The Australian state of New South Wales announced a snap lockdown Saturday due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the seven-day, statewide lockdown to begin Saturday evening. Schools will close for at least a week.“This is literally a war,” Gladys Berejiklian, the state’s premier, said.  “The delta strain is diabolical.”Saturday was the state’s worst day of the pandemic, with 466 new cases and four deaths.Berejiklian said New South Wales is facing a “dire” situation.Earlier Saturday, Dr. Danielle McMullen, the Australian Medical Association’s New South Wales president, said in a statement, “We need to treat this virus like it’s everywhere, all the time. … Doctors from across NSW are exhausted and concerned for their community. Our already fragile rural and regional health system will be unable to cope with increases in cases.”United StatesAn advisory panel for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted unanimously Friday in favor of recommending a third coronavirus vaccine dose to 2.7 million people with weakened immune systems.    The decision comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized a third shot of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for extremely immunocompromised individuals, who represent less than 3% of the overall population.  The FDA’s acting commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said in a statement late Thursday, “The FDA is especially cognizant that immunocompromised people are particularly at risk for severe disease.”     “Other individuals who are fully vaccinated are adequately protected,” Woodcock said, “and do not need an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine at this time.”     The CDC recommended that vulnerable Americans, including cancer patients, HIV patients and others with immunodeficiencies, get the booster shot after multiple studies showed that it could better protect their immune systems from the virus.     According to the CDC, 40% to 44% of people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 after being vaccinated are immunocompromised.  The governor of Oregon said Friday she is deploying as many as 1,500 National Guard troops to hospitals in the state to help health care workers with the demands placed on them by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Governor Kate Brown said the first group of 500 Guard members will be sent out Friday, August 20.   Eventually the troops will be sent to 20 hospitals around the state that are experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the delta strain, Brown said.  The Oregon Health Authority said the delta variant of the coronavirus currently comprises 96% of all samples tested.Oregon reported Friday that there are 733 people in the state’s hospitals with the virus, with 185 in intensive care.“When our hospitals are full with COVID-19 patients, there may not be room for someone needing care after a car crash, a heart attack, or other emergency situation,”  Brown said. “The harsh, and frustrating reality is that the delta variant has changed everything.”RussiaElsewhere in the world, Russia reported Friday a daily record of 815 COVID-19 deaths, the highest toll of the pandemic.Health officials blamed the increase on the more contagious delta variant.Officials also reported 22,277 new coronavirus cases Friday, down from a peak in July.Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said daily hospitalizations in the city had fallen by half since late June. Moscow reported 2,529 new infections on Friday.CanadaThe Canadian government announced Friday that it would require vaccinations for all passengers traveling between provinces by plane, train or cruise ship.Officials said the government would also require all federal public servants to be vaccinated.Canada said Wednesday that it was developing a digital COVID-19 vaccine passport for its citizens to use for international travel.Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said the federal government in Ottawa is working with provinces and territories, which are responsible for vaccinating residents, on a common approach in creating the passport, which should be available in the next few months.Mendicino said the vaccine passport is “a key step forward in ensuring Canadians will have the documents they need once it is safe to travel again.”US schoolsOn Friday, the Chicago school system, the third largest in the U.S., become the latest to require all its teachers and other employees to be fully vaccinated.The school system said all workers must submit proof that they are vaccinated by Oct. 15 unless they qualify for a medical or religious exemption.On Thursday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced a universal indoors mask mandate for kindergarten through Grade 12.Earlier this week, California decided to require teachers and support staff to either be inoculated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing.California Governor Gavin Newsom said the new order applies to both public and private schools across the nation’s most populous state, and it includes teachers’ aides, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and volunteers.Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.   
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