Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

The world has now surpassed 100 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus. On January 15, the official global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University. The world passed the threshold of 1 million confirmed cases on April 2, and 10 million on June 28, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It took until November 7 for the world to register 50 million confirmed cases. Since then, the trend has accelerated sharply. The 90 million case mark was passed less than three weeks ago, on January 10.

Zimbabwe recorded 358 new cases to bring the cumulative number of cases to 32,004. 28 new deaths were recorded and the death toll is now at 23,413. 536 recoveries were recorded and the national recovery rate is now at 73,2%.

Europe has also been badly hit and many countries have been battling to contain a second wave of infections since the fall. The United Kingdom has fared worst, with more than 3.6 million confirmed cases and more than 100,000 deaths — the fifth highest toll in the world.

Brazil has 60,392 new recorded cases and another 1,166 deaths. The South American country has now had 8,933,356 confirmed infections since the start of the pandemic, while the death toll has risen to 218,878. The number of deaths is the world’s third worst, with only India and the US recording more fatalities. Brazil has barred entry for visitors from South Africa to stop the spread of a new coronavirus variant from the country, according to the federal government’s gazette, Reuters reports.

The number of people hospitalised in France for COVID-19 rose by more than a 1 000 over the last two days, a trend unseen since November 16, and the number of patients in intensive care units for the disease exceeded 3 000 for the first time since December 9.

Mexico’s official death toll from the coronavirus passed 150 000 on Monday following a surge in infections in recent weeks that has stretched the health system in the capital to the limit and led to the president contracting COVID-19. The Health Ministry on Monday reported 659 new deaths, bringing the total death toll to 150 273. There were 8 521 new cases on Monday for a total of 1 771 740 confirmed infections. The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases. Mexico has struggled to contain the pandemic and has the fourth-highest death toll worldwide.

South Africa recorded 6 041 new coronavirus cases bringing the total number of cases to 1 423 578.  In a statement released on Tuesday evening, the Health Department has also reported 680 more COVID-19 related deaths. This brings the total to 41 797 deaths. The cumulative total of tests conducted to date is 8 058 768 with 39 529 new tests conducted since the last report. The recoveries now stand at 1 254 674, representing a recovery rate of 88%.

WHO has expressed concern about whether the COVID-19 variants discovered in Britain, South Africa and Brazil will influence the efficacy of the vaccines now being distributed.  South Africa is soon to receive its first batch of the Corona vaccine. Co-Chair of the COVID-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, says the COVID-19 vaccines being procured by the government will be administered free of charge.

WHO working on accelerating the rollout of vaccines in Africa: Ghebreyesus

World Health Organization (WHO) Chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says they are working on accelerating the rollout of vaccines in Africa to save lives and get their economies back on track. Addressing a virtual briefing on Monday, Ghebreyesus said it is in every nation’s economic interest to support vaccine equity. The WHO chief has stressed the importance of working with devolved economies to assist African countries rollout the vaccines.

“The World stood on a brink of a catastrophic moral failure if it doesn’t deliver equitable access to vaccines. It would be an economic failure. A new report analyzing the impact of the pandemic on the global market finds that 8.8% of global working hours were lost last year resulting in the loss to global income. Until we end the pandemic anywhere, we would have ended it anywhere. Rich countries are rolling out vaccines while poor countries watch..”SABC

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1/27/2021

(Source: Kitco)