COVID-19 update

As of Dec. 7, active COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in 191 countries and territories, with more than 67 million cases and, resulting from those, more than 1.5 million deaths. The country with the most confirmed cases was the US, with 14.8 million. It was followed by India (9.7 million), Brazil (6.6 million) and Russia (2.5 million). At least 14 countries had recorded more than 1 million cases each at press time.

Also at press time, three vaccines had been shown to be effective and, from the data gathered so far, safe. At least one of the vaccines was anticipated to be available to the American public by late December.