The shooting stoked fears among those in the Asian-American community, which has reported a spike in hate crimes since March 2020 when then-president Donald Trump began referring to Covid-19 as the “China virus.” While the UN statement does not single out any countries, it comes after a shooting in Atlanta earlier this month left eight people dead, six of them Asian-American women. The United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres is concerned about the rise of violence against Asians and people of Asian descent globally during the Covid-19 pandemic, a UN spokesman said on Monday. Early studies suggest they can overcome some antibodies, increase a person’s chances of reinfection and diminish the efficacy of vaccines.Īn Oxford University study published last week that suggested antibodies developed through both natural illness and vaccines can still neutralise such variants, albeit at lower levels. It warned that if urgent measures are not taken to reduce infections, hospital bed occupancy could soar to 85% by 4 April.īoth the P1 and P2 Covid-19 strains have been identified as spreading rapidly in Brazil, which has the world’s highest daily caseload at present.
Patients with Covid accounted for 22% of those beds. Uruguay, which has a population 3.5 million, has in recent weeks seen a surge in new cases, deaths and demand for hospital intensive care beds, with occupancy rates for the latter reaching 64%, the Uruguayan Society of Intensive Care Medicine said in a report. The Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou has called a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to address the issue. Gregorio Iraola, a scientist with Uruguay’s Inter-Institutional Working Group (GTI) conducting genome sequencing of Covid-19 cases, said the P2 variant was now being transmitted within the wider community rather than brought in from overseas, making tackling the outbreak “more complicated.” Scientists examined 175 Covid-19 samples taken from around the country and found the Brazilian P1 strain in 24 of them and the P2 variant in four. Uruguay has confirmed that it has detected the presence of two coronavirus variants that originated in neighbouring Brazil as the nation faces a rise in cases and deaths.
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