Latest on the worldwide spread of coronavirus
Shafaq News/ So far, COVID-19 is affecting more than 210 countries and territories around the world, Reuters tally shows the latest update of countries and territories classification based on Data from ministries of health and statements of government officials.
Global coronavirus cases rose to more than 101 million cases.
2,178,376 deaths were recorded according to Reuters.
USA still rank the first 25,661,892 cases, and 429,661 deaths, meanwhile India is in the second place with 10,701,193cases and 153,847 deaths.
The other countries in the top infected countries list are respectively, Russia, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey and Germany.
Regarding the Arab World, Iraq ranks the first (27th worldwide) with 593,541 cases and 12,800 Deaths, followed by Morocco with 435,189 cases and 7,312 deaths.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE and Lebanon are also the most infected countries.
EUROPE
The number of COVID-19 infections in England is starting to fall, possibly reflecting the impact of a new lockdown, but cases are not coming down quickly enough and prevalence remains very high, a large study showed on Thursday.
France reported yesterday its biggest one-day jump in COVID-19 cases since mid-November.
Denmark will extend its current coronavirus restrictions by three weeks in order to curb the spread of a more contagious coronavirus variant first registered in Britain.
Americas
More than one million people in the Americas have died from complications from COVID-19, the head of the Pan American Health Organization said.
Chile’s health regulator approved the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use among its population by a unanimous vote of its advisory board.
ASIA-PACIFIC
Taiwan has sought Germany’s help in securing COVID-19 vaccines, Economy Minister Wang Mei-hua said, after Berlin asked for the island’s assistance in easing a shortage of automobile semiconductor chips.
Australia in in 107th place worldwide with 28799 cases.
China reported its lowest daily increase in new COVID-19 cases in three weeks, official data showed, as authorities imposed robust curbs to contain the outbreak.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
Morocco will start rolling out its mass coronavirus vaccination program on Thursday, the first African country to do so.
Morocco started a national coronavirus vaccination campaign after receiving vaccine shipments from AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.
Lebanon still struggling from recording high number of fatalities.
In the same context, Sydney's Lowy Institute assessed almost 100 countries on six criteria, including confirmed cases, Covid-19 deaths and testing metrics.
"Collectively, these indicators point to how well or poorly countries have managed the pandemic," according to the report by the independent body.
Aside from New Zealand – which has largely kept the virus at bay with border closures and "go early, go hard" lockdowns and testing regimes – Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia and Sri Lanka made the top 10 for their responses.
In bottom place was Brazil, closely followed by Mexico, Colombia, Iran and the United States.
In total, 98 countries were evaluated in the 36 weeks that followed their hundredth confirmed case of Covid-19, using data available to January 9, 2021.
Fourteen-day rolling averages of new daily figures were calculated for confirmed cases, confirmed cases per million people, confirmed deaths, confirmed deaths per million people, confirmed cases as a proportion of tests, and tests per thousand people, the Lowy Institute said.
"Some countries have managed the pandemic better than others -- but most countries outcompeted each other only by degrees of underperformance," the report said.
Smaller nations – with populations of fewer than 10 million people – did appear to have some advantages.
"In general, countries with smaller populations, cohesive societies, and capable institutions have a comparative advantage in dealing with a global crisis such as a pandemic," the report said.
Source: Reuters + France 24
