The total number of COVID-19 cases in the US has exceeded the threshold of 19 million people, including more than 336,100 deaths. Over the past day, the US has recorded more than 130,800 people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
According to US scientists, hundreds of people in this country may have been infected with a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the UK. To detect new viral mutations, many samples were collected from infected patients and then undergone genetic sequencing. With only a small number of viruses sequenced, the new strain may not have been reported and it was thought that it may have appeared in the US since mid-November. In addition, the constant density of people traveling between the UK and the US is also the risk of increasing the number of infections between these two countries.
At the world’s second largest epidemic in India, more than 10.1 million people were infected with COVID-19, including nearly 147,100 deaths. On December 24, India recorded more than 21,400 new cases.
In the past 24 hours, Brazil recorded more than 8,000 new infections, bringing the total number of people with COVID-19 in the country to over 7.3 million. More than 189,400 COVID-19 patients did not survive in Brazil.
Israel‘s Ministry of Health announced that the country had recorded 4 cases of infection with a new variant of the highly infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus (VUI-202012/01), discovered in the UK earlier. Of the four newly discovered cases, 3 returned from England and were quarantined at a hotel designated as COVID-19 quarantine facility. Case 4 is currently under investigation.
Singapore Ministry of Health announced, this country has recorded the first case of the new variant VