8 September
Globally, the total confirmed cases of Covid-19 have reached over 222,043,000 with more than 4,58,000 deaths reported.
Japan has reported over 37,000 new daily confirmed cases of Covid-19 in September, the highest number recorded in the country so far.
Infections began to rise rapidly following the commencement of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in mid-July.
Despite 48% of Japan’s population being fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the highly infectious Delta variant is driving a rapid rise in local transmissions nationwide.
Death from Covid-19 is lower than the previous peak in January; however, it will rise if the current trajectory of cases continues.
A state of emergency announced in Tokyo during the Olympics will be extended until the end of September.
Vietnam has reported on average 12,000 daily new cases of Covid-19 in September, as the seven-day rolling average of cases, continues to rise.
Covid-19 deaths have also started to rise with over 300 daily deaths reported this week.
Vietnam was one of the select few countries which did not have any major outbreak of Covid-19 before the arrival of the Delta variant.
Mitigation measures which prevented the surge previously were inadequate for this variant.
Vietnam has fully vaccinated just 4% of its population and the pace of the vaccine rollout has been relatively slower compared to neighboring countries in South East Asia.
As Vietnam does not currently have enough vaccines for its population, the only realistic solution is to continue the mitigation measures with regional lockdowns where necessary.
Bishal Bhandari, PhD, Senior Epidemiologist at GlobalData
