Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!
SHARE:
WHO warning - Pandemic 'far more deadly' in 2021
Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment
- The story: The World Health Organization issued a grim warning that the second year of Covid-19 was set to be "far more deadly". It was when Japan extended a state of emergency amid growing calls for the Olympics to be scrapped. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued the warning.
- Japan's case: The mood darkened in Japan where the coronavirus state of emergency took in another three regions just 10 weeks before the proposed Olympics, while campaigners submitted a petition with more than 3,50,000 signatures calling for the Games to be cancelled. With Tokyo and other areas already under emergency orders until the end of May, Hiroshima, Okayama and northern Hokkaido, which will host the Olympic marathon, will now join them. The Japanese public opinion is firmly opposed to holding the Games.
- Murderous: The pandemic has killed at least 3,346,813 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP tally. The deaths are not stopping, as new mutants run riot. The "Indian sub-variant" B.1.617.2 has reached the UK, and is widespread now.
- India's vaccination: India has started deploying Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the first foreign-made shot to be used in the country that has been reeling from an explosion in cases and deaths. The approach of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" has now been modified, to get access to as many vaccines as possible.
- The first token batch of Sputnik vaccines, reportedly 150,000 doses, arrived on May 1 and will be administered from June.
- A number of leading India-based drugmakers have agreements for local production of Sputnik V with the aim to produce over 850 million doses of the jab per year.
- India has been adding roughly as many new Covid cases daily as the rest of the world put together. That has put the government in a tight spot.
- Europe: In Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the arrival of the B1.617.2 variant, one of those believed to be driving the Indian surge, could delay reopening of society and the economy. Britain's health ministry has tracked the variant in northwest England and in London.
- Germany has already added the UK back onto its list of "risk areas" requiring extra checks -- but not necessarily quarantine -- for incoming travellers.
- Elsewhere around the continent, tourist hotspots are opening up. Greece kickstarted its tourism season, hoping to reverse last year's miserable summer.
- France and Spain launched tourism campaigns this week too.
- USA: In the United States many were confused a day after the top health agency lifted all mask-wearing requirements for fully vaccinated people. The move has raised questions about how to implement it -- the foremost being, how do you tell if a person is fully vaccinated? It has led to a patchwork of regulations around the country. Some states never had mask mandates in the first place. Others lifted them well before the new advice. Some were reviewing the idea, but others such as Maryland and Virginia rushed to implement it.
- Major companies are also weighing their options. Retail giant Walmart was among those who said Friday it would lift its mask mandate for fully vaccinated staff and customers.
- United Food and Commercial Workers, a union which represents 1.3 million people, came out unequivocally against. "Essential workers are still forced to play mask police for shoppers who are unvaccinated and refuse to follow local COVID safety measures. Are they now supposed to become the vaccination police?"
- The WHO also said Friday that even the vaccinated should keep wearing masks in areas where the virus is spreading. "Vaccination alone is not a guarantee against infection or against being able to transmit that infection to others," WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.
- More than 580,000 people have died in the US of Covid-19. But almost 60 percent of US adults have now received one or more doses, while cases are falling fast, and children are also now being vaccinated.
- Summary: The WHO urged wealthy countries to stop vaccinating children and instead donate doses to poorer nations.
* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your
own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.
COMMENTS