i_need_contribute
|
Country, |
Total |
New |
Total |
|
World |
100,812,698 |
+528,754 |
2,165,283 |
|
26,011,222 |
+148,265 |
435,452 |
|
|
10,690,279 |
+12,569 |
153,751 |
|
|
8,936,590 |
+63,626 |
218,918 |
|
|
3,756,931 |
+18,241 |
70,482 |
|
|
3,689,746 |
+20,089 |
100,162 |
|
|
3,079,943 |
+22,086 |
74,106 |
|
|
2,733,729 |
+36,435 |
56,799 |
|
|
2,485,956 |
+10,593 |
86,422 |
|
|
2,442,350 |
+7,103 |
25,344 |
|
|
2,163,113 |
+8,457 |
54,390 |
|
|
2,041,352 |
+13,606 |
52,128 |
|
|
1,885,210 |
+10,409 |
47,253 |
|
|
1,771,740 |
+8,521 |
150,273 |
|
|
1,482,722 |
+4,604 |
35,665 |
|
|
1,423,578 |
+6,041 |
41,797 |
|
|
1,385,706 |
+6,420 |
57,560 |
|
|
1,197,107 |
+2,779 |
22,057 |
|
|
1,107,239 |
+4,444 |
40,107 |
|
|
1,012,350 |
+13,094 |
28,468 |
|
|
956,867 |
+3,917 |
13,665 |
|
|
947,011 |
+6,953 |
15,711 |
|
|
757,022 |
+4,011 |
19,403 |
|
|
715,438 |
+2,877 |
17,938 |
|
|
706,500 |
+3,322 |
18,023 |
|
|
694,858 |
+1,192 |
20,814 |
|
|
653,878 |
+10,765 |
11,012 |
|
|
615,380 |
+804 |
13,010 |
|
|
613,578 |
+7,213 |
4,512 |
|
|
535,914 |
+1,873 |
11,376 |
|
|
532,916 |
+515 |
8,055 |
|
|
516,162 |
+1,169 |
10,386 |
|
|
467,493 |
+867 |
8,187 |
|
|
407,140 |
+1,417 |
7,515 |
|
|
387,206 |
+2,080 |
3,924 |
|
|
368,143 |
+3,330 |
5,158 |
|
|
366,807 |
+223 |
6,359 |
|
|
360,877 |
+459 |
12,113 |
|
|
322,241 |
+943 |
4,248 |
|
|
313,834 |
+1,676 |
5,137 |
|
|
285,754 |
+3,505 |
2,477 |
|
|
285,147 |
+3,601 |
805 |
|
|
270,092 |
+303 |
2,017 |
|
|
254,822 |
+1,006 |
3,096 |
|
|
242,146 |
+579 |
14,668 |
|
|
239,482 |
+847 |
1,668 |
|
|
238,617 |
+1,590 |
4,260 |
|
|
229,502 |
+448 |
4,882 |
|
|
229,358 |
+326 |
3,100 |
|
|
216,416 |
+827 |
8,916 |
|
|
206,305 |
+1,143 |
2,564 |
|
|
202,818 |
+1,781 |
10,051 |
|
|
200,662 |
+2,026 |
6,370 |
|
|
195,948 |
+652 |
2,030 |
|
|
191,345 |
+600 |
2,567 |
|
|
190,434 |
+3,585 |
700 |
|
|
189,851 |
+928 |
3,066 |
|
|
179,720 |
+1,266 |
2,476 |
|
|
177,934 |
+686 |
2,688 |
|
|
166,232 |
+138 |
3,052 |
|
|
163,129 |
+643 |
9,067 |
|
|
162,282 |
+505 |
957 |
|
|
159,812 |
+1,652 |
3,406 |
|
|
156,972 |
+546 |
3,381 |
|
|
156,393 |
+509 |
1,803 |
|
|
155,459 |
+1,029 |
5,486 |
|
|
153,226 |
+814 |
5,692 |
|
|
149,595 |
+299 |
248 |
|
|
141,984 |
+1,055 |
3,462 |
|
|
138,368 |
+411 |
3,082 |
|
|
134,569 |
+437 |
2,075 |
|
|
133,407 |
+154 |
1,524 |
|
|
129,394 |
+1,028 |
2,651 |
|
|
124,525 |
+413 |
1,159 |
|
|
124,299 |
+1,303 |
1,522 |
|
|
115,299 |
+870 |
1,789 |
|
|
106,097 |
+243 |
2,871 |
|
|
100,689 |
+459 |
370 |
|
|
100,193 |
+141 |
1,750 |
|
|
91,161 |
+444 |
2,812 |
|
|
89,197 |
+82 |
4,636 |
|
|
84,068 |
+97 |
1,402 |
|
|
78,471 |
+42 |
621 |
|
|
75,875 |
+354 |
1,371 |
|
|
73,691 |
+879 |
1,332 |
|
|
61,924 |
+693 |
1,126 |
|
|
61,594 |
+279 |
550 |
|
|
8,174 |
+62 |
150 |
|
|
6,768 |
+26 |
57 |
|
|
1,551 |
+2 |
35 |
Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
From CNN’s Nada Bashir in London and Saskya Vandoorne in Paris
Director of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, visits the laboratory of the AstraZeneca factory on January 20. Raphael Lafargue/SIPA/Shutterstock
AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot has defended the pharmaceutical giant’s decision to prioritize vaccine deliveries to the United Kingdom, after the European Union voiced growing frustration over delivery delays.
