The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> <strong>Friday</strong>, <strong>August</strong> <strong>21</strong>, <strong>2020</strong><br />
WORLD 15<br />
Pandemic now driven by<br />
20s, 30s, 40s group, many<br />
asymptomatic: WHO<br />
<strong>The</strong> World Health Organization<br />
said it was concerned that the<br />
novel coronavirus spread was<br />
being driven by people in their 20s,<br />
30s and 40s, many of which were<br />
unaware they were infected, posing a<br />
danger to vulnerable groups.<br />
WHO officials said this month the<br />
proportion of younger people among<br />
those infected had risen globally,<br />
putting at risk vulnerable sectors<br />
of the population worldwide,<br />
including the elderly and<br />
sick people in densely<br />
populated areas with<br />
weak health services.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> epidemic is<br />
changing,” WHO Western<br />
Pacific regional director,<br />
Takeshi Kasai, told a virtual<br />
briefing. “People in their 20s, 30s<br />
and 40s are increasingly driving the<br />
spread. Many are unaware they are<br />
infected.”<br />
“This increases the risk of<br />
spillovers to the more vulnerable,”<br />
he added.<br />
A surge in new cases has prompted<br />
some countries to re-impose<br />
curbs as companies race to find a<br />
vaccine for a virus that has battered<br />
"What<br />
we are<br />
observing is not<br />
simply a resurgence. We<br />
believe it’s a signal that we<br />
have entered a new phase<br />
economies, killed more<br />
than 770,000 people<br />
and infected nearly 22<br />
million, according<br />
to a Reuters tally.<br />
Surges were reported<br />
in countries that had<br />
appeared to have the<br />
virus under control,<br />
including Vietnam, which<br />
until recently went three months<br />
without domestic transmission due<br />
to its aggressive mitigation efforts.<br />
“What we are observing is not<br />
simply a resurgence. We believe<br />
it’s a signal that we have entered a<br />
new phase of pandemic in the Asia-<br />
Pacific,” Kasai said.<br />
He said countries were better<br />
able to reduce disruption to lives<br />
of pandemic in the<br />
Asia-Pacific,"<br />
and economies by combining early<br />
detection and response to manage<br />
infections.<br />
While mutations had been<br />
observed, the WHO still saw the<br />
virus as “relatively stable”, Kasai<br />
said.<br />
WHO also reminded drugmakers<br />
to follow all necessary research and<br />
development steps when creating a<br />
vaccine.<br />
Socorro Escalante, its technical<br />
officer and medicines policy advisor,<br />
said the WHO was coordinating with<br />
Russia, which this month became<br />
the first country to grant regulatory<br />
approval for a COVID-19 vaccine.<br />
“We hope to get the response in<br />
terms of the evidence of this new<br />
vaccine,” Escalante said.<br />
Biden, Harris maintain double-digit<br />
lead over Trump, Pence: Poll<br />
Democratic presidential<br />
candidate Joe Biden and<br />
his running mate Kamala<br />
Harris are maintaining a double-digit<br />
lead in the country over incumbent<br />
President Donald Trump and<br />
Vice President Mike Pence, as the<br />
presidential election draws closer,<br />
says a Washington Post-ABC<br />
News poll.<br />
As the Democrats<br />
kicked off their<br />
National Convention<br />
on Monday, Biden and<br />
Harris lead Trump and<br />
Pence by 53 per cent<br />
to 41 per cent among<br />
registered voters, <strong>The</strong><br />
Washington Post reported.<br />
Among voters, Biden’s current<br />
national margin over Trump is<br />
slightly smaller than the 15-point<br />
margin in a poll conducted last month<br />
and slightly larger than a survey in<br />
May when he led by 10 points. As<br />
the pandemic was in its initial stage,<br />
Biden and Trump were separated by<br />
just two points, with<br />
the former having a<br />
statistically insignificant<br />
advantage.<br />
Nearly 9 in 10 of Trump’s<br />
supporters are enthusiastic to cast<br />
ballots for him and 65 per cent saying<br />
they are “very enthusiastic”. Slightly<br />
over 8 in 10 Biden supporters stated<br />
they are enthusiastic about voting<br />
for the former Vice President, with<br />
48 per cent saying they are “very<br />
enthusiastic”, the poll said.<br />
Overall, 54 per cent of registered<br />
voters said they are following the<br />
presidential election “very closely”.<br />
<strong>The</strong> share of Republicans and<br />
Republican-leaning independent<br />
voters stands at 58 per cent, the same<br />
as it was in September 2016.<br />
53 per cent of Democrats and<br />
Democratic-leaning independent<br />
voters are also saying they are very<br />
closely following the campaign, a<br />
jump of 13 points around this time<br />
four years back.<br />
Australia locks in coronavirus<br />
vaccine deal as new cases ease<br />
A<br />
fresh<br />
outbreak of infections<br />
in Australia’s coronavirus<br />
hot zone of Victoria appeared<br />
to have eased, as the country signed a<br />
deal to secure a potential COVID-19<br />
vaccine that it intends to roll out free<br />
of cost to its citizens.<br />
Australia has signed a deal with<br />
British drugmaker AstraZeneca<br />
to produce and distribute<br />
enough doses of a potential<br />
coronavirus vaccine for its population<br />
of 25 million, Prime Minister Scott<br />
Morrison said late on Tuesday.<br />
"Slightly<br />
over 8 in 10<br />
Biden supporters<br />
stated they are enthusiastic<br />
about voting for the<br />
former Vice President,<br />
with 48 per cent saying<br />
they are “very enthusiastic"<br />
