Country,	Total	New	Total
Other	Cases	Cases	Deaths
World	212,555,062	451,510	4,443,904
USA	38,545,144	30,810	645,058
India	32,448,969	25,420	434,784
Brazil	20,570,891	14,404	574,574
Russia	6,747,087	20,564	176,044
France	6,619,611	17,300	113,311
UK	6,492,906	32,253	131,640
Turkey	6,215,663	18,622	54,533
Argentina	5,133,831	2,979	110,352
Colombia	4,889,537	2,640	124,216
Spain	4,770,453		83,136
Iran	4,677,114	36,419	102,038
Italy	4,484,613	5,923	128,751
Indonesia	3,979,456	12,408	126,372
Germany	3,876,024	5,948	92,478
Mexico	3,217,415	20,307	252,927
Poland	2,886,698	185	75,316
South Africa	2,690,973	10,748	79,421
Ukraine	2,274,561	1,003	53,457
Peru	2,141,235		197,818
Netherlands	1,918,769	2,453	17,953
Philippines	1,839,635	16,044	31,810
Iraq	1,825,089	5,634	20,184
Czechia	1,677,512	133	30,385
Chile	1,633,816	663	36,650
Malaysia	1,555,093	19,807	14,168
Canada	1,468,813	1,505	26,792
Bangladesh	1,461,998	4,804	25,282
Japan	1,277,439	25,492	15,596
Belgium	1,163,726		25,320
Pakistan	1,123,812	3,842	24,923
Sweden	1,116,584		14,629
Romania	1,090,925	517	34,412
Thailand	1,049,295	19,014	9,320
Portugal	1,019,420	2,112	17,639
Israel	990,428	3,885	6,830
Morocco	810,949	4,661	11,792
Hungary	810,781		30,046
Jordan	789,474	958	10,293
Switzerland	752,761		10,941
Nepal	747,433	1,702	10,509
Serbia	742,313	1,242	7,214
Kazakhstan	736,906	6,725	8,302
UAE	709,378	1,076	2,020
Austria	676,526	1,121	10,762
Tunisia	640,897	2,825	22,537
Lebanon	592,156	1,173	8,011
Cuba	583,299	9,548	4,544
Greece	559,186	1,947	13,351
Saudi Arabia	541,994	384	8,481
Georgia	514,744	3,803	6,771
Ecuador	495,115		31,985
Bolivia	486,394	468	18,296
Belarus	469,717	1,302	3,681
Paraguay	457,725	113	15,571
Panama	452,598	614	7,009
Bulgaria	441,295	384	18,475
Costa Rica	440,647		5,312
Guatemala	439,253	1,334	11,500
Kuwait	408,245	167	2,404
Slovakia	394,082	105	12,547
Azerbaijan	391,506	3,069	5,308
Sri Lanka	390,000	4304	7,366
Uruguay	384,094	68	6,016
Myanmar	373,685	2,173	14,374
Croatia	369,765	373	8,301
Vietnam	348,059	11,214	8,277
Dominican Republic	347,835	198	3,989
Denmark	337,466	720	2,566
Ireland	337,117	1,688	5,074
Honduras	326,830		8,594
Palestine	326,310	906	3,637
Venezuela	324,642		3,886
Oman	301,299	105	4,031
Ethiopia	295,804	785	4,561
Libya	295,254	1,722	4,051
Lithuania	293,767	407	4,487
Egypt	286,352	184	16,671
Bahrain	271,631	97	1,386
Moldova	264,432	149	6,363
Slovenia	263,547	244	4,440
Armenia	237,634	385	4,752
S. Korea	236,366	1,627	2,215
Qatar	230,837	205	601
Kenya	229,009	646	4,497
Bosnia and Herzegovina	209,073		9,722
Zambia	204,549	212	3,574
Mongolia	193,684	1780	898
Algeria	191,583	412	5,004
Nigeria	187,023	388	2,268
Kyrgyzstan	173,920	244	2,484
North Macedonia	168,872	881	5,668
Afghanistan	152,583	72	7,076
Uzbekistan	149,058	855	1,021
Norway	148,608	271	811
Botswana	146,461		2081
Mozambique	142,784	261	1,800
Latvia	141,045	101	2,569
Albania	139,324	534	2,478
Estonia	138,807	101	1,281
Namibia	123,581	98	3,342
Australia	44,028	909	981
Suriname	27,503	132	699

 

Retrieved from：https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

U.S. administers 362.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines- CDC

 

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Floyd's Family Pharmacy as cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) surge in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, U.S., August 5, 2021.REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare/File Photo

 

The United States has administered 362,657,771 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Sunday morning and distributed 428,531,345 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday.

