UK gears up to lift all lockdown restrictions

LONDON – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will confirm all remaining lockdown restrictions in England will be lifted in a week as he urges people to remain cautious in the face of a huge coronavirus resurgence.

Johnson is expected to say at a press conference that face masks and all social distancing measures will be lifted in England on July 19. However, given the surge in new cases, he will also downplay the talk of “Freedom Day”.

In Great Britain as a whole, the infections caused by the Delta variant have risen sharply in recent weeks. The daily number of infections is over 30,000, the highest rates since January.

Although the government has warned that the number of daily cases continues to rise, potentially reaching 100,000 this summer, it is pushing the unblocking due to the rapid roll-out of vaccines. As of Sunday, 87% of UK adults had received at least one dose of vaccine, while 66% had had two vaccinations.

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MORE ABOUT PANDEMIC:

– US doses arrive as Nepal struggles to vaccinate the population

– Explainer: How will the virus emergency affect the Olympics?

– Britain’s Johnson wants to confirm the unblocking will continue in England

– France’s Macron is trying to slow down the Delta variant, to increase vaccine intake

– Pfizer to discuss booster vaccination with US officials on Monday

– South Africa steps up its vaccine campaign, too late for that surge

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For more information on AP’s pandemic reporting, please visit https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

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HERE STILL HAPPEN:

WASHINGTON – Pfizer plans to meet with senior US health officials Monday to discuss the drugmaker’s application for federal approval of a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine, as President Joe Biden’s senior medical adviser admitted that “it quite conceivable, maybe probable ”. that booster shots are needed.

The company said it planned to hold the meeting with the Food and Drug Administration and other officials on Monday, days after Pfizer claimed that booster shots were required within 12 months.

Dr. Pfizer’s Mikael Dolsten told The Associated Press last week that early data from the company’s booster study suggests people’s antibody levels increase five to ten-fold after a third dose compared to their second dose months earlier – Evidence that they believe supports the need for a booster.

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci didn’t deny the opportunity, but said it was too early for the government to recommend another injection. He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA did the right thing last week in dismissing Pfizer’s claim, stating that they do not consider booster vaccinations to be necessary “at this point in time.”

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BEIJING – China’s two major COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have signed agreements to provide up to 550 million doses to COVAX, the UN-backed program that aims to deliver vaccines to poor countries and others who need them.

Gavi, the vaccine partnership that is playing a leading role in COVAX, announced that it will purchase 110 million doses of Sinopharm and Sinovac by October. In addition, it has the option to purchase an additional 440 million cans by mid-2022.

The World Health Organization has approved the company’s emergency vaccines. Their inactivated vaccines are already widely used in China and many other countries.

Inactivated vaccines are made with killed coronaviruses. Most of the other COVID vaccines used, especially in the West, are made using newer technologies that target the “spike” protein that covers the surface of the virus.

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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s professional baseball league has suspended its regular season as the largely unvaccinated country grapples with the worst coronavirus wave since the pandemic began.

The Korea Baseball Organization announced the decision after an emergency board meeting attended by top managers from the league’s 10 teams. The decision postpones at least 30 games scheduled until Sunday before the league takes a previously scheduled hiatus through August 9 during the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

The KBO said in a statement that it is still hoping to maintain a regular season of 144 games for each team and that the postponed games will be postponed until later in the year. The league plans to continue playing its all-star game on July 24th, but with no spectators.

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KATHMANDU, Nepal – A United States donated shipment of 1.5 million doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine has arrived in Nepal, which is struggling to vaccinate its population against the coronavirus.

The Minister of Health says the supply of the single-dose vaccine, obtained through the United Nations-supported COVAX vaccine facility, will be given to people between the ages of 50 and 54.

Although Nepal is sandwiched between India and China, which are among the largest manufacturers of vaccines, it has difficulties obtaining doses. It started its vaccination campaign in January, but less than 3% of its population has been fully vaccinated. The campaign stalled after a devastating coronavirus outbreak struck India and vaccine exports ceased.

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PARIS – Is the summer of France already over?

The country only opened its nightclubs three days ago. A protracted national reopening was thus completed in time for the summer holidays.

But potential new restrictions loom with the Delta variant, which is now powering resurgent infections. President Emmanuel Macron will host a high-level virus security meeting and then give a televised address.

He is expected to announce a law mandating vaccination for health care workers. He may also need special COVID-19 passports for restaurants or other everyday activities.

All new measures are likely to be relatively mild for the time being. But they are meant to remind the French that the pandemic is not over yet.

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TOKYO – A virus emergency has begun in Japan’s capital as new cases are rising rapidly and hospital beds fill up just 11 days before the Tokyo Olympics.

The main target of the new state of emergency is alcohol being served in bars and restaurants as authorities want people to stay home and watch the games on TV rather than gather in public.

As with previous emergencies, most actions are requests as the government lacks a legal basis to enforce hard bans. The state of emergency applies for the entire duration from July 23 to August. 8 Olympic Games and their main effect will be to keep fans away from stadiums and arenas around Tokyo.

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BEIJING – Mass tests in a Chinese city on the Myanmar border have found nine more COVID-19 cases, bringing the total to 59 in a week-long delta variant outbreak.

Authorities have locked down Ruili, prevented people from entering or leaving the city in Yunnan Province, and confined residents of the urban area to their homes to contain the spread.

The most recently confirmed cases include four Chinese and five Myanmar nationals, including an 11-year-old girl.

On the Myanmar side of the border, more than 250 people tested positive in the town of Muse in June and July, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed official.

Myanmar reported 3,461 new cases and 82 deaths nationwide in the past 24 hours amid a major outbreak.

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DENPASAR, Indonesia – Indonesia has ordered four foreign tourists to leave the island of Bali after violating health protocols as the country suffers a devastating wave of COVID-19 diseases and deaths.

A Justice Ministry official in Bali says a Russian visitor escaped isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus. She has been recaptured and will be deported when she recovers. An American, an Irish citizen and a Russian were also accused of defying the mask mandate.

They were placed in an immigration detention room while awaiting their flights to their countries later Monday.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan – Two Taiwanese high-tech companies have announced a donation of 10 million doses of an anti-coronavirus vaccine made by BioNTech to the island’s government, which faces political obstacles in fighting the pandemic.

Taiwan’s health minister suggested in February that Beijing had halted vaccine efforts for island democracy, which the ruling Communist Party of the mainland never controls but claims as its territory.

A Chinese company, Fosun Pharma, owns the BioNTech distribution rights for Greater China. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. and Hon Hai Precision Electronics said they would buy the vaccine through Fosun Pharma.

TSMC said the cans would be shipped direct to the Taiwanese anti-disease agency from a factory in Germany.

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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea reported more than 1,000 coronavirus cases for the sixth straight day as the metropolitan area put strict social distancing restrictions to slow down transmission.

The 1,100 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency were the highest ever for a Monday when the daily increase is typically less due to reduced testing on the weekends.

More than 780 of the cases came from the capital, Seoul, and nearby Incheon and Gyeonggi provinces, areas where officials began enforcing the strongest social distancing measures in the country as of Monday.