Many countries continue to take additional measures to confront the new waves of the Covid-19 epidemic, including giving a third dose of vaccine to people with low immunity, and in the meantime, China has rejected a call from the World Health Organization to conduct a new investigation on its soil to search for the origins of the Corona virus.

China opposes the politicization of the search for the origin of Covid-19 (Corona) and the abandonment of the joint report between China and the World Health Organization, which was published after the visit of international experts to Wuhan last January, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhao Zhou said at a press conference today, Friday.

He added that the joint preliminary investigation is sufficient, and that its findings and recommendations have been recognized by the international community and the scientific community, adding that "future research should be pursued and conducted only on the basis of this report," and considered requests for additional data to be "politically motivated."

laboratory hypothesis

In recent months, the World Health Organization has again put forward the hypothesis that the virus leaked from a laboratory, an idea that Washington has repeatedly talked about in a context of political rivalry with Beijing.

Yesterday, Thursday, the organization asked all countries, especially China, to publish all data on the virus.

"In order to be able to consider the laboratory hypothesis, it is important that we have access to all unprocessed data," the organization said, adding that "access to data should not in any way be a political bet."

But China again spoke about medical confidentiality, in response to the World Health Organization's request to see preliminary data regarding the first infected people in Wuhan, the first focus of the virus in late 2019.

"We only want to protect the private lives of patients," said Liang Wanyan, head of the Chinese scientific delegation, who co-authored the joint report with the WHO.

spread in Russia

Meanwhile, many countries are reporting high levels of infections and deaths from mutated versions of the coronavirus.

Russia today recorded 815 deaths within 24 hours, at a record rate for the second day, due to the outbreak of the delta mutant and the slow vaccination campaign.

Russia seeks to speed up the pace of vaccination and convince citizens of the effectiveness of the vaccine (European)

And the country counted 22,277 new infections, according to the daily toll published by the crisis center in the Russian government.

According to the "Rosstat" statistics agency, which adopts a broader definition of deaths from corona compared to the government's definition, Russia recorded more than 300,000 deaths until the end of last June.

third dose

In the United States, health authorities have authorized the administration of a third dose of the vaccine to people with weak immune systems.

US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Janet Woodcock said that in light of the country entering another wave of the virus's spread, it has allowed the third dose to be given to those who have undergone organ transplants or those with weakened immune systems.

She explained that others who have completed their vaccination program have the necessary immunity and do not need an additional dose of the vaccine yet.

As for the Israeli government, it has decided to reduce the minimum age that is allowed to receive a third dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 to 50 years, in the hope of combating a new wave of infections linked to the highly contagious delta mutant.

Two weeks ago, Israel launched an initiative to give a third dose of vaccine to people aged 60 or over, and those who suffer from severely weakened immunity.

On the other hand, the German government has classified the United States, Turkey and Israel as high-risk countries with regard to the Corona pandemic, according to the Funke Media Group, quoting government sources today, Friday.

According to those sources, the German government will require those coming from those countries who have not received the vaccine to undergo a minimum quarantine of 5 days.