• Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host to the G7 summit, says, “We must be honest: International order and solidarity were badly shaken by COVID. Nations were reduced to beggar-my-neighbor tactics in the desperate search for P.P.E., for drugs — and, finally, for vaccines. This is the moment for the world’s greatest and most technologically advanced democracies to shoulder their responsibilities and to vaccinate the world, because no one can be properly protected until everyone has been protected.” Source
• Dr Hans Kluge, Europe’s WHO Director, warns that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is “poised to take hold in the region” as countries ease restrictions. Source
• Moderna submits a request to the US FDA (following those to EMA and Health Canada) for expanding the emergency use authorization of its coronavirus vaccine to include 12- to 17-year-olds. Source
• An audit was ordered by Bihar’s High Court to investigate the State’s true COVID-19 death toll after a district commissioner reported that one cremation ground handled 789 bodies over a 13-day period in May, rather than the seven deaths that Tripurari Sharan, a top state-level official, reported for the entire month of May. The audit revealed that the state’s COVID-19 death toll from March 2020 onwards was actually over 9,000, far higher than the official count of 5,500. Source
• As coronavirus cases rise in the UAE, Abu Dhabi limits access to public places to people with green status – people who have been vaccinated or who have a recent negative coronavirus test result; unvaccinated people will need to be tested every three days to maintain their green status. Source
• Italy has been offering young people AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine several weeks ahead of schedule at “open days” and “open nights” events (despite a recommendation from the EMA to avoid its use in people under age 40 due to rare blood clots with low platelets). The country is now considering whether to impose age-based restrictions on the vaccine, following other countries in the bloc such as France (to people over age 55) and Belgium (to people over age 41) – and the EU has not re-ordered more of the vaccine. Source