Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

The daily United States Covid-19 death toll yesterday surpassed 3,000 for the first time, prompting pleas for Americans to scale back Christmas plans even with vaccines on the cusp of winning regulatory approval. The single-day death toll from Covid-19 deaths reached 3,253 on Wednesday, pushing up the US total since the start of the pandemic to 289,740. A record 106,219 people were hospitalised with the highly infectious disease, threatening to overwhelm many healthcare systems. More than half of US states have recently introduced or resumed restrictions to try to curtail the rampant spread of the virus.

Brazil reported another 53,347 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 770 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry said on Thursday. The country has now registered 6,781,799 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 179,756, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the United States and India.

The number of deaths from all causes recorded in Russia in October rose by nearly 50,000 on the previous year, the country’s statistics agency said on Thursday. According to the Rosstat agency, 205,500 people died in Russia in October, a rise of 47,800 on October 2019.

London has highest Covid-19 case rate in England. London had the highest prevalence of Covid-19 cases in the week to 6 December, Public Health England (PHE) said, raising the prospect the capital will be moved into the strictest level of restrictions in the coming daysIt is “not inevitable” that London will be placed under tighter coronavirus restrictions ahead of next week’s review of the tier system in England, the health and social care secretary Matt Hancock has said.

Italy has seen 62,626 Covid-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain. Italy has also registered 1.787 million cases to date. Italy reported 887 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday, a steep rise from 499 the day before. The daily tally of new infections increased to 16,999 from 12,756.

Germany on Thursday reported a daily record of 23,769 new Covid-19 infections within the past 24 hours bringing the total caseload to 1,242,203. It reported 440 coronavirus-related deaths, a day after hitting a record 590 daily fatalities. The day before, the country reported its highest number of Covid-19 deaths in a single day, with 590 fatalities reported Wednesday. At least 20,372 people have died of Covid-19 in Germany, the public health agency’s data showed.

South Africa’s COVID-19 infections have increased to 836 763 with 8 166 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. 173 more people have died of the virus, taking the country’s death toll to 22 747. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says the number of young people contracting the coronavirus has increased substantially which is a concern as the country enters the second wave of infections.

Zimbabwe now has a total of 11 081 confirmed cases after 74 local cases were recorded. 1 death was recorded in Manicaland and this brings the total death toll to 305. A total of 9 253 recoveries have been recorded and the national recovery rate is now at 83.5%.

FDA panel approves Pfizer vaccine

The Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel on the coronavirus vaccine has voted to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The FDA is now expected to follow the panel’s recommendation, and when it does, millions of doses of the jab can be shipped across the US. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will the first to get innocculated. Later on, this month, the FDA will also consider a vaccine developed by Moderna – which will also go first to health workers and care home residents.

Metal Prices Asia/Europe/NY markets

11/12/2020

(Source: Kitco)