Coronavirus, global alert: today is the worst day since the start of the pandemic | the Chronicle

One year after the first cases of coronavirus in China, the pandemic has infected more than 71 million people and caused the death of 1.6 million worldwide, while a second wave hits countries in Europe, Asia and America, along with the United States – who recorded this Saturday record numbers of cases and deaths – as the most punished.

World Health Organization ( WHO) have recorded more than 692,000 new coronavirus infections and 13,000 deaths worldwide in the past 24 hours, the worst daily figures in nearly a year of the pandemic.

The slight drop in global daily cases seen two weeks ago, thanks mainly to the drop in infections in Europe, has not consolidated and global figures are on the rise again, indicating that the current wave is far from being finished.

America, with 29.7 million cases, had a record 328,000 new positives, while Europe, with 21.4 million infections, reported 273,000, a far cry from the figures of a year ago. one month but showing an increase in infections compared to last week.

The third most affected region, South Asia, with 11.3 million cases, nevertheless shows a decrease in daily infections.

United States, two days after starting your plan
mass vaccination after authorization to use the one developed by
Pfizer, recorded 3,309 deaths and 231,775 cases in the past 24 hours, both a record since the start of the pandemic, in addition to the historic mark of 108,044 new hospitalizations in one day.

With 15,851,735 cases and 1,597,212 deaths, the United States last night became the sixth country to give the green light to the Pfizer vaccine and the first step includes vaccinating about three million people. Health officials have recommended that health workers and residents of nursing homes be given priority, although decisions are left to state governments.

France, the European country with the most cases of coronavirus, has today recorded 13,947 new infections and the figure exceeds 2.4 million, in addition to 199 deaths which now stand at 57,761, while the positivity rate for diagnostic tests is 6.3%, well below the 21% it reached at the end of October, when the second lockout was imposed, which will continue until December 15.

French authorities announced yesterday that the lockdown that had been in effect for six weeks would be lifted on Tuesday, instituting a nighttime curfew instead. And in a blow to the cultural sector, it was decided that museums, theaters, concert halls and cinemas would remain closed, as well as bars and restaurants, a measure the sector said it would resort to. to justice to force the government to allow them to reopen. and recover some losses caused by the health crisis.

Italy, which is the European country with the most deaths, today recorded a further decline in the number of daily deaths from the coronavirus from yesterday’s peak of 887, when it confirmed 649 deaths, but the number of cases detected in the last 24 hours reached 19,903, a thousand more than the previous day.

So far, the toll of the disease on Italian soil is 64,036, while the number of people infected is 1,825,775.

Germany has registered 28,438 new cases in the past 24 hours, a figure close to its historic high, and has exceeded 1.3 million people infected. In addition, it has reported 496 new deaths, almost 100 fewer deaths than the 598 reported yesterday, a record number since the start of the pandemic, which totaled 21,466.

In Asia, cases declined in India, the second-most affected country with 9.8 million infections, but in Japan, 3,041 new infections were reported on the last day, the highest daily number since the start of pandemic, a figure that reached 179,000, while the death toll rose to 2,588.

Japan will provide free vaccines to the country’s 126 million people, under a bill passed last week by the upper house of parliament, after securing the backing of the lower house. He has already ordered vaccines for 60 million people from Pfizer and another 25 million from Moderna, in addition to confirming that he would receive 120 million doses of AstraZeneca.

In South America, with Brazil third in the ranking of countries with the most cases, infections continue to rise and reach nearly 6.8 million, while deaths exceed 180,000. The government announced yesterday the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Pfizer laboratory for the purchase of 70 million doses,

Rio de Janeiro is on the verge of the collapse of intensive care beds but at the same time it already has almost 60% of hotel bookings for tourists who will spend the Christmas holidays and the beginning of 2021 in the wonderful city. , despite the fact that this year the popular celebrations on the beaches were canceled.

Acting Governor Claudio Castro and outgoing Mayor Marcelo Crivella, who will step down in January after losing his re-election, have announced measures to restrict crowds in parks and beach walks in Flamengo, Copacabana, Ipanema , Leblón and Barra de Tijuca, despite the fact that it is allowed to be on the beach and to enter the sea.

In Chile, the Santiago de Chile metropolitan region today began a quarantine over weekends that restricts the movement of people due to an 18% increase in coronavirus cases in the capital, as the country reports a total of nearly 570,000 infections and more than 15,800 deaths from the disease.