Topic: Covid-19: Country Updates

26^th March, 2022, Saturday, 9.30-10.30am

• Australia Update: There is a surge of the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, which is more infectious. But there is no increase in the number of hospital admissions, which still remains below 1%. Sydney had 30,000 cases yesterday, but it has not translated to hospitalization including ICU admissions. The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has approved the fourth vaccine for people aged 65 years and older, those who are immunocompromised and those who are working in nursing homes, age care facilities. The fourth dose is to be taken 4-6 months since the last vaccine.
• Pakistan Update: There are 8165 active cases. The daily new cases vary from 170 to 250. There were four deaths in the last 24 hours. Total number of deaths since the onset of the pandemic is 30,340.  Ten crore people are fully vaccinated, while 11 crores are partially vaccinated. Vaccination is in full swing, but there is no social distancing and no masking in markets and public places. Vaccination for teenagers aged 15 years and older has started.
• Japan Update: Currently there is the sixth wave in Japan, which is slowly fading now. BA.2 is controlling the wave; Okinawa prefecture has a cluster of BA.2 cases.
• South Africa Update: In the last 24 hours, there were 1560 new cases and 7 deaths. So far 3.7 million have tested positive. Total deaths are 99,939. Active cases are 13,836. The test positivity rate is 6.2 for last week (13^th -19^th March). The recovery rate has improved to almost 97%. Yesterday 1971 cases were admitted across the country in the last 24 hours; ICU cases were 192 and 62 are on ventilator. About 33.3 million have been vaccinated. A vaccination certificate is sufficient while traveling; PCR is no longer required for traveling. Indoor mask is still implemented, but outdoor masks are not required now. Social distancing has reduced from 1.5m to 1 m. Vaccine coverage for 60 years and above is 70% and for 50 and above, it is 60%. For the younger population, 18-34 years of age, coverage is around 35%. Vaccine confidence is very low. The government has introduced the heterologous booster; those have had two J&J vaccines can go for heterologous booster vaccine; same applies to Pfizer vaccine. The booster can be taken 90 days after the two doses of Pfizer vaccine. For J&J it is 60 days.
• Taiwan Update: Government has started to reduce the quarantine days for foreigners to 10 days from two weeks. This can hopefully be reduced to 5-7 days and eventually to completely reopening of borders. Last week there were 14-15 cases. The lifestyle is quite regular here. Masks are still required indoors and in public places such as metros, subways, buses. Patients coming to hospital for surgery/medical care or those who need admission, are required to do PCR to rule out active infection, so that infection is not carried into the hospital. Any patient in the emergency with Covid-like symptoms has to be first tested with PCR. Results take around 45 minutes.
• USA Update: There is an increase in seven-day average as per Johns Hopkins website; however, as per CDC website, in the last 24 hours, the number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations have come down. 81.7% have received at least one dose of vaccine. Genomic sequencing between March 13-19, BA.1 is 57% and BA.2 is 35%. Sewer surveillance has shown that the virus is shed in the sewer systems throughout the country. The third dose of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine had 95% efficacy in preventing breakthrough infections in a NEJM study of 10,000+ people aged 16 years and older. The burden of incident diabetes and use of antihyperglycemic drugs was higher in long Covid patients, particularly in those who had received intensive care (Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology). The burden of prior Covid and burden of long-term sequelae are yet to be seen. There has been an outbreak of harassment against healthcare workers. According to a survey of 510 Covid-19 researchers in Science, 38% reported at least one kind of harassment, most commonly personal insults and attacks on professional competency and integrity. Threats of violence, doxxing and unwanted visits were less common. Scientists who publicly debated positions on Covid-19 received more harassment. Threatening a healthcare worker has been made a felony by law on 23 March, 2022 in the state of Wisconsin. Under the amended law, threats against a healthcare workers will be similar to special circumstance batteries, which involve actual bodily harm and are punished more severely when the victim or perpetrator has a particular professional status. According to Wisconsin law, felony is a crime that could result in a jail term of one year or longer.
• India Update: There were 1600 new cases in the last 24 hours. Mumbai has had zero admissions yesterday. Active cases have declined to 16,741. Total deaths in the country are over half a million. 2500 patients were discharge in last 24 hours. Most Covid restrictions will be off from 31^st March. Only mask rule will stay. International travel will open.

Participants

Member National Medical Associations

Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, South Africa

Dr Angelique Coetzee, South Africa

Dr Akhtar Hussain, South Africa

Dr Salma Kundi, Pakistan

Dr Muh-Yong Yen, Taiwan

Dr Marie Uzawa Urabe, Japan

Invitees

Dr Russell D’Souza, Australia UNESCO Chair in Bioethics

Dr Monica Vasudev, USA

Dr Patricia La’Brooyi

Dr EC Ng

Dr Lawrence HB Soh

Dr Khoonhui Yeo

Dr S Sharma, Editor IJCP Group

Moderator

Mr Saurabh Aggarwal