Country,	Total	New	Total
Other	Cases	Cases	Deaths
World	144,425,202	881,093	3,071,093
USA	32,602,051	65,057	583,330
India	15,924,806	315,802	184,672
Brazil	14,122,795	71,910	381,687
France	5,374,288	34,968	101,881
Russia	4,727,125	8,271	106,706
Turkey	4,446,591	61,967	36,975
UK	4,395,703	2,396	127,327
Italy	3,904,899	13,844	117,997
Spain	3,446,072	10,232	77,364
Germany	3,208,672	27,862	81,382
Argentina	2,769,552	25,932	60,083
Poland	2,718,494	13,927	63,474
Colombia	2,701,313	17,212	69,596
Iran	2,311,813	24,886	67,913
Mexico	2,311,172	4,262	213,048
Ukraine	1,974,118	12,162	40,796
Peru	1,726,806	7,718	58,261
Indonesia	1,620,569	5,720	44,007
Czechia	1,609,890	3,812	28,762
South Africa	1,569,935	1,569	53,940
Netherlands	1,426,243	8,471	16,983
Canada	1,147,464	8,421	23,763
Chile	1,141,403	4,968	25,353
Romania	1,037,009	3,006	26,793
Iraq	1,001,854	8,696	15,098
Philippines	962,282	9,202	16,265
Belgium	955,056	3,430	23,834
Sweden	924,340		13,863
Israel	837,492	135	6,346
Portugal	832,255	610	16,952
Pakistan	772,381	5,499	16,600
Hungary	757,360	2,527	25,787
Bangladesh	732,060	4,280	10,683
Jordan	695,390	3,209	8,429
Serbia	670,801	2,864	6,095
Switzerland	642,131	2,686	10,546
Austria	600,089	2,523	9,997
Japan	541,496	4,342	9,710
Lebanon	515,088	2,082	7,027
Morocco	507,338	669	8,969
UAE	502,791	1,931	1,561
Saudi Arabia	408,038	1,028	6,858
Bulgaria	392,913	2,002	15,618
Malaysia	381,813	2,340	1,400
Slovakia	377,473	764	11,304
Ecuador	362,843	1,689	17,804
Panama	361,678	359	6,196
Belarus	347,316	1,318	2,453
Greece	323,639	3,010	9,713
Croatia	313,423	3,117	6,692
Azerbaijan	305,933	2,075	4,235
Georgia	299,038	1,310	3,971
Kazakhstan	294,946	2,696	3,459
Tunisia	291,833	2,603	9,993
Bolivia	291,675	1,313	12,695
Nepal	289,787	2,220	3,112
Palestine	286,028	1,748	3,096
Dominican Republic	262,404	556	3,435
Kuwait	261,307	1,439	1,482
Paraguay	257,706	2,660	5,561
Moldova	247,391	700	5,643
Ethiopia	246,484	1,329	3,474
Denmark	244,868	803	2,465
Ireland	244,695	398	4,856
Lithuania	236,606	1,186	3,804
Slovenia	234,067	1,034	4,176
Costa Rica	233,498	1,531	3,115
Egypt	218,902	861	12,866
Guatemala	216,329	1,629	7,309
Armenia	210,518	1,033	3,944
Honduras	202,413	736	4,976
Qatar	199,180	819	400
Bosnia and Herzegovina	193,115	1,239	8,082
Venezuela	186,745	1,009	1,965
Oman	183,770	1,077	1,926
Libya	173,683	594	2,924
Uruguay	172,601	3,274	2,083
Bahrain	167,165	1,008	607
Nigeria	164,488	65	2,061
Kenya	153,488	965	2,540
North Macedonia	148,618	623	4,556
Myanmar	142,661	17	3,206
Albania	129,980	138	2,358
Algeria	120,174	182	3,172
Estonia	118,782	465	1,109
S. Korea	115,926	731	1,806
Latvia	112,983	759	2,079
Norway	109,137	550	734
Sri Lanka	98,050	578	630
Cuba	96,760	1,006	547
Montenegro	96,048	154	1,444
Kyrgyzstan	92,626	306	1,561
Ghana	91,783	74	772
Zambia	91,119	77	1,238
China	90,541	21	4,636
Uzbekistan	87,551	326	640
Finland	84,797	296	899
Mozambique	69,437	128	805
El Salvador	68,007	156	2,086
Luxembourg	65,604	285	788

 

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

 

 

 

Spain will donate some of its vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean

From CNN’s Tatiana Arias and Jennifer Hauser in Atlanta

 

A medic prepares a vaccine at a vaccination site in Madrid, Spain, on April 16. Jesus Hellin/Europa Press/Getty Images

 

Spain will donate between 5% and 10% of its Covid-19 shots to the global vaccine sharing scheme once 50% of its population is inoculated, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Wednesday.

"Spain will set aside 7.5 million doses through the multilateral mechanism, COVAX, for Latin America and the Caribbean and this translates into a donation of 5 to 10% of the total vaccines Spain will receive in 2021," Sanchez said during a press briefing in Andorra, Spain. He said the country will activate the scheme once 50% of the population is vaccinated, which he said would be "very soon."

As of Wednesday, Spain has fully vaccinated 7.6% of its population. About 21% have received at least one dose of a the vaccine, according to health ministry data.

Sanchez also encouraged nations to have conversations over Covid-19 vaccine patents, saying that “rights to intellectual property cannot halt, but rather be [one of the] solutions to guarantee soonest vaccination to the world's population."

Spain has secured over 93 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines though the European Union and has so far received a total of 14,924,175 doses.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-04-22-21/index.html

 

 

India reports highest worldwide rise in daily Covid-19 cases

From CNN's Esha Mitra in New Delhi

 

Family members sit on benches next to a pyre of a Covid-19 victim at Nigambodh Ghat Crematorium in New Delhi, India in the early hours of Thursday, April 22. Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

 

India reported 314,835 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, the highest daily increase in cases worldwide since the pandemic began.

The country also recorded its highest number of new Covid-19 deaths at 2,104 fatalities.

The stark figures come as health care and other essential services across India are close to collapse amid a second coronavirus wave that is tearing through the country with devastating speed.

The Union Territory of Delhi on Wednesday received less than half of required oxygen to treat Covid-19 patients, with 200-250 metric tons of oxygen against a requirement of 700 metric tons, the advocate for the Delhi government told the high court on Wednesday.

A petition by the Bajaj Medical and Research Centre, which runs a chain of private hospitals, said five of its hospitals in Delhi had between two to 18 hours of oxygen supply left.

While the court was hearing the petition, two of the five private hospitals referred to in the petition had received the supply of oxygen, the court noted.

As of Thursday afternoon, Delhi had 26 vacant ICU beds, according to government data.

Several Indian states have imposed restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged states to use lockdown as a last resort.

India's second most populous state of Maharashtra has announced new restrictions on Wednesday. People will be allowed to travel only for essential services or for "unavoidable events" like funerals. All private passenger transport will be allowed to operate at 50% capacity.

The new rules will come into force 8 p.m. local time on Thursday and will remain in place until 7 a.m. on May 1.

India had now recorded a total 15,930,965 cases as of Thursday, according to the India Ministry of Health. The total death toll now stands at 184,657.

Some context: India’s population is nearly four times that of the United States, and its daily cases still falls behind the US when adjusted for population size (in cases per million people). But India’s outbreak is undoubtedly the world’s biggest in absolute numbers at the moment — nearly 28% of all new cases worldwide in the past week came from India, said the World Health Organization on Wednesday.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-04-22-21/index.html

 

 

Scientist who helped develop Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine agrees third shot is needed as immunity wanes

 

The chief medical officer of BioNTech told CNBC on Wednesday that people will likely need a third shot of its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine as immunity against the virus wanes, agreeing with previous comments made by PfizerCEO Albert Bourla.

Dr. Ozlem Tureci, co-founder and CMO of BioNTech, which developed a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, said she also expects people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus annually, like for the seasonal flu. That’s because, she said, scientists expect vaccine-induced immunity against the virus will decrease over time.

