Here’s how various countries around the world are coping with the pandemic, including surges, setbacks, travel restrictions, and other generally grim news from Australia, Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, and several US states.
AUSTRALIA
Australia plans to halve commercial passenger arrivals due to virus risks as parts of the country emerged from lockdowns late last week. The country will reduce its cap on arrivals from 6,000 passengers a week to 3,000 by July 14 to reduce pressure on hotel quarantine.
Australia already has some of the world’s tightest border restrictions aimed at keeping COVID-19 out of the country. The new restrictions add to obstacles faced by 34,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents stranded overseas and registered with the government as wanting to come home.
The government will charter more airliners to repatriate Australians, but the reduced limit on commercial passenger arrivals could continue until next year.
Australia has been relatively successful in containing clusters throughout the pandemic, registering fewer than 31,000 cases in a population of 26 million and 910 deaths total, however the higher infection rate of the delta variant has exposed the vulnerability of the Australian population in which, according to government data, only 8% are fully vaccinated.
“A lot of people say: ‘Well, why should I get vaccinated?’ They go: ‘There’s not much COVID around in Australia. I’ve got more chance of, I don’t know, getting run over by a car than catching COVID,”’ Morrison said. “We’re prisoners of our own success in this.”
Meanwhile, Sydney’s two-week lockdown has been extended for another week due to the vulnerability of an Australia population largely unvaccinated against COVID-19, officials said on Wednesday.
“The situation we’re in now is largely because we haven’t been able to get the vaccine that we need,” New South Wales state Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
“The reason why we’ve extended the lockdown is because of a number of cases still infectious in the community and we extended the lockdown to give us the best chance of not having another lockdown,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
EUROPE
Countries across Europe are scrambling to accelerate coronavirus vaccinations and outpace the spread of the more infectious delta variant, in a high-stakes race to prevent hospital wards from filling up again with patients fighting for their lives.
The urgency coincides with Europe’s summer holidays, with fair weather bringing more social gatherings and governments reluctant to clamp down on them. Social distancing is being neglected, especially among the young, and some countries are scrapping the requirement to wear masks outdoors.
Incentives for people to get shots include free groceries, travel and entertainment vouchers, and prize drawings. The president of Cyprus even appealed to a sense of patriotism.
The risk of infection from the delta variant is “high to very high” for partially or unvaccinated communities, according to the European Centre for Disease Control, which monitors 30 countries on the continent. It estimates that by the end of August, the variant will account for 90% of cases in the European Union’s 27 nations.
In the UK, cases of the delta variant have increased fourfold in less than a month, with confirmed cases Friday up 46% on the previous week; Portuguese health authorities have reported a “vertiginous” rise in the delta variant, which accounted for only 4% of cases in May but almost 56% in June. And reports of new infections in Russia more than doubled in June, topping 20,000 per day last week, and new deaths hit 697 on Saturday, the fifth day in a row that the daily death toll set a record.
Dr. Hans Kluge, the head of the WHO’s Europe office, cautions that the delta variant is poised to become dominant by August in the 53-country region his office covers. And he notes that 63% of people in that region haven’t had a first jab. “The three conditions for a new wave of excess hospitalizations and deaths before the (fall) are therefore in place: New variants, deficit in vaccine uptake, (and) increased social mixing.”
UK
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says people in England will no longer be required by law to wear face masks in indoor public spaces and to keep at least 1 meter one metre apart as soon as later this month. Johnson confirmed Monday that legal sanctions will be replaced by individual “informed decisions” when the country moves to the final stage of its lockdown-lifting roadmap. He said that is scheduled to happen on July 19, though a final decision will come July 12.
Meanwhile, Britain’s royal palace says the Duchess of Cambridge is self-isolating after a contact tested positive for the coronavirus. Kate had been due to attend events with her husband Prince William on Monday celebrating the 73rd birthday of Britain’s National Health Service, but the couple’s Kensington Palace office says the duchess is self-isolating at home after coming into contact last week with someone who subsequently tested positive, though she showed no symptoms.
GERMANY
The German government is rejecting calls to fine people who don’t show up to vaccination appointments and fail to cancel them beforehand. The head of the German Red Cross’s Berlin branch has suggested fines of €25 to €30 for people who fail to turn up for appointments at vaccination centres. Health Ministry spokeswoman Parissa Hajebi said that “we want to motivate citizens to get vaccinated and we don’t to scare them off and threaten punishment.”
SPAIN
Faced with soaring numbers of new coronavirus infections among unvaccinated young people, some Spanish regions are reinstating curbs on nightlife only weeks after dropping them. Fearing that the surging contagion could strain health care services as stressed employees try to go on summer holidays, health officials in several parts of the country are also rushing to get COVID-19 vaccine shots to people under 30.
