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| Country, | Total | New | Total |
| Other | Cases | Cases | Deaths |
| World | 121,267,819 | 449,289 | 2,682,083 |
| USA | 30,231,550 | 53,231 | 549,367 |
| Brazil | 11,609,601 | 84,124 | 282,400 |
| India | 11,438,464 | 28,869 | 159,079 |
| Russia | 4,409,438 | 9,393 | 92,937 |
| UK | 4,268,821 | 5,294 | 125,690 |
| France | 4,108,108 | 29,975 | 91,170 |
| Italy | 3,258,770 | 20,396 | 103,001 |
| Spain | 3,200,024 | 4,962 | 72,565 |
| Turkey | 2,911,642 | 16,749 | 29,623 |
| Germany | 2,594,675 | 9,290 | 74,431 |
| Colombia | 2,309,600 | 3,716 | 61,368 |
| Argentina | 2,210,121 | 8,235 | 54,036 |
| Mexico | 2,167,729 | 1,439 | 194,944 |
| Poland | 1,931,921 | 14,396 | 47,578 |
| Iran | 1,763,313 | 8,380 | 61,427 |
| South Africa | 1,530,966 | 933 | 51,560 |
| Ukraine | 1,477,190 | 9,642 | 28,697 |
| Indonesia | 1,430,458 | 5,414 | 38,753 |
| Peru | 1,427,064 | 8,090 | 49,330 |
| Czechia | 1,413,057 | 10,601 | 23,788 |
| Netherlands | 1,167,563 | 4,902 | 16,119 |
| Canada | 915,868 | 2,821 | 22,519 |
| Chile | 900,782 | 4,551 | 21,789 |
| Romania | 868,799 | 6,118 | 21,698 |
| Israel | 822,703 | 1,790 | 6,048 |
| Portugal | 814,897 | 384 | 16,707 |
| Belgium | 809,861 | 1,578 | 22,545 |
| Iraq | 768,352 | 5,267 | 13,827 |
| Sweden | 725,289 | 13,172 | |
| Philippines | 631,311 | 4,428 | 12,848 |
| Pakistan | 609,964 | 2,511 | 13,595 |
| Switzerland | 575,253 | 1,438 | 10,147 |
| Bangladesh | 560,887 | 1,719 | 8,597 |
| Hungary | 529,122 | 4,926 | 17,226 |
| Serbia | 526,112 | 5,201 | 4,778 |
| Austria | 497,889 | 2,425 | 8,925 |
| Jordan | 495,380 | 8,910 | 5,497 |
| Morocco | 489,622 | 526 | 8,737 |
| Japan | 448,688 | 782 | 8,622 |
| UAE | 430,313 | 2,018 | 1,406 |
| Lebanon | 423,433 | 3,480 | 5,474 |
| Saudi Arabia | 383,106 | 354 | 6,578 |
| Panama | 348,580 | 425 | 6,009 |
| Slovakia | 339,538 | 1,578 | 8,669 |
| Malaysia | 326,034 | 1,063 | 1,218 |
| Belarus | 304,146 | 876 | 2,112 |
| Ecuador | 302,854 | 356 | 16,259 |
| Bulgaria | 287,568 | 4,374 | 11,579 |
| Georgia | 275,685 | 537 | 3,658 |
| Nepal | 275,424 | 114 | 3,014 |
| Bolivia | 260,059 | 670 | 11,974 |
| Croatia | 251,865 | 691 | 5,697 |
| Dominican Republic | 246,794 | 495 | 3,237 |
| Tunisia | 242,673 | 549 | 8,429 |
| Azerbaijan | 241,651 | 980 | 3,298 |
| Ireland | 227,663 | 347 | 4,552 |
| Kazakhstan | 225,685 | 954 | 2,873 |
| Greece | 223,789 | 1,508 | 7,196 |
| Denmark | 221,842 | 771 | 2,395 |
| Palestine | 213,791 | 2,189 | 2,314 |
| Kuwait | 212,169 | 1,314 | 1,186 |
| Costa Rica | 210,447 | 431 | 2,886 |
| Moldova | 207,012 | 1,688 | 4,402 |
| Lithuania | 206,319 | 657 | 3,419 |
| Slovenia | 201,497 | 918 | 3,941 |
| Egypt | 192,195 | 640 | 11,384 |
| Guatemala | 183,985 | 971 | 6,599 |
| Paraguay | 183,348 | 1,934 | 3,554 |
| Armenia | 179,287 | 585 | 3,277 |
| Honduras | 178,925 | 648 | 4,360 |
| Ethiopia | 178,108 | 1,490 | 2,573 |
| Qatar | 171,212 | 479 | 268 |
| Nigeria | 161,074 | 179 | 2,018 |
| Oman | 148,010 | 587 | 1,614 |
| Libya | 147,121 | 1,041 | 2,406 |
| Venezuela | 147,028 | 540 | 1,451 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 146,437 | 1,606 | 5,637 |
| Myanmar | 142,162 | 15 | 3,203 |
| Bahrain | 132,369 | 686 | 487 |
| Albania | 118,492 | 475 | 2,077 |
| Algeria | 115,540 | 130 | 3,045 |
| Kenya | 115,031 | 1,064 | 1,925 |
| North Macedonia | 113,929 | 999 | 3,364 |
