Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Sunday that more “pain and suffering” is on the horizon as COVID-19 cases climb again and officials plead with unvaccinated Americans to get their shots. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, also said he doesn’t foresee additional lockdowns in the U.S. because he believes enough people are vaccinated to avoid a recurrence of last winter. However, he said not enough are inoculated to “crush the outbreak” at this point. Read:Global Covid situation worsening as cases near 198 million Fauci’s warning comes days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed course to recommend that even vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the delta variant is fueling infection surges. With the switch, federal health officials have cited studies showing vaccinated people can spread the virus to others. Most new infections in the U.S. continue to be among unvaccinated people. So-called breakthrough infections can occur in vaccinated people, and though the vast majority of those cause mild or no symptoms, the research shows they can carry about the same amount of the coronavirus as those who did not get the shots. “So we’re looking, not, I believe, to lockdown, but we’re looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we’re seeing the cases go up, which is the reason why we keep saying over and over again, the solution to this is get vaccinated and this would not be happening,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week.” According to data through July 30 from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. rose from 30,887 on July 16 to 77,827 on July 30. The seven-day rolling average for the country’s daily new deaths rose over the same period from 253 on July 16 to 358 on July 30, though death reports generally lag weeks after infections and even longer after hospitalizations. Currently, 58% of Americans 12 years and older are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC’s data tracker. Read: Global Covid cases top 197mn as Delta variant presents new challenges However, people are “getting the message” and more are rolling up their sleeves amid the threat of the delta variant, according to the director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Francis Collins said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that vaccinations are up 56% in the U.S. in the last two weeks. Louisiana, which has the most new cases per capita among states in the past 14 days, has seen vaccinations up threefold over that period, Collins said. “That’s what desperately needs to happen if we are going to get this delta variant put back in its place, because right now it’s having a pretty big party in the middle of the country,” Collins said. Collins also said that even with the prevalence of the delta variant, the shots are working “extremely well” and reduce a person’s risk of serious illness and hospitalization “25-fold.” The guidance for vaccinated people to start wearing masks indoors again in certain places with worsening outbreaks, he said, is mostly meant to protect unvaccinated and immunocompromised people. The CDC has also recommended indoor mask-wearing for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status.

The number of confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide over the past seven days has increased by 3.5 mln. The world documented 0.5 mln more infections than a week before, according to TASS’ calculations. Due to another increase in Western Europe and North America, the incidence returned to the level of late May, and specialists are concerned that this is only the beginning: as Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated, the world is in the early stages of another wave of the pandemic. TASS gathered key statistics of the pandemic for this week. Read: Global Covid cases near 190 million A new rise In a number of countries where the situation has stabilized since spring, the spread rates of the coronavirus infection are on the rise again. For example, the US began to detect more than 30,000 daily infections for the first time since mid-May, while in June this indicator went below 10,000. In Russia, since late June the number of confirmed cases has not gone below 20,000 a day, and over the past two days it has been surpassing 25,000. The situation in Western Europe is rapidly deteriorating as well: in the UK, the number of daily detected cases is approaching 50,000 (compared to 5,000 in early summer), while in the Netherlands it has surpassed 10,000 for the first time since December. On Tuesday, Spanish authorities reported a record high of the infections since the beginning of the pandemic - over 43,000 per day. The incidence in Italy and Germany has almost doubled (however, right now this is about 2,500 and 1,500 daily infections, respectively), and in France, where it increased 1.6-fold in one week, the authorities introduced serious restrictions: since August 1, the French won’t be able to enter bars, restaurants and shopping centers without special sanitary passports, while medical and rescue workers will have to undergo mandatory vaccination. Read: Global Covid cases near 189 million A new decrease According to statistics, Latin America in general has weathered another wave of the epidemic. In Brazil, the number of confirmed cases has been decreasing for the second week in a row and is already below 40,000 a day, while in Argentina it has decreased approximately 2.7-fold compared to early summer. In Colombia, the coronavirus spread rates have dropped by a third - this week the country has been documenting on average about 20,000 daily infections. This corresponds to the indicators of the end of May. Mexico remains an exception since the growth in incidence began there precisely at the end of spring. During the last two days it has been documenting over 10,000 cases of the infection for the first time since February. In another part of the planet, the incidence has been decreasing in South Africa where last week it reached its peak. The country that has been documenting 26,000 daily infections is currently registering about 15,000 infections a day. Read: Global Covid cases top 184 million A growth in fatalities Over seven days the world has recorded over 55,000 deaths caused by the coronavirus infection which is 2,500 more than last week. The number of fatalities is rapidly growing in Indonesia - there about 1,000 fatalities are being recorded daily against the background of a serious rise in incidence. This is one of the highest levels worldwide surpassed only by Brazil where about 1,200 infected are dying daily (which is a quarter less than the previous week). Russia has been setting daily records in terms of fatalities for several days in a row. On Friday, the country reported almost 800 deaths caused by the coronavirus infection. At the same time, the number of fatalities has been decreasing in Argentina and Colombia. In the former it has decreased from 500 to less than 400 a day, while in the latter - from 600 to 550.

