Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	121,804,068	+528,914	2,691,920
USA	30,294,798	+62,794	550,649
Brazil	11,700,431	+90,830	285,136
India	11,474,302	+35,838	159,250
Russia	4,418,436	+8,998	93,364
UK	4,274,579	+5,758	125,831
France	4,146,609	+38,501	91,437
Italy	3,281,810	+23,059	103,432
Spain	3,206,116	+6,092	72,793
Turkey	2,930,554	+18,912	29,696
Germany	2,610,769	+16,094	74,677
Colombia	2,314,154	+4,554	61,498
Argentina	2,218,425	+8,304	54,231
Mexico	2,169,007	+1,278	195,119
Poland	1,956,974	+25,052	48,032
Iran	1,771,115	+7,802	61,492
South Africa	1,532,497	+1,531	51,634
Ukraine	1,489,023	+11,833	28,986
Indonesia	1,437,283	+6,825	38,915
Peru	1,435,598	+8,534	49,523
Czechia	1,427,091	+14,003	24,010
Netherlands	1,173,487	+5,924	16,165
Canada	919,239	+3,371	22,554
Chile	905,212	+4,430	21,816
Romania	874,985	+6,186	21,787
Israel	824,178	+1,475	6,057
Portugal	815,570	+673	16,722
Belgium	813,026	+3,165	22,572
Iraq	774,015	+5,663	13,860
Philippines	635,698	+4,387	12,866
Pakistan	612,315	+2,351	13,656
Bangladesh	562,752	+1,865	8,608
Hungary	532,578	+3,456	17,421
Serbia	531,558	+5,446	4,810
Jordan	504,915	+9,535	5,553
Austria	501,224	+3,239	8,956
Morocco	490,088	+466	8,745
Japan	449,713	+1,025	8,678
UAE	432,364	+2,051	1,414
Lebanon	426,977	+3,544	5,536
Saudi Arabia	383,499	+393	6,585
Panama	349,020	+440	6,018
Slovakia	342,430	+2,892	8,738
Malaysia	327,253	+1,219	1,220
Ecuador	305,598	+2,744	16,300
Belarus	305,270	+1,124	2,121
Bulgaria	291,769	+4,201	11,715
Georgia	276,067	+382	3,665
Nepal	275,518	+94	3,014
Bolivia	260,988	+929	11,997
Croatia	253,310	+1,445	5,709
Dominican Republic	247,364	+570	3,248
Tunisia	243,439	+766	8,463
Azerbaijan	242,491	+840	3,307
Ireland	228,215	+552	4,566
Greece	227,247	+3,458	7,252
Kazakhstan	226,767	+1,082	2,873
Denmark	222,629	+787	2,396
Palestine	215,984	+2,193	2,343
Kuwait	213,673	+1,504	1,194
Moldova	208,928	+1,916	4,436
Lithuania	206,889	+570	3,427
Slovenia	202,573	+1,112	3,948
Egypt	192,840	+645	11,431
Paraguay	185,888	+2,540	3,588
Guatemala	184,934	+949	6,619
Armenia	180,141	+854	3,282
Ethiopia	179,812	+1,704	2,592
Honduras	179,515	+590	4,373
Qatar	171,701	+489	270
Nigeria	161,261	+187	2,027
Oman	148,558	+548	1,617
Libya	148,175	+1,054	2,422
Bosnia and Herzegovina	148,163	+1,726	5,672
Venezuela	147,577	+549	1,459
Myanmar	142,190	+11	3,203
Bahrain	133,137	+768	489
Albania	118,938	+446	2,092
Kenya	116,310	+1,279	1,937
Algeria	115,688	+148	3,048
North Macedonia	115,222	+1,293	3,388
S. Korea	96,849	+469	1,686
Latvia	95,420	+818	1,789
China	90,066	+4	4,636
Estonia	89,331	+1,784	745
Cyprus	40,726	+382	241
Thailand	27,402	+248	88
Suriname	9,042	+8	176
Aruba	8,551	+69	81
Vietnam	2,567	+7	35

 

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

 

 

 

New York has administered 7 million Covid-19 vaccines, governor says

From CNN’s Alec Snyder

 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo receives a Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday. Seth Wenig/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

 

Hours after receiving his own shot, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Tuesday that the state has administered its 7 millionth Covid-19 vaccination.

The state has fully vaccinated “about two million New Yorkers,” Cuomo said, whether through 145 community-based pop-up sites, 14 state mass vaccination sites, six mass vaccination sites in partnership with the federal government or at one of 52 churches doing vaccinations across New York.

Fifteen new pop-up sites, eight of which will be at churches, will open in the near future, Cuomo said. 

On Monday, the state’s final five yellow zone clusters will be lifted, Cuomo said. Those five zones will rescind their orders for specific guidance and will then follow overall state guidance moving forward.

