The head of the World Health Organization urged countries to continue to surveil, monitor and track COVID and to ensure poorer countries get access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments, reiterating that the pandemic is not yet over. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said most countries no longer have measures in place to limit the spread of the virus, even though cases are rising again in places including Europe. “Most countries have reduced surveillance drastically, while testing and sequencing rates are also much lower,” Tedros said in opening remarks at the IHR Emergency Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic on Thursday. “This is blinding us to the evolution of the virus and the impact of current and future variants.” U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. The daily average for new cases stood at 38,530 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 19% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 7% at 26,665, while the daily average for deaths is down 7% to 377. Globally, the confirmed case tally rose above 623.9 million on Friday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins, while the death toll is above 6.56 million with the U.S. leading the world with 96.9 million cases and 1,064,768 deaths.
USDJPY: the pair declines ahead of the US ADP employment data
The USDJPY rate fell below 154.00 on Wednesday amid rising wages in Japan. Today, the market will focus on the US ADP employment statistics. Find
