Worldwide COVID news at a glance

1  US health officials pleads Americans get jabbed

The US could soon see Covid-19 cases return to 200,000 a day, a level not seen since among the pandemic’s worst days in January and February, the director of the National Institutes of Health warned on Sunday.

While the US currently is seeing an average of about 129,000 new infections a day – a 700% increase from the beginning of July – that number could jump in the next couple weeks, Dr Francis Collins said on Fox News Sunday.

Collins pleaded anew for unvaccinated Americans to get their shots, calling them “sitting ducks” for a Delta variant that is ravaging the country and showing little sign of letting up.

2  France broaden sanitaire health permit 

France’s pass sanitaire health permit system will be extended to more than 120 major department stores and shopping centres on Monday in areas where levels of Covid infection are causing concern, including Paris and the Mediterranean coast.

The decision to extend the measure restricting entry to customers who can prove they have been vaccinated, have had a negative Covid test or have recovered from coronavirus was made by local officials.

The pass will be required for shoppers entering Paris department stores such as Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, BHV, Le Bon Marché and La Samaritaine, and others mainly in the south of the country.

3  England 16- and 17-year-olds invited Covid jab

All 16- and 17-year-olds in England are to be offered a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by Monday 23 August, the Department of Health has announced. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, said the date would give teenagers two weeks to build up immunity before school starts again in September. Invitations are also being sent out in Wales, while older teenagers in Northern Ireland can use walk-in centres. In Scotland, older teens can register their interest online.

About 100,000 texts are being sent to eligible teenagers inviting them to book their jabs. They will be able to get vaccinated at one of more than 800 GP-led local vaccination sites, and NHS England has launched a new online walk-in site finder to help them locate the nearest available centre. 

4  Thousands of Germans injected salt solution

Authorities in northern Germany appealed to thousands of people on Tuesday to get another COVID-19 vaccine shot after a police investigation found that a Red Cross nurse may have injected them with a saline solution.

The nurse is suspected of injecting a salt solution into people’s arms instead of genuine doses at a vaccination centre in Friesland – a rural district near the North Sea coast – in the early spring.

While saline is harmless, most people who got vaccinated in Germany in March and April – when the suspected switch took place – are elderly people at high risk of catching the potentially fatal viral disease.

5  WHO search for potential COVID-19 treatments

The World Health Organization says a clinical trial in 52 countries will study three anti-inflammatory drugs as potential treatments for COVID-19 patients.

“These therapies – artesunate, imatinib and infliximab – were selected by an independent expert panel for their potential in reducing the risk of death in hospitalised COVID-19 patients,” it said in a statement on the Solidarity PLUS trial. The trial involves thousands of researchers at more than 600 hospitals, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing from Geneva.

The WHO warned countries to come together to combat the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus and urged equitable access to essential countermeasures.

6  Philippine vaccination hubs open 24 hours

Vaccination centers across the Philippine capital Manila are trying to speed up inoculation rates, including by staying open 24 hours, to help combat a sharp rise in Covid-19 infections linked to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.

With just over 10% of the country’s 110 million people fully vaccinated, millions remain vulnerable to infection amid efforts to fully immunize up to 70 million before the year ends.

Meanwhile, more hospitals have reported that their intensive care units, isolation beds and wards are nearing full capacity, and some have had to refuse new patients because of a lack of beds and ventilators. Philippine hospitals with occupancy at critical levels rose to 289 on Tuesday from 236 on Sunday, reaching more than a fifth of the country’s 1,290 hospitals, government data showed.