The latest:
- No one-size-fits-all approach for U.S. school reopenings, Fauci says.
- Germany’s Merkel speaks out against relaxing of COVID-19 rules.
- Dutch government issues stricter recommendations after virus cases rise.
- Quebec announces $106 million in additional funding for public health authorities to deal with possible second wave.
- WHO says world should not live ‘in hope’ of achieving herd immunity without vaccine.
- Australia on track to record lowest one-day rise in new COVID-19 infections in a month.
- New Zealand rules out possibility that a coronavirus outbreak came from frozen food items or freight.
The World Health Organization says the planet is nowhere near the amount of coronavirus immunity needed to induce herd immunity, where enough of the population would have antibodies to stop the spread of the virus.
Herd immunity is typically achieved with vaccination, and most scientists estimate at least 70 per cent of the population must have antibodies to prevent an outbreak. But some experts have suggested that even if half the population had immunity, there might be a protective effect.
WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan largely dismissed that theory at a media briefing on Tuesday, saying we should not live “in hope” of achieving herd immunity.
“As a global population, we are nowhere close to the levels of immunity required to stop this disease transmitting,” he said. “This is not a solution and not a solution we should be looking to.”
WATCH | WHO urges flu shots to mitigate COVID-19:
Most studies conducted to date have suggested only about 10 to 20 per cent of people have antibodies.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to WHO’s director general, said that any mass immunization campaign with a COVID-19 vaccine would aim to cover far more than 50 per cent of the world’s population.
“We don’t want to be wrong,” he said. “You want to plan to get high coverage and not get lulled into a dangerously seductive suggestion that [the herd immunity threshold] could be low.”
National supply deals in the event of the development of a successful vaccine against the coronavirus should fit a global approach, Aylward said.
World leaders pledged in late April to accelerate work on tests, drugs and vaccines against COVID-19 and to share them around the globe under a WHO-led initiative known as the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator.
Aylward urged that the world must administer widespread anti-flu vaccinations this year to help to ward off the risk of complicating coronavirus infections.
The health body also said Tuesday it was concerned that coronavirus spread was being driven by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, many of whom were unaware they were infected, posing a danger to vulnerable groups.
WHO officials said this month the proportion of younger people among those infected had risen globally, putting at risk vulnerable sectors of the population worldwide, including the elderly and sick people in densely populated areas with weak health services.
“The epidemic is changing,” WHO Western Pacific regional director Takeshi Kasai told a virtual briefing. “This increases the risk of spillovers to the more vulnerable.”
What’s happening with coronavirus in Canada
As of 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Canada had 123,064 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases. Provinces and territories listed 109,336 of those as recovered or resolved. A CBC News tally of deaths based on provincial reports, regional health information and CBC’s reporting stood at 9,078.
Quebec’s health minister provided more details on Tuesday about what is being done to prepare for a possible second wave of COVID-19.
Christian Dubé outlined a nine-point plan aimed at strengthening various points of the health-care system, including $106 million in additional funding for public health authorities, some of which will go toward hiring 1,000 full-time employees to conduct contact tracing.
The minister said he hopes the plan will be in place by Sept. 30.
WATCH | Quebec between 1st and 2nd COVID-19 wave, health minister says:
British Columbia’s surge in new COVID-19 cases is showing no sign of slowing, with another 236 cases confirmed since Friday afternoon.
There are now 743 active cases of the illness in the province, which is the highest total to date, and the addition of 100 new cases on Saturday marked the highest one-day tally so far.
WATCH | B.C. facing a ‘tale of two pandemics’:
Monday’s briefing was led by Deputy Provincial Health Officer Dr. Réka Gustafson, who said another two people have died from the coronavirus in B.C., bringing the province’s total to 198.
She said the majority of new cases continue to involve young people, who often have mild versions of the COVID-19 illness caused by the virus.
“This actually makes things quite challenging. That’s because some people might not realize they have COVID-19, and they can inadvertently spread it,” Gustafson said.
A total of 4,594 people in B.C. have had confirmed infections of the virus since the start of the pandemic. Of those, four are in hospital, including three in intensive care, marking the lowest hospitalization count since a provincial state of emergency was declared.
Here’s what’s happening around the world
According to Johns Hopkins University, the global total of confirmed coronavirus cases is now more than 21.9 million. More than 776,000 people have died, while 13.9 million have recovered.
Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases expert in the United States, said on Tuesday that schools in parts of the country that have a coronavirus infection positivity rate of more than 10 per cent would be better off easing into the new academic year with virtual classrooms.
Fauci said in a virtual conference hosted by health information website Healthline that primary and secondary schools as a default position should try and reopen for the psychological health of children, but no single approach should apply to every school in the country.
WATCH | Teachers across Canada criticize back-to-school plans:
Some U.S. schools have closed almost as quickly as they welcomed back students as the level of new cases per day remains high in many states, including California, Florida and Texas.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken out against further relaxing coronavirus restrictions there, citing the recent rise in the number of new cases.
Merkel said Germany is “in the middle of the pandemic” and called on Germans to respect social distancing and hygiene rules.
She also expressed support for uniform rules for some aspects of the pandemic. Germany’s 16 states largely set their own rules, often leading to a mish-mash of differing regional regulations that have prompted confusion and frustration in the country of 83 million.
Germany’s disease control agency on Tuesday reported 1,390 new confirmed coronavirus cases.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte tightened recommended measures Tuesday to rein in the spread of the coronavirus, warning that if the country does not control new infections the Netherlands could go “back to square one.”
Rutte gave people “very, very, urgent advice” not to hold parties at home and to limit events like birthday celebrations and other private house gatherings to a maximum of six people. He also urged people to continue working from home. However, the Dutch government did not impose any new mandatory restrictions.
The number of new confirmed cases has been on the rise since the Netherlands removed most of its coronavirus restrictions on July 1. Students returned to high schools in the country’s north this week for the first time in months without requirements for face masks or social distancing between children.
The French government plans to make wearing a mask compulsory in the vast majority of workplaces from Sept. 1 to try to stop a resurgence of the pandemic.
The Labour Ministry said on Tuesday the new arrangement would apply to all shared spaces in offices and factories, but would not extend to individual offices where only one employee is present.
It also said that working from home would remain its recommended option for employees. A government official said masks at work would become mandatory from Sept. 1.
South Korean health officials said Tuesday that they have found 457 coronavirus cases linked to a huge Seoul church led by a bitter critic of the country’s president, driving an alarming surge of infections in the greater capital area.
WATCH | Scuffles outside Seoul church as South Korea tightens COVID-19 protocols:
Kwon Jun-wook, director of South Korea’s National Health Institute, said outbreaks at the Sarang Jeil Church and elsewhere have pushed the country into the biggest crisis yet since the emergence of COVID-19.
He said a failure to slow transmissions in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, home to nearly 26 million people, could create a situation comparable to the “miserable scenes of the United States or European countries.”
South Korea reported 246 new cases of the coronavirus on Tuesday, raising its total for the last five days to 959.
India reported more than 55,000 new cases on Tuesday, putting its total virus caseload past 2.7 million.
India has the third-most cases, behind the United States and Brazil. It also has the fourth-most deaths from the coronavirus, with 51,797.
But India’s deaths per million people stands at 34 — far lower than what has been reported in some North American and European countries.
Australia on Tuesday recorded its lowest one-day rise in new COVID-19 infections in a month, raising hopes that a stringent lockdown in the country’s second-most populous state has prevented a fresh wave of cases nationally.
Led by cases in Victoria state — the epicentre of Australia’s latest COVID-19 outbreak — Australia said it has detected 226 new infections in the past 24 hours, the lowest since July 18 when 212 cases were recorded.
WATCH | Australian state of Victoria encouraged by lowest rise in COVID-19 cases in a month:
Victoria said it detected 222 cases in the past 24 hours, while the country’s most-populous state, New South Wales, reported three new infections.
New Zealand on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that a coronavirus outbreak in its biggest city of Auckland came from frozen food items or freight, as it reported 13 new cases.
Investigations suggested the virus had not come through chilled services or material arriving from overseas at an Americold cold-storage facility in Auckland where one of the recently infected individuals worked, health officials said.
“Seems clear now that the possibility is being ruled out from that investigation,” Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told reporters.
The origin of the latest outbreak is still unknown, and transmission through the environment in the cold storage was one theory being considered.
South Africa, which had one of the world’s strictest anti-coronavirus lockdowns for five months, relaxed its restrictions Tuesday, permitting sales of alcohol and cigarettes in response to decreasing new cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19.
In a festive mood, people lined up at shops across the country wearing face masks and keeping a safe distance to purchase the previously banned liquor and cigarettes.
