-
Delta variant ‘more transmissible’
The Delta variant of Covid-19, first identified in India, is “around 40 percent more transmissible” than the Covid-19 Alpha variant, which caused the last wave of infections in Britain, health minister Matt Hancock says.
Delta strain of the coronavirus has since become the dominant strain in the United Kingdom, according to official data, threatening the next steps in the country’s reopening plan later this month.
-
Israel to vaccinate teenagers
Sunday will be the first day for 12- to 16-year-olds in Israel to get vaccinated, with 55 percent of the population so far having received two jabs of Covid-19 vaccine in the Middle Eastern nation.
The development came despite the country’s health ministry recently releasing findings suggesting a “possible link” between the BioNTech/Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine shot and cases of myocarditis-inflammation of the heart muscle among younger men.
- The United States donates vaccines to Taiwan
Washington will be donating 750,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to ally Taiwan, a cross-party delegation of the United States senators say as they arrive on the island.
The high-profile delegation and gift come as Taiwan accuses China of hampering its efforts to secure enough coronavirus vaccine doses as part of Beijing’s ongoing campaign to keep the island isolated.
-
Over 3.7 million dead
The SARS-CoV-2 has taken the lives of at least 3,723,381 people since the coronavirus outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally compiled by AFP on Sunday.
The United States is the country that is worst affected by coronavirus with 597,377 deaths from 33,357,240 cases. After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 472,531 deaths, India with 346,759, Mexico with 228,754, and Peru with 186,073.
The WHO or World Health Organization estimates that the pandemic’s overall toll 2X to 3X higher than official records, because of the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to SARS-CoV-2 or novel coronavirus.
