Confusion, complacency are pushing up COVID-19 cases: WHO

Confused and complacent behaviour among people is pushing the Coronavirus pandemic to an exponential rise worldwide the World Health Organization WHO saidAdding to these behaviours is ldquoinconsistency in public health measures the Guardian quoted the WHOrsquos DirectorGeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as sayingDespite 700 million doses of vaccine administered around the world there have been seven consecutive weeks of rises in infections The past week saw 44 million cases representing a 9 per cent increase in infections and a 5 per cent rise in deaths the report saidIt can take months before the global situation is brought under control with concerted measures Ghebreyesus saidldquoThis is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic when we have proven control measuresrdquo Maria van Kerkhove WHOrsquos team leader on COVID19 said ldquoWe are in a critical point of the pandemic right nowrdquo she addedWhile the pandemic is long from over the decrease in cases and deaths during the first two months of the year shows that it can be stopped Ghebreyesus saidBut very few people are taking precautions and some think ldquotheyrsquore relatively young it doesnrsquot matter if they get COVID19rdquo he saidOn Tuesday Indiarsquos overall COVID19 caseload increased to 13689453 currently the secondhighest in the world after the US AgenciesUN chief states six ways to help nationsUnited Nations SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres called for six measures to help countries recover from the COVID19 pandemic and keep them on track towardthe Sustainable Development Goals SDGs Financing for development in the context of COVID19 means an unprecedented effort to mobilise resources and political will he saidUK extends vaccines to those above 45 yearsThe National Health Service NHS in England on Tuesday expanded the COVID19 vaccination programme to the next cohort on its agebased priority list to all above 45 years of age after it announced that the target to cover over50s had been met ahead of the April 15 deadline The government had set a target to offer a jab to all above 50 years the clinically vulnerable and health and social care workers mdash about 32 million people mdash by this ThursdayUS states shut down JampJ vaccine sitesSeveral states in the US have temporarily shut down some Johnson amp Johnson vaccine sites after people suffered adverse reactions to the shot A total of 18 people in North Carolina reported side effects while 11 people in Colorado reacted to the shot with symptoms ranging from dizziness nausea and fainting according to reportsStricter curbs at Gaza StripThe Islamic Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip has decided to tighten the precautionary measures during the upcoming Islamic holy month of Ramadan in an effort to curb COVID19 spread The Hamasrun Interior Ministry said that traffic all over the Gaza Strip will be banned every day from 7 pm to 6 am400951No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours136829561Total no of cases worldwide2948943Total no of deaths worldwideThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever