The epidemiological picture in Latin American countries is bad while the vaccination of the population continues. Vaccines from different companies and countries around the world are providing or trying to provide vaccines to immunize as many people as possible. The new strain of the coronavirus, which was detected in Britain, is spreading in Europe.
NORTHERN MACEDONIA
The Ministry of Health of Northern Macedonia confirmed yesterday Wednesday that the first case of the SARS-CoV-2 variant strain was diagnosed for the first time in the United Kingdom and is considered even more contagious. The case is 46-year-old from Skopje, who, as he stated, had very limited contacts lately and did not travel abroad recently. In the Balkan country of two million inhabitants, 91,555 cases of the new coronavirus have been recorded so far, while 2,821 people have died from complications of COVID-19, the disease that causes it. In Northern Macedonia, the immunization of the population has not started yet, as the country has not received any batch of vaccines so far, due to the delays observed in the deliveries by the pharmaceutical companies that produce them. The country expects to receive 833,000 doses of the new coronavirus vaccine through the COVAX mechanism, which is led by the World Health Organization and aims to boost immunization in poorer nations.
India's federal health ministry said Thursday that 11,666 cases of SARS-CoV-2 had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people infected with the new coronavirus in the country to 10,701,193.
At the same time, another 123 patients with COVID-19 succumbed, bringing the death toll from the pandemic to 153,847. Active cases fell to 173,740, according to official figures, while 10,373,606 people are said to have recovered.
The population immunization campaign started in India on January 16th. More than 2.3 million people have been vaccinated by this stage, most of them members of the medical and nursing staff.
The Brazilian Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that 63,520 cases of SARS-CoV-2 had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, while another 1,283 patients with COVID-19 had died. The pandemic of the new coronavirus in the largest country in Latin America has reached this stage 220,161 deaths out of a total of 8,996,876 infections since February 26, 2020, according to official data. Brazil, the country ranked second in the world in terms of the number of pandemic victims and third in terms of the number of infections, in absolute terms, has recently been faced with the selected second wave of the pandemic. A mass immunization campaign was launched last week, but it faces several obstacles, most notably the lack of sufficient doses of approved vaccines.
The Mexican Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that another 1,623 patients with COVID-19 had died in the past 24 hours, while 17,944 cases of SARS-CoV-2 had been confirmed. The new coronavirus pandemic in the country has reached this stage with 153,639 deaths out of a total of 1,806,849 infections, based on official data. Mexico has the fourth worst pandemic death toll in the world. Only the United States, Brazil and India – countries with much larger populations than Mexico (126 million) – have reported higher death rates so far. The country is going to overtake India and find itself in third place in the macabre world ranking.
This is while top officials of the Ministry of Health acknowledge that the numbers of deaths and cases are in fact probably much higher than those that are officially announced. The Mexican National Institute of Statistics (INEGI) announced earlier yesterday that COVID-19 mortality in the country by August 2020 was actually 68% higher than the one announced by the government, it had already reached 108,658 deaths, when the government put the death toll at 64,414.
Meanwhile, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced yesterday that doses of the vaccine candidate of the German biotechnology laboratory CureVac had arrived in the country for a third phase clinical trial. Authorities are asking for 8,000 volunteers to take part.
The American pharmaceutical company Novavax has also started a third phase clinical trial of its own preparation in Mexico, while announcements from the Canadian-Chinese CanSino Biologics Inc. are expected soon for the results of its own.
The country launched an immunization campaign on December 24th, but was slowed by the lack of sufficient doses of approved vaccines for the new coronavirus.
The Chilean Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that 3,371 cases of SARS-CoV-2 had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, while another 17 patients with COVID-19 had died during the same period. The coronavirus pandemic in Latin America has so far reached 18,040 deaths out of a total of 709,888 infections since March, when the first case was detected in its territory.
Health Minister Enrique Paris, however, noted that five regions had seen a drop in cases in the past week. Regarding the population immunization campaign, the health authorities stated yesterday that 56,759 people have received the first vaccine, while 10,315 of them have received the second.
The supervisory body also yesterday gave permission for the use of the vaccine developed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in collaboration with the University of Oxford. Undersecretary of Health Paula Dasha spoke of “very good news”. This is the third vaccine to be approved for emergency use, after Pfizer / BioNTech (USA / Germany) and Sinovac (China). The government in Santiago plans mass vaccinations to begin in the first week of February.
Bolivia will receive the first batch of Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the new coronavirus on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry announced in La Paz on Wednesday. An Aerolineas Argentinas aircraft carrying the third batch of vaccines to Argentina departed from Moscow on Tuesday. According to the Bolivian government, it was also loaded with installments to be delivered to La Paz. “In Buenos Aires, the consignment will be loaded on a Boliviana de Aviacion aircraft bound for the Bolivian capital,” he said.
The Philippine Food and Drug Administration today approved the urgent use of the new coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc in collaboration with the University of Oxford. This is the second vaccine to provide green light in the country of Southeast Asia. The known and potential benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine were considered to outweigh the potential risks, Rolando Enrique Domingo, head of the supervisory body, told a news conference. The agency has already approved the urgent use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. With nearly 10,400 dead from COVID-19 out of a total of about 516,000 cases, the Philippines is one of the Asian countries hardest hit by the pandemic.
The lowest number of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 on a daily basis in mainland China in the last almost three weeks – 54 cases compared to the previous 75 – was announced today by the Chinese Ministry of Health, indicating that the strict restrictive measures imposed to control the recent increase in infections from the new coronavirus gradually bring effect. This is the lowest number of cases reported since January 8, when 33 were reported. According to the ministry, 41 of the cases were due to transmission to the community. China hospitals are treating 1,820 patients with COVID-19 (-42 compared to the previous year), of which 105 in serious to critical condition (-6).
The Cuban Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that the number of COVID-19 patients who died in January had risen to 58, which means that the new coronavirus pandemic this month is the heaviest since the outbreak. in the territory of the Caribbean country. According to the Ministry of Health, the number of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the past 24 hours rose to 825, which is a record on a daily basis, as well as that of cases where infections were due to transmission to the community (801) . The new coronavirus is spreading rapidly “in all the provinces and in all the municipalities of the country, therefore the protocols and measures to deal with the pandemic will be adapted”, underlined the chief epidemiologist of the Cuban Ministry of Health, Francisco Duran. As of this stage, the pandemic on the island has reached 204 deaths out of a total of 23,439 infections.
