‘Brutal’ 3rd Covid wave hits Africa

Australia and Israel, which had been successful in fending off Covid-19, reimposed restrictions yesterday as cases surged of the highly contagious Delta variant which also threatened Africa with a brutal third wave.

With just under 5.3 million reported cases and around 139,000 deaths among its nearly 1.3 billion people, Africa is still the world's least-affected continent after Oceania, according to an AFP tally.

So far African nations have been spared disasters comparable to Brazil or India. But the pandemic is resurging at an alarming rate in at least 12 countries, with continental cases expected to hit a record peak in around three weeks.

"The third wave is picking up speed, spreading faster, hitting harder," World Health Organization Africa director Matshidiso Moeti warned Thursday. "The latest surge threatens to be Africa's worst yet".

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) director John Nkengasong described the third wave as "extremely brutal" and "very devastating".

The Delta variant, first detected in India, has so far been reported in 14 African countries, making up the bulk of new cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, according to the WHO.

In Australia, which has been one of the most successful nations in containing the coronavirus after shutting its borders, around a million people in four eastern and central Sydney neighbourhoods were ordered to stay home for at least a week.

Sixty-five infections have been reported in a flare-up linked to a limousine driver infected about two weeks ago when he transported an international flight crew from Sydney airport to a quarantine hotel.

The premier of the state of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, called it the "scariest period" since the pandemic began.

It was a dramatic development for a city that had returned to relative normality after months of recording very few local cases.

Bondi local Alana Trepper said "to be honest, I probably think that it should have happened a couple of days ago because there's been a pretty decent spread the last few days."

ISRAEL PUTS MASKS BACK ON

Israel, which has prided itself on having one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns, has seen infections surge since dropping a requirement to wear masks in enclosed public places 10 days ago.

After four days of more than 100 new cases a day -- including 227 on Thursday -- the health ministry reversed the decision.

The head of Israel's pandemic response taskforce, Nachman Ash, said the rise was likely due to the Delta variant, adding that the increasing cases were not yet matched by a parallel rise in hospitalisations or deaths.

Fiji meanwhile recorded a surge of 300 new daily infections on Thursday, after going a full year without recording a single community case until April -- when the Delta variant arrived.

But with numbers doubling every nine days, the government's head of health protection, Aalisha Sahukhan, said "all the evidence is that there is widespread community transmission".

India's richest state Maharashtra tightened restrictions yesterday, citing fears of a "more severe third wave" as the country recorded its third death caused by a new coronavirus variant.

The announcement came days after India's health ministry called Delta Plus a "variant of concern", citing its increased transmissibility and ability to bind to lung cell receptors more easily.

India has recorded 48 cases of the variant so far, with Maharashtra reporting 21 infections -- higher than any other state.

Russia is also battling rising Delta cases, reporting more than 20,000 cases on Thursday, the country's highest number since January.

LESS EFFECTIVE

Antibodies triggered by two Chinese Covid-19 vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant compared with other strains but the shots still offer protection, a Chinese disease control researcher told state media.

In an interview aired by China Central Television late on Thursday, Feng Zijian, researcher and former deputy director at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, did not provide further details.

Without naming the two vaccines, Feng said they fell into the category of inactivated vaccines, which contain "killed" coronavirus that cannot replicate in human cells.

Five out of the seven domestically developed vaccines in China's mass inoculation scheme are inactivated vaccines. These include shots from Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O) and Sinopharm used in countries such as Brazil, Bahrain and Chile.