Total Doses Distributed = 728,356,815. Total Doses Administered = 576,148,079. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 257,699,646. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 219,729,731.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates
Total Doses Distributed = 728,344,715. Total Doses Administered = 575,765,730. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 257,641,065. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 219,675,939.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
Restaurants in Beijing have been ordered to close dine-in services over the May holidays as the Chinese capital grapples with a COVID-19 outbreak.
Authorities said at a news conference Saturday that dining in restaurants has become an infection risk, citing virus transmissions between diners and staff.
Restaurants have been ordered to only provide takeout services from Sunday to Wednesday, during China’s Labor Day holidays.
Beijing began mass testing millions of residents earlier this week as it scrambled to stamp out a growing COVID-19 outbreak.
The political stakes are high as the ruling Communist Party prepares for a major congress this fall at which President Xi Jinping is seeking a third five-year term to reassert his position as China’s unquestioned leader.
Beijing authorities reported 67 new infections on Saturday, taking the city’s total to nearly 300 since April 22.
Authorities have also ordered parks, scenic areas and entertainment venue to operate at half capacity during the holiday period.
Several communities in the city’s most populous Chaoyang district have been designated high-risk areas and will be subjected to mass testing on Sunday and Tuesday.
Total Doses Distributed = 727,120,115. Total Doses Administered = 575,257,890. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 257,565,087. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 219,610,128.
COVID-19 Vaccination Data Updates
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
South Africa has likely entered a new wave of COVID-19 earlier than expected as new infections and hospitalizations have risen rapidly over the past two weeks, the country’s health minister said on Friday.
The increase in new cases has been dominated by the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant which dominated the country’s earlier wave of the virus.
“Whichever way you look at it, it does suggest that we may actually be entering the fifth wave much earlier,” Health Minister Joe Phaahla said Friday at a televised press briefing.
He said officials will be watching carefully over the next few days to determine if the increase is sustained which would confirm a new wave.
The country’s new infections are now several thousand per day, up from a few hundred a few weeks ago.
According to Phaahla, there was currently no information indicating the emergence of a new strain, which scientists had earlier suggested may drive the country’s fifth wave, expected during the country’s upcoming winter season from May into June.
“We have always been informed that when a new wave comes, it will be driven by a new variant, but at this stage we have not been alerted to a definite new variant except changes in the omicron,” said Phaahla.
Three South African provinces — Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape — currently are accounting for 85% of new infections, with the positivity rate in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal above 20%, he said.
Hospitalizations from the new cases are increasing but are still relatively low, Dr. Waasila Jassat from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, said.
“We are starting to see a small rise in hospital admissions in the private and public sector,” said Jassat. “Since around the 17 of April, we are seeing a sharp increase in hospital admissions.”
South Africa has experienced the highest number of infections in Africa since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, accounting for more than a quarter of the continent’s 11.4 million cases.
More than 252,000 people in South Africa have died from the virus, but the numbers are considered to be much higher when considering the number of excess deaths recorded since the pandemic compared to the same periods before the pandemic.
Just over 44% of South Africa’s adult population has been vaccinated.
WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday set tentative dates in June to publicly review COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest American children, typically the final step before authorizing the shots.
The meeting announcement follows months of frustration from families impatient for a chance to vaccinate their little children, along with complaints from politicians bemoaning the slow pace of the process.
The FDA said it plans to convene its outside panel of vaccine experts on June 8, 21 and 22 to review applications from Moderna and Pfizer for child vaccines. The dates are not final and the FDA said it will provide additional details as each company completes their application.
Currently, only children ages 5 or older can be vaccinated in the U.S. with Pfizer’s vaccine, leaving 18 million younger tots unprotected.
On Thursday, Moderna submitted data to the FDA that it hopes will prove its two low-dose shots can protect children younger than 6. Moderna has filed FDA applications for older kids, but the FDA hasn’t ruled on them. It’s not clear if that data for older children will be considered at the June meetings.
Pfizer is soon expected to announce if three of its even smaller-dose shots work for the littlest kids, months after the disappointing discovery that two doses weren’t quite strong enough.
While questions have swirled about what’s taking so long, FDA regulators have emphasized that they can’t evaluate a product until a manufacturer completes its application. Moderna still has to submit additional data to complete the process, the FDA noted Thursday.
On Monday, a top House Democrat requested a briefing from FDA on the status of vaccines for children after media reports that the FDA was considering delaying its work on Moderna’s application to jointly review it with Pfizer’s at a later date.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.