New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate countries across the world — the latest count being over 3.8 crore cases and more than 10 lakh deaths.
US immigrant prisons are Covid ‘hell’ without any preventive care for its inhabitants. NHS’ test and trace methods are not very successful in the UK and citizens of Saudi Arabia express concern about upcoming flu season amid pandemic.
ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic and why they matter.
US immigrant prisons are ‘hell’ with no preventive Covid care
Preventive care in US immigrant prisons is not satisfactory, bunks are fixed to the floor which makes social distancing very hard and masks are only handed out after a Covid case has been detected, reports Folha De S. Paulo.
The newspaper narrates the story of carpenter Paulo Passos who was tired of working “just to survive” in Brazil. So, he decided to try living in the US without documents. However, he was caught by the border police and thrown into detention when the pandemic struck.
US has reported more than 78 lakh cases and over 2.15 lakh people have died in the country.
Also read: Race against Covid stumbles but experts say they’d be surprised if there were no problems
NHS’s test-and-trace system not working in UK
UK government’s scientific advisors have revealed that the National Health Service’s test-and-trace system is not working, reports The Guardian. NHS is the apex health body of the country.
Fewer people are getting tested, results are taking time to be released and people aren’t isolating themselves strictly, the experts noted.
“The system ‘is having a marginal impact on transmission’, as a result, and unless it grows as fast as the epidemic that impact will only wane,” states the report.
UK has recorded 6,34,920 cases of Covid-19 and 43,018 deaths.
People in Saudi Arabia concerned about upcoming flu season amid pandemic
With the weather becoming relatively cooler across Saudi Arabia, many citizens are expressing concern since the flu season will now begin, coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic, reports Arab News.
Flu shots have not been made compulsory in Saudi Arabia “but the guidelines from the Scientific Committee for Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination recommend that the public and health care professionals receive the vaccine every year, especially during flu season as the composition of the vaccine is modified annually,” says the report.
Saudi Arabia has recorded 3,40,089 cases of Covid-19 and 5,087 deaths.
Also read: Portugal and Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo tests positive for Covid
Beating transmission in Australia’s Victoria ‘trickiest in the world’
While disease detectives in Australia’s Victoria have been successful in tracing coronavirus cases, the Chief Health officer has suggested that beating transmissions in the city will be among “the trickiest in the world”, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Public health experts are increasingly confident Victoria’s new contact tracing system will be able to stay on top of emerging outbreaks as long as it continues to tick off key metrics such as a strict 24-hour turnaround time for extensive tracing of close contacts when restrictions are eased,” notes the report.
Australia has recorded 27,337 cases of Covid-19 and 904 deaths.
France orders 2 million extra flu shots
The French government has ordered two million extra vaccines this year as part of a national campaign encouraging flu vaccines, reports The Connexion.
For the 2020-21 winter flu season, over 16 million flu doses have been made available in France. Experts anticipate that these extra doses will lift some pressure off overburdened hospitals trading patients with Covid-19.
“Each year in France, 2-6 million people are infected with the flu. In the past three years, 10,000-15,000 people have died from the flu virus each year,” says the report.
France has recorded 7,56,472 cases of Covid-19 and 32,942 deaths.
What else we are reading:
Manhattan emptied out during the pandemic. But big tech is moving in: The New York Times
France to release ‘more interactive’ StopCovid app: The Connexion
Also read: Europe sharpens restrictions to contain surging coronavirus cases