Nov. 20 (UPI) — Mainland China on Sunday reported its first death from COVID-19 in six months as the outbreak worldwide is easing to levels at the start of the pandemic in the Asian nation despite new Omicron subvariants.
Globally in the past week, infections decreased 1% to 2,445,564 with the seven-day world moving average 349,366 among the the lowest since late September 2020, according to Worldometers.info.
The cumulative was 643,006,073 so far Sunday. Cases on Sunday were 276,448. The last time cases were above 1 million was July 31.
Deaths decreased 12% to 8,145 with the cumulative 6,625,837 so far Sunday.
The seven-day moving average for deaths was down to 1,163, the fewest since 1,074 March 21, 2020, 10 days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, according to Worldometers.info. On Saturday, 562 deaths were reported.
Some nations do not report data on weekends. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gone to weekly updates.
The records were 3,847,809 cases on Jan. 21, during the height of the Omicron subvariant, and 16,890 deaths on Jan. 21, 2021, when the Delta subvariant was at its peak.
In China, the death toll has reached 5,227. On May 26, a death was reported in Shanghai. Before a spike in April, that necessitated a lockdown, it was 4,636, which stayed at that number since early February 2021.
China’s state-affiliated Beijing Daily reported that a man started to cough on Nov. 11, and was confirmed infected with mild symptoms two days later. His condition worsened due to severe pulmonary infection and he suffered septic shock and later died, the report said.
It did not say whether the man was vaccinated.
China’s vaccination rate is 92% with at least once dost.
In mid-August, the booster shot rate among China’s elderly was just around 68%, compared with more than 90 per cent for Japan, which also has a sizable aged population.
“If several million elderly people above 80 years of age have not been vaccinated, it will pose a potential risk,” Jin Dongyan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post.
“The most important point is public education. You should give the correct information to the public. Many people’s understanding of Covid still remains at the level of the initial [2020] outbreak in Wuhan. Therefore, this is what needs to be explained better.”
On Sunday, China reported 24,215 cases, compared with 24,263 the previous day. That tally included symptomatic ones.
The number of confirmed cases was 2,267. It was 1,711 one week ago, 588 two weeks ago with 5,659 on April 29. Those are confirmed cases with illness. Asymptomatic ones are reported separately in Mainland China.
The southern megacity of Guangzhou accounting for one third of the case.
China, which has had a “zero tolerance” policy for coronavirus has relaxed several restrictions.
The government has limited its contact tracing and eliminated requiring people stuck at home for weeks just because they lived in a neighborhood where a case had been detected.
People entering China will now be required to quarantine in a hotel for five days followed by three days of isolation at home, instead of the previous 10 days in quarantine, with seven in a hotel or government facility.
An outbreak recently hit Apple’s largest iPhone factory, in the city of Zhengzhou. First there was a lockdown and now a shortage of workers.
Officials in central China have recruited the party members, civil servants and military veterans to help Foxconn, the Taiwanese-based assembler of Apple’s iPhones.
Hong Kong, like China, has adopted a “zero tolerance” for coronavirus with strong restrictions eased, including hotel quarantine for arrivals from other nations.
Hong Kong reported 13 deaths and 7,736 cases Sunday with the record 79,876 on March 3.
Starting Monday, Hong Kong plans to reduce the number of PCR tests for international and Taiwan arrivals from four to two starting next Monday. Arrivals now need to undergo a PCR test once they land at the airport, and then on the second, fourth and sixth day, and rapid antigen tests are mandatory every day until the seventh day.
Residents and visitors face a $639 fine if masks are not worn in public.
In the past week, Asia reported 51.8% of the world’s cases and it rose 9% for a cumulative 197,189,213, according to Worldometers.info. The continent has 59% percent of the world’s population.
Also increasing: South America 30% for 64,776,721 and Africa 17% for 12,695,857.
Decreases were North America 28% for 118,681,480, Europe 10% for a world-high 236,813,024, Oceania 11% for 12,844,057.
Asia was the only continent to report an increase in deaths: Asia 13% for 1,494,768.
Decreasing were North America 23% for 1,560,613, South America 22% for 1,334,532, Africa 18% for 257,994, Europe 15% for a world-high 1,955,918, Oceania 13% for 21,997.
Japan, South Korea, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia and France reported increases in both deaths and cases in the past week.
Japan posted the most weekly cases, 584,247 in a 17% increase and was third in deaths at 647, a 6% gain.
South Korea’s 366,990 infections were second in the world, with a 7% rise, and deaths were 373, a 42% increase in ninth.
Germany, which posted the most weekly cases recently for several weeks, dropped to fifth at 172,011 in a 18% decrease, seven weeks after a 60% gain, and the second-most deaths at 1,062, with no change two weeks after a 88% gain. Germany is the second-most deaths at 1,025, with a 3% drop and 88% rise four weeks ago.
The only other cases’ increase among nations with at least 25,000: France 53% at 234,617 in third, Brazil 68% in eighth at 105,340, Australia 8% at 68,169 in ninth, Hong Kong 34% in 10th at 49,316, Indonesia 19% in 11th at 46,568, Russia 3% in 13th at 36,424, Austria 4% in 14th at 26,551.
Decreases in the past week in descending order were United States 27% in fourth at 188,703, Italy 15% in sixth at 153,345, Taiwan 14% in seventh at 131,088, Chile 16% in 12th at 39,013.
