Shanghai claims victory on Covid, US sees Omicron subvariant surge

China was one of the countries that contributed to an overall global Covid surge earlier this year. Months later, the country has now claimed victory on the virus in the financial hub of Shanghai and the capital city of Beijing.

In North Korea, amid lack of independent data, the World Health Organization (WHO) fears that the situation might be getting worse. The US has seen a surge in Omicron subvariant, known as BA.2.12.1. Worldwide, over 530,617,830 have been registered so far, and 6,294,337 deaths.

Here are the latest updates on Covid-19 across the world:

1. As it recorded lowest rise in daily tally in three months, China claimed victory over Shanghai’s Covid outbreak. A front-page report in the People’s Daily newspaper Thursday headlined “Great Achievements Have Been Made in the Defense of Shanghai” declared victory in the fight against the virus in the financial hub, a Bloomberg report highlighted.

2. Shanghai sprung back to life after two months of lockdown. The Chinese government has said that all restrictions in the city will be lifted gradually. Meanwhile, a candidate from China’s Walvax Biotechnology using mRNA technology triggered a stronger antibody response against the Omicron variant as a booster dose than Sinovac’s shot, reported Reuters.

3. A new Omicron subvariant has made up nearly 60 percent of all new cases in the United States, according to reports, citing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

4. In the US, Covid cases have increased 10.4 per cent last week from the previous one, but countries must also pay attention to a rise in other respiratory viruses in the region, said the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

5. Even as North Korea state media has said that the Covid wave has abated, the World Health Organization (WHO) has cast its doubts. The WHO has said that it believes the situation is getting worse, not better in North Korea. While Pyongyang has never directly confirmed how many people have tested positive for coronavirus, experts suspect under-reporting in the figures that has been released through the state media. North Korea reported 96,610 more people showing fever amid its nationwide lockdown, reported Reuters.

6. “It is very, very difficult to provide a proper analysis to the world when we don’t have access to the necessary data,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan was quoted as saying by news agency AFP. The world health body had previously voiced concerns about the impact of coronavirus in North Korea’s population, which is believed to be largely unvaccinated and whose fragile health systems could struggle to deal with a surge of cases prompted by the super-infectious omicron and its subvariants.

7. Canada on Wednesday authorized a single booster shot of Pfizer and partner BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for 16- and 17-year-olds, reports said.The booster is meant to be administered six months after the primary two-dose series.

8. Pfizer has also asked U.S. regulators to clear its vaccine for emergency use in children under age 5 as the coverage expands The drugmaker and BioNTech SE finalized their application to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency-use authorization for their vaccine in kids 6 months through 4 years old, the companies said in a statement on Wednesday. The vaccine partners began the submission process in February.

9. Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi has tested positive for coronavirus, and is recuperating at home, the ministry said on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report.

10. In signs that the economy is reopening, almost 10 times as many tourists visited Spain in April compared to the same month last year, spending close to the amount that foreign visitors did before COVID-19.