Global COVID Rise Continues; 50 Nations Report B117 Variant
In an announcement yesterday, PAHO said it had raised $263 million to battle the virus in the Americas region, which is earmarked for technical support and supplies, including personal protective equipment and test kits.
In other Americas developments, Cuba’s cases are surging, with record daily case numbers, and the country has shuttered schools in 34 cities, including much of Havana, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, researchers from Brazil who conducted a phase 3 trials of the CoronaVac vaccine from China-based Sinovac reported an overall efficacy of 50.38%, much lower than 78% in previous trials, according to CNN. The vaccine, based on an inactivated virus, was studied in 12,500 participants from Brazil, and last week, researchers had issued higher efficacy findings based on partial results.
The efficacy, much lower than other COVID-19 vaccines, adds another complicated wrinkle to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines internationally, given that at least 10 countries have ordered about 380 million doses of CoronaVac, according to the New York Times.
Signs of Declining U.K. Cases
The United Kingdom, the hardest-hit country in the region’s third surge, is seeing promising signs of declining cases following a return to lockdown, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday, though he warned that it’s still too early to draw conclusions, according to Reuters.
He added that the effects aren’t yet seen in all the countries and that tougher measures might be needed in the weeks ahead to control the spread of the virus, which has been dominated by the B117 variant.
In the wake of the UK’s spike, more countries in Europe are now reporting surges and stepping up their measures. Spain yesterday reported a new record daily high of 38,869 cases, according to Reuters, which said in a separate report that three more regions—Galicia, La Rioja, and Cantabria—have now tightened their restrictions, bringing the country’s total to five that have recently upped their measures.
Elsewhere, Switzerland yesterday announced that it boosted its COVID-19 restrictions, aimed at slowing the spread of new variants, though it stopped short of ordering a full lockdown. And in Italy, the health minister yesterday announced that a state of emergency will be extended until the end of April.
In other global headlines:
- China yesterday reported 115 new cases, including 107 local infections, the highest since Jul 30, according to the country’s National Health Commission. Of the newest local cases, 90 are from Hebei province, where three cities are on lockdown, and 16 are from Heilongjiang province, where a state of emergency has been declared for the city of Suihua and the city of Tieli has been sealed off, according to Reuters.
- The global total yesterday passed 92 million cases and is now at 92,111,432, with 1,973,059 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard.
Lisa Schnirring is news editor at CIDRAP. This article is published courtesy of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy (CIDRAP).
