COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 7 April

1. How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 132.4 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 2.87 million. More than 677.93 million vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

India has reported a record 115,736 new COVID-19 cases, according to data from the health ministry.

The number of people being treated for COVID-19 in French intensive care units has hit its highest point in almost a year.

U.S. President Joe Biden said yesterday that all American adults will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine by 19 April.

South Korea has reported 668 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily count since 8 January.

Mexico's health regulator has authorized the emergency use of India's COVID-19 vaccine COVAXIN, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday.

The Czech government has authorized a slight relaxing of coronavirus restrictions, with some schools and selected shops set to reopen next week.

California plans to fully reopen its economy on 15 June if COVID-19 hospitalizations are low and stable and vaccine supplies allow, Governor Gavin Newsom said yesterday.

The Japanese metropolis of Osaka is to declare a medical emergency as new COVID-19 infections climb to all-time highs, the Kyodo news agency reported.

COVID-19 fatalities in Brazil passed 4,000 for the first time yesterday.

Toronto is cancelling all in-person schooling as of today, as Canada deals with a variant-driven third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

2. 'Travesty' that some nations unable to start COVID-19 vaccinations: WHO

It's a 'travesty' that some countries are still unable to begin vaccinating health workers and the most vulnerable against COVID-19, the Director-General of the World Health Organization said yesterday.

“Scaling up production and equitable distribution remains the major barrier to ending the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference.

“It’s a travesty that in some countries health workers and those at-risk groups remain completely unvaccinated.”

The WHO has also said it expects there to be no reason to change its assessment that the benefits of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh any risks.

“What we can say is that the appraisal that we have for the moment - and this is under consideration by the experts - is that the benefits-risk assessment for the vaccine is still largely positive,” Rogerio Gaspar, WHO director of regulation and prequalification, told a Geneva news conference.

3. A third of COVID survivors suffer neurological or mental disorders: study

One-in-three COVID-19 survivors in a study of more than 230,000 mostly American patients were diagnosed with a brain or psychiatric disorder within six months, scientists said yesterday.

The study, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, looked at the health records of 236,379 COVID-19 patients - mostly in the United States - and found that 34% received a diagnosis within six months.

The disorders were significantly more common in COVID-19 patients than in comparison groups of people who recovered from flu or other respiratory infections over the same time period, the scientists said, suggesting COVID-19 had a specific impact.

“Although the individual risks for most disorders are small, the effect across the whole population may be substantial,” said Paul Harrison, an Oxford psychiatry professor who co-led the work.