Covid-19 Numbers

The consortium of Brazilian media companies, compiling data from state health authorities, announced Wednesday the country had 1,283 new deaths and 61,966 positive diagnoses for the new coronavirus, bringing the total number of infected to 8,257,459 since the beginning of the pandemic.

1,564 deaths were recorded across the United Kingdom on Wednesday 13th January - a record high bringing the total to 101,160.

After President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths of the "China Virus is far exaggerated" because of the CDC's "ridiculous method of determination", US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams responded that there was "no reason to doubt" the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's statistics.

"From a public health perspective, I have no reason to doubt those numbers," Adams said in an interview with CNN. "And I think people need to be very aware that it's not just about the deaths, as we talked about earlier. It's about the hospitalizations, the capacity. These cases are having an impact in an array of ways and people need to understand there's a finish line in sight, but we've got to keep running toward it."

South Africa has surpassed 1 million cases of the Coronavirus. The new and more contagious strain 501.V2 is spreading more dominantly in many areas of the resurgence, experts say.

“We are not helpless in the face of this variant,” infectious disease specialist, Dr Richard Lessells told Associated Press. “We can change our behaviour to give the virus less opportunities to spread.”

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases has surpassed 80 million infections worldwide on Saturday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. At least 1,753,313 people have died from the novel coronavirus globally. The highest infections have been recorded in the United States, India, Brazil and Russia.

Antarctica has recorded its first cases of Covid-19 after 36 people got infected with the virus at a Chilean General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme research base. Antarctica had previously been the only continent free of Covid-19.

Among those infected are 26 members of the Chilean army and 10 maintenance workers. They have been evacuated to Punta Arena, Chile and are currently in quarantine and in reportedly good conditions.

"Thanks to the timely preventive action … it was possible to relieve said personnel, who, after being subjected to a medical control and the administration of a PCR test ... turned out to be positive for Covid-19," the Chilean army said in a statement.

Taiwan has recorded its first locally transmitted Covid-19 case since April 12. The infected person is a woman in her 30s who was infected after having contact with a foreign pilot, so the country's health ministry on Tuesday. The island has recorded a total of 770 cases.

The Robert-Koch-Institut (RKI) has recorded 33,777 new Covid-19 infections and 813 new deaths in Germany over the past 24 hour-period. Germany's seven-day incidence has increased to 184,4. The Charité hospital in Berlin has switched to an "emergency-only program" on Monday due to the rising number of infections.

Sweden's independent Covid-19 commission states that the nation has partly failed to protect its elderly citizens as elderly care has major structural shortcomings. Mats Melin, the commission president, said Sweden was ill-equipped to handle the pandemic and measures were taken too late and were insufficient.

Sweden has reported a total of 341,029 infections so far and has seen a surge in new cases over the past few weeks. Prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said that health officials misjudged the virus's resurgence and " that most people in the profession didn’t see such a wave in front of them; they talked about different clusters."

Germany is entering a strict lockdown on Wednesday as it reports its highest daily death count. 952 people have died of a Covid-19 infection over the past 24 hours, bringing the total death count to 23,427.

From today on until January 10th non-essential businesses will remain closed, including restaurants, museums and beauty salons.

With almost a daily record-breaking peace, on Sunday reached a new record of positive covid cases in a single day, counting 339 of a total number of 7.362 tests, 258 cases of which were placed in Montevideo, and a total number of 26 patients in ICU.

The Brazilian Health Ministry announced Sunday its daily Covid-19 report with 26,363 new cases and 313 deaths.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, Brazil accounted for 6,603,540 infected with a death toll of 176,941.

The United States reported over 200,000 new Covid-19 cases nationwide on Wednesday and logged its highest daily death count with 3,157 fatalities. The number of people admitted to the hospital has surpassed 100,000 for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

A hotel worker in Sydney has tested positive for coronavirus. She was employed by two hotels in Darling Harbour, one of which is a quarantine hotel for returned international travellers.

It is the first case of COVID-19 in the state for 26 days.

New South Wales Health is asking anyone who worked at the hotels on these dates to get tested and self-isolate.

It is unclear how other states will respond to the announcement, with New South Wales open to all states besides Western Australia, which was due to ease restrictions on the 8th of December.

According to the official numbers released on Friday, the United Kingdom recorded 16,022 new Covid-19 cases and 521 deaths within 28 days of a positive test for the virus.

The Italian Health Ministry reported 827 Covid 19-related deaths and 28,352 new infections in the country. Italy was the first Western country to be hit by the virus and has seen 53,677 COVID-19 fatalities since its outbreak emerged in February, the second-highest toll in Europe after Great Britain.

While Italy's daily death tolls have been amongst the highest in Europe over recent days, the rise in hospital admissions and intensive care occupancy has slowed, suggesting the latest wave of infections was receding. The northern region of Lombardy, centred on Italy's financial capital Milan, remained the hardest hit area on Friday, reporting 5,389 new cases from a previous 5,697.

It has been 28 days since Victoria, Australia last recorded a local case of COVID-19 - classified by epidemiologists as the virus being eliminated.

"That is something all Victorians should be fundamentally proud of," said Premier Daniel Andrews, after the state's residents endured 112 days of lockdown.

The state also has no local cases currently.

At the peak of its second wave in August, Victoria was recording up to 687 cases a day.

The number of patients treated in intensive care units in Germany for Covid-19 has reached the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic. In Germany, health authorities have reported 410 new coronavirus-related deaths to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) within 24 hours. The total number of deaths rose to 14,771, with the highest level ever reached in mid-April with 315 reported deaths within one day.

Chinese authorities have ordered mass testing of millions of people in three different cities across the country after multiple locally transmitted Covid-19 cases were discovered. New waves of infections are currently happening in Tianjin, Shanghai and Manzhouli.

David Nabarro, a World Health Organization special Coronavirus envoy, has told the Swiss newspaper Solothurner Zeitung that Europe could face a third wave next year if governments "don’t build the necessary infrastructure."

He praised Asian countries such as South Korea: “People are fully engaged, they take on behaviors that make it difficult for the virus. They keep their distance, wear masks, isolate when they’re sick, wash hands and surfaces. They protect the most endangered groups.”

“Another element that is very clear in East Asia is that once you have brought down the case numbers … you don’t relax the measures,” he said. “You wait until the case numbers are low and stay low. You have to prepare the necessary measures to stop future outbreaks.”