Covid-19 Pandemia: live updates and news from January 1, 2021

Photographer: Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The United States surpassed 20 million cases of Covid-19, a year after a mysterious pathogen first revealed itself in Wuhan, China. That number is almost double that of India, the second most affected country. Infections in the state of New York remained high, just below the record set on Wednesday, with the rate of positive tests in New York City rising to 10%.

The pandemic entered 2021 with no signs of slowing down. Global daily deaths reached record levels this week. Countries in Germany to From Japan to South Africa ended 2020 with record daily cases. Turkey, China and Brazil have become the last to report HIV infections. new strain of highly transmissible virus.

Vaccines remained the best hope for 2021. The World Health Organization has issued an emergency use designation for injection from Pfizer Inc., a measure that could allow more countries to import and distribute the vaccine.

Main developments:

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Turkey finds 15 cases of new variant among visitors from the United Kingdom (1:03 pm, NY)

Turkey suspended all arrivals from the UK after detecting the new variant of the Covid-19 virus among 15 people who traveled from the country, said Health Minister Fahrettin Koca.

All 15 patients have been in quarantine since they were examined and no other cases of the most infectious mutant virus have been detected in the country, Koca said in an online statement.

Turkey announced 12,203 new infections on Friday, the lowest level since at least 25 November, when the health ministry began announcing the number of all tested positive for the virus, abandoning a controversial policy of excluding asymptomatic cases .

NY cases remain almost record high (12:54 pm NY)

New York State recorded 16,497 new cases, just below the record set on Wednesday for the entire pandemic. Total hospitalizations fell slightly to 7,886, as did the overall positive test rate of 7.52%, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. Another 166 people died, the maximum in two weeks of fatality is over 100.

Danish Prime Minister defines April as a turning point in the fight against the virus (12:13 pm in NY)

Denmark is likely to reach a tipping point in the fight against the pandemic in early April, said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

“I think the worst year has passed, but we must hope that the most difficult months are still ahead of us,” said the Social Democratic Prime Minister in her New Year’s speech broadcast on Friday. She said that Easter Sunday, April 4, “will not be the end, but a turning point”, helped by vaccinations and better weather conditions.

Rate of positive tests in New York increases to 10% (11h54, NY)

New York City’s positive test rate continues to rise rapidly, reaching 9.41% based on an average of seven days, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a tweet on Friday. That figure was below 2% in November. Hospitalizations also continued to increase, with another 219 hospitalizations, he said.

“2021 is here and it will be a better year for our city – but we have to keep fighting #COVID-19,” he said.

Cases in Italy slow (11:17 am, NY)

Italy recorded 22,211 cases of the virus on Friday, compared to 23,477 the previous day. Daily deaths also declined, with 462 reported deaths, compared to 555 on Thursday.
The Italian government imposed a stop-and-go blockade across the country from December 24 to January 6, with strict restrictions on Christmas, New Year and the Epiphany holiday on January 6.

New cases in the UK remain high (11:09 am, NY)

The UK reported 53,285 new cases and 613 deaths on Friday. The last R number was estimated at 1.1 to 1.3, meaning that the virus continues to spread exponentially.

Portugal reports fewer daily cases (11:06 am, NY)

Portugal notified 6,951 new confirmed cases, below the 7,627 record announced the previous day, bringing the total to 420,629. The number of hospitalized cases dropped from 34 to 2,806.

Portugal started its vaccination program against Covid-19 on 27 December.

Philippines prohibits foreigners traveling from the US (10:57 NY)

The Philippines will ban foreign travelers from the United States until mid-January, after a third state, Florida, has reported a strain of coronavirus that is considered to be more infectious, Reuters reported.

The ban, which begins on Sunday, does not apply to Filipinos traveling from the United States, although they have to be quarantined for 14 days in a government facility, the news agency reported.

Norway will lift flight ban in the UK (6:33 am, NY)

Norway will suspend flights from the UK from 5 pm CET on 2 January, according to the country’s Ministry of Health and Care Services. Special rules on quarantine and testing for people coming from the UK will continue.

Iran reports 6,000 more infections (5:30 pm NY)

Iran reported 6,286 new cases of coronavirus and 114 deaths overnight, about 10% less than the average number of fatalities for the week. The country’s health ministry has recorded a total of 1,231,429 infections and 55,337 deaths so far.

Main cases in Russia 27,000 (17:30 HK)

Russia recorded 27,039 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 3,186 million, according to the country’s task force to combat the pandemic. Five hundred and thirty-six people died of coronavirus the previous day, bringing the death toll to 57,555.

Germany’s Merz calls for schools to reopen (4:42 pm HK)

Friedrich Merz, one of the candidates for Angela Merkel’s succession as German chancellor, said the country’s schools should be reopened as soon as possible. “What I find most worrying is not the economic damage from the blockade, but the massive damage to our children’s education,” said Funke Mediengruppe in an interview. Merz said he wants Germany’s heads of state governments to take a uniform approach when they meet in the coming days to discuss the extension of the blockade to the country, according to Funke.

BioNTech increases vaccine capacity (4:29 pm HK)

BioNTech will increase the production capacity of the vaccine it developed with Pfizer, CEO Ugur Sahin told Der Spiegel. Germany has a supply gap because some other vaccines have not yet been approved, he said. The BioNTech plant in Marburg, Germany, may be operational in February and produce up to 250 million doses in the first half, Sahin told the magazine.

South Africa breaks record of daily cases (15:40 HK)

South Africa reported a record 18,000 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, bringing the cumulative total to 1.06 million. “Previously, we warned that this second wave will make the first wave smaller and, in fact, this is the case,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement on Thursday.

“Despite performing 55,000 tests in the last 24 hours, the positivity rate is 32.5% – we continue to highlight this point because it indicates that the virus is spreading so fast that it is surpassing our ability to detect it – even with a good turnaround times. “

The number of people who died after being diagnosed with the disease increased from 436 to 28,469, the health ministry said.

The total number of confirmed cases in India reaches 10.29 million (12h25 HK)

India added more than 20,000 cases in one day, according to government data, bringing the total number of cases to 10.29 million on January 1. Coronavirus-related deaths reached 148,994.

China reported 19 new cases, while South Korea reported 1,029 new infections.

Japan’s position against the emergency appears to change (11:20 am HK)

The Tokyo metropolitan government is considering a request to the central government to declare a state of emergency, reported the national broker NHK. On Wednesday, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister responsible for responding to the coronavirus in Japan, said the country could consider an emergency if infections continue at the current rate.

Australia’s cases show signs of easing (9 am HK)

Australians received positive news on New Year’s Day with few new cases of coronavirus recorded the day before, bringing hope that the clusters in Sydney and Melbourne were controlled. Three new cases were reported overnight in Sydney, in the west of the city, Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian of the state of New South Wales told reporters on Friday. Meanwhile, authorities in the neighboring state of Victoria did not register any new cases overnight, after eight new infections were detected on Thursday.

Wisconsin hospital worker arrested for spoiled vaccines: AP (8:54 am HK)