New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate countries across the world — the latest count being over 10.8 crore cases and more than 23 lakh deaths.
Doctors in London are ‘frustrated’ because they are starting to run out of priority patients to vaccinate. Singapore’s app for contact tracing has citizens worried and US President Joe Biden’s administration has said it has secured enough vaccines but not enough vaccinators.
ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic and why they matter.
Doctors in London ‘frustrated’ since they are running out of priority patients to vaccinate
Doctors in London are ‘frustrated’ because they are starting to run out of patients in UK government’s top four priority cohorts to vaccinate. They fear that many more lives will be lost if more people aren’t vaccinated immediately, reports The Guardian.
At the Francis Crick Institute in London, doctors revealed that they are immunising 100 people a day, on average, even though they have the capacity to vaccinate 1,000 people.
“A growing number of vaccination centres have given a first-dose jab to virtually all local people in the first four priority groups that want one, but they are not expected to be allowed to move on to groups five and six until next week,” said the report.
UK has recorded 39,98,655 cases of Covid-19 and 1,15,529 deaths.
Churches in South Korea ‘magnet’ for Covid & conspiracy theories
Video footage of Pastor Lee Young, who heads Yodio Full Gospel Church in South Korea, has gone viral where he waves a blue card which will “fend off and kill this Covid-19 virus”. This has prompted criticism from health officials and the media in the country and forced the church to rethink its plans to distribute these cards, reports South China Morning Post.
Even though the country had once earned praise for its handling of the pandemic by the WHO, recent months have witnessed an increase in infections.
Further, religious groups have emerged as those breaking restrictions and forming inaction clusters.
Korea has recorded 82,837 cases of Covid-19 and 1,507 deaths.
Biden warns of logistical hurdles in US’ vaccine race
US President Joe Biden’s administration has said that it has secured enough vaccines to immunise each American adult. However, President Biden has warned that there may be some logistical challenges which could result in many Americans not getting vaccinated until the end of summer, reports The New York Times.
“It’s one thing to have the vaccine, it’s another thing to have vaccinators,” Biden said.
“It was a big mess,” he added, “It’s going to take time to fix, to be blunt with you.”
US has recorded 2,80,02,240 cases of Covid-19 and 4,86,922 deaths.
Also read: Want better protection from Covid-19? Wear two masks, says US health body
Singapore’s Covid app ‘spreads’ distrust
When Singapore introduced an app for contact tracing called TraceTogether, citizens were assured that their personal data would be used only to contain the pandemic.
However, the Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan has revealed that data could be accessed by Singapore Police Force for criminal investigations, reports Asia Times.
“The revelation triggered strong criticism from many Singaporeans who questioned why the government had not been forthright about the use of data from the onset,” said the report.
Post criticism and protest by citizens, the government has introduced new amendments in the existing legislation which would limit police from accessing this data.
Singapore has recorded 59,759 cases of Covid-19 and 29 deaths.
Schools in Sharjah will be 100% online from 14 February
Sharjah, UAE has announced 100 per cent distance learning for all private and public schools beginning 14 February until 28 February, reports Khaleej Times.
The Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) said that this decision has been taken in order to contain coronavirus infections. Since last year, 90 per cent students have been studying from home.
“The attendance of teaching and administrative staff on campus will be left to the discretion of schools management teams,” the report said.
UAE has recorded 3,39,667 cases of Covid-19 and 974 deaths.
What else we are reading:
New Zealand Covid vaccines to arrive one month early, border staff to be inoculated next week: The Guardian
The pandemic emptied Europe’s cities. What will bring people back?: The New York Times
Also read: Experimental hepatitis drug speeds up Covid recovery by 4 times, finds Toronto study