Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose center-left Social Democrats Party currently leads polls ahead of Germany’s September 26 elections, recently said that fully vaccinated people have been the guinea pigs for those who so far have held off. He added that he was vaccinated and others should follow.
Merkel, however, did not appear to agree with her deputy’s messaging in her Tuesday speech.
Almost all states are readying special paediatric wards as some experts warn unvaccinated children could be vulnerable to any new virus mutations. States including Madhya Pradesh are also stocking up on anti-viral drugs such as Remdesivir.
But with a government survey estimating as many as two-thirds of Indians already have COVID-fighting antibodies through natural infection, and 57% of its adults with at least an initial vaccine dose, many health experts believe any new outbreak of infections could be much less devastating than the second wave.
“What’s surprising is how little heat was needed to break them down-surfaces that are warm to the touch, but not hot. The packaging of this virus is very sensitive to temperature,” Vershinin added.
“The Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) chaired by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) will hold a meeting on Monday morning to discuss the issue of the mutated variant of the coronavirus reported from the UK. WHO’s India representative Dr Roderico H Ofrin, who is also a member of the JMG, is likely to participate in the meeting,” a source told PTI.
Earlier in the day, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the central government to ban flights from the United Kingdom.
“New mutation of corona virus has emerged in UK, which is a super-spreader. I urge central govt to ban all flights from UK immediately,” tweeted Kejriwal.
According to a report in AP, Tiffany Dover later explained to reporters afterward that she has a condition that sometimes causes her to faint when she feels pain. After recovering, she said, “It just hit me all of the sudden, I could feel it coming on. I felt a little disoriented but I feel fine now, and the pain in my arm is gone.”
Analysts at BofA noted a huge $46.4 billion flowed into equities in the latest week, while the outflow from cash was the largest in four months. There were record flows into tech shares and large flows to the consumer sector, healthcare, financials, real estate and value stocks.
BofA chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said a “sell signal” had been triggered for the first time since February as cash levels declined to 4.0% in the latest Global Fund Manager Survey.
In India, the vaccine is being produced as part of a tie-up with the Serum Institute of India.Health officials in the UK hope that the authorisation of the Oxford jab will prove a game-changer, allowing vaccines to be transported and administered far more easily compared to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine which must be stored at very cold temperatures.
The US is the worst-hit country with the world’s highest number of cases and deaths at 17,631,293 and 316,006, respectively, according to the CSSE.
India comes in second place in terms of cases at 10,004,599, while the country’s death toll soared to 145,136.
The other countries with more than a million confirmed cases are Brazil (7,213,155), Russia (2,792,615), France (2,516,957), the UK (2,010,077), Turkey (2,004,285), Italy (1,938,083 ), Spain (1,797,236), Argentina (1,537,169), Colombia (1,496,062), Germany (1,494,063), Mexico (1,301,546), Poland (1,194,110) and Iran (1,152,072), the CSSE figures showed.
Italian agriculture lobby Coldiretti estimates that the virus has created 300,000 newly poor people, based on surveys of the dozens of charity groups operating in the region.
Bolsonaro has launched an attack on coronavirus vaccines, even suggesting that the one developed by Pfizer-BioNTech could turn people into crocodiles or bearded ladies.
“In the Pfizer contract it’s very clear: ‘we’re not responsible for any side effects.’ If you turn into a crocodile, it’s your problem,” Bolsonaro said on Thursday.That vaccine has been undergoing tests in Brazil for weeks and is already being used in the United States and Britain.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.45 per cent.
There are 3,08,751 active cases in the country which constitute 3.08 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
The highest single-day spike till date — 8,593 cases — was reported on November 11.
The chief minister said the situation in Delhi has improved significantly as the positivity rate had gone up to 15.26 per cent as in early November.
It is now down to 1.3 per cent, one of the lowest so far in Delhi, and nationally too, he said.