People enjoy a beer and play card as terraces reopened in Lausanne, on April 19, 2021, as Switzerland significantly eased its COVID-19 restrictions despite acknowledging that the country's virus situation "remains fragile" and has even worsened recently. (VALENTIN FLAURAUD / AFP)

NEW YORK - Switzerland’s Federal Intelligence Service is warning of potential terrorist attacks on coronavirus vaccine infrastructure including vaccination centers, transport and manufacturing facilities, newspaper NZZ am Sonntag reported.

“Attacks on such targets would both hit large crowds and generate intensive media coverage,” the NDB spokesperson, Isabelle Graber, said in a written response to questions from NZZ.

Switzerland’s vaccine deliveries are coordinated and conducted by the Swiss Army. Doses are stored in secret locations

The NDB is concerned about attacks from jihadist groups, the newspaper reported. So far, there are no tangible indications of planned attacks, according to the NDB.

Switzerland’s vaccine deliveries are coordinated and conducted by the Swiss Army. Doses are stored in secret locations. 

A spokesperson for Lonza Group AG, a manufacturer of Moderna Inc’s vaccine, told the newspaper the company wouldn’t comment “on such sensitive topics.”

Switzerland has suffered a significant increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks. The Alpine nation has distributed 9.51 million vaccine doses, enough to cover 55.6% of the population, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.

That’s one of the lowest vaccine rates among major economies in Europe.

NZZ also reported that Health Minister Alain Berset said in an interview that mobile vaccination efforts need to be increased. 

“The cantons must send out a lot more mobile vaccination teams,” Berset said.

The federal councilor also warned that travel restrictions such as mandatory quarantines for returning travelers could be re-introduced. 

US

Intensive care units (ICU) at hospitals are reaching their capacity in more states, and more mandates of vaccine and mask are being placed across the United States, as the COVID-19 pandemic claimed new highs of confirmed cases and fatality toward the weekend.

On Friday, the country reported 155,365 new cases of daily coronavirus, with the 14-day change seeing a 21 percent rise. The daily hospitalizations stood at 98,337, with the 14-day change a 28 percent increase. The daily death toll was 1,266, with the 14-day change a starling 95 percent hike, The New York Times (NYT) updated on Saturday.

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has swept through the United States, including Louisiana, straining hospital resources

New York State has ordered all students, staff and visitors inside school buildings to wear masks, a mandate that will not just apply to public school districts but also to private, charter and religious schools throughout the Empire State.

The policy was filed in an emergency regulation Friday night, out of the government's fear that the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant might spread as students head back to school.

New York City already had a mask mandate in place for city schools in advance of the first day on Sept 13. Mayor Bill de Blasio has also ordered all Department of Education staff to get vaccinated by Sept 27.

ALSO READ: Children account for 15% of weekly COVID-19 cases in US

Liberty University is enacting a campus-wide quarantine after reporting its highest rate of COVID-19 cases to date, just days after the Virginia-based evangelical college reopened with no mitigation measures.

The university announced late Thursday it would be switching to online classes and banning all large indoor gatherings starting Monday, reported Forbes on Friday.

The shutdown, which will last through Sept 10, follows a large uptick in the number of coronavirus cases since students made their return to campus in mid-August. The university's COVID-19 dashboard shows the number of active coronavirus cases increased from three on Aug 15 to 159 as of Wednesday, including 124 among students and 35 among faculty.

People rally at a demonstration against COVID-19 vaccination mandates, Aug 25, 2021, in New York. (MARY ALTAFFER/ / AP)

As coronavirus cases surge again across the United States, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, some hotels have announced they will require proof of vaccination from guests and staff, according to an NYT report published online on Friday.

Accommodations such as PUBLIC Hotel, Equinox Hotel and Wythe Hotel, all in New York City, Urban Cowboy Lodge in New York State, and Pilgrim House in Provincetown, Massachusetts, are among the first in the United States to announce that they will require evidence of vaccination, via a physical card or a digital verification, from their guests.

ALSO READ: US daily COVID-19 cases fall to 14-month low

The American Hotel and Lodging Association, an industry trade group, has issued safety guidelines based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which includes encouraging employees to get vaccinated.

Arizona surpassed 1 million COVID-19 cases on Friday, becoming the 13th state in the United States to reach the grim milestone while contending with yet another major spike in infections, according to the CDC's COVID-19 Data Tracker.

"The benchmark is the latest in a tumultuous year and a half where Arizona went from being touted as a pandemic success story to being 'the hot spot of the world' and then being a model again when vaccinations became available." reported the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

Now the state, like the rest of the country, is coping with a surge, mostly among the unvaccinated, and in conflicts over mask and vaccine mandates, it added.

Louisiana's hospital system is already straining due to large numbers of COVID-19 patients, and it must now tackle another challenge: Hurricane Ida is expected to hit the majority of the state on Sunday.

Approximately 68 percent of all hospital beds in the state are filled, including 84 percent of all ICU beds, according to The Daily Advertiser's hospital capacity table.

The Delta variant of COVID-19 has swept through the United States, including Louisiana, straining hospital resources, reported Business Insider on Saturday, adding that many hospitals in the state are approaching "major failure" and have already begun delaying non-emergency procedures and patient transfers.

Texas hospitals are also overwhelmed with the latest surge in coronavirus patients. As of Thursday, there were 13,932 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Texas and only 356 available ICU beds statewide, reported news website Changing America on Friday.

"There are many patients that are not doing well," Shawn Nishi, a doctor and associate professor of critical care medicine at University of Texas Medical Branch's Jennie Sealy Hospital, was quoted as saying. "It's very chaotic, because these patients are very unpredictable. At one moment they look great and the next moment, they're dying."

In Texas, just more than half, or 56.2 percent, of the eligible population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, said the report, adding that on Wednesday, coronavirus hospitalizations across the United States eclipsed 100,000 for the first time since January. 

France

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in French cities for a seventh consecutive weekend to protest against the government’s health pass system, which makes access to restaurants, cafes and other venues conditional on proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test. BFM TV reported that 200 protests were planned across the country.

The French government is trying to reach a target of 50 million first jabs by early September and has sought to step up pressure on those who are reluctant or refuse to get vaccinated. French Prime Minister Jean Castex said this week that it would start to give booster shots from Sept 12, starting with the elderly in nursing homes.

Germany

The German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is considering banning unvaccinated people from restaurants and concerts as pressure grows on authorities to act, according to a report in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Infections have been rising steadily in recent weeks, but authorities have vowed not to reimpose widespread lockdown restrictions. Instead they are looking to target unvaccinated people to encourage more Germans to get COVID-19 shots.

Immunizations have leveled off with some 60 percent of the population fully inoculated. On Sunday, infections rose to 74.1 per 100,000 people over the past seven days, the highest level since mid-May.

Italy

Italy’s health ministry said the five-day mandatory quarantine will end starting Aug 31 if travelers from the UK are fully vaccinated and can show a negative COVID-19 test, Sky News reported.

Russia

Russia reported 19,286 new cases of COVID-19 in a day, the lowest in the past five days, according to the government’s virus response center. Total cases have reached 6.88 million. The country has recorded more than 790 deaths in each of the past six days, with the seven-day average hitting a high of 799.

As children return to schools next week, officials in Moscow plan to hold in-person classes. More than 80 percent of city teachers are vaccinated, Tass news service reported on Sunday, citing the capital’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, in a TV interview.