The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center reported early Sunday that it has recorded 224.3 million global COVID-19 infections and 4.6 million global deaths. The center also said 5.7 billion vaccines have been administered.  

Britain is expected to announce this week its plans for inoculating 12- to 15-year-old youngsters in the battle against the coronavirus. The vaccine campaign will likely start later this month.

More than 50% of Japan’s population has received COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Japanese government. Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said in a television interview Sunday that the inoculation rate is expected to reach 60% by the end of September.

Myanmar is fighting a third COVID-19 wave at a time of increasing political tensions.

According to World Health Organization data, more than 400,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 in Myanmar, with more than 16,000 dead. Public health officials, however, say they believe the figures are widely undercounted.

The Times of India reported that the northeastern state of Mizoram’s COVID-19 tally reached 70,000, after 1,089 new cases were recorded Sunday, including 245 children.

Johns Hopkins has recorded 33.2 million COVID-19 cases in India and more than 442,000 deaths. Health officials say they believe that India’s COVID-19 numbers are likely undercounted.

India is second only to the United States in COVID infections. The U.S. has a COVID-19 tally of 41 million infections and nearly 660,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

COVID-sniffing dogs at Miami Airport

Two COVID-sniffing dogs, a Belgium Malinois and a Dutch shepherd, are smelling the face coverings of employees at Miami International Airport to detect the presence of the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade county, said in a statement about the pilot program that, “This pandemic has pushed us to innovate to stop the spread.”

Miami International Airport said the dogs, which have been deployed to an employee security checkpoint, were trained at Florida International University, where they “achieved accuracy rates from 96 to 99% for detecting COVID-19 in published peer-reviewed, double-blind trials.”

If the dogs identify someone as carrying the coronavirus odor, that person is then directed to a rapid COVID test.

Miami International said it is the first U.S. airport to utilize COVID-sniffing dogs.

Source: Voice Of America