Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

More than 28, 2 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and more than 912,000 have died. Some 18.8 million people have recovered.

AstraZeneca’s pause of an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus after the illness of a participant is a “wake-up call” but should not discourage researchers, the WHO chief scientist has said. AstraZeneca should still know before the end of the year whether its experimental COVID-19 vaccine works, the drugmaker’s Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said, so long as it can resume trials soon.

The United States has the most cases in the world – more than 6.5 million, as well as the most deaths of over 196 000. A spike has been witnessed of new cases in the US Midwest with states like Iowa and South Dakota emerging as the new hotspots in the past few weeks. On a per capita basis, the United States ranks 12th in the world for the number of deaths, with 58 deaths per 100 000 people, and 11th in the world for cases, with 1 933 cases per 100 000 residents, according to a Reuters analysis.

India reports a record 96,760 daily cases of coronavirus, another record for daily coronavirus cases as the outbreak continues unabated. Some 1,213 people in India also died from the virus, the ministry said.

Brazil recorded 39,114 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 869 deaths from the disease. Brazil has registered more than 4.2 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 129,522.

France on Thursday registered a record of almost 10,000 new Covid-19 cases over the last 24hrs.  Officials are increasingly concerned about the rising number of infections in France, although the death toll and admissions into intensive care units remain far below the heights recorded during France’s lockdown in March and April. Over the last week, 48,542 new cases have been counted, out of over 1 million tests carried out, with the proportion of tests coming back positive rising to 5.4 percent.

The latest confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa are 644 438 and there have been 15 265 confirmed deaths. There have been 573 003 recoveries so far which is an 88.8% recovery rate.

Uganda will reopen its sole international airport to commercial flights on October 1, more than five months after its closure as a measure to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the East African nation. The move is the latest in a series of steps by the government of President Yoweri Museveni to gradually lift one of Africa’s tightest lockdowns and rejuvenate the economy, badly hurt by the shutdown.

7,453 cases of the virus have been reported in Zimbabwe after there were 24 new cases. No new death was recorded hence the death rate remains at 222. The national recovery rate stands at 76% and active cases have gone down to 1,596.

Coronavirus might invade the brain: Preliminary study

A preliminary study has found headaches, confusion and delirium experienced by some COVID-19 patients could be the result of the coronavirus directly invading the brain.

According to the paper, which was led by Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, the virus is able to replicate inside the brain, and its presence starves nearby brain cells of oxygen. The prevalence of this is not yet clear.

S Andrew Josephson, chair of the neurology department at the University of California, San Francisco, said “understanding whether or not there is direct viral involvement of the brain is extraordinarily important.” But he added that he would remain cautious until the paper underwent peer review.Aljazeera

Metal Prices Asia/Europe/NY market

09/11/2020

 (Source: Kitco)