Bloomberg
London, Jan 1: One year after a mysterious pathogen first revealed itself in Wuhan, China, the Covid-19 pandemic enters 2021 with no signs of slowing down. Global daily deaths reached record highs this week, while U.S. infections approached 20 million, almost twice as many as second-worst hit country India.
Countries from Japan to South Africa ended 2020 with record daily cases. In the U.S., New York state and Florida shattered their previous case records, while Texas saw a new high for hospitalizations. The U.S. added 227,616 cases on Dec. 31. China and Brazil became the latest to report infections of the new, highly transmissible virus strain.
Vaccines remained the best hope for 2021. The World Health Organization issued an emergency-use designation for Pfizer Inc.’s shot, a move that could allow more countries to import and distribute the vaccine. Singapore tightened restrictions on travelers from South Africa.
South Africa Breaks Record for Daily Cases (3:40 p.m. 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 dwarf the first wave and indeed this is the case,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement late Thursday.
“Despite performing of 55,000 tests in the past 24 hours, the positivity rate is 32.5% — we keep highlighting this point because this indicates that the virus is spreading so fast that it is outpacing our ability to detect it — even with good turnaround times.”
The number of people who’ve died after being diagnosed with the disease rose by 436 to 28,469, the health ministry said.
India’s Total Confirmed Cases Reach 10.29 Million (12:25 p.m. HK)
India added over 20,000 cases in a day, according to government data, bringing the total case load to 10.29 million as of Jan. 1. Coronavirus related deaths have reached 148,994.
China reported 19 new cases while South Korea reported 1,029 new infections.
Japan’s Stance Against Emergency Appears to Shift (11:20 a.m. HK)
Tokyo’s metropolitan government is considering a request to the central government to declare a state of emergency, national broadaster NHK reported. On Wednesday, Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of Japan’s coronavirus response, said the country could consider an emergency if infections continue at the current rate.