Novel coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 4.2 million lives infecting at least 19.6 million people around the world. Here are updates for July 29
Thursday, July 29:
Blinken pledges to supports WHO probe into Covid origins
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Kuwait where he pledged his support to the UN agency's investigation in China into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
"The U.S. supports the @WHO plans for additional studies into COVID-19 origins, including in (the People's Republic of China), to better understand this pandemic and prevent future ones," Blinken tweeted after arriving in the Gulf Arab state.
The meeting with Tedros had not been on the US diplomat's published schedule.
In a statement, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Blinken "stressed the need for the next phase (of the investigation) to be timely, evidence-based, transparent, expert-led, and free from interference."
And he "emphasised the importance of the international community coming together on this matter of critical concern".
The UN health agency has been under intensifying pressure for a new, more in-depth investigation of how the disease that has killed more than four million people around the world first emerged.
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.
Thailand reports daily record of 17,669 cases
Thailand has reported a daily record of 17,669 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases to 561,030 since the start of the pandemic last year.
The country also reported a record 165 Covid-19 deaths, also a daily record, bringing the total number of fatalities to 4,562.
Australia's New South Wales reports biggest daily caseload
New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, reported its biggest daily rise in Covid-19 infections since the pandemic began as residents of state capital Sydney face another month under tough curbs to stamp out an outbreak of the Delta variant.
A total of 239 locally acquired cases were detected, up from 177 a day earlier.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said vaccinations alone would not bring an end to a Covid-19 lockdown in Sydney.
"I mean, it can certainly help ... the low rates (of vaccination) we have had there need to lift and that will certainly help the efforts with the lockdown but on its own it won't stop the lockdown," Morrison told Nine News.
Morrison hoped the extended lockdown and tougher curbs on movement enforced in the worst affected regions of Sydney could contain the "incredibly virulent" Delta variant.
With only about 17 percent of people above 16 years fully vaccinated in New South Wales state, which Sydney is the capital of, infections have steadily risen despite Greater Sydney being in lockdown since June 26.
More than 2,500 cases have been detected so far in the state's worst outbreak of this year, with 165 people hospitalised. Fifty-six are in intensive care, 22 of whom require ventilation.
New Zealand gives provisional nod to AstraZeneca vaccine
New Zealand's health regulator Medsafe has granted provisional approval for the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for individuals 18 years of age and older, acting minister for Covid-19 response, Dr Ayesha Verrall, has said.
New Zealand secured 7.6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through an advance purchase agreement with the company last year.
The country has only been using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine so far.
Cuba says Iran to start producing one of its vaccines
Iran will next week become the first country outside of Cuba to start producing one of the Communist-run island's homegrown Covid-19 vaccines on an industrial scale.
Iran and Cuba will produce millions of doses of Soberana 2 in the Middle Eastern country under the name PastuCovac, Finlay Institute chief Vicente Vérez Bencomo said during a visit to Tehran this week, according to Cuban state-run media.
The allies are under fierce US sanctions that they say have long encumbered access to medicines and medical inputs, motivating them to be self reliant. Both have produced a raft of experimental Covid-19 vaccines.
Preliminary Cuban data from late-phase clinical trials suggests its Soberana 2 and other most advanced Covid-19 vaccine Abdala are among the world's most efficient, with more than 90 percent efficacy, although critics say they will remain skeptical until it publishes the figures in international, peer-reviewed journals.
Iran's Pasteur Institute agreed earlier this year to collaborate with Cuba's Finlay Institute, which developed Soberana 2, to implement phase three clinical trials of the shot in the Islamic Republic, leading to its approval for emergency use early in July.
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