i_need_contribute
|
Country, |
Total |
New |
Total |
|
World |
75,261,144 |
+722,054 |
1,667,515 |
|
17,627,070 |
+231,269 |
317,929 |
|
|
9,977,834 |
+26,762 |
144,829 |
|
|
7,111,527 |
+68,832 |
184,876 |
|
|
2,762,668 |
+28,214 |
49,151 |
|
|
2,427,316 |
+18,254 |
59,619 |
|
|
1,955,680 |
+27,515 |
17,364 |
|
|
1,948,660 |
+35,383 |
66,052 |
|
|
1,906,377 |
+18,236 |
67,220 |
|
|
1,805,633 |
+11,081 |
48,777 |
|
|
1,524,372 |
+7,326 |
41,534 |
|
|
1,468,795 |
+12,196 |
39,787 |
|
|
1,438,438 |
+30,951 |
25,165 |
|
|
1,277,499 |
+10,297 |
115,769 |
|
|
1,171,854 |
+11,953 |
24,345 |
|
|
1,138,530 |
+7,453 |
53,095 |
|
|
991,518 |
+2,061 |
36,901 |
|
|
931,751 |
+12,047 |
15,996 |
|
|
892,813 |
+9,126 |
24,011 |
|
|
652,525 |
+12,779 |
10,321 |
|
|
643,508 |
+7,354 |
19,390 |
|
|
615,058 |
+3,636 |
18,278 |
|
|
602,416 |
+8,245 |
10,110 |
|
|
580,449 |
+1,533 |
12,650 |
|
|
578,732 |
+2,001 |
16,007 |
|
|
577,446 |
+5,697 |
13,969 |
|
|
496,975 |
+1,137 |
7,192 |
|
|
488,638 |
+7,008 |
13,916 |
|
|
454,447 |
+1,470 |
8,850 |
|
|
448,522 |
+2,545 |
9,080 |
|
|
409,746 |
+2,776 |
6,804 |
|
|
367,975 |
+2,933 |
3,050 |
|
|
362,616 |
+4,320 |
5,902 |
|
|
360,516 |
+181 |
6,091 |
|
|
332,828 |
+2,485 |
4,982 |
|
|
291,549 |
+2,982 |
7,538 |
|
|
287,730 |
+5,129 |
2,529 |
|
|
269,806 |
+2,221 |
3,496 |
|
|
251,692 |
+776 |
1,749 |
|
|
204,249 |
+788 |
13,932 |
|
|
203,295 |
+3,348 |
3,481 |
|
|
201,368 |
+2,981 |
1,953 |
|
|
191,460 |
+4,124 |
2,088 |
|
|
189,866 |
+1,321 |
629 |
|
|
188,288 |
+2,042 |
6,339 |
|
|
187,103 |
+3,061 |
2,739 |
|
|
186,963 |
+3,918 |
2,955 |
|
|
167,731 |
+1,834 |
1,299 |
|
|
Dominican |
157,305 |
+720 |
2,375 |
|
156,388 |
+1,125 |
1,980 |
|
|
153,049 |
+2,116 |
1,248 |
|
|
151,392 |
+1,174 |
2,581 |
|
|
148,214 |
+498 |
9,029 |
|
|
147,192 |
+221 |
913 |
|
|
144,523 |
+788 |
2,147 |
|
|
142,133 |
+3,045 |
1,378 |
|
|
141,557 |
+140 |
242 |
|
|
131,919 |
+1,590 |
2,674 |
|
|
131,435 |
+607 |
4,551 |
|
|
128,710 |
+1,153 |
3,948 |
|
|
127,019 |
+184 |
1,483 |
|
|
123,813 |
+4,034 |
992 |
|
|
123,701 |
+548 |
7,015 |
|
|
118,481 |
+475 |
1,831 |
|
|
117,755 |
+2,149 |
1,078 |
|
|
115,966 |
+1,419 |
4,032 |
|
|
115,317 |
+374 |
3,013 |
|
|
113,082 |
+1,182 |
2,377 |
|
|
109,081 |
+364 |
975 |
|
|
103,029 |
+3,160 |
933 |
|
|
102,043 |
+1,642 |
2,233 |
|
|
97,028 |
+819 |
2,032 |
|
|
93,933 |
+426 |
2,640 |
|
|
93,405 |
+552 |
1,618 |
|
|
93,283 |
+706 |
1,337 |
|
|
89,743 |
+143 |
349 |
|
|
89,133 |
+1,220 |
432 |
|
|
86,777 |
+7 |
4,634 |
|
|
78,415 |
+264 |
1,321 |
|
|
77,678 |
+481 |
2,143 |
|
|
76,251 |
+654 |
2,225 |
|
|
76,207 |
+1,145 |
1,201 |
|
|
75,538 |
+142 |
612 |
|
|
58,377 |
+24 |
29 |
|
|
53,553 |
+167 |
331 |
|
|
51,424 |
+787 |
1,055 |
|
|
46,453 |
+1,014 |
634 |
|
|
43,279 |
+434 |
428 |
|
|
42,995 |
+432 |
614 |
|
|
42,776 |
+464 |
404 |
|
|
5,428 |
+27 |
117 |
|
|
5,124 |
+18 |
47 |
|
|
4,281 |
+20 |
60 |
|
|
1,407 |
+2 |
35 |
Retrieved from: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
From CNN's Jake Kwon in Seoul
A restaurant worker carries a tray of food through Namdaemun market in Seoul, South Korea, on December 1. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images
South Korea plans to complete vaccination for 80% of its population against coronavirus by November next year, Health Ministry official Yang Dong-gyo said in a briefing on Friday.
The ministry said last week that the country would import doses for 44 million people from developers including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Janssen, and Moderna.
"Doses for 44 million people is enough for more than 80% of our population. We can reach herd immunity," Health Ministry official Im In-taek said Friday.
Buying vaccines: In a news release, the ministry said that AstraZeneca vaccines will be deployed in the country starting from February or March. The health authority is aiming to sign contracts with Pfizer and Janssen in December and Moderna in January. The purchasing terms and supply confirmation are already signed with vaccine developers and they are legally binding like the contract, the release added.
Im said South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety would process approval of the vaccines independently of the US FDA's decision.
The vaccine will be given to seniors, those in nursing facilities, and medical workers first.
From CNN's Lindsay Isaac and Lauren Kent in London
Sweden’s King has condemned the country’s government response to the Covid-19 pandemic on a day when new cases hit a record number.
"I believe we have failed. We have a large number who have died and that is terrible. It’s something we all share the suffering from," King Carl XVI Gustaf said in a Christmas interview with Swedish broadcaster SVT.
It’s criticism that comes with Prime Minister Stefan Löfven under scrutiny for his coronavirus policy as new cases surge.
Swedish state broadcaster (SVT) reported an all-time high of Covid-19 patients in hospital this week and some ICUs are reported to be at capacity.
On Tuesday, Löfven acknowledged his strategy of achieving herd immunity had failed. “It is proof that it is a virus that we did not know about before and that behaves in a way that many would not have thought,” he said
No lockdown for Sweden: The country never went into a lockdown during the first wave and was well into the second when voluntary precautions were recommended at the regional level.
November restrictions: With case numbers rising in November, the Prime Minister imposed a national ban on public gatherings of more than eight people. More recently he ordered theaters and entertainment venues closed and advised students aged 13 to 15 to shift to online learning.
Christmas gatherings: But in private settings, people are only recommended to “interact with each other in smaller circles,” according to government guidelines. During Christmas festivities people are urged not to meet people outside their immediate circle. Mask wearing has not been advised.
High deaths in care homes: An independent report by a special commission this week attributed the high number of deaths in care homes to the “overall spread of the virus in the society." It claims that measures for care homes were late despite early information that older people were particularly vulnerable.
