The World Health Organisation issued an appalling warning that the second year of Covid-19 was certain to be “far more deadly,” while Japan extended a state of emergency amidst increasing requests for the Olympics to be eliminated.
“We’re on track for the second year of this pandemic to be far more deadly than the first,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.
Japan’s atmosphere darkened when the covid-19 state of emergency took in other three regions just ten weeks before the Olympics. Meanwhile, campaigners submitted a petition with more than 350,000 signatures calling for the Games to be cancelled.
While Tokyo and other areas are already under emergency instructions until the May end, Hiroshima, Okayama, and northern Hokkaido, which would host the Olympic marathon, have joined them. Japanese public opinion is strongly opposed to conducting the Olympics this summer.
Meanwhile, India started distributing Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the first foreign-made shot to be used in the country, stumbling from an outburst in infections and deaths. The first token batch of 150,000 doses of Sputnik vaccines reportedly arrived on May 1, and a second delivery is likely expected in the next few days.
Several leading India-based drugmakers have agreements for the local production of Sputnik V to produce over 850 million shots of the jab per year.
India has included roughly as many new Covid cases daily as the rest of the world put together. According to official figures, more than 260,000 Indians have died to Covid-19.
In Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cautioned that the emergence of the B1.617.2 variant, which is assumed to be driving the Indian surge, could postpone the reopening of society and the economy. “This new variant could pose a serious disruption to our progress,” Johnson said.
The health ministry of Britain has traced the variant in northwest England and London.
Germany has already added the UK back onto its list of “risk areas” requiring extra inspections, but quarantine is unnecessary for incoming travellers. Tourist hotspots are opening up elsewhere around the continent.
Greece jump-started its tourism season on Friday, hoping to revoke last year’s gloomy summer. “I hope to forget this damn Covid,” said Jil Wirries, a 28-year old student from Hanover, Germany, collecting luggage on the island of Crete. “Everything is terrible in Germany… people are depressed… I’m so happy to be here.”
While France and Spain launched tourism campaigns this week, many in the US were baffled a day after the top health agency terminated all mask-wearing mandates for fully vaccinated people.
This move in the US has raised questions about how to enforce it, the primary being, how do you identify if a person is fully vaccinated? It has led to a mishmash of regulations around the country. Some states never had masks compulsory in the first place. Others had already lifted them well before the new advice. Some were evaluating the idea, but others, like Maryland and Virginia, quickly implemented it.
Major companies are also contemplating their options. While retail king Walmart was among those who said Friday it would remove its mask directive for fully vaccinated staff and customers. The United Food and Commercial Workers, a union representing 1.3 million people, came out firmly against it.
“Essential workers are still forced to play mask police for shoppers who are unvaccinated and refuse to follow local COVID safety measures. Are they now supposed to become the vaccination police?” it said.
Linsey Marr, an airborne disease specialist, said, “My initial reaction was supportive, but the more I think about it, I wish they had said, ‘Let’s do this on July 1. If you aren’t vaccinated yet, this is your chance to go do it.”
The WHO on Friday also said that even vaccinated should keep wearing masks in areas where the virus is escalating. “Vaccination alone is not a guarantee against infection or against being able to transmit that infection to others,” Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist, said.
In the US, more than 580,000 people have died of Covid-19. But around 60 percent of US adults have now received one or more doses, while cases are plunging fast, and children are now being vaccinated.
However, WHO urged wealthy countries to stop vaccinating children, instead donate vaccines to poorer countries. “I understand why some countries want to vaccinate their children and adolescents, but right now, I urge them to reconsider and to donate vaccines to Covax instead,” referring to the global vaccine-sharing scheme WHO chief Tedros said.
In sports, the Turkish Grand Prix, which was only outlined onto the Formula One calendar, replacing the cancelled Canada GP two weeks back, was terminated on Friday.
Formula One chiefs announced they would instead return to the sport’s haven of Austria.
