Global Statistics
Positive cases worldwide were more than 28.9 million, while deaths were more than 924 000. The United States has the most cases in the world – almost 6.7 million, as well as the most deaths – more than 198 000.
India reported 97,570 new coronavirus cases Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare making it the fourth day in a row the country has seen more than 90,000 new cases. India’s total number of confirmed cases stands at 4.75 million, of which about 958,316 are active. The total number of recovered patients stands at more than 3.7 million.
Brazil’s health ministry has reported 814 new coronavirus-related deaths and 33,523 additional cases, bringing the death toll to 131,274 and the infection count to 4,315,858. Brazil has the third-highest number of cases worldwide and the second-highest number of fatalities.
French health authorities reported 10,561 new confirmed Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, a new daily record as the number topped 10,000 for the first time. A previous record of 9,843 new infections had been reported on Thursday.
Saturday’s record figure came after French Prime Minister Jean Castex warned on Friday that there has been a “clear worsening” in France of the spread of Covid-19, which has “not lowered in intensity” and “will still be with us for some months”.
Mexico’s health ministry has reported 5,674 new confirmed coronavirus cases, as well as 421 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of deaths to 70,604 and 663,973 infections.
The latest confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa is 648 214. There have been 15 427 confirmed deaths. There have been 576 423 recoveries so far.
7,508 cases of the Coronavirus have been reported so far, with 29 cases being reported yesterday. The death toll is at 224 and the number of recoveries stands at 5,675, which translates to a national recovery rate of 76%.
According to a local publication, restaurants can now serve sitting customers during their licensed hours, and serve alcohol to diners if they have a restaurant licence up to 4.30pm, while hotel bars can serve alcohol to customers during licensed hours and bottle stores can reopen, but must close daily at 4.30pm.
In an amendment to the lockdown order gazetted yesterday, which gives legal effect to the relaxations approved by Cabinet this week, Minister of Health and Child Care Vice President Constantino Chiwenga gives the conditions and authority for domestic passenger air services to resume immediately and for international flights to resume from October 1. But passengers have to show a PCR Covid-19 certificate issued within 72 hours of boarding.
Returning residents can now self-quarantine at home if they show the PCR Covid-19 testing certificate issued within 48 hours of their arrival; otherwise they have to be in approved quarantine for 14 days.
Study of the outbreak in Italy suggests Covid-19 recoveries should be retested about a month later
More infected patients would be given coronavirus clearance if tested a month after symptoms appear – which will also reduce testing costs. A new study on Italian survivors indicate that you might still be carrying the virus around a month after you started exhibiting symptoms.
Published in BMJ Open, the research focused on how long viral shedding of SARS-CoV-2 goes on for, based on population data. This is important to understand as healthcare workers could be swamped with retesting to clear an infected patient.
They also wanted to determine the probability of viral clearance confirmation with two negative swabs, and what factors might possibly influence their outcomes. Their study showed that 60.6% of patients was cleared of the coronavirus viral load at an average of 30 days from diagnosis, and 36 days from symptom onset. They also found that one in five tests was a false negative in their cohort.
Age also played a factor. Viral clearance from symptom onset was on average 35 days for those under 50, and 38 days for those over the age of 80. A similar pattern was also noticed when it came to disease severity – those who were hospitalised took longer to clear the virus.
Metal Prices Asia/Europe/NY market
13/11/2020