All Australians will be offered<br />
doses but a medical panel will<br />
determine the priority list of vaccine<br />
recipients, Health Minister Greg<br />
Hunt said.<br />
“Naturally you would be focusing<br />
on the most vulnerable, the elderly,<br />
health workers, people with<br />
disabilities in terms of the speed of<br />
roll out, but I think there would be<br />
widespread uptake in Australia,”<br />
Hunt told Sky News on Wednesday.<br />
AstraZeneca last month said good<br />
data was coming in so far on its<br />
vaccine for COVID-19, already in<br />
large-scale human trials and widely<br />
seen as the front-runner in the race for<br />
a shot against the novel coronavirus.<br />
<strong>The</strong> vaccine, called AZD1222, was<br />
developed by Britain’s University of<br />
Oxford and licensed to AstraZeneca.<br />
A flare up in infections in<br />
Australia’s second most populous<br />
state of Victoria forced authorities<br />
two weeks ago to impose a nightly<br />
curfew, tighten restrictions on<br />
people’s movements and order large<br />
parts of the state’s economy to close.<br />
World: Coronavirus cases<br />
Confirmed: 22,308,044<br />
Deaths: 784,365<br />
Recovered: 15,050,063<br />
Active: 6,473,616<br />
NEWS in BRIEF<br />
Infectious Covid-19 mutation may be a<br />
good thing, says disease expert<br />
A<br />
mutation of the novel coronavirus<br />
increasingly common throughout<br />
Europe and recently detected in<br />
Malaysia may be more infectious but<br />
appears less deadly, according to a<br />
prominent infectious diseases doctor.<br />
Paul Tambyah, senior consultant at<br />
the National University of Singapore<br />
and president-elect of the U.S.-based<br />
International Society of Infectious Diseases, said the D614G mutation has<br />
also been found in Singapore.<br />
<strong>The</strong> city-state’s health ministry did not immediately respond to a request<br />
for comment. Tambyah said there is evidence the proliferation of the<br />
mutation in Europe has coincided with a drop in death rates, suggesting it<br />
is less lethal. <strong>The</strong> mutation is not likely to impact the efficacy of a potential<br />
vaccine, despite warnings to the contrary from other health experts, he<br />
added. “Maybe that’s a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but<br />
less deadly,” Tambyah told Reuters.<br />
China, U.S. will allow air carriers to<br />
double flights between nations<br />
China and the United States will each allow air carriers to double current<br />
flights to eight per week between the world’s two largest economies, the<br />
U.S. Transportation Department said on Tuesday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> department said it will allow four Chinese passenger airlines currently<br />
flying to the United States to double flights to eight weekly round-trips, as<br />
China has agreed to allow U.S. carriers to double flights to China.<br />
U.S. carriers voluntary halted flights to China after the coronavirus<br />
outbreak. President Donald Trump on Jan. 31 barred nearly all non-U.S.<br />
citizens from traveling to the United States from China.<br />
Argentina exceeds 300,000 coronavirus cases,<br />
6,000 deaths – health ministry<br />
Argentina confirmed 6,840 new cases of coronavirus and 172 new<br />
deaths, taking it simultaneously over the 300,000 case and 6,000 death<br />
threshold as the Latin nation battles a surge of contagions in recent weeks.<br />
<strong>The</strong> country’s health ministry reported a total of 305,966 cases and<br />
6,048 deaths. Dr Luis Camera, a member of the Argentine government’s<br />
health advisory group, said while cases, intensive care admissions and<br />
hospital bed occupancy rates were not still climbing, they had settled at an<br />
unsustainable level.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> highest points for the City of Buenos Aires could have been the<br />
last days of July and the first days of <strong>August</strong>,” he told Reuters TV. “Now<br />
the infection curve has stabilized at a plateau, but a high plateau. In South<br />
America, you call it the altiplano, as opposed to the lowlands.”<br />
WHO calls for widespread flu vaccinations this year<br />
<strong>The</strong> world must administer widespread<br />
anti-flu vaccinations this year to<br />
help to ward off the risk of complicating<br />
coronavirus infections, World Health<br />
Organization senior adviser Bruce<br />
Aylward said on Tuesday.<br />
More than <strong>21</strong>.9 million people have<br />
been reported to be infected by the novel<br />
coronavirus globally and 772,647 have<br />
died, according to a Reuters tally. WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove<br />
told a briefing in Geneva that studies to date showed that less than 10% of<br />
the population has evidence of antibodies against the virus<br />
US Covid-19 cases surpass 5.5 million<br />
<strong>The</strong> total number of Covid-19 cases in the US surpassed 5.5 million,<br />
according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE)<br />
at Johns Hopkins University. <strong>The</strong> US case count rose to 5,505,074, with the<br />
national death toll reaching 172,418, according to the media<br />
<strong>The</strong> hardest-hit US state of California reported 640,722 cases, followed<br />
by Florida with 584,047 cases, Texas with 569,331 cases, and New York<br />
with 426,571 cases, the tally showed.<br />
Other states with over 180,000 cases include Georgia, Illinois, Arizona<br />
and New Jersey, according to the CSSE.<br />
By far, the United States remains the worst-hit nation, in terms of both the<br />
caseload and death toll.