New Delhi: The Covid-19 pandemic continues across the world. Currently, the total number of cases stands at over 18 crore and more than 39 lakh deaths. The virus has made its way through over 200 countries and territories.
The Delta variant is marking its presence across countries, including Israel and Australia where cases are on the rise again. However, some data from the US shows that most of the Covid deaths are now among those who were not vaccinated.
ThePrint brings you some important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic.
Israel grapples with new outbreak
After largely returning to normalcy in May and vaccinating almost more than half of its population, dozens of Delta variant cases are emerging in Israel, reports The New York Times. Many of those affected have been vaccinated already.
Despite the new outbreak, Israel’s current death rate remains close to zero, and only 26 of 729 active coronavirus patients were hospitalised, according to data released by the Health Ministry. The overall daily caseload remains far from the country’s peak in mid-January when the average hit more than 8,000 daily cases.
Israel has registered 840,430 cases and 6,429 total deaths due to the virus so far.
Delta infections spike in Sydney, week-long lockdown imposed
Parts of Australia’s capital Sydney and the city’s eastern suburbs, which include Bondi Beach, will go into a one week lockdown from midnight Friday as authorities struggle to contain a spike in the highly contagious Delta variant cases in the city, Reuters reports.
Officials have issued health alerts overnight for more than a dozen new venues scattered across Sydney, which is home to a fifth of Australia’s 25 million population. The restrictions, which were scheduled to end Wednesday, are now extended until midnight on 2 July.
Australia has seen 30,424 cases and 910 deaths due to the virus so far.
Indonesia’s most populous island dealing with its largest Covid surge
Kudus, Central Java is one of the worst affected areas by Indonesia’s recent surge in Covid-19 cases. Home to almost 900,000 people, Kudus has recorded a 7,594 percent increase in cases since the beginning of this year, Al Jazeera reports. Due to the high surge, the bed occupancy rate in hospitals has been pushed to more than 90 per cent.
Indonesia’s capacity to track variants is limited, but doctors believe the current outbreak in Kudus is driven in part by the spread of the Delta variant.
Indonesia has registered 2,053,995 cases and 55,949 deaths due to the virus so far.
Also read: India joins rest of the world to find out origin of coronavirus, China isn’t pleased
Most Covid deaths in US among the unvaccinated
Nearly all Covid-19 deaths in the US now are in people who haven’t been vaccinated, LA Times reported.
The paper cites an Associated Press analysis of available government data from May that shows “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 Covid hospitalizations, which is about 0.1 per cent. Only about 150 of the more than 18,000 Covid deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people, which translates to about 0.8 per cent, or five deaths per day on average.
CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that the vaccine is so effective that “nearly every death, especially among adults, due to Covid-19 is, at this point, entirely preventable.”
US has seen the highest number of Covid cases — 34,464,956 — and 618,685 deaths so far.
South Africa’s Gauteng dealing with a third wave
Gauteng is currently driving the spread of the pandemic in South Africa as the daily numbers of new cases show, Mail and Guardian reports.
There are currently 5,800 people hospitalised in Gauteng because of the virus; in both public and private hospitals. The department is activating additional beds in storage to deal with constraints. Dr Mary Kawonga, the chair of Gauteng premier’s advisory committee on Covid, said the province is heading towards the worst-case scenario.
“Although there are many people not tested as well, the testing system cannot catch up with the rising infections. We should have a below 5 per cent test positivity rate to say the virus is under control, but all provinces are now above 10 per cent”, she added.
South Africa has seen 1,877,143 cases and 59,406 deaths so far.
What else are we reading:
The global Covid-19 vaccine gap: Eight charts on the race to inoculate the world — The Globe and Mail
Chinese health experts watch for clues as Delta variant ‘poses challenges’ — South China Morning Post
Also read: Turkey declares ‘#MissionAccomplished’ against coronavirus