Covid ‘war has changed’
The war against Covid-19 has changed because of the highly contagious Delta variant, the US Centers for Disease Control said, as rising number of cases caused by the strain prompted China and Australia to impose stricter Covid-19 curbs yesterday.
The warning comes as several Asian countries including Japan, Thailand and Malaysia, yesterday announced record Covid-19 infection numbers.
An internal CDC document said the variant, first detected in India and now dominant across the globe, is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or flu. It can be passed on even by vaccinated people, and may cause more serious disease than earlier coronavirus strains.
The document, entitled "Improving communications around vaccine breakthrough and vaccine effectiveness", said the variant required a new approach to help the public understand the danger - including making clear that unvaccinated people were more than 10 times more likely than those who are vaccinated to become seriously ill or die.
"Acknowledge the war has changed," it said. "Improve communications around individual risk among vaccinated."
Recommended preventative measures included making vaccines mandatory for health care professionals to protect the vulnerable and a return to universal wearing of face masks.
While vaccinated people were less likely to become infected, once they contracted such "breakthrough infections" from Delta - unlike the case with earlier variants - they might now be just as likely as the unvaccinated to pass the disease on to others.
"High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus," CDC head Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday "in all probability" new guidelines or restrictions would be imposed in the United States in response to a resurgence of Covid-19 cases.
Asked if Americans should expect new recommendations from health authorities or new restrictive measures, the president responded, "in all probability," before leaving the White House by helicopter for the weekend.
Worldwide, coronavirus infections are once again on the upswing, with the World Health Organization announcing an 80 percent average increase over the past four weeks in five of the health agency's six regions, a jump largely fuelled by the Delta variant.
The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said health systems in many countries were now being overwhelmed: "Hard-won gains are in jeopardy or being lost," he told a news conference.
The global health body's top emergency expert Mike Ryan told reporters that vaccines were nevertheless still effective at preventing serious illness and death: "We are fighting the same virus but a virus that has become fitter."
Even in rich countries that were among the first to roll out vaccination campaigns, cases have surged.
In Britain, where the Delta variant caused a sharp surge in infections in recent months despite one of the world's fastest inoculation campaigns, a panel advising the government said protection from vaccines was likely to wane over time, meaning vaccination campaigns would probably last for years.
ASIAN COUNTRIES TIGHTEN RESTRICTIONS
The surge in Delta variant cases is rattling parts of Asia previously relatively successful in containing Covid-19, such as Vietnam, which will from tomorrow impose strict curbs on movement in several cities and provinces.
Cases also surged in Sydney, where police cordoned off the central business district to prevent a protest against a strict lockdown that will last until the end of August.
Tokyo's metropolitan government announced a record number of 4,058 infections in the past 24 hours. Olympics organisers reported 21 new COVID-19 cases related to the Games, bringing the total to 241 since July 1.
A day earlier Japan extended its state of emergency for Tokyo to the end of August and expanded it to three prefectures near the capital and to the western prefecture of Osaka.
Malaysia, one of the hotspots of the disease, reported 17,786 coronavirus cases yesterday, a record high.
Thailand also reported a daily record high of 18,912 new coronavirus infections, bringing its total cases to 597,287. The country also reported 178 new deaths, also a daily record. The government said the Delta variant accounted for more than 60% of the cases in the country and 80% of the cases in Bangkok.
China's most serious surge of coronavirus infections in months spread to two more areas yesterday -- Fujian province and the megacity of Chongqing -- in an outbreak that now spans 14 provinces.
More than 200 cases have been linked to an original Delta cluster in Nanjing city where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive.
"The main strain circulating at present is the Delta variant... which poses an even greater challenge to virus prevention and control work," said Mi Feng, spokesman for China's National Health Commission.
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