South Korea is drawing up a plan on how to live more normally with COVID-19, expecting 80% of adults to be fully vaccinated by late October, health authorities said on Wednesday, says an article published in Reuters.
Steady vaccination process helps
The country is in the middle of its worst wave of infections, but it has kept the number of severely ill cases under control through steadily rising vaccination rates.
“We’ll review measures that will allow us to live more normally, but any such switch will be implemented only when we achieve high vaccination rates and overall (COVID-19) situations stabilise,” Son Young-rae, a senior health ministry official, told a briefing.
Australia’s NSW reports rise in cases
Three-quarters of people over the age of 16 in Australia’s New South Wales have now had at least their first vaccination dose, the state reported on Wednesday, along with the first rise in new infections in three days.
Australia has locked down Sydney and Melbourne, its largest cities, after outbreaks from the highly infectious Delta variant in June ended months of little or no community transmission.
The country now aims to live with, rather than eliminate, the virus once it achieves broad vaccine coverage of about 70% of its adult population of 20.6 million, a goal it is expected to reach by early November based on current rates.
New Zealand marks downward trend in new cases
New Zealand reported a further fall in locally acquired cases on Wednesday, as the largely coronavirus-free nation looks to eradicate an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.
The country reported 15 new locally acquired cases, down from 21 a day earlier, on the first day of an easing of tough restrictions in all regions outside its largest city Auckland.
Czech Republic’s daily cases highest since May
The Czech Republic on Wednesday recorded 588 new cases, the highest daily tally since May 25, as government officials predict a continued rise in infections.
The country, which was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic in earlier waves, has seen low infection rates since the summer months. In the past two weeks, it has reported 25 cases per 100,000 people, compared with 137 in Germany, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Idaho activates healthcare rationing
Idaho on Tuesday activated “crisis standards of care” to allow for healthcare rationing at hospitals in northern parts of the U.S. state due to a surge in COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization.
The activation in the Panhandle and North Central health districts follows a severe shortage of staffing and available beds in those areas, the state’s health department said in a statement.
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Source: Reuters
