Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 838th day of the pandemic.
In news we cover today, few parents plan to vaccinate very young children against Covid, a factory that makes iPhones in Shenzhen is in lockdown, and Australia fined over 3,800 teenagers for failing to comply with coronavirus restrictions such as mask mandates.
Here’s a look at what has taken place over the past 24 hours.
UNITED STATES
In Washington, D.C., President Joseph Biden’s symptoms as a result of having contracted SARS-CoV-2 are “almost completely resolved,” his official physician said. The president was only experiencing “some residual nasal congestion and minimal hoarseness,” Dr Kevin O’Connor wrote in a letter released Monday by the White House.
Meanwhile, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia reported that he tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing “mild symptoms.”
Just one month after the United States approved coronavirus vaccines for children as young as 6 months, a new survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that 43% of parents of children in the age range 6 months through 4 years said they would refuse to inoculate their children, while an additional 27% said they were “uncertain.”
In Connecticut, multiple inmates filed lawsuits against Governor Ned Lamont and state Department of Correction officials last month, seeking damages after contracting Covid during the omicron surge this past winter. Each inmate is asking for $500,000 in damage. The surge was responsibly for almost doubling the cumulative number of coronavirus cases in Connecticut prisons, court documents show.
GLOBAL
Hong Kong authorities began to use designated taxis to transport travelers from the airport to their quarantine hotels in an effort to shorten the duration of their journeys. The move comes amidst a recent surge in the number of visitors to the country.
Drivers are being paid a daily subsidy of 1,500 Hong Kong dollars ($191) as part of the scheme.
In Australia, police fined over 3,800 children in the age group 10 to 17 in New South Wales for violating Covid-19 restrictions. Most are paying off the fines through otherwise unpaid community service. At least half of the kids were fined for failing to don or carry a face mask.
Finally, in China, the country’s southern tech hub, Shenzhen, has tightened coronavirus restrictions as it tries to stop the spread of the BA.2 omicron subvariant. The move comes as China reported 101 locally transmitted new cases and 49 imported cases on Monday. Shenzhen has seen a rise in new cases since early July.
TECH
As part of new restrictions, Chinese authorities placed over 100 factories and offices in Shenzhen, including a Foxconn factory that produces Apple iPhones, under a seven-day “closed-loop” lockdown, Bloomberg News reported. The closed-loop lockdown means that only employees who sleep on site will be able to work.
The move comes at a time that the factory is preparing for the start of mass production of Apple’s new iPhone in coming weeks. In 2020, the on-sale date of the then new iPhone 12 was delayed by several months as a result of similar actions.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, July 26.
As of Tuesday morning, the world has recorded 576.4 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 2 million cases, and 6.4 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 546.2 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 1 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Tuesday is 23,753,620, a decrease of 57,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 23,711,863, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 41,430, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical is unchanged over the pat 24 hours.
The United States reported 167,463 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday for the previous day, compared to 21,500 on Monday, 24,251 on Sunday, 165,180 on Saturday, and 153,030 on Friday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate continues to be over 100,000 and is now 128,375. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 128,015, a 10% increase, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 439, an increase of 34% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 43,862, a 12% increase.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Tuesday, recorded almost 92.3 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of over 1.05 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 43.9 million, and a reported death toll of 526,110.
New data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed at the end of May that the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 812,890, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, after the United States. Rosstat reported that 11,583 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in April, down from 35,584 in March and from 43,543 in February.
Meanwhile, Brazil now has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 677,213, and has recorded almost 33.6 million cases.
France continues to occupy the number four position in total cases with over 33.5 million cases, and Germany is in the number five slot with over 30.5 million.
The other two countries with total case figures over the 20,000 mark are currently United Kingdom, with 23.2 million cases, in sixth position, and Italy, with 20.7 million, in the number seven slot.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Tuesday, over 261.2 million people in the United States – or 78.7% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 67.2%, or 222.9 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 601.5 million. Breaking this down further, 89.9% of the population over the age of 18 – or 232.1 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77% of the same group – or 198.9 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 51.4% of that population, or 102.3 million people, has already received a third, or booster, dose of vaccine.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish it on Mondays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Over 66.9% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Tuesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.3 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 6.28 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 19.7% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain in the single digits, if not lower.
In addition, North Korea and Eritrea are now the only two countries in the world that have not administered vaccines.
Anna Breuer contributed to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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