Coronavirus world: Delta variant as ‘infectious as chickenpox’, Israel launches Covid booster jab
As the US faces a new Delta-fuelled surge, Joe Biden battles to get Americans vaccinated and Israel becomes the first country to offer Covid booster shots.
Coronavirus
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A leaked federal document has revealed the depth of US health authorities’ concerns over the rampant Delta Covid variant surges in the country.
It comes as the Biden administration intensified vaccination efforts in the US in the face of the worrying spike that has seen cases back at 10,000 a day in the US.
The document reportedly obtained by The Washington Post claimed the Delta variant is more transmissible than the pathogens that cause SARS, ebola and smallpox, and as easily spread as chickenpox - with each infected person passing the virus to eight or nine others, on average.
The original lineage was about as transmissible as the common cold, with each infected person passing it to about two others, on average. That infectivity is called an R0.
The Centres for Disease Control’s CDC Dr Rochelle Walensky has spoken about the rarity of viruses with such high R values, telling CNN: “When you think about diseases that have an R0 of eight or nine -- there aren’t that many.”
Officials, the document stated, must “acknowledge the war has changed”.
The source of the data was not publicly known but it appeared to have been provided to the Post and the New York Times at the same time - suggesting the possibility of a coordinated leak.
With infections and hospitalisations rising, US President Joe Biden asked every federal worker to either declare they are fully vaccinated or wear masks and be tested.
“People are dying — and will die — who don’t have to die,” Mr Biden said. “If in fact you are unvaccinated, you present a problem — to yourself, to your family, and to those with whom you work.”
The president also said he would ask the Pentagon to consider making the coronavirus vaccine mandatory for active duty military personnel, and asked state and local governments to offer $US100 ($A130) to holdouts who get the shot.
Later, the Pentagon said all its military and civilian personnel would require masks, regular testing and travel restrictions if they are unvaccinated.
The CDC has already asked people in virus hot spots — including the vaccinated — to wear masks indoors again.
The moves stop short of a politically sensitive vaccination mandate for federal workers, but mark a dramatic return to restrictions after a rapid vaccination phase.
The surge across America — which has the highest known Covid-19 death toll in the world — has left early vaccine adopters angry at those who have so far opted against the shot.
“It’s almost like they don’t care about the rest of the world,” Alethea Reed, a 58-year-old healthcare administrator in Washington, said.
“They’re being selfish and self-centred.”
CHINA BATTLES OUTBREAK
Hundreds of thousands of people in China were in coronavirus lockdown on Friday local time as the country battled its worst outbreak in months.
The World Health Organisation has warned that the highly transmissible strain, first detected in India, could unleash more Covid-19 outbreaks in a high-risk area from Morocco to Pakistan where vaccination rates are low.
In China, a cluster of infections in Nanjing city linked to airport workers who cleaned a plane from Russia earlier this month had reached the capital Beijing and five provinces by Friday local time.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been locked down in Jiangsu province, of which Nanjing is the capital, while 41,000 came under stay-at-home orders in Beijing’s Changping district.
At least 206 infections across China have been linked to the cluster, and the outbreak is geographically the largest in several months.
It challenges Beijing’s aggressive containment efforts which have relied on mass testing, lockdowns and swift contact tracing.
The Delta variant driven recent surges around the world, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Philippines next week will send more than 13 million people in the national capital region back into lockdown because of a Delta-linked increase, the government said Friday.
The variant has also been linked to around half of new cases in Tokyo. Japan on Friday extended a virus state of emergency in the capital a week into the Olympics, with the city reported a record number of new cases the day before.
ISRAEL LAUNCHES COVID BOOSTER SHOTS
Israel has launched a campaign to give the elderly Covid-19 booster shots, at a time when the rest of the world is still struggling to complete the standard course.
Kicking off the campaign, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, 60, received a third dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at a hospital in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.
“We are beginning the booster vaccination” so that life in Israel can return to “normal” as soon as possible, Mr Herzog said after getting the injection.
“With this new step of the Israeli government … I believe that it’s also a lesson to the entire humankind that we have to protect each other and take the necessary steps.”
