Monitoring Desk
The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down economies the world over, transformed workplaces, and is now known to have infected more than 100 million people.
Various trackers of coronavirus cases worldwide, including that of Johns Hopkins University, had ticked past 100 million by Wednesday morning.
More than one quarter of the cases have been identified in the US. And if you combine the six worst-hit countries in the world in gross terms — the US, India, Brazil, Russia, the UK, and France — you comfortably clear 50 million confirmed cases.
The world has been registering in excess of half a million new cases per day regularly since the so-called second wave began picking up speed around November of last year.
The true tally will be higher and will likely never be known for a number of reasons: asymptomatic cases where the sufferer never even noticed they were ill, overwhelmed national test and trace systems losing track of infection chains, or even potentially intentional under-reporting of caseloads in some places.
Here’s a rundown of some of the other most notable pandemic-related stories around the world on Wednesday.
Worldwide
The International Monetary Fund has predicted a global GDP hit of $22 trillion (about €18 trillion) as a result of the pandemic. Full story here.
Asia
South Korea was tracking a new cluster on Wednesday, logging 559 new cases nationwide in the course of Tuesday, up from 354 the previous day.
The bulk of the cases, almost 300 of them, had been traced to six Christian churches and mission schools, according to senior health official Yoon Tae-ho.
The Christian mission responsible for the facilities, International Mission, apologized “for not responding earlier and for thinking the students could have had a cold when a student first developed fever.” It was ordered to test everybody linked to 32 of its 40 schools and churches around the country.
Myanmar launched its vaccination program on Wednesday with 1.5 million doses donated by neighboring India. Although the south Asian country managed to fend off the worst of the outbreak during the early stages of the pandemic, a second wave has brought the country’s death toll to over 3,000.
Nepal also kicked off its vaccination drive with 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Indian Serum Institute. The country is hoping to vaccinate 72% of its 30 million-strong population in three months.
Americas
Claims from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro about a “miracle” cure for the coronavirus have elicited considerable skepticism in the Americas and beyond. Maduro appeared late Sunday in a national address, calling the concoction “a powerful antiviral, very powerful, that neutralizes the coronavirus.”
As health agencies rushed to react to the claims, the local National Academy of Medicine said initial studies suggested it was simply a solution based on the herb thyme.
Colombian Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo died of coronavirus complications on Tuesday aged 69. He was first hospitalized in Bogota on January 11. President Ivan Duque declared three days of national mourning in memory of the minister and other COVID-19 victims in the country.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was still experiencing minor symptoms in his bout with COVID-19, but was nevertheless “doing well,” according to his deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell.
Europe
In an on-going dispute with the EU over a shortage of vaccines, the CEO of the British-Swedish drugs company Astrazeneca insisted late on Tuesday that it was not selling doses ordered by the EU to other countries at a profit.
The company has cited procurement issues as the reason behind its failure to meet orders. It said it was two months behind schedule with regards to shipments for the EU.
The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi has agreed to produce 125 million doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine by the summer.
The vaccine doses will be produced in Frankfurt, Germany, and will be solely for use within the European Union.
After several days of unrest in response to the introduction of a nighttime curfew, the situation in the Netherlands was comparatively calm overnight heading into Wednesday.
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told newspaper Bild that the country was considering a stop on almost all flights into the country, as it sought more aggressive responses to COVID-19 variants that could pose a greater risk. That story was DW’s most read article on Tuesday.
Also in Germany, the Robert Koch Institute on Wednesday reported a further 13,303 cases and 982 deaths.
The Republic of Ireland said on Tuesday that it would enact mandatory travel quarantines for the first time, and extend its current, third national lockdown until March 5. The move comes at least partly in response to the virulent B117 variant first identified in southeastern England.
Courtesy: DW
