Nationwide confirmed coronavirus cases jump past 410,000; death toll crosses 8,250; global death toll tops 1,506,000
Pakistan's COVID-19 tally rose to 410,072 on Friday after 3,262 new cases were detected in the past 24 hours across the country.
The province-wise break up of the total number of cases as of 9:00 am, December 4, is as follows:
Total confirmed cases: 410,072
• AJK: 7,151
• Balochistan: 17,333
• Gilgit-Baltistan: 4,692
• Islamabad Capital Territory: 31,639
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 48,264
• Punjab: 121,753
• Sindh: 179,240
Deaths: 8,260
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 1,389
• Punjab: 3,115
• Sindh: 2,983
• Balochistan: 169
• Gilgit-Baltistan: 98
• Islamabad Capital Territory: 332
• AJK: 174
More than 65,220,566 infections have been confirmed globally with over 1,506,157 deaths, according to the John Hopkins University tally.
Recent progress on COVID-19 vaccines is positive but the World Health Organization is concerned this has led to a growing perception that the pandemic has come to an end, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“Progress on vaccines gives us all a lift and we can now start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, WHO is concerned that there is a growing perception that the COVID-19 pandemic is over,” he said.
Tedros said the pandemic still had a long way to run and that decisions made by citizens and governments would determine its course in the short run and when the pandemic would ultimately end.
“We know it’s been a hard year and people are tired, but in hospitals that are running at or over capacity it’s the hardest it can possibly be,” he said.
Italy reported 814 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, against a record 993 on Thursday, and 24,099 new infections, up from 23,225 the day before, the health ministry said.
The first Western country hit by the virus, Italy has seen 58,852 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain. It has also registered 1.689 million cases.
There were 212,741 swabs carried out in the past day, down from a previous 226,729.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 stood at 31,200 on Friday, down 572 from the day before.
Vaccines are a major part of the battle against COVID-19 but will not on their own end the pandemic, Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert, said on Friday.
"We are ... seeing data emerge that protection may not be lifelong and therefore re-infections may occur," Ryan said.
"Vaccines do not equal zero COVID," he said.
Three of Austria's nine provinces on Friday kicked off a national effort to test as much of the population as possible before Christmas, to limit infections when families meet.
Apparently inspired by a similar but more coercive effort in neighbouring Slovakia, conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced the voluntary "mass testing" plan three weeks ago.
With help from the armed forces, extra testing centres have been set up with the aim of finding undetected cases before generations mix over the holidays. Vienna and the western, Alpine provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg began their additional testing on Friday.
"You get an appointment, you have to stand in line for a bit. It looks like there's an awful lot of people and you'll have to wait for hours but the whole thing is over in just under 45 minutes, including the result," said Sven Hartberger, 62, emerging from the Stadthalle, a large concert hall in Vienna.
The World Health Organization hopes to have half a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine available for distribution by the global COVAX facility in the first quarter of 2021, its chief scientist said.
"The goal is to get at least 2 billion doses by end of 2021 which will be enough to vaccinate 20 pct of populations of countries that are part of COVAX," said Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan.
"That is enough, just, to bring to an end the acute phase of pandemic," she said.
The district administration has taken action against coronavirus SOPs at the Saddar mobile, electronics market, and Zaibunnisa Street.
The administration said that shops have been sealed, including mobile shops, jewelry, and watch shops.
A shopkeeper has been slapped with a fine of Rs7,000, while grocery stores were fine Rs10,000.
Southwest Airlines has warned it could lay off more than 6,800 workers in 2021 in what would be carrier's first involuntary job cuts in its 50-year history.
Southwest sent layoff notifications Thursday to 6,828 employees, saying it had been unable to reach an agreement so far with unions on spending cuts needed in light of the industry downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The company has been in talks with unions since early October "to help offset the billion dollars of overstaffing costs projected for next year," the company said in a statement.
Southwest said the layoffs would take place on March 15 or April 1 unless the company reaches a cost-saving agreement with unions or Congress provides additional payroll support funding after a previous round of backing expired in October.
The coronavirus-delayed Tokyo Olympics will cost at least an extra $2.4 billion, organisers say.
The extra costs come as officials work to build enthusiasm for the first Games postponed in peacetime, insisting the massive event can go ahead next year even if the pandemic is not under control.
But more spending, on top of the previous budget of about $13 billion, could further harden public opinion in Japan, where polls this year showed a majority of people think the Games should be postponed again or cancelled together.
Tokyo 2020 said an additional $1.5 billion would be needed for operational costs related to the delay, with another $900 million in spending on coronavirus countermeasures.
The dollar figures are calculated at an exchange rate of 107 yen, and the total is around $2.56 billion at today's rate. The costs look set to rise further, with Tokyo 2020 saying it would also release an additional $250 million in "contingency" funds.
Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat has been alerted to indoor dining open at a restaurant in violation of the government ban on the same.
"Sir inside dining is banned. Sending teams," he wrote in response to a tweet by a citizen.
Punjab's health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid says Lahore's positivity rate has shot up from 3% to 10%.
She said she had "called to operationalise 300 beds at Expo Centre for serious patients".
Services, Jinnah and General Hospitals have also been told to "ensure June 2020 emergency levels".
In all, 47% of beds reserved for serious patients currently lie occupied.
The district administration has sealed two majorrecreational spaces, including Aladin Amusement Park andSuper Space Karachi, the latter of which is an indoor space, over a violation of the coronavirus-related standard operating procedures (SOPs).
The coronavirus positivity rate in Sindh has risen to 10.7%, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said Friday evening in a statement issued by the CM House. Of 15,500 samples taken for testing, 1,664 new cases were identified, translating into a 10.7% current detection rate, he added.
CM Shah said eight more patients died overnight, bumping up the death toll to 2,991 and constituting a death rate of 1.7%.
A total of 2,037,493 tests have been conducted so far and 180,904 cases diagnosed; however, 87% — or 157,006 patients — of them recovered and these include 972 who recovered over the past 24 hours.
The CM said 20,907 patients were currently under treatment; 20,066 of them were in self-isolation at their home, 11 at isolation centers, and 830 at different hospitals, while 729, including 37 shifted to ventilators, were in critical condition.
Of Karachi's 1,664 new cases, 1,360, 445, 431, 166, 116, 112, and 90 were reported from the South, East, West, Korangi, Central, and Malir districts, he said.
Some 94 cases were in Hyderabad, 41 in Jamshoro, 17 in Larkana, 16 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 15 each in Sujawal, Naushehroferoze, Jacobabad, Dadu, and Umerkot, six each in Badin and Ghotki, five in Mirpurkhas, and one each in Shikarpur and Tando Allahyar, he added.
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has tested negative for coronavirus, Sindh Information Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah confirmed, a little over a week after he had tested positive for the infection.
"May the Lord grant him best of health and a long life. Ameen," Shah wrote on Twitter.
The PPP boss had gone into self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, which followed his political secretary contracting the disease. He was unable to participate in the engagement ceremony of his sister, Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari, last week.
At least15,500 coronavirus tests were carried out over the past 24 hours across Sindh, the provincial chief minister said in a statement Friday evening.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said1,664 new coronavirus infections were identified over the past 24 hours. In total, 2,037,493 tests have been conducted in the provinceso far.
The West district of Pakistan's port city is set to go under a lockdown from Dec 5 to Dec 18 to contain the worsening coronavirus situation, according to a notification from the Sindh government.
The order said all coronavirus-related standard operating procedures (SOPs) will be strictly enforced during the smart lockdown, which would be imposed in 13 areas of the city's western districts where a rising number of COVID-19 patients were reported.
The first One-Day International between South Africa and England that was scheduled for Newlands on Friday has been moved to Sunday after a player from the home team tested positive for COVID-19.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) said the latest round of tests conducted on Thursday resulted in an unnamed South African player returning a positive result, the third from within the camp during the six-match limited overs series.
"This decision results from a player from the Proteas team testing positive for COVID-19 after the teams’ last round of scheduled testing performed on Thursday ahead of the ODIs," CSA said in a statement.
"In the interests of the safety and well-being of both teams, match officials and all involved in the match, the Acting CEO of CSA, Kugandrie Govender as well as the CEO of the ECB, Tom Harrison, have agreed to postpone the first fixture to Sunday."
It means there will be back-to-back ODIs on Sunday and Monday in Paarl and nearby Cape Town, before the series is completed at Newlands on Wednesday.
Russia reported 27,403 new coronavirus cases on Friday, including 6,868 in Moscow, taking the national total to 2,402,949 since the pandemic began.
Authorities also confirmed 569 deaths related to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, pushing the official national death toll to 42,176.
Coronavirus testing rate in Pakistan has decreased to 62% in December compared to 75% in November.
According to data issued by health department, a total of 130 laborites have the capacity to carry out 56,823 tests daily but are conducting around 35,193 tests. It said private laborites have reduced their testing capacity by 50%.
Around 56 government labs have the capacity to run 24,990 tests daily but conducted 21,715 in the past 24 hours. On the other hand, private labs conducted 11,616 test.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn on Friday called for additional restrictions to stem the spread of the coronavirus in parts of Germany where infection numbers are very high.
"Where there are higher numbers of infections in Germany, in my opinion there is a need for additional measures to reduce the number of contacts beyond what has been agreed," Spahn told German ZDF television.
"We still have too many districts and regions where additional measures are still needed," he added.
