South Korea logs more than 16,000 new Covid cases – latest updates

 

Covid-19 has infected more than 366M people and killed over 5.6M worldwide. Here are some of the latest coronavirus-related developments:

Small business owners gather during a protest against the government's Covid-19 social distancing measures in Seoul on January 25, 2022. (Reuters)

Friday, January 28, 2022

South Korea creates new daily record in Covid cases

South Korea has reported 16,096 new coronavirus cases, another daily record after posting 14,518 a day before, amid the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has said.

US health agency has 'persistent deficiencies' in its crisis response 

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has "persistent deficiencies" in its ability to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies, the US congressional watchdog warned in a report released on Thursday, citing concerns raised by the Covid-19 pandemic.

HHS is at "high risk" of mismanaging a future crisis, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Congressional auditing agency, said, noting that the department failed to implement some previously made recommendations to improve its pandemic response.

The GAO said in its report that well beyond the pandemic, there are various threats that underscore the need for being prepared.

"As devastating as the Covid-19 pandemic has been, more frequent extreme weather events, new viruses, and bad actors who threaten to cause intentional harm loom, making the deficiencies GAO has identified particularly concerning," the report said. 

"Not being sufficiently prepared for a range of public health emergencies can also negatively affect the time and resources needed to achieve full recovery."

Hundreds of new deaths in Mexico 

Mexico's Health Ministry has reported 495 more fatalities from Covid-19 and 49,150 new infections, bringing the overall death toll to 304,803 and the number of cases to 4,828,446.

Brazil reports 228,954 new cases of coronavirus, 672 deaths

Brazil has reported 228,954 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 672 Covid-19 deaths, the Health Ministry has said.

The South American country has now registered 24,764,838 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 625,085 according to ministry data. 

Source: TRTWorld and agencies 

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