| S. Korea | 96,380 | 363 | 1,678 |
| Latvia | 94,602 | 643 | 1,777 |
| China | 90,062 | 13 | 4,636 |
| Sri Lanka | 88,392 | 154 | 532 |
| Ghana | 88,228 | 243 | 698 |
| Estonia | 87,547 | 1,462 | 739 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 86,990 | 73 | 1,484 |
| Zambia | 85,240 | 290 | 1,167 |
| Montenegro | 84,700 | 537 | 1,151 |
| Norway | 82,455 | 1,150 | 641 |
| Uzbekistan | 80,743 | 65 | 622 |
| Uruguay | 73,770 | 908 | 725 |
| Finland | 67,851 | 517 | 801 |
| Mozambique | 64,929 | 413 | 732 |
| Cuba | 62,998 | 792 | 376 |
| El Salvador | 62,531 | 154 | 1,958 |
| Singapore | 60,128 | 11 | 30 |
Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Brittany Siguenza, 5, watching her mother receive a dose of the Moderna vaccine in Revere, Mass., on Friday.Credit...CJ Gunther/EPA, via Shutterstock
The drug company Moderna has begun a study that will test its Covid vaccine in children under 12, including babies as young as six months, the company said on Tuesday.
The study is expected to enroll 6,750 healthy children in the United States and Canada. Moderna declined to say how many had already signed up or received the first shots, according to a spokeswoman, Colleen Hussey.
“There’s a huge demand to find out about vaccinating kids and what it does,” said Dr. David Wohl, the medical director of the vaccine clinic at the University of North Carolina, who is not involved the study.
In a separate study, Moderna is testing its vaccine in 3,000 children ages 12 to 17, and may have results for that age group by summer. The vaccine would then have to be authorized for use in children, so it would not be immediately available.
Many parents want protection for their children, and vaccinating children should help to produce the herd immunity considered crucial to stopping the pandemic. The American Academy of Pediatrics has called for expansion of vaccine trials to include children.
Vaccine side effects like fever, sore arms, fatigue and achy joints and muscles can be more intense in children than in adults, and doctors say it is important for parents to know what to expect after their children are inoculated.
Each child in Moderna’s study will receive two shots, 28 days apart. The study will have two parts. In the first, children aged 2 years to less than 12 may receive two doses of 50 or 100 micrograms each. Those under 2 years may receive two shots of 25, 50 or 100 micrograms. (One adult dose is 100 micrograms.)
In each group, the first children inoculated will receive the lowest doses and will be monitored for reactions before later participants are given higher doses.
Then, researchers will perform an interim analysis to determine which dose is safest and most likely to be protective for each age group.
Children in part 2 of the study will receive the doses selected by the analysis — or placebo shots consisting of salt water.
Moderna developed its vaccine in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The company and the institute are also working together on the study, along with the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
The children will be followed for a year, to look for side effects and measure antibody levels that will help researchers determine whether the vaccine appears to provide protection. The antibody levels will be the main indicator, but the researchers will also look for coronavirus infections, with or without symptoms.
