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 How COVID-19 is affecting the globe

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now passed 104.3 million globally, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 2.26 million.

A German military plane carrying over 20 doctors and nurses, plus equipment, has arrived in Portugal, to help the country tackle a sharp rise in cases.

Britain has launched a trial to assess the immune responses generated if doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines are combined in a two-shot schedule.

More than 500 tennis players and officials have been ordered into isolation in Melbourne after a worker at a quarantine hotel tested positive for the virus.

New U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said he is ‘deeply optimistic’ about the future of travel, despite the impact of the pandemic.

The Democrats, under new US President Joe Biden, are pushing ahead with a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, without Republican support.

South Korea is set to revamp its social distancing guidelines, after criticism for imposing restrictions and curfews on specific businesses.

A new Ipsos survey shows how shopping and eating out has changed during the pandemic. Shopping online has risen, eating out has fallen, but buying locally remains largely unchanged.

More people vaccinated than infected

New data suggests that more people have now been vaccinated against COVID-19 than have been infected by the virus.

The data, released yesterday, shows that a total of 104.9 million vaccine doses have been administered, according to University of Oxford-based Our World in Data here and the latest data on Wednesday from the U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here. The total vaccinated now exceeds the 104.1 million COVID-19 cases of infection in a Reuters global tracker here.

Despite the milestone, many people have only received the first of two necessary doses. Cases also continue to rise in many countries, with more than 2.2 million deaths now recorded.

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine 92 percent effective

Scientists have given Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine the green light. It’s almost 92% effective in fighting COVID-19, according to peer-reviewed late-stage trial results published in The Lancet.

Russia approved the vaccine in August, before the large-scale trial had begun.

“The development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticised for unseemly haste, corner cutting, and an absence of transparency,” said Ian Jones, professor at the University of Reading, and Polly Roy, professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

“But the outcome reported here is clear and the scientific principle of vaccination is demonstrated,” the scientists, who were not involved in the study, said in a comment shared by The Lancet. “Another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of COVID-19.” 

 Two million Australians enter lockdown

A five-day lockdown is in progress in Perth, capital of Western Australia, after the discovery of one case in the community.

Authorities ordered a full lockdown after a security guard at a hotel used to quarantine people returning from overseas was found to have to contracted the virus. Authorities also moved to test and isolate close contacts of the guard.

“In total 13 close contacts have now tested negative and of those 11 high-risk contacts have been moved into hotel quarantine as an extra precaution,” Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan told reporters in Perth.

Australia has limited cases to less than 29,000 and deaths to less than 1,000 through measures like this and strict border controls.- Extracted from the Word Economic Forum