Some conclusions about where we could have been better have already been drawn,” Löfven said.
On Thursday there were 8,815 new Covid-18 cases -- the highest number recorded in a 24 hour period since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Swedish Health Agency data, marking an increase of more than 2,000 cases from last week. Sweden has had 7,893 deaths from the virus, more per capita than other Scandinavian countries.
From CNN's Pierre Bairin and Emma Reynolds
French President Emmanuel Macro has a "fever" and is "tired [and] coughing" after testing positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, according to an Élysée spokesperson.
Macron will self-isolate for a week, his office said. The 42-year-old French leader has traveled from Paris to the presidential residence La Lanterne in Versailles for his seven-day quarantine, according to the spokesperson.
French First Lady Brigitte Macron, 67, remains at the Élysée Palace in Paris and has protectively gone into quarantine though she "presented no symptoms," her office told French media.
"(Macron) is isolated all the while being able to continue working," the spokesperson said, adding that the President had received messages of support from leaders around the world on Thursday.
His diagnosis sent ripples through the French and European political sphere, with multiple figures now forced to quarantine.
Prime Minister Jean Castex has gone into quarantine, despite testing negative on Thursday morning. President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand is also quarantining for seven days.
Macron's planned trip to Lebanon next week has been canceled.
The French President had meetings with a number of other top European leaders in recent days, several of whom announced they would quarantine in the wake of Macron's diagnosis.
Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, European Council President Charles Michel and OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said they would go into quarantine as a precautionary measure.
Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-12-18-20/index.html
In Shanghai last month.Credit...Aly Song/Reuters
BioNTech, the German drug maker that worked with Pfizer to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, will ship 100 million doses of the vaccine to China after it is authorized by the Chinese government, making it Beijing’s first foreign order of an inoculation against the disease.
The 100 million doses would be an initial shipment, BioNTech and its Chinese partner, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, said in a statement on Wednesday. They did not say how many more doses would be sent.
“This joint development effort with Fosun Pharma is a testament to the importance of global cooperation and reflects our strategy to supply our vaccine globally,” said Ugur Sahin, BioNTech’s chief executive and co-founder.
The companies did not say when the Chinese government is expected to give regulatory approval to the vaccine, which was found to be more than 90 percent effective and is being administered in the United States and elsewhere.
A series of vaccine scandals in China have stoked fears in the country about the quality of domestically made vaccines. It is common for members of the rapidly growing middle class to choose foreign-made vaccines over Chinese ones.
If approved, the BioNTech deal would suggest that Beijing wants to ensure that many of its people would have access to a safe vaccine in case its own vaccine candidates fall through or are unable to meet domestic demand. So far, no Chinese vaccine maker has reported full efficacy data for any of the country’s vaccines, five of which are in late-stage testing.
One of them, developed by the state-owned company Sinopharm, has been fully approved by two countries that participated in trials, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Both cited preliminary data showing that the vaccine is 86 percent effective, exceeding the 50 percent threshold set by many governments. Sinopharm has not commented on either announcement.
A temporary coronavirus testing station in Le Havre, France, on Monday.Credit...Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times
The first inoculations against the coronavirus will begin across the European Union on Dec. 27, 28 and 29, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Thursday, kicking off a high-stakes vaccination campaign across the bloc, with some member states among the hardest hit by the pandemic.
The rollout will depend on authorization by the E.U. drugs authority, the European Medicines Agency, which is set to deliberate on approving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday, a Commission spokesman said. He added that the Commission would seal the approval within 48 hours and that the vaccines would be distributed to member states beginning on Dec. 26.
The European Medicines Agency has come under growing pressure from politicians and the public to expedite the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The group brought its meeting on the vaccine forward from Dec. 29 to Monday after Britain became the first country to approve the vaccination and began inoculating people, soon followed by the United States.
