my vaccine.”
The tall, lanky rider with the bushy red beard said on his Instagram page that he caught the virus on a training ride with three other people.
He was supposed to have the single starting spot for Namibia, where he was born, but tested positive in a pre-event test and will be replaced in Saturday’s race to Fuji International Speedway by Tristan de Lange.
India's daily cases rise by 41,383
India reported 41,383 new infections in the last 24 hours, while daily deaths rose by 507, health ministry data showed.
The country's tally of infections now stands at 31.26 million, with the death toll at 418,987, according to government data.
South Korea reports 1,842 new cases
South Korea has reported 1,842 new coronavirus cases, its highest-ever daily increase, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said, as the country grapples with the highly contagious Delta strain that was first discovered in India.
Biden urges vaccinations
President Joe Biden kicked off his town hall in a Republican-supporting part of Ohio with a plea to skeptical Americans to get vaccinated, as rising Covid-19 cases threaten to undermine the country's economic rebound after the pandemic.
"Look, it's real simple. We have a pandemic for those who haven't gotten a vaccination. It's that basic, that simple. Ten thousand people have recently died. Nine thousand nine hundred and fifty of them, thereabouts, are peo ple who hadn't been vaccinated," Biden said.
White House officials said the event, in a part of Cincinnati that voted strongly for Republican former President Donald Trump last November, would give Biden, a Democrat, a chance to reflect on his first six months in office and appeal directly to Americans to get vaccinated.
Biden's town hall, broadcast on CNN, marks his third visit to the state as Covid-19 cases rise amid a deadly variant, and the White House's vaccination efforts have stalled amid waves of disinformation and skepticism.
Victoria sees cases rise as Australia endures lockdowns
Australia's Victoria state has reported a slight rise in locally acquired cases of Covid-19 after nearly a week of a hard lockdown imposed to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta virus strain.
Twenty-six new local cases were reported, up from 22 a day earlier, taking the total cases in the latest outbreak to almost 130. All new infections are linked to the current outbreak and 24 were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.
More than half of Australia's 25 million population, including the country's largest city of Sydney and the states of Victoria and South Australia, is under lockdown, with residents restricted to their homes except for urgent reasons.
Sydney, the worst affected city, is in a five-week lockdown until July 30 although a growing number of cases where people have been infectious in the community has raised the prospect of the tough restrictions extended further.
Nearly half of all new Sydney cases recorded a day earlier with the Delta strain were moving around in the community, particularly in the city's southwestern suburbs, stoking worries of a significant rise in infections.
South Australia, meanwhile, is bracing for more cases on Thursday as officials track two chains of transmission - a winery and a Greek restaurant in the state capital Adelaide. Five of the six cases reported late on Wednesday were linked to the winery.
Peru arrests state hospital workers for charging patients $21,000 per bed
Peruvian police have said they had dismantled an alleged criminal ring that had charged as much $21,000 per bed for seriously ill Covid-19 patients in a state-run hospital, aggravating care in a country hit by one of the world's deadliest outbreaks of the virus.
Authorities arrested nine people in an early morning raid on Wednesday, including the administrators of Lima's Guillermo Almenara Irigoyen public hospital, according to prosecutor Reynaldo Abia.
The scam was uncovered after police received a complaint from the brother of a man suffering from Covid-19 who had been asked for $20,783 (82,000 soles) to obtain an intensive care (ICU) bed and treatment at the hospital, said Abia.
Health Minister Óscar Ugarte told reporters the scam warranted immediate repercussions. "This is totally reprehensible," he said. "We cannot be negotiating with people's lives."
Corruption scandals around virus care have already rattled the highest levels of power in Peru. Outrage over prior allegations that some top officials had been granted preferential "VIP" vaccinations prompted the country's health an d foreign ministers to resign earlier this year.
The hospital involved in the more recent scandal, administered by the EsSalud social security system, provides free care. Patients must endure a long waiting list for the 80 ICU beds the hospital offers.
YouTube says it pulled Bolsonaro videos for Covid misinformation
YouTube has said it had removed videos from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's channel for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, becoming the latest tech giant to pull his pandemic pronouncements.
YouTube said in a press release the decision was taken "after careful review" and without consideration for Bolsonaro's job or political ideology. The far-right former army captain, who has overseen the world's second deadliest outbreak, has won widespread criticism for railing against lockdowns, tout ing unproven miracle cures, sowing vaccine doubts and shunning masks.
"Our rules do not allow content that states that hydroxychloroquine and/or ivermectin are effective in treating or preventing Covid-19, that states there is a cure for the disease, or says that masks do not work to prevent the spread of the virus," it said in a statement.
The president's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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