Coronavirus cases in China hit a seven-month high on Tuesday. This comes after a cluster at a test site helped drive up numbers of more Delta variant cases.
It is basically challenging Beijing’s grip on the pandemic. Chinese state media described the current outbreak as the most severe since the emergence of the virus in Wuhan.
It has sparked local lockdowns, mass testing and travel restrictions.
Chinese health authorities on Tuesday reported 143 new coronavirus infections and 108 of them locally transmitted.
Tuesday’s tally remains the highest since January, when China had logged 144 new cases and 126 domestic infections, mostly in the northern regions.
Moreover, in the United States, coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have already hit a six-month high. The country is once again experiencing the rapid spread of the Delta variant and also grappling with low vaccination rates.
Furthermore, the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 is rising across the US. This is trend health experts are attributing to the Delta variant being more likely to infect children than the original Alpha strain.
In the latest development, the Pentagon maintains that it will seek President Joe Biden’s approval by the middle of September to require military members to get vaccinated.
The World Health Organisation classifies Delta as a variant of concern. This variant has the capability of increasing transmissibility, causing more severe disease or reducing the benefit of vaccines and treatments.
To defeat SARS-CoV-2 will require a new generation of vaccines that also block transmission. Because so far the vaccines have the efficacy of combating severe illness but do not control infections. The world will have to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour till the time we all get super vaccines.
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