The agency also said it would bring forward the date of a meeting to decide on authorizing the Moderna vaccine to Jan. 6; the meeting had originally been scheduled for Jan. 12.
The European Union’s 27 member states have delegated the entire vaccine acquisition, authorization and distribution process to the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch. And while the operation is a logistical challenge, the consensus among European leaders is that it will be a powerful signal of unity to take a centralized approach to the mass inoculations.
The Commission’s involvement is also likely to benefit smaller member states, although once the doses arrive in the E.U. capitals, each country will be responsible for its own vaccine rollout plan.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/17/world/covid-19-coronavirus/once-approved-the-eus-vaccine-rollout-is-set-to-begin-on-dec-27
Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory introduced border restrictions with New South Wales late on Thursday night amid concerns the growing Covid-19 outbreak in the state could worsen in coming days.
Western Australia has imposed blanket restrictions on all travellers from NSW, while Queensland, Victoria, Northern Territory and Tasmania have classified Sydney’s northern beaches as a Covid hotspot, meaning anyone travelling from the area will be required to quarantine for 14 days on arrival.
Following an emergency meeting of federal and state chief medical officers, the WA premier, Mark McGowan, announced new restrictions for arrivals from NSW, saying he was “very concerned there will be many more community cases” in the state.
In a devastating blow for families who had hoped to be reunited before Christmas after a year of closed borders, McGowan announced that as of Friday all arrivals from NSW would be required to quarantine for two weeks.
In addition, he said anyone who had travelled into WA from NSW since 11 December would be required to be tested for Covid-19 and self-isolate until they received a negative result.
Meanwhile, in Queensland, the chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, announced new restrictions for anyone who had been in the northern beaches region of Sydney where 17 new cases of the virus have been recorded.
Young said the reintroduction of border restrictions meant that from midnight on Thursday anyone who had visited the northern beaches since 11 December “must get tested and quarantine in their home or accommodation for 14 days from the date they left the northern beaches”.
Anyone arriving in Queensland after 1am on Saturday would be required to enter hotel quarantine at their own expense for 14 days after the date they left the northern beaches. The restriction applies to Queenslanders returning from visiting the northern beaches.
Victoria’s health department sent an alert in the early hours of Friday morning that said “anyone who was in the northern beaches region or other NSW exposure sites on or since Friday 11 December 2020 and arrives in Victoria after midnight Thursday 17 December 2020, must get tested and quarantine in their home or accommodation for 14 days from the date they left the northern beaches”.
The Northern Territory issued a similar release late on Thursday night declaring the northern beaches council local government area a Covid hotspot. The NT government has advised people planning to travel to the territory from the hotspot to “rethink your plans”.
Anyone travelling to the NT from the northern beaches will need to undertake 14 days of mandatory, supervised quarantine in either Alice Springs or Darwin, and NT residents who travel to the area while it is a hotspot will be required to quarantine on return at a cost of $2,500 per person.
McGowan said WA was taking “extra cautious steps” based on health advice and would continue to monitor the situation in NSW.
“I understand these changes will cause frustration and uncertainty for some people, and be very upsetting for many families looking to reunite and spend Christmas together,” he said.
“This has been a difficult decision to make, but we need to follow the health advice and do what is in the best interest of all Western Australians.”
The announcements late on Thursday night marked the culmination of a rapidly evolving outbreak in NSW. Only a few hours earlier Young had announced anyone who had been in NSW’s northern beaches region since 11 December would not be permitted in aged care centres, hospitals or correctional facilities across the state.
Young said Queensland was “closely monitoring” the outbreak in NSW, and warned anyone planning to visit the state to consider the possibility that the northern beaches could be declared a hotspot.
“Anyone who has travel plans to visit greater Sydney, in particular the northern beaches region, should consider the risk of those areas becoming a hotspot,” she said.
Speaking to reporters in northern NSW on Thursday, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, had urged state premiers not to rush to close state borders as NSW authorities attempted to trace and contain detected coronavirus cases.
