Covid LIVE: Delhi records 85 fresh cases, lowest daily rise this year

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7:32 AM

Delta variant cloud over Covid-19 success stories across the globe

Israel — a world leader in vaccinations which has inoculated about 85 per cent of its adult population — is again asking people to wear masks in indoor public spaces amid a coronavirus outbreak driven by the arrival of the highly contagious delta variant.

 

The variant of concern also forced downtown Sydney and the city’s eastern suburbs, which include Bondi Beach, to go into a one week lockdown from midnight Friday as authorities struggled to contain a spike in the delta variant in the city.

 

In Thailand, the national Covid-19 panel announced a one-month clampdown on movements from all residential camps for construction and factory workers in metropolitan Bangkok and four other provinces, as infections continued to climb. The contagious delta variant is now fast spreading in Thailand. Read on...

7:15 AM

Bhutan monarch treks across mountains in a bid to keep fatality low

Wearing a baseball cap and knee-length traditional Gho robe, carrying a backpack, Bhutan’s king has walked through jungles infested with leeches and snakes, trekked mountains and quarantined several times in a hotel in the capital.

 

For 14 months, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, has been travelling by foot, car and horse to remote hamlets to oversee measures to protect his tiny kingdom of 700,000 from the coronavirus outbreak that has flared up in neighbouring India.

 

The impact of the 41-year-old king’s excursions are evident in a Covid-19 death toll of just one for the nation nestled between India and China in the Eastern Himalayas. Read on...

7:01 AM

Indonesia's doctors becoming patients after taking China's Covid vaccine

Facing increased Covid-19 infections and a deadly variant, Indonesia's doctors are at the centre of the crisis as many have died after being vaccinated by the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine - Sinovac.

 

On Thursday, the country recorded more than 20,000 cases of Covid-19, the highest number since the pandemic began. Oxygen is again running out at hospitals in Jakarta, the country's capital, and the national percentage of positive Covid tests reached 14.6 per cent this past week, reported the New York Times (NYT)

 

Since the pandemic began, 401 doctors in Indonesia have died, the risk mitigation team of the Indonesian Medical Association said on Friday. At least 20 doctors were fully vaccinated with Sinovac. Read on...