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 Australia finds highly infectious Delta variant in Melbourne
Australia's Victoria state authorities said on Friday they had
detected the highly infectious Delta COVID-19 virus variant for the
first time in the latest outbreak in Melbourne, stoking concerns of
a major spike in cases.
The Delta variant was detected in two members in a family who
travelled to neighbouring New South Wales (NSW) two weeks ago while
likely infectious and visited several popular tourist locations in
the state's south.
Fauci asks China to release medical records of Wuhan lab workers
Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has called on
China to release the medical records of nine people whose ailments
might provide vital clues into whether COVID-19 first emerged as the
result of a lab leak, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
The origin of the virus is hotly contested, with U.S. intelligence
agencies still examining reports that researchers at a Chinese
virology laboratory in Wuhan were seriously ill in 2019 a month
before the first COVID-19 cases were reported.
Delta variant dominant in UK, may increase risk of hospitalisation
The Delta variant of concern first identified in India is now
dominant in Britain and might have an increased risk of
hospitalisation compared to the Alpha variant, Public Health England
said on Thursday.
The Delta variant is also thought to be more transmissible than
Alpha, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that it could
derail plans for lockdown restrictions in England to end on June 21.
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 COVID-19 far more widespread in
Indonesia than official data show
COVID-19 is many times more prevalent in
Indonesia than shown by official figures in the
world's fourth most populous country, authors of
two new studies told Reuters. The results of
Indonesia's first major seroprevalence studies -
which test for antibodies - were revealed
exclusively to Reuters. One
nationwide study between December and January suggested 15% of
Indonesians had already contracted COVID-19 - when official figures
at the end of January had recorded infections among only around 0.4%
of people. Even now, Indonesia's total positive infections are only
around 0.7% of the population.
Malaysia warns of rising number of COVID-19 deaths, cases among
children
Malaysian health authorities have raised concerns about a growing
number of coronavirus deaths and serious cases involving children,
after a surge in overall infections forced the Southeast Asian
nation into a strict lockdown.
Malaysia recorded the deaths of three children aged below five due
to the coronavirus in the first five months of this year, the same
number recorded over the whole of 2020, according to Health Ministry
director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah. A total of 27 children,
including 19 below the age of five, also had to be treated in
intensive care between January and May after contracting the virus,
up from eight cases last year.
(Compiled by Karishma Singh)
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