Britain's Covid-19 cases up by 2.4 percent over past week – latest updates

Saturday, September 4, 2021

Italy reports 56 deaths, 6,157 new cases

Italy has reported 56 coronavirus-related deaths, down from 58 the previous day, while the daily tally of new infections decreased to 6,157 from 6,735, the health ministry has said.

A total of 129,466 deaths linked to Covid-19 have been registered in Italy since its outbreak emerged in February last year. That is the second highest tally in Europe behind Britain and the ninth highest globally.

Italy has reported more than 4.5 million cases to date.

Patients in hospital with Covid-19 - not including those in intensive care - stood at 4,204 on Saturday, down from 4,164 a day earlier.

There were 53 new admissions to intensive care units, increasing from 42 on Friday. The total number of intensive care patients was 569 from a previous 556.

Some 331,350 tests for Covid-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 296,394, the health ministry said. 

Number of vaccine jabs given in Turkey exceeds 96.8M

The number of coronavirus vaccine jabs given in Turkey has exceeded 96.8 million since the country launched an immunization campaign in January, indicated official figures.

Over 49.39 million people have gotten their first vaccine dose, while more than 38.15 million are fully vaccinated, the Health Ministry said.

The ministry also reported 20,033 new coronavirus cases, while as many as 278 more people died of the disease in the past 24 hours.

116-year-old recovers from Covid-19 in Turkey

 A 116-year-old woman in Turkey has survived Covid-19, according to her son, making her one of the oldest patients to beat the disease.

Ayse Karatay has now been moved to a normal ward, her son Ibrahim told the Demiroren news agency on Saturday.

“My mother fell ill at the age of 116 and stayed in the intensive care unit for three weeks... Her health is very good now and she’s getting better,” he said.

French nun Sister Andre recovered from Covid-19 in February, days before her 117th birthday. She is the world’s second-oldest living person.

Ayse, from Emirdag in Afyonkarahisar, western Turkey, was treated in Eskisehir City Hospital after falling ill and testing positive for Covid-19 last month.

Ibrahim said she had only received one shot of China’s Sinovac vaccine before she became sick, adding that she was probably infected by a family member.

Ayse was born during the Ottoman Empire, when exact dates of birth were rarely officially recorded.

Britain's cases up by 2.4 percent over past week

Britain has reported 37,578 new cases of Covid-19, government data has shown, meaning cases reported between August 29 and September 4 were up 2.4 percent compared with the previous seven days.

A further 120 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19, leaving the seven-day total unchanged from the previous week.

A total of 48.21 million people had received a first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by the end of September 3 and 43.25 million people had received a second dose. 

Germany urges vaccine shots; warns of fall Covid-19 surge

Germany's top health official has urged more citizens to get vaccinated, warning that if the vaccination numbers don't go up the country's hospitals may get overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients toward the end of the year.

"We need at least 5 million vaccinations for a safe autumn and winter," Health Minister Jens Spahn tweeted.

More than 61 percent of the German population, or 50.9 million people, are fully vaccinated, but that's less than in other European countries. The daily vaccination rate has been dropping for weeks, while new infection cases have been going up again.

On Saturday, Germany’s disease control agency reported 10,835 new Covid-19 cases, up from 10,303 a week ago.

Africa registers over 25,000 daily infections, 600 deaths

African countries have recorded 25,477 new Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours, bringing their total caseload to 7.87 million, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

According to an update by the continental public health body, at least 601 people have died for coronavirus-related reasons over the past day, bringing total fatalities to 198,587.

The number of recoveries stood at over 7 million, it said.

Of the five geographical regions in the continent, Southern Africa registered 3.7 million cases, North Africa 2.4 million, East Africa 918,400, West Africa 610,100 and Central Africa 221,500.

According to the update, 137.7 million doses of vaccines have been supplied so far for use on the continent of 1.3 billion inhabitants, of which 104.2 million doses have been administered.

The continent plans to receive 400 million vaccine doses, with 40 million to be shipped every month after January next year, said Strive Masiyiwa last Thursday.

Masiyiwa is a coordinator at the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Technical Team.

The EU has pledged to supply Africa with 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by December, he said noting that this would be "the largest such commitment coming from the European Union to date."

Japan to extend Covid-19 state of emergency in Tokyo area

The Japanese government plans to extend a state of emergency in and around Tokyo until the last week of September in a further bid to contain the coronavirus epidemic, the Mainichi newspaper has reported.

The government plans to extend them by about two weeks in Tokyo and neighbouring Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, the Mainichi said, without citing sources.

Poland to donate 400,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Taiwan

Poland will donate 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Plc Covid-19 vaccine to Taiwan, the foreign ministry in Warsaw has said, to help boost vaccination rates in the country.

