Country,	Total	New	Total
Other	Cases	Cases	Deaths
World	148,472,492	673,229	3,133,407
USA	32,875,045	47,456	586,611
India	17,625,735	319,435	197,880
Brazil	14,370,456	29,669	392,204
France	5,503,996	5,952	103,256
Russia	4,771,372	8,803	108,588
Turkey	4,667,281	37,312	38,711
UK	4,406,946	2,064	127,434
Italy	3,971,114	8,444	119,539
Spain	3,488,469	6,500	77,738
Germany	3,307,769	9,568	82,344
Argentina	2,879,677	18,793	62,087
Colombia	2,787,303	12,839	71,799
Poland	2,762,325	3,453	65,437
Iran	2,417,230	21,026	70,070
Mexico	2,328,391	1,653	214,947
Ukraine	2,030,333	5,062	42,518
Peru	1,768,186	6,611	60,013
Indonesia	1,647,138	5,944	44,770
Czechia	1,620,217	823	29,049
South Africa	1,576,320	849	54,186
Netherlands	1,467,337	6,200	17,062
Canada	1,187,918	8,931	24,024
Chile	1,175,614	6,078	25,975
Romania	1,047,520	1,256	27,511
Iraq	1,037,858	6,536	15,303
Philippines	1,006,414	8,915	16,853
Belgium	974,418	2,377	24,024
Sweden	938,343		13,923
Israel	838,107	83	6,353
Portugal	834,638	196	16,965
Pakistan	800,452	4,825	17,187
Hungary	771,454	1,936	26,801
Bangladesh	748,628	3,306	11,150
Jordan	704,540	2,386	8,660
Serbia	681,654	1,987	6,257
Switzerland	651,822	5,313	10,583
Austria	610,545	1,566	10,098
Japan	566,863	4,722	9,972
Lebanon	521,581	642	7,171
UAE	512,497	1,759	1,573
Morocco	509,465	102	8,999
Saudi Arabia	413,174	958	6,913
Bulgaria	399,259	1,759	16,101
Malaysia	395,718	2,776	1,449
Slovakia	380,010	99	11,531
Ecuador	374,775	1,413	18,300
Panama	363,165	198	6,212
Belarus	353,846	896	2,502
Greece	334,436	1,307	10,087
Croatia	323,036	410	6,905
Azerbaijan	313,812	806	4,402
Kazakhstan	309,116	2,716	3,570
Georgia	304,272	521	4,043
Nepal	303,561	3,442	3,176
Tunisia	301,627	1,285	10,352
Bolivia	297,659	474	12,824
Palestine	292,052	1,080	3,184
Paraguay	269,353	2,271	6,002
Kuwait	268,235	1,286	1,527
Dominican Republic	265,403	540	3,459
Ethiopia	253,120	841	3,570
Moldova	249,385	246	5,745
Denmark	248,326	704	2,477
Ireland	247,069	436	4,874
Lithuania	241,895	537	3,864
Costa Rica	241,240	1,203	3,168
Slovenia	237,219	191	4,214
Egypt	223,514	991	13,107
Guatemala	221,939	241	7,428
Armenia	213,469	181	4,040
Honduras	206,907	526	5,141
Qatar	202,904	703	437
Bosnia and Herzegovina	195,971	1,238	8,350
Venezuela	192,498	980	2,065
Oman	190,270	1,454	1,983
Uruguay	187,349	2,484	2,391
Libya	175,753	467	3,005
Bahrain	172,576	1,206	625
Nigeria	164,756	37	2,062
Kenya	156,981	194	2,643
North Macedonia	150,672	84	4,714
Myanmar	142,722	10	3,207
Albania	130,606	69	2,379
Algeria	121,112	190	3,217
Estonia	120,377	162	1,145
S. Korea	119,387	500	1,817
Latvia	115,536	220	2,106
Norway	111,162	550	736
Cuba	102,441	938	597
Sri Lanka	102,376	997	647
Montenegro	96,779	119	1,473
Kyrgyzstan	94,030	199	1,584
Ghana	92,253	87	777
Zambia	91,378	20	1,248
China	90,599	11	4,636
Uzbekistan	89,355	328	645
Finland	85,937	133	906
Mozambique	69,715	50	809
El Salvador	68,771	303	2,106
Luxembourg	66,374	56	791
Aruba	10,522	17	98
Suriname	9,996	64	195
Vietnam	2,833	3	35

 

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

 

 

 

Fauci says U.S. should see a turning point in the pandemic ‘within a few weeks’

 

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci speaks with Vice President Mike Pence as they participate in a news briefing with member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday, Nov 19, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Jabin Botsford | The Washington Post | Getty Images

 

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that Americans should begin to see a turning point in the pandemic “within a few weeks.”

