Covid-19 has infected more than 422M people and killed over 5.8M worldwide. Here are some of the latest coronavirus-related developments:
Saturday, February 19, 2022
Hong Kong records more than 6,000 new cases in virus surge
Hong Kong has reported 15 deaths and more than 6,000 confirmed cases for a second day in a surge the Chinese territory’s leader says is overwhelming hospitals.
Also, the government announced plans to have construction crews from mainland China build isolation units with 10,000 beds after crowding at hospitals forced patients to wait outdoors in the winter cold.
There were 6,063 confirmed cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the territory’s total to 46,763. That was down slightly from Thursday’s 6,116 but one of Hong Kong’s highest daily totals.
Australia reports 43 deaths before extended border reopening
Australia has recorded 43 deaths, as it readies to welcome international tourists on Monday for the first time in nearly two years.
The country, which shut its borders in March of 2020, has been gradually reopening since November, allowing first Australians to travel, then international students and workers, and now leisure travellers.
Once a champion of a zero-Covid strategy, the country has moved to live with the virus in the community, chiefly through high vaccination rates that have resulted in less severe cases and fewer hospitalisations.
China enables boosters of different technologies
China has been giving booster vaccines using technologies different from the initial injections, in an effort to improve immunisation strategies amid concerns that its most-used jabs appeared to be weaker against variants such as Omicron.
Experts are watching whether combined Chinese doses would lead to higher effectiveness.
Adults injected with a vaccine developed by Sinopharm or Sinovac at least six months earlier can now receive their booster doses with vaccines using different technologies, produced by CanSino Biologics (CanSinoBIO) or a unit of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products.
Beijing 2022 Olympics Organiser reports zero new cases
The organizers of the Beijing Olympics have said no new positive tests were reported in the Olympic bubble.
Since January 23, 265 people have tested positive on arrival at the airport and another 171 have tested positive in the Olympic bubble, for a total of 436 positive cases.
The bubble allows Olympics participants to skip quarantine when they arrive in China, but it means their movements have been severely restricted.
Everyone is tested daily for the virus, and anyone who tests positive is quickly isolated to prevent the virus from spreading.
US extends national emergency due to pandemic risk
US President Joe Biden has said the country’s national emergency declared in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic will be extended beyond March 1 due to the ongoing risk to public health posed by the coronavirus.
Biden said the deaths of more than 900,000 Americans from Covid-19 emphasised the need to respond to the pandemic with “the full capacity” of the federal government.
Former President Donald Trump had declared a national emergency almost two years ago to free up $50 billion in federal aid.
“There remains a need to continue this national emergency,” Biden said in a letter on Friday to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the Senate.
The emergency would have been automatically terminated unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the president sent a notice to Congress stating it is to continue beyond the anniversary date.
Mexico registers 457 more mortalities
Mexico’s Health Ministry reported 457 more fatalities from Covid-19 and 21,449 additional cases, bringing the country’s overall death toll to 315,055 and total infections to 5,387,854 since the start of the pandemic.
Cases in Brazil top 120K
Brazil has had 121,027 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 1,127 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry has said.
The South American country has now registered 28,058,862 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 643,029, according to ministry data.
Source: AFP
Hong Kong records over 6,000 new cases in virus surge – latest updates
Source: Pinay Pop Showbiz
