Year: 2022

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a “wholehearted” apology Tuesday for attending parties that were banned during COVID-19 lockdowns.

However, he did say he didn’t know he was breaking the rules.

Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak have been under investigation for 12 parties at both 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, some of which were attended by the ministers and their staff.

Police said some 50 people could face fines or other penalties over the parties.

The political opposition in Britain has called for Johnson’s resignation over the scandal. This week, there will be a parliamentary debate and vote on whether to censure Johnson.

Johnson previously apologized over one incident saying he thought it was a work event.

The parties were held during 2020 and 2021, according to news reports.

One event captured in a photo published by the BBC, shows Johnson and others gathered at the Downing Street garden drinking wine in May 2020 when other Brits were not allowed leave their homes without a reason, and outdoor gatherings were limited to two for exercise.

Investigations into other parties could lead to more fines for Johnson, which could lead to more pressure on him from his own party.

Source: Voice of America

A U.S. study released Tuesday shows that during the surge of the COVID-19 omicron variant, hospitalization rates of unvaccinated children ages 5-11 were twice those of children who had received shots.

The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at nearly 400 cases in 14 states between mid-December and late February.

Among the 397 children who were hospitalized with COVID-19 during the omicron wave, 87% were unvaccinated, the study found.

The average length of hospital stay for unvaccinated children was three days, compared with two days for vaccinated children with COVID-19.

The vaccinated children who were hospitalized did not require high degrees of breathing support such as nasal oxygen tubes or mechanical ventilation, according to the CDC.

The omicron variant set records for coronavirus infections in the United States in January, causing more infections than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain of the virus and an increase in hospitalizations among those younger than 18.

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine had been authorized by U.S regulators for children ages 5-11 before the omicron surge in October.

During the omicron surge, unvaccinated children in the age group had a hospitalization rate 2.1 times higher than vaccinated children, according to the study.

According to CDC data, only 28% of children between 5-11 are fully vaccinated, amounting to about 8 million nationwide.

The study also found that hospitalization rates among children in the age group were higher during the omicron wave than during the delta wave.

Source: Voice of America

Shanghai has announced its first deaths since the omicron version of the coronavirus broke out in the Chinese city in March. The three elderly people who died Sunday all had underlying conditions and were unvaccinated, according to officials.

“After entering hospital, their conditions grew worse and they died after attempts to save them were unsuccessful,” Shanghai Health Commission inspector Wu Ganyu said.

Shanghai’s low death rate from the current outbreak has been questioned by international health officials.

Shanghai’s 26 million residents have been ordered to remain in their homes since early April in response to the surge of new COVID-19 infections largely driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.

The breakthrough of new COVID-19 cases in China is happening despite Beijing’s official “zero COVID” strategy that aims to completely eliminate coronavirus outbreaks across the mainland.

The COVID outbreak in Shanghai has begun pitting COVID-negative people against COVID-positive residents, according to news reports.

The Reuters news agency reports that some COVID test results have ended up on apartment buildings’ WeChat groups.

A foreign resident had trouble uploading his tests results to his health app and his apartment building’s management attempted to block his family’s food deliveries unless he shared his results with his fellow apartment dwellers, a privacy violation.

In some cases, people who had been placed in quarantine were not able to gain access to their apartments once released from quarantine, a violation of state guidelines.

The Associated Press reports that one Shanghai quarantine center has 50,000 cots and no hot water for showers.

Meanwhile, India’s health ministry said Monday that its daily COVID cases nearly doubled from Sunday with 1,150 cases to Monday with 2,183.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported Monday that it has recorded more than 504 million COVID cases globally and 6.2 million deaths. The center said more than 11 billion vaccines have been administered.

Source: Voice of America

Brazil announced Sunday that, in just a few days, it will lift public health emergency measures in place for more than two years, citing a drop in the number of deaths and infections.

More than 660,000 people died of the virus in Brazil, one of the hardest-hit countries, second only to the United States.

But the number of infections and deaths has fallen dramatically as authorities ramped up immunization, with about 75 percent of its more than 212 million people now fully vaccinated.

Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Sunday the public health emergency declared on February 3, 2020 – when the virus started spreading globally – will soon end.

“We have the conditions to announce today the end of the health emergency,” Queiroga said on television, adding that the announcement will be formalized by a decree in the next few days.

“This, however, does not mean the end of COVID-19. We will continue to live with the virus,” the minister said.

The decision came after Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who famously dismissed the virus as “a little flu,” asked his minister a few weeks ago to decree an “end to the pandemic” and called for a return to normalcy.

Earlier this month, Brazil also loosened restrictions for international travelers, scrapping a 14-day quarantine for vaccinated foreign visitors.

The far-right COVID-skeptic president is up for re-election this year, and has come under fire in the past for his handling of the pandemic.

Source: Voice of America