coronavirus vaccine
Japan passes 50% vaccination rate, may ease limits in Nov.
Japan’s government says more than 50% of the population has been fully vaccinated.
Japan’s vaccine rollouts began in mid-February, months behind many wealthy countries due to its lengthy clinical testing requirement and approval process. Inoculations for elderly patients, which started in April, were also slowed by supply shortages of imported vaccines, but the pace picked up in late May and has since achieved 1 million doses per day.
Read: Japan suspends 1.63M doses of Moderna over contamination
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is in charge of COVID-19 measures, told NHK public television’s weekly talk show Sunday that about 60% of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of September, on par with current levels in Europe.
The government is studying a roadmap for easing restrictions around November when a large majority of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated. That would allow fully vaccinated people and those who test negative to travel, gather for parties or attend mass events.
The progress of vaccinations has helped reduce serious cases and deaths among older people, but infections from virus variants spread explosively in August among younger generations still largely unvaccinated, severely straining health care systems.
Read: Japan to further expand virus emergency areas as cases surge
Japan last Friday extended the ongoing state of emergency in Tokyo and 18 other areas until Sept. 30. It had been scheduled to end Sunday. The measures focus on requests for eateries to close early and not serve alcohol.
Japan has done much better than other developed countries in curbing illnesses and deaths without a lockdown. It has counted more than 1.65 million cases and 16,700 deaths.
Unvaccinated 11 times more likely to die from Covid: CDC
New US studies released Friday show the Covid-19 vaccines remain highly effective against hospitalisations and death even as the highly contagious delta variant swept the country.
One study tracked over 600,000 Covid-19 cases in 13 states from April through mid-July. As delta surged in early summer, those who were unvaccinated were 4.5 times more likely than the fully vaccinated to get infected, over 10 times more likely to be hospitalised and 11 times more likely to die, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"Vaccination works," Dr Rochelle Walensky, CDC's director, told a White House briefing Friday.
But as earlier data has shown, protection against Covid infection is slipping: It was 91% in the spring but 78% in June and July, the study found.
So-called "breakthrough" cases in the fully vaccinated accounted for 14% of hospitalisations and 16% of deaths in June and July, about twice the percentage as earlier in the year.
An increase in those percentages is not surprising: No one ever said the vaccines were perfect and health experts have warned that as more Americans get vaccinated, they naturally will account for a greater fraction of the cases.
Read: Global vaccine disparity gets sharper amid talk of boosters
Rochelle said Friday that well over 90% of people in US hospitals with Covid are unvaccinated.
The CDC released two other studies Friday that signalled hints of waning protection for older adults. One examined Covid hospitalisations in nine states over the summer and found protection for those 75 and older was 76% compared to 89% for all other adults. And in five Veterans Affairs medical centres, protection against Covid hospitalisations was 95% among 18- to 64-year-olds compared to 80% among those 65 and older.
It is not clear if the changes seen over time are because immunity is waning in people first vaccinated many months ago, that the vaccine is not quite as strong against delta – or that much of the country abandoned masks and other precautions just as delta started spreading.
But the US health authorities will consider this latest real-world data as they decide if at least some Americans need a booster, and how soon after their last dose. Next week, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will publicly debate Pfizer's application to offer a third shot.
54 lakh more Sinopharm doses to arrive Saturday
Fifty-seven lakh more doses of the Sinophamrm vaccine are scheduled to reach Dhaka from China early Saturday.
The consignment of vaccine doses is part of the commercial purchase from China, said Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka Hualong Yan.
This is so far the second-largest batch of vaccine doses commercially purchased by Bangladesh from China.
As a strategic partner of Bangladesh, China will always remain the most reliable supplier whatever and whenever the country needs, Hualong said.
With the new doses, China will have supplied over 2 crore doses of Sinophamrm to Bangladesh commercially.
Another 2.4 million doses have also been received from China as bilateral assistance.
Thakurgaon woman hospitalized after getting vaccinated twice in one day
A woman has been mistakenly administered two doses of Coronavirus vaccine at Baliadangi Upazila Health Complex in Thakurgaon, health officials said on Thursday.
Fensi Akter, 39, wife of Tajim Uddin of Chhotasingia village in Charol union of the upazila, was admitted to the health complex as she fell sick after being vaccinated twice on Tuesady.
Read: Thakurgaon youth jumps rope to enter Guinness Book
Fensi Akther said she went to Baliadangi Upazila Health Complex to get the second dose of vaccine after receiving a mobile SMS.
The on-duty nurse first injected Fensi with a dose of Sinopharm vaccine. Within a minute, another nurse took another vaccine and pushed it into her arm before she understood anything.
Later, the woman was admitted to the health complex when she fell sick.
Read: Thakurgaon journalist arrested under DSA gets bail
Baliadangi Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer Dr Abul Kashim said vaccine seekers are crowding the booth and they are struggling to handle to crowd every day.
"However, the woman is fine now but she is feeling sick due to anxiety over receiving two vaccine jabs," said the doctor.
Long queues, no social distancing at Dhaka vaccine centres
Social distancing went for a toss as thousands thronged immunisation centres across the capital on Thursday to take their second Covid vaccine shots.
In the Lalbag area, for instance, UNB found that health workers were literally struggling to manage large crowds. Many people who came to the centres in the area neither wore masks nor followed social distancing rules.
Read: 2nd doses to be administered under mass vaccination on 3 days in cities, 1 day outside cities: PMO
Dhaka seeks unity against vaccine inequity to accelerate economic recovery efforts
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has said a successful pandemic recovery must involve universal vaccination ending vaccine inequality.
He referred to the unfortunate manifestation of vaccine nationalism and called the world to stand united against such vaccine inequity.
“It’s time for development partners to be more humane and help the deserving without discrimination. Vaccine should be a public good,” said the Foreign Minister while speaking at the United Nations high-level Forum on the Culture of Peace held at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
This year’s high-level Forum on the Culture of Peace focused on the transformative role of the Culture of peace in promoting inclusion and resilience in the post Covid recovery. The daylong event included an inaugural session, a plenary session and a virtual panel discussion.
“An essential component of our recovery effort from the pandemic must involve a peaceful environment in which all of us irrespective of our caste, creed, colour, race and religion can meaningfully contribute to our re-building efforts. There is no alternative to inculcate the Culture of Peace in our efforts to build back better in the post-Covid recovery,” Dr Momen said.
The Foreign Minister recalled Bangladesh’s pioneering role in the adoption of the UN General Assembly Resolution on the Culture of Peace since 1999 and organization of the high-level forum since 2012.
Read: 'Vaccine inequity' concerns IMF, WB, WHO, WTO
Apart from the Foreign Minister, the President of the General Assembly, High Representative of UN Alliance of Civilization, Chef de Cabinet of UN Secretary General and the Representative of UNESCO delivered remarks at the inaugural session.
World sees Covid surge as vaccination lagging
The global Covid-19 caseload has surpassed 221 million as the vaccination rollout has failed to keep pace.
According to US-based Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 221,051,151 and the death toll to 4,574,419 on Tuesday morning.
So far, 5,489,941,974 vaccine doses have been administered across the globe.
Read: Bangladesh’s international airports to have PCR booths for Covid tests
India administered more Covid-19 vaccine doses in August than all the G7 nations combined, the government said on Monday, reports NDTV. The total Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far has crossed 68.46 crore.
Canada administered three million doses and Japan 40 million doses in the two lowest and highest range, respectively, among G7 nations, according to data tweeted by MyGovIndia.
The US, which is the world's worst-hit country in terms of both cases and deaths, has so far logged 40,018,268 cases. Besides, 649,319 people have lost their lives in the US to date, as per the JHU data.
Brazil currently has the world's second-highest pandemic death toll after the United States and the third-largest caseload after the United States and India.
The country has recorded 20,899,933 cases with 583,810 fatalities so far, according to the health ministry.
India's Covid-19 tally surpassed the 33-million mark, rising to 33,027,621 on Monday, as 38,948 new cases were reported during the past 24 hours across the country, the federal health ministry's latest data showed.
Besides, as many as 219 deaths were registered due to the pandemic since Sunday morning, taking the total death toll to 440,752.
