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Mushrooming outbreaks of the Delta variant prompted China and Australia to impose stricter Covid-19 curbs on Saturday, as the WHO urged the world to contain the mutation before it turns into something deadlier and draws out the pandemic.
First detected in India, the strain has now reached 132 countries and territories. “Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan said. Worldwide, Covid infections are once again on the upswing, with the WHO announcing an 80% average increase over the past four weeks in five of the health agency’s six regions, a jump largely fuelled by the Delta variant.
WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. said that nearly four million new infections had been reported to the WHO in the past week, and the organisation expected the world to surpass 200 million total known cases in the next two weeks. However, the totals are underestimates, because countries often undercount cases — sometimes by very large margins. The known global death toll of roughly 4.2 million is assumed to be similarly skewed. Things are still not as bad as they were not long ago; more than 500,000 new cases are being recorded daily, compared with more than 800,000 three months ago, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.
China’s most serious surge of coronavirus infections in months spread to two more areas Saturday — Fujian province and the megacity of Chongqing — in an outbreak that now spans 14 provinces. More than 200 cases have been linked to an original Delta cluster in Nanjing city where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive. “The main strain circulating at present is the Delta variant… which poses an even greater challenge to virus prevention and control work,” said Mi Feng, spokesman for China’s National Health Commission. The nation where the disease first emerged has rushed to prevent the highly transmissible strain from taking root by putting over one million people under lockdown and reinstituting mass testing campaigns.
In Australia, where only about 14% of the population is jabbed, the third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state entered a snap lockdown Saturday as a cluster of the Delta variant produced six new cases. Thailand and Malaysia announced record Covid-19 infections on Saturday, mostly driven by the Delta variant. Malaysia, one of the hotspots of the disease, reported 17,786 cases on Saturday, a record high. More than 100 people gathered in Kuala Lumpur calling on PM Muhyiddin Yassin to quit. Thailand also reported a daily record high of 18,912 new Covid infections, bringing its total cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record. The government said Delta accounted for over 60% of the cases in the country and 80% of the cases in Bangkok.
First detected in India, the strain has now reached 132 countries and territories. “Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan said. Worldwide, Covid infections are once again on the upswing, with the WHO announcing an 80% average increase over the past four weeks in five of the health agency’s six regions, a jump largely fuelled by the Delta variant.
WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. said that nearly four million new infections had been reported to the WHO in the past week, and the organisation expected the world to surpass 200 million total known cases in the next two weeks. However, the totals are underestimates, because countries often undercount cases — sometimes by very large margins. The known global death toll of roughly 4.2 million is assumed to be similarly skewed. Things are still not as bad as they were not long ago; more than 500,000 new cases are being recorded daily, compared with more than 800,000 three months ago, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.
China’s most serious surge of coronavirus infections in months spread to two more areas Saturday — Fujian province and the megacity of Chongqing — in an outbreak that now spans 14 provinces. More than 200 cases have been linked to an original Delta cluster in Nanjing city where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive. “The main strain circulating at present is the Delta variant… which poses an even greater challenge to virus prevention and control work,” said Mi Feng, spokesman for China’s National Health Commission. The nation where the disease first emerged has rushed to prevent the highly transmissible strain from taking root by putting over one million people under lockdown and reinstituting mass testing campaigns.
In Australia, where only about 14% of the population is jabbed, the third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state entered a snap lockdown Saturday as a cluster of the Delta variant produced six new cases. Thailand and Malaysia announced record Covid-19 infections on Saturday, mostly driven by the Delta variant. Malaysia, one of the hotspots of the disease, reported 17,786 cases on Saturday, a record high. More than 100 people gathered in Kuala Lumpur calling on PM Muhyiddin Yassin to quit. Thailand also reported a daily record high of 18,912 new Covid infections, bringing its total cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record. The government said Delta accounted for over 60% of the cases in the country and 80% of the cases in Bangkok.
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