Health Alerts

For the week to Jan 16, the WHO announced a 20 percent rise in global new COVID-19 cases in its latest update, and only the African region reported a drop in the incidence of weekly cases. The top five countries with the highest numbers of new cases were the USA, France, India, Italy and the UK. At a regional level, SE Asia recorded the greatest increase in new cases (up 146 percent), with the highest proportional rises in Nepal, Bangladesh and the Maldives. Read more

According to Our World in Data estimates, almost 60 percent of the global population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, however that applies to fewer than 10 percent of people living in low income countries.

In related news:

 - Plans for some African countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines Read more

- Why Covid-19 will never become endemic: The Saturday Paper

- Kirby Institute: What causes long COVID symptoms? Clues from under the microscope

- TGA recognises the Gamaleya Institute vaccine (Sputnik V, Russian Federation) for international travel to Australia

- The Conversation this week published an article ‘Time to upgrade from cloth and surgical masks to respirators? Your questions answered’

- The COVAX facility has now delivered its one billionth vaccine dose Read more