Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

More than 1.5 million people have died worldwide due to coronavirus, a third of them in the last two months alone. Nearly 65 million people have been infected by COVID-19 and in the past week, more than 10,000 died on average every day.

The United States continues to witness a surge in infections with record daily deaths and hospitalisations this week. On Wednesday, the country reported more than 203,300 new cases, at least 2,700 deaths and 100,000 hospitalisations in the past 24 hours. For two weeks, the US has regularly topped 2,000 deaths per day, as it had in the spring at the height of the first wave of the country’s outbreak.

Britain will pay individuals who suffer any severe side-effects from COVID-19 vaccines under an existing programme, ahead of a rollout of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine in the country. COVID-19 will be added as a “precautionary step” to the list of diseases covered for potential liabilities under the Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme (VDPS). Under the scheme, individuals are entitled to a lump sum capped at 120,000 pounds ($161,676) if they can prove to have been seriously disabled as a result of a vaccination.

There have been about 1.7 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK and more than 60,000 people have died, government figures show. However, these figures include only people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus and other measures suggest the number of deaths is higher. After the first peak in April, cases started rising again in July, with the rate of growth increasing sharply in September and October, before falling again in November.

Iran said its novel coronavirus infections surpassed one million cases on Thursday, as the authorities consider easing restrictions in many parts of the country. The country has recorded 1,003,494 COVID-19 infections since announcing its first cases in February.

Moscow has started vaccinating workers at high risk of becoming infected with the coronavirus at newly opened clinics across the city. It started the distribution of the Sputnik V COVID-19 shot via 70 clinics on Saturday, marking Russia’s first mass vaccination against the disease.

South Africa recorded 4 116 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the national positive total to 814 565. Gauteng still has for the most cases, accounting for 29.2% (237 719) of total cases. 139 new deaths have been recorded, with the Eastern Cape accounting for the bulk of the new fatalities with 124. This brings the total deaths to 22 206.”

Tunisia has extended a night-time curfew until the end of the year in a bid to tackle spiking novel coronavirus cases, amid growing discontent and anti-government protests in the North African country.

Zimbabwe recorded 101 new infections to bring the total number of cases to 10,718. No new deaths were recorded. 36 new recoveries were recorded and the national recovery rate is now at 82.8%.

Metal Prices 07/12/2020

(Source: Kitco)