New Delhi: The Covid-19 pandemic continues to worry the world as cases remain high even in the midst of ongoing vaccination drives. The current counts stand at 24,45,39,045 cases and 49,66,180 deaths.
While Bulgaria has enforced its “green certificate” to tackle increasing cases, China has cancelled the Beijing marathon due to a Covid surge, and daily new cases have reached an all-time high in Russia.
Bulgaria enforces ‘green certificate’ to tackle rising Covid cases
In a bid to tackle rising cases and low vaccination rates, Bulgaria enforced its Covid ‘green certificate’ Monday, the country’s public broadcaster BNT reported.
First announced on 19 October, the “Green Certificate” has been made mandatory for entering most indoor public facilities, such as restaurants, theatres, cinemas, concert halls, gyms, clubs and shopping malls.
“Checks will be undertaken and customers and owners will be fined if there are people who do not have a certificate of vaccination, a negative PCR or an antigen test, or a document proving that they have been ill and recovered from Covid-19,” BNT reported.
In response to the announcement, the country’s restaurant and tourism industry has threatened to engage in nationwide protests, against alleged ‘discriminatory rules‘ for issuing the ‘Green Certificate’.
Bulgaria has reported 5,69,443 Covid cases and 23,073 deaths overall.
China postpones Beijing marathon due to spike in cases
A day after postponing the Wuhan Marathon at the last minute, China has postponed the upcoming Beijing Marathon due to a fresh outbreak of Covid cases, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.
The marathon was originally scheduled to take place on 31 October and feature around 30,000 people.
“Authorities have been racing to contain virus infections via mass testing of residents and targeted lockdowns, as the outbreak spreads to 11 provinces. Health officials have said the spate of domestic infections involve a strain of the Delta variant from abroad,” the report added.
The move is significant as the 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place in a little over 100 days from now in the Chinese capital.
China has recorded 96,797 cases and 4,636 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Also read: India registers 14,306 new Covid cases, active cases decline to 1,67,695
Daily cases reach all-time high in Russia
Russia Monday reported 37,930 Covid cases over the past 24-hour period, its highest ever daily case tally since the start of the pandemic, the Associated Press reported. The daily tally also recorded 1,069 Covid deaths.
Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the Covid surge by enforcing an “extended holiday” between 30 October and 7 November, during which people are to not go to work and most establishments are to be closed. In some provinces, this extended holiday has already begun.
“The government has blamed the latest spike in infections and deaths on low vaccination rates and lax public attitudes toward taking precautions. Only about 45 million Russians are fully vaccinated,” Associated Press added.
Russia has reported 82,79,573 total Covid cases and 2,31,669 deaths.
What else we are reading
Endemic Covid-19 Has Arrived in Portugal. This Is What It Looks Like: Wall Street Journal
The U.S. and Israel were early world leaders on vaccinations. Now they are trailing: The New York Times
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Covid-19 pandemic: Experts urge UK to reimpose restrictions, 1st case of Delta mutation in Israel