Indonesia’s health ministry has recorded 1,588 new deaths of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the nation’s total deaths to 107,096.
- Indonesia has been struggling to cope with the highly contagious Delta variant since it was first discovered in late June. According to Our World in Data Indonesia’s total number of infections has now reached 3.53 million.
- The country recorded a huge rise in cases at the beginning of July and more than 30,100 deaths. High fatality numbers have left much of the country frustrated with their government, blaming a slow vaccine rollout.
- Globally, coronavirus cases are continuing to rise, fueled by the spread of the Delta variant. China has ordered mass testing in Wuhan the first epicenter of the pandemic. They suspended travel and public events across much of the country. China has confirmed new cases in at least three dozen cities in more than half of its provinces.
- Thailand has reported another new record for daily infections, with over 20,000 new cases on Wednesday.
- In Japan, the Tokyo Olympics organizing body reported yet another daily record for infections among people associated with the games.
- Meanwhile, The World Health Organization is calling on wealthy countries to halt plans to provide a third booster shot of COVID-19 vaccines to some citizens until at least 10% of the population of every country is vaccinated. The call, from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide topped 200 million.
However, the producers of some of the world’s most effective COVID-19 vaccines continue to raise prices on the life-saving inoculations, with Pfizer and Moderna set to charge the European Union more than $23 and $25 per dose, respectively.
