Travelers using kiosks to enter Canada
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 997th day of the pandemic.
People in countries across the globe celebrated the first pandemic New Year with relatively few restrictions in place. Many groups of families and friends gathered for such festivities the first time in three years, after dozens of muted or cancelled events.
Cities across Europe, Africa and Asia have also held firework-filled festivities marking the start of 2023, and in the United States, the focus was on the midnight ball drop in Times Square.
Meanwhile, in China, huge crowds gathered to celebrate the holiday as well as take advantage of recently-lifted “zero-Covid” restrictions.
With holiday gatherings and festivities in high gear, concerns over the virus appear to have taken a backseat in many people’s minds. But the coronavirus continued to spread in 2022 across the globe: Throughout most of the year, the average daily death toll continued to remain above 400 and new infections hospitalizations climbed dramatically as the year drew to a close to the point where the current positivity rate is now 15%.
In other news we cover today, Canada will require negative Covid tests from Chinese travelers, revelers returned to Times Square for New Year’s Eve, and Taiwan offered assistance to China in combatting its current surge in infections.
UNITED STATES
In New York City, New Year’s Eve celebrations and returned after two years of scaled-back festivities and vaccination mandates to enter the area around Times Square.
GLOBAL
Officials in Taiwan said they are willing to offer help to China to deal with the recent surge in SARS-CoV-2 cases.
“Based on humanitarian needs, we are willing to provide necessary assistance [to China] as needed, so that more people can put the pandemic behind and have a healthy and peaceful new year,” Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in her new year’s remarks on Sunday. She did not, however, provide details of what form the assistance would take.
TRAVEL
Canada on Saturday became the latest country to say it will require travelers on Canadian-bound flights departing China to test negative for SARS-CoV-2. The move came one day after England took similar steps, after the United States, India, and Italy became the first to require proof of negative status.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, January 1.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 665 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.3 million cases, and 6.7 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 636.9 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.2 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday at press time is 21,382,305, an increase of 11,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 21,341,590, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 40,715, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.
The United States reported 5,522 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 33,191 on Saturday, 115,787 on Friday, 122,934 on Thursday, and 75,769 on Wednesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 52,767. 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 58,604, a decrease of 11% 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 317, a decrease of -22% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 43,547, an increase of 6%. In addition, the number of patients in ICUs was 5,253, an increase of 11% and the test positivity rate continues to stand at 15%, an 18% increase.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Friday, recorded 102.5 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of over 1.1 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, just under 44.7 million, and a reported death toll of 530,705.
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 39.3 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 37.4 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 693,941, has recorded 36.4 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are Japan, with 29.3 million cases, South Korea, with 29.1 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 25.1 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.1 million, and Russia, with 21.8 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Thursday, 268.4 million people in the United States – or 80.8% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69%, or 229.9 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 663.8 million. Breaking this down further, 91.8% of the population over the age of 18 – or 236.9 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 78.7% of the same group – or 203.3 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 17.3% of the same population, or over 44.7 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 Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 69.1% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Friday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.17 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 3.12 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 25.9% 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)
