Two members of the Indian delegates as guests at the G7 conference have tested positive for Covid today. The whole team was tested negative before leaving India on Sunday. As a result, they have had to withdraw from all face-to-face contacts with other delegates. The Meeting Boris Johnson had scheduled today will now be a virtual one on Zoom. There is some concern that Priti Patel was in the same room as them yesterday. The good thing is that it shows regular testing does pick up cases very quickly.
Following the suspension of the planned cricket in India our players are now on their way home again and will face isolation.
British Airways are preparing to fly another 27 tonnes of medical equipment to India and the UK has dropped its request for 5.5 million doses of the OAZ vaccine made in India that we had on order, to allow its use in India.24 patients have died in a hospital in India’s Southern State of Karnataka when the oxygen supplies completely ran out.
Nepal’s former King Gyanendra Shah, aged 73, and his wife attended the Kumbh Mela religious festival in India and have returned to Nepal having contracted Covid. Many thousands of other attendees have returned to both Pakistan and Bangladesh similarly infected.
Dr Nabarro from the WHO gave a very clear update, released today, in which he makes it very obvious that globally we are still in a very dire situation. Many countries have no money and no vaccines. In many countries in Africa and Southern America very little information is available. Global vaccination is the only solution and he was appealing to the wealthier countries to supply as much vaccine as possible in order to achieve this. In many countries the vaccine is not free as it is here. Many cannot even think of paying for it. Remember OAZ is sold at cost price. Other vaccine manufacturers are making massive profits.
People are still dying in the thousands every day. We must not forget that, and any spare charitable giving we can manage should reflect that. The UK Government wants to complete adult vaccines for everyone here before is diverts vaccine elsewhere. Is this the right approach? In Medicine it tends to be that we have to protect ourselves before we can treat others. So what about in this pandemic. should we be considering booster doses for the autumn before much of the world has even one dose? There is no right answer, but I am interested in the range of ideas and opinions you all have so please let me know.
The problems of how residential Care Homes have been treated continues to make the news. Many feel that being unable to leave their homes is contrary to their human rights and there must be pressure put on homes who are still going against guidelines in letting their residents leave the homes. Accountability in Care Home management is a large issue that needs to be resolved once the pandemic is over and long before the next.
Immunisation in Spain is moving forward and they are about to start on the 50-59 age group. No decision has been made yet about which vaccine will be used. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccine were used in the over 70s and the AOZ vaccine was given to the 60-69 age group. 5.5 million doses of the Janssen vaccine is expected to arrive any day.
The statistics today , a Wednesday after a Bank Holiday show more deaths than on other days during the holiday. This is an artefact produced by the fact that deaths are not counted until they are registered and that often is delayed some days over the holiday. Even allowing for this, the data is most encouraging for those of us in the UK, but the time has come to think ‘One World’. We must manage a global pandemic in a global way.
The number of Covid tests done in the UK were 860,368 in the last 24 hours. 2,144 were positive. There was still a fall in the number of positive cases over the 7 day rolling average. the rate is now 22.3 /100k of the population.
The number of deaths was 27, a 41% drop in the last 7 day average. The death rate is now 0.1/100k Covid is now barely impacting on the daily work in hospitals. Only 108 admissions, that’s less than 1 per hospital now. Only 1,285 are in hospital and only 181 are on ventilators. Many hospitals have no ventilated patients with Covid now.
As for immunisations, 34.79 million first doses have been given, 15.85 million second doses given.
If there are significant events, I will post details quickly. otherwise expect three reports a week now. I most look forward to no deaths and no hospital admissions. With all our help we will achieve this soon. Do tell me your thoughts about how to achieve global immunisations and about any other thoughts or questions you have.
Stay safe and stay positive.
Kenneth Hines' WordOfWisdom 