“The UK agreement was reached in June, three months before the European one. As you could imagine, the UK government said the supply coming out of the UK supply chain would go to the UK first,” Soriot told Italian newspaper la Repubblica on Tuesday.
“The contract with the UK was signed first and the UK, of course, said ‘you supply us first,’ and this is fair enough. This vaccine was developed with the UK government, Oxford and with us as well,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides expressed dissatisfaction on talks with AstraZeneca, saying that the drugmaker "intends to supply considerably fewer doses in the coming weeks than agreed and announced" due to production problems.
Speaking to la Repubblica, Soriot conceded that the company had to reduce supply to the EU as a result of reduced yields early in the manufacturing process at one site in Europe.
“It's complicated, especially in the early phase where you have to really kind of sort out all sorts of issues. We believe we've sorted out those issues, but we are basically two months behind where we wanted to be,” Soriot said.
He added that they also faced "teething issues" with the UK supply chain -- but they had a "head start" since they signed the contract earlier, and had more time to "fix all the glitches."
European delays: So far, the EU has ordered 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine -- which could be approved for use by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as soon as this week -- with an option to purchase an additional 100 million doses.
With production issues centered around AstraZeneca’s European plants, Soriot said the company could soon be able to begin using its UK site to help Europe once the UK has “reached a sufficient number of vaccinations.”
“We're moving very quickly, the supply in the UK is very rapid. The government is vaccinating 2.5 million people a week, about 500,000 a day, our vaccine supply is growing quickly,” he told the Italian newspaper. “As soon as we can, we'll help the EU,” he added.
From CNN's James Griffiths, Sandi Sidhu and Nectar Gan
A team of World Health Organization (WHO) investigators is preparing to leave quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan and begin a long-awaited investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
Members of the 13-person international team will finish their two-week quarantine in the next 24 hours, stepping out into a city that was once the center of the global outbreak but is now, a year on, largely returned to normal. Scrutiny of the team's work will be immense, as they navigate what is likely to be a political minefield in uncovering how the virus that brought much of the world to a halt first emerged.
"The eyes of the world are focused on this, the opinions of the world are focused on this," Dutch virologist and team member Marion Koopmans told CNN Wednesday morning, as she prepared for a final round of meetings before leaving her quarantine hotel.
"We are aware of it, there is no way around that. That's why we really try to keep focused, we are scientists, we are not politicians, we are trying to really look at this from the scientific perspective."
Part of that involves abandoning all preconceived notions about how the virus evolved and spread, to look at what the evidence says, and go from there, Koopmans said. The team has spent the past two weeks in video calls with each other and Chinese scientists, "discussing what we know, what we don't know."
Demand for answers will be great, especially after the investigation itself was delayed several times, but Koopmans cautioned patience.
"I think we really have to manage expectations, if you look at some of the earlier quests for the origins of outbreaks, they have taken years to complete," she said. "The early and relatively easy studies have been done, have already been published."
An earlier report by a WHO team in China, published in February 2020, found that "key knowledge gaps remain" about the virus, though it endorsed previous findings that the virus appeared to have originated in animals, with the likely first outbreak at a seafood market in Wuhan.
From CNN's Angela Dewan
In March last year, the UK government said it was hopeful the country could cap its coronavirus deaths at 20,000. It was a bleak target to set, but one the nation came to begrudgingly accept.
