India okays J&J’s shot

India yesterday gave emergency approval to Johnson and Johnson's single-shot coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its flailing immunisation campaign as new wave of infections fuelled by Delta variant of coronavirus continues to spread across the globe.  

India's Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the approval will boost the fight against the pandemic in India, where at least 200,000 people died in a brutal two-month wave up to mid-June.

"India expands its vaccine basket! Johnson and Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine is given approval for Emergency Use in India," the minister said on Twitter.

No indication has been given as to when the US company's doses will reach India.

The nation of 1.3 billion people has administered 500 million vaccine doses so far, but barely eight percent of the population has had two shots.

Johnson and Johnson's vaccine is the fifth to be approved after Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, the home developed Covaxin, Russia's Sputnik V, and the US-made Moderna jab.

India remains the second worst-hit nation after the United States, with more than 32 million confirmed cases and 427,000 deaths. Because of under-reporting experts say the real toll is much higher. 

Meanwhile, Australia saw a record daily number of new coronavirus cases this year yesterday, with the country's most populous states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland recording a total of 361 cases of the highly infectious Delta variant.

With about 15 million people in the three states, or 60% of Australia's population, under a strict lockdown, the country also reported five coronavirus-related deaths, one of the highest this year.

With just over 36,000 COVID-19 cases and 937 deaths, Australia has avoided the high caseloads of other developed countries, but its vaccination figures are among the lowest, with only 20% of people aged over 16 fully vaccinated.

The coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 4,275,868 people worldwide since the virus first emerged in late 2019, according to an AFP compilation of official data.

The pandemic is accelerating almost everwhere, most markedly in the US and Canada which saw a jump of 44 percent in average daily cases over the past week. Cases increased by 20 percent in Oceania, 11 percent in the Middle East, six percent in Asia, three percent in Europe and one percent in Africa.

This week the only region that did not record an uptick in cases was Latin America and the Caribbean, which saw daily infections decline by 13 percent over the previous week.

The average number of new daily cases globally increased by six percent over the week to 612,000, according to an AFP tally.

The pandemic has continued to gain ground since mid-June largely due to the highly contagious Delta variant now dominant in many countries.

The US saw the biggest number of new cases this week with 96,800, an increase of 44 percent. It was followed by India (40,600, an increase of five percent), and Indonesia (33,900, a drop of 20 percent).

On Friday, the White House said that half of the US population was now fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as inoculations rise in response to the surging Delta variant of the coronavirus.

"50% of Americans (all ages) are now fully vaccinated. Keep going!" Cyrus Shahpar, the White House's Covid-19 data director, tweeted. That means more than 165 million people have received either the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or the one-and-done Johnson & Johnson shot.

Indonesia again recorded the highest number of daily deaths with 1,689, followed by Brazil (887) and Russia (790).

Daily deaths worldwide this week were at 9,382 per day, an increase of five percent.

Japan led the vaccination race among countries with more than one million people, giving doses to 1.77 percent of its population every day this week.

Panama followed (1.72 percent), then Sri Lanka (1.70 percent), Malaysia (1.61 percent), Ecuador (1.26 percent), China (1.22 percent) and Saudi Arabia (1.15 percent).

While they are vaccinating more slowly, the countries with the most advanced vaccination drives are the United Arab Emirates with 172 first or second doses per 100 people, Israel, Canada, Chile and Singapore, all on 133, Denmark (130), Belgium (128) and the UK (126).

As governments around the world forced to impose new restrictions due to Delta variant, protests against the measures are taking place regularly.

Hundreds took to the streets across France yesterday for the fourth weekend in a row to rally against a new coronavirus health pass needed to enter a cafe or travel on an inter-city train, two days before the new rules come into force. The pass has already been required since July 21 to visit cultural venues such as cinemas, theatres and museums. Its extension was approved by France's Constitutional Council on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Thai police fired tear gas and rubber bullets yesterday at hundreds of protesters in Bangkok demanding political reform and calling for a change to the country's coronavirus vaccination programme.

Demonstrators defied restrictions on public gatherings introduced as Thailand battles its worst outbreak of the virus to call for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha to quit.