New Delhi: After what was an unprecedented deadly second wave, especially for India, coronavirus cases across the world have begun to decline as countries press the pedal on vaccination. There are currently 174,052,586 cases and 3,744,029 deaths across the globe.
The US has promised to send Taiwan 7,50,000 doses as part of its global plan, a move experts believe will anger China. South Africa and Afghanistan failed to procure enough vaccines while Brazil had refused Pfizer last year at half the price the US and UK bought them at.
We bring you some of the top stories on the pandemic from across the world.
Possible baby boom in Australia
Anecdotal reports in Australia’s Victoria suggest the state is witnessing a baby boom pushing the maternity system towards a breaking point. With no staff or rooms available to look after incoming labouring mothers, midwives have reportedly described this as “the craziest they’ve ever seen and that this isn’t normal”, The Guardian reported.
While experts believe otherwise, provisional data provided to the Victorian government has recorded a 20 per cent increase in demand for maternity care and an 8.9 per cent spike in medicare items required for pregnant women.
Australia has remained an outlier in the Covid outbreak, having recorded just 30,186 cases and 910 deaths till now. It may also be an exception in terms of birth rate. European, Nordic countries and the US have reported a significant drop in birth rates. While births have been reportedly increasing in Victoria, an analysis published in the Medical Journal of Australia predicts a similar trend across the country.
Also read: This is how long it takes for Covid vaccines to start working
US vaccine pledge to Taiwan likely to damage ties with China
Amid growing tensions between Taiwan and China, President Tsai Ing-wen has refused to take vaccines from the mainland, resulting in another Covid outbreak. However, the US has come to its timely rescue offering 7,50,000 doses. Three American senators, who are currently visiting the island nation, made an announcement to this effect, the South China Morning Post has reported.
Experts believe this will only add fuel to the fire. “China regards Taiwan as an inalienable part of its territory and has never renounced the use of force to reunify it with the mainland,” the report notes.
Details of which vaccine Taiwan will be getting remains unclear, but this falls under President Joe Biden’s global plan of exporting 80 million doses.
Taiwan has reported 11,298 cases and 260 deaths till now.
Brazil had refused Pfizer doses last year at half the price US, Europe bought them for
In August 2020, then Brazilian health minister Eduardo Pazuello thought 70 million Pfizer doses for $10 each was too high a price. In comparison, both the US and the UK paid roughly $20 per dose for the same vaccine and have managed to inoculate a large section of their population, bringing the outbreak under control as a result.
“Early vaccination would have avoided deaths and the billion dollar losses caused by the closing of the economy,” a report in Brazilian paper Folha De S.Paulo notes.
With the third highest cases in the world — preceded by the US and India — Brazil has reported 16,947,062 cases and 473,495 deaths.
The country has fully vaccinated just 11 per cent of its population. According to the report, Pazuello had described Pfizer’s offer as “aggressive” and the $10 amount “too high” only to be accepted months later under the same administration.
Also read: Fauci dismissed IIT-Delhi Covid paper as ‘outlandish’ — what it said & why it was withdrawn
Vaccine delay batters Afghanistan’s fight against Covid
Afghanistan was scheduled to receive 3 million doses of the Covid vaccine by April 2021, as promised by the World Health Organization. As the country battles a deadly surge in Covid cases, pleas by healthcare workers will remain unanswered as the vaccines will now be delivered only by August.
“In part, the increase has been blamed on uninterrupted travel with India, bringing the highly contagious Delta variant which was first identified there,” an Al Jazeera report notes.
The country, already rife with a never-ending conflict, has reported 80,744 cases and 3,195 deaths. The country is set to face the crumbling of its healthcare infrastructure and an oxygen shortage, the report notes. Much like India, there are also concerns about a “massive undercount” as those who die at home are excluded from this list.
Just 1.6 per cent of the population has received the first dose — AstraZeneca was donated by India and Sinopharm bought from China. Moreover, the positivity rate has skyrocketed from 8 per cent to 60 per cent in just the past month.
Afghanistan has reported 80,744 cases and 3,195 deaths so far due to Covid.
South Africa shifts focus from herd immunity to containment
South Africa has managed to fully vaccinate just 0.8 per cent of its population with the Johnson & Johnson shot, while just over a million people have received one dose of Pfizer. In comparison, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize had aimed to vaccinate 41 million people by year end.
“Achieving full community protection, or herd immunity, against Covid-19 through vaccinations by 2022 is no longer on the table for South Africa,” a report in Mail and Guardian notes. The focus is now on containment so as to not put an added burden on an already strained healthcare system.
After a study in February revealed that the AstraZeneca shot is mostly ineffective against the South African variant, the health department sold the shots they had. Unusual blood clots after the J&J vaccine shots led to it being “temporarily paused” by the country’s health ministry, losing out on two weeks of vaccination time.
South Africa has recorded 1,696,564 cases and 56,974 deaths.
What we’re also reading:
We’ll Probably Need Booster Shots for Covid-19. But When? And Which Ones?, The New York Times
A future with Covid-19: What would life look like? Straits Times
Also read: Older people may need 3rd shot to stay protected against Delta Covid variant: Lancet study