People sit at cafes' terraces in Brussels, Belgium, on May 9, 2021, the second day of the reopening of the country's terraces as part of the easing of the second lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS / AFP)
PARIS / BERLIN / NEW YORK / MOSCOW / STOCKHOLM / BRUSSELS / GABORONE / BERLIN – Seven residents of a nursing home in Belgium have died after being infected with the Colombian variant of the coronavirus, despite being fully vaccinated, the virology team that conducted tests said on Friday.
The variant of COVID-19 that originated in Colombia, or B.1.621, has been detected in recent weeks in the United States but cases in Europe have been rare.
The seven people who died at the nursing home in the Belgian town of Zaventem, near Brussels, were all in their 80s or 90s, and some of them were already in a poor physical condition, said Marc Van Ranst, a virologist at the University of Leuven which conducted tests on the strain found at the nursing home.
"It is worrisome," Van Ranst said, commenting on the fact that the residents died despite being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
So far, scientists do not know if the Colombian variant is more transmissible than other variants, he said.
In Belgium, the variant currently accounts for less than 1 percent of known cases of COVID-19, he said, compared to 2 percent of cases in the United States and more than that in Florida.
At the nursing home in Zaventem, 21 residents were infected with the variant along with several members of staff, Van Ranst told Reuters. The infected staff experienced only mild symptoms.
Additional tests will be run on Friday to rule out any possibility that the nursing home residents died from a different variant of the virus or a different respiratory disease, Van Ranst said.
EU
The European Union (EU)'s drugs regulator said Friday it had so far not found a link between COVID-19 vaccines and menstrual disorders and advised three new conditions be added as possible side-effects after vaccination with J&J's coronavirus shot.
Cases of menstrual disorders reported after vaccination were studied by its safety committee, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said, adding that it had requested for more data from vaccine developers to assess the issue.
Meanwhile, the EMA said there's not enough data to recommend using COVID-19 vaccine boosters, after major EU states said they would roll out a third dose for the most vulnerable from September.
"It is currently too early to confirm if and when a booster dose for COVID-19 vaccines will be needed, because there is not yet enough data from vaccination campaigns and ongoing studies to understand how long protection from the vaccines will last," said the EMA.
Nevertheless, Germany intends to give boosters to immunocompromised patients, the very elderly and nursing home residents from September. France is also working on rolling out third doses to the elderly and vulnerable from next month.
After reports on Berlin and Paris' plans, a spokesperson for the European Commission said decisions on vaccinations were taken by national governments, but stressed that on boosters – as well as on other matters – the EU executive encouraged "science-based decisions in line with EMA's advice."
Sweden
The spread of COVID-19 in Sweden has continued to accelerate with infection rates no longer considered low, the country's health authority said on Friday, blaming increased travel abroad and packed dance floors in busy night club venues in Stockholm.
There were 3,451 new cases of COVID-19 in Sweden last week, a 30 percent increase compared to the week before, the authority said, adding that at 59 cases per 100,000 people the spread of the infection was no longer at a low level.
"We see a lot of cases with people who have been infected abroad in popular travel destinations in Europe," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said in a statement, adding that 17 percent of new cases were linked to such tourism.
Tegnell said the vaccine rollout continued according to plan, with just over 79 percent of adults having had at least one dose and just over 53 percent of adults having had two shots.
Global tally
Coronavirus cases worldwide exceeded 201.14 million while the global death toll topped 4.27 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
US
Daily new COVID-19 cases have climbed to a six-month high in the United States, with more than 100,000 infections reported nationwide as the Delta variant ravaged Florida and other states with lower vaccination rates.
The seven-day average of new reported cases reached nearly 95,000, a five-fold increase in less than a month, Reuters data through Wednesday showed.
Seven US states with among the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates – Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi – account for half of the country's new cases and hospitalizations in the last week, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters on Thursday.
"We're seeing terrifying #COVID19 trends in our hospitals," County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter. She is the top official of Harris County, the most populous county in Texas and home to the city of Houston. "At this point if you're unvaccinated by choice, you're complicit in this crisis."