Ten months on, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered a somber public briefing Tuesday, in which he announced the country could now count more than 100,000 people as its Covid-19 dead, in what he called a "grim statistic."
Of the worst-affected nations, the UK has earned the dishonor of having the highest number of confirmed deaths in the world, proportionate to population.
A surge in case numbers that began in December has pushed hospitals to the brink. ICU workers say they have been forced to "dilute" their care and describe mental health struggles under unprecedented pressure.
Schools are shut and have moved online, disrupting the lives of students and working parents alike. All but essential shops are closed. In England, socializing, even outdoors, is banned, except in pairs for exercise.
There are few differences from the spring, when Britons suffered a devastating first wave and were put under a draconian lockdown. They are now asking themselves how they got here. Yet again.
When asked that very thing, Johnson has repeatedly pointed to a new and more contagious variant of the virus, now infamously known around the world as the "UK variant." Health Secretary Matt Hancock too has claimed the country's response was working until the new variant hit.
But it's not that simple. Like in the first wave, the government has been slow to respond to rising case and death numbers with restrictions. It has failed to get an adequate contact-tracing and isolation system running. And it has, again, been slow on border controls, only closing "travel corridors" with more than 60 countries or territories in mid-January amid record-breaking daily death tolls.
From CNN's Maggie Fox
Syringes filled with the Covid-19 vaccine await to be administered at the Kedren Community Health Center in Los Angeles, California on January 25. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Close to half of Americans say they are eager to get a coronavirus vaccine or have already gotten one, according to a January survey published Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The survey of more than 1,500 adults found that 41% want the vaccine and 6% have already gotten at least one dose.
That’s considerably higher than the 34% reported in December, said KFF, which studies health policy.
In the new survey, 31% said they would like to wait and see how the vaccine works for others before they get one themselves. Some 7% will only get one if “required to do so for work, school or other activities,” while 13% said they would “definitely not” get it.
And of course, politics plays a role.
“While vaccine enthusiasm increased for both Democrats and independents, it has not shifted among Republicans, who remain the most resistant, with 33% saying they will definitely not get the vaccine or will get it only if required to do so for work, school or other activities,” Kaiser said in a statement.
The survey also looked into what might motivate people to take the vaccine.
Some 57% of those surveyed would be more likely to get vaccinated if told the vaccines are highly effective in preventing illness, and 54% said they would be more likely to get vaccinated if told it was the quickest way for life to return to normal.
Just under half, 46%, were impressed by hearing millions of people have been safely vaccinated, and 45% were motivated by being told we need people to be vaccinated to get the US economy back on track.
Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-01-26-21/index.html
A damaged supermarket in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, after clashes between a group of young people and the police on Monday night.Credit...Marco De Swart/EPA, via Shutterstock
Shopkeepers boarded up windows and sent employees home early in several cities across the Netherlands on Tuesday, as the country braced for a fourth night of protests against a 9 p.m. curfew that is meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Hundreds of protesters have been arrested since the curfew went into effect nationwide on Saturday, the authorities said. Rioters have looted stores, burned a Covid-19 testing center, and thrown fireworks and rocks at the police in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other cities.
“Officers have been injured, and residents felt unsafe in their own homes,” Hugo Hillenaar, the chief public prosecutor of Rotterdam, said on Tuesday, after police made dozens of arrests on Monday night. “As a society, we absolutely cannot tolerate this.”
Government officials have said the protests were no reason to change the strict lockdown measures, and on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands denounced the “criminal violence” that had erupted.
“The riots have nothing to do with protesting or fighting for freedom,” Mr. Rutte wrote on Twitter. “We must win the fight against the virus together, because only then can we regain our freedom.”
Though daily counts of new coronavirus cases have been declining in the Netherlands, Dutch authorities said last week that stricter restrictions were needed to control the spread of a more contagious variant that was first identified in Britain. Other European countries have also imposed curfews, including France, where people generally must be home by 6 p.m.The new variant, known as B.1.1.7., has been held responsible for record numbers of new cases in Britain and other European countries like Spain, which closed down its bars and restaurants last week, and Portugal, where hospitalizations have soared to record highs.
In the Netherlands, where bars and restaurants have been shut since October and schools and nonessential shops closed last month, the government has said it was “gravely concerned” about the new variant. “We don’t want to look back a few weeks from now and realize that we did not do enough,” the government said in a statement on Friday.