While a relatively small domestic coronavirus outbreak is well under control in Taiwan, only around 5 percent of its 23.5 million population are fully vaccinated, though the government has millions of vaccines on order.

It has already received some six million vaccine doses gifted by Japan and the United States, enabling it to speed up an inoculation prog ramme that it said had been hampered initially by China, though Beijing denies playing any negative role.

Poland says its vaccine donation is a reciprocal move after Taiwan donated medical equipment during the first wave of the pandemic.

Malaysia makes ousted PM head of virus-hit country's recovery body

Malaysia's former leader has been selected to head the country's Covid-19 recovery council, an official has said, just weeks after he was removed from office.

Muhyiddin Yassin fell from power last month after rising anger over his government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But a cabinet decision has now appointed him as the coronavirus body's chairman as well as a minister, government chief secretary Mohamad Zuki Ali said.

Mohamad said the ex-leader, who ruled for 17 months, would "lead the country's recovery strategy, to achieve the best economic impact, and restore the lives of the people" in the virus-battered country.

Bahrain approves third booster shot of Sputnik V vaccine

Bahraini authorities have authorised the use of a booster dose of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, the first time the Russian shot has been approved for a third dose, the state-run Bahrain News Agency has said.

The booster shot was approved for use among all over-18s at least six months after receiving their second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine, the news agency reported.

Bahrain and fellow Gulf state the United Arab Emirates have already approved third booster shots using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The small island nation's Covid-19 infections are decreasing, currently at 3 percent of their peak with 95 new infections reported on average each day, according to the Reuters Covid-19 Tracker.

There have been 272,709 infections and 1,388 coronavirus-related deaths reported in Bahrain, which has a population of roughly 1.7 million according to the World Bank.

So far nearly 2.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered, enough to inoculate about 76 percent of the population, assuming each person needs two doses.

Russia reports 18,780 new cases

Russia has reported 18,780 new Covid-19 cases and 796 deaths in past 24 hours.

Russian authorities blame the spread of the more contagious Delta variant and a low vaccination rate for the third wave of coronavirus infections, which peaked in July.

Moscow's city hall also reported the worst death toll in July, when the mortality rate in the city was 70 percent higher than before the pandemic in 2019.

Philippines to lift travel ban on 10 countries 

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is lifting a  ban on travellers from 10 countries including India, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

The ban, introduced in April then expanded to more countries in July to prevent the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, will be lifted on Monday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

Travellers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia will have to spend 14 days in quarantine upon arrival, Roque said.

China administered total of 2.092B doses of vaccines

China has administered a total of around 7.5 million vaccines, bringing the accumulated total to 2.092 billion doses, data from the National Health Commission showed.

Alfa Romeo driver Raikkonen tests positive

Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen has tested positive and will miss the Dutch Grand Prix, with Reserve driver Robert Kubica taking his place this weekend, the team announced.

"Kimi is displaying no symptoms and is in good spirits. He has immediately entered isolation in his hotel. The team wishes Kimi a speedy recovery," Alfa Romeo said in a statement.

New Zealand reports first death in current outbreak

New Zealand has reported the first death in the current Covid-19 outbreak and 20 new local cases of the highly infectious Delta variant, health authorities said.

The woman who died was in her 90s and had a number of underlying health conditions, health officials said in a statement. All of the new cases were in Auckland, the epicentre of the outbreak. 

Australia's New South Wales reports record 1,533 cases

Australia's most populous state of New South Wales has reported a record 1,533 locally acquired infections, topping the previous high of 1,431 cases from a day earlier.

Four more people have died in the current outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant, which began in NSW in mid-June.

There are currently 1,041 people admitted in hospital, with 173 of them in intensive care, NSW health ministry said on Twitter.

Cuba starts vaccinating children to reopen schools

Cuban authorities have launched a national campaign to vaccinate children aged two to 18, a condition set by the Communist government in order to reopen schools for in-person instruction amid a spike in infections.

Children aged 12 and older will be the first to receive one of the two domestically produced vaccines, Abdala and Soberana, followed by younger kids.

Schools have mostly been closed in Cuba since March 2020 and students have been following lessons on television. With the school year starting on Monday, they will continue learning remotely until all eligible children are vaccinated.

Australia's Victoria reports 190 local cases

Australia's Victoria, the country's second most populous state, has reported 190 new locally acquired cases in the 24-hour period, health officials said.

Of the infections, 103 were linked to existing outbreaks, the health department said on its Twitter account.

Mexico adds more than 17,000 new cases

Mexico's Health Ministry has reported 17,409 new cases and 725 more deaths, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country since the pandemic began to 3,405,294 and the death toll to 262,221.

Brazil reports over 25,500 new cases

Brazil has recorded 25,565 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, along with 756 deaths, the Health Ministry said.

Brazil has registered more than 20 million cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 582,670, according to ministry data.