Health Alerts

Transmission levels are rising fast ‘and probably exponentially in significant parts’ of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, leading the CMOs to recommend upgrading the national COVID-19 alert level from 3 to 4. To ease pressure on health services and prevent excess deaths over the coming months, the advice is for everyone ‘to follow the social distancing guidance, wear face coverings correctly and wash their hands regularly’. Case numbers have also jumped in Russia, Iran and many European nations, however even with India’s new cases on Sept 21 representing an almost 4-week low (74,493), it retained #1 global ranking for daily new cases. Read more. In the latest weekly WHO epi update the agency advised that new cases reported last week were the highest to date for the pandemic. It was also noted that in the Western Pacific, the Philippines and Japan accounted for both the region’s greatest number of new cases and new deaths. Read More

In related news:

Two major cruise lines have submitted plans for the resumption of services to the US CDC. Read more

CIDRAP summarised three studies into transmission of the novel coronavirus on international flights, two of which related to index cases among business class passengers.