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South Korea urges people to get flu vaccinations despite death tolls

“Vaccination offers far greater benefits compared to side effects, and both the WHO and domestic and overseas experts agree,” Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told a briefing on Sunday, in a reference to the World Health Organization.

Last year, more than 1,500 elderly people died within seven days of receiving flu vaccines, but those deaths were not linked to the vaccinations, the government said.

As South Korea presses on with its inoculations, southeast Asia’s tiny city state of Singapore became one of the first nations this week to call a temporary halt to the use of two influenza vaccines, as a precaution.

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U.S. breaks daily record for coronavirus cases with over 84,000 new infections

Health experts have not pinpointed the reason for the rise but have long warned that colder temperatures driving people inside, fatigue with COVID-19 precautions and students returning to schools and colleges, could promote the spread of the virus.

The United States has the most cases in the world at 8.5 million and the most fatalities with 224,000 lives lost. The United States has reported over the past week an average of 60,000 new cases per day, the highest seven-day average since early August.

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Countries battle rising coronavirus cases as WHO sees ‘exponential’ rise

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had on Friday warned that “too many countries are seeing an exponential increase in Covid-19 cases and that is now leading to hospitals and intensive care units running close to or above capacity — and we’re still only in October.”

“We urge leaders to take immediate action to prevent further unnecessary deaths.”

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India seeks health worker database for possible COVID-19 vaccination

“Vaccine would be supplied by the government of India to all states for free,” Pradipta Mohapatra, the top health bureaucrat of Odisha state who attended a video conference with federal health officials, told Reuters.

“First to be vaccinated are the health workers both in government and private sector. The policy is uniform for the whole country.”

Mohapatra said states would have to provide details of such workers to the federal government by next Friday.

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