Day: December 7, 2021

GENEVA— Pandemic-related disruptions caused tens of thousands more malaria deaths in 2020, the World Health Organization said, but added that urgent action had averted a far worse scenario.

 

In a fresh report, the UN health agency found that Covid-19 had reversed progress against the mosquito-borne disease, which was already plateauing before the pandemic struck.

 

There were an estimated 241 million malaria cases worldwide in 2020 — 14 million more than a year earlier — and the once-rapidly-falling death toll swelled to 627,000 last year, jumping 69,000 from 2019.

 

Approximately two thirds of those additional deaths were linked to disruptions in the provision of malaria prevention, diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic, the WHO said.

 

But it stressed that the situation “could have been far worse”.

 

The UN agency pointed to its projection early in the pandemic that the service disruptions could cause malaria deaths to double in 2020.

 

“Thanks to the hard work of public health agencies in malaria-affected countries, the worst projections of Covid’s impact have not come to pass,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

 

“Now, we need to harness that same energy and commitment to reverse the setbacks caused by the pandemic and step up the pace of progress against this disease.”

 

Since the turn of the century, the world has made steady progress against malaria, with annual cases falling 27 percent by 2017 and deaths plunging by over 50 percent.

 

But the numbers stalled in the years prior to the pandemic.

 

And the situation worsened in sub-Saharan Africa, where 95 percent of all malaria cases and 96 percent of all deaths occur, and where around 80 percent of all deaths are among children under five.

 

The WHO report showed that 24 countries had registered increased malaria deaths since 2015 — the baseline year for the agency’s global malaria strategy.

 

In the 11 countries with the highest malaria burden worldwide, cases swelled from 150 million in 2015 to 163 million in 2020, while deaths grew from 39,000 to 444,600 over the same period, it said.

 

“I think we are on the verge of a potential malaria crisis,” Dr Pedro Alonso, head of WHO’s Global Malaria Programme, told reporters.

 

Not only are we not getting closer to elimination or eradication globally, he warned, “but the problem (is) becoming worse in a substantial number of parts of Africa.”

 

But a number of countries are making progress.

 

Between 2000 and 2020, 23 countries managed to go three consecutive years with no local transmission, and so far in 2021, China and El Salvador were certified malaria-free.

 

Another positive step is the development of the first malaria vaccine.

 

Last week, the global vaccine alliance, Gavi, said it had approved nearly $156 million in funding to roll out the jabs to children in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Brunei began the administration of second dose of COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 yesterday.

 

According to the Minister of Health, Haji Mohd Isham, the youngsters should have no quarantine orders or self-isolation notices. If they recently recovered from COVID-19, they should wait no less than four weeks, after recovery.

 

The minister also urged parents and guardians, to ensure that the young people receive their second dose according to schedule.

 

As for booster shots, the minister said, the booster jabs are at first administered to frontliners, and recently, expanded to those aged 50 and above. The vaccine supply for booster shots should be sufficient, if deliveries are received according to plan, the minister said.

 

Brunei said, COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, China’s Sinopharm, and Johnson and Johnson would be administered in the country.

 

During the first phase of Brunei’s COVID-19 National Vaccination Programme, that began in Apr, frontliners were administered mostly with China’s Sinopharm vaccine because of its earlier arrival and a shorter interval between two doses.

 

Brunei kicked off a COVID-19 vaccine immunity study last month, on 3,000 individuals, who have completed their full vaccination with Sinopharm, AstraZeneca or Moderna.

 

There will also be a follow-up study after the booster shots have been administered, to assess the effects of the additional dose on the immune system.

 

The latest official statistics showed that as of Sunday, a total of 404,451 individuals had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, under the National Vaccination Programme, which is 94.1 percent of the total population.

 

Meanwhile, 352,186 individuals had completed the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccines, which is 81.9 percent of the total population.

 

The country reported 16 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 yesterday, bringing the total tally to 15,202, with 100 deaths.

 

All the newly recorded cases were local infections.

 

While the source of six local infections was still under investigation, three new clusters have been detected and three clusters were closed, with no new cases in the clusters for 28 days. Currently the number of active clusters stands at 111, according to the health ministry.

 

There are a total of 14,837 recoveries reported from the pandemic, and 265 active cases still being treated and monitored in the country.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR– Malaysia reported another 4,262 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight, bringing the national total to 2,663,034, according to the health ministry.

 

Some 15 of the new cases are imported, with 4,247 being local transmissions, according to data released on the ministry’s website.

 

Another 38 more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to 30,652.

 

A total of 5,894 patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total number of cured and discharged patients to 2,572,053.

 

There are some 60,329 active cases, 463 are being held in intensive care units and 249 of those are in need of assisted breathing.

 

The country administered 97,725 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines yesterday.

 

Some 79.2 percent of the population have received at least one dose and 77.9 percent have been fully vaccinated

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

SEOUL – South Korea reported 4,954 more cases of COVID-19, as of midnight, compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 482,310.

 

The daily caseload was up from 4,325 the previous day, recording the country’s highest Monday figure, since the first case was found in Jan, last year.

 

The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.

 

Of the new cases, 2,115 were Seoul residents. The number of newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 1,315 and 248, respectively.

 

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in non-capital areas was 1,246, or 25.3 percent of the total local transmission.

 

The number of Omicron variant infections was 36, including nine imported cases and 27 local transmissions, up 12 from the prior day.

 

Thirty cases were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 15,924.

 

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition stood at 774, up 47 from the previous day.

 

Sixty-four more deaths were confirmed, bringing the death toll to 3,957. The total fatality rate was 0.82 percent.

 

The country administered COVID-19 vaccines to 42,733,049 people, or 83.2 percent of the total population, and the number of fully inoculated people was 41,410,206, or 80.6 percent of the population.

 

The number of those who received booster shots was 4,242,449 people, or 8.3 percent of the population.

 

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK