the world says goodbye to 2020 with over 82 million infections and 1.8 million deaths

On the last day of 2020, people infected with the coronavirus already exceed 82.8 million worldwide, exactly one year after Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan of a significant number of cases of then-unknown rare pneumonia.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, which keeps the global tally, those infected with covid-19 were 82,835,563 as of Thursday and the deaths, 1,807,638 people with the disease on the planet.

According to figures published Thursday on the university’s website, the United States continues to record the highest number of infections with 19,745,136 and 342,414 deaths. India is the second in infections, with 10,266,674 and Brazil the third with 7,619,200. But the South American giant is the second in dead, with 193,875 people.

Among the European countries with the most infections are Russia with 3,100,018, France with 2,657,624 and the UK with 2,440,202.

A year after the first cases appeared in China, when no one imagined that this rare pneumonia would turn into a deadly global pandemic, the world is already starting vaccination and preparing to begin a 2021 centered on the ‘new normal’.

China on Wednesday granted the first marketing authorization for one of the covid-19 vaccines developed in the country, one of the two candidates of the pharmaceutical state Sinopharm, with a view to administering it free of charge to the citizens of the Asian giant .

Sinopharm has sought approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) after reporting that it was 79.34% effective, based on provisional data from Phase 3 clinical trials.

New Years restrictions

Europe is living under a strong second wave of coronavirus which has forced restrictive measures. Celebrations are to be austere and without large gatherings, with curfews and lockdowns in some countries.

Germany, for example, has recorded 32,552 infections in the past 24 hours and 964 disease-related deaths. Thus, the record levels of more than 30,000 infections already observed the week before Christmas are maintained. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 1,719,737 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Germany.

The Czech Republic has registered a maximum of 16,939 positives in the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. This data is 20% higher than a week ago and was accompanied by a percentage of positives by PCR tests performed of 51.89%, the highest to date, which means that out of two tests performed, one had a case of contagion. The country’s hospital capacity is reaching its limits,

In France, between December 21 and 27, 3,024,000 tests were carried out to diagnose the coronavirus, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. The country recorded 26,457 new cases of coronavirus as of Wednesday, compared to 11,395 reported the day before, and 304 deaths in one day, bringing the total number of deaths since March to 64,381.

Brazil recorded 1,194 deaths on Wednesday, the highest number in four months. They approach the total number of victims in the country at nearly 194,000, according to data released on Wednesday by the Ministry of Health. This is the third time this month that Brazil has recorded more than a thousand daily deaths from the coronavirus, after the 1,111 reported on Tuesday and the 1,092 recorded on December 17, which show the resurgence of the disease in one of the countries most affected by the pandemic in the world.

The United States, meanwhile, added 3,927 deaths from Covid-19 in a single day and reached 19,715,899 confirmed cases and 341,845 deaths from Covid-19. New York State remains the country most affected by the pandemic with 37,868 deaths, followed by Texas (27,895), California (25,357), Florida (21,550) and New Jersey (19,109 ).

Source: EFE

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