BENGALURU, June 15 (Reuters) - Having barely got over a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections, India was gripped with alarm on Tuesday over risks of a resurgence as crowds thronged railway stations and shopping malls a day after major cities relaxed curbs on movement.
The capital New Delhi, in the north, and tech hub Bengaluru, in the south, were among the cities that have begun lifting strict lockdowns as the nationwide tally of new infections dropped to its lowest level in more than two months.
After a strict five-week lockdown, authorities in Delhi have fully re-opened shops and malls, and allowed restaurants to have 50% seating. Suburban rail networks can run at 50% capacity, and offices have been partially reopened.
"Delhi's top #mall saw a footfall of 19,000 people last weekend- as soon as it reopened. Have we gone totally mad?" Ambrish Mithal, a doctor with a Max HealthCare hospital in New Delhi said on Twitter. "Wait for #COVID19 to explode again- and blame the government, hospitals, country."
Disease experts have cautioned that a race towards resuming business as usual would compromise vaccination efforts as only about 5% of all 950 million eligible adults have been inoculated.
Doctors say Delhi's near-complete re-opening is concerning. The city's authorities have said they would reimpose strict curbs if needed.
Thousands died in the capital in May, as oxygen supplies all but vanished and families pleaded on social media over scarce hospital beds. Many died in parking lots, and morgues ran out of space.
Yet, the city government said inoculation centres for people aged between 18 and 44 would start shutting down on Tuesday, as doses were scarce.
CHALLENGE OF INOCULATIONS, TESTING
India has been administering an average of 2.4 million shots a day. Health officials say vaccinations need to be at least four times higher to avoid a third wave of infections.
At the height of the second wave in April and May as many as 170,000 people died.
The Delta variant, first identified in India, has accelerated infections. And worryingly, the virus has spread to India's vast hinterland where two-thirds of the population lives and vaccinations have been even slower.
As restrictions are lifted in big cities, migrant workers have begun returning from the countryside.
In the southern state of Karnataka's capital Bengaluru, media reported large crowds of workers at railway stations.
"Unfortunately, citizens equate the government's response to reopening, as a victory," Dr Vishal Rao, a member of the expert committee on Karnataka's COVID task force, told Reuters.
Nationwide, India reported 60,471 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest since March 31, data from the health ministry showed.
India added 2,726 deaths overnight, taking the overall tally to 377,031.
Both the death toll and the case-load of infections, at 29.57 million, were the second highest after the United States, but experts say the official numbers are a gross underestimate. Only people who have tested positive are counted, and in India testing has been woefully inadequate.
The Times of India on Tuesday reported a staggering 100,000 people were issued fake 'negative' reports for COVID-19 infections in the northern city of Haridwar when tens of thousands of Hindu devotees gathered on the banks of the Ganges river for the 'Kumbh Mela', or pitcher festival, in April.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely criticised for failing to call off the Kumbh - he only belatedly urged religious leaders to celebrate symbolically - and for addressing large rallies during state elections also in April.
"One in every 4 tests during Kumbh was found fake. That is from just 1 sample collection agency. 8 more to go." Rijo M John, a professor at the Rajagiri College of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi, said on Twitter.
Basically, just the tip of the iceberg.
Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Himani Sarkar
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MIAMI -- Teofimo Lopez has tested positive for COVID-19 and is symptomatic. His Saturday bout vs. George Kambosos that was scheduled to be in Miami and the whole undercard has been moved to Aug. 14, Triller announced.
"We send our best to Teofimo and his family and hope they get well soon, and look forward to seeing this epic battle on August 14, 2021," Triller Fight Club co-founder Ryan Kavanaugh said.
Kambosos called Lopez irresponsible in a statement posted to Twitter.
"Your actions and decisions have affected not only our fight but everyone involved in this fight. Pure irresponsibility on your side. Our time will come and I promise you and the world that I'm going to take you out worse than ever for everything," he wrote.
Lopez, the unified lightweight champion and No. 5 on ESPN's pound-for-pound list, was in Las Vegas at the Shakur Stevenson-Jeremiah Nakathila fight Saturday. He arrived back in Miami over the past 24 hours to begin fight week prep.
The 23-year-old Lopez (16-0, 12 KOs) is a rising star who just agreed to an amended deal with ESPN/Top Rank through 2023 that raised his minimum purses and secured his place in future ESPN PPV bouts once this fight is completed, sources told ESPN. This defused a dispute between Top Rank and Lopez that occurred after the Kambosos-Lopez bout went to purse bid and Triller bid over $6 million to secure the rights to it over ESPN/Top Rank and Matchroom.
