Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

Over 94, 1 million cases of the virus have been reported globally and the death toll has surpassed 2 million cases. According to Johns Hopkins University, 2,014,860 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic. The US leads with the most deaths followed by Brazil and India. But the pandemic has reached every corner of the globe, and only a few tiny, isolated nations have reported no deaths.

Over 67 million recoveries have been registered. Many countries are now battling new variants of the virus which seem to be more infectious, but which scientists say do not cause more severe illness. The virus has hit the elderly the hardest, but that doesn’t mean young people aren’t dying. Poorer people and member of ethnic minorities, immigrants and frontline workers are dying at much higher rates.

Zimbabwe recorded 741 new cases of the virus to bring the total number of cases to 26,004. 30 new deaths were recorded which is a decline from 47 yesterday. The death toll is now at 666. 700 new recoveries were recorded and the national recovery rate is now at 59%.

Spain has logged a record 40,197 new Covid cases over the past 24 hours, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 2,252,164. The health ministry said 235 people had died between Thursday and Friday, taking the country’s death toll to 53,314.

Africa’s confirmed cases have passed 3.1 million, with more than 76 000 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

South Africa has recorded 14 880 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s total cases to 1 311 686. Gauteng has again reported the highest number of cases provincially, accounting for 27.1% of the country’s total infections. 615 new deaths have also been reported, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 36 467. Most of the new fatalities are from the KZN, which has recorded 189 new deaths. The country’s recoveries stand at 1 062 690, recoveries with a recovery rate of 80.9%

Tunisia said on Friday it recorded 4,170 new confirmed coronavirus cases, a record since the start of the pandemic. Tunisia on Thursday imposed a four-day national lockdown and closed schools until 24 January to combat a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases

Vaccines secured by the AU to be allocated according to population size: Ramaphosa

Millions of coronavirus vaccine doses secured by the African Union (AU) will be allocated according to countries’ population size, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday. Ramaphosa, who is the current AU chairperson, said on Wednesday that vaccines from Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca would be available in 2021, but he did not specify how much each African country would get.

No African countries have begun large-scale coronavirus vaccination campaigns and the AU’s 270 million shots, if administered two per person, would still only cover around 10% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people. SABC

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1/15/2021

(Source: Kitco)