The United States has been averaging about 3 million Covid-19 vaccination shots per day, Fauci said. Meanwhile, the nation reported a seven-day average of 58,164 new Covid cases per day as of Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That’s down 14% from a week ago.

If the U.S. continues its vaccination pace, “literally within a few weeks, we’re going to start to see a turning around of the dynamics,” Fauci said Monday during a virtual event hosted by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“Not down to no infections,” he said. “If you’re waiting for classic measles-like herd immunity, that’s going to be a while before we get there. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a significant diminution in the number of infections per day and a significant diminution in all of the parameters, namely hospitalizations and deaths.”

The Biden administration has pushed Americans to get vaccinated as quickly as possible as new, highly contagious variants spread.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that the B.1.1.7 variant, which appears to be more deadly and spread more easily than other strains, is now the most common Covid strain circulating in the U.S.

U.S. health officials say they are concerned the highly contagious variant, first identified in the U.K., could stall the nation’s progress on the pandemic. The outbreak has killed at least 572,287 Americans in a little over a year.

Still, vaccinations are being administered at a rapid pace. More than 139 million Americans, or 42.2% of the total U.S. population, had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Sunday, according to the CDC. Roughly 94.7 million people, or 28.5% of the population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Last week, the Biden administration announced a massive campaign to persuade more Americans, particularly young people, to take the Covid-19 vaccines as supply begins to outpace demand in some parts of the U.S.

Fauci has said the goal is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population — or roughly 232 million to 281 million people — to achieve herd immunity and suppress the pandemic.

But he said Monday that herd immunity is a “moving target.” The U.S. should just focus on getting as many Americans vaccinated as possible, Fauci said.

“We don’t know what the durability of the infection-induced immunity is. We don’t know if someone who got infected last winter or in the early part of 2020 is going to be safe from a protected standpoint now,” he said.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/26/coronavirus-us-fauci-says-us-should-see-a-turning-point-within-a-few-weeks.html

 

 

 

China to mobilise its private companies to help India fight Covid-19 surge

 

China has vowed to encourage its private companies to help India in its battle against a drastic surge in Covid-19 cases which has seen repeated daily global records of new infections and local media reports that patients are dying because of a lack of oxygen supplies.
Wang Xiaojian, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in India, said the country had the firm support of China’s government and its people in the fight against the pandemic. “We will encourage and guide Chinese companies to actively cooperate with India to facilitate acquiring medical supplies, and provide support and help according to India’s need,” he said, in an embassy statement on Monday night.
In separate remarks, foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China and India were in communication over the pandemic response, and that Beijing would provide materials, if requested by New Delhi. He also called on India’s fellow members of the Quad security alliance – Australia, the United States and Japan – to help the stricken country.
“I hope these nations can jointly provide India and related countries with support and assistance within their capacity to fight the epidemic, and fulfil their due international responsibilities and obligations,” Wang said.

Zhu Yongbiao, a professor of international relations at Lanzhou University, said China’s help was likely to include medical equipment, vaccines, and prevention and treatment plans, depending on the Indian government’s request and the pandemic situation. “China may also encourage and support Chinese-funded companies in India to provide assistance through non-governmental ways.”

Jasmine Cheng, a sales representative at Nanjing Bangwin Import & Export, a company specialising in gas products, said the firm had received hundreds of inquiries from potential customers in India for oxygen generators, cylinders and regulators.
Cheng said she expected the company would have more export orders in coming weeks, but so far despite the number of inquiries few deals had been made. 

Chinese diplomatic missions to Sri Lanka and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific announced on Twitter that some 800 oxygen concentrators were delivered from Hong Kong to Delhi, with 10,000 more to be delivered in a week.
In a bid to boost supplies, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced on Saturday that it was waiving import duties on vaccines, oxygen and related equipment. On Sunday, following a call between US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, Washington said the US would immediately deploy assistance to India.

The US also lifted its ban on the export of raw materials for Covid-19 vaccines – after criticism last week that it had snubbed India’s appeal to let the materials through, citing its responsibility to look after the American people first.
Without naming the US, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that China was “never absent” from providing aid in major disasters and challenges such as the Covid-19 pandemic, pointing out that China had already provided vaccines to more than 80 nations and four international organisations.
China’s offer to help follows months of tension along its disputed border with India and little apparent progress in the most recent round of talks between the two countries’ militaries.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3131239/china-mobilise-its-private-companies-help-india-fight-covid-19

 

 

 

Situation in India ‘beyond heartbreaking,’ says WHO chief

By Paul Schemm and Jennifer Hassan

 

A health worker walks past the funeral pyres of those who died from covid-19 during a mass cremation at a crematorium in New Delhi on Monday. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

 

The pandemic is intensifying around the world with more new cases in the last week than in the first five months of the pandemic, warned the director general of the World Health Organization.

