Race is on between vaccine drive, Delta variant: Scientist

A new wave of Coronavirus infections is ldquodefinitely underwayrdquo in England due to the Delta variant first identified in India a British government advisory scientist said on SaturdayldquoThe race is firmly on between the vaccine programme and the Delta variant third waverdquo said Professor Adam Finn a member of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation JCVI Xinhua news agency reportedAcknowledging the recent surge in infections Finn told the BBC ldquoPerhaps we can be a little bit optimistic itrsquos not going up any faster but nevertheless itrsquos going up mdash so this third wave is definitely under wayrdquoNoting that the highest number of cases of the Delta variant is among 1625 yearolds Finn said that older people are still ldquomuch more likely to end up in hospitalrdquoldquoAs far as vaccines are concerned the main emphasis everywhere at the moment is immunising adults because itrsquos adults that suffer predominantly from this infectionrdquo he saidMeanwhile epidemiologist Mike Tildesley said he is ldquocautiously hopefulrdquo that hospital admissions in Britain will not be on the same scale as in January Tildesley a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling SPIM another government advisory body said cases have been ldquocreeping steadilyrdquo over the past month ldquobut we havenrsquot yet seen that reflect in hospital admissions and deathsrdquoldquoIrsquom cautiously hopeful that whilst we probably will expect some sort of wave of hospital admissions over the next few weeks it wonrsquot be the same scale that we saw back in JanuaryrdquoThe recent data published by Public Health England showed the AstraZeneca vaccine is 92 per cent effective against hospitalisation from the Delta variant after two doses and the Pfizer vaccine is 96 per cent effective against hospitalisation after two dosesBritain sees over 10k casesBritain reported more than 10000 Coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day on Saturday as there has been a 79 per cent rise in the highly contagious Delta variant in the country in the past week Britain has reported another 10321 Coronavirus cases in the latest 24hour period bringing the total number of cases in the country to 4620968 according to official figures released on Saturday Xinhua news agency reportedNo flights to Peru from India SA BrazilPeru has extended the suspension of commercial flights from India South Africa and Brazil until July 11 to prevent the further spread of Covid19 the government announced The measure published in the official newspaper lsquoEl Peruanorsquo was adopted on Saturday after the second case of the Delta variant was discovered in the country reports Xinhua news agencyUniversity students queue up to receive the China National Biotec Group Covid19 vaccine at a university in Wuhan PicAFPChina completes giving 1 billion vax dosesMore than 1 billion doses of Covid19 vaccines have been administered in China as the country is pushing ahead with the largest vaccination drive in its history according to the National Health Commission NHC on Sunday It took the country just five days to hit its most recent 100million dose increase Xinhua news agency reported citing the NHC as saying China accelerated its pace of free Covid19 vaccinations for the whole nation since late MarchMost of Italy to be under white zoneItalian Health Minister Roberto Speranza has signed a new ordinance extending the white or lowestrisk pandemic zone to most of the country from Monday onwards ldquoThe new ordinance will become effective on Mondayrdquo the Minister said on SaturdayTwo Israel schools report Covid outbreakThe Israeli Ministry of Health reported a Covid19 outbreak in two schools in the town of Binyamina 60 km north of Tel Aviv which has infected 45 students The outbreak concerns a primary school and a middle school Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying on Saturday An extensive testing operation revealed the outbreakAlso ReadSangli scam How did Covid19 hosp with no trained staffers get municipal nod408990No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours178308964Total no of cases worldwide3862031Total no of deaths worldwideSource WHOJohns HopkinsThis 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