Israel was quick to roll out its vaccination campaign and had dropped many restrictions on public gatherings in June, but infections soared, and masks are once again mandatory in enclosed public places.
About 55 per cent of its nine million population has been double vaccinated, most with the Pfizer jab, thanks to a massive campaign launched in late December after an agreement with its developers.
Israel’s digitised medical databases allowed for rapid large-scale studies, and its initial vaccine rollout of the jab was among the world’s fastest.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced the start of the booster campaign for over 60s on Thursday, as concern mounts over the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus.
“Israel is a pioneer in going ahead with third doses for people of the age of 60 and above,” said the 49-year-old premier who accompanied Herzog to the hospital for the jab.
“The fight against the Covid pandemic is a global fight. The only way we can defeat Covid is together,” he said.
Pfizer, which produces the vaccine used in Israel, has said research shows that a third dose has neutralising effects against the Delta variant of Covid.
But the US Food and Drug Administration, whose recommendations Israel generally follows, has yet to give the green light to administering a third dose to the elderly.
Israel recorded more than 1400 Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours to Thursday. More than 15,000 active cases were identified, including 151 people hospitalised in a serious condition, according to the health ministry.
Case numbers dropped dramatically, and in early June Israel eased many restrictions.
But infections soon rose again, prompting the health ministry to reimpose the wearing of masks in enclosed public places.
Last month, health officials announced they would open up vaccination to children as young as 12, while earlier this week, they said those aged five to 11 at risk of serious health complications could be vaccinated from August 1.
QANTAS UNVEILS OVERSEAS TRAVEL PLANS
Overseas travel on Qantas and Jetstar will require a “digital health pass” from passengers when borders reopen, the airline giant has announced.
The Australian reports that the pass will contain information about Covid tests and vaccination status.
It came as day after Qantas appealed to the Federal Government to mandate Covid vaccinations for aviation workers, the airline has revealed what will be required of travellers in future.
According to The Australian, the travel pass developed by the International Air Transport Association has been trialled by Qantas on overseas repatriation flights this year and is considered the most secure and convenient way to verify a passenger’s Covid status.
The digital travel pass will be delivered via a free smart phone app, allowing vaccine certificates and proof of a negative Covid test to be uploaded before a flight.
Qantas group chief customer officer Steph Tully said the digital health pass was the key to resuming overseas travel.
“Many governments are already requiring proof of vaccine or a negative Covid test result for international travel,” Ms Tully said, per The Australian.
“Even if it wasn’t a government requirement, Qantas has always been a leader in safety and we have a responsibility to our customers and crew.
“A digital health pass will connect customers with Covid testing facilities, health authorities and airlines, and ultimately enable the opening of more travel bubbles and borders.”
It came as vaccine passports launched in England after the NHS app was upgraded.
A new “domestic” feature has been added to the software – while users are told they may need to show the pass “at places that have chosen to use the service”.
The Sun reported that some users said they’ve weren’t able to click through to the new addition – suggesting it’s not currently in use for all.
The app is the NHS app, rather than the UK’s Covid-19 app which is used to check into venues using a QR code.
Before today, users could use the app to show proof of their vaccination status for foreign travel.
It could also be used for Government-backed Covid trials at major events, including getting into Wembley for Euro 2020.
In addition, businesses can use it to make sure workers have been double-jabbed.
TECH VACCINE PUSH
Staff who work for Google and Facebook in the US will have to be vaccinated against Covid in order to return to the office, the tech giants have announced.
It came as Twitter was forced to temporarily close its recently reopened offices in the US as the highly infectious Delta Covid-19 variant drives a resurgence in cases.
The spike has ramped up concerns in the United States, where 611,000 people have died in the pandemic.
Google will make campuses off-limits to unvaccinated employees and extend its global work-from-home option through October 18, according to chief executive Sundar Pichai.
“Anyone coming to work on our campuses will need to be vaccinated,” Mr Pichai said in a blog post.
“We’re rolling this policy out in the United States in the coming weeks and will expand to other regions in the coming months.”
Implementation will be adapted to local conditions, including vaccine availability, according to the Silicon Valley based tech titan.
“I hope these steps will give everyone greater peace of mind as offices reopen,” Mr Pichai said.
“Seeing Googlers together in the offices these past few weeks filled me with optimism, and I’m looking forward to brighter days ahead.”
Google and Facebook were among companies worldwide that abandoned campuses early last year, letting people work remotely rather than risk exposure to Covid-19 in offices.
Google has been paying the salaries of campus workers unable to do their jobs because of closed offices, and helping employees get access to vaccines, according to Mr Pichai.
“Even as the virus continues to surge in many parts of the world, it’s encouraging to see very high vaccination rates for our Google community in areas where vaccines are widely available,” Mr Pichai said.
“This is a big reason why we felt comfortable opening some of our offices to employees who wanted to return early.”
Tech titan Facebook put out similar word on Wednesday, saying that as its offices re-open, only vaccinated workers will be welcomed.
“We will be requiring anyone coming to work at any of our US campuses to be vaccinated,” Facebook vice president of people Lori Goler said in a statement.
“We will have a process for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons and will be evaluating our approach in other regions as the situation evolves.”
Many unions and critics of mandates have spoken out against required vaccinations, citing personal freedom arguments.
US President Joe Biden said earlier in the week that a vaccine mandate for America’s more than two million federal workers was under consideration.
California and New York City announced that official workers would need to get vaccinated or take weekly tests.
FOUR BILLION JABS ADMINISTERED
More than four billion doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been administered around the world, eight months after the vaccination drive started, according to official counts.
Global injections have slowed slightly: this fourth billion was reached in 30 days, while it took only 26 days to reach the previous one. The first and second billion were reached after about 140 and 40 days respectively.
Forty of the four billion shots have been administered in China (1.6 billion). India (451 million) and the United States (343 million) make up the trio of countries that have administered the most jabs.
In terms of population among countries with more than one million people, the United Arab Emirates is the leader: 168 first and second doses administered per 100 inhabitants. Uruguay follows (137), then Bahrain (134).
The UAE is close to having 70 per cent of its population fully vaccinated while Uruguay and Bahrain have both reached more than 60 per cent.
After this the leading countries are Qatar, Chile and Canada (129 shots per 100 inhabitants), Israel (128), Singapore (125), the United Kingdom, Mongolia and Denmark (124) and Belgium (121).
These countries have all fully vaccinated more than half their populations. Not far off this are China (111), the United States (104) and the European Union (103). The US and EU have fully vaccinated nearly half their population while China does not communicate this information.
Australia is lagging behind developed countries with just 22 per cent of the population vaccinated.
Meanwhile, most poor countries have now started to vaccinate, mainly thanks to the Covax scheme and donations of unused doses by rich countries, but the vaccination coverage remains very unequal: high-income countries (as defined by the World Bank) administered an average of 97 doses per 100 inhabitants compared with just 1.6 doses in low-income countries.
On average 52 shots have been injected per 100 inhabitants worldwide. Four countries are not yet vaccinating: Burundi, Eritrea, Haiti and North Korea.
US BACKS ORIGIN PROBE
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in Kuwait where he pledged his support to the UN agency’s investigation in China into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The US supports the @WHO plans for additional studies into COVID-19 origins, including in (the People’s Republic of China), to better understand this pandemic and prevent future ones,” Mr Blinken tweeted after arriving in the Gulf Arab state.
The meeting with Tedros had not been on the US diplomat’s published schedule. In a statement, State Department spokesman Ned Price said that Mr Blinken “stressed the need for the next phase (of the investigation) to be timely, evidence-based, transparent, expert-led, and free from interference.”
And he “emphasised the importance of the international community coming together on this matter of critical concern”.
The UN health agency has been under intensifying pressure for a new, more in-depth investigation of how the disease that has killed more than four million people around the world first emerged.
The WHO was only able to send a team of independent, international experts to Wuhan in January, more than a year after Covid-19 first surfaced there, to help Chinese counterparts probe the pandemic’s origins.
