Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
World	130,164,539	+700,715	2,839,770
USA	31,244,639	+76,786	566,611
Brazil	12,842,717	+89,459	325,559
India	12,302,110	+81,441	163,428
France	4,695,082	+50,659	95,976
Russia	4,554,264	+9,169	99,233
UK	4,350,266	+4,478	126,764
Italy	3,607,083	+23,649	109,847
Turkey	3,357,988	+40,806	31,713
Spain	3,291,394	+7,041	75,541
Germany	2,854,137	+23,802	77,244
Colombia	2,417,826	+11,449	63,614
Argentina	2,363,251	+14,430	55,941
Poland	2,356,970	+35,251	53,665
Mexico	2,238,887	+5,977	203,210
Iran	1,897,314	+11,750	62,759
Ukraine	1,691,737	+17,569	33,246
Peru	1,561,723	+12,916	52,161
South Africa	1,549,451	+1,294	52,897
Czechia	1,539,658	+7,245	26,682
Indonesia	1,517,854	+6,142	41,054
Netherlands	1,280,443	+7,827	16,559
Chile	1,003,406	+7,868	23,328
Canada	987,918	+5,802	23,002
Romania	958,918	+6,115	23,674
Belgium	882,453	+5,611	23,016
Iraq	856,939	+6,015	14,360
Israel	833,456	+351	6,220
Portugal	822,314	+592	16,859
Philippines	756,199	+8,920	13,303
Pakistan	672,931	+4,974	14,530
Hungary	661,721	+9,288	20,995
Jordan	618,059	+6,482	6,940
Bangladesh	617,764	+6,469	9,105
Serbia	605,406	+4,810	5,345
Austria	549,592	+3,363	9,368
Morocco	496,676	+579	8,825
Japan	474,773	+2,661	9,162
Lebanon	471,962	+3,562	6,286
UAE	463,759	+2,315	1,499
Saudi Arabia	390,597	+590	6,676
Slovakia	362,489	+1,304	9,790
Panama	355,499	+448	6,119
Malaysia	346,678	+1,178	1,278
Bulgaria	346,327	+3,694	13,313
Ecuador	330,388	+1,633	16,877
Belarus	323,043	+1,236	2,257
Georgia	282,260	+499	3,785
Nepal	277,461	+152	3,031
Croatia	274,054	+2,422	5,967
Bolivia	272,411	+992	12,257
Greece	267,172	+3,483	8,160
Azerbaijan	263,961	+2,248	3,593
Tunisia	255,308	+1,290	8,843
Dominican Republic	253,196	+469	3,330
Kazakhstan	246,854	+1,873	3,060
Palestine	244,645	+2,292	2,645
Ireland	236,600	+746	4,705
Kuwait	233,521	+1,418	1,319
Moldova	231,756	+1,515	5,003
Denmark	231,265	+662	2,423
Lithuania	217,005	+869	3,583
Slovenia	216,939	+1,335	4,054
Paraguay	216,278	+1,611	4,250
Ethiopia	208,961	+2,372	2,890
Egypt	202,843	+712	12,041
Guatemala	194,756	+358	6,860
Armenia	193,736	+1,097	3,533
Honduras	189,043	+529	4,605
Qatar	180,804	+840	295
Nigeria	162,997	+106	2,058
Venezuela	161,751	+1,254	1,615
Oman	160,018	+800	1,681
Libya	159,980	+1,023	2,680
Bahrain	145,380	+935	523
Myanmar	142,466	+32	3,206
Kenya	135,042	+984	2,167
North Macedonia	131,424	+1,402	3,810
Albania	125,506	+349	2,241
Algeria	117,304	+112	3,096
Uruguay	108,188	+2,639	1,009
Estonia	107,253	+832	908
S. Korea	103,639	+551	1,735
Latvia	103,001	+638	1,913
Norway	96,770	+1,041	673
Sri Lanka	92,917	+211	571
Montenegro	91,573	+355	1,286
China	90,217	+16	4,636
Zambia	88,549	+131	1,212
Kyrgyzstan	88,538	+164	1,500
Uzbekistan	83,050	+181	630
Finland	78,106	+654	846
Cuba	76,276	+1,013	425
Mozambique	67,729	+150	775
Cyprus	46,173	+309	260
Thailand	28,889	+26	94
Aruba	9,503	+60	86
Vietnam	2,617	+14	35

 

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

 

 

 

Dr. Fauci says Pfizer's new Covid-19 vaccine data is "really very encouraging"

From CNN's Naomi Thomas

 

A pharmacist prepares the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in New York on March 26. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday new data on Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine is encouraging but doesn’t mean the company's vaccine is better than the other Covid-19 vaccines authorized for use in the US.

