Nations pay for summer of fun as WHO warns of deadly Covid-19 resurgence

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned against any complacency in the coronavirus death rate, saying with the increasing number of cases, mortality would also rise. New cases were hitting 100,000 daily in Europe. Nearly 20,000 infections were reported in Britain on Wednesday while Italy, Switzerland and Russia were among nations with record case numbers. European infections began a resurgence in the late summer, fuelled by returning travellers and young partygoers. Local family, work and social gatherings have since spurred further contagion. While deaths globally have fallen to around 5,000 per day from April’s peak exceeding 7,500, WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said caseloads were rising in intensive care units. “Mortality increases always lag behind increasing cases by a couple of weeks,” Swaminathan said during a WHO social media event. “We shouldn’t be complacent that death rates are coming down.” More than 38 million people have been reported infected globally and almost 1.1 million have died. Despite the global push for a Covid-19 vaccine, with dozens in clinical trials and hopes for initial inoculations this year, Swaminathan reiterated that speedy, mass shots were unlikely. Two candidates, from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca’s US trial, were paused on safety concerns, while manufacturing billions of doses of an eventual successful vaccine will be a colossal challenge demanding hard decisions about who gets inoculated first. Antibodies may actually help coronavirus invade cells in some cases, study suggests “Most people agree, it’s starting with health care workers, and front-line workers, but even there, you need to define which of them are at highest risk, and then the elderly, and so on,” Swaminathan said. “A healthy young person might have to wait until 2022.” The WHO has said letting infection spread in hopes of achieving “herd immunity” was unethical and would cause unnecessary deaths. It urges handwashing, social distancing, masks and – when unavoidable, limited and targeted restrictions on movements – to control disease spread. “People talk about herd immunity. We should only talk about it in the context of a vaccine,” Swaminathan said. “You need to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of people … to really break transmission.” The WHO’s warning came as France became the latest European country to toughen anti-coronavirus measures, imposing a curfew in Paris and eight other cities from Saturday, while Germany and Ireland also ramped up restrictions. One-size face masks do not fit all – especially women: study Germany’s new cases increased at the fastest pace since the pandemic started: the country registered 7,173 new infections in the 24 hours through Thursday, taking the total to 344,487, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. That exceeded the previous high of 6,933 recorded on March 28. There were 44 new fatalities, lifting the overall number of deaths to 9,716. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was also under increasing pressure to impose more stringent measures to cut spiralling rates in England, including a two-week “circuit-breaker” lockdown. London was on course for an imminent tightening of restrictions, which would ban two separate households from meeting indoors. Northern Ireland will introduce some of the harshest measures, including closing schools, bars and restaurants, while Ireland will end household visits, and a number of districts close to the border will move to a so-called Level 4 lockdown. Russia on Thursday recorded 13,754 new cases and a record high of 286 deaths, pushing the national death toll to 23,491. With 1,354,163 infections, the country of around 145 million has the world’s fourth largest number of cases, behind only the United States, India and Brazil. After coronavirus pandemic hit, Brazil island became land of ‘cannibal cats’ Beyond Europe, the virus’s comeback in the US has reached the vast majority of the country, with trends worsening in 46 states and the nation’s capital. On Wednesday, the US death toll rose by 794 in a day to 216,597, according to Johns Hopkins University, with just three weeks before a crucial election in which the pandemic plays a central role. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said city health officials were making progress in reducing infection rates in areas of Brooklyn and Queens where cases have been spiking recently. Governor Andrew Cuomo said microclusters like the ones in the city were expected to continue for at least a year. Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Bloomberg