The Biden administration is considering using federal regulatory powers and the threat of withholding federal funds from institutions to push more Americans to get vaccinated — a huge potential shift in the fight against the virus and a far more muscular approach to getting shots into arms, according to four people familiar with the deliberations.
WHO
Germany, France and Israel will go ahead with plans to administer COVID-19 vaccine boosters, disregarding an appeal by the World Health Organisation to hold off until more people are vaccinated around the world.
The decision to press ahead with booster shots despite the WHO's strongest statement yet highlights the huge inequities in responses to the pandemic as richer nations ramp up programmes to protect citizens from the more infectious Delta variant.
French President Emmanuel Macron said France was working on rolling out third doses to the elderly and vulnerable from September.
Germany intends to give boosters to immunocompromised patients, the very elderly and nursing home residents from September, the health ministry said.
Poland
Poland has detected 3 lambda variant cases, Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska said on Friday, adding that the strain doesn’t seem to be more active or contagious than Delta. The country registered 176 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the most since mid-June.
Lithuania
The Lithuanian parliament and the government started demanding their employees provide a vaccination certificate or a negative COVID-19 test from Friday before entering the premises. Entry cards of employees who fail to provide such a certificate are being deactivated.
Italy
The Italian government on Thursday approved a new decree that makes a green pass mandatory for school and university staff, university students, and passengers on long-haul means of transportation such as airplanes, ships and ferries, and trains.
The green pass is a certificate issued by health authorities that shows people have been vaccinated or have tested negative or have recovered from COVID-19.
"In this epidemiological phase the government has chosen to invest as much as possible in the green pass as a tool to avoid shutdowns and therefore to safeguard our liberties," Health Minister Roberto Speranza said at a press conference following a cabinet meeting.
The minister pointed to the success of the vaccination campaign, with "over 70 million doses administered, over 62 percent of the population having completed the vaccination cycle and 68 percent having received at least one dose."
Also present at the press conference were Education Minister Patrizio Bianchi and Sustainable Infrastructures and Mobility Minister Enrico Giovannini.
School staff who refuse vaccination will be suspended without pay, and students who do so will be considered to be engaging in unjustified absences, the education minister said in answer to a question from a journalist.
Africa
Coronavirus related deaths in Africa reached record peak in the week that ended on Aug 1, the WHO said on Thursday.
Over 6,400 deaths were recorded, a 2 percent rise compared with the previous week, with South Africa and Tunisia accounting for over 55 percent of the fatalities, the WHO said in a statement, adding that death trends are on the rise in 15 countries.
African Union officials said on Thursday that the body had begun shipping COVID-19 vaccine doses acquired from Johnson & Johnson, as they raised alarm at the pace of total deliveries the continent.
Some 53 African countries have acquired 103 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines so far, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said during its weekly briefing.
The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union, said around 1.58 percent of Africa's population have been fully vaccinated.
Some 70.6 million of the total 103 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, the Africa CDC said.
As of Thursday afternoon, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa had reached 6,866,597, with 174,054 deaths and 6,016,902 recoveries, according to the agency.
UN
The United Nations is concerned about situations where COVID-19 vaccines have gone unused, a UN spokesman said on Thursday, stressing that the world body can only help get doses into arms at the request of governments.
The COVAX vaccine sharing program has so far delivered 186.2 million doses to 138 countries, according to data from the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF. COVAX aims to secure 2 billion doses for low and middle income countries by the end of 2021.
COVAX is run by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
A medical worker prepares a syringe with a dose of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399 union hall vaccination site in Chicago, Illinois, on April 6, 2021. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)
J&J
Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine is working well in South Africa, offering protection against severe disease and death, the co-head of a trial in the country said on Friday.
The J&J vaccine was administered to healthcare workers from mid-February in a research study, which was completed in May, with 477,234 health workers vaccinated, joint lead investigator Glenda Gray told a media briefing.
South Africa's health regulator approved the J&J shot in April, and it is being used in the national vaccine programme alongside Pfizer's.
Gray said the single-shot J&J vaccine offered 91 percent to 96.2 percent protection against death, while offering 67 percent efficacy against infection when the Beta coronavirus variant dominates and about 71 percent when the Delta variant dominates.
