Authorities in Australia reported a record number of COVID-19 infections, including two deaths Saturday, mainly in the New South Wales, and urged people to say at home to minimize a further spread of the coronavirus due to the delta variant of the disease.
Speaking to reporters in Sydney, New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the state recorded 319 locally acquired cases in previous 24 hours, the highest daily number of new cases recorded in the New South Wales since the beginning the pandemic.
"We need to make sure that we stay at home,” Hazzard said, and go out only when it is absolutely necessary, “to make sure that we beat this delta virus that is wreaking havoc across the world."
The neighboring state of Victoria recorded 29 new infections, the highest daily total this year, after the state declared a seven-day lockdown earlier this week.
Victoria Premier Dan Andrews also urged people to leave home only for essential work, shopping, care, vaccination or two hours for outdoor exercise.
"This delta variant spreads so fast," Andrews said, "we don't have enough of people vaccinated, we will finish up with younger people in the hospital, otherwise fit and healthy people. Our system will be overrun if we don't bring this under control."
Queensland recorded 13 new cases, while the state has planned to lift the lockdown on Sunday afternoon.
According to Reuters, Thailand on Saturday reported 21,838 coronavirus cases and 212 deaths, both new records, data from the country's COVID-19 task force showed.
In the United States, the White House reported Friday that the United States has now officially fully vaccinated half of its population, thanks to surge in vaccinations during the past week.
On his Twitter account, White House COVID-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar said that as of Friday, 821,000 total vaccinations had been administered for the week, including 565,000 newly vaccinated people. He said the seven-day average of newly vaccinated Americans is up 11% from last week and 44% over the past two weeks.
Earlier Friday, a European Union medical regulatory body, the European Medicines Agency, recommended updating medical warning labels for the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to indicate additional possible reactions to the drug.
That news came just hours after Johnson & Johnson reported the positive results of a South African research trial showing the vaccine to provide 91% to 96.2% protection against death, 67% efficacy against hospitalization with the beta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, and 71% against the delta variant.
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center released data Friday showing that despite the introduction of new COVID-19 vaccines in recent months, the virus continues to spread across all parts of the world, driven by the highly contagious delta variant.
Some information in this report was provided by the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
