Covid-19 has infected more than 240M people and killed over 4.8M globally. Here are the major virus-related developments for October 14:
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Tiny Pacific nation beats the world with 99 percent vaccination, says Red Cross
The tiny Pacific nation of Palau has the world's highest percentage of people vaccinated against Covid-19, the Red Cross said, urging the country's laggard neighbours to follow its example and step up inoculation efforts.
Fully 99 percent of Palau's population over 12 has had both shots of vaccine for the new coronavirus, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) said, citing government figures which also show that this amounts to 16,152 people.
That puts Palau, an archipelago of 500 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, in the "top spot", the IFRC said in a statement, ahead of countries like Portugal which was named one of the world's most vaccinated countries when 80 percent of its 10 million people were fully immunised last month.
Australia's Victoria confirms record 2,297 virus cases
The state of Victoria in Australia has reported over 2,297 Covid-19 cases, the highest daily number of cases since the pandemic began.
According to the Victorian Government Department of Health, there are 20,505 active cases in the state, of which 706 are hospitalised.
The total number of confirmed cases in Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic is 59,710. With 11 new related fatalities, the overall death toll has risen to 945.
As many as 87.6 percent of Victorians aged 16 and over have now had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 62 percent are fully vaccinated.
Bali reopens to foreign travelers as Covid-19 surge subsides
The Indonesian resort island of Bali has reopened for international travelers to visit its shops and white-sand beaches for the first time in more than a year – if they're vaccinated, test negative, hail from certain countries, quarantine and heed restrictions in public.
However, foreign visitors may be slow to arrive. No international flights to Bali were scheduled on the first day of the reopening and a tourism official forecast travel would pick up in November.
Bali’s airport will welcome new foreign arrivals from 19 countries that meet World Health Organization’s criteria such as having their Covid-19 cases under control, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the government minister who leads the Covid-19 response in Java and Bali, said in a statement late Wednesday.
Hungary will receive technology to produce Sputnik V vaccine
Hungary will receive technology this year to produce Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine at a Hungarian plant currently under construction, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Moscow.
Besides Russia's Sputnik, Hungary plans to produce China's Sinopharm's vaccine in the planned $193 million vaccine plant.
Hungary's daily virus cases rise above 1,000 for first time during fourth wave of pandemic
Hungary has reported 1,141 new Covid-19 infections, with the number rising above 1,000 for the first time during the fourth wave of the pandemic, the government said.
The virus has infected 831,866 people in the country of 10 million so far and killed 30,341. Nearly 5.7 million people have been fully vaccinated in Hungary and 948,000 people have already received a third, booster shot as well.
Britain's says it Covid-19 situation is stable
Britain's defences against Covid-19 are working and the pandemic situation is currently stable, health minister Sajid Javid said.
"Overall things feel quite stable at this point. The numbers are a bit up, a bit down over the last few weeks," he told Times Radio.
"Our primary defences against this virus are working."
Britain reported 42,776 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the highest number since mid-July, and 136 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, official data showed.
Suicides among Japanese children at record high
Child suicides in Japan are the highest they have been in more than four decades, local media have reported, citing the country's Education Ministry.
As the Covid-19 pandemic prompted school closings and disrupted classrooms last year, 415 children from elementary to high school age were recorded as having taken their own lives, according to the education ministry's survey.
The number is up by nearly 100 from last year, the highest since record-keeping began in 1974, the Asahi newspaper reported on Thursday.
Suicide has a long history in Japan as a way of avoiding perceived shame or dishonour, and its suicide rate has long topped the Group of Seven nations, but a national effort brought numbers down by roughly 40 percent over 15 years, including 10 straight years of decline from 2009.
The Education Ministry said a record high of more than 196,127 school children were absent for 30 days or more, media reported.
The results showed that changes in school and household environments due to the pandemic have had a huge impact on children's behaviour, NHK quoted an education ministry official as saying.
Australia employment falls 138,000 in Sept amid lockdowns
Australian employment fell sharply for a second month in September as coronavirus lockdowns forced businesses to lay off workers and slash hours, while the jobless rate was held down by another drop in the number of people looking for work.
Thursday's data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed employment fell by 138,000 in September, compared to median forecasts of a drop of 137,500.
The unemployment rate edged up to 4.6 percent, from 4.5 percent when analysts had expected a rise to 4.8 percent. The rate has been badly distorted by lockdowns which prevent people from looking for work and being counted as unemployed.
Australia cancels men's and women's Opens due to Covid
Australia has cancelled its men's and women's Open tournaments in a hammer blow for the struggling domestic game as Covid-19 and travel restrictions continue to bite.
Organisers had planned a late-January, early-February window for the men's Australian Open in Sydney after its original November schedule proved untenable.
But Golf Australia boss James Sutherland said enduring travel curbs and the country's mandatory 14-day quarantine had left organisers with no choice but to cancel the flagship event for a second year in a row.
"The international element means shifting quarantine and travel restrictions wreak havoc on planning and, with our marquee players living abroad, the challenge is even greater," Sutherland said in a statement on Thursday.
"The pressure and risk on host venues and organisers is also high - these are small businesses who have already faced huge disruption due to the pandemic."
Covid cases in Australia's Victoria hit record daily high
Covid-19 infections in Australia's Victoria hit a pandemic record on Thursday as Melbourne, the state capital looks to exit its lockdown next week, several days ahead of plan, helped by a faster-than-expected vaccine uptake.
The surge in daily cases comes as Victoria nears the 70 percent threshold for double-dose vaccinations among eligible adults, when authorities have promised to end a months-long lockdown, against the original October 26 forecast.
Victoria logged 2,297 new cases on Thursday, the highest number of any state or territory in the country since the pandemic began. Eleven new deaths were recorded.
Most new cases were detected in Melbourne, with the city now clearly at the centre of the country's Delta outbreak.
J&J shot gets better boost from Moderna or Pfizer in NIH study
People who got Johnson & Johnson Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine as a first shot had a stronger immune response when boosted with vaccines from Pfizer Inc /BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc, a study run by the National Institutes of Health showed on Wednesday.
The study, which is preliminary and hasn't been peer-reviewed, is the latest challenge to J&J's efforts to use its Covid-19 vaccine as a booster in the United States.
The study, which included more than 450 adults who received initial shots from Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson, showed that "mixing and matching" booster shots of different types is safe in adults. Moderna's and Pfizer's vaccines are based on messenger RNA while J&J's uses viral vector technology.
It comes as an advisory group to the US Food and Drug Administration is preparing to meet later this week to discuss the merits of a booster shot for Moderna and J&J vaccines.
FDA officials on Wednesday said J&J's regulatory submission for its planned booster raised red flags including small sample sizes and data based on tests that had not been validated.
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