Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

There are now 15,654,649 cases of the Coronavirus pandemic globally after 276,000 new cases were reported yesterday. The US reported the highest number of cases as they recorded 69,116.

The US surpassed 4 million Covid-19 cases. The country added 1 million known cases in just 15 days as some states reported record-breaking numbers. The US recorded more than 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, marking the third-straight day the nation passed that milestone as the pandemic escalates in southern and western states.

48,446 new cases were reported in India to bring the total positive cases to more than 1.2 million. A total of 30,645 deaths have been recorded so far in the country.

13 104 coronavirus cases in South Africa were recorded bringing the total number of infections to 408 052, which is half the cases in Africa. The death rate is now at 6 093 after 153 new deaths were reported. The Eastern Cape reported 48 new deaths, 31 from Gauteng, 38 from KwaZulu-Natal, 8 from Northern Cape, 28 from Western Cape.

 President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that all public schools will “take a break” for the next four weeks after the continued surge in the number of cases in the country.

According to the latest research by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and University of Cape Town’s Centre for Actuarial Research, South Africans are dying at a much higher rate than expected as Covid-19 continues to spread at a significant pace in at least three provinces. Excess deaths between 6 May and 14 July topped 17 000.  

South Africa’s Covid-19 cases have surged past the UK, Spain and Italy, hard-hit in the early part of the outbreak – but SA’s mortality rate is lower. As of 22 July, South Africa had nearly 395 000 confirmed cases, with 5 940 deaths. The UK has had more 45 586 deaths (nearly 297 000 cases) Spain more than 28 426 (more than 267 000 cases) and Italy more than 35 082 (more than 245 000 cases), despite lower case numbers. Some of the reasons identified by experts include the issue of underreporting, non-compliance and also the fact that South Africa’s has a different age structure hence the high possibility of different distributions of risk factors for mortality. Compared to these European countries where the average age of the population is in the 40s according to Statista, South Africans are on average around 27 years of age, making it a very young population

5 131 people are currently hospitalised in public and private facilities in Gauteng, as the province recorded 144 582 cases, with 77 397 recoveries and 1 156 deaths. Of the total confirmed cases in the province, Johannesburg still has the highest number with 62 320, followed by Ekurhuleni with 32 271 and Tshwane has the third highest number of cases with 26 866.

206 positive cases were reported in Zambia to bring the total number to 3,789. 6 new deaths were recorded and the death toll now stands at 304.

With 90 patients testing positive for Covid-19 yesterday, 83 of them local infections, the Zimbabwean total reached 2 124 and two new deaths drove the death toll to 28. The daily number of new infections shows a drop from the three-figure totals of the last few days.

Harare is rapidly catching up with Bulawayo in confirmed local infections with 60 of yesterday’s batch coming from the capital. The latest figures show Bulawayo with 551 confirmed local infections and 13 deaths, and Harare with 357 confirmed local infections and nine deaths. Midlands is third with 68 cases and two deaths.

First human trial of leading vaccine candidate shows promise

A vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and scientists at Britain’s University of Oxford, did not prompt any serious side effects and elicited antibody and T-cell immune responses, according to trial results.

AstraZeneca’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine was safe and produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials in healthy volunteers, data showed on Monday. The vaccine, called AZD1222 and being developed by AstraZeneca and scientists at Britain’s University of Oxford, did not prompt any serious side effects and elicited antibody and T-cell immune responses, according to trial results published in The Lancet medical journal.

“We hope this means the immune system will remember the virus, so that our vaccine will protect people for an extended period,” study lead author Andrew Pollard of the University of Oxford said. “However, we need more research before we can confirm the vaccine effectively protects against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) infection, and for how long any protection lasts,” he said. News 24

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24/07/2020

(Source: Kitco)