A new variant of the coronavirus called BA.2.86 has been detected in Germany for the first time, the Robert Koch-Institut (RKI) said on Wednesday. In its weekly report, the federal government agency said the variant, also known as Pirola, had been found in the week leading up to August 27. Acute respiratory infections have been on the rise in Germany since July, the RKI further reported. What do we know about new variant? BA.2.86 has so far been detected in several countries, including Denmark, the USA, the UK and Israel. The World Health Organization (WHO) has labeled BA.2.86 one of seven "variants under monitoring," the lowest of three tiers in the UN body's tracking system. Is COVID making a comeback? Last week, the WHO warned of "concerning trends for COVID-19 ahead of the winter season in the northern hemisphere" at a virtual press conference. It said a new Coronavirus variant called EG.5, also known as Eris, was on the rise globally. The WHO has categorized it as a "variant of interest" – one above BA.2.86, but not yet a  "variant of concern." Data on Coronavirus infections is currently limited as many countries have stopped reporting deaths and hospitalizations. Experts warn that it is vital nations continue to report Covid-related statistics. Experts say it is notable because it shows multiple differences from previous versions of the Coronavirus. This may affect how immunized or vaccinated people react to it. "BA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who have previously had COVID-19 or who have received COVID-19 vaccines," according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preliminary data suggests vaccines will give protection against it, the WHO says.

More than 1.47 million people in the world were infected with COVID-19 between July 24 and August 20, a 63% increase over the previous 28 days, and over 2,000 people died, a 48% decrease over the same period, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported. According to the WHO report, 1,470,201 COVID-19 cases and 2,059 deaths were reported worldwide during the four-week period. Reports BSS COVID cases were reported in 103 countries. The virus "remains a major threat," and the WHO is urging countries to maintain the COVID-19 infrastructure they have put in place. The organization expects them to continue to work on early warning, surveillance and identification of COVID strains. WHO recommends booster vaccination in high-risk groups, improved ventilation. The organization pointed out that the increasing prevalence of the COVID strain EG.5. As of August 24, it had been detected in 53 countries. A week earlier, there were 50 such countries. A 112% increase in incidence was noted in the eastern Mediterranean from July 24 to August 20. There were also increases in the Western Pacific (88%) and Europe (12%) during this period. At the same time, an 84% decrease in incidence was observed in Africa. An increase in mortality over the four-week period was observed only in the eastern Mediterranean - by 70%. It decreased in four other WHO regions, including 49% in Europe. Comparative data for the Americas were not available in the report. South Korea had the most cases (1,286,028) in a four-week period. It was followed by Australia (22,836), the United Kingdom (21,866), Italy (19,777) and Singapore (18,125). South Korea recorded the most deaths (328) from July 24 to August 20. It was followed by Russia (166), Italy (165), Australia (148) and the Philippines (136). From the end of January 2020 to May 5, 2023, WHO declared a global health emergency. On March 11, 2020, WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic. A total of 769,806,130 cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, with 6,955,497 deaths, according to an update on the organization's website. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a May 5 briefing in Geneva that the true death toll is at least 20 million.

