Health Alerts

The WHO epi update this week noted that ‘the number of new cases reported globally seems to be plateauing after increasing for nearly two months (since mid-June)’, however a rise was seen in the Western Pacific (up 20 percent, mainly due to sharp increases in case incidence in Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines) and the Americas (up 8 percent, with USA contributing the most).

In related news:

- A ‘milestone’ has been achieved in the US, with the FDA granting approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine – Comirnaty. Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) will still apply for adolescents aged 12 to 15 years.

- According to Our World in Data estimates, a point will be reached during the next week when one-quarter of the world’s population will be fully vaccinated. This will come at a time when fewer than five percent of people in Africa and 1.5 percent of people in low-income countries will have received at least one dose. Read more. Meanwhile the WHO has issued an alert on the detection of falsified doses of the COVISHIELD vaccine in Asia (India) and Africa (Uganda). COVISHIELD is the Indian manufactured formulation of Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca).  

A CIDRAP summary of findings from a US study published in MMWR this week showed that ‘unvaccinated people were 5 times more likely to get COVID-19 than vaccinated peers and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized for their infections’. The study was carried out in Los Angeles County from May to June when transmission of the Delta variant was increasing.  Read More