Dr. Wohl said the study appeared well designed and likely to be efficient, but he questioned why the children were to be followed for only one year, when adults in Moderna’s study are followed for two years. He also said he was somewhat surprised to see the vaccine being tested in children so young this soon.
“Should we learn first what happens in the older kids before we go to the really young kids?” Dr. Wohl asked. Most young children do not become very ill from Covid, he said, though some develop a severe inflammatory syndrome that can be life threatening.
Johnson & Johnson has also said it would test its coronavirus vaccine in babies and young children after testing it first in older children.
Pfizer and BioNTech are testing their vaccine in children ages 12 to 15, and have said the plan is to move to younger groups; the product is already authorized for use in those 16 and up in the United States.
Last month, AstraZeneca began testing its vaccine in Britain in children 6 years and older.
Lining up as the police escorted a hearse carrying the coffin of Papua New Guinea’s first prime minister, Michael Somare, in Port Moresby on Thursday.Credit...Andrew Kutan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Papua New Guinea, which had largely avoided the coronavirus, is now sounding the alarm over an outbreak that its prime minister said could infect up to a third of the country’s population.
The small island nation has recorded 2,269 coronavirus cases and 26 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the country’s health department. Nearly half of the infections were recorded in the last two weeks, and 97 cases were reported on Sunday.
On Monday, Prime Minister James Marape called the situation “critical” and said that restrictions on movement would be brought in. The nation’s businesses will be allowed to remain open, but residents will not be allowed to leave their provinces or villages.
Only about 55,000 of the nation’s nine million people have been tested for the coronavirus, a low rate that signals the actual number of infections may be much higher than reported.
There are also concerns that the country’s fragile health system will buckle under the strain, and that recently held gatherings to commemorate former Prime Minister Michael Somare, who died last month, would become super-spreader events.
The spike in cases has prompted concerns in neighboring Australia that the outbreak could spread to its shores. The Torres Strait Islands, an autonomously administered group of islands, are just two and a half miles from Papua New Guinea at the nearest point.
Aid groups and Australia’s opposition party have urged the government to provide emergency vaccine doses to Papua New Guinea. The smaller nation has sourced 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Australia and 70,000 from India, but is not expected to get its first vaccine doses until at least next month.
Waiting to receive the Sinovac vaccine in Hong Kong last month.Credit...Isaac Lawrence/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Chinese embassies in a rapidly growing number of countries, including the United States, have begun requiring that foreigners entering China must first be fully inoculated with a Chinese-made coronavirus vaccine if they want to avoid extensive paperwork requirements.
Complying with the rule will be difficult for people applying for Chinese visas in places that are not offering vaccines produced in China. No Chinese-made vaccine has been approved in the United States or most of Europe.
Many regulators outside China have been wary of vaccines made by companies in China, notably Sinovac and Sinopharm. The companies have released relatively little data from Phase 3 trials to allow independent assessments of the vaccines’ efficacy and safety.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced similar rules for foreigners wanting to enter the Chinese mainland from Hong Kong. It said on Saturday that if they received a Chinese-made vaccine they would not need to meet other requirements, including a negative nucleic acid test, detailed health and travel records, and a personal invitation from a Chinese provincial government agency.
Some foreigners who live and work in the Chinese mainland but left early in the pandemic have been living in limbo for a year or more in Hong Kong, which has authorized the Sinovac and BioNTech vaccines, and elsewhere.
By Tuesday morning, Chinese embassies had issued identical rules in Britain, Japan, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States, Vietnam and at least a dozen other countries.
The Chinese stance puts pressure on other countries to give regulatory approval to China’s vaccines. Beijing has not allowed vaccines developed in other countries to be produced or administered in China.
Thousands of businesspeople and students have been seeking visas to resume their work or studies in China. The country’s borders have been among the most tightly closed in the world to prevent the coronavirus from re-entering the country after being largely stamped out. Business leaders say the new vaccine recommendation adds to the hurdles.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/16/world/covid-19-coronavirus
From CNN’s Yoonjung Seo in Seoul
A nurse fills a syringe with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in Seoul, South Korea, on February 26. Jung Yeon-Je-Pool/Getty Images
South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced Wednesday the country will carry on with vaccinations as there is currently no clear ground to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine.
