Australia and Israel, which became role model for the world for successfully bending the covid 19 curves, reimposed restrictions on Friday as cases surged of the highly contagious delta variant which is currently threatening Africa with its brutal third wave.
The centre of Australia's largest city Sydney re-entered lockdown, a shocking population that had recently returned to normality, while Israel reimposed indoor mask-wearing within less than two weeks after it lifted the measures. And in Fiji, another country with an early success against the virus, health authorities admitted for the first time that covid transmission is widespread in the community.
While vaccination have helped bring down infection rates in mostly wealthy countries, the rise of the delta variant which first originated in India has raised concerns worldwide, already killing nearly 3.9 million people.
The head of Israel pandemic response task force, Nachman ash said that the rise was likely due to delta variant, adding that the increasing cases were not yet matched by a parallel rise in hospitalizations and deaths.
Russia is also battling rising delta variant cases, reporting more than 20,000 cases on Thursday, the highest since January. Africa centres for disease control and prevention (Africa CDC) director John Nkengasong described the third wave hitting the continent as "extremely brutal" and "devastating".
The delta variant has been reported in 14 African countries making up the bulk of new cases in the democratic republic of congo and Uganda, according to who.
Source: AFP.
