Cambodia has not detected new cases for 10 days, WHO is afraid of many new variants in North Korea

The country most severely affected by the epidemic COVID-19 still America with over 84.39 million cases and over 1,027 million deaths. In the past day, the US recorded more than 30,000 people SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of home testing kits for respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 or seasonal flu. Americans can buy this kit without a doctor’s prescription. Previously, the FDA has approved a number of other antiviral drugs to support the treatment of COVID-19 patients at home, first Molnupiravir and more recently Paxlovid.

A just-released analysis shows that the United States could have prevented 300,000 deaths if people had been vaccinated against COVID-19. The analysis was carried out jointly by researchers from the Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University, and Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Health (AI for Health) Program based on actual data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The New York Times. The results showed that, between January 2021 and April 2022, at least 318,000 patients with COVID-19 could have been saved if they had previously been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Two recent studies show the protective effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech in US children and adolescents amid a wave of infections. Omicron variant. The first study concluded that the vaccine was approximately 71% effective after completion of the third dose in children aged 12-15 years. The second study found that the vaccine reduced the risk of illness or hospitalization in children aged 5 to 17 living in New York state. Both studies have just been published in the scientific journal JAMA.

At the world’s second largest COVID-19 epidemic center Indiaon May 17, the country recorded a total of over 43.12 million people with COVID-19, including more than 524,200 deaths from COVID-19 in this South Asian country.

Brazil Currently, it is the world’s 3rd largest epidemic hotspot with more than 665,000 COVID-19 patients out of a total of over 30.7 million infected people in this country.

Passengers will still be required to wear masks on flights of Virtue even when the European Union (EU) announced it had eased restrictions to combat the COVID-19 epidemic for visitors. So far, German authorities have no plans to lift the mandatory mask wearing rule on flights, although the EU has issued new guidelines related to epidemic prevention regulations. Therefore, passengers flying to and from Germany are still required to wear masks when boarding, disembarking and throughout the flight.

In addition to planes, the German government has so far announced that the German authorities have no plans to lift the mandatory mask wearing rule on other public transport in the near future.

Germany still maintains the regulation of wearing masks on public transport. (Photo: AP)

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach explained that it is not possible to lift the mandatory mask wearing rule on public transport at this time, when Germany still records around 150 deaths and 70,000 cases. new every day. Experts say the actual number of cases could be much higher. To date, almost 76% of the German population has received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and about 60% have received a booster shot.

Ministry of Health Israel On May 16, it was announced that, from 0:00 on May 20, Israel will abolish the requirement to present a negative COVID-19 test result upon entry to the country for all passengers arriving from all countries by by air, land or sea. However, people entering via air still have to make a medical declaration before boarding the plane.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel has had a total of over 4.1 million cases, of which only nearly 15,500 cases are currently being treated. The total number of deaths from COVID-19 in Israel to date is 10,805. In the past week, there were 10 deaths related to COVID-19 in the country, down 63% from the previous week.

News agency North Korea KCNA on May 17 said that in the past 24 hours, 6 more people died, bringing the number of fever deaths in North Korea to 56. North Korea also recorded nearly 1.5 million cases of fever and over 660,000 person being treated. Before the serious development of the epidemic, North Korea mobilized the army to distribute drugs and deployed more than 10,000 medical staff to trace infections. In order for people to be able to buy medicine at any time, many drug stores in North Korea are open 24 hours a day.

The World Health Organization warned that North Korea has not started a vaccination program, which risks causing the COVID-19 epidemic to spread rapidly in the country. On May 17, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Emergency Director, Michael Ryan, said that the high level of infection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in people who have not being vaccinated, as in North Korea, creates the risk of developing new variation higher.

North Korea, a member of the WHO, is dealing with its first COVID-19 outbreak, raising fears of a major crisis due to a vaccine shortage and limited medical infrastructure. Responding to a question about the COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea, Mike Ryan said that, if the spread is not controlled, the risk of new variants appearing is always higher. WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also said he was “deeply concerned” about the virus spreading among unvaccinated populations.

Since May 17, 35,000 schools in Thailand have officially reopened after 2 years, mainly held in the online form. Schools have set up screening areas, promptly isolated symptomatic and high-risk students, and developed a response plan to keep schools open even if COVID cases are detected. -19 in the classroom. Students who are fully immunized and have asymptomatic or mild symptoms of COVID-19 may still attend school. Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health has confirmed that it will not close schools and classes even though it detects infections among students.

WHO previously said that North Korea has not yet officially announced the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

National news agency Cambodia (AKP) on May 17 quoted Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen as saying that tourists who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 will not be exempt from isolation when entering Cambodia.

Prime Minister Hun Sen stated that Cambodia welcomes all visitors, but those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 still have to be isolated for 7 days. Prime Minister Hun Sen emphasized that Cambodia has overcome the epidemic waves caused by variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus such as Alpha, Delta and Omicron, but has not yet conquered COVID-19. Cambodia is putting all its efforts and promoting the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, so it is not possible to allow unvaccinated visitors to enter without isolation.

Visitors who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 do not need to be isolated, do not need rapid tests or PCR tests when entering Cambodia. (Photo: AP)

As of May 16, about 93.79% of Cambodia’s total population of 16 million people have been vaccinated with basic vaccines against COVID-19, of which about 9 million people have received the third dose and 2.2 million people. who received the 4th injection. In the last 10 days, Cambodia has not detected a new case of COVID-19. The total number of COVID-19 cases recorded in Cambodia since the beginning of the epidemic is 136,262 cases and 3,056 deaths. Cambodia detected the first case of COVID-19 in Preah Sihanouk province at the end of January 2020.

May 17, Japan said it would conduct “test tourism” in the form of limited package tours in May before reopening to tourism in full. Although tourism is a major pillar of the Japanese economy, international tourists have not been allowed to enter Japan since the country introduced strict border controls in 2020, when COVID-19 pandemic begins.

The Japan Tourism Agency said on May 17 that it will start allowing entry of small group tours from the end of May. This is considered a “test case” to gather information before the country continues to expand tourism more widely at an unspecified date in the near future.

On May 17, Shanghai health officials said that the major financial center of China This project has achieved the goal of cutting off the chain of COVID-19 infection in the community in all 16 districts in the area, Speaking at the press conference, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission Zhao Dandan stated: “All Shanghai’s 16-county ministry has achieved the goal of Zero COVID in the community.”

Shanghai is China’s major financial hub, home to multinational companies and the world’s busiest cargo port. The new wave of COVID-19 infections spreading in Shanghai has forced the city to implement a strict blockade. The blockade orders in Shanghai and the restrictive measures imposed to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic from spreading in many other Chinese cities have had a significant impact on the global supply chain.

Influenza vaccines are also effective against COVID-19, especially in the most severe forms, but this effect may not be long-lasting. A study involving more than 30,000 healthcare workers in Qatar found that, compared with those who had not been vaccinated against the flu, those who received the flu vaccine were nearly 90% protected against severe COVID-19 over the next few months. next. The study was conducted in late 2020 before the COVID-19 vaccine was distributed to the market and reinforces previous conclusions that strengthening the immune system using flu vaccines and other vaccines can help the body’s immune system. against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

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