Lopez, who holds the main WBA, WBO, IBF, WBC franchise and Ring Magazine lightweight titles, will be making his first title defense since his October 2020 upset over Vasiliy Lomachenko.
The Lopez-Kambosos bout was scheduled to be held at LoanDepot Park, where the Miami Marlins play, on Saturday, and Triller had begun heavy promotion of the bout.
KINSHASA, June 15 (Reuters) - The Democratic Republic of Congo will limit public gatherings to 20 people and close nightclubs as the country grapples with a third wave of COVID-19, President Felix Tshisekedi said on Tuesday.
Congo has officially registered relatively few cases, but low vaccination rates have left the country vulnerable to more contagious strains, including the highly-infectious Delta variant.
"For several weeks we have seen a persistent rise in the number of people infected," Tshisekedi said in a televised address. "We need to react with speed, and above all, methodically."
Last week, Tshisekedi told reporters that hospitals in the capital Kinshasa had been "overwhelmed" by the rising infections.
Congo has registered more than 35,000 infections and 834 deaths, according to figures from the Africa Centre for Disease Control. The World Health Organization said on June 2 that COVID-19 cases in Congo were rising exponentially. read more
Reporting by Stanis Bujakera; Writing by Cooper Inveen; Editing by Nick Zieminski
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Rhode Island has reached a new milestone in its vaccination efforts as the states COVID-19 data continues to improve.
Data released Tuesday by the R.I. Department of Health shows 600,374 people are now fully vaccinated against the disease, while roughly 674,000 in total have received at least one dose.
The Health Department updated its weekly data on Tuesday, which showed decreases in new hospital admissions by week (from 35 last week to 22 this week) and new cases per 100,000 residents by week (from 21 to 18) while percent positivity by week remained at 0.5%.
The daily positivity rate also came out to 0.5%, with 23 new cases reported and more than 4,000 tests administered the previous day.
Another Rhode Islander has died after contracting the virus, bringing the states death toll to 2,723.
Nationwide, the death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 600,000 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Rhode Island health officials say 38 people in the state remain hospitalized with the virus, with six currently in the intensive care unit and seven on ventilators.
On Tuesday, Governor Dan McKee also announced state officials will no longer hold scheduled COVID_19 briefings, but will instead have general media availability every week.
The next news conference is scheduled for Thursday at 1 p.m., but going forward they will be held every Tuesday at 2 p.m., according to the governors office.
12 News plans to stream the media availability right here on WPRI.com.
COVID-19 specific briefings will be held on an as-needed basis, officials added.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Officials are reporting 1,150 active cases of coronavirus in Oklahoma Tuesday, June 15.
On Tuesday, data from the Oklahoma State Department of Health shows that the state has had 454,929 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since March of 2020.
Thats an increase of 535 cases since Friday, June 11.
At this point, officials believe there are 1,150 active cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Oklahoma has seen 8,546 deaths as of Tuesday.
Officials say there were 125 Oklahomans hospitalized with COVID-19 on average over the past three days.
Health leaders say over 1.66 million Oklahomans have received their initial COVID-19 vaccine, while 1.35 million have completed the series.
To learn more about guidelines regarding the pandemic,visit the CDCs website.
rnrnBackgroundrn
After a successful first WHO webinar held on 9 February 2021 on post COVID-19 condition, focusing on recognition and burden, WHO conducted a Delphi survey to come to a consensus on the clinical case definition of post COVID19 condition.
This second WHO webinar will present the consensus clinical case definition from the global Delphi exercise, and then expand on understanding the mechanisms that may cause post COVID-19 condition, and the care models to manage it.rn
There are at least seven mechanisms to be considered: inflammation/hyperinflammatory state; immune dysregulation/autoimmune; coagulation/vasculopathy; direct viral toxicity/viral perseverance/long-term infection; autonomic dysfunction/neurologic; endocrine/metabolic;rn and maladaptation of the ACE2 pathway. Likely, many interact synergically. Thus, this global meeting brings together stakeholders to advance the field in solidarity.
The objectives of this second WHO webinar are to:rn
Introduction
In the race to vaccinate as many people in the U.S. as possible, several benchmarks have been proposed, including President Bidens goal of reaching 70% of adults in the U.S. with at least one dose by July 4. Whether or not this is attainable is unknown, as the pace of vaccination has slowed, and progress has varied substantially across states. Moreover, even where the 70% target is reached, whether nationally or in a particular state, achievement of the goal for the overall population may mask differences in vaccination rates across groups, particularly by race/ethnicity. To date, vaccination rates among Black and Hispanic people have lagged behind those of White people, largely due to access and logistical barriers as well as concerns about safety and potential side effects. As such, even if broad national vaccination goals are achieved, these groups may remain at higher risk, which could lead to widening health disparities and limit the nations recovery from the pandemic.