There have been protests against lockdown measures all through the pandemic, but none had turned as violent as the riots of the last four days. When the curfew and new travel restrictions took effect on Saturday, groups of youths set fires, attacked buildings and pelted police officers with stones.
The Dutch justice minister, Ferd Grapperhaus, said in a broadcast interview Tuesday that the protests were no reason to rethink the country’s strict lockdown measures. “We need the curfew,” he said.
The Netherlands has reported 13,686 deaths since the pandemic began, or 79 deaths for each 100,000 inhabitants — half the rate reported in countries like Britain, Belgium or Italy. The U.S. rate is about 127 per 100,000.
On Tuesday evening, soccer supporters in the cities of Den Bosch and Maastricht patrolling the streets said they were trying to prevent looting and clashes, according to a New York Times photographer and reports on social media.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/26/world/covid-19-coronavirus/netherlands-protest-covid
By Melissa Eddy
A patient receiving an injection of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in Brighton, England, on Tuesday.Credit...Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Germany’s Health Ministry has denied widely criticized and thinly sourced reports in local news outlets that AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine is barely effective in protecting older people, stressing that the data was still being reviewed as European Union regulators consider approving the vaccine.
“The German Ministry of Health cannot confirm recent reports of reduced efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, after two leading German newspapers reported that the vaccine had proved effective in just 8 percent of people over 65.
“At first glance, it appears that two things have been confused in the reports: About 8 percent of the subjects in the AstraZeneca efficacy trial were between 56 and 69 years of age, and only 3 to 4 percent were over 70 years of age,” the ministry said. “However, this does not imply an efficacy of only 8 percent in seniors.”
The German health minister, Jens Spahn, called the reports “speculation” early Tuesday and pointed out that the available data had not yet been fully assessed.
“It has long been clear — there was a discussion in the fall — that there is less data for older people,” Mr. Spahn said.
AstraZeneca refuted the initial reports in the German media on the effectiveness of the vaccine, calling them “completely incorrect.” AstraZeneca and Oxford, which developed the vaccine, have not released figures on how effective the vaccine is for different age groups.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for emergency use in several countries, including Britain, India and Mexico, but not yet in the European Union. The company applied for authorization on Jan. 12, and the European Medicines Agency, the bloc’s drug regulator, is expected to announce its decision on Friday.
The reports come amid growing concern in Germany over the sluggish start to the country’s mass vaccination program, after AstraZeneca informed Brussels on Friday that it would not be able to deliver the anticipated number of doses to the European Union, because of slow production at a manufacturing site within the bloc.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mr. Spahn have pledged to make vaccines available by Sept. 21 to all adults in Germany who want the shot. That promise is dependent on the country receiving the 56.2 million does of the AstraZeneca vaccine, based on its original delivery pledge.
Police officers clashed with young people in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph: Marco de Swart/EPA
In recent nights, rioters have poured on to the streets of 10 Dutch cities in what has been the closest Europe has come to open revolt against the coronavirus restrictions imposed across the continent.
The violence, the worst in four decades, might be put down to the liberty-loving culture of the country or an outbreak of straightforward criminality but, perhaps not coincidentally, the Netherlands is also the very last EU member state to start vaccinating the public and offer some hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
The reality is, however, that the Dutch are not standout stragglers among the pack of 27 member states. The EU as a whole has been lethargic in getting the vaccines they have purchased into the arms of the citizens whose taxes have paid for it.
The UK has administered 10.5 doses per 100 people. The best performing EU member state is the tiny country of Malta, with four doses administered per 100 people. The EU average is just two doses per 100 people.
A new forecast provided to the Guardian by the data analytics company Airfinity, based on the agreed vaccine supply deals and taking into account the latest developments in terms of delayed production, suggests that the UK will have achieved herd immunity by vaccinating 75% of the population by 14 July, closely followed by the US on 9 August. The EU will have to wait until 21 October.
“The EU’s challenge is largely supply related,” said Rasmus Bech Hansen, Airfinity’s chief executive. “Their rollout is behind the UK because the EU approved vaccines later, made preorders later and, until recently, purchased less on a per capita basis than the UK.
“The EU has also much less production of the working vaccines, especially AstraZeneca, and only limited production of Pfizer/BioNTech. Furthermore, the EU invested less on a comparative basis in early R&D and production which is now causing delays in production scale-up. Within the EU there are substantial differences in roll-out speed which can be explained by differences in national preparedness.”