To note: These numbers were released by the New York State Department of Health and may not line up exactly in real-time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

 

 

 

Brazil's new health minister promotes social distancing but won't commit to changing policy

From Rodrigo Pedroso and Jennifer Deaton

 

Dr. Marcelo Queiroga, left, succeeded Eduardo Pazuello, right, as Brazil's minister of health on Tuesday. Evaristo Sa/AFP/Getty Images

 

Brazil's outgoing and incoming health ministers promoted social distancing as a measure to reduce the national Covid-19 death rate in the country but would not commit to formally changing Brazil's current pandemic policy, during a joint ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. 

Speaking during a ceremony marking the delivery of 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the Bio-Manguinhos plant, the newly appointed Health Minister Dr. Marcelo Queiroga said, "We will be able to reduce the current level of deaths through two main methods. First, social distancing will reduce the circulation of the virus. Second, through an improvement in the capacity of our hospital services."

They did not specify how they would accomplish the latter objective.

The Brazilian public biomedical center FioCruz delivered the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Brazil with the imported input of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) of the vaccine.

FioCruz director Mauricio Zuma, who also spoke during the ceremony, estimated that the biomedical center will deliver around 6 million vaccine doses per week to the government starting next month. 

Zuma said that he expects to deliver a total of 100 million doses by the end of July and said that FioCruz trusted in the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is under study by the European Medicines Agency due to a possible link with thromboembolic events.

 

 

 

NIH director says he's "surprised" so many countries paused AstraZeneca vaccine rollout

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

 

Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, speaks at an event in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. Alex Wong/Getty Images

 

National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis S. Collins said he’s “surprised” at the number of countries temporarily halting the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout.

“I was a bit surprised that so many countries decided to put pause on the administration of the vaccine, especially at a time where the disease itself is so incredibly threatening in most of those countries,” Collins said to CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

The European Medical Authority has said there's "no indication" that the vaccine has caused blood clots. The EMA's safety committee is investigating whether there is any possible link between the vaccine and a small number of blood clots in vaccinated people. It is slated to release its findings on Thursday.

“It seems at the present time fairly unlikely that this is something that has been in any way caused by the vaccines,” Collins said, adding that he doesn’t have access to the data that might have caused alarm. 

The US Food and Drug Administration will look at the vaccine with “great care and stringency,” he said. 

Collins also said he is surprised by overall vaccine hesitancy, despite vaccines with “amazing characteristics.” 

“There's all this overlay — and some of it is politics, and some of it’s social media conspiracy theories, and some of it is distrust of anything the government had anything to do with. We have a long way to go yet to overcome that. And I'm kind of a little astounded as well that we haven't gotten further in overcoming that hesitancy,” he said. 

 

 

 

Global Covid-19 cases are rising, but deaths are declining, WHO says 

From CNN’s Naomi Thomas

 

 

A health worker prepares to take swab samples at a mobile Covid-19 testing center in Mumbai, India, on February 11. Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

Global cases of Covid-19 increased by 10% over the past week, but deaths are declining, according to the weekly epidemiological update from the World Health Organization published Tuesday. 

Globally cases increased 10% over the past week to over three million new reported cases, according to the report. The number of new cases peaked in early January, then declined in the week beginning Feb. 15. They have now increased for the past three weeks. 

All WHO regions have reported a rise in new cases apart from Africa. 

New deaths have continued to decline, the report said. They are now under 60,000, down from a peak of over 95,000 deaths in the week beginning Jan. 18. The last time that deaths were this low was four months ago. 

This week, deaths rose in two WHO regions: the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific. 

Over 80% of the new reported cases and deaths come from the Americas and Europe. 

Brazil reported the highest number of new cases – just over 494,000 – followed by the US, France, Italy and India. 

 

Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-03-18-21/index.html

 

 

 

The W.H.O. and the head of the European Commission urge countries to keep using AstraZeneca vaccines, arguing benefits outweigh risks

By Madeleine Ngo

 

 A woman receives a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at a drive-through vaccination center on the outskirts of Milan.Credit...Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times

The World Health Organization and the head of the European Commission urged European countries to use the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and expressed confidence that it was safe, as investigations continue into unusual cases of side effects that led several countries to pause administering the shots.

The head of the W.H.O.’s vaccines department, Dr. Kate O’Brien, said cases of blood clots reported among millions of Europeans who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine were rare. And, she said, it was not unusual that some of those vaccinated should suffer blood clots resulting from other health conditions. No causative link has yet emerged between the vaccine and blood clots or severe bleeding.

“At this point the benefit-risk assessment is to continue with vaccination,” Dr. O’Brien said, repeating the responses both organizations have offered as some member countries have paused administering doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine following some reports of fatal brain hemorrhaging, blood clots and unusual bleeding in a handful of people who received it.

The European Union’s top drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, is expected to give its assessment of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday. It has so far also pushed back against concerns about the shot, saying there was no sign that it caused dangerous problems. On Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, said, “I trust AstraZeneca, I trust the vaccines.” She added that she was “convinced that the statement will clarify the situation.”

Germany, France, Italy and Spain are the prominent European countries to recently halt their rollouts of the AstraZeneca shots this week. More than a dozen countries have either partly or fully suspended the vaccine’s use while the cases are investigated. Most of the countries said they were doing so as a precaution until leading health agencies could review the cases.