In a speech marking the beginning for World Immunization Week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lamented that even while some countries have shown improvements in the battle against the coronavirus, “many countries are still experiencing intense transmission and the situation in India is beyond heartbreaking.”

India announced 323,144 new infections over the last 24 hours, a 10 percent drop from the day before, but experts warned this may be more a function of in a fall in testing than a sign the new wave is abating. It still represents the sixth day with new infection numbers over 300,000 cases — the most in the world.

 

Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/27/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/

 

 

 

US to begin sharing AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses soon

From CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak and Maegan Vazquez

 

The United States plans to share millions of doses of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine with other countries in the coming months, the White House announced on Monday.

"Today we announced that the administration is looking at options to share American-made AstraZeneca vaccine doses during the next few months," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during Monday's White House press briefing.

Psaki indicated that the decision was made because of the US' available supply of other Covid-19 vaccines approved for use. The US has tens of millions of AstraZeneca vaccines stockpiled but none have been used because it has not yet been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration.

"Given the strong portfolio of vaccines that the United States has already authorized and that is available in large quantities, including two two-dose vaccines and one one-dose vaccine, and given that AstraZeneca is not authorized for use in the United States, we do not need to use AstraZeneca in our fight against Covid over the next few months," Psaki said.

Psaki said the FDA will conduct a quality review of doses before they can leave the country and that the US' plan to distribute the vaccine is still being developed. The White House has not said which countries will get the vaccine.

A senior administration official said later on Monday that there could be up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine available to be shared with other countries in the next two months, assuming the FDA issues an emergency use authorization for the vaccine.

 

 

 

 

 

Biden will announce new CDC mask guidance Tuesday, sources say

From CNN's Kaitlan Collins and Kate Sullivan

 

President Joe Biden is expected to announce Tuesday that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidance for wearing masks outdoors, three people familiar with the expected announcement said.

Ahead of his first address to Congress on Wednesday, the President will give remarks on the state of the pandemic on Tuesday. The three people familiar with the expected announcement said Biden will announce new CDC guidance on whether vaccinated people need to wear masks outdoors, though the final language of the expected announcement is still unclear.

One of Biden's top coronavirus advisers, Dr. Anthony Fauci, strongly hinted that the guidance would be updated this week, telling CNN's Jim Acosta Sunday he didn't want to get ahead of the CDC, but they "will be coming out with updating their guidelines of what people who are vaccinated can do and even some who are not vaccinated."

The Biden administration is also expected to announce, as early as Tuesday, several other new recommendations for fully vaccinated people in addition to "unmasking outdoors," a federal official told CNN.

The official said the new recommendations "will provide guidelines for activities fully vaccinated people can resume," suggesting a broader list than simply guidelines on masks. The recommendations will also provide guidelines for infection control and prevention in health care settings.

A November review in the Journal of Infectious Diseases found that the odds of viral transmission are 18.7 times greater indoors than out, and less than 10% of Covid-19 infections studied occurred outside. Despite that, several states still have outdoor mask mandates in place.

 

 

 

CDC warns people getting J&J vaccine to watch for blood clot symptoms

From CNN's Maggie Fox

 

A medical worker with Northwell Health holds up doses of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination site at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in Staten Island on April 8 in New York. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

People who have just received the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine should keep an eye out for any symptoms of blood clots and be ready to seek immediate medical attention, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in updated guidance.

While the risk is extremely low, people who suffer persistent, severe headaches or blurred vision, shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling, persistent abdominal pain or unusual bruising within three weeks of getting the J&J vaccine should get medical attention quickly, the CDC said in a new posting on its website.

CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration decided on Friday to lift a pause on administering the vaccine after an extensive search turned up only 15 cases of a rare blood clotting syndrome among nearly 8 million people who had received the vaccine. 

“Reports of adverse events following the use of J&J/Janssen vaccine suggest an increased risk of a rare adverse event called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). Nearly all reports of this serious condition, which involves blood clots with low platelets, have been in adult women younger than 50 years old,” the CDC said in the new posting. 

“A review of all available data at this time shows that the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine’s known and potential benefits outweigh its known and potential risks. However, women younger than 50 years old should be aware of the rare but increased risk of this adverse event and that there are other COVID-19 vaccine options available for which this risk has not been seen,” it added.

“For three weeks after receiving the vaccine, you should be on the lookout for possible symptoms of a blood clot with low platelets.”

The FDA updated the fact sheets given to providers and patients with the vaccine to warn of the possible blood clot risk, and the CDC has now added language pointing out the specific risk to women 50 and younger.

 

Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-04-27-21/index.html