Covid-19 has infected more than 239M people and killed over 4.8M globally. Here are the major virus-related developments for October 14:
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Suicides among Japanese children at record high
Child suicides in Japan are the highest they have been in more than four decades, local media have reported, citing the country’s Education Ministry.
As the Covid-19 pandemic prompted school closings and disrupted classrooms last year, 415 children from elementary to high school age were recorded as having taken their own lives, according to the education ministry’s survey.
The number is up by nearly 100 from last year, the highest since record-keeping began in 1974, the Asahi newspaper reported on Thursday.
Suicide has a long history in Japan as a way of avoiding perceived shame or dishonour, and its suicide rate has long topped the Group of Seven nations, but a national effort brought numbers down by roughly 40 percent over 15 years, including 10 straight years of decline from 2009.
The Education Ministry said a record high of more than 196,127 school children were absent for 30 days or more, media reported.
The results showed that changes in school and household environments due to the pandemic have had a huge impact on children’s behaviour, NHK quoted an education ministry official as saying.
Australia employment falls 138,000 in Sept amid lockdowns
Australian employment fell sharply for a second month in September as coronavirus lockdowns forced businesses to lay off workers and slash hours, while the jobless rate was held down by another drop in the number of people looking for work.
Thursday’s data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed employment fell by 138,000 in September, compared to median forecasts of a drop of 137,500.
The unemployment rate edged up to 4.6 percent, from 4.5 percent when analysts had expected a rise to 4.8 percent. The rate has been badly distorted by lockdowns which prevent people from looking for work and being counted as unemployed.
Australia cancels men’s and women’s Opens due to Covid
Australia has cancelled its men’s and women’s Open tournaments in a hammer blow for the struggling domestic game as Covid-19 and travel restrictions continue to bite.
Organisers had planned a late-January, early-February window for the men’s Australian Open in Sydney after its original November schedule proved untenable.
But Golf Australia boss James Sutherland said enduring travel curbs and the country’s mandatory 14-day quarantine had left organisers with no choice but to cancel the flagship event for a second year in a row.
“The international element means shifting quarantine and travel restrictions wreak havoc on planning and, with our marquee players living abroad, the challenge is even greater,” Sutherland said in a statement on Thursday.
“The pressure and risk on host venues and organisers is also high – these are small businesses who have already faced huge disruption due to the pandemic.”
Covid cases in Australia’s Victoria hit record daily high
Covid-19 infections in Australia’s Victoria hit a pandemic record on Thursday as Melbourne, the state capital looks to exit its lockdown next week, several days ahead of plan, helped by a faster-than-expected vaccine uptake.
The surge in daily cases comes as Victoria nears the 70 percent threshold for double-dose vaccinations among eligible adults, when authorities have promised to end a months-long lockdown, against the original October 26 forecast.
Victoria logged 2,297 new cases on Thursday, the highest number of any state or territory in the country since the pandemic began. Eleven new deaths were recorded.
Most new cases were detected in Melbourne, with the city now clearly at the centre of the country’s Delta outbreak.
J&J shot gets better boost from Moderna or Pfizer in NIH study
People who got Johnson & Johnson Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine as a first shot had a stronger immune response when boosted with vaccines from Pfizer Inc /BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc, a study run by the National Institutes of Health showed on Wednesday.
The study, which is preliminary and hasn’t been peer-reviewed, is the latest challenge to J&J’s efforts to use its Covid-19 vaccine as a booster in the United States.
The study, which included more than 450 adults who received initial shots from Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson, showed that “mixing and matching” booster shots of different types is safe in adults. Moderna’s and Pfizer’s vaccines are based on messenger RNA while J&J’s uses viral vector technology.
It comes as an advisory group to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is preparing to meet later this week to discuss the merits of a booster shot for Moderna and J&J vaccines.
FDA officials on Wednesday said J&J’s regulatory submission for its planned booster raised red flags including small sample sizes and data based on tests that had not been validated.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
Suicides among Japan children at record high in pandemic – latest updates
Source: News Achor Trending
0 Comments