Topic: COVID Omicron update & Situation in Various countries

29^th January, 2021, Saturday; 9.30am-10.30am

• South Africa Update: The situation has improved particularly from the last week. The numbers vary from 3000-3700 cases; deaths in the last week were 130-133, active cases are 6700+. The recovery rate is 95.5%. Total 22 million tests done in South Africa;3.5 million have tested positive. The positivity rate has gone down; from 30-38 to 20 and  this week its around 7.5 to 8.2. ICUs are empty; there are 666 hospitals in country and 6284 patients are hospitalized; out of these, around 500 were in ICU, 243 were on ventilator. Mostly the unvaccinated persons are in ICU. There are few cases of double vaccinated persons in ICU but they were with comorbidities. Schools have reopened. Vaccination in children above 12 years are increasing, but some teachers do not want to get vaccinated. Businesses are recovering very slowly. International borders are open now.
• Philippines Update: New cases due to Omicron increased after the Christmas holidays. Starting January there were 5000 cases. Last week, the cases were highest with almost 6000 daily new cases. But now cases have decreased; the percentage of active cases is 6.6; the total number of people affected with Covid is 3.2 million with death rate of 1.53 with total of 53,801 deaths. Sixty million have been fully vaccinated; 55 million have received the first dose. 12-13 million of 5-11 years age are vaccinated. Almost 50 million population more remains to be vaccinated. Booster dose has been started for healthcare workers, persons with comorbidities and senior citizens. 
• India Update: The situation is definitely improving. There seems to be a flattening of curve particularly in the North and North East states; though the southern states continue to have cases. Today there are 2.35 lakh cases. But many are asymptomatic or only mildly symptomatic. Test positivity rate is 10%; varies from state to state. Covaxin and Covishield, which were under EUA, have now been granted full permission by DCGI. Almost 95% of eligible population has received the first dose, while 74% have received two doses. Vaccination is picking up in adolescents aged 14-18 years. The R ratio is now 1.6. Normal activities are going on in the country. Crowd management is now being given more importance. Now 50-100 people are now allowed to attend functions. The intensity of the problem has been categorized into three (I, II and III) based on the number of hospital and ICU admissions. Monoclonal antibodies are the sheet anchor of treatment. Mortality rate has not increased despite increase in cases. Gradually Omicron is replacing the delta variant. Headache is the predominant feature of Omicron; fever, URI (sore throat) are also reported. Vaccination has helped in reducing mortality, hospitalization and severity of infection. 
• Japan Update: The number of infected persons has increased to 18,000 cases; but there are very few deaths. The number of people needing admission is slowly increasing. Infections among children are on the rise. Booster vaccination has made little progress. Hospitalization rate among elders who have received booster shot is low.
• Hong Kong Update: Omicron has caused the 5^th wave, more than 100 cases daily, though not exponentially increasing. In many cases, source of infection cannot be identified. There have been no mortalities yet from Omicron. Primary schools, KG, secondary schools were closed earlier; primary and KG schools will tentatively be closed till 21^st February. Primary schools may resume when at least 70% of students have received at least one dose of the BioNTech vaccine or two doses of Sinovac vaccine. More than 95% teachers are vaccinated; those who are unvaccinated have to undergo testing every 3 days. All government department also require vaccination record. All restaurants are closed after 6pm; gyms, parlors, church gatherings are all closed. About 79% have received the first dose, 71% have received two doses, only 15% have received the third dose. Persons older than 80 years – 28% are vaccinated; >70 years 60% are vaccinated and 11-18 years 60% are vaccinated. Vaccination for 5-11-year age group has started last week and is 2.2%. The government has allowed vaccination only from 5 years upwards. The pediatric formulation of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine not available; but diluted one-third of adult dose is being used in this age group.
• Pakistan Update: The fifth wave of Omicron is going very high; more than 8000 people. Deaths 27 in the last 24 hours. Vaccinations are 17 crore 40 lakhs. Businesses have opened up. SOPs are not being followed.
• Singapore Update: There are 5500 cases per day and 3 deaths yesterday. There are 333000 cases so far and 850 deaths. Couple of weeks ago, 14,380 children were sick with Covid from October; of these, 4 are in ICU and 15 have MIS-C. Latest figures – 17,699 children infected, 2586 hospitalized, no mortalities. 140,000 children are vaccinated to date. No major side effects with 10 µg dose for 5-10 age group. 91% vaccination rate; 56% of population have received booster. Vaccination-differentiated measures have been instituted, which prevent unvaccinated persons from entering malls, restaurants etc. Refusal to vaccination can lead to termination of job.

Participants

 

Member National Medical Associations

Dr Yeh Woei Chong, Singapore, Chair CMAAO 

Dr Alvin Yee-Shing Chan, Hong Kong, Treasurer, CMAAO

Dr Marthanda Pillai, India Member World Medical Council, Advisor CMAAO

Dr Akhtar Hussain, South Africa

Dr Salma Kundi, Pakistan

Dr Qaiser Sajjad, Pakistan 

Dr Benito Atienza, Philippines

Dr Marie Uzawa Urabe, Japan

 

Invitees

 

Dr Mulazim Hussain Bukhari, Pakistan

Dr Lawrence HB Soh

Dr Colin Goldberg

Dr S Sharma, Editor IJCP Group

Moderator

Mr Saurabh Aggarwal