COVID-19 update

At press time, active COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in 191 countries and territories, with more than 83 million cases and, resulting from those, more than 1.8 million deaths. The country with the most confirmed cases was the US, with 19.9 million. It was followed by India (10.3 million), Brazil (7.6 million) and Russia (3.1 million). At least 18 countries had each recorded more than 1 million cases.

On Dec. 29, Russia’s deputy prime minister revealed that the country had likely undercounted COVID deaths, and the likely number was three times the official count. If correct, this would mean that Russia had had about 186,000 deaths, third in the world after the US and Brazil.

On Dec. 22, it was reported that 36 personnel at a Chilean research base in Antarctica had tested positive for COVID-19, meaning that the virus has now been found on every continent.

A mutated strain of COVID-19 was identified in the UK in October, quickly becoming the dominant strain in some parts of the country. The mutated virus was also found in 32 other countries, including the US.

Initial laboratory work indicated that the new strain may be more transmissible than COVID-19, but whether that is true and whether the new strain is resistant to current vaccines had not yet been determined. Due to concern over the spread of the mutated virus, some countries enacted strict bans on travelers from the UK.

Another new strain of the coronavirus was identified in Nigeria. At press time, little information was available about it.