Coronavirus cases top 80 million worldwide
Medical staff members carry a patient into the Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan, China. File/AFP
Gulf Today Report
More than 80 million people have been reported to infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1.76 million deaths.
According to AFP tally based on official figures at 0800 GMT on Sunday mentioned that, in total, 80,145,185 cases and 1,756,060 deaths have been recorded.
Last week, an average of 580,000 new cases were registered every day.
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Europe launches coronavirus vaccine roll-out
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
Europe launched a cross-border vaccination programme of unprecedented scale on Sunday as part of efforts to end a COVID-19 pandemic that has crippled economies and claimed more than 1.7 million lives around the world.
Medical workers take in patients outside of a special coronavirus intake area in the Borough Park, New York. File/AFP
The region of 450 million people has secured contracts with a range of suppliers for over two billion vaccine doses and has set a goal for all adults to be inoculated during 2021.
Countries including France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Spain are planning to begin mass vaccinations, starting with health workers on Sunday. Outside the EU, Britain, Switzerland and Serbia have already started in recent weeks.
The distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot presents tough challenges, according to Reuters, as the vaccine uses new mRNA technology and must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of around -80 degrees Celsius (-112 F).
Europe is the world's hardest-hit region, passing the 25-million-case mark on Friday and with 546,000 deaths.
Nurse treats a patient suffering from the coronavirus in ICU in Sao Paulo, Brazil. File/Reuters
The individual countries with the largest number of infections are the United States with 18,945,149 cases and 331,916 deaths, India (10,169,118 cases, 147,343 deaths), Brazil (7,465,806 cases, 190,795 deaths), Russia (3,050,248 cases, 54,778 deaths) and France (2,550,864 cases, 62,573 deaths).
After Europe, the US and Canada make up the second worst-hit region with 346,636 deaths out of 19,479,293 cases.
Next on the list are Latin America and the Caribbean with 15,139,172 cases and 496,524 deaths, Asia (13,670,958 cases, 215,100 deaths), the Middle East (3,887,085 cases and 88,611 deaths), Africa (2,640,778 cases, 62,234 deaths) and Oceania (30,919 cases and 944 deaths).