Kazakhstan will start producing the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the novel coronavirus this month and begin a mass vaccination campaign next year, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's office said on Friday.
The Central Asian nation will begin production of the Russian vaccine on Dec. 22 and start the campaign by vaccinating doctors, teachers and policemen, Prime Minister Askar Mamin told the president.
Kazakhstan is also about to start phase III clinical trials of its own vaccine, Mamin said, and will produce 2 million doses of it this month.
The former Soviet republic of 19 million has imposed two lockdowns this year and reported 134,706 COVID-19 cases with 1,990 deaths.
India's daily coronavirus cases rose by less than 40,000 for the fifth straight day, health ministry data showed on Friday, with 36,595 new infections reported in the last 24 hours.
India's daily rate has fallen since the south Asian nation reported the world’s highest such tallies through most of August and September, despite a busy festival season last month that experts had warned could trigger a spike in infections.
Its tally is now at 9.57 million and remains the world’s second-highest after the United States, where there have been nearly 14 million infections.
Deaths in India rose by 540, the ministry said, with the total now at 139,188.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 23,449 to 1,130,238, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.
The reported death toll rose by 432 to 18,034, the tally showed.
Moderna Inc said on Thursday it expects to have between 100 million and 125 million doses of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine available globally in the first quarter of 2021.
The company said 85 million to 100 million of those doses would be available in the United States, with 15 million to 25 million available outside the country.
The first-quarter doses are within the 500 million to up to 1 billion doses the company expects to manufacture globally in 2021, Moderna said.
Results from an early-stage trial showed that the vaccine, mRNA-1273, produced high levels of binding and neutralizing antibodies that declined slightly over time, but remained elevated in all participants three months after the booster vaccination, the company said.
The drug maker’s shares were down about 2% at $154.4 after the bell.
Former accountability court judge Arshad Malik passed away due to novel coronavirus on Friday, Geo News reported quoting unnamed sources.
The ex-judge was admitted in a private hospital for past few days.
Read more here.
South Korea reported 629 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest number in nine months.
Of the new cases, 295 were from capital Seoul alone, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported.
Mainland China reported 17 new COVID-19 cases on December 3, up from 16 cases a day earlier, the country's national health authority said on Friday.
The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 15 of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. There were also two locally transmitted infections in the Inner Mongolia region, the commission said.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to 12 from five cases a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Mainland China now stands at 86,584, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Mexico's health ministry on Thursday reported 11,030 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 608 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,144,643 cases and 108,173 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
The members of Pakistani contingent may have contracted coronavirus during their travelling to New Zealand, Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) Chief Executive Officer Wasim Khan said.
The senior PCB official was quoted by a UK media outlet as saying.
Eight members of the 53-strong Pakistan squad have tested positive for the virus since arriving in New Zealand which has disturbed the team’s schedule and a four-day match of Pakistan Shaheens was cancelled as well.
Wasim Khan said that tests of all members of the squad, coaches and supporting staff were conducted at the Shaukat Khanum Hospital.
Read more here.
The New Zealand Cricket authorities on Friday refused to grant an exemption for the training of the Pakistani squad during the managed isolation period.
New Zealand health department, in a statement, said that following careful consideration regarding coronavirus, the Director-General of Health has confirmed that he will not be granting the exemption which would allow the Pakistani Shaheens to return back in fields in order to train in groups while completing their time in managed isolation in Christchurch.
The decision has reportedly added frustration among Pakistan squad members which are already in managed isolation for almost 10 days now.
Read more here.
The PTI government is planning to establish a Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – similar to the Atlanta-based national public health institute in the United States, Special Assistant to PM on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan told The News.
But what about NIH?
But Pakistan already has a public health institution; the Islamabad-based National Institute of Health (NIH). “In its present form, NIH is not fulfilling the function of a centre for disease control and prevention despite having a national laboratory,” said Sultan.
The physician explained that the NIH has a different function and is headed in the right direction “under current leadership but unfortunately it is not serving the purpose for which it was established”.
The planned centre would be a different institution – it would gather information on diseases, analyse, and recommend actions and issue guidelines on all aspects of health.
Read more here.
Additional Assistant Commissioner (AAC) Sehrish Nigar on Thursday shared that two markets, 30 shops, three schools and four restaurants have been in the area for violating the coronavirus SOPs in the city area.
As the Coronavirus cases continued to be reported in the Parliament House, the National Assembly Secretariat has been closed for 8 days from December 4 to December 11 to contain Covid-19 cases and for disinfection of Assembly precincts.
Though the offices of the National Assembly Secretariat will remain closed for 8 day, yet the dispensary of Parliament House will be operational.
According to a notification, from December 4 to December 11, the employees shall perform duties from homes, however, they will be required to ensure their availability through electronic communications.