Coronavirus cases continue to rise, governments fear year-end vacation

As coronavirus vaccines get closer and closer, the pandemic appears to be giving no truce and continues to rise across much of the world – last week it passed 1.5 million deaths – and governments fear that they will not be able to dampen the circulation of the virus weeks before the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The United States, the country most affected by the pandemic, this weekend recorded a record number of cases in 24 hours for the third day in a row.

According to a report from Johns Hopkins University, nearly 230,000 new cases and 2,527 deaths were confirmed yesterday.

Over the past two weeks, the country has frequently surpassed 2,000 deaths per day, similar to the start of the year at the height of the first wave.

Health officials have warned of the increase in cases after millions of Americans flocked to celebrate Thanksgiving last week, despite requests from authorities to stay home, so fear of the holidays year-end remains unrealized.

Other countries have also announced restrictions on the holiday season, such as Switzerland, which will ban Christmas carols on the streets, and Spain, where the capital, Madrid, has canceled the New Year’s celebration. in the center.

Almost a year after its onset, the coronavirus has killed more than 1.53 million people and infected more than 66.64 million worldwide.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the worst affected region, there has been an 18% increase in cases in one week.

Germany has reported 17,767 new infections in the past 24 hours, 3,100 more cases than last Sunday, while yesterday 23,318 new infections were recorded, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the European country with the most cases and deaths from the disease, health authorities gave the green light to the vaccine from the Pfizer-BioNTech laboratory at the end of last week.

The country has reserved a total of 40 million doses and plans to receive a first batch of 800,000 to begin the vaccination campaign the day after tomorrow.

The first to receive the vaccine will be the nursing homes and their staff, followed by those over 80, which include Queen Elizabeth II, 94, and Prince Philip, 99, and health workers alongside . caregivers on the front lines of the fight against the coronavirus.

For its part, Russia has started vaccinating its high-risk workers, and other countries are preparing for similar programs.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that vaccines are not a panacea and warned against the mistake of thinking the pandemic will end soon because of vaccines.

“Vaccines do not mean zero Covid,” said WHO emergency director Michael Ryan, assuring that not everyone will be able to receive a dose at the start of the year.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also warned of the “growing perception that the pandemic is over” as the virus continues to spread rapidly.

According to the WHO, 51 vaccines are currently being tested in humans, including 13 in the final phase of massive trials.

The United States is expected to give the green light to vaccines at the end of this month, while Belgium, France and Spain have announced that they will start vaccinating the most vulnerable in January.

For its part, South Korea today raised its coronavirus alert to the second highest level in Seoul and adjacent regions, after confirming 631 new cases, the highest number in nine months, for a total of over 37,000 infections. since the start of the pandemic.

Authorities are struggling to contain a new outbreak, after cases have risen from 100 to more than 500 a day in recent weeks.

Although compared to other countries the figures are still low, this increase has sounded the alarm to the authorities who have strengthened social distancing measures and banned meetings of more than 50 people, while sports competitions organized indoors do not. will not be able to have spectators.