The coronavirus pandemic is over as a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said — while stressing that the virus "is here to stay." The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said that coronavirus was no longer a global health emergency. The UN's health agency had COVID declared as a "public health emergency of international concern," its highest level of alert, for over three years.  What did the WHO say? WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that the announcement does not mean COVID-19 is over as a "global health threat," but rather as an emergency. Tedros added that he wouldn't hesitate to reassess the situation should COVID-19 "put our world in peril." Still, the WHO chief said the world had seen a downward trend of the coronavirus for over a year as he acknowledged that most countries have already returned to life as it was before the pandemic hit. "COVID has changed the world, and it has changed us. And that's the way it should be. If we go back to how things were before COVID-19, we will have failed to learn our lessons, and failed our future generations," said Tedros. He went on to warn against "pandemic fatigue," saying: "This virus is here to stay, and all countries will need to learn to manage it alongside other infectious diseases."  Millions of deaths around the world According to the WHO, reported deaths related to COVID-19 dropped by 95% since the start of 2023 as of April.  For the week beginning April 24 this year, the most recent with complete WHO data, the organization logged 3,568 deaths worldwide. That compares with 41,529 in the week beginning January 2 — amid a small midwinter spike in the caseload.  At the height of the pandemic, meanwhile, weekly global figures had peaked at around 100,000. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, over 765 million infections and nearly seven million deaths were officially reported to the agency. But Tedros said the number of deaths estimated to have taken place as a result of the pandemic — if not necessarily because of a COVID infection — was at least 20 million. The figure was estimated based on comparisons of the numbers of excess deaths — the figures of all deaths beyond the norm during a crisis worldwide — since 2020 to the pre-pandemic figures. The WHO previously said that nearly 15 million excess deaths in 2020 and 2021 were due to the coronavirus, either directly from the disease or indirectly through its impact on societies and health systems. When did COVID reach its peak? According to WHO figures, reported deaths related to COVID-19 reached their peak in the first winter of the pandemic, with an average of around 91,000 weekly deaths in December 2020 and January 2021. Meanwhile, the average of weekly reported cases in the same period was around 4 million. At the time, lockdowns were in place in most countries, but vaccines were not yet available and most people's immune systems had not been exposed to the virus yet. Testing was not as widely available as it was in the two years that followed either. The following winter, particularly in January and February 2022, fewer deaths but more cases were reported. The average of weekly deaths was around 63,000, while the average of weekly confirmed cases was around 18 million. Vaccines were available at that point of the pandemic, and more people had already been exposed to the virus in the previous two years.  WHO faced criticism over COVID Tedros has repeatedly defended the WHO against criticism that the organization's response to the coronavirus was stalled.   Some health officials, for instance, have criticized the WHO's recommendation in the early months of the pandemic against members of the public wearing face masks.  At the time, the agency advised people not to wear masks unless they were sick or caring for someone who was ill, citing a global shortage in the production of masks, as well as a lack of studies backing their benefit.  The organization also faced a backlash for publicly hailing China's supposed transparent response to the coronavirus, while later media reports suggested that WHO officials were frustrated by the country's lack of cooperation.  Investigations into the origins of the virus have also drawn criticism to the WHO.  In 2021, the agency said in a report that the virus was likely transferred from animals to humans, dismissing the possibility that it originated in a lab as "extremely unlikely." But the following year, the WHO said "key pieces of data" were still missing and that it could not rule out that COVID-19 might have ties to a lab.

The UN agency sees the coronavirus pandemic as a "public health emergency of international concern," its highest level of alert. WHO chief Tedros noted a recent spike in deaths following a wave of infections in China. The World Health Organization began discussions on lowering the level of alert about the coronavirus. WHO sources said no decision would be announced before Monday. The WHO's emergency committee on COVID-19 is holding its 14th meeting since the start of the pandemic. The panel meets every three months to discuss the crisis and then brief WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The WHO currently classes the coronavirus pandemic as a "public health emergency of international concern," which is the highest level of alert defined by the organization. Last month, top German virologist Christian Drosten said "the pandemic is over" and the virus had become "endemic," with infection rates not rising or falling significantly. 'Spike in deaths' following new China wave Tedros said before Friday's meeting that more than 170,000 COVID-19 deaths had been reported in recent weeks. "The actual number is certainly much higher," he said. Although the weekly rate had dropped below 10,000 in October, deaths have been rising since December during new waves of infections in China. Tedros said that, just in the past week "almost 40,000 deaths were reported to WHO, more than half of them from China." China significantly reduced COVID-19 restrictions in December, leading to a surge in cases. Infection rates appeared to have stabilized in major cities by mid-January. Global response 'hobbled' by uneven distribution The WHO chief said the fight against COVID-19 was still held back by a lack of vaccines, tests and treatments. "The global response remains hobbled because, in too many countries, these powerful, life-saving tools are still not getting to the populations that need them most — especially older people and health workers," Tedros said. Tedros said trust in health care was being undermined by a "continuous torrent" of misinformation and systems were struggling to cope with the burden of COVID-19 cases. "While we are clearly in better shape than three years ago when this pandemic first hit, the global collective response is once again under strain," Tedros said earlier this week. He also said too few people around the world were adequately vaccinated. COVID-19 will "continue to kill, unless we do more to get health tools to people that need them," Tedros said.

