Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

Confirmed cases of the virus are now well over 74,4 million cases and the death toll has reached an approximate1,65 million. 

The Americans region has recorded nearly 31 million cases of the coronavirus and 787,000 related deaths, the World Health Organization director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, said. Brazil and Colombia were reporting the highest number of new cases in South America, Etienne said.

Brazil registered over 70,000 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, a daily record, as a second wave of infections spreads across the South American country. The new numbers reported by the health ministry took Brazil’s total cases to more than 7 million. Brazil has the second-deadliest Covid-19 outbreak behind only the US, with over 183,000 deaths from the virus.

The United Kingdom reported the highest daily number of new COVID-19 cases since November 14 on Wednesday after the number of new positive tests rose to 25 161. The government reported 612 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the virus, the highest number of fatalities since last week. Tuesday’s data had shown 18 450 new coronavirus infections and 506 deaths.

Nearly 140,000 people in the United Kingdom have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the first week of roll-out of the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the minister in charge of deployment of the vaccine said. London returned to a strict lockdown Wednesday following a surge in Covid-19 cases.

France has reported 17,615 new confirmed Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, sharply up from the 11,532 on Tuesday and 14,595 a week ago. The increase was the highest since 21 November, and comes just a day after authorities replaced a nationwide lockdown with a curfew, after easing lockdown measures in early December. The health ministry also reported 289 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals in the past 24 hours, from 307 on Tuesday.

Germany shattered its record for Covid-19 deaths in 24 hours on Tuesday with 952 patients dying compared to a previous record of 598 on December 11, according to the country’s center for disease control. The nation tallied 27,728 new coronavirus cases, the Robert-Koch-Institute (RKI) reported, as it enters a hard national lockdown on Wednesday in an effort to bring the situation under control. The record daily increase in cases, set on December 11, is 29,875.

Greece is extending most of its Covid-19 restrictions through the Christmas holiday period, government spokesman Stelios Petsas announced earlier this month. Schools, restaurants and bars, entertainment venues, skiing centers and courts will remain shut until January 7, 2021. A night-time curfew and a ban on movement between regions will also remain in place until then.

South Africa’s COVID-19 infections have increased to 883 687 with 10 008 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. 166 more COVID-19 related deaths have been reported, bringing the total to 23 827 deaths. The recoveries stand at 774 585.

The Democratic Republic of Congo will impose a curfew and other strict measures, including the mandatory wearing of masks in public spaces, to help quell a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, its virus response team said. From Friday a curfew will be imposed from 21:00 to 05:00, while marches and meetings of more than 10 people will be banned, the Multisectoral Committee for the Response against COVID-19 said in a statement. School holidays will begin early, while higher education and university courses will be indefinitely suspended. Sports competitions will continue without fans and dead bodies must be taken to their burial place without any other ceremony.

Zimbabwe recorded 227 new cases to bring the total number of cases to 11,749. All cases were local transmission. Every province recorded cases of the virus with Mashonaland West recording 101 new cases.  3 new deaths were registered in Manicaland and Harare provinces where the former had 2 and the latter had 1 death.  103 recoveries were recorded and the recovery rate is now at 82,6%.

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16/12/2020

(Source: Kitco)