To further explore potential disparities in meeting vaccination benchmarks, researchers at Stanford University and KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) used current state-reported vaccination data by race/ethnicity to project vaccine coverage going forward, by state and nationally. Specifically, using the current pace of vaccination, we projected the share of people ages 12 and older who would receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of July 4 for four racial/ethnic groups (White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian) and assessed when 70% of each group would have received at least one dose. We were not able to include other groups in the analysis due to data limitations.
Our focus on vaccinations among those ages 12 and older differs from President Bidens goal, which is based on those 18 and older. We use a 70% vaccination rate as an illustrative measure for examining potential disparities across groups that may underlie an overall coverage rate. We focus on those ages 12 and older due to lack of systematic data on vaccinations by race/ethnicity and age. Our projected coverage levels will be lower than those among adults given that younger adolescents have only more recently become eligible for vaccination. Reporting on race and ethnicity is incomplete and inconsistent across states. Previous reporting on racial/ethnic disparities in vaccination through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other sources has not adjusted for these data discrepancies, resulting in reported coverage levels that likely underestimate actual population coverage. Although we have adopted a standard set of definitions and rules for reconciling unknown or discrepant data elements to enable transparent and comparable estimation of coverage over time and place, results must be interpreted as approximations in the context of missing and sometimes noisy data.
At the current pace of vaccination, 65% of those ages 12 and older would be at least partially vaccinated by July 4, but rates would be lower for Hispanic, and especially Black, people. Asian people are the only group estimated to exceed a 70% vaccination rate, while White people (66%) and Hispanic people (63%) will be shy of reaching this level, and only about half (51%) of Black people will have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July 4, based on current trends (Figure 1). If the current pace of vaccination continues, Hispanic people nationally would reach a 70% threshold by the end of July (July 27), White people would reach this threshold by early August (August 2), but Black people would still not have reached this coverage level by the beginning of September. Hispanic people are projected to reach 70% coverage faster than White people despite having a lower rate of vaccination as of July 4, because their recent pace of vaccination has been faster than White people.
Progress toward achieving a 70% vaccination rate among those ages 12 and older by July 4, and disparities across race/ethnic groups, would also vary significantly across states. At the current vaccination pace, Asian people are on track to reach 70% of those ages 12 and older with at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose in nearly all reporting states (40 of 44), and White people are on track in just over a third of reporting states (18 of 47). Hispanic people are projected to reach this threshold in 13 of 44 reporting states, while Black people are estimated to reach this coverage level in only 5 of 47 reporting states (Figure 2, Tables 1 and 2).
To reach a 70% vaccination rate by July 4, the pace of vaccination would need to increase substantially in many states, particularly for Black people. Nationally, the daily pace of new vaccinations would need to be 7% faster than the current pace to achieve 70% vaccination coverage among Hispanic people ages 12 and older by July 4, while the pace for Black people would need to be over two and a half times faster than the current pace. The increases in vaccination rates needed to reach this coverage level also vary across states. The pace would need to at least double in 24 of 44 states reporting data for Hispanic people, 24 of 47 states reporting data for White people, and 36 of 47 states reporting data for Black people (Table 3).
If the pace of new vaccinations continues to slow even further, disparities between groups in achieving progress toward coverage goals would persist. For example, a slowdown of 25% would mean that, overall, the share of those ages 12 and older estimated to have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose would drop from 65% to 64%. Asian people would still reach a 70% coverage rate, coverage among White people would remain below this threshold, with 65% receiving at least one dose, and there would be larger gaps for Hispanic and Black people, with 61% and 50% receiving at least one dose by July 4, respectively. These patterns play out at the state level as well.
It remains to be seen whether President Bidens goal of at least 70% of adults receiving at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July 4 will be achieved, particularly given the slowdown in vaccinations. Regardless of when this goal is achieved, it is important to recognize that this national benchmark may mask underlying disparities. This illustrative analysis, which examines potential disparities toward achieving a 70% coverage rate among people ages 12 and older, shows that Black and Hispanic people will likely be left behind even if and when national goals are achieved, with substantial variation across the country. As such, even if the nation, overall, reaches a broad level of protection through vaccination, certain groups and communities will remain at increased risk for COVID-19. These disparities in vaccination may lead to further widening of the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on people of color and health disparities more broadly. These findings underscore the importance of continuing to prioritize vaccine equity and focused efforts to deliver vaccinations to underserved people and areas, as well as the importance of maintaining these efforts even after broader national goals are achieved.