To add British insult to injury, Boris Johnson and his health secretary, Matt Hancock, have not been shy in highlighting the UK’s singular triumph in getting jabs in arms.
It is perhaps not surprising then that the fear in Brussels and elsewhere is that that frustrations vented in Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Amsterdam will be voiced elsewhere.
If Brussels cannot offer hope that the curfews and cafe closures will end this summer, then attitudes are only likely to harden towards governments and the EU as a project. The difficulties with the EU’s vaccination strategy do not come out of a vacuum, after all.
Italy had cause to criticise the EU for a lack of solidarity during the early weeks of the pandemic last year, when personal protective equipment was lacking in its over-burdened hospitals.
The 27 member states’ agreement on €750bn recovery fund was held up by a row over attempts to tie Hungary and Poland to rule of law conditions, sparking questions over the shared values of the member states.
It is in this context, then, in which the European commission received AstraZeneca’s “surprising” announcement last Friday that there would be a 60% shortfall in the pharmaceutical company’s expected deliveries of its vaccine this quarter.
The bloc is relying on the company, once its product receives the expected regulatory authorisation on Friday, for a total of 400m doses – just under a quarter of that had been due in the first quarter of this year.
The commission’s health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, was visibly angry as she castigated AstraZeneca in a statement on Monday night, announcing plans for a new register to force vaccine suppliers to notify the commission of any exports out of the bloc. Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, fleshed out the plan: exports would need approval. The EU wanted its “fair share”.
There is a lot at stake in the coming weeks. For all the economic consequences of Brexit for Britain, its comparative success on vaccinations will be held up as proof positive that another way can be fruitful. The scenes from the Netherlands will be taken as a warning that for all that the Europe’s streets are generally, spookily, still, emotions are at risk of running high.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/26/eu-threat-will-not-impact-covid-vaccine-deliveries-to-uk-says-minister-pfizer
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
· UK Covid hotel quarantine system to target travellers from high-risk areas. A hotel quarantine system targeted at arrivals from high-risk countries will be announced by the home secretary, Priti Patel, on Wednesday, after ministers met to sign off the more targeted approach.
· Australia recorded a 10th straight day of no new local cases on Wednesday, allowing its most populous state of New South Wales to relax coronavirus restrictions after controlling a fast-spreading cluster.
· Two more returnees who stayed at the same New Zealand hotel at the same time as Sunday’s coronavirus case have tested positive after finishing their quarantine. The two people are asymptomatic and had already completed their managed isolation at Auckland’s Pullman hotel and returned two negative tests, the Department of Health said.It is yet to be confirmed if they are recent or historic infections and further testing is urgently being carried out.
· Germany considering stopping most flights to country. The German government is discussing reducing to almost zero the number of flights into Germany in an effort to prevent more virulent mutant Covid variants gaining a foothold in Germany, the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, told Bild newspaper.
· Global coronavirus cases passed 100m. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world on Tuesday passed 100 million since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, at least 2,153,477 people have lost their lives to Covid-19. The official number of cases represents just a fraction of the real number of infections around the world.Many countries were late to implement systematic testing, and some continue to test only the most seriously ill.
· Peru orders total lockdown across 10 states as second wave bites. President Francisco Sagasti of Peru on Tuesday night announced a total lockdown of the capital and nine other regions following a significant increase in Covid cases, which he said had pushed hospitals close to collapse.
· Most poor countries will not achieve mass Covid-19 immunisation until at least 2024 and some may never get there, according to a new forecast, which maps a starkly divided world over the next few years in which a handful of developed countries are fully vaccinated while others race to catch up.
· Let WHO experts meet Wuhan families, says coronavirus victim’s son. A relative of a coronavirus victim in China is demanding to meet a visiting World Health Organization team, saying it should speak to affected families who say their voices are being stifled by the Chinese government.
· Cuba’s death toll from the coronavirus reached 200 on Tuesday, with authorities reporting nearly as many deaths so far in January as in the six previous months combined, due to an unprecedented acceleration in infections.
· Germany considering stopping most flights to country. The German government is discussing reducing to almost zero the number of flights into Germany in an effort to prevent more virulent mutant Covid variants gaining a foothold in Germany, the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, told Bild newspaper.
· Biden vows to vaccinate 300m people in US by end of summer or early fall. The administration’s immediate plan is to accelerate vaccine distribution to deliver roughly 1.4m shots a day and 10m doses a week for the next three weeks, as part of the White House’s earlier-stated ambition to vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days.
Medicine