Covid-19 variants seem to be spreading around the world like wildfire, even with mass inoculations underway. The overall number of coronavirus cases has now topped the grim milestone of 142 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. The total case count and fatalities stand at 142,642,783 and 3,041,541, respectively, as of Wednesday morning, as per the university data. The US, India and Brazil are the worst-affected countries in terms of confirmed cases, followed by France, Russia and the UK. Also Read: Covid-19: Global cases near 142 million, deaths top 3 million The US has registered 31,792,013 cases as of Wednesday morning, while the death toll from the virus has now climbed to 568,460, according to Johns Hopkins statistics. Neighbouring India, which has been logging more than two lakh new cases daily for the past several days, on Tuesday recorded a whopping 15,321,089 cases and 180,530 fatalities in 24 hours, the country's government said. In Brazil, the total caseload has reached 14,043,076 while 378,003 people have died from the virus so far. France has recorded 5,401,305 cases, while Russia and the UK have registered 4,665,553 and 4,408,644 infections, respectively, to date.   Situation in Bangladesh After recording over 100 daily Covid-19 deaths for four consecutive days, Bangladesh registered 91 more fatalities in 24 hours till Tuesday morning, showing a marginal fall in the fatality figures. Besides, 4,559 people got infected by the deadly virus during the period, said a Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) handout. On Monday, the country broke all the previous records of Covid-19 deaths, registering 112 fatalities. The latest figure pushed up the death tally to 10,588, with a mortality rate of 1.45 percent. Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020, and the first death on March 18 that year. Health authorities have so far confirmed 727,780 cases. Among them, 628,111 people -- 86.31 percent of all patients -- have recovered.   Lockdown A ‘strict’ lockdown is currently underway across the country, but people still seem to be apathetic towards health guidelines and safety rules. The government has extended the ongoing lockdown by another week from April 22 in an effort to bring the Covid-19 situation under control.   Cause of concern Concerns about the spread of more contagious and deadlier variants of the virus have been raised by experts. A research suggests that the South African variant has accounted for 81 percent of the positive cases in Dhaka since the third week of March this year. That is not good news for Bangladesh because the country has managed to procure only the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine so far, which offers as little as 10 percent protection against the South African variant, according to researchers.   Vaccination efforts Last year, Bangladesh inked an agreement with the Serum Institute of India for acquiring 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.   A countrywide inoculation drive was launched on February 7. So far, 57,29,147 people have received the first dose and 15,07,287 have got their second jab, according to official figures.   Amid growing calls for speeding up the inoculation programme, Bangladesh's vaccine supplier India has shifted from being a mass vaccine exporter to a major importer, after witnessing a record number of daily cases in the past couple of weeks. Although Bangladesh is yet to receive its March consignment of five million doses, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said the jabs will arrive as promised by India. END/UNB/MAS/JM  

 As coronavirus  is wreaking havoc around the world, over 141 million people have been infected with the virus with more than 3 million fatalities. The total caseload from the virus reached 141, 124, 378 while the death tally hit 3,017, 555 as of Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Also Read: Global Covid-19 cases approaches 139 million The US has logged 31,669,880 cases and the death toll in the US climbed to 567,217, the highest number of deaths in the world. The US has crossed the grim milestone of 30 million cases on March 25. Besides, Brazil's COVID-19 death toll on Sunday reached 373,335 after registering another 1,657 fatalities, the country's ministry of health reported. According to the ministry, another 42,980 cases were registered, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 13,943,071. Also Read: Global Covid-19 cases top 140 mn with over 3 mn fatalities India has been hit hard by the pandemic recently as the country has logged over 2 lakh Covid-19 cases for the last couple of days. Now the total caseload in India has reached 14,788,109 while the death toll from the virus mounted to 177, 150 as of Monday morning. Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh Bangladesh saw its daily deaths from coronavirus shatter the local record yet again with 102 fatalities between Saturday and Sunday morning. It was the third consecutive day that the country registered more than 100 deaths in a 24-hour period. The latest fatalities pushed up the death tally to 10,385 with a mortality rate of 1.44 percent, according to a handout from the Directorate General of Health Services. Data released by the government show a downward trend in tests and new cases as the number of deaths and recoveries rise steadily. Bangladesh reported its first coronavirus cases on March 8, 2020, and the first death on March 18 that year. The country has so far confirmed 718,950 cases. But 614,936 people – 85.53 percent of all patients – have recovered so far. Bangladesh inked an agreement with the Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd for 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. A countrywide inoculation drive was launched on Feb 7. Until Sunday morning, 7,116,946 have registered for the vaccine. So far, 57,14,090 people have received the first dose and 13,66,609 have got their second jab, according to official figures.