Those figures are up from the 361,684,564 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Saturday out of 428,506,065 doses delivered.

The agency said 201,425,785 people had received at least one dose while 170,821,621 people are fully vaccinated as of Sunday.

The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna (MRNA.O) and Pfizer/BioNTech (PFE.N), , as well as Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) one-shot vaccine as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Sunday.

 

Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-administers-3627-million-doses-covid-19-vaccines-cdc-2021-08-22/

 

 

 

New Zealand's Delta outbreak tops 100 cases

 

An empty street is seen as a lockdown to curb the spread of cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) remains in place in Wellington, New Zealand, August 20, 2021. REUTERS/Praveen Menon

 

New Zealand on Monday reported 35 new cases of COVID-19, taking the total number of infections in its current outbreak to 107.

The health ministry said in a statemnt that 33 new cases are in Auckland and two are in the capital Wellington.

 

Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealands-delta-outbreak-tops-100-cases-2021-08-23/

 

 

 

Taiwan's president leads way in first domestic COVID-19 vaccine

By Fabian Hamacher

 

A medical worker administers a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to a man during a vaccination session for elderly people over 75 years old, at a stadium in New Taipei City, Taiwan June 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ann Wang/File Photo

 

President Tsai Ing-wen got vaccinated with Taiwan's first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, giving her personal stamp of approval as the island begins rolling out the shot whose approval critics say has been rushed.

The health ministry last month approved the emergency use of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp's (6547.TWO) COVID-19 vaccine, part of a broader plan for inoculation self-sufficiency as delays in vaccine deliveries from global drug companies have affected Taiwan and many other countries.

Tsai, who had held off using vaccines from Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) or AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L), the current mainstay of Taiwan's vaccination programme, received her Medigen shot at a hospital in central Taipei, demonstrating her confidence in the safety of the vaccine.

Tsai chatted to medical workers as they prepared her shot, the whole process being broadcast live on her Facebook page, and gave a short response of "no" to a shouted question from reporters about whether she was nervous.

More than 700,000 people have signed up so far to receive the Medigen vaccine, which requires a second shot 28 days after the first one.

The government says the initial experience of the pandemic last year, when basic supplies such as face masks were in short supply, made it realise they had to be able to rely on themselves for critical materials.

Medigen, whose Chinese name literally means "high-end", rejects claims its vaccine is either unsafe or that it has been sent to market with undue haste, saying it is effective and well tested.

"We have done so many experiments, everyone has seen how safe our vaccine is. There are so few side effects, almost no fever and so on. So I think everyone can rest assured," Medigen's Chief Executive Officer Charles Chen told Reuters.

The recombinant protein vaccine has been developed in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health in the United States, and the government has ordered an initial 5 million doses. It says nobody will be forced to get it.

The vaccine has yet to finish clinical trials and no efficacy data is available, but the government says studies so far have shown that antibodies created by the shot have been "no worse than" those created by AstraZeneca's vaccine.

Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang, or KMT, has mounted a fierce campaign against the shot, with one of its former vice chairmen, Hau Lung-bin, filing a lawsuit to invalidate Medigen's authorisation, though a court rejected that last week.

The party says it supports domestic vaccines, but that Medigen's approval has been rushed.

"There is no need for the lives and health of the Taiwanese people to serve as white rats in a laboratory," Ho Chih-yung, deputy head of the KMT's international department, told Reuters.

Around 40% of Taiwan's 23.5 million people have received at least one shot of either of the two-dose AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines, though fewer than 5% are fully vaccinated.

However, unlike some other parts of Asia, Taiwan faces no huge pressure to accelerate its vaccination drive, as it is recording only a handful of domestic infections a day.

Taiwan has received more than 10 million vaccine doses to date, and in July ordered a further 36 million doses of Moderna's.

 

Retrieved from：https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/taiwan-start-contested-roll-out-first-domestic-covid-19-shot-2021-08-22/

 

 

 

Covid cases overwhelm the Gulf Coast, leaving region with no I.C.U. beds.

 

Beachgoers on the coast in Gulf Shores, Ala., last week.Credit...Jay Reeves/Associated Press

 

The Gulf Coast, a tourist haven that draws throngs of revelers to beaches across several Southern states, has been sorely afflicted as the Delta variant tears through the region, which has relatively low rates of vaccination and often lax safety measures.

But even compared to other parts of the South that are struggling against the latest wave of the virus, the Gulf Coast stands out like an angry red scar on maps that depict coronavirus hot spots and hospitalizations.

