Beneficiaries wait in a queue to receive COVID-19 vaccine dose, at a centre in Nagaon district of Assam. (PTI Photo)Coronavirus Case and Fatality Rate in India, Coronavirus Third Wave Live Updates, Covid tally today August 23: Is India prepared for the third wave of the coronavirus infections? The answer is NO! Despite repeated calls by health experts, a report by a panel formed by the Union Health Ministry has exposed the acute lacunae in the preparation for the third wave. The report by the experts of the National Institute of Disaster Management says that across India, the level of preparation is abysmally low.
Especially, in regards to the facilities focused on children, the report notes that the local officials have not done enough. The report also talks about poor infra for paediatrics. The key document, which has been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office, also says that the third wave of the coronavirus will peak in October. Meanwhile, Kerala witnessed a record 17 per cent of the test positivity rate over the weekend. After the Onam celebrations, experts say that the Covid surge needs to be monitored. Elsewhere, the breakthrough infections and the continuous surge of Delta variant has reversed all the recoveries made by major economies such as the US and Israel. In the US, several regions have said that the ICU beds are filling faster. With over 50 per cent of the population vaccinated, American authorities are struggling to convince people about necessary mask mandates.
As the world sees a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic, here are the latest, verified Covid updates from India and around the globe:
Highlights
A third dose of Pfizer 's COVID-19 vaccine has significantly improved protection from infection and serious illness among people aged 60 and older in Israel compared with those who received two shots, findings published by the Health Ministry showed on Sunday.The data were presented at a meeting of a ministry panel of vaccination experts on Thursday and uploaded to its website on Sunday, though the full details of the study were not released.The findings were on par with separate statistics reported last week by Israel's Maccabi healthcare provider, one of several organisations administering booster shots to try to curb the Delta coronavirus variant.Breaking down statistics from Israel's Gertner Institute and KI Institute, ministry officials said that among people aged 60 and over, the protection against infection provided from 10 days after a third dose was four times higher than after two doses.A third jab for over 60-year-olds offered five to six times greater protection after 10 days with regard to serious illness and hospitalisation.That age group is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and in Israel was the first to be inoculated when the vaccine drive began in late December. – Reuters
Japan's factory activity growth slowed in August, while that of the services sector shrank at the fastest pace since May last year, highlighting the increasingly heavy toll a recent wave of COVID-19 infections is taking on the economy.Manufacturers mostly withstood the impact of the coronavirus resurgence, due largely to the highly contagious Delta variant that is forcing governments in Japan and elsewhere in Asia to put in place lockdowns or other curbs.The au Jibun Bank Flash Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to a seasonally adjusted 52.4 in August from a final 53.0 in the prior month.Overall orders and export orders increased, though the pace of growth was the slowest in seven months. Firms faced severe supply chain disruptions from a global semiconductor shortage, IHS Markit said. – Reuters
North Korea has developed its own Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) equipment to conduct coronavirus tests, state media said on Monday, as the country steps up efforts to head off more contagious new strains of the virus.The isolated country has not confirmed any COVID-19 cases, but has sealed borders, restricted travel and imposed strict prevention measures, seeing the pandemic as a matter of national survival.As part of the anti-virus efforts, scientists and technicians at the State Academy of Sciences have developed the PCR system that meets global standards for the first time, said the Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Worker's Party's newspaper.The equipment was introduced as one of recent achievements made under leader Kim Jong Un's push to localise machinery, tools and materials amid international sanctions and border closures that sharply reduced trade. – Reuters
China's health authority reported on Monday that there were no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 for the first time since July, offering more signs that the current outbreak which began late last month may be tapering off soon.The latest outbreak was driven mainly by infections first detected among a few airport workers in the eastern city of Nanjing on July 20. Since then, more than 1,200 people in China have been confirmed to be infected.The outbreak has spurred local authorities across the country to impose tough counter-epidemic measures including mass testing for millions of people to identify and isolate carriers, as well as treat the infected.No one has died in the current outbreak, which has largely focused on the cities of Nanjing and Yangzhou in the province of Jiangsu, near the financial hub of Shanghai.Across China, new local cases fell to the single-digits last week, after peaking in early August. – Reuters
The outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus in New Zealand is not a "game changer" yet and there is no pressure to act on monetary policy, a senior official at the central bank said on Monday."At this stage we don't see it as a game-changer in the sense that our underlying economic analysis and views should be thrown out of the window and we should start again," the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) Chief Economist Yuong Ha said in a phone interview with Reuters.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday the country must begin to ease strict COVID-19 restrictions once vaccination rates increase, with over half of all Australians enduring weeks-long lockdowns to curb Delta outbreaks.Some states have flagged they may not stick to a national plan that would include relaxing border controls, worried about a surge in cases in the country's southeast, with Sydney breaking new one-day records for infections."(Lockdowns) cannot go on forever. This is not a sustainable way to live in this country," Morrison said during a televised media conference in Canberra."Because if not at 70% and 80%, then when? Then when? We must make that move and we must prepare to make that move and we must prepare the country to make that move. – Reuters
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen received her first dose of the island's domestically developed coronavirus vaccine on Monday, launching its rollout to the public. The vaccine, made by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp., was given emergency approval by regulators in July using a shortcut that prompted fierce opposition from parts of Taiwan's medical and scientific community. Taiwanese regulators bypassed the large-scale, longer term studies that are typically used to approve vaccines. Instead, they compared the level of antibodies that Medigen's vaccine was able to generate with that of AstraZeneca's vaccine, which has been approved by many governments and has undergone the full three stages of clinical trials. The two-dose Medigen protein subunit vaccine uses a piece of the coronavirus to teach the body to mount an immune response. - AP