Spain’s strict vaccination rollout has so far focused on older, more vulnerable groups, leaving the vaccination of teenagers and people in their 20s for the summer. So far, 40% of Spain’s 47 million people have been fully vaccinated, one of the highest levels in Europe, but that falls to one in 10 vaccinated in the 20-29 age group and a meager 0.7% for those under 20.
New infections have also spread among Spanish teenagers as a result of trips and parties to celebrate the end of the school year. Thousands have been forced to go into isolation nationwide after more than 1,000 infections were tied to student trips to Spain’s Mallorca islands. At least 700 others have tested positive in mass screenings in the northern Navarra region among students who went to a beach resort last month.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa’s resurgence of COVID-19 is setting record numbers of new daily cases, centred in Johannesburg and driven by the delta variant. More than 26,000 new cases were reported on Saturday, up from 24,000 the previous day, surpassing the highest number of new cases in previous waves and quickly bringing many hospitals to capacity. The official death toll has risen above 63,000, although statistics on excess deaths suggest the country’s actual number of virus fatalities may be more than 170,000. South Africa’s two million cases account for more than 30% of the cases reported by Africa’s 54 countries, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
After a slow start, South Africa’s vaccination drive is picking up pace but is still far behind developed nations: only 3.3 million of South Africa’s 60 million people have received at least one jab of the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Neighbouring southern African countries including Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe are also struggling to cope with a surge of infections.
US – LAS VEGAS
Sin City is back: tourists are streaming in again, gambling revenue has hit an all-time high, the Strip has its first new casino in a decade, and big concerts are starting at a gleaming new stadium. Plexiglass panels installed to separate gamblers at the poker and blackjack tables have largely been removed, the world-famous buffets are reopening, and nightclub dance floors are packed.
But that progress is threatened as Nevada last week saw the highest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the country, hospitalizations are on the rise again, and the highly contagious delta variant has become the most prevalent form of the virus in the state, adding urgency to the campaign to get more people vaccinated.
Over the past two weeks, Nevada’s diagnosis rate of 190 new cases per 100,000 people was higher than that of Missouri, Arkansas, and Wyoming – all states with lower vaccination levels.
State biostatistician Kyra Morgan says the spike in cases might be attributable to the full reopening of the state and city in June and that the return of crowds and big events on the Strip could cause the increase to continue. “We are a state of skeptics when it comes to vaccines,” she added. “We have a lot of anti-vaxxers, frankly, in the state of Nevada.”
US – MAUI
As tourists return in droves, Maui officials are making an unusual plea to airlines: Please don’t bring so many people to our island. “We don’t have the authority to say stop, but we are asking the powers that be to help us,” Mayor Michael Victorino has stated. “Over-tourism” has long been a complaint of locals on the Hawaiian island that is among the world’s most popular getaways: congested roads, crowded beaches, packed restaurants.
And as the US begins to emerge from the pandemic, Maui is reeling from some of the same strains seen on the mainland, like a shortage of hospitality workers. And its restaurants, still operating at limited capacity, are struggling to keep up. The mayor also pointed to illegal parking along the famed Hana Highway, which blocks traffic and threatens access for fire truck and ambulances. Maui’s main airport in Kahului is also overcrowded, and its emergency services are taxed, Victorino says.
US – MINNESOTA
With COVID-19 limits fading away, tourists are returning to Minnesota resorts, many of them from neighbouring states. However, a lot of the workers are not coming back – a shortage that has been building for more than a year, Hospitality Minnesota, the trade association for the state’s hotels, restaurants, resorts and campgrounds.
The industry is down about 50,000 workers from its normal summer level of 280,000 to 290,000 workers. Many of them found other jobs during the first COVID shutdown and others left when a second hospitality shutdown was ordered.
INDONESIA
After a slow vaccination rollout, Indonesia is now racing to inoculate as many people as possible as it battles an explosion of COVID-19 cases that have strained its health care. But inadequate global supply, the complicated geography of the world’s largest archipelago nation, and hesitancy among some Indonesians stand as major roadblocks.
Fuelled by travel in May during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, and the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus first found in India, the most recent spike has pushed some hospitals to the limits. Over the past two weeks, the seven-day rolling average of daily cases rose from to 20,690.
Away from the hospitals, new land continues to be cleared for the dead and last year, Indonesia’s highest Islamic clerical body issued a decree that mass graves — normally forbidden in Islam — would be permitted during the pandemic crisis.
The government has been resisting imposing tougher COVID-19 restrictions for fear of hurting the economy and without the willingness to enter a full lockdown, Indonesia’s only way out is vaccinations, but like many other countries, Indonesia has fallen short of the shots it needs and only 5% of the population has been inoculated.
One health care official says that vaccine hesitancy continues to be a significant problem. “Indonesia still doesn’t have a strong communication strategy… and some people still don’t think this pandemic exists,” he said.
Meanwhile, Indonesia announced that is now requiring foreign visitors to be fully vaccinated as one of the entry requirements as the country tries to curb the spread of COVID-19.