Chinese drugmakers rushed to make anti-fever medicines and other treatments for Covid-19 on Thursday, after President Xi Jinping said he was worried about an influx of holiday travellers to rural areas ill-equipped to deal with sudden outbreaks. Mr Xi’s comments come just over a month after his government abruptly axed his strict “zero-Covid” controls that had largely shielded China’s 1.4 billion people from the disease for three years but sparked widespread protests in late November. As travel ramps up during the busy Chinese New Year holiday season, as many as 36,000 people could die each day from the disease, according to the latest figures from independent British-based forecasting firm Airfinity. China said last Saturday that nearly 60,000 people with Covid-19 died in hospitals between Dec 8 and Jan 12 - a roughly ten-fold increase from previous disclosures. However, that number excludes those who die at home, and some doctors in China have said they are discouraged from putting Covid-19 on death certificates. Health experts say China’s official figures likely do not reflect the true toll of the virus. “Based on the reports of hospitals being overwhelmed and long queues outside funeral homes, we might estimate that a larger number of Covid-19 deaths have occurred so far, maybe more than 600,000 rather than just 60,000,” said Professor Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University. China’s chaotic exit from a regime of mass lockdowns, travel restrictions and frequent Covid-19 testing, has also prompted a run on drugs as people fend for themselves against the disease. To meet soaring demand, drugmakers in China are ramping up operations to triple their capacity to make key fever and cough medicines, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported on Thursday. China has relied on domestic vaccines to combat the pandemic, eschewing foreign-made ones which some studies have suggested are more effective, while other foreign treatments for Covid-19 have been hard to come by in China. Pfizer’s Covid-19 anti-viral drug Paxlovid is available in China but has been very difficult to obtain through official channels, according to media reports and personal accounts. Merck’s antiviral treatment molnupiravir has also been approved for use, but is not yet widely available. At a meeting this week, China’s National Medical Products Administration pledged to stabilise the prices of Covid-related drugs and crack down on counterfeit sales.  Those particularly vulnerable to the virus are the elderly, many of whom are not fully vaccinated and now face exposure as millions of urban workers travel to home towns to reunite with families for Chinese New Year holidays that officially start on Jan 21. Before Covid-19 was detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, the Chinese New Year holiday was known as the greatest annual migration of people anywhere on the planet. “China’s Covid prevention and control is still in a time of stress, but the light is ahead, persistence is victory,” Mr Xi said on Wednesday in a holiday greetings message carried by state broadcaster CCTV. “I am most worried about the rural areas and farmers. Medical facilities are relatively weak in rural areas, thus prevention is difficult and the task is arduous,” Mr Xi said, adding that the elderly were a top priority. Several Chinese cities are set to celebrate Chinese New Year with massive displays of fireworks after local governments reversed bans on their sale in recent years. Hangzhou, Kunming, Zhengzhou, and Changsha - which all have populations above 10 million - will allow the sale of fireworks, according to the Yicai business magazine. Airfinity on Wednesday estimated that 62 million people could be infected with the virus between Jan 13 and 27 and that Covid-related deaths could peak at 36,000 a day on Jan 26, up sharply from previous forecasts. “Our forecast estimates a significant burden on China’s healthcare system for the next fortnight and it is likely that many treatable patients could die due to overcrowded hospitals and lack of care,” said Airfinity’s analytics director Matt Linley. Looking beyond the death toll, there is optimism that China’s reopening will reinvigorate a US$17 trillion (S$22.48 tillion) economy suffering one of its lowest growth rates in nearly half a century.  China could see a sharp recovery in growth from the second quarter onwards, IMF Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath told Reuters in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.  Those hopes have nudged China’s main stock markets and yuan currency to multi-month highs in recent sessions, although trading was light on Thursday as investors wound down for the holidays.  Source: REUTERS

Germany is lagging behind other EU countries in terms of seats sold on flights to and from the country, figures show. Domestic air travel is showing the slowest recovery from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Air travel to and from Germany in the first half of 2023 is likely to reach just 78% of the rate before the COVID pandemic broke out in 2020, according to figures released by the German Aviation Association (BDL) on Saturday. This means Germany is lagging behind its EU peers in the sector, with air travel in other European countries at 94% of the pre-pandemic level. The figure does, however, represent 20% growth compared with the first half of 2022. What are the reasons for the slow recovery? The BDL said the lower level of domestic air travel, which has reached only 56% of the pre-pandemic rate, is largely responsible for the slow recovery. "Here, a shift in traffic to road and rail is noticeable, among other things" it said. However, the drop in domestic flying can also be attributed to the fact that low-cost airlines are avoiding most German airports, while increasing their services elsewhere. This is reflected by statistics showing that the number of connections from German airports are more than a third lower than before the pandemic. Only four of Germany's larger airports — Dortmund, Hahn, Karlsruhe and Memmingen — will be offering more flights in the first half of 2023 than in the same period in 2019, largely owing to the presence of lower-cost airlines. The boss of the economy airline Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, has in the past criticized German airports for their high fees. His carrier and the cut-price airline Wizz have raised the number of flights they are offering outside of Germany. Long-haul flights, on the other hand, have made a better post-pandemic recovery, with trips to and from North America as the biggest factor.