Marissa Reitsma, Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, Neesha Joseph, and Joshua Salomon are with Stanford University. Samantha Artiga, Jennifer Kates, Larry Levitt, and Anna Rouw are with KFF.
A standard device in detective stories is a map on which certain buildings are circled. Their locations are thought to be revealing, though often they just create a false trail. When four of the first cases of a strange, pneumonia-like illness seen in Wuhan, China, in December, 2019, were found to have a connection to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, it seemed a key to solving the mystery of the illnesss origin. Live animals were reportedly on sale there, offering a route for pathogens to jump from wild species to humans. But then other cases, some of them earlier, were identified, with no known connection to the market. In due course, more sites were circled on the pandemic map. One was the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which contains a Biosafety Level 4 lab. The institutes work included experiments on the bat coronaviruses that are among the closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
The market and the institute have at times served as shorthand for two broad sets of possible answers about the origin of the virus: that it was zoonotic, meaning that it travelled directly from animals, or that it was transmitted by an accidental lab leak, from a place such as the Wuhan Institute. On May 26th, President Joe Biden, in a statement, described U.S. intelligence agencies as being uncertain about which scenario is more likely, with a majority of them believing that firm evidence for either is lacking. Biden asked them to redouble their efforts and come back with a better answer in ninety days.
The debate has become, to an unfortunate degree, loud, contentious, and infused with politics. Former President Donald Trump has insinuated that the Chinese government intentionally spread the virus as part of a plan to have it take hold in this country and destroy our economy. Republican members of Congress have turned a recently disclosed e-mail mentioning a possible lab source, which Anthony Fauci received in February, 2020, into yet another argument for firing him, apparently because he didnt instantly condemn Beijing. Earlier this month, Fauci told the Financial Times that he still thinks its most likely that the coronavirus jumped species, but that we need to keep on investigating until a possibility is proven.
The Chinese government has not helped by failing, at almost every stage, to respond transparently to questions or to share information. Beijings decision, earlier this year, to seriously constrain the work of an investigation sponsored by the World Health Organization meant that the resulting report, which perfunctorily dismissed the lab-leak theory, was not seen as credible. (The director-general of the W.H.O. pointedly told member states, All hypotheses remain on the table.) There is some concern that exploring the theory will further incite xenophobiawith China being blamed for every consequence of a pandemic that the United States also failed to control. Yet Chinese citizens have consistently pushed back against censorship, often at personal risk. According to official figures, COVID-19 has killed almost four million people; a study by The Economist concludes that the true number may be close to thirteen million. Partisanship, in whatever form, cant be the guide here.
From the beginning, it made sense that SARS-CoV-2 would have a zoonotic origin, because that is how other novel pathogens, such as the viruses causing Ebola, SARS, and MERS, have emerged. The genome of SARS-CoV-2 implies that it is descended from a coronavirus that infected a horseshoe bat, but when it was identified in Wuhan it had already adapted very well to infect humans. This may suggest that it spent time either in another animalSARS and MERS are believed to have moved from bats to civets and camels, respectively, before reaching humansor in people elsewhere. An intermediate population hasnt been identified, but there are a lot of places to look: even if Huanan Seafood is not the source, there are more than a dozen markets selling live animals in the city. Wuhan is a metropolis of eleven million inhabitants, and it is crisscrossed by travellers, with an international airport and an expansive subway system. Its worth noting that the natural zoonotic path for novel pathogens often relies on some distinctly unnatural disruption, such as climate change, poaching, or urban sprawl, to spur encounters between species.
Meanwhile, lab leak has come to describe at least two related theories. The first starts with the observation that the Wuhan Institute has worked with bat coronaviruses; its researchers have collected samples from sites hundreds of miles away, including a disused mine where, in 2012, six workers fell ill with sars-like symptoms. All that activity involved a great deal of interaction between researchers, locals, and many bats, and in that context its conceivable that a novel virus could emerge, or be transmitted, or be collected and then accidentally mishandled. This might be better called the lab nexus theory, because it envisions the lab as a crossroads for people and viruses. According to information from a U.S. intelligence report published by the Wall Street Journal, three workers at the institute became sick in November, 2019, with symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and seasonal illnesses, and sought hospital care. Fauci has said that hed like to see their medical records.