In a press release, the KDCA pointed to the World Health Organization's (WHO) finding that there is no evidence blood clots are caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine and its recommendation not to stop vaccination due to fear.
The KDCA also quoted the European Medicines Agency (EMA)'s assessment that there is no indication the two cases of blood clots in Austria are related to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
More than 570,000 people have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca's Covid-19 shot in South Korea so far, but no links have been confirmed between vaccination and thrombosis, according to the KDCA.
The health team will keep monitoring people's reactions after vaccination and will closely review the results of the European Food and Drug Administration’s investigation as well as cases in other countries, it added.
From CNN's Rodrigo Pedroso in Sao Paulo
An employee uses a bulldozer to prepare more graves in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on March 11. Andre Penner/AP
Brazil reported 2,841 coronavirus-related fatalities on Tuesday, its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began, according to the health ministry.
The country’s total Covid-19 death toll now stands at 282,127.
Additionally, 83,926 new Covid-19 cases were reported Tuesday, bringing the total caseload to 11,603,535.
On Monday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced the appointment of cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga as the country’s fourth health minister since the pandemic hit last March. Queiroga is replacing the current minister, Army General Eduardo Pazuello, who has led the health ministry since May 16, 2020.
The transition in the Ministry of Health will take place in a couple of weeks, according to Bolsonaro.
Meanwhile, governors of the most hit regions in the country announced the adoption of night curfews and more restrictive measures to try to curb the virus' spread.
Fourteen of the twenty-six Brazilian states, plus the Federal District, are under curfew --generally between 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. -- the majority of them enforced in the last week.
In addition, 18 state governments announced more restrictive measures over the last five days.
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-03-17-21/index.html
Short-sailings around UK with dining and entertainment to restart but ships will not call at ports
The P&O cruise ship Azura docked in the marina at North Shields, England. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Cruise operator P&O is to restart domestic holidays this summer, but only for UK residents who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
After its fleet has been grounded for over a year, P&O is dipping its toes back in the water by offering passengers short sailings on two of its ships around the UK coastline. Coronavirus restrictions mean the ships will not call at any ports, although there will be the usual onboard dining and entertainment programme.
Two vessels, the Britannia and the Iona, will take passengers on voyages of between three and seven nights around the UK, departing from Southampton between late June and September.
The first UK voyage on 27 June will mark the first time one of P&O’s ships has set sail from Southampton in 16 months.
The cruise line, which is owned by the Carnival group, said all passengers would have to have received their second dose of an approved coronavirus vaccination at least seven days before setting sail.
Passengers will have to provide proof of vaccinations and the dates they were administered before boarding. Those who fail to provide evidence will not be allowed to board the ship.
The company has yet to confirm what evidence it will accept as proof of vaccination.
The cruise operator said there would be enhanced sanitation measures on board, appropriate social distancing and the wearing of masks in certain areas of the ship, while the crew will undergo quarantine beforehand and regular testing while on board.
The pandemic brought most international cruises to a halt in early 2020, following several outbreaks of coronavirus on board several cruise ships. P&O repeatedly put its voyages “on pause” during 2020, while in May its owner Carnival cut hundreds of jobs in the UK.
P&O Cruises said the progress of the UK’s vaccination programme, combined with ongoing uncertainty about international travel, had prompted it to offer trips around the UK for the first time.
“We have every hope that our guests will be able to enjoy a holiday this summer. After the stresses and challenges of the past year everyone certainly deserves a treat,” said Paul Ludlow, the president of P&O Cruises.
“Whilst there is still uncertainty about holidays abroad this summer, we are delighted to be able to offer our guests the ultimate escape here in the UK”.
The company insisted that the unreliable British summer should not pose problems, promising to consult the weather forecast before each cruise and take its ships “where it is warm and sunny”.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/17/po-to-restart-uk-cruises-this-summer-but-only-for-vaccinated-passengers
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