Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

More than 24.0 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, and 16.8 million have recovered. More than 827,000 have died.

Coronavirus cases in the US are on the decline, but experts say the new reality may be “rolling hot spots,” where parts of the country are affected by outbreaks while others trend down. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly changed its Covid-19 testing guidelines. Now, the center no longer recommends testing for most people without symptoms — even if they’ve been in close contact with someone known to have the virus.

Almost 443,000 children tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the United States between the start of the pandemic to August 20, according to an updated joint report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

The World Economic Forum in Davos will be rescheduled next year due to coronavirus. The meeting, which is normally held in January, will now be held in the summer.  In a statement WEF said, “The decision was not taken easily, since the need for global leaders to come together to design a common recovery path and shape the “Great Reset” in the post-COVID-19 era is so urgent. However, the advice from experts is that we cannot do so safely in January.” 

The number of Covid-19 cases continue to rise in Brazil, which has reported nearly 3.7 million cases and more than 117,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the country’s first nationally manufactured rapid coronavirus test kit. Delhi-based Oscar Medicare said it has developed a point-of-care rapid test kit with a sensitivity of 97.66%, higher than ICMR’s requirement of 93% sensitivity, and a specificity of 99% against ICMR’s requirement of 95% specificity, according to Oscar CEO Anand Sekhri.

European authorities are battling against further waves of the coronavirus pandemic. These are the latest developments from the continent:

Germany: More than 40% of people who recently tested positive for coronavirus in Germany were very likely infected abroad, data from the country’s infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), indicated Tuesday night.

France: French health authorities reported a “strong rise” in virus transmission on Tuesday, adding that the situation in the country “remains worrying.”

A further 3,304 new cases were reported on Tuesday. By comparison, last Tuesday saw a rise of 2,238 cases, while the Tuesday before saw 1,397 new cases reported.

Italy: Italy has seen a steady increase in coronavirus cases in the past week, according to the country’s health ministry. Authorities said approximately 50% of new infections have been contracted during summer vacations, around the country and abroad, primarily among young adults who have not been cautious with social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines.

South Africa recorded 2,684 new cases to bring the total number of cases to 615,701. The total number of fatalities is now at 13,502 after 194new deaths were recorded.

Ethiopia now has the third highest number of cases in Africa with 45,221 confirmed cases and 725 deaths have been recorded. 

Zimbabwe recorded 55 new deaths and the total number of cases is now at 6,251. The number of deaths has risen by 15 which brings the total number of fatalities to 179. Recoveries are currently sitting at 5,001 which brings the recovery rate to 80%.

Women may mount stronger COVID-19 immune response

A new study looking at male and female immune responses to the new coronavirus may shed new light on why men are more likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19, researchers said. Since early in the pandemic it has been clear that men, particularly older men, are at a far higher risk of dying from the virus than women of a similar age, but scientists have not yet been able to pinpoint exactly why.

A new study published in the journal Nature noted that globally, men account for about 60 percent of deaths from COVID-19 and looked at whether differences in immune responses could explain why. “What we found was that men and women indeed develop different types of immune responses to COVID-19,” said the study’s lead author Akiko Iwasaki, a professor at Yale University, in a video. The immunity specialist said “these differences may underlie heightened disease susceptibility in men”. CNN

Metal Prices Asia/Europe/NY market

26/08/2020

 (Source: Kitco)