World Coronavirus Dispatch: Why more children are dying in some nations?

Britons reject Johnson's call to take two Covid tests a week, CDC ramps up R&D on variant first found in India, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Britons reject Boris Johnson’s call to take 2 Covid tests per week

Boris Johnson’s government has always maintained that mass testing is the key to the UK getting back to normal, after suffering one of the worst death tolls from coronavirus in the world. However, the number of rapid tests for coronavirus being carried out in England fell to just over five million per week at the start of May, from a high of 7.6 million in the week to March 17 when schools reopened after the winter lockdown. This is despite a government campaign calling on members of the public to test themselves twice weekly at home. The rapid test total has fallen for three weeks in a row in England, which has a total population of about 56 million people. Read here

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 162,535,050

Global deaths: 3,369,744

Nations with most cases: US (32,924,078), India (24,046,809), Brazil (15,586,534), France (5,925,071), Turkey (5,106,862).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

US CDC ramps up research on highly contagious variant from India

US health officials are ramping up their surveillance of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in India as experts warn that under-vaccinated areas in the US could become hot spots for the mutation. While US cases attributed to the B.1.617 variant currently sit below 1 per cent, the growth rate remains unclear due to the small sample size. Meanwhile, one science group said the strain could be as much as 50 per cent more transmissible than B.1.1.7, the variant that emerged from the UK. It was first seen in the US in late December, and is now dominant nationally. Read here

Germany suspends travel from the UK amid concerns of a variant’s spread

Germany is banning most travel from Britain amid concerns about the spread of a coronavirus variant first discovered in India. German citizens and residents will still be allowed to enter the country from Britain but will be required to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival. The move came just days after Britain reopened its museums and cinemas and resumed allowing indoor service in pubs and restaurants. Many people in Britain have been looking forward to traveling abroad in the coming months, and Spain is set to welcome visitors arriving from Britain without a coronavirus test. Read here

Children with Covid: why are some countries seeing more cases – and deaths?

Why is Covid-19 infecting and affecting children so severely in some countries like Brazil and Indonesia but not in others, to the point where some countries may forgo vaccinating children for the time being? While more research is needed, experts say there are several factors playing a role. One is that diagnosis of Covid-19 in children is coming too late, when children are already severely unwell and treatment is more difficult. While most children seem to have asymptomatic to mildly infections which could be managed at home, there is a growing number of severe cases in children. Read here