Even if experts ultimately conclude there may be an association between the blood clots and the vaccine “these are very rare events,” Dr. O’Brien said.

Blood clots, thick blobs of blood that can block circulation, form in response to injuries and can also be caused by many illnesses, including cancer and genetic disorders, certain drugs and prolonged sitting or bed rest. If a blood clot travels to the brain, it can be deadly.

The suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine in some countries comes at a time when the region is facing a third wave of the virus and further slows Europe’s vaccination campaign, already lagging because of shortages. No E.U. country is currently on pace to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by September.

Ms. von der Leyen said Europe’s vaccination campaign would pick up speed, with 55 million doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 200 million of the Pfizer vaccine, 35 million of the Moderna vaccine, and 70 million of AstraZeneca expected in the coming months.

Parents of schoolchildren protested in several cities around the United States over the weekend, frustrated by the off-again-on-again reopening policies in some school districts and blanket closures in others a full year after the pandemic began, despite growing scientific evidence that schools can reopen safely if they follow basic procedures.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/17/world/covid-19-coronavirus/the-who-and-the-head-of-the-european-commission-urge-countries-to-keep-using-astrazeneca-vaccines-arguing-benefits-outweigh-risk

 

 

 

Summary

 

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

· Delaying England’s winter lockdown ‘caused up to 27,000 extra Covid deaths’. Delaying the winter lockdown caused up to 27,000 extra deaths in England, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has claimed as it accused the government of a “huge mistake” which should be central to any public inquiry into the UK’s handling of the pandemic.

· EU regulator to report on AstraZeneca Covid vaccine safety. Europe’s medicines regulator is under mounting pressure to clear up safety concerns over the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine as experts warned that arguably political decisions to pause it in many countries risked seriously delaying the continent’s already sluggish vaccination drive.

· Brazil cases topped 90,000 for the first time. Brazil on Wednesday registered an unprecedented 90,303 new coronavirus cases, a day after the country reported a fresh record for deaths related to the virus, Reuters reports.Infections now total 11,693,838.Deaths rose by 2,648, the second highest tally after the record reported on Tuesday, bringing the total to 284,775.

· Poorest countries will suffer most from Covid downturn, the UN said. The poorest and most vulnerable countries will be the biggest losers from a pandemic downturn that will leave the global economy nursing $10tn (£7.2tn) of losses by the end of the year, according to the UN.

· Japan to lift Tokyo area state of emergency as planned on Sunday – minister. The Japanese government’s advisory panel on coronavirus countermeasures on Thursday approved a plan to let the state of emergency expire in the Tokyo area as scheduled on March 21, Economy Minister Yasuhisa Nishimura said.

· Older people more likely to catch Covid a second time. Older people who have recovered from Covid cannot assume they are immune from a second attack, according to a new study that shows the under-65s are much less susceptible to reinfection.

· Indian state of Maharashtra accounts for 65% of new daily cases. India reported 35,871 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the highest in more than three months, with the worst-affected state of Maharashtra alone accounting for 65% of that.

· Tanzania’s Covid-denying president, John Magufuli, died aged 61. Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli , one of Africa’s most prominent Covid-19 deniers, has died after a two-week absence from public life which prompted speculation that he had contracted the disease.Magufuli’s death was announced on Wednesday by the country’s vice-president Samia Suluhu, who said the president died of heart failure. He was 61.

· UK foreign secretary said EU threat to block exports of vaccine needs ‘some explaining’. The British foreign minister, Dominic Raab, said on Wednesday that the European commission’s threat to ban exports of Covid-19 vaccines cut across previous assurances, adding that the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, needed to explain herself.

· NHS chiefs fear collision course with ministers over Covid backlog. Hospital bosses are bracing themselves for a clash with ministers over how quickly they can clear the backlog of NHS care that built up during the pandemic.

· Blanket ‘do not resuscitate’ orders imposed on English care homes, finds CQC. Blanket orders not to resuscitate some care home residents at the start of the Covid pandemic have been identified in a report by England’s care regulator.

· Quarantine-free travel to Australia from New Zealand could be in place by end of April. Quarantine-free travel to Australia from New Zealand could be in place by the end of April, Radio New Zealand reports. Ministers are working on the proposal, which could be put to Cabinet as soon as Monday. Deputy prime minister Grant Robertson says he is “very optimistic” about the travel bubble being opened soon.

· Taiwan began AstraZeneca rollout. Taiwan could begin distributing the AstraZeneca vaccine next Monday, according to its Central Epidemic Command Center, following the arrival of a first batch of nearly 200,000 doses earlier this month.

· China doubled down on Covid narrative ahead of WHO report. Chinese state media are doubling down on Beijing’s narrative about the origins of the Covid-19 ahead of the much anticipated release of the World Health Organization’s findings. Liang Wannian, who led the Chinese side of the joint WHO investigation in January, told the Global Times that China did not find evidence of the virus earlier than December 8, 2019.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/mar/18/coronavirus-live-news-uk-says-eu-vaccine-threat-needs-explaining-tanzania-president-dies?page=with:block-6052effa8f083d3e63c4bc4a#block-6052effa8f083d3e63c4bc4a