In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, and people spent a special year in “lockdown” and wearing masks. In a blink of an eye, it’s 2021, but the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread.
According to the statistics released by Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as of 16:22 Beijing time on January 14, the cumulative number of confirmed cases worldwide has reached 923,33934, about to exceed 100 million.
Among them, the United States has the largest number of confirmed cases and deaths, with more than 23 million confirmed cases and more than 380,000 deaths in the country.
It is worth noting that two new varieties of the novel coronavirus have also appeared, the first of which were discovered in the United Kingdom and South Africa.
On January 9th local time, the Japanese government found a third variant of COVID-19 among tourists arriving in Brazil, which may affect the immune response, but further research is needed.
Through the following three data, we may be able to better understand the current situation of the global pandemic.
The cumulative number of confirmed cases in the United States exceeds 23 million, ranking first in the world.
According to CNN, since entering 2021, the number of new confirmed cases in the United States in a single day has been constantly updated. In the first 13 days of this year alone, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the United States has exceeded 3 million.
The rise in confirmed cases has led to an increase in the number of hospitalized patients. So far, 131,300 patients in the U.S. are being treated in hospitals, and hospitals in some areas are about to reach saturation, according to the Coronavirus Tracking Project.
In Arizona, for example, the state reported a record of 5,082 inpatients and at least 1,180 people were treated in intensive care units on January 12, which also broke the previous record.
The coronavirus pandemic is now “deadly fast” than ever before, CNN notes.
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University, on January 12, local time, 4,327 new deaths occurred in the United States, breaking the previous single-day record and becoming the “deadliest day” since the outbreak of the pandemic in the United States.
The average number of deaths in the United States has exceeded 3,300 in the past seven days, an increase of 217% compared with mid-November 2020.
Public health experts say it is “not surprising” to see record levels of new deaths in a single day.
The number of deaths will rise due to the rise of people gathering with family and friends before and after the Christmas holiday, resulting in the rise in confirmed cases and the number of hospitalizations.
According to the Washington Post, on January 6 local time, riots in the U.S. Capitol aroused public health experts’ concerns and warned that there might be a “super-spreading incident”.
Scott Gottlieb, the former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said in an interview, “The large-scale rally will create opportunities for the spread of the virus. However, these demonstrators did not listen to us on wearing masks and other pandemic prevention issues.”
Variant COVID-19 has spread to at least 70 countries and regions
According to the World Health Organization, as of January 13 local time, the first variant novel coronavirus found in the United Kingdom has spread to 50 countries and regions, and new variants found in South Africa have also appeared in 20 countries and regions.
On 14 December 2020, the United Kingdom reported to the WHO a variant novel coronavirus called B.1.1.7.
At present, there is no research that this new variant will cause more serious diseases, but by testing this variant, its transmission capacity is about 70% higher than that of the original strain.
In the following days, another variant virus, known as 501Y.V2, was discovered in South Africa on December 18.
South Africa’s health minister has revealed that the spread rate and infectivity of newly discovered variant COVID-19 have increased significantly.
According to the World Health Organization, “Current survey suggests that the 501Y.V2 variant may be more easily transmitted than the novel coronavirus that previously circulated in South Africa, and while the new variant does not seem to cause more serious disease, the number of new confirmed cases puts pressure on the local health system.”
On January 9th local time, the Japanese government said that a third variant of the novel coronavirus had been found among four passengers entering Brazil.
WHO pointed out that the variant novel coronavirus found in Japan has 12 mutations to spiny protein, including several worrying mutations, which may affect immune response and transmission, but further research is needed.
In addition, Brazilian researchers have found similar variant COVID-19 in China, which may have evolved independently from the variant COVID-19 found in Japan.
According to AFP, on January 12, local time, WHO held a meeting with the participation of 1,750 international scientists, which mainly discussed key theoretical differences of COVID-19 and research priorities for variants of COVID-19.
