The health secretary of the United Kingdom, Sajid Javid has said “no one really knows” what trajectory the Covid pandemic will take in the weeks ahead, as new cases across the UK rose after seven days of consecutive declines.
- The latest Covid data that’s, published on Wednesday, showed 27,734 people testing positive across the UK up by 4,000 from a day earlier.
- The increase in cases followed a week of sharp declines that had brought the number of new positive test results down by more than half from 54,674 on 17 July, just before most restrictions were relaxed.
- In Thailand, it has begun using sleeper trains to transport Covid patients out of Bangkok, where hospitals have been overwhelmed by a recent surge in cases.
- The first train left the capital on Tuesday, transporting 137 patients who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms to their hometowns in the northeast of the country.
- Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu received her COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday and urged all eligible citizens to also get the shot. Tanzania recently received 1 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine from the US government via the COVAX program.
Meanwhile, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday vaccinated people living in areas with “substantial or high transmission” of COVID-19 coronavirus should resume wearing masks indoors, citing the rapidly spreading and highly transmissible Delta variant for the change in guidelines.