“I think Australians are going to work hard to keep it that way, and I think premiers and chief ministers are very keen to [keep the country open] as well,” Morrison said.
Earlier on Thursday, the acting Queensland premier, Steven Miles, said his state would consider whether to declare affected parts of Sydney a “hotspot” and bar entry to people who had travelled to those areas.
“We hope they will get on top of this very quickly, but this is early days, this is new information and over the next 24 hours we will be monitoring it very, very closely.”
McGowan had earlier admitted the reintroduction of a hard border with NSW was “a prospect”. “We won’t hesitate to do that if the medical advice says that is what is required,” McGowan said.
In South Australia, the police commissioner, Grant Stevens, had said he anticipated NSW authorities would be able to quickly identify the source of the coronavirus outbreak.
“If that’s not the case and we see a continuing spread of Covid-19 in the NSW community then we will reassess our border arrangements,” he said.
An overnight curfew from 11pm will come into force in Portugal on New Year’s Eve, prime minister António Costa said, as the country introduces measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus during the usually busy night.
“We have to totally cut out on New Year celebrations,” Costa told reporters after a meeting with ministers, adding people would not be allowed to leave their homes between 11pm and 5am from 1-3 January.
Two weeks ago, Costa had said people would be able to return home before a 2am curfew on New Year’s Eve. But a previously announced reevaluation of measures took into consideration the current pandemic situation and forced the government to take a step back.
“The number of cases per week are dropping but not as fast as they were before,” Costa said, explaining the government decided to toughen New Year’s Eve measures so rules over Christmas were not as severe.
There is no limit on how many people can gather per household for Christmas and a ban on domestic travel will not be imposed between 23-26 December.
“Christmas celebrations have to be carried out with the utmost care,” he said, urging people to avoid poorly ventilated spaces and to use face masks during family gatherings whenever possible.
After a relatively mild first wave of the disease compared with countries such as Spain or Italy, Portugal has had a record number of infections and deaths during the second wave though the daily tally has dropped slightly in recent weeks.
Portugal, which has a population of just over 10 million, has recorded 362,616 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 5,902 deaths.
Here’s a quick recap of the latest coronavirus developments across the world over the last few hours:
· Macron ‘very likely’ infected with Covid-19 during EU council. President Emmanuel Macron tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, prompting a track-and-trace effort across Europe following numerous meetings between the French leader and EU heads of government in recent days.
· Six week lockdown to start in Northern Ireland from Boxing Day. Northern Ireland is preparing for a sweeping lockdown and the deployment of paramedics from the Republic of Ireland in an effort to control Covid-19. Health officials on Thursday proposed a six-week lockdown and approved a plan to reinforce the ambulance service with units from across the border.
· Portugal imposes overnight curfew on New Year’s Eve. An overnight curfew from 11pm will come into force in Portugal on New Year’s Eve, prime minister António Costa said, as the country introduces measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus during the usually busy night.
· Australia’s largest city of Sydney told to brace for more Covid-19 cases. Australia’s largest city of Sydney should brace itself for more Covid-19 cases, New South Wales state premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned, as authorities rushed to contain a new virus cluster in the city’s northern coastal suburbs.
· Colombia daily coronavirus cases reach highest since August. Colombia’s daily confirmed cases of coronavirus reached their highest level since mid-August on Thursday, as the government warned people against large holiday gatherings.
· King of Sweden blasts country’s ‘failed’ coronavirus response. The king of Sweden has said the country has failed in its response to Covid-19, as hospitals in the Stockholm region warned they were struggling to cope with a surge in cases and polls showed public confidence in the authorities had plunged to a new low.
· US surpasses 17m coronavirus cases as vaccines are distributed. The United States on Thursday surpassed a total of 17m coronavirus cases, with infections rising by more than a million a week during the early winter surge – while at the start of the year it took three months for the US to accumulate its first million cases.
Medicine