“Our common goal is to establish a global mechanism to quickly identify and study the various variants of concern and understand their potential impact on disease control efforts,” said Anna Maria Hanoi Restrepo, head of the WHO’s R&D Blueprints project.
At least six vaccines are put into use worldwide.
According to incomplete statistics from the Beijing News reporter, up to now, at least six vaccines have been put into use in the world, namely, the inactivated vaccine of China National Pharmaceutical Group, the Klaifu coronavirus vaccine developed by China Beijing Kexing Zhongwei Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and the cooperation of Pfizer Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and German Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
Vaccines, the American biotechnology company Modner vaccine, the “Sputnik V” vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Russia, and the vaccine of Oxford University in the United Kingdom and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in cooperation.
According to the Associated Press, on January 13 local time, the Turkish government approved the emergency use of Kochen vaccine, paving the way for the country’s vaccination plan.
At a press conference on the same day, Fahrettin Koca, the Turkish health minister, became the first person to be vaccinated against Kocchen. At a press conference on that day, Koca said that Turkish health workers across the country will be vaccinated against Kohchen from January 14.
Chinese national medicine vaccine has also begun to be put into use in Jordan, Seychelles and other places. On January 9th local time, the Jordanian Food and Drug Administration announced that it was authorized to use Chinese national medicine vaccines urgently. S
o far, Jordanian Prime Minister Al-Khassone and several ministers have been vaccinated against national drugs, and the national vaccination plan will be launched on January 13 local time.
According to the BBC, on December 8th local time, the United Kingdom launched a large-scale vaccination program, the first to be put into use in the UK is Pfizer vaccine.
So far, more than 1 million people in the UK have been vaccinated against the vaccine. Since then, the European Union has also ordered 300 million doses of vaccine, and dozens of countries such as Belgium, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic and so on have begun to vaccinate Pfizer.
A vaccine developed by Modner is in use.
On December 22, 2020, about 5.9 million doses of Modna vaccine have been distributed throughout the United States after the public vaccination of American infectious disease scientist Anthony Fauci and Alex Aza, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Alex Aza. . At present, the United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union have approved the use of Modena vaccine.
The Russian government said that the country has been vaccinated against the population against “Sputnik V” since September 2020. According to the Moscow Times, the “Sputnik V” vaccine has been approved in Palestine, Algeria and other countries.
On January 5th local time, the United Kingdom began to launch a vaccine in cooperation between Oxford University and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. The BBC reported that the vaccine is 70% effective and can respond to the elderly.
At present, the UK has ordered 100 million doses of vaccine.
What pandemics have occurred in history?
On March 11, 2020, local time, WHO Director-General Tedros Tedros said in Geneva, Switzerland, that the COVID-19 pandemic has the characteristics of a global pandemic.
According to the World Health Organization, a pandemic is the spread of a new disease around the world. When a new virus appears and spreads worldwide and most people are immune, it causes a pandemic. The virus that caused the pandemic in the past usually originated from animal influenza viruses.
In some ways, pandemics may look similar to seasonal flu, but some characteristics may be completely different. For example, pandemics can produce some severe patients, because for seasonal influenza, the number of people who have immunity may be higher.
In human history, the Black Death is considered the “greatest disaster”. According to the Washington Post, the Black Death is a severe infectious disease mainly transmitted by Yersinia pestis with fleas. Between 1347 and 1352, the disease swept across Eurasia and North Africa, killing about 75 million to 200 million people.
Oslo historian Benedicto argues that as the continent continues to expand, freight routes are almost spread throughout Europe, tying “the world’s population together”, which is also the “golden age” of disease transmission.
According to the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the worst pandemic in modern history was the 1918 flu, which was caused by the H1N1 virus with poultry genes.
However, as of now, the origin of the virus has not been known, but between 1918 and 1919, the virus spread around the world, with about 500 million people, or one third of the world’s population, infected the virus, and the death toll was at least 50 million.
