The Unisphere, a spherical stainless steel representation of Earth in Flushing Meadow built for the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 955th day of the pandemic.
In news we cover today, a surge in cases in Hong Kong may result in a cut in emergency services, residents of four of the five boroughs of New York City were told to mask up amidst high transmission rates of Covid, and the Chinese capital is telling residents to stay home as Covid cases surge there.
UNITED STATES
In New York, four counties are now in zones where high coronavirus transmission levels have been reported, resulting in a CDC to don masks indoors and in crowded spaces. The four counties are Bronx; Kings, which is the borough of Brooklyn; Richmond, which is the borough of Staten Island; and Queens
The athletic departments from Iowa’s public universities spent over a combined $7.3 million administering coronavirus tests and taking other pandemic-related precautions and measures since the start of the pandemic. The expenses were covered by a combination of university budgets, athletics revenue, and federal aid.
GLOBAL
The head of Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority, Dr Tony Ko Pat-sing, warned on Saturday that a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases has put the city on the verge of cutting non-emergency services to meet increasing demand from patients infected with the virus.
Officials in Chaoyang, Beijing’s largest district, who had urged residents to stay home during the weekend as Covid outbreaks grew in numerous Chinese districts, now urged them to stay home Monday as well. Chaoyang is one of the hardest hit areas in China at the present time.
ENTERTAINMENT
Performances have been suspended at the historic Jixiang Theater, one of Beijing’s oldest and most renowned theaters, as part of a new wave closures in response to a spike in coronavirus cases in the Chinese capital. The Jixiang Theater was originally built in 1906 and recently moved to its current location in a shopping mall. It is known for performances of Peking opera and other traditional art forms.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, November 20.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 643 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.3 million cases, and 6.62 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 622.2 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.3 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday at press time is 14,215,329, an increase of 49,000. Out of that figure, 99.7%, or 14,179,183, are considered mild, and 0.3%, or 36,146, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.
The United States reported 3,497 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 52,365 on Saturday, 71,311 on Friday, 85,283 on Thursday, 55,368 on Wednesday, and 50,025 on Tuesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 44,240. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 41,767, anincrease of 4% averaged over the past 14 days, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 286, a decrease of 11% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 27,868, an increase of 2%.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded over 100.1 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.1 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, almost 44.7 million, and a reported death toll of 530,574.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 37.3 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 36.2 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 688,994, has recorded 35.1million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with over 26.5 million cases, Italy with 24 million, placing it in the number seven slot, and the United Kingdom, with just under 24 million cases, as number eight, as well as Japan, with 23.8 million, and Russia, with 21.5 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Thursday, 267.5 million people in the United States – or 80.6% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 68.7%, or 228.1 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 650.8 million. Breaking this down further, 91.6% of the population over the age of 18 – or 236.4 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 78.5% of the same group – or 202.7 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 13.1% of the same population, or 33.8 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursday by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 68.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.96 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2.46 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 24.4% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