Read: 2nd doses to be administered under mass vaccination on 3 days in cities, 1 day outside cities: PMO
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh logged 65 Covid-19 deaths and 2,710 cases in 24 hours till Monday morning, showing a slight fall in fatality and uptrend in cases from a day before.
The country reported 70 Covid-related deaths and 2,430 cases on Sunday.
The daily case positivity rate also increased slightly to 9.82% from Sunday's 9.66%, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The fresh numbers pushed the country’s total fatalities to 26,628 while the cases reached 15,17,166, the DGHS said.
The new cases were detected after testing 27,595 samples during the 24-hour period.
Besides, the recovery rate rose to 95.91%, while the case fatality also increased to 1.76 per cent compared to the corresponding period.
Read:Those aged 12-17 to be vaccinated after WHO’s approval: Minister
The country last saw 67 Coronavirus-related deaths on June 17 and the upswing in the fatalities reached its peak on August 5 and 10 when 264 deaths were recorded.
However, the situation was much more catastrophic than June in the latter part of August as the country experienced a surge of Covid-related caseloads and deaths during that time.
Between May and June this year, there was a 273% rise in monthly caseloads and 162% in fatalities. In July, there was a 150% increase in caseloads and a 170% rise in deaths compared to the previous month, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
India's August Vaccination Tally Higher Than G7 Nations Combined: Centre
India has administered more COVID-19 vaccine doses in August than all the G7 nations combined, the government said today, reports NDTV.
In a tweet, the centre's official handle MyGovIndia, said the country administered over 180 million vaccine doses in August - more than all the Group of 7 nations combined that includes Canada, the UK, the US, Italy, Germany, France and Japan.
Read:Kashmir leader’s family charged under India anti-terror law
Canada administered three million doses and Japan 40 million doses in the two lowest and highest range, respectively, among G7 nations, according to data tweeted by MyGovIndia.
"Yet another achievement! With more than 180 million vaccine doses administered in the month of August, India leaves a mark on the Global map of leading its way in vaccinating its population on priority," the government tweeted.
The total COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country so far has crossed 68.46 crore.
Read: Indian MedTech sector has potential to reach 50 USD billion by 2025
The country today reported 42,766 new cases of COVID-19.
There are concerns over the Delta Plus variant of coronavirus. In June, the government first warned against the Delta Plus variant, a new mutant version of the Delta strain of Covid first detected in India, and had called it a "variant of concern".
Those aged 12-17 to be vaccinated after WHO’s approval: Minister
Those who are aged between 12 and 17 will be brought under the coverage of vaccination against Covid-19 once it is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), said Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Monday.
“We’ve applied to WHO seeking its approval in this regard. The approval of the National Technical Advisory Committee is also needed. Once approved, we’ll start vaccinating those who are aged 12-17,” said the minister while talking to reporters after a meeting at the secretariat.
Read: No decision yet on vaccinating the under-18: DGHS
No decision yet on vaccinating the under-18: DGHS
The government is yet to take any decision on bringing people below 18 years under Covid-19 vaccination, said the Directorate General of Health Services on Sunday.
“So far we know, no decision has been taken yet. But the government is thinking about it. Measures will be taken as per the decision of the National Advisory Committee,” said Dr Shamsul Haq, director of DGHS Vaccination Programme.
He said some university students were vaccinated as per the list of the University Grants Commission.
Those who don’t have NID cards and are yet to get vaccinated may get their jabs showing birth certificates, he added.
Also read: PM: Govt has arranged to bring one crore Covid vaccine doses a month
However, on Saturday Health Minister Zahid Maleque said students below 18 can be vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna jabs following the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) directives as per the availability of vaccine doses.
About 80% teachers and students involved in medical treatment have been brought under vaccination campaigns, the minister added.
Besides, pregnant and lactating women can get jabs without SMS from nearby vaccination centres at any convenient time after registration, Dr Shamsul Haq said on Sunday.
"We have changed the previous rules for vaccinating pregnant and lactating women and given new instructions," he added.
Moreover, Dr Shamsul said pregnant and lactating women must take a doctor's advice card before getting the jab. They can go to the vaccination centres and get a jab by signing a letter of consent.