The scientific work itselfsome of which benefitted from National Institutes of Health fundingforms the basis for what might be called the lab-experiment leak theory. The Wuhan Institute is one of a number of labs around the world, including in Europe and the United States, that have engaged in gain of function studies. This means that viruses are in some way engineered, in many cases to make them more infectious or more virulent. The ideaand there is disagreement about whether it is a good oneis that doing so will better prepare scientists to fight future viruses. But, in the short run, additional novel pathogens are in close proximity to humans; the provocative question is whether SARS-CoV-2 was one of them. Scientists who have examined its genome are divided about whether it shows signs of engineering, specifically in an area known as the furin cleavage site, and about whether such signs would even be discernible. A leading scientist at the Wuhan Institute, Shi Zhengli, known as the Bat Woman, has said that she is confident that the virus was not one worked on in her lab.
There are wilder theories, too, involving intimations of biowarfare plots. But, although the lab-leak scenario figures in many conspiracy theories, it is not itself a conspiracy theory; the consensus is that it is unproved, but plausible. That possibility alone should prompt serious reflection on the practices in virological labs. Yet what is striking is that none of the theories are reassuring. Each implicates something about how we, collectively, live on the planet. And each suggests that many things need to change.
Dr Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University, said she is concerned that the natural immunity of those who have been exposed to coronavirus may soon wane. And shes worried that states with low vaccination rates could become hot spots.
Just because were lucky in June doesnt mean well continue to be lucky come the late fall and winter, said Wen, the former health commissioner for the city of Baltimore. We could well have variants here that are more transmissible, more virulent and those who do not have immunity or have waning immunity could be susceptible once again.
In Mississippi, about 835,000 people have been fully vaccinated, or 28% of the population, compared to the national average of 43%. But despite the lagging vaccination rate, the states rolling average of daily new cases over the past two weeks has decreased by about 18%, according to Johns Hopkins.
Dr. Albert Ko, who chairs Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale, said there is no accurate data to show what percentage of the population in high burden states such as Alabama or Texas have been exposed to the virus, but he said estimates have put it as high as 50%.
I think it doesnt deny the importance of vaccination, particularly because the levels of antibodies that you get that are induced by natural infection are lower than that of what we have for our best vaccine, Ko said.
Ko said it is important that even those exposed to the disease get vaccinated because natural immunity does not last as long as vaccine immunity and the levels of antibodies are lower.
Wen said research strongly suggests that vaccinations provide a benefit to those who already have some antibodies due to infection.
I think it is a fallacy that many people have that recovery means they no longer need to be vaccinated, she said.
Health officials on Sunday reported 50 more coronavirus cases across the state.
The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 852. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats down from 889 on Saturday.
No new deaths were reported, leaving the statewide death toll at 845.
Its the 10th straight day when Maine saw new coronavirus cases slip below the triple digits, a level of transmission that seemed unthinkable this past winter when infections surged well over 800 a day at times. It comes as Gov. Janet Mills on Friday declared that the civil state of emergency Maine has lived under since April 2020 will finally be allowed to expire June 30.
Sundays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 68,590, according to the Maine CDC. Thats up from 68,540 on Saturday.
Of those, 50,160 have been confirmed positive, while 18,430 were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.
The new case rate statewide Sunday was 0.37 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 512.48.
Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 51.9, down from 55.9 a day ago, down from 70.7 a week ago and down from 266.1 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.
The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases and deaths have been recorded in women than men.
For a complete breakdown of the age and sex demographics of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, use the interactive graphic below.
So far, 2,048 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Thirty-nine of those are currently hospitalized with 23 in critical care and 12 on a ventilator. Currently, 88 out of 372 critical care beds and 240 out of 319 ventilators are available. Meanwhile, 452 alternative ventilators are available.
The total statewide hospitalization rate on Sunday was 15.30 patients per 10,000 residents.
Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (8,360), Aroostook (1,885), Cumberland (17,198), Franklin (1,367), Hancock (1,370), Kennebec (6,562), Knox (1,143), Lincoln (1,076), Oxford (3,624), Penobscot (6,285), Piscataquis (574), Sagadahoc (1,472), Somerset (2,260), Waldo (1,046), Washington (930) and York (13,435) counties. Information about an additional three cases was not immediately available.
For a complete breakdown of the county by county data, use the interactive graphic below.
As of Saturday, 731,802 Mainers have received a first dose of the vaccine, while 746,673 have received a final dose.
As of Sunday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 33,457,794 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 599,672 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
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