The World Health Organization is warning countries against dropping public health measures like social distancing and masking, as the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant continues to spread worldwide.
- WHO’s emergency director Dr. Michael Ryan said, “I think, overall, we’ve made a very premature run, rushing back to ‘full normality.’ And I think we’re going to pay a price for that because we’re not there with vaccination, the variants are really there, and we haven’t protected enough people.”
- Meanwhile, more than 80 teens and adults have tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a central Illinois summer camp that didn’t check their vaccination status or require masks indoors, state health officials said.
- Bangladesh reported 11,525 positive cases Tuesday, the highest one-day case number since the beginning of the pandemic. The country also saw 163 deaths in the past 24 hours, the government reported.
- In India, India’s caseload of the coronavirus disease climbed to 3,06,63,665 on Wednesday, after 43,733 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry’s update.
- In Indonesia, dozens of patients died Saturday when a public hospital on the island of Java ran out of oxygen. Indonesia has ordered a partial lockdown amid a massive rise in new cases mostly driven by the Delta variant.
- Russia is reporting record deaths from COVID-19 cases increasingly caused by the Delta variant. Fewer than 13% of Russians are fully vaccinated, even though Russia’s highly effective Sputnik V vaccine is widely available.
However, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to end nearly all remaining coronavirus restrictions in England on July 19. COVID-19 cases have soared in recent weeks even though more than half of the UK population is now fully vaccinated.
