COVID-19’s Delta variant has spread to 135 countries: WHO

United Nations The highlytransmissible Delta variant of COVID19 has now been reported in 135 countries according to the World Health Organization WHOThe COVID19 Weekly Epidemiological Update dated August 3 released by WHO said globally 132 countries have reported cases of the Beta variant and 81 countries of the Gamma variant It said the cases of Alpha variant have been reported in 182 countries territories or areas while 135 countries have reported cases of the Delta variant which was first identified in India The global number of new cases has been increasing for more than a month with over four million cases reported in the past week mdash July 26 to August 1 the update saidldquoThis increasing trend is largely attributed to substantial increases in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific Regions which reported 37 per cent and 33 per cent increases respectively as compared to the previous week while the SouthEast Asia Region reported a 9 per cent increaserdquo it saidOverall the number of deaths reported this week decreased by 8 per cent as compared to the previous week with over 64000 deaths reported However the Western Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean Regions showed a sharp increase in new deaths as compared to the previous week reporting 48 per cent and 31 per cent increases respectivelyThe cumulative number of cases reported globally has crossed 200 million and the number of cumulative deaths is 42 million At the country level the highest numbers of new cases in the past week were reported by the United States 543420 new cases 9 per cent increase India 283923 new cases 7 per cent increase Indonesia 273891 new cases 5 per cent decrease Brazil 247830 new cases 24 per cent decrease and Iran 206722 new cases 27 per cent increaseUS has 934 per cent of Delta casesMeanwhile the Delta variant now accounts for an estimated 934 per cent of all the new COVID19 cases in the US that were reported during the last two weeks of July according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday In its latest update on Wednesday the CDC said that this number is even higher in certain parts of the country showed the updated figures for the week ending July 31 reports Xinhua news agencyIn the Midwest including Iowa Kansas Missouri and Nebraska Delta variant accounts for more than 98 per cent of all new cases These figures have shown a rapid increase over the past two monthsMelbourne goes into sixth lockdownAustraliarsquos secondlargest city Melbourne went into a sixth lockdown on Thursday with a state government leader blaming the nationrsquos slow COVID19 vaccination rollout for the decision Melbourne joins Sydney and Brisbane Australiarsquos most populous and thirdmost populous cities respectively in locking down due to the spread of the highly contagious delta variant Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state will remain under lockdown for seven weeks after eight new infections were detected in the city Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews saidTokyo logs in record 5042 new casesTokyo reported 5042 new daily Coronavirus cases on Thursday hitting a record since the pandemic began as the infections surge in the Japanese capital hosting the Olympics The additional cases brought the total for Tokyo to 236138 Nationwide Japan reported more than 14000 cases on Wednesday for a total of 970000 Tokyo has been under a state of emergency since midJuly and four other areas have since been added But the measures basically a ban on alcohol in restaurants and bars and their shorter hours are increasingly ignored by the publicIsrael issues travel warning for 18 nationsThe Israeli Ministry of Health on Thursday issued a severe travel warning for 18 more countries due to their high Coronavirus morbidity The travel warning will take effect on August 11 reports Xinhua news agency The countries are the US France Ukraine Italy Iceland Eswatini Botswana Bulgaria Germany the Netherlands Tanzania Greece Malawi Egypt the Czech Republic Cuba Rwanda and TunisiaEU enters deal to buy Novavax shotsThe European Commission announced it has approved a deal that allows European Union member states to buy up to 200 million doses of Novavaxrsquos COVID19 jab once the European Medicines Agency deems it safe for use In a statement the Commission said through the agreement with the firm EU countries will be able to purchase 100 million Novavax vaccine doses with the option to purchase a further 100 million over the course of 2021 2022 and 2023This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever