Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

COVID-19 cases continue to surge around the globe as they are now over 77,6 million cases and 1,7 million deaths.

The US has reported at least 17,844,690 coronavirus cases, including at least 317,668 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. 131,446 new cases and 1,153 additional deaths were reported yesterday.

Some countries have banned travel from the UK in an effort to contain a new Covid-19 variant first reported in England. The new coronavirus variant has also prompted the UK government to impose a lockdown in London and south-eastern England. By Monday, dozens of countries across Europe, the Middle East and the Americas had announced travel bans for the UK. Others, such as Greece and Spain, have imposed restrictions that require travellers arriving from Britain to undergo coronavirus tests or quarantine.

France reported 5,797 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, pushing the country’s total number of infections resulting from the new coronavirus to 2,479,151, Reuters reports. There were also 351 new deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 60,900, health ministry data showed.

South Africa’s COVID-19 infections have increased to 930 711 cases with 8 789 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. 216 more COVID-19-related fatalities have been reported, bringing the total death toll to 24 907.

The coronavirus variant reported in South Africa is different than the variant causing so much concern in the United Kingdom, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for Covid-19, Maria van Kerkhove, said Monday. She said that preliminary results by South African researchers have been shared with the WHO’s virus evolution working group. “They’re currently growing the virus in South Africa so that more studies can be done similar to the studies that I just mentioned about the UK, so it does sound confusing that they’re the same virus, but these are actual different variants,” she said. The new variant was confirmed in South Africa last week.

South Africa made a down payment to the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility. The R327 million has been paid according to the Solidarity Fund chairperson Gloria Serobe. SA had missed the initial deadline to make the payment last week due to some bureaucratic red tape, causing some concern. The COVAX facility with 190 countries signed on is supposed to facilitate the equitable distribution of the COVID-19 drug.

Nigeria is advising its sub-regions to limit public gatherings, close bars and night clubs over the next five weeks amid a surge in new Covid-19 cases, a government coronavirus task force said on Monday. The continent’s most populous nation could be on the verge of a second wave with the number of confirmed cases rising within communities over the last few weeks. Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, Abuja and the northern state of Kaduna have emerged as new hotspots with over 70% of confirmed cases, said Boss Mustapha, the chairman of the presidential task force for Covid-19, who is the country’s most senior civil servant.

Morocco will impose a three-week curfew from 9pm to 6am starting on Wednesday, to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Shops, malls and restaurants will have to close at 8pm across the country, but in the hard-hit cities of Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier restaurants were asked to shut down for three weeks. On Monday, the country said it has recorded a total of 418,002 coronavirus infections, including 7,000 death. The Moroccan government lifted a three-month lockdown in June, but maintained restrictive measures in some cities with higher infections.

Zimbabwe recorded 97 new cases to bring the total caseload to 12,422. All 97 cases were local cases. 2 new deaths were recorded in Bulawayo to bring the total to 322. 10122 cases have recovered and the national recovery rate is now at 81,4%.

EU authorizes Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine, paving way for rollout in days

The European Union has authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, with the first phase of the bloc’s mass vaccination program to begin later this week. The move finalizes the recommendation of the European Union drugs regulator, who, just hours before, had granted the vaccine a conditional marketing authorization and paved the way for it to become the first Covid-19 shot distributed in the bloc. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, called it “an important chapter” in the EU’s fight against Covid-19. “The European Medicines Agency (EMA) assessed this vaccine thoroughly, and it concluded that it is safe and effective against Covid-19,” she said. “As we have promised, this vaccine will be available for all EU countries, at the same time, on the same conditions. CNN

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22/12/2020

(Source: Kitco)