"Consistently after receiving the vaccine, there was very little death occurring in the vaccinated group as compared to the control group and showing a remarkable up-to 96.2 percent protection against death," Gray said.
"This was our primary endpoint and we are able to say this vaccine protected health workers against death," she added.
France
France's highest court upheld a new law requiring the public to hold a health pass to access bars and restaurants and health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by mid-September, saying it complied with the republic's founding charter.
France had already required since July 21 a health pass to access museums, cinemas and swimming pools. From Aug 9, this will be extended to restaurants, bars, cafes, large shopping malls and long-distance trains.
In its ruling on Thursday, the Constitutional Council did however strike down several clauses in the law. It said a mandatory 10-day quarantine on anyone testing COVID-19 positive impinged on freedoms.
It also ruled that while employers could suspend health and frontline workers who refuse to get a COVID-19 shot or show proof of a negative test, they could not dismiss those on short term contracts.
Meanwhile, healthcare workers must get inoculated by mid-September or face suspension until at least mid-November.
French officials said that another 52 residents died of COVID-19, bringing the official toll to 112,133. The nation reported 26,460 new cases in the past day.
Meanwhile, 65 percent of the general public have received at least one vaccine dose, 75 percent of people age 12 and over and 85 percent of those most at risk, such as the elderly, Health Minister Olivier Veran said during a visit to a hospital in Aix-en-Provence.
Cuba
Cuba on Thursday reported 8,399 new cases of COVID-19 and 93 more related deaths in 24 hours, raising the number of accumulated cases to 431,013 and the pandemic death toll to 3,184.
The Ministry of Public Health said in its daily report that 45,632 people with COVID-19 remained in isolation at hospitals, homes or other facilities.
"Only the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud (Isle of Youth) can be mentioned among the areas with a low transmission rate of COVID-19 in the country," the ministry's national director of hygiene and epidemiology, Francisco Duran, said when presenting the report on the evolution of the pandemic in Cuba.
Morocco
Morocco announced on Thursday 12,039 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally of infections in the North African country to 665,325.
The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased by 7,350 to 590,042.
The death toll rose to 10,087 with 72 new fatalities reported, while 1,432 people were in intensive care units.
Meanwhile, a total of 14,809,114 people have received their first vaccine shots against COVID-19 in the country, with 10,733,482 having received two doses.
UK
Britain has reported another 30,215 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 5,982,581, according to official figures released Thursday.
The country also recorded another 86 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 130,086. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
Latest data from Public Health England (PHE) showed that most coronavirus-related intensive care admissions are among 55 to 64-year-olds, despite hospitalizations being highest among those aged 85 and over.
Russia
Russia reported 22,660 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, including 2,583 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,402,564.
The government coronavirus task force said 792 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 163,301.
Botswana
Botswana has seen an increase in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, resulting in a number of patients requiring hospitalization and oxygen supply, an official said Friday.
During a parliament meeting in Gaborone, Minister of Health and Wellness Edwin Dikoloti said that prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the country consumed approximately 100,000 kg of oxygen per month.
"While at the peak of the pandemic in July 2021, we found ourselves needing around 200,000 kg of oxygen," he said.
In an effort to prevent people from suffering and dying as a result of medical oxygen shortages, the health ministry immediately equipped all of its major facilities with adequate oxygen supplies by installing a 25-ton oxygen tank at the country's COVID-19 high care hospital Sir Ketumile Masire Teaching Hospital (SKMTH) in the last week of July 2021.
Prior to the installation, SKMTH could only provide oxygen to 100 patients; now, they can provide oxygen to a total of 195 patients.
Germany
Germany has declared southern France a coronavirus high-risk area, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Friday, which means returning travelers need a negative test or proof of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19 to avoid quarantine.
The RKI also removed the Netherlands from its high-risk list. Both decisions go into effect on Sunday.
If tourists or returning German nationals are coming from a high-risk country they must first quarantine, which can be ended with a negative test after five days.
The new rules for France apply to travelers returning from the regions of Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Corsica and the overseas territories of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy.
The RKI also declared Algeria, Morocco, Thailand and Mexico as high-risk areas.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 3,448 to 3,784,433 on Friday, according to RKI data. The reported death toll rose by 24 to 91,754.
