A traveler walks into an entrance at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, April 14, 2022. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
LOS ANGELES / BRASILIA / LONDON – COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2021, following heart disease and cancer, according to a report released Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The report showed that the overall age-adjusted death rate increased by almost 1 percent in 2021 from 2020.
READ MORE: Pandemic widening the US divide
The overall age-adjusted death rate increased by almost 1 percent in 2021 from 2020, a report by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed
Overall death rates in the country were highest among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaskan Native and non-Hispanic Black or African American people, according to the CDC.
For the second year, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.
The report provides an overview of provisional US mortality data for 2021, including a comparison of death rates for all causes of death and for deaths involving COVID-19, said the CDC in a release.
The results highlight the need for greater effort to implement effective interventions, said the agency.
Brazil
Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga signed a decree on Friday ending the COVID-19 public health emergency, effective 30 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.
In its decision to lift the emergency, which has been in force since February 2020, the Health Ministry took into account the national public health system's response capacity, the improved epidemiological situation and the wide vaccination coverage against the virus, the ministry said in a statement.
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"Brazil has registered an 80 percent decrease in the moving average of COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to the peak from the Omicron variant earlier this year," the statement read.
In addition, almost 74 percent of the Brazilian population are fully immunized, while 81 percent have received a first vaccine dose and over 74 million people have been given a booster dose, the ministry said.
However, the Health Ministry emphasized the importance of the vaccination campaign, even after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. It added that immunization against COVID-19 is essential to maintain transmission control and that Brazilians must complete the vaccination schedule with both doses and a booster dose.
The South American country has registered more than 30.3 million COVID-19 cases and 662,500 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
A pedestrian walks past empty tables outside a restaurant in Soho, London on Dec 28, 2021.
(HOLLIE ADAMS / AFP)
Britain
England's COVID-19 prevalence fell to 1 in 17 people in the week ending April 16, Britain's Office for National Statistics said on Friday, compared with 1 in 14 recorded in the previous week.
The ONS also said on Friday it estimated that 3.2 million people in England had COVID-19 in the week to April 16.
US
Philadelphia is ending its indoor mask mandate, health officials said late on Thursday, reversing its decision just days after imposing the order.
The Board of Health (BOH) voted on Thursday to end the mandate, the Philadelphia health department said.
"Due to decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts, the city will move to strongly recommend masks in indoor public spaces as opposed to a mask mandate," a department spokesperson said in a statement late on Thursday. "Given the latest data, the BOH voted to rescind the mandate."
Philadelphia reinstated its mask mandate on Monday for indoor public settings such as restaurants, schools and businesses, responding to what appeared to be a fresh wave of coronavirus transmissions. read more
The move made Philadelphia the first major city in the United States to reimpose such a mandate.
Before re-imposing the mandate, the city of 1.5 million residents relaxed its indoor mask mandate for public spaces amid a decline in cases in March following the record Omicron variant surge in January.
