Global Covid-19 Cases Surpass 40 Million As Countries Strive To Survive

By Nsunjo Erica

According to current data compiled by the CSSE at Johns Hopkins University, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the globe exceeded 40 million on Monday morning.

The data also shows that globally, more than 1.1 million have been confirmed to have succumbed to the virus although experts still believe that number is an undercount, there is more.

Johns Hopkins University, which collates COVID-19 reports from around the world, has recorded 40,076,184 confirmed cases of the virus.

A Reutter’s tally shows that there was an average of around 347,000 cases each day over the past week, compared with 292,000 in the first week of October.

The United States, India, and Brazil remain the worst affected countries in the world. COVID-19 cases in North, Central, and South America represent about 47.27% or nearly half of global cases.

The U.S. alone leads the world with over 8 million confirmed cases, with nearly 220,000 deaths. Following is India and Brazil have with 7.6 million and 5.2 million cases and around 150,000 and 115,000 deaths respectively.

New cases are growing at over 150,000 a day in Europe, as many countries including Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic have reported record daily increases in the number of COVID-19 infections.

Europe currently accounts for over 17% of the global cases and nearly 22% of the deaths related to the virus worldwide.

Experts still warn that the actual worldwide number of COVID-19 cases is still not very clear, they believe there is an undercount especially from nations with less testing capacity.

An official at the World Health Organization has said the global death toll from COVID-19 could double to 2 million before a successful vaccine is widely used and could be even higher without concerted action to curb the pandemic.

Current Update On COVID-19 Vaccine

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Covid-19 vaccine may be ready by the end of this year, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

According to WHO Director-General, nine experimental vaccines are in the pipeline of the WHO-led COVAX global vaccine facility that aims to distribute two million doses by the end of 2021.

So far, some 168 countries have joined the COVAX facility but neither China, the United States nor Russia are among them. The Trump admiration has said it is relying instead on bilateral deals to secure supplies from vaccine makers.

Previously, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that over 8,000 Boeing 747s will be needed to ship a COVID-19 vaccine around the World and that this will be the “largest transport challenge ever”