Earlier Thursday, Pfizer announced that ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials of its vaccine confirmed that protection against Covid-19 lasts at least six months after the second dose. 

The vaccine also appeared to be fully effective against the virus variant first identified in South Africa, B.1.351.

When asked by CBS’s Gayle King if that meant Pfizer's vaccine is better than other Covid-19 vaccines, Fauci said “It just means they did a test, and the results of the test, as you mentioned Gayle, are really very encouraging...Something that we suspected all along, that even though you don’t have a vaccine directed specifically against the variant, you can get some pretty good protection.”

He said that Pfizer had done the study, and it looked really good. He noted he “would not be surprised at all” if Moderna and other vaccine companies got similar results if they did the same thing.

 

 

 

WHO says Europe’s vaccine rollout is “unacceptably slow” amid "worrying" surge

From CNN's Zahid Mahmood and Schams Elwazer

 

 

A medical staff member prepares the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, on March 19. Christophe Ena/AP

The World Health Organization said Wednesday that the European vaccine rollout is “unacceptably slow” and that the surge in coronavirus infections within the continent was “worrying.”

In a statement, the WHO said that vaccines were the best way out of the pandemic, but the slow rollout was prolonging it.

“Let me be clear: we must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr. Hans Kluge said in the statement.

Dr. Dorit Nitzan, regional emergency director for the WHO Europe, warned that it was only five weeks ago that new cases in Europe had dipped to under 1 million, but now with more mobility, gatherings over religious holidays and the presence of the B.1.1.7 variant -- first identified in the UK -- there is a greater public risk.

“This variant is more transmissible and can increase the risk of hospitalization, it has a greater public health impact and additional actions are required to control it,” Dr. Nitzan said.

As the vaccination rollout grows across Europe, the WHO are calling for early action to implement public health and social measures.

The statement added that 27 countries in Europe are in a partial or full nationwide lockdown, with 21 imposing night time curfews. In the past 2 weeks, 23 countries have intensified restrictions while 13 have eased measures, with an additional nine to follow suit.

 

 

 

Mass religious festival goes ahead in India, despite Covid fears as country enters second wave

From CNN's Jessie Yeung, Esha Mitra and Manveena Suri

 

 

Hindu devotees gather for evening prayers after taking a holy dip in the waters of the River Ganges on the eve of Shahi Snan (grand bath) on Maha Shivratri festival during the ongoing religious Kumbh Mela festival in Haridwar, India, on March 10 Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

Massive crowds of Hindus began arriving in the northern Indian city of Haridwar on Thursday for the largest religious pilgrimage on Earth, even as experts warned it could cause a surge in Covid-19 cases as the country grapples with a second wave.

The months-long Kumbh Mela festival, one of the most important Hindu celebrations, typically takes place every 12 years and draws tens of millions of pilgrims to four rotating sites.

This year, it takes place in Haridwar, in the foothills of the outer Himalayas in Uttarakhand state, where devotees attend prayers, and wash their sins away in the sacred waters of the Ganges River. According to some myths associated with the festival, the river water turns into "amrita," or the nectar of immortality, on particular days.

But this year, Covid-19 measures have seen the festival postponed and then scaled back. The traditional start date, called Makar Sankranti, was in January, but people were not authorized to take holy baths in the river until the government's formal launch in April.

Although authorities moved the start date, and shortened the pilgrimage from three and a half months to just one month, many people have chosen to disregard the official guidelines, said Oommen Kurian, senior fellow and head of health initiative at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been flocking to Haridwar since Makar Sankranti in January anyway -- congregating in close quarters for hours a day, sharing public facilities and having meals together. Photos show people washing their faces and taking full body dips into the sacred waters, then attending evening prayers by the banks of the river, lighting candles and making religious offerings.

Thursday saw the first ceremonies and holy baths take place by the banks of the Ganges, with holy men carrying out prayer rituals, said festival officer Harbeer Singh. Religious flags were hoisted ahead of their arrival, marking the formal start of the celebrations.

