More than one year after COVID-19 first surfaced in Mainland China, the pandemic has been accelerating worldwide to more than 1.9 million deaths and nearly 90 million cases despite restrictions and vaccines’ development.
Jan.10 (UPI) — More than one year after COVID-19 first surfaced in Mainland China, the pandemic has been accelerating worldwide to more than 1.9 million deaths and nearly 90 million cases despite restrictions, including lockdowns, and the development of vaccines In three months, the death toll has nearly doubled and cases jumped about 2 1/2 times. On Oct.10, fatalities were 1,079,984 compared with the current 1,939,040 so far Sunday with infections now 90,363,015 in contrast to 38,158,808 then, according to tracking by Worldometers.info. Deaths reported in one day hit a record 15,220 on Dec.30 with it not surpassing 9,000 until Nov.4. Cases reached a record 833,913 Thursday after passing 400,000 for the first time on Oct.15. Though the pandemic has touched every portion of the globe, including Antarctica, the surge has been especially prominent in the United States and Europe. The United States for months has had the most deaths,372,884, and cases,22,177,373, according to Johns Hopkins. On Oct.15, deaths numbered 218,274 and cases were nearly 8 million. The nation passed 4,000 deaths and 300,000 cases for the first time in the past week. Europe has also experienced exponential increases. Death and cases records stood from the spring for months. But recently, they have been broken. Since Oct.10, deaths have climbed from more than 230,000 to 588,920 so far Sunday and cases from 6 million to 25,910,592. Five European nations are in the top 10: Britain is fifth with 80,868, Italy sixth with 78,394, France seventh with 67,599 and Russia eighth with 61,837. Britain moved ahead of Italy with the most deaths behind the United States, Brazil at 202,716, India with 150,999 and Mexico with 133,204 deaths. On Friday, the kingdom reported record deaths of 1,325 and 68,053 cases. Until two days ago, the high fatality mark had been 1,166 on April 21. Through three months ago, daily cases hadn’t surpassed 17,000. On Sunday, Britain reported 563 deaths and 54,940 cases. A second lockdown ended on Dec.2 but with a new variant spreading, Prime Minister Boris Johnson instituted a tier system, with a fourth put into place through the kingdom, including London. On Monday, the entire nation went into lockdown. And a fifth tier is under consideration. He has vowed to do « whatever it takes » to cut down the spread, including closing schools. « I completely understand the inconvenience and distress this change will cause millions of people and parents up and down the country, » Johnson said Monday. « The problem isn’t that schools are unsafe for children… the problem is that schools may act as vectors of transmission, causing the virus to spread between households. » The new strain is estimated to be 50% to 70% more contagious. « With most of the country already under extreme measures, it’s clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out, » Johnson said. Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned the « situation has deteriorated further » since Monday. But more than 2 million people have been vaccinated, including « around a third of the over-80s » and the « most vulnerable » will be vaccinated by the « middle of February. » No.6 Italy, which at one time was the world’s epicenter, reported 361 deaths after a record 993 Dec.3 and 18,627 cases after record 40,896 on Nov.13. Cases hadn’t passed 10,000 until Oct.16 and deaths were 921 on March 27 with numbers going down dramatically to single digits in the summer. On Sunday, five Italian region — Calabria, Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, Sicily and Veneto — entered « orange zones » with tougher restrictions. Travel is curtailed and only essential services, including restaurant takeout, allowed. In the Vatican, Pope Francis’ personal doctor, Fabrizio Soccorsi, died as a result of « complications due to Covid, » the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano announced Saturday.
