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 Japan opens mass vaccination sites for elderly
Japan opened mass inoculation centres on Monday as the country races
to vaccinate most of its elderly population against COVID-19 before
the start of the Tokyo Olympics.
The centres in Tokyo and Osaka will vaccinate thousands of people
every day, giving a boost to Japan's sluggish inoculation drive as
officials battle a fourth wave of infections.
Hospitals in Osaka are buckling, running out of beds and ventilators
as exhausted doctors warn of a "system collapse" and advise against
holding the Olympics.
Taiwan considering extending alert level
Taiwan is considering extending its second highest COVID-19 alert
that was due to expire at the end of the week, the health minister
said on Monday, as he reported a further increase in domestic cases
despite tighter social restrictions.
However, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung also said an infection peak
was registered last Monday and should continue to decline.
"Judging from the trend of confirmed cases, it seems that the peak
has reached a certain point," Chen said.
Israel to end COVID-19 restrictions
Israel will end local COVID-19 restrictions after a successful
vaccine rollout that has nearly stamped out new infections, its
Health Ministry said on Sunday.
With the majority of the population having received the Pfizer-BioNTech
vaccine, and about 92% of those 50 and older inoculated or
recovered, Israel has been gradually reopening its economy after
three lockdowns.
The country reported just 12 new virus cases on Saturday, down from
a daily peak of more than 10,000 in January.
Singapore provisionally approves 60-second breathalyser test
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 Singapore authorities have
provisionally approved a COVID-19 breathalyser
test that aims to show whether someone is
infected with the coronavirus in under a minute,
according to the local startup that developed
the product.
Breathonix, a spin-off company from the National
University of Singapore, said it is now working
with the health ministry to run a deployment
trial of the technology at one of the
city-state's border points with Malaysia.
The breath analysis will be carried out
alongside the current compulsory COVID-19
antigen rapid test.
Bio-detection dogs sniff out COVID-19
Sniffer dogs trained using smelly socks worn by people infected with
the SARS-CoV-2 virus could soon be used at airports or mass
gathering venues to pick up the "corona odour" of COVID-19-infected
people, British scientists said on Monday.
Working in teams of two, the COVID-trained dogs could screen a line
of several hundred people coming off a plane within half an hour,
for example, and detect with up to 94.3% sensitivity those infected,
the scientists said.
Presenting results of an early stage study - which involved some
3,500 odour samples donated in the form of unwashed socks or
T-shirts worn by members of the public and health workers - the
researchers said the dogs were even able to sniff out asymptomatic
or mild COVID-19 cases, as well as cases caused by a mutant variant
that emerged in the UK late last year.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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