Long derided as a right-wing conspiracy theory and vehemently rejected by Beijing, the idea that Covid-19 may have emerged from a lab leak has been gaining momentum.
Beijing has repeatedly insisted that a leak would have been “extremely unlikely”, citing the conclusion reached by a joint WHO-Chinese mission to Wuhan in January.
But earlier this month, the WHO said a second stage of the international probe should include audits of Chinese labs, amid increasing pressure from the United States for an investigation into a biotech lab in Wuhan.
China said that such a proposal showed “disrespect” and “arrogance towards science”.
Blinken and Tedro also “discussed opportunities for collaboration to continue reforming and strengthening the WHO,” State Department spokesman Price said.
Former US President Donald Trump had begun pulling the US out of the WHO, accusing it of being in thrall to China, but on his election to the White House, Joe Biden reversed that decision.
US BACKTRACKS ON MASK GUIDANCE
America’s Centres for Disease Control has reversed course on its indoor mask guidance, advising all school staff and students to wear masks inside, regardless of vaccination status.
The updated mask guidance recommends that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with high transmission of Covid-19.
Right now, that includes nearly two-thirds of the US. The return of masks inevitably means the issue will be even more politically charged, but top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says the new guidance is because the virus has changed – not the science behind its prevention.
According to the latest CDC data, much of the southern United States is experiencing high or substantial transmission, while highly vaccinated parts of the Northeast are mostly experiencing moderate rates of community transmission.
New Yorkers who receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a city-run site will be given $US100 ($A135) — the latest desperate measure in City Hall’s ramped-up effort to get more residents inoculated as the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant spreads, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday, local time.
“It does not get better than that,” Mr de Blasio said during his daily remote press briefing of the reward for agreeing to a jab.
“Incentives help immensely,” the mayor said. “I think it’s going to be very, very appealing to New Yorkers.”
Meanwhile, in a move that will boost its tourism and leisure sector, the UK has reopened its borders to double vaccinated tourists from the EU and the US. Travellers who have been jabbed will no longer have to quarantine after arriving in Britain, Scotland and Wales.
The change will come into force on Monday UK time.
The UK government said the rule change would help to reunite family and friends overseas.
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said it would apply to people who have been fully vaccinated with a jab approved by the EU or US, with the final dose at least 14 whole days before arrival.
Travellers will still need to take either a lateral flow or PCR test pre-departure and a PCR test on the second day after they arrive.
Under-18s will be exempt from isolation, and some will not have to test, depending on their age.
Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said the change would provide “a boost for the tourism sector and wider economy while ensuring public health is protected”.
On Wednesday, local time, the UK recorded 27,734 new Covid-19 cases and a further 91 deaths in a 24-hour period, according to official figures, marking the first rise in a week.
Cases rose by around 18 per cent from 23,511 on Tuesday, local time, after previously falling for seven days in a row.
NORWAY POSTPONES LOCKDOWN LIFT
Norway’s government announced on Wednesday, local time, that it was again postponing the near-complete lifting of its coronavirus restrictions, planned for early August, because of the rise of the Delta variant.
Originally planned for July, the fourth phase of the reopening plan was first pushed back earlier this month over fears sparked by the more contagious Delta variant first discovered in India.
“The pandemic is not over,” Health Minister Bent Hoie said in a statement. “There is a concerning development in several European countries as a result of the Delta variant, also in countries with a higher vaccine coverage than in Norway, such as the UK and the Netherlands.”
The fourth phase of reopening would have meant the lifting of most of the remaining restrictions. The Delta variant has become the dominant variant in Norway, said the government. Officials will reassess the situation in mid-August.
“I think we will be fully open this autumn, but we want more people to be vaccinated,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg told public broadcaster NRK.
Nearly 80 per cent of the adult population has received at least a first dose of a Covid vaccine in Norway.
The Scandinavian country of 5.4 million people is only using mRNA vaccines — Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna — in its inoculation program.
It dropped the AstraZeneca vaccine and reserves the Johnson & Johnson shot for volunteers only in specific cases, due to their rare but serious side effects.
Norway has recorded 136,369 cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, and 799 associated deaths.
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