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LONDON (Reuters) – What you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Japan COVID cases hit 1 million as infections spread beyond Tokyo
Japan hit a milestone of one million coronavirus cases on Friday, national media reported, as infections skyrocketed in Olympic host Tokyo and other urban areas.
New cases in Tokyo reached 4,515, the second highest after Thursday’s record of 5,042, while neighboring and populous Kanagawa prefecture saw its cases skyrocket to more than 2,000, quadrupling in less than two weeks.
The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic last year now exceeds one million, tarnishing the country’s early success in containing the disease.
Japan decided this week to extend COVID-19 restrictions to more than 70% of its population, but unlike strict closures elsewhere, authorities are relying mainly on demands for restraint and peer pressure.
South Korea to compensate crippled nurse after COVID shot
A South Korean nursing assistant who was paralyzed after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine has been recognized as a victim of a work-related accident, making her eligible for government benefits and compensation.
The nursing assistant, who has not been identified, was injected with AstraZeneca on March 12 and subsequently suffered from double vision and paralysis and was diagnosed with acute encephalomyelitis, announced Korea Workers’ Compensation & Welfare Service Friday.
The service said in a statement that the woman had no underlying conditions and that there appeared to be a “reasonable causal link between the side effects and the vaccination.”
AstraZeneca, when asked about the case, did not refer to it directly, but said patient safety was of the utmost importance to her and regulators around the world.
Daily cases in the United States peak in 6 months; focus on recall shots
Daily new cases of COVID-19 peaked in six months in the United States, with more than 100,000 infections reported nationwide as the Delta variant ravaged Florida and other states with rates of lower vaccination.
“We are seeing terrifying # COVID19 trends in our hospitals,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo wrote on Twitter. She is the top official in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas and home to the city of Houston.
“At this point, if you are not vaccinated by choice, you are complicit in this crisis.”
The United States is working to give COVID-19 booster shots as quickly as possible to Americans with weakened immune systems, America’s leading infectious disease expert Dr.Anthony Fauci said Thursday.
He will join Chile, Germany, France and Israel to give booster shots, ignoring the World Health Organization’s call to wait until more people around the world can receive their first injection .
High number of daily cases in China, Sydney
China reported its highest daily count of new coronavirus cases in its current outbreak on Friday, fueled by an increase in locally transmitted infections, with 124 new confirmed cases, up from 85 a day earlier.
Australian authorities on Friday warned Sydney residents to prepare for an increase in COVID-19 cases after the country’s largest city recorded a record 279 locally acquired infections for the second day in a row despite a lockdown of several weeks to eradicate an outbreak of the Delta variant.
J&J calls for green light for emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine in India
Johnson & Johnson has requested approval for emergency use of its coronavirus vaccine in India, the US pharmaceutical giant said on Friday, moving closer to delivering the country’s first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
The claim comes at a time when legal wrangles have blocked U.S. vaccine donations to India, which has failed to respond to compensation claims from foreign manufacturers following legal action.
Only about 495.3 million people out of a population of over 1.3 billion had received at least one dose of a vaccine on Friday, according to data from India’s Ministry of Health.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh and Nick Macfie)
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