 

Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-04-02-21/index.html

 

 

 

Italy pushes back as health care workers shun vaccination

By Jason Horowitz

 

 

Administering a shot in Piacenza, Italy, in December. The country’s government has issued a decree requiring that workers in health care facilities be vaccinated.Credit...Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times

ROME — Giulio Macciò tested negative for the coronavirus and spent weeks receiving treatment for emphysema in a sealed-off hospital under the care of doctors and lung specialists — and a nurse who had refused to be vaccinated. On March 11, he unexpectedly died. A post-mortem swab found that he had contracted the virus, as had 14 other patients and the unvaccinated nurse who spent her shifts in his midst.

“It makes no sense that a person whose job is to heal the sick gives them Covid and kills them,” said Mr. Macciò’s son, Massimiliano Macciò, who filed a complaint against the San Martino hospital in the northern Italian city of Genoa where his father was treated. He believes that the nurse, one of an estimated 400 who have refused vaccination against Covid-19 at the hospital, infected his father, who died unvaccinated at 79.

As vaccination rollouts build momentum, businesses everywhere are grappling with whether they can require the inoculation of their employees, raising thorny ethical, constitutional and privacy issues around Europe and the United States. But that quandary becomes all the more urgent when the person is a health care worker.

In Italy, the original Western front in the war against Covid, a rash of outbreaks in hospitals where medical workers have chosen not to be inoculated has raised fears that their stance is endangering public health. It has also prompted a forceful response from an Italian government that is struggling to get vaccinations on track.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mario Draghi tested the legal limits of his government’s ability to address the problem by issuing a decree requiring that workers in health care facilities be vaccinated. It also allowed hospital employers to suspend without pay any health care workers who refuse to do so.

Some legal analysts have said that requiring Covid-19 inoculation for health workers could violate Italy’s privacy laws, and that firing or forcing any who decline it to take unpaid leave could be unconstitutional because of a specific article that protects people who refuse health treatments.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/01/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases/italy-pushes-back-as-health-care-workers-shun-vaccination

 

 

 

Hong Kong will resume use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next week

 

 

Lining up at a vaccination center in Hong Kong last week. Only 6 percent of the city’s 7.5 million people have received a first dose so far.Credit...Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Hong Kong health officials said on Thursday that they would resume use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus shots next week amid a continuing investigation by the German manufacturer into packaging defects that were discovered in two batches.

The manufacturer, BioNTech, said it had found no evidence that the defects had compromised the vaccine’s safety. Until the inquiry is completed, however, Hong Kong officials said that they would administer doses from a shipment handled by a different packaging plant in Germany, where defects have not been found after repeated tests.

Constance Chan, Hong Kong’s director of health, said at a news conference that Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinations would resume on Monday, nearly two weeks after the Chinese territory suspended use because of loose lids and leakages that were found in some vials.

The suspension dealt another blow to the inoculation drive in Hong Kong, where only 6 percent of the city’s 7.5 million people have received a first vaccine dose.

About 183,000 residents who had signed up to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had their appointments abruptly canceled. Bookings for the other vaccine that Hong Kong is using, manufactured by the Chinese company Sinovac, have fallen in recent weeks after reports that people had died after receiving it. Officials have found no direct link between the shots and the deaths.

Ms. Chan stressed that BioNTech had found no signs that the vaccines administered to residents before the suspension were unsafe. The manufacturer told Hong Kong officials that the freezing temperatures at which the vials of vaccines are stored made bacterial contamination extremely unlikely and added that its inspections had not turned up any other problems.

The company’s analysis showed that the low storage temperatures had decreased the flexibility of the vials’ plastic stoppers, potentially causing looseness around the metal rings at the openings of some of the vials. The resulting increase in air pressure inside the vials could cause spillage. But when the vials are unthawed before use, the plastic stopper regains its flexibility and the vial becomes airtight again, Ms. Chan said.

It was not clear whether such packaging issues could emerge in other places where the vaccine is in use. BioNTech has said that the flaws were limited to two batches that were shipped to Hong Kong and Macau, another Chinese territory, and handled by a Chinese distributor, Fosun Pharma.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/01/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases/hong-kong-will-resume-use-of-the-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-next-week

 

 

 

Australia investigating whether blood clots in Victorian man linked to AstraZeneca vaccine

 

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has announced it is investigating a potential link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a rare clotting disorder, after a 44-year-old man was admitted to hospital with blood clots after receiving the vaccine.

On Friday Australia’s acting chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, told reporters that health authorities were taking this case “very seriously”.

