August 2021

The White House announced Tuesday the U.S. has shipped more than 110 million doses of U.S.-made COVID-19 vaccines to more than 60 nations.In a statement, the White House said most of the vaccine was shipped through the World Health Organization–managed COVAX cooperative, but also through regional partnerships, such as the African Union and Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The White House said the donations reflect a fulfillment of President Joe Biden’s pledge to give at least 80 million vaccine doses to other nations around the globe, and the doses are a down payment on the “hundreds of millions of more doses that the U.S. will deliver in the coming weeks.”The statement says the Biden administration will begin shipping half-a-billion doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 100 of the world’s low-income countries.Biden is expected to discuss the donations milestone and other efforts later Tuesday.The president’s announcement will come amid an increase in infections in the U.S. and around the world, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus.
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With worries of a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections overwhelming the country’s hospitals, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday that only seriously ill coronavirus patients or those at risk of becoming so will be admitted for treatment. Others infected with COVID-19 will have to isolate at home in order to try to make sure there are enough beds available. Japan is adding about 10,000 new cases per day, prompting the head of the Japan Medical Association to call Tuesday for a nationwide state of emergency. Residents wait at the observation area during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination session for those aged between 12 and 14, in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, China, Aug. 3, 2021. (China Daily via Reuters)In China, authorities said Tuesday all residents of Wuhan will be tested after the city recorded its first domestic infections in more than a year. The virus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019, and the city of 11 million people was put under a strict lockdown in January 2020 that lasted 76 days. As many countries worry about the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, South Korean health officials on Tuesday reported the country’s first two cases of a sublineage known as delta plus. Britain, Portugal and India are among countries that previously reported a few cases of delta plus infections. Hundreds of people line up to receive their second dose of vaccine against the coronavirus at the municipal ground in Hyderabad, India, July 29, 2021.The World Health Organization has said it is important to closely watch such changes in the virus that could be more resistant to drugs and vaccines, and for more genomic sequencing of COVID-19 tests for tracking and studying. Countries are also rushing to vaccinate their populations to drive down infections. Pakistan’s top health official reported Tuesday that the country had administered 1 million doses in one day for the first time. Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi began a partial lockdown on Saturday with a wave of cases putting pressure on its health care system. In Australia, authorities said a lockdown in Sydney could be allowed to expire at the end of the month if half of the city is vaccinated by then. Australian airline Qantas expressed less optimism Tuesday, saying it expects the restrictions in Sydney to be in place for at least two months and announcing furloughs for 2,500 of its 26,000 workers in Australia.    More restrictions in USIn the United States, more jurisdictions are requiring employees to get vaccinated or submit to regular testing as the country grapples with a rise of infections blamed on the delta variant.      FILE – People wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, as the delta variant has led to a surge in infections, in New York City, July 30, 2021.Denver, Colorado, Mayor Michael Hancock announced Monday the city will mandate all city employees and private sector workers in high-risk settings to be vaccinated against the virus by the end of September.     New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said state health care workers, along with workers in corrections facilities or assisted living centers, must be vaccinated or face testing twice a week.     In New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo urged businesses to turn away unvaccinated customers. He said it is in businesses’ best interests because many customers want to know that the customer next to them is vaccinated.     The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that 70% of U.S. adults have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine. President Joe Biden had originally aimed to pass that milestone by July 4. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters.
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A new study suggests Earth’s supply of oxygen developed thanks to the planet’s gradually slowing rotation creating longer days that allowed a certain form of algae to admit more oxygen as a byproduct of its metabolic process.The study, published Monday in the scientific journal Nature Geoscience, suggests that about 2.4 billion years ago there was so little oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere, it could barely be measured, so no animal or plant life as we know it could exist.Much of the life on Earth consisted of tiny microbes, among them, a blue-green form of algae called cyanobacteria, which breathed in carbon dioxide and exhaled oxygen in the earliest form of photosynthesis.The researchers say about 400 million years ago, the Earth took a relatively enormous leap in the amount of oxygen in its atmosphere, growing from nearly imperceptible levels to one-tenth the amount of oxygen it has now.The researchers suggest the Earth’s rotation, which has been gradually slowing over time, lengthened days from about six hours to about the current 24 hours. The longer days provided more sunlight for the cyanobacteria to produce enough oxygen to give the planet breathable air.The scientists reached their conclusion by studying microbes found growing in a sinkhole under 80 feet of water in Lake Huron, off the coast of the U.S. state of Michigan. The bacteria exist in an oxygen-poor environment similar to the single-celled cyanobacteria that formed matlike colonies billions of years ago, which carpeted both land and seafloor surfaces.This June 19, 2019 photo provided by NOAA Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary shows purple microbial mats in the Middle Island Sinkhole in Lake Huron, Michigan.The researchers dredged up the bacteria from the sinkhole and tinkered with how much light it got in lab experiments. The more continuous light the microbes got, the more oxygen they produced.That finding, in turn, points to a previously unconsidered link between Earth’s oxygenation history and its rotation rate.The scientists say their models show that this proposed mechanism might help explain the pattern of Earth’s oxygenation, as well as the persistence of low-oxygen periods through most of the planet’s history.Some information in this report came from the Associated Press.
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Nigeria has been hit by a surge in cholera cases in recent weeks, focused on the country’s north and adding to a public health crisis accompanied by a rise in COVID-19 cases.”In the last two weeks we had new and resurgence cases,” Dr. Bashir Lawan Muhammad, the state epidemiologist and deputy director of public health for northern economic hub Kano State, told Reuters.He said the rainy season was making it worse, while insecurity in the north, where the authorities have been battling Islamist militants and armed criminals, was also hindering the authorities’ ability to respond.Twenty-two of Nigeria’s 36 states, as well as the federal capital territory Abuja, have suspected cases of cholera, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC). The illness, which is caused by contaminated water, can kill within hours if not treated.The surge has been focused in the north of the country, where health systems are least prepared.At least 186 people had died in Kano of cholera since March, Muhammad said. The state accounts for the biggest share of the 653 cholera deaths recorded in the country as a whole by the NCDC. Nearby northern states Bauchi and Jigawa are also among the hardest hit, according to the NCDC.Lagos-based consultancy SBM Intelligence said the states with the most fatalities showed a strong correlation with those that performed poorly in its health preparedness index published in May.The cholera surge comes as daily COVID-19 cases hit their highest since March, raising fear of a third wave of the pandemic in Africa’s most populous nation.
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