While the corona plague is in significant decline in Israel, around the world the delta strain of the virus continues to rage.
John Hopkins University announced yesterday that five million people worldwide have already died from the disease.
Leading the way in the death toll is the United States with 766,312 dead, followed by Brazil with more than 600,000 dead, India with more than 400,000 dead, Mexico with 288,365 dead and Russia with almost 240,000 dead. According to data published by the Center Oslo Peace, Corona is the third leading cause of death in the world in 2021 after heart disease and stroke.
One of the biggest outbreaks of the current wave of illness is Eastern Europe, and especially Russia, where a record number of more than 1,160 people have died from the disease in the past day.
Experts around the world question the morbidity and mortality data provided by Russian authorities, pointing to the country's excess mortality rate in the past year, which is more than double Moscow's official mortality data.
While the capital Moscow is under a strict closure and schools, restaurants and cafes are closed, also in other parts of the country, such as the Crimea, closures have been imposed, and police have even set up roadblocks and are conducting corona checks for those entering the city of Sevastopol.
The state is in a week of government holidays, a move aimed at reducing infection rates in workplaces and schools.
Moreover, the immunization rate in Russia is among the lowest in Europe, and the authorities in the country are concerned about the growing phenomenon of forgery of immunization certificates.
Last week, five medical staff members in the city of St. Petersburg were arrested on suspicion of forging thousands of immunizations.
Romania is also struggling with a large public fear of immunization, fueled by religious groups and organizations opposed to vaccines.
Doctors in the country called on the public to get vaccinated and complained about the heavy congestion in corona wards across the country.
Yesterday, strict corona regulations came into force in the country, requiring a certificate of immunization or recovery at the entrance to enclosed spaces, schools and cultural events.
Romania is the country with the second lowest immunization rate in the EU, and only 35 percent of its population has received both vaccine doses, in contrast to the European average of 74 percent.
"Americans are lying"
Meanwhile, the US-China battle over the source of the virus continues to overshadow relations between the two countries. In a false report.
"A lie, even if told a thousand times, is still a lie," the Chinese official said, adding that "American intelligence services are known to be a source of fabrication and manipulation.
As mentioned, the Chinese authorities continue to reject claims that the virus originated or leaked from the laboratory in Wuhan city, where it was first discovered and where the Wuhan Institute of Virology, one of the highest security institutions in the country, is located.
On Friday, the DNI, a body that unites all U.S. intelligence agencies, released an update to the Corona's report stating that they would probably never and unequivocally crack the riddle of the virus' birth.
According to experts, the thesis of the transition from animals to humans, such as the thesis of leakage from a laboratory, is possible - but it is not possible to determine based on the information in their possession which one is more likely.
In addition, the US report rejected the claim that the virus was created as a biological weapon, and defined it as disinformation.
As a reminder, in March of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) traveled with a special delegation to Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, with the task of determining exactly how and where the epidemic broke out.
But despite the efforts, and a particularly official and dubious report which was jointly compiled with only limited information - have failed to determine anything about the source of the cube.
Order: "Unvaccinated, home"
Meanwhile, in New York, authorities have announced they will not employ unvaccinated workers, following a binding order that went into effect last night.
Following the unusual move, some 24,000 employees of the municipality were forced to stay in their homes.
This is especially worrying given the fact that some of them are vital workers, such as doctors, police officers and firefighters.