Among nations reporting more than 100 deaths with increases in the past week: France 9% in fifth at 444, Taiwan 16% in seventh at 406, Indonesia 7% in 10th at 280, Spain 71% in 12th at 243, Australia 21% in 14th at 105.
Other decreases were United States 17% at No. 1 1,560, Britain 36% at No. 4 509, Russia 2% at No. 6 431, Italy 22% at No. 8 379, Brazil 18% at No. 11 259, Chile 6% at No. 13 182, Canada 70% at No. 15 102.
The United States leads with 1,102,505 fatalities and 100,162,519 infections. The nation also holds the world record for daily cases at 906,806 on Jan. 7. Brazil is second in deaths at 688,994, including 36 Saturday, and fifth in cases at 35,060,020.
India is second in cases at 44,669,015, including 492 Sunday, the lowest since 437 March 31, 2020, and third in deaths at 530,574 including four most recently, with three reconciled by Kerald with a single death reported each Monday and Tuesday and zero the last time on March 24, 2020.
India has the daily deaths record at 4,529 on May 18, 2021, with no adjustments from regions.
In the top 10 for deaths, Russia is fourth with 391,454 including 59 Sunday, Mexico is fifth with 330,444 and no weekend data, Peru sixth with 217,229, Britain seventh with 196,241, Italy eighth with 180,518, Indonesia ninth with 159,379 including 31 Sunday and France 10th with 158,163.
In the top 10 for cases, France is third with 37,334,635 including 47,088 Saturday, Germany fourth with 36,205,405, South Korea sixth with 25,558,765 including 46,011 Sunday, Italy seventh with 24,031,538, Britain eighth with 23,977,637, Japan ninth with 23,771,785 including 77,722 Sunday, Russia 10th with 21,536,229 including 5,217 Sunday.
On Tuesday, Japan reported 103,345 cases, the most since Sept. 9. And deaths Sunday were 122 133 Thursday, the most since 139 Sept. 18.
Japan’s seven-day moving case average is 83,463 compared with 26,325 Oct. 12 and under 20,000 in early July with the daily record 255,316 Aug. 18.
Japan raised the alert to the second-highest level out of four tiers on Thursday.
An expert at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government coronavirus monitoring meeting on Thursday said an expert warned that the capital “can be considered to be entering an eighth wave of infections.”
Cases are surging as foreign visitors to Japan rose to nearly 500,000 in October, the first month it fully reopened to overseas visitors after more than two years of Covid restrictions. That was double the volume from September.
Throughout the pandemic Japan has had a low deaths rate.
Japan has 384 deaths per million, which is 143th in the nation, with the world at 850.0 and Peru No. 1 at 6,449. In cases, Japan’s rate is 189,289 per million in 87th place with the world 81,810 and Austria the highest among large countries at 608,588 with France 569,260, Portugal 546,035 and Denmark 538,695. Japan’s population is 125 million.
On Tuesday, Japan said it was reopening its ports to cruise ships in March 2023, with some 166 ships slated to visit next year, industry group Japan International Cruise Committee said.
Japan closed to cruise ships after Carnival’s Diamond Princess became one of the first hotbeds for coronavirus infection in early 2020.
In Korea, South Korea surpassed the milestone of 30,000 deaths, including 41 reported Sunday.
South Korea seven-day cases average is 52,427 but it reached 404,626 on March 19, when the daily record was 621,328 on March 17.
In the United States, the CDC has classified 2.8% of counties, districts and territories with a “high” category level, compared with 16.7% “medium” and 80.4% “low.” In “high” locations, masks are urged indoors mainly in scattered places in the Plains and Rockies.
In its weekly update Thursday, the CDC reported 280,711 cases. Four weeks ago it was 261,410, the lowest since 227,179 April 13. The record was 5,603,140 Jan. 19.
And the deaths average fell to 2,222, the lowest since 2,045 June 22 and the record 23,372 Jan. 13, 2021.
The predominant Omicron subvariant BQ.1 is projected to represent 25.5% of the total cases in the week ending Saturday with BQ,1,1 at 24.2% and BA.5, which dominated since the early summer, dropped to 24.0%.
Overall Omicron is 96.9%. The original dominant variant Delta is at 0%.
“Any kind of boost really reduces your chances of getting very sick from COVID,” Dr. Kathryn Stephenson, an infectious disease expert at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told USA Today.
The new viral Omicron descendants of BA.5 and BA.2 might cause slightly more severe disease than BA.1 or the original Omicron, said Jeremy Luban, a professor of molecular medicine, biochemistry and molecular biotechnology at UMass Chan Medical School.
“It’s a little bit eerily familiar,” Luban told NPR in a report on Nov. 11. “This time of year last year we were optimistic. We were coming out of the delta wave, and it was steadily decreasing, and we went into Thanksgiving to wake up to omicron. So there is this sort of déjà vu feeling from last year.”
In its weekly report Thursday, the CDC said the U.S. adult one-shot vaccination rate was 91.6% with completed primary service at 78.5% and updated booster doses 13.1%. The full population rates are 80.6% for one shot, 68.7% for completed primary and 11.3% updated booster 5 and older.
New weekly hospitalizations in the United States for one week were 3,444, which is a 4.4% weekly decline. A total of 5,516,552 have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since its inception with a population of 332 million. The U.S. total reported Sunday was 27,416, which is 3.92% capacity, and far below the record 160,113 (20.6%) on Jan. 20, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