The average per person hospitalization rate for Panama City, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; and Gulfport, Miss.; is considerably higher than that of their states as a whole, even though they are three of the four states with the highest rates in the country, according to data compiled by The New York Times. The per person average case rates in the surrounding counties are all more than twice the national average. The vaccination rate in all three counties is well below 40 percent, according to federal data.

“It is almost like what’s going on in the West, where you have lots of fuel, a source of ignition and then you end up with a large fire,” said Dr. Bernard H. Eichold II, the health officer of the Mobile County Health Department. More than 90 percent of the county’s 461 hospitalized Covid patients on Thursday were unvaccinated, he said.

The people inundating the hospitals along the Gulf Coast are not the high-risk, often older ones who were most vulnerable in the earlier waves of the pandemic. The Delta variant is spreading among younger people, many who thought they had nothing to fear and did not get vaccinated.

 

Retrieved from：https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/22/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine

 

 

 

The British government is starting an antibody surveillance program.

 

Health workers at an N.H.S. test and trace Covid testing unit at the Civic Centre west of London, in May.Credit...Adrian Dennis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 

The British government is starting an antibody surveillance program for adults who test positive for the coronavirus in order to develop a better understanding of its vaccine campaign and the immune response to different virus variants.

The program, which the U.K. Health Security Agency said would begin on Tuesday, will allow for up to 8,000 participants each day who book a P.C.R. test through the National Health Service’s “test and trace” program. However, the antibody tests, which will be free, will be sent only to those who test positive for the virus.

The information gathered will help gauge reinfection rates for those who had previously caught the virus, as well as measure breakthrough cases, and also study those who did not mount an immune response.

The British health secretary, Sajid Javid, said in a statement on Sunday that those who take part in the new public program would help  “strengthen our understanding of Covid-19 as we cautiously return to a more normal life.”

 

Retrieved from：https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/22/world/covid-delta-variant-vaccine

 

 

 

Full FDA approval of Pfizer Covid shot will enable vaccine requirements

By Alexandra Villarreal

 

Vials of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. Photograph: Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

 

Full federal approval of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine will empower businesses and universities to require vaccinations and tip hesitant Americans toward getting the jab, the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, said on Sunday.

“We already know that there are many businesses and universities that have moved toward vaccine requirements,” Murthy told CNN’s State of the Union. “And I think it’s a very reasonable thing to do to create a safe environment.”

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is trying to finish its licensing process for the lifesaving drug as soon as Monday, the New York Times has reported.

Until now, the Pfizer shot has been administered under an emergency use authorization, though experts continue to emphasize that it is safe and effective.

“We’ve given it to hundreds of millions of people,” Murthy said. “We’ve seen that it’s doing its job. And that’s why we’re continuing to recommend that people get vaccinated starting today and … as soon as they can.”

As the highly infectious Delta variant spreads, the US is experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases. Many southern states are struggling for hospital capacity amid resistance from Republican leaders and the public to vaccinations and mask mandates.

The overwhelming majority of Covid hospitalizations and deaths in the US are among unvaccinated people.

As health misinformation continues to dog the pandemic response, some have started self-medicating with ivermectin – a drug intended for horses that the FDA has warned could lead to hospitalization.

“The best protection we have against Covid-19 is the vaccine, and if you get Covid-19, we actually do have treatments that work,” Murthy said.

“Ivermectin is not one of them.”

With the start of a new academic year, students across the US are returning to crowded school campuses. Yet younger children still aren’t eligible for the vaccine, and hospitals in hard-hit areas are running out of pediatric intensive care space.

“Unfortunately, in those places that they’re using politics to block good practice, we’re seeing hospitalizations through the roof for young children,” the education secretary, Miguel Cardona, told NBC’s Meet the Press.

“That’s unacceptable.”

The battle over school safety has become so heated that the Department of Education’s office for civil rights is now tasked with investigating cases where students feel their health is at risk because of state mask mandate bans.

“Let’s get politics out of the way,” Cardona said. “Let the educational leaders and health experts make the decisions around how to keep students and staff safe.”

The Biden administration is also preparing to roll out an expansive booster-shot campaign next month, offering a third shot to patients who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

As with the initial jabs, healthcare workers, long-term care residents and the elderly will take priority, Murthy told ABC’s This Week.

“The vaccines are continuing to work remarkably well for preventing people from ending up in the hospital, and they are saving lives,” Murthy said.

“But what we are seeing is a decline in the protection against mild to moderate disease, and so we are anticipating there may be an erosion in that important protection that we’re seeing today down the line.

“And that’s why, to stay ahead of this virus, we’re recommending that people start to get boosters the week of 20 September.”

 

Retrieved from：https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/22/pfizer-covid-vaccine-full-fda-approval-monday