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Covid-19 infections near 38 million-mark: Latest updates from across the world
The USA has 7.83 million cases of Covid-19 and 215,000 deaths as on October 13 and India follows closely with 7.17 million infections and nearly 110,000 deaths. Brazil has over 5 million Covid-19 cases and 151,000 deaths.
Over 37.7 million people across the world have been infected with coronavirus disease, with the United States being on top of the list followed by India and Brazil.
According to Worldometer, the US has over eight million cases of Covid-19 and 2,20,011 deaths as on October 13. India has 7.17 million infections and nearly 110,000 deaths, according to Union health ministry, and Brazil has over five million Covid-19 cases and 1,50,709 deaths.
Even as most countries are easing lockdown restrictions and reopening their economies, the virus is far from being defeated and its vaccine still not out. However, World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that a Covid-19 vaccine will be ready for registration by the end of 2020 at the earliest.
Here are the latest Covid-19 updates from across the world:
• The British government on Monday unveiled a three-tier plan to tackle the spread of the disease. The country was divided into three tiers of Covid-19 risk by the government with the objective to “simplify and standardise” a confusing patchwork of local rules. “The goal of the new system was to save lives without ‘shuttering our lives and our society’ through a new national lockdown,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
• Britain can very soon begin carrying out studies that would intentionally infect healthy people with Covid-19 to help researchers in coming up with a vaccine. Thousands of volunteers from across the country have shown willingness to be a part of the study. “I think the potential successes of the trials outweigh that small risk to myself,” Greer, a 20-year-old student who wishes to volunteer, said.
• Meanwhile, the WHO has warned against the idea that herd immunity might be a realistic strategy to stop the pandemic, dismissing such proposals as “simply unethical,” according to news agency Associated Press.
• Adding to the list of advanced stage trials of Covid-19 vaccines halted, Johnson & Johnson paused its study on Monday, citing an “unexplained illness” of a participant. The company’s physicians and a safety monitoring panel would try to determine the reason behind the illness, Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. Trials of AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s vaccine candidate were also halted last month. They have resumed in almost all countries now.
• According to billionaire Bill Gates, life will become normal only after the second generation of Covid-19 vaccine is rolled out. Normalcy can return “when we have, not the first generation of vaccines, but one that is super-effective,” he told NBC.
• Union health minister of India Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that India is likely to have a vaccine against the coronavirus disease by early next year. “We’re expecting that early next year we should have vaccine in the country from maybe more than one source. Our expert groups are formulating strategies to plan on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.
• WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan also said that a vaccine against the disease will be ready for registration by the end of 2020 or early next year at the earliest.
• About 40 vaccine candidates are now in some stage of clinical trials, and 10 of them are in late-stage phase three trials, which will tell us about both the efficacy and the safety, Swaminathan said.
