India sees record Covid-19 deaths
India reported its highest single-day death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic yesterday, reporting 1,099 fatalities as coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak havoc across the globe.
The world's second-most populous country had 64,531 new infections on Tuesday, which took the virus tally to 2.8 million, federal health ministry data showed yesterday.
India is third behind Brazil and the United States in terms of total number of cases and the outbreak has been spreading steadily from urban areas to smaller towns, where health infrastructure is rickety.
In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday called for coronavirus immunisations to be mandatory, wading into ethical and safety debates raging around the world as the race to develop a vaccine gathers pace.
Almost 30 potential vaccines are currently being tested on humans across the globe in hope of ending a pandemic that has now killed more than 781,000 people and infected more than 22 million, according to an AFP tally.
Morrison said he wants all 25 million Australians to get the jab after the country secured access to a vaccine currently under development by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Nations are scrambling to develop an immunisation or gain access to one of a handful of contenders in the final stages of clinical trials.
Among the competitors, Brazilian health regulators on Tuesday gave the green light to the final stage of trials on a vaccine by Johnson & Johnson.
The US pharmaceutical firm will test its drug on 7,000 volunteers in Brazil, authorities said, part of a group of up to 60,000 worldwide.
South Africa, meanwhile, will launch clinical trials of a US-developed vaccine with 2,900 volunteers this week, the second such study in the African country worst hit by the disease.
However, the push for a vaccine has coincided with a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment that could hinder efforts to encourage widespread uptake.
NEW SPIKES
The WHO has said the planet's highest-risk populations must all be inoculated simultaneously or else it will be impossible to rebuild the global economy.
"The fastest way to end this pandemic and to reopen economies is to start by protecting the highest risk populations everywhere, rather than the entire populations of just some countries," WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
His warning comes as the virus refuses to die across large parts of the globe, with South Korea and Lebanon the latest countries to witness new spikes.
Seoul ordered nightclubs, museums and buffet restaurants to close, and banned large gatherings in and around the capital, after a burst of infections mostly linked to Protestant churches.
The country yesterday reported 297 new cases, its sixth consecutive day of triple-digit increases after several weeks with numbers generally in the 30s and 40s.
In Lebanon, authorities announced a new lockdown and overnight curfew to rein in a spike following a colossal chemical explosion on August 4 that has hampered virus prevention efforts.
Iran's coronavirus death toll has surpassed 20,000, the government said yesterday, six months after announcing the start of what quickly became the Middle East's deadliest outbreak.
UN HAILS AID WORKERS
The United Nations yesterday paid tribute to humanitarian workers now battling the pandemic after a year in which they found themselves under greater attack than ever before.
The UN marked its World Humanitarian Day by remembering the 125 aid workers who were killed in 2019, and the hundreds of others who were wounded or kidnapped.
"The UN condemns these attacks, and it calls for accountability for perpetrators and justice for survivors. Relief workers cannot be a target," said OCHA, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
According to the Aid Worker Security Database compiled by the Humanitarian Outcomes research group, major attacks against humanitarians last year surpassed all previous years since records began in 1997.
In 277 separate incidents around the world, a total of 483 relief workers were attacked, of which 125 were killed, 234 wounded and 124 kidnapped.
The figure represents an 18 percent increase in the number of victims compared to 2018.
Most of the attacks occurred in Syria, followed by South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan and the Central African Republic.
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