Omicron may have evolved from mice, France has half a million more Covid-19 infections
In the past 24 hours, the world has had nearly 2.8 million new infections and about 8,000 deaths as Covid-19 continues to attack 223 countries and territories.
According to data updated at 6:00 a.m. on January 26 by the statistics website Worldometers, the global pandemic has infected nearly 358.5 million people and claimed the lives of 5.6 million victims. The number of recoveries reached 284 million cases.
In terms of deaths, the US still leads the world with more than 1,700 Covid-19 deaths. In terms of new infections, France jumped to number 1 with about 501,600 newly recorded cases.
By continent, Europe remains the hardest hit by Covid-19 with a total of more than 116.7 million infections. Next is Asia (96 million infections), North America (85.6 million), South America (46.4 million), Africa (nearly 10.1 million) and Oceania (2.5 million).
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| Photo: Alamy |
Omicron may have evolved from mice
After conducting research, Chinese scientists determined that the Omicron variant may have spread from mice to humans.
While world experts are still looking for answers aboutOrigin of Omicron, Chinese scientists announced that they had just found evidence of a link between Omicron and mice in the DNA of the latest variant. Through analysis, they found that Omicron carried mutations that made this variant more likely to infect groups of animals.
The team compared Omicron's DNA to the original Wuhan strain and other variants, including Alpha and Delta, of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and found that Omicron had a much higher average number of mutations.
Thailand vaccinates children 5-11 years old
Starting January 31, Thai authorities will launch a Covid-19 vaccination campaign for children aged 5-11.
The campaign will use 3 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, starting with children in vulnerable groups at the Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health and then other children, according to a government spokesman. The vaccines will be delivered to Thailand on January 26 under a previously agreed purchase agreement for 10 million doses.
To date, about 4.5 million of Thailand's 5 million adolescents aged 12-18 have received one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and more than 4 million have received the second dose.
Covid-19 emergency 'ends' in 2022
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that countries could end the Covid-19 situation as a global health emergency in 2022.
To achieve that, the world must redouble efforts to ensure equitable access to vaccines and treatments, continue to monitor the pandemic and the emergence of new virus variants, while maintaining infection prevention measures, said Mr. Tedros.
The WHO has repeatedly called on countries to do more to speed up vaccine distribution in low-income areas, and urged them to meet their target of vaccinating at least 70% of their populations by mid-year. Tedros said that half of the WHO’s 194 member states had missed their previous target of vaccinating 40% of their populations by the end of 2021.
The WHO Director-General stressed that the world needs to learn to live with Covid-19 through a sustainable and integrated strategy for acute respiratory diseases.
