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News

Pakistan records death-free corona week; daily cases drop under 100

NIH data shows infectivity rate plunging to 0.37 : Vaccine supply outstrips demand around world but access inequity remains

April 10, 2022 10:41 AM


Pakistan has recorded a whole week without registering any coronavirus-related death which is a clear sign that the Covid-19 pandemic like other parts of the world is on its last stretches in the country.

According to the statistics released by the National Institute of Health Pakistan on Sunday morning, the number of infections has also nosedived to under hundred during the last 24 hours (Saturday).

The number of single-day cases plunged to 96, the first in many many months after the latest coronavirus wave hit Pakistan last year.

As per the latest NIH data, the death toll from the coronavirus remained unchanged for the seventh continuous day at 30,361, whereas the number of total infections now stood at 1,526,568 after adding the fresh 96 cases.

During the last 24 hours (Saturday), 25,342 tests were conducted throughout Pakistan whereas the positivity ratio stood at 0.37 percent. The number of patients in critical care was 273.

https://twitter.com/NIH_Pakistan/status/1512958544315703298

During the last 24 hours (Saturday), as many as 91 patients have recovered from the virus whereas the total recoveries stood at 1,486,820. As of Sunday, the total count of active cases in the country was recorded at 9,387.

As many as 576,320 coronavirus cases have so far been confirmed in Sindh, 505,372 in Punjab, 219,257 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 135,126 in Islamabad, 35,480 in Balochistan, 43,295 in Azad Kashmir and 11,718 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

As many as 13,558 individuals have lost their lives to the pandemic in Punjab so far, 8,097 in Sindh, 6,322 in KP, 1,023 in Islamabad, 792 in Azad Kashmir, 378 in Balochistan and 191 in Gilgit Baltistan.

 

Vaccine supply outstrips demand

After two years of racing to vaccinate the world against Covid-19, the number of available doses now surpasses demand in many areas.

Yet a yawning gap remains in vaccination rates between the richest and poorest countries.

On Friday, Gavi, which co-leads the Covax global distribution scheme, is holding a summit calling for more funds to address the issue of inequality in vaccine access.

- Huge production -

More than 13 billion doses have been produced since the pandemic, 11 billion of which have been administered, according to the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).

Science research group Airfinity expect nine billion more doses to be produced this year. Pfizer alone plans to make four billion doses.

Yet demand could fall to six billion doses this year, IFPMA's director general Thomas Cueni said. 

"Since mid-2021, global vaccine production has exceeded global vaccine demand and this gap has continuously risen," Cueni told AFP.

By next year, production could exceed demand by 1.3 to 3.1 billion doses, he added.

Many richer nations are now approaching oversupply. European Union and G7 countries had a surplus of 497 million doses at the end of last month.

There are fears that doses could go to waste. Covid vaccines have a relatively short shelf-life -- AstraZeneca's jabs have a six-month expiry date, the Novavax vaccine has a nine-month shelf life in the EU.

Airfinity says 241 million doses have passed their sell-by date so far during the pandemic.

- Billions unvaccinated -

Nevertheless, billions of people remain unvaccinated around the world, most of them in developing nations.

Covax, an international public-private partnership co-led by WHO and Gavi, has delivered 1.4 billion doses to 145 countries -- far short of the planned two billion doses by end-2021.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that inequality in vaccine access could lead to the emergence of new, possibly more contagious variants.

The WHO wants 70 percent of every country's population vaccinated by July.

But records are uneven.

Nearly 80 percent of France's population, for example, has received two doses. But only 15 percent of the population on the continent of Africa is fully vaccinated, according to Oxford University data.

An average of 42 percent of the population of 92 low- and middle-income countries participating in Covax have had two doses.

"Vaccine inequity is the biggest moral failure of our times and people and countries are paying the price," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said earlier this year.

Covax says it now has enough doses to vaccinate around 45 percent of the population in the 92 countries receiving donations. But 25 of those countries lack the infrastructure for an effective immunisation campaign.

Making matters worse, many developing countries are being donated doses too close to their expiry date.

UNICEF's supply division director Etleva Kadilli said that in December almost more than 100 million doses had been refused, "the majority due to product shelf life".

Gavi has ruled that doses must be valid for at least 10 weeks on arriving in countries.

- Patent gridlock -

Countries like South Africa and India have long called for the World Trade Organization to suspend intellectual property rights for vaccines and anti-Covid treatments, so they can massively boost production.

After fierce opposition from pharmaceutical giants, a first compromise was reached between the United States, European Union, India and South Africa last month. 

But several key countries like Switzerland have yet to sign on. Doctors Without Borders also says there are "key limitations" in the deal, such as covering only vaccines and geographical limits. 

Pharmaceutical companies argue that patents are not the real problem.

Cueni of IFPMA, a big pharma lobby group, said the problem was now logistics.

"What we need is money to have storage, transportation, more trained health workers, campaigns to counter misinformation: these are the real challenges and not the patent waiver," he said.

- New variants -

Current vaccines target the virus that swept the world in 2020. While they greatly reduce the risk of serious illness from Covid, they only provide partial protection -- particularly against newer variants such as the now dominant Omicron.

Several vaccine manufacturers have begun testing jabs that target Omicron. They have hit delays but could be available in a few months, if approved by health authorities.

And despite the billions yet to receive a first dose, the United States, Britain, France and Israel have started rolling out a fourth, starting with the most vulnerable.

On Wednesday, the EU's medicines watchdog approved a second booster for people aged 80 years and over.

"No country can boost its way out of the pandemic," Tedros has warned.

Peru declares tourism emergency over Covid

Peru on Saturday declared a state of emergency in its critical tourism industry, which has been crushed by Covid.

The country went from receiving 4.4 million foreign tourists in 2019 to 900,000 in 2020. In 2021, only 400,000 visited, according to official data. 

The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism will approve the emergency plan within 15 days, including financial rescue measures and investment in tourism promotion.

Known for Machu Picchu and its varied cuisine, Peru's economy plunged 11.12 percent in 2020 and was in recession until June 2021, but the blow was much greater in the tourism sector. 

Peru in December began to suffer the third wave of the pandemic, but infections have decreased considerably in recent weeks. 

With 33 million people, Peru officially has registered more than 3.5 million cases of coronavirus and more than 212,000 deaths.

 

With inputs from AFP.



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