These 10 countries are recording highest daily Covid-19 cases

With the advent of vaccines and the new variant of SARS-Cov2 virus, the Covid-19 world map has shifted since the beginning of the new year. Though there has been no major change in the position of countries worst-affected and least-affected, the number of daily Covid-19 cases has brought a shift.

Here are the top 10 countries and what their vaccine situations are like

United States

The US recorded more than 235,000 new cases of coronavirus infection and 4,470 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins latest tally on Wednesday. The United States on Tuesday announced all air travellers entering the country will need a negative Covid-19 test before departure, as concerns grow over more contagious coronavirus variants. This will come to effect from January 26.

Vaccine situation: US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has said during that the US pace of inoculations has risen to 700,000 shots per day and is expected to rise to 1 million per day within a week to 10 days.

Brazil

Brazil reported 64,025 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Tuesday and 1,110 deaths. Brazil has now registered 8,195,637 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 204,690, according to ministry data, in the world's third-worst outbreak outside the United States and India.

Vaccine situation: Brazil's health regulator Anvisa said it has scheduled a meeting on Sunday to decide on the emergency use of Covid-19 vaccines developed by China's Sinovac Biotec and by AstraZeneca PLC jointly with Oxford University.

United Kingdom

The daily number of cases in the United Kingdom is hovering around 45,000, which is a sharp decline from last week's average number of 65,000. Several states have imposed restrictions on flights coming from the UK in the wake of the new strain of SARS-CoV-2, which is more contagious.

Vaccine: Britain has given 2.4 million people a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine so far.

Spain

Spain reported 25,438 new infections on Tuesday, bringing the cumulative total up to 2,137,220, while the death toll climbed by 408 to 52,683. The country is witnessing the third wave of Covid-19 at present. Between last Friday and Monday, there were 61,422 confirmed new infections.

Vaccine: On December 27, Spain started its vaccination campaign. To date, over 740,000 doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have been delivered to the country. On Tuesday, it received the first shipment of Moderna vaccines.

Russia

The country is recording a daily rise of around 23,000 Covid-19 cases in average. It has also reported the presence of the new more contagious variant. On Tuesday, it registered 22,934 Covid-19 cases.

Vaccination: Russia was the first country to come up with its Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19. The country began mass vaccinations in early December, while batches of the vaccine were sent overseas to Belarus, Serbia and Argentina. According to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which financed the development of Sputnik, more than one million people have been vaccinated in Russia.

France

On Monday, France confirmed 15,944 new Covid-19 cases, which was the lowest daily count since January 3. France's Covid-19 infections on average is increasing by more than 18,000 a day, data published on Monday showed.

Vaccination: France had recently received the first 50,000 Moderna vaccine doses, which will be deployed in areas which face a strong resurgence of the epidemic. More than 138,000 people have been vaccinated to date, including more than 30,000 in the Paris region.

France is one of the most vaccine-sceptic countries in the world, with a survey this month showing six in 10 French citizens would refuse vaccination.

Germany

On Tuesday, the country reported 12,802 new coronavirus cases and 891 fatalities, bringing Germany's total death toll since the start of the pandemic to 41,577. Germany also recorded its first case of the coronavirus variant sweeping South Africa in a member of a family that returned from a lengthy stay in the country in December.

Vaccination: The process was rolled out on December 27 but now the federal government is facing flak for not procuring an adequate number of vaccine shots. In the first two weeks of its vaccination drive, Germany has given 533,000 shots, just two-fifths of the 1.3 million doses received.

Italy

Italy reported 616 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, up from 448 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 14,242 from 12,532.

Vaccination: On December 27, Italy began the vaccination process. It had the highest number of first doses administered in the European Union, till last week. Out of over 900,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine delivered across Italy since December 27, more than 55% have already been injected.

India

On Tuesday, India reported 12,584 daily new cases which were the lowest after nearly seven months.

Vaccination: The vaccination drive will begin from January 16.

Colombia

Colombia is reporting an average of 10,000 new cases per day. It is likely to begin vaccination from February.