Covid-19 Global Update: Coronavirus forces another reduced hajj pilgrimage

Here are some significant developments:

• England on Monday lift almost all its remaining coronavirus restrictions, including a requirement to wear face masks indoors, even as new cases rose to multi-month highs and several senior government officials – including the Prime Minister Boris Johnson – has been quarantined.
• An substitute for the US women’s gymnastics team tested positive for coronavirus Monday, in the first known case among Team USA athletes traveling to Tokyo for the Olympic Games. Three South African football player also tested positive at the Olympic Village in Tokyo over the weekend.
• Australian officials said on Monday that they have Extend the lockdown in Victoria, including the city of Melbourne, following the discovery of more locally transmitted coronavirus cases. Premier Daniel Andrews did not say how long the restrictions would be in effect.
• More than 80 percent of the roughly 300 staff members aboard a South Korean frigate in the Gulf of Aden have tested positive for coronavirus, Reuters reported on Monday, citing the country’s military leadership. The authorities sent the plane to crew replacement, in an anti-piracy mission.
• The Iranian government on Monday announced a one-week course in the capital Tehran and surrounding areas to stem the spread of a growing coronavirus outbreak, officials have blamed the more contagious delta variant.
• Indonesia, facing what experts call a “catastrophic” coronavirus surge because the delta variant rips the hospital apart, which is currently recording some of the highest daily cases in the world, outstripping global pandemic hotspots such as India and Brazil. On Monday, the Southeast Asian country reported record 1,338 deaths from new coronavirus.