World Coronavirus Dispatch: Experts urge people to avoid pets if infected

How Australia became a vaccine laggard, Brazil vaccine scandal poses fresh political threat to Bolsonaro, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Covid-hero Australia is now a vaccine laggard

As highly contagious variants and lockdowns spread, Australia, the country that once earned praise for keeping virus at bay and avoiding hundreds of thousands of deaths, is now struggling in its vaccination drive. The Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker shows the nation is ahead of only neighbour New Zealand among the 38 OECD nations in administering doses. Australia has provided enough jabs for just 14.7 per cent of its population, falling behind smaller economies such as Morocco at 25.4 per cent, Azerbaijan (17 per cent) and the tiny South American nation of Suriname (15.5 per cent). Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 182,214,039

Global deaths: 3,947,163

Vaccine doses administered: 3,191,466,486

Nations with most cases: US (33,665,034), India (30,411,634), Brazil (18,557,141), France (5,837,265), Russia (5,449,594).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

Eastern Europe is racing to use Covid shots before they expire

Demand for inoculations has plunged in two eastern European countries, Romania and Bulgaria, leaving stockpiles of shots that officials need to use fast before their expiry dates. The alternative would be to destroy them, which would be a depressing outcome given the shortage of shots elsewhere, such as in poorer African nations. With spare doses piling up, shots are being sold or donated to other countries, governments want deliveries delayed, and Bulgaria’s hotel industry is pushing to have free vaccinations given to foreign visitors. Read here

Brazil vaccine scandal poses fresh political threat to Bolsonaro

Brazil's rightwing president is in a bind on an unfolding scandal over the procurement of coronavirus vaccines. Opponents of Jair Bolsonaro have seized on the opportunity to turn up the political heat on the president. Allegations of corruption in a deal to buy 20 million doses of the Indian-made Covaxin jab have stoked criticism of the government’s handling of the pandemic, which has left more than half a million people dead in Latin America’s most populous country. The controversy also comes at a politically sensitive time for Bolsonaro, who is gearing up for a re-election battle next year. Read here

Pet owners urged to avoid their cats and dogs if they have Covid

Even though no transmission of coronavirus has been reported from pets to humans till date, experts have warned that cat or dog owners who are infected must avoid their pets. Scientists in the Netherlands have found coronavirus is common in pet cats and dogs where their owners have the disease. While cases of owners passing on Covid-19 to their pets are considered to be of negligible risk to public health, the scientists say there is a potential risk that domestic animals could act as a “reservoir” for coronavirus and reintroduce it to humans. Read more