A man receives a dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at Babington Hospital in Belper on Dece 16, 2021 as the UK steps up the country's booster drive to fight a "tidal wave" of Omicron. (OLI SCARFF / AFP)
LONDON / OTTAWA / MOSCOW / BERLIN – Long Covid is now estimated to affect 2 million people in Britain, and almost 145 million globally, the British newspaper The Guardian has reported.
It's a complicated diagnosis to receive and those affected have to cope with both the physical symptoms and the psychological strain of having an illness that is not yet well understood and does not have well-established treatments, said the report on Thursday.
The report said children are also among those affected by long Covid, unlike what was previously anticipated. Up to one in seven children and adolescents still have symptoms 15 weeks after infection — including unusual tiredness and headaches – while about one in 14 have five or more persistent symptoms, according to the report.
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Canada
Canada confirmed 20,002 new COVID-19 cases for the week ending Oct 8, the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Friday.
The number of total COVID-19 cases and deaths in Canada reached 4,293,273 and 45,689 respectively, according to the weekly update issued by the PHAC.
Germany
Germany's Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach called on the country's federal states to reintroduce stricter requirements for wearing face masks as COVID-19 infection figures are rising amid the current autumn wave.
"The sooner you hit the brakes, the better it is," Lauterbach said at a press conference on Friday.
According to the German Intensive Care Availability Register (DIVI), the number of COVID-19 patients requiring treatment in intensive care units in the country increased to 1,683 on Friday (around 300 more than one week ago,) but was still well below the record figures seen in previous waves.
To counter the trend, Germany has launched a new vaccination advertising campaign.
Of the 69.4 million adults in Germany aged 18 or older, around 85 percent are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Almost 73 percent of them have received one booster vaccine and around 13 percent two booster shots, according to official figures.
Russia
Russia has registered 14,736 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 21,278,816, the official monitoring and response center said Friday.
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The center said that the nationwide death toll increased by 99 to 388,709, while the number of recoveries grew by 27,520 to 20,559,274.