“One case of this clotting disorder has been recorded in Australia overnight and we are taking this very seriously.

“It is currently being investigated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and a meeting will be held tomorrow of the TGA vaccine safety investigation group, which will examine this report and determine whether it could be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

The man received the vaccine on 22 March and days later he presented at Melbourne’s Box Hill hospital suffering from a fever and abdominal pain. He was found to have abdominal clots with a low platelet count.

Although authorities are concerned at the developments, Kidd maintained that there was still no confirmed link between the vaccine and the blood clotting.

“Investigators have not at this time confirmed a causal link with the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine but investigations are ongoing.”

Kidd’s briefing came after the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, along with the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) discussed the case at a prescheduled meeting on Friday.

However, while similar cases have led to the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine in other countries, he said that investigations were ongoing into the link between the disorder and the vaccine.

“Atagi, in conjunction with our independent regulator, the TGA, have been monitoring reports from overseas of these possible clotting disorders occurring four to 20 days after vaccination, including the condition known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, and closely engaged with colleagues in these discussions.”

The TGA updated its guidance on the AstraZeneca jab last month, saying there had been no proven link between the vaccine and the development of blood clots.

It followed a European Medicines Agency review into clotting cases that found the vaccine was not associated with an increase in the overall risk of blood clots and that the benefits outweighed risks of side-effects.

Atagi met earlier this week to discuss the issue but made no changes to its guidance on the vaccine.

The World Health Organization has also backed the vaccine, while AstraZeneca has previously said that 17 million people in the EU and UK have received the vaccine and the number of cases of blood clots reported “is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population”.

But a number of other countries have taken steps to partially suspend the rollout of the vaccine in the wake of similar clotting cases.

On Wednesday, German health authorities in Berlin and Munich suspended the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under the age of 60 following new concerns around rare blood clotting. It came after the country’s medical regulator announced receiving 31 reports of blood clots in recipients of the vaccine. Nine of those people died.

A day earlier, Canada made a similar move due to the same concerns, halting the rollout for people under age 55.

Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunisation cited data from the European agency that suggested the risk of blood clots following the vaccine was potentially one in 100,000. The data suggested women under age 55 were most at risk.

The vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, Chris Moy, said the low case numbers meant “there’s a lot of work to try to work out if this is a real association or purely chance”.

“As such at the moment, there’s no sort of change in the advice, because the overall benefit, clearly in Europe, the benefit is greater than any potential risk,” he told the ABC.

“That’s what we need to do in Australia right now. We need to go through the processes calmly and trying to work out if this is real, or if it’s chance, just like by luck, and if it is real, what is the overall benefit versus the risk of any of the vaccine – both at an individual and population level.”

More than 541,700 people have been vaccinated across Australia, with about 115,000 of those delivered in Victoria as of Friday morning. The vast majority of Australia’s vaccine supplies are made up by the AstraZeneca shot, which is being produced in Australia by local manufacturer CSL.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/02/australia-investigating-whether-blood-clots-in-victorian-man-linked-to-astrazeneca-vaccine

 

 

 

Summary

 

· Russia reported 8,792 new coronavirus infections on Friday, including 1,764 in Moscow, taking the total infection tally in the country to 4,563,056 since the pandemic began.Johnson & Johnson has said that a batch of its Covid-19 vaccines failed quality standards and can’t be used. The drugmaker didn’t say how many doses were lost, and it wasn’t clear how the problem would impact future deliveries.

· Vietnam asked diplomats of several countries for help in procuring coronavirus vaccines on Friday, as it seeks to secure the 150 million doses of vaccine needed to cover its adult population.

· UK Labour’s former shadow attorney general Baroness Shami Chakrabarti said that engaging in local community life was a “fundamental right” when arguing against the introduction of vaccine passports.

· China administered about 6.8 million vaccines against Covid-19 on 1 April, bringing the total number of jabs given to 126.62 million, according to data released by the National Health Commission on Friday.

· Bulgaria will receive more than 1.2 million additional doses of Covid-19 vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer in the second quarter, prime minister Boyko Borissov said on Friday.

· India reported 81,466 new Covid-19 infections on Friday, the highest daily number in six months, as several states were hit by a second wave of the coronavirus.

· Ukraine reported a record daily high of 19,893 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, health minister Maksym Stepanov said on Friday.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2021/apr/02/covid-live-news-coronavirus-vaccine-passports-latest-updates