Japan's fully vaccinated rate of 13.8 percent puts it ahead of the global average of 11.3 percent. Still, fear is growing that the Olympic Games will spread the virus. Organizers have said that the plan to allow 10,000 Japanese spectators can be changed now or later. There were 716 cases in Tokyo on Saturday, the highest number in five weeks. Meanwhile, in Thailand medical staff who were vaccinated with Sinovac will be given a booster of Pfizer or Moderna. Luxembourg's prime minister is in serious condition with low blood oxygen levels. He just attended the European Union Summit June 24 and 25. Several days later he had mild symptoms and tested positive. He got a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in May and was supposed to get a second on July 1. So far, none of the 26 other leaders at the summit are showing any symptoms.
Japan is sending millions of doses of Astra Zeneca to other South Asian countries, including Taiwan which will not accept vaccine from mainland China. Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam are also getting vaccine help from Japan. Instead of one country giving vaccine to another, Israel and South Korea are doing a vaccine swap. Israel is sending about 700,000 doses of Pfizer that are close to their expiration dates to help South Korea fight its rising case numbers. In September and October, South Korea will send the same amount to Israel.
Here in the US, the states with low vaccination rates have almost triple the rate of new covid cases as states with above-average vaccination rates. Florida has been especially hit hard with about 17 percent of all new US cases happening there. Younger people still lag behind older ones in terms of getting vaccinated. One public health expert advises young people that covid-29 does not have to kill you to wreck your life.
Cases are surging at US immigration detention centers. The number of migrants held has almost doubled recently, from 14,000 in April to 26,000 last week. In the same time period, there have been over 7,500 new covid cases. As of May, only around 20 percent of detainees had had one dose of vaccine. Reasons for the surge in cases include the transfer of detainees between facilities, insufficient testing, and lax covid safety measures such as proper mask wearing by staff.
You may have read that the coronavirus may well become like influenza, something we deal with on a yearly basis. That sounds good, but the two viruses are very different. The coronavirus spreads faster and can cause more serious illness. The symptoms of the coronavirus take longer to show, and people with it are contagious for longer. Finally, the R for seasonal influenza is approximately 1.28 meaning that four people with flu might pass it on to five more people. The R value for the Delta variant? Seven. Yes, one person suffering from the Delta variant of the coronavirus could pass it on to seven other people. Not quite the same....
1 comment:
and yet we can have 20,000 die from influenza in a year and it doesn't make the headlines. Is it because it happens every year or because it's the old and sick who die?
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