Covid-19 deaths

China reports huge rise in Covid-related deaths after data criticism

A computational biologist says Covid-19 deaths in China may actually be up to ten times higher than reported.

University of Auckland Professor David Welch said given the country's population of 1.4 billion people, he expects cases and deaths are likely much higher.

"Looking at comparable countries, maybe Hong Kong or Japan, we'd expect hundreds of millions of cases in China by now.

"Assuming that say 1 in 1000 people who gets Covid - that's a very conservative estimate - dies, that adds up to hundreds of thousands of deaths."

WHO warns about China under-representing Covid deaths

The removal of most restrictions last month has led to a surge in cases.

But China has stopped publishing daily cases data, and has announced only 22 Covid deaths since December, using its own strict criteria.

"We believe that definition [of a Covid death] is too narrow," WHO emergencies director Dr Michael Ryan said.

Dr Ryan said China's figures "under-represent the true impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, and particularly in terms of deaths".

Three more children among 12 Covid deaths in Fiji

This takes the death toll since the pandemic hit the country in 2020 to 791.

Fiji's Government also confirmed on Wednesday the 10 day-old infant, 8 year-old girl and 13 year-old boy are among 12 Covid-19 patients who died.

There are 223 new cases in the community, with a total of 1,980 patients in isolation.

Health Secretary Dr James Fong said all three children were from the Northern Division.

He said the baby had passed away at home before she could be taken to the hospital.

Three more Covid deaths in Solomons

Health authorities confirmed the country's first two deaths on Tuesday.

During a media conference on Thursday night, Health Minister Dr Culwick Togamana, said they are expecting more cases in the coming days.

He said community transmission was now widespread in the capital Honiara and some provincial areas.

"For the Western Province, a surge in flu-like illness was noted in Rukutu Village where we suspect a recent gathering involving those who travelled from Honiara and may have transmitted Covid-19.

Solomon Islands reports first Covid-19 deaths

Solomon Business Magazine reports Health Minister Culwick Togamana announced the deaths this afternoon along with the latest figures showing 650 cases of Covid-19 as of midday Tuesday.

The two victims were a 51-year-old female and a 59-year-old male who had pre-existing conditions, including diabetes and high-blood pressure before contracting the virus.

They passed away on Monday night at the National Referral Hospital.

Covid virus may have killed 80k-180k health workers, WHO says

Healthcare workers must be prioritised for vaccines, WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, and he criticised unfairness in the distribution of jabs.

The deaths occurred between January 2020 and May of this year.

Earlier, another senior WHO official warned a lack of jabs could see the pandemic continue well into next year.

There are an estimated 135 million healthcare workers globally.

"Data from 119 countries suggest that on average, two in five healthcare workers globally are fully vaccinated," Dr Tedros said.

New Caledonia records three more COVID-19 deaths

Official government figures as of Tuesday show 4 deaths and 1,150 confirmed cases of COVID-19 recorded since 6 September.

Up until then there had been no COVID-19 deaths in the French Territory and only 136 infections recorded during two previous outbreaks.

There were 329 new cases reported in the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday and 15 people with the virus are in intensive care.

A curfew between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. has been put in place until midnight on Monday, 27 September.

10 people a day dying of COVID-19 in Fiji, says govt

In its latest update, the government said the country has a seven-day rolling average of 10 COVID deaths per day, with six in the west and four in the central division.

Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said the country is averaging 1462 new cases and 10 deaths per day over the last week.

The death toll is at 433, with 431 of them from this latest outbreak that began in April this year.

He said 230 positive patients, who died from serious medical conditions they had before contracting COVID-19, were not classified as dying from the virus.

50% of COVID-19 deaths in Fiji recorded at home

The government said many people dying of COVID-19 had not given healthcare workers a chance to treat them.

Fiji's Health Ministry reported 398 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths for the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

That compared with 568 cases and 13 deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said there were enough ventilators in health facilities across the country to accommodate the COVID-19 patients.

Fiji recording average of eight COVID-19 deaths a day

Health authorities reported 632 new cases in the latest daily update, meaning over 30-thousand people have tested positive to the virus since April.

Two more deaths from the virus were reported, but the Ministry of Health says the 7-day rolling average of COVID deaths per day is eight.

Since April 239 deaths have been recorded from COVID in Fiji. Before the current outbreak began, only two people in Fiji had died from COVID-19.