Day: November 18, 2021

Germany is set to introduce tighter curbs on people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19, as cases in the country hit a record high.

Restrictions for unvaccinated people will be introduced in areas where hospital admissions exceed a set threshold, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of Germany’s 16 states agreed.

Under the rules, the unvaccinated will be excluded from certain venues.

Merkel described the situation with Covid in the country as “dramatic”.

“We need to quickly put a brake on the exponential rise” in cases and intensive care unit occupancy, she said.

The number of daily cases in Germany rose sharply on Thursday to more than 65,000 – by far the highest figure since the pandemic began.

The new rules, agreed in a crisis meeting, mean that in areas with a hospitalisation rate of more than three Covid patients per 100,000 people over the past seven days, only the vaccinated and those who have recovered from the virus will be allowed to access to public spaces like sporting events, cultural shows and restaurants.

Source: Jordan News Agency

A Covid-19 vaccination center was inaugurated at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the northern city of Mafraq.

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Mafraq health affairs director, Dr. Hani Abu Alim, said the new center aims to facilitate procedures to receive Covid-19 vaccine at the UNHCR office, noting that the facility has so far administered doses to some 26 Syrian refugees.

On the city’s overall vaccination map, he said 10 other centers provide jabs to the target groups, in addition to mobile teams in the Northwest and Eastern Badia districts.

To date, he noted the percentage of vaccinated citizens, since the launch of the national immunization campaign, stands at 71%, with a total of 256,000 recipients.

Source: Jordan News Agency

19 new deaths and 3739 cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were recorded in Jordan on Thursday.

With today’s fatalities and infections, the caseload and death toll from the disease have increased to 11,310 and 905,738 respectively, since the outbreak began in March of 2020, according to the Ministry of Health daily brief.

The number of cases that required admission to hospitals today stood at 138, while 97 cases have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

On the capacity of hospitals in the Kingdom, the brief said that the occupancy rate of isolation beds in the northern region was at 24 per cent, intensive care beds 40 per cent and ventilators 19 per cent.

In the Central region, isolation beds were at an occupancy rate of 19 per cent, ICU beds at 39 per cent and ventilators 13 per cent, it said.

In the south, it added, the occupancy rate of isolation beds reached 14 per cent, ICU beds 13 per cent and ventilators 15 per cent.

It said that 46,526 PCR tests were collected today, bringing the total number of tests conducted since the start of the pandemic to 11,642,718, and that the positivity rate today was about 8.04 per cent.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The cash assistance program “Takaful 3”, designated for families whose incomes have been affected by the COVID-19, will be concluded by the end of this year, according to Acting Director General of the National Aid Fund (NAF) Barq Dmour.

Speaking to Petra on Thursday, Dmour indicated that the total cost of the program, which is part of the national social protection strategy, amounted to JD150 million.

He said that Takaful 3 was launched at the beginning of 2021, and will be concluded as planned by the end of December.

“About 100,000 households received cash assistance for one year in the program’s first phase, while the second phase included 160,000 households with a 9-month cash assistance,” he added.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization in Jordan carried out a joint workshop on Thursday to raise awareness on antimicrobials; medicines used to prevent and treat infections in humans, animals and plants.

Speaking at the workshop’s opening ceremony on behalf of the health minister, Secretary-General of the Ministry’s Technical and Health Affairs Ilham Khreisat highlighted the importance of unifying efforts of health sectors and policy makers to deliberate the issue of antimicrobials, in order to prevent the emergence antimicrobial resistance; which makes infections harder to treat and increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

Source: Jordan News Agency