Patients wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at a mobile vaccination station on 59th Street below Central Park on Dec 2, 2021, in New York. (JOHN MINCHILLO / AP)
NEW YORK / ADDIS ABABA / KIGALI / SAO PAULO / ACCRA – The US Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize a second COVID-19 vaccine booster for anyone 50 and older amid concerns that a new Omicron subvariant could hit the United States.
The authorizations for second Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna boosters could be announced as soon as next Tuesday, according to US media reports.
On Saturday, Hawaii became the last US state to remove the indoor masking requirement as the Omicron surge recedes. The state also suspended its Safe Travels program, allowing travelers from the continental United States to enter without submitting proof of vaccination or the results of an approved COVID-19 test.
Idaho went a step further as its State Legislature passed a bill last week to prohibit businesses from requiring a COVID-19 vaccination for employment or service and prevent unvaccinated individuals from being "treated differently or discriminated against."
According to the bill, the decision to receive a vaccine is "a very personal and individual decision" and one that public or private entities should not mandate. The bill was supported by Republican legislators and landed on Governor Brad Little's desk this week. Little, also a Republican, has not stated whether he will veto or sign it.
While COVID-19 restrictions / are being lifted or eased in most parts of the country, health officials in Washington are cautiously monitoring the behavior of Omicron BA.2 sub-variant, the more contagious cousin of the Omicron variant that has spread through Europe and other parts of the world, which now represents about 30 percent of new infections in the Mid-Atlantic region that includes the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
People wait to be tested for 'COVID-19 at a facility in Soweto, South Africa, on Dec 2, 2021. (DENIS FARRELL / AP)
Africa
The African continent reported 2,422 new COVID-19 cases during the past 24 hours, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Sunday.
Figures from the Africa CDC showed that the number of confirmed positive cases across the continent rose from 11,320,465 on Saturday to 11,322,887 as of Sunday evening.
The death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent has reached 250,942, while 10,630,071 people who have been infected with the disease have recovered, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union said.
Brazil
Brazil registered 10,239 cases and 117 more deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 29,842,418 and the national death toll to 658,879, the Ministry of Health said Sunday.
According to the ministry, the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19 has been declining since Feb. 11, following a record number of cases in January due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
The seven-day moving average of cases in Brazil stood at 30,276 as of Sunday while deaths stood at 239.
Ghana
Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced the re-opening of land and sea borders and the lifting of most of the COVID-19 restrictions.
In his 28th nationwide COVID-19 address late Sunday, the president said the decision was made after reviewing the raft of measures put in place to help win the fight against the virus, against the background of rapidly declining infections, and the relative success of the vaccination campaign by the Ghana Health Service.
"From Monday, the wearing of face masks is no longer mandatory," Akufo-Addo said. "I encourage all of you to continue to maintain enhanced hand hygiene practices and avoid overcrowded gatherings."
All in-person activities, including religious gatherings, conferences, workshops, and funerals, may resume at full capacity, as long as the audience and participants are fully vaccinated, but hand washing and hand sanitizing points should be made available, the president said.
A medical worker injects a second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine to a patient in a coronavirus vaccination centre in Kigali, Rwanda on May 27, 2021. (LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP)
Rwanda
Rwandan citizens on Saturday formally resumed monthly community work, locally known as Umuganda, after significant decline in COVID-19 infections, for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020.
About 1,500 people gathered at Bumbogo, in a suburb of Rwanda's capital city, Kigali, to clear bushes, drainage channels and to sweep the streets during community work.
"We have here about 1,500 people that have attended Umuganda, including officials from different entities and organs. The population is very much excited to participate in Umuganda," Pudence Rubingisa, mayor of Kigali City, told Xinhua in an interview at the event.
He said that people were affected by the pandemic and large gatherings like community work could not be organized.
"People are excited to participate in the traditional Umuganda that has been there for quite long as one of our home grown solutions. They are excited to participate in the reconstruction of the Kigali City like cleaning and mitigating climate change," said Rubingisa.
According to Rubingisa, during the community work, they participated in curbing consequences of the heavy rains the country experienced over the last couple of weeks by clearing water drainage channels and trenches.
Rwanda has witnessed a fall in COVID-19 infections since the beginning of 2022.