Bangladesh today (Friday) reported one Covid-19 death while it recorded 708 coronavirus positive cases during the same period. "Bangladesh reported 14.66 percent Covid-19 positive cases as 4,828 samples were tested during the last 24 hours," a daily statement of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said. During the past 24 hours, the combined figure of coronavirus infection in Dhaka district and the capital is 516 while no Covid-19 death was reported during the period. The official tally showed that the virus killed 29,363 people and infected 20,25,197 so far, the statement added. The recovery count rose to 19,65,188 after another 687 patients were discharged from the dedicated hospitals during the last 24 hours. From the beginning of the pandemic, 97.04 percent Covid-19 patients recovered among the infected people while 1.45 percent died, the DGHS statistics showed. Among the 29,363 fatalities, 12,919 occurred in Dhaka, 5,896 in Chattogram, 2,155 in Rajshahi, 3,733 in Khulna, 992 in Barishal, 1,346 in Sylhet, 1,424 in Rangpur and 898 in Mymensingh divisions. Source: BSS AH

Bangladesh today reported two Covid-19 deaths while it recorded 679 coronavirus positive cases during the same period. "Bangladesh reported 13.53 percent Covid-19 positive cases as 5,017 samples were tested during the last 24 hours," a daily statement of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said. During the past 24 hours, the combined figure of coronavirus infection in Dhaka district and the capital is 521 while no Covid-19 death was reported during the period. The official tally showed that the virus killed 29,362 people and infected 20,24,489 so far, the statement added. The recovery count rose to 19,64,501 after another 354 patients were discharged from the dedicated hospitals during the last 24 hours. From the beginning of the pandemic, 97.04 percent Covid-19 patients recovered among the infected people while 1.45 percent died, the DGHS statistics showed. Among the 29,362 fatalities, 12,918 occurred in Dhaka, 5,896 in Chattogram, 2,155 in Rajshahi, 3,733 in Khulna, 992 in Barishal, 1,346 in Sylhet, 1,424 in Rangpur and 898 in Mymensingh divisions. Source: BSS AH

Bangladesh today (Monday) reported six Covid-19 deaths while it recorded 718 coronavirus positive cases during the same period. "Bangladesh reported 13.58 percent Covid-19 positive cases as 5,288 samples were tested during the last 24 hours," a daily statement of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said. During the past 24 hours, the combined figure of coronavirus infection in Dhaka district and the capital is 573 while two Covid-19 deaths were reported during the period. The official tally showed that the virus killed 29,359 people and infected 20,22,408 so far, the statement added. The recovery count rose to 19,63,308 after another 436 patients were discharged from the dedicated hospitals during the last 24 hours. From the beginning of the pandemic, 97.08 percent Covid-19 patients recovered among the infected people while 1.45 percent died, the DGHS statistics showed. Among the 29,359 fatalities, 12,918 occurred in Dhaka, 5,896 in Chattogram, 2,155 in Rajshahi, 3,733 in Khulna, 992 in Barishal, 1,346 in Sylhet, 1,423 in Rangpur and 896 in Mymensingh divisions. Source: BSS AH

Bangladesh today (Saturday) reported zero Covid-19 death while it recorded 141 coronavirus positive cases during the same period. "Bangladesh reported 9.66 percent Covid-19 positive cases as 1,460 samples were tested during the last 24 hours," a daily statement of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said. During the past 24 hours, the combined figure of coronavirus infection in Dhaka district and the capital is 104 while zero Covid-19 death was reported during the period. The official tally showed that the virus killed 29,339 people and infected 20,17,087 so far, the statement added. The recovery count rose to 19,60,331 after another 284 patients were discharged from the dedicated hospitals during the last 24 hours. From the beginning of the pandemic, 97.19 percent Covid-19 patients recovered among the infected people while 1.45 percent died, the DGHS statistics showed. Among the 29,339 fatalities, 12,909 occurred in Dhaka, 5,894 in Chattogram, 2,153 in Rajshahi, 3,733 in Khulna, 989 in Barishal, 1,343 in Sylhet, 1,423 in Rangpur and 895 in Mymensingh divisions. Source: BSS AH