CITY A.M. – China owes it to the 3.75m people who have died from Covid-19 to co-operate with investigations into the origins of the virus, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Ghebreyesus told journalists today that G7 leaders had discussed the origins of Covid-19 today at a joint summit on health which he attended, adding that “we need cooperation from the Chinese side, we need transparency to understand and find the origin of this virus”.
The WHO’s initial investigation into the origins of Covid-19 proved to be inconclusive, with further work soon to begin. The organization has complained that the Chinese government was not forthcoming in providing data and information that could uncover where the virus came from.
“More than 174m people have been confirmed for Covid illness…3.75m people have died – this is very tragic,” Ghebreyesus said.
“I think the respect people deserve is knowing what the origin of this virus is, so we can prevent it from happening again … ” Click here to read more.
In China’s latest outbreak, doctors say the infected get sicker, faster.
By Keith Bradsher, June 12, 2021
THE NEW YORK TIMES – As the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads in southeastern China, doctors say they are finding that the symptoms are different and more dangerous than those they saw when the initial version of the virus started spreading in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan.
Patients are becoming sicker and their conditions are worsening much more quickly, doctors told state-run television on Thursday and Friday.
Four-fifths of symptomatic cases developed fevers, they said, although it was not clear how that compared with earlier cases. The virus concentrations that are detected in their bodies climb to levels higher than previously seen, and then decline only slowly, the doctors said.
Up to 12 percent of patients become severely or critically ill within three to four days of the onset of symptoms, said Guan Xiangdong, director of critical care medicine at Sun Yat-sen University in the city of Guangzhou, where the outbreak has been centered. In the past, the proportion had been 2 percent or 3 percent, although occasionally up to 10 percent, he said.
Doctors in Britain and Brazil have reported similar trends with the variants that circulated in those countries, but the severity of those variants has not yet been confirmed.
The testimonies from China are the latest indication of the dangers posed by Delta, which the World Health Organization last month labeled a “variant of concern.”
First identified this spring in India, where it was blamed for widespread suffering and death, Delta has since become the dominant variant in Britain, where doctors suggest that it is more contagious and may infect some people who have received only one of two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
China has uniquely detailed data, however, because it has essentially universal testing in the vicinity of outbreaks, allowing officials to gather detailed information on the extent of cases … Click here to read more.
