Bangladesh is closing schools for two weeks while health data from England and China indicates an easing in COVID-19 infections as the World Health Organisation for the first time recommended vaccine boosters be offered to people.
Bangladeshi authorities on Friday closed all schools and colleges for two weeks to counter an “alarming” rise in COVID-19 infections just four months after ending a one and a half-year school closure imposed due to coronavirus.
The country reported 11,434 new cases on Friday, the biggest single-day jump since August 9, pushing the positivity rate to 28.5 per cent.
“We are seeing an uptick in infections in schools and colleges. This is really alarming,” Health Minister Zahid Maleque told reporters.
He added that public gatherings like political rallies and religious functions involving more than 100 people had been prohibited, although the duration of the ban was not immediately clear.
Authorities hope the closure of schools will help break chains of infection amid fears about the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the virus.
China reported on Friday the lowest daily tally of confirmed locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in nearly two months, while infections edged up in the capital Beijing amid high virus alert before its hosting of the Winter Olympics Games.
China reported 23 domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for Thursday, official data showed on Friday, down from 43 a day earlier.
This marks the fourth consecutive day of decline in local symptomatic cases, with the lowest daily case load since November 29, after a strategy to extinguish flare-ups as quickly as possible forced the worst-hit cities to lock down affected communities and cut non-essential business activity.
On Friday, Beijing detected seven new domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms and another five new local asymptomatic carriers, said Pang Xinghuo, an official at the city’s disease control authority.
The capital had confirmed five local cases for Thursday, up from three a day earlier.
The city is fighting two clusters based on preliminary results from COVID-19 investigations – one caused by the Omicron variant entering through international mail and another where Delta was brought in via imported cold-chain goods, Pang told reporters during a news briefing.
The WHO had said the coronavirus spreads primarily between people in close contact.
Beijing’s caseload, totalling 13 local confirmed cases and five local symptomless carriers since January 15, remains tiny.
Still, the city is keen on minimising virus risk to safely stage the Winter Olympics that starts on February 4.
The estimated range of England’s COVID-19 reproduction “R” number has fallen to between 0.8 and 1.1, the UK Health Security Agency said on Friday, adding that cases are likely shrinking as Prime Minister Boris Johnson reopens the United Kingdom economy.
An R number between 0.8 and 1.1 means that for every 10 people infected, they will on average infect between 8 and 11 other people.
Last week the range was 1.1 to 1.5.
The daily growth of infections was estimated at between -6 per cent to +1 per cent, a big fall of the previous weeks range of +1 per cent to +5 per cent.
The WHO said on Friday that vaccine boosters should now now be offered to people, starting with the most vulnerable, in a move away from its previous insistence that boosters were unnecessary for healthy adults and an acknowledgement that the vaccine supply is improving globally.
It said it was now recommending booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, beginning in the highest-priority groups, about four to six months after receiving the first two doses, in line with guidance from dozens of countries that embarked upon booster programs months ago.
The agency said its expert vaccine group assessed the increasing data about booster doses and noted the waning of immune protection over time.
“Boosters are part of the vaccination program but it doesn’t mean unfettered use to all ages,” Dr Kate O’Brien, WHO director of immunisation, vaccines and biologicals, said.
“We continue to have highest focus on vaccination of highest priority groups,” she said.
The WHO also endorsed the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children as young as five, at a reduced dose.
with reporting from AP
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