The global analysis of COVID-19 coronavirus disease rose to 81.4 million on Tuesday, and the World Health Organization said the pandemic was not necessarily the largest the world should be insured for and urged people everywhere to learn from this crisis.
At a final press conference of the agency for 2020, the head of WHO’s emergency, Mike Ryan, said that the coronavirus pandemic was severe and affected all corners of the planet.
“But this is not necessarily the big one,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. We are now learning how to do things better – science, logistics, training and governance, how to communicate better. But the planet is fragile. We live in an increasingly complex global society. These threats will continue. If there is anything we need to take from this pandemic, with all the tragedy and loss, [it] It is [that] we have to plan our act. We must honor those we have lost by improving on what we do every day. ”
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed the cooperation between the private and public sectors that led to the development of several vaccines in record time, which are now being launched worldwide. “This is an incredible scientific achievement,” he said.
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WHO works closely with scientists to understand new variants of COVID-19 that have emerged in the UK and South Africa and to assess whether they spread faster or make people sick and have a potential impact on testing, treatment and vaccines .
“Specifically, we are working with scientists from the UK and South Africa who are conducting epidemiological and laboratory studies that will guide the next steps,” he said.
In the meantime, WHO is working to ensure that vaccines are made available to “those in need everywhere” and reminding people that even with distributed vaccines, they must comply with public safety measures – frequent hand washing, social distancing and wearing a face mask in public.
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‘This [failure to meet vaccine targets in the U.S.] it feels like a decay in so many ways, but I’m not surprised, unfortunately, given the way the tests were conducted, the tracking doesn’t exist at all and the way we’re caught careless of this new [virus] variant due to our lack of genomic surveillance. ‘
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The United States has so far vaccinated 2.1 million people and distributed more than 11 million doses of the two vaccines that have been granted an emergency use license, one developed by Pfizer Inc. FE,
with its German partner BioNTech SE BNTX,
and one developed by Moderna Inc. mRNA,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is well below the early predictions made by “Operation Warp Speed,” the federal program created to accelerate the development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, according to Kavita Patel, a primary care physician and health policy expert who served in the Obama White House.
The Patel Clinic is one of the sites in the District of Columbia’s vaccination strategy, she said in an interview on MSNBC.
“In October, we heard from Operation Warp Speed that we would have 100 million doses by the end of the year,” she said. “It simply came to our notice then. Then, expectations fell to 40 million and then to 20 million by the end of December. I dosed 2.2 million, which is far from the 20 million. ”
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Failure to meet the vaccine’s goals, “feels like a decline in so many ways, but I’m not surprised, unfortunately, given the way the tests went, the follow-up doesn’t exist at all and the way we’re caught guarding this new [virus] variant due to our lack of genomic surveillance, “she said.
The United States registered at least 188,934 new cases of COVID on Monday and at least 1,899 people died, according to a New York Times tracker. In the last week, the United States registered an average of 183,124 cases per day.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in US hospitals rose Monday to a record 121,235, according to the COVID follow-up project, surpassing the 120,151 record set on December 24th.
The United States continues to lead the world on a case-by-case basis, at 19.3 million, and deaths at 334,967, or about a fifth of the global accounts for each, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
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In another train of thoughts:
• Israel has now vaccinated more people against COVID-19 than they were infected with the virus at the start of the outbreak, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. Just nine days after the country’s vaccination campaign, 495,000 Israelis were dosed, compared to 407,285 confirmed cases of the disease. Israel expects to vaccinate 150,000 people a day, allowing it to vaccinate 2.25 million people in a month and a half, or about a quarter of the entire population.
• The new COVID variant that hit the UK has probably been in Germany since November, according to health officials quoted by The Guardian, after the death of a patient with that variant in the north of the country. The patient was an elderly man with underlying health conditions, whose wife was also infected but survived. It seems that the couple contracted the virus from their daughter who had traveled to the UK in mid-November.
• Shares of biotechnology company Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. fell 55 percent on Tuesday as investors responded to the results of a 1/2 phase study of his COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which one analyst said was disappointing. Arcturus ARCT based in San Diego,
said late Monday that it had received approval from the Singapore Health Sciences Authority to continue a phase 2 study of its ARCT-021 vaccine candidate that will enroll up to 600 volunteers. Approval is based on data from phase 1/2 of studies that showed that the vaccine produces neutralizing antibodies after a dose, albeit at lower levels than rival candidates. Arcturus hopes that his vaccine will not require a booster shot, making it easier to administer than vaccines that require two doses. Raymond James said the data was “disappointing”. “While the latter data set does not completely affect ARCT-021 with a single fire, which may provide protection against COVID-19 infection in phase 3, the lack of the neutralizing antibody SARS-CoV-2 (NAb) titers at or above observed levels In our convalescence serums, we are confident that ARCT-021 will be able to achieve competitive levels of single-dose vaccine efficacy, ”analysts led by Stephen Seedhouse wrote in a note to clients.
• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has re-imposed a ban on alcohol sales and ordered the closure of all bars as part of new restrictions to help the country fight the resurgence of coronavirus, including a new variant, the Associated Press reported. Ramaphosa also announced the closure of all public beaches and swimming pools in the country’s hot spots, which include Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and several coastal areas. In addition, South Africa is extending its night time by four hours, requiring all residents to be home from 9pm to 6am, the president said. “Reckless behavior due to alcohol intoxication has contributed to increased transmission. Alcohol-related accidents and violence put pressure on our hospital emergency units, ”Ramaphosa said in a nationwide address.
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Latest accounts
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide rose to over 81.4 million on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins, and the death toll is 1.77 million. At least 46 million people have recovered from COVID-19.
Brazil has the second highest number of deaths, at 191,570 and is the third in cases, at 7.5 million.
India is second in the world with 10.2 million cases and third with 148,153 deaths.
Mexico has the fourth highest number of deaths, with 122,855 and the 13th highest number of cases, with 1.4 million.
Italy has 72,370 deaths, the highest in Europe and 2.0 million cases. The UK has 2.3 million cases, most in Europe and 71,217 deaths, second in Europe and sixth in the world.
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, recorded 95,773 confirmed cases and 4,777 deaths, according to its official figures.