“We see indications for this also in the induced, but also the natural immune response against SARS-COV-2,” she said during an interview with CNBC’s Kelly Evans on “The Exchange.” “We see this waning of immune responses also in people who were just infected and therefore [it’s] also expected with the vaccines.”

Tureci’s comments come after Bourla said in an interview that aired April 15 that people will likely need a booster shot, or third dose, of the Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated. He also said it’s possible people will need to get additional shots each year.

Pfizer said earlier this month that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 91% effective at protecting against the virus and more than 95% effective against severe disease up to six months after the second dose. Moderna’s vaccine, which uses technology similar to Pfizer’s, was also shown to remain highly effective at six months.

Researchers say they still don’t know how long protection against the virus lasts after six months of being fully vaccinated, though public health officials and health experts expect protection to wane after some time.

Should Americans require booster shots, the U.S. government would likely need to make arrangements with the drugmakers to supply additional doses and make plans for vaccine distribution.

On Friday, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to President Joe Biden’s Covid response team, said the White House is preparing for the potential need for Covid-19 vaccine booster shots. He said the Biden administration has thought about the need to secure additional doses.

“I can assure you that when we do our planning, when the president orders purchases of additional vaccines as he has done and when we focus on all the production expansion opportunities that we talk about in here we very much have scenarios like that in mind,” he said at a White House press briefing.

Last week, the Biden administration’s Covid response chief science officer, David Kessler, said Americans should expect to receive booster shots to protect against coronavirus variants. He told U.S. lawmakers that currently authorized vaccines are highly protective but noted new variants could “challenge” the effectiveness of the shots.

“We don’t know everything at this moment,” he told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.

“We are studying the durability of the antibody response,” he said. “It seems strong, but there is some waning of that, and no doubt the variants challenge ... they make these vaccines work harder. So I think for planning purposes, planning purposes only, I think we should expect that we may have to boost.”

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC last week that the company hopes to have a booster shot for its two-dose vaccine available in the fall.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/21/scientist-who-helped-develop-pfizer-biontech-covid-vaccine-agrees-third-shot-is-needed-as-immunity-wanes.html

 

 

 

New COVID-19 cases in France increase more slowly

Reuters

 

A medical staff member works in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where patients suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are treated at ELSAN's private hospital Clinique Oceane in Vannes, France, April 7, 2021. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

 

France on Wednesday reported 34,968 new coronavirus cases, up 4.36% compared to last Wednesday, in the lowest week-on-week increase since mid-March as a third nationwide lockdown started to show some effect.

This year, week-on-week increases have only briefly dipped below the 4% level, in mid-February, and rose to more than 6% in late March-early April, before the government ordered the third lockdown just over two weeks ago.

The new cases took the total to 5.37 million. The government also reported 313 new deaths in hospitals, taking the cumulative toll to 101,881, health ministry data showed.

The number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 fell by 25 to 5,959 people as pressure on the hospital system remained high.

The number of people in hospital with the disease eased by 132 to 30,954 but remained well above the 30,000 level, where it has been since the start of the third lockdown on April 6.

The government said earlier on Wednesday that domestic travel restrictions imposed to tackle the spread of the virus are expected to be lifted on May 3 and said it was sticking to a base-case scenario of bars and restaurants being allowed to re-open outdoor seating by mid-May.

 

 

 

Greece to start J&J coronavirus vaccinations on May 5

Reuters

 

Greece plans to start the rollout of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine on May 5 after Europe's drug regulator backed its use, health authorities said on Wednesday.

"We expect decisions by the CDC and FDA on Friday and then by our national committee on vaccinations in the following days. Vaccinations will begin on May 5," said Marios Themistocleous, secretary general in charge of vaccinations.

Greece had been expected to start J&J (JNJ.N) vaccinations on Monday before questions emerged over reports of very rare blood clotting disorders associated with the vaccine.

"Vaccines are the solution to this huge health crisis, that is the way to get our lives back," said Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias.

 

Greece will have vaccinated 2.5 million people in May and 4.0 million by June, the minister said. To speed up the process, vaccinations will be done also on weekends and will be available at private clinics as well.

Authorities will open the vaccinations platform for those aged 30 to 39 years on April 27 for jabs with the AstraZeneca vaccine, Themistocleous said.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greece-roll-out-jj-covid-19-vaccine-may-5-2021-04-21/

 

 

 

Australian states investigate COVID spread in quarantine hotels

 

Cases reported in Sydney and Perth hotels among people who arrived from different countries at different times.

A police officer watches an entrance to a quarantine hotel in Sydney. Authorities are concerned about cases that have emerged in people who arrived from different countries at different times [File: Loren Elliott/Reuters]

Two Australian states have urged staff and guests in COVID-19 quarantine hotels to get tested for the coronavirus immediately and fully self-isolate, as they began investigations into three suspected cases of travellers contracting the virus from other residents.

Australian citizens arriving back from overseas are required to spend two weeks in quarantine at a hotel at their own expense before returning home as part of the border closures Australia introduced in March last year as the pandemic spread around the world. More than 200,000 people have passed through the system since.

Officials in New South Wales (NSW) and Western Australia state – on opposite sides of the country – said genetic sequencing found links to the same sequence of virus in infected guests resident in hotels in Sydney and Perth during routine tests. The cases are not currently believed to be connected.

“We don’t have a definitive conclusion around the way the transmission occurred at this point in time,” NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters on Thursday.

More than 200,000 people have passed through the country’s hotel quarantine system since it was first, but it has also come in for criticism, particularly in the state of Victoria where a breach of procedures last June led to a wave of cases in the community and a months-long lockdown in Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest city. The state only began accepting new international arrivals again earlier this month.

In the latest case in Sydney, a guest staying in a quarantine hotel tested positive for the virus with the same genetic sequence as infected people who were staying in a nearby room.

Authorities worry guests who tested negative at the end of their NSW hotel quarantine and were allowed to leave could have already been exposed to the virus, raising the risk of it spreading in the community. Several of those who were in quarantine have already travelled to other states and territories, officials said.

 

NSW authorities on Sunday said they would investigate how a family of three quarantined in a different Sydney hotel returned positive tests with the same virus sequence as a non-related family of four quarantined in the same building.

Meanwhile, Western Australia state late on Wednesday said two sets of guests staying in a Perth hotel in opposite rooms were found to have the same sequence of virus, despite having arrived from different countries at different times.

Dr Andrew Miller, president of the Western Australian AMA, said risk factors such as ventilation and airflow were “still not being taken seriously enough” in the state’s hotel quarantine system.

“We do need to get a lot more transparency around this and understand why we haven’t got proper quarantine facilities because we have a long way to go in this pandemic,” he told TV network Channel Nine.

“We are seeing what is happening in Brazil and India. A lot of these people want to come back home where they belong and the solution is not to just keep the border shut. You have to fix your health and quarantine system at the same time.”

Since its quarantine breaches, Victoria has revised the system to account for the airborne transmission of the virus, modifying hotel ventilation systems to ensure that when guests open their doors, the air flows from the corridor into the room, rather than from the room into the corridor.

Among other measures, hotel and quarantine staff have also been given higher standard personal protective equipment including N95 masks, while those in quarantine will be tested for COVID-19 more often.

“The restart of the Victorian system – with these new measures targeted at airborne transmission – offers a golden opportunity to inform other jurisdictions and, hopefully, to develop a national standard for hotel quarantine,” Michael Toole,  a professor of public health at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, wrote in The Conversation website when quarantine resumed.

While Australia has fared much better than many other developed countries in tackling the pandemic, reporting just over 29,500 cases and 910 deaths, it is struggling to accelerate its vaccination rollout.

Australia’s national cabinet will meet later on Thursday and is expected to urgently include people above 50 years old in the immunisation drive.

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/22/australian-states-investigate-covid-spread-in-quarantine-hotels