KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

Pos   /   Country   /   New Daily cases   /   Total Deaths   /        Daily Deaths /           Active Cases   /           Deaths/1M Pop

               World    2,96,416              /             38,27,273            /             6,519     /             1,19,89,644        /             491

1             USA        9,369     /             6,15,256              /             193        /             52,82,783            /             1,848

2             Brazil     40,865   /             4,88,404              /             928        /             11,12,193            /             2,282

3             India      62,597   /             3,77,061              /             1,452     /             9,20,194              /             271

4             Argentina            21,292   /             86,029   /             686        /             3,10,659              /             1,887

5             Iran        10,715   /             82,217   /             119        /             2,90,614              /             967

6             Russia    13,721   /             1,26,801              /             371        /             2,85,960              /             869

7             Mexico  1,707     /             2,30,148              /             53           /             2,69,776              /             1,767

8             Colombia             24,376   /             96,366   /             588        /             1,70,525              /             1,875

9             Italy       907        /             1,27,038              /             36           /             1,57,790              /             2,104

10           UK          7,742     /             1,27,907              /             3             /             1,55,734              /             1,875

11           Poland   140        /             74,574   /             1             /             1,54,175              /             1,972

12           Honduras             654        /             6,631     /             25           /             1,52,933              /             660

13           Spain     2,674     /             80,517   /             6             /             1,34,419              /             1,721

14           France   689        /             1,10,454              /             63           /             1,32,241              /             1,689

15           Indonesia            8,189     /             53,116   /             237        /             1,15,197              /             192

16           South Africa       5,548     /             57,879   /             114        /             83,304   /             964

17           Turkey   5,626     /             48,795   /             74           /             80,442   /             573

18           Netherlands        852        /             17,714   /             3             /             79,865   /             1,032

20           Malaysia              4,949     /             3,968     /             60           /             71,625   /             121

21           Bolivia   1,607     /             15,542   /             57           /             69,747   /             1,314

24           Philippines           6,426     /             22,845   /             57           /             59,096   /             206

31           Bangladesh         3,050     /             13,172   /             54           /             47,970   /             79

35           Pakistan               1,019     /             21,723   /             34           /             41,726   /             97

NATO WARNS OF MILITARY CHALLENGE POSED BY CHINA

Nato leaders meeting for a summit in Brussels have warned of the military threat posed by China, saying its behaviour is a "systemic challenge".

China, they said, was rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, was "opaque" about its military modernisation and was co-operating militarily with Russia.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg warned China was "coming closer" to Nato in military and technological terms.

But he stressed the alliance did not want a new Cold War with China.

According to the summit's communiqué (concluding statement), China's "stated ambitions and assertive behaviour present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order and to areas relevant to Alliance security".

"We remain concerned with China's frequent lack of transparency and use of disinformation," it says.

Mr Stoltenberg told reporters: "We're not entering a new Cold War and China is not our adversary, not our enemy."

But, he added, "we need to address together, as the alliance, the challenges that the rise of China poses to our security".

Mr Biden said Nato was critically important for "US interests" and the alliance had a "sacred obligation" to observe Article 5 of its founding treaty, which commits members to defend each other from attack.

CHINA’S ‘BAT WOMAN,’ AT THE CENTER OF A PANDEMIC STORM, SPEAKS OUT

The Chinese scientist at the center of theories that the coronavirus pandemic originated with a leak from her specialised lab in the city of Wuhan has denied her institution was to blame for the health disaster.

“How on earth can I offer up evidence for something where there is no evidence?” Dr. Shi Zhengli told the New York Times in rare comments to the media.

“I don’t know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist,” she told the U.S. daily.

Shi is an expert in bat coronaviruses, and some scientists have said she could have been leading so-called “gain-of-function” experiments in which scientists increase the strength of a virus to better study its effects on hosts.

According to the New York Times, in 2017 Shi and her colleagues at the Wuhan laboratory published a report on an experiment “in which they created new hybrid bat coronaviruses by mixing and matching parts of several existing ones — including at least one that was nearly transmissible to humans — in order to study their ability to infect and replicate in human cells.”

But in an email to the paper, Dr. Shi said her experiments differed from gain-of-function experiments since they did not seek to make a virus more dangerous. Instead they were trying to understand how the virus might jump across species.

“My lab has never conducted or cooperated in conducting GOF experiments that enhance the virulence of viruses,” she said.

U.K. STUDY FINDS VACCINES OFFER HIGH PROTECTION AGAINST HOSPITALISATION FROM DELTA VARIANT

COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca offer high protection of more than 90% against hospitalisation from the Delta coronavirus variant, a new analysis by Public Health England (PHE) showed on Monday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce a delayto the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in England due to the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant of concern, first identified in India, which is also associated with a higher risk of hospitalisation among the unvaccinated.

PHE said that the Pfizer/Biontech COVID-19 vaccine was 96% effective against hospitalisation from the Delta variant after two doses, while Oxford/AstraZeneca's offered 92% protection against hospitalisation by Delta.

PHE said that those levels of protection were comparable to that against the Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, southeast England.

The analysis adds to evidence that, although the Delta variant reduces the effectiveness of vaccines against symptomatic infection, two doses of COVID-19 vaccine still protect against severe disease.

"These hugely important findings confirm that the vaccines offer significant protection against hospitalisation from the Delta variant," said Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at PHE.

The PHE findings follow a Scottish study which showed that two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine among people who tested positive cut their risk of hospitalisation by 70%, although there were not enough hospital admissions reported to compare the vaccines.

CORONAVIRUS | NOVAVAX ANNOUNCES OVERALL EFFICACY OF ABOUT 90% FOR ITS VACCINE IN U.S., MEXICO STUDY

U.S. vaccine manufacturer Novavax, said its COVID-19 vaccine had shown an overall efficacy of 90.4%  in trials in the U.S. and Mexico, potentially adding — in a few months — another vaccine to the world’s arsenal against the disease which has killed close to four million people.  Trials have already occurred in the UK and South Africa.

The Maryland-based company, which tested its two dose ‘NVX-CoV2373’ vaccine on a population of just under 30,000 adults in the U.S. and Mexico, said the jabs provided 100% protection against moderate to severe disease and an overall efficacy of 90.4%. Of the 77 individuals out of 29,960 in the trial who contracted COVID-19, 14 received the actual vaccine, doses of which were spaced three weeks apart, while 63 had received placebos.

Ten moderate to severe cases of the disease were observed, but all were confined to the placebo group, the company said. All 14 infections in the vaccinated group were mild.  Preliminary data suggest that the vaccine is safe, according to a press release from Novavax.

Novavax detected strains of the virus found first in the U.K.,U.S., Brazil, South Africa and India, according to data released by the company during a Monday morning conference call.

Vaccine efficacy was 91% in “high risk “populations (above 65 years of age, or under 65 years with comorbidities or frequent COVID-19 exposure) the company said.

U.K. PM BORIS JOHNSON DELAYS COVID LOCKDOWN END BY 4 WEEKS TO JULY 19

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday confirmed a four-week delay to an end to all legal lockdown restrictions, which was previously set for June 21, as he said the link between coronavirus infections and hospitalisations remains at concerning levels due to the Delta variant.

The last and fourth stage of the lockdown roadmap, dubbed “Freedom Day”, will now move to July 19 instead amid a worrying spike in cases of the Delta variant, first identified in India, which experts fear will result in greater hospitalisations in coming weeks.

“It is sensible to wait a little longer,” Mr. Johnson said, as he confirmed that July 19 is now expected to be the date for a full unlocking and that he was “confident” that a further delay beyond that should not be required.

“We will now accelerate the second jabs for the over-40s, just as we did for over-50s, to give them all maximum protection,” he said, in reference to a planned acceleration of the vaccination programme.

Mr. Johnson said the month-long delay was to give the National Health Service (NHS) “extra time” and “few more crucial weeks” because of the concerns around the Delta variant, which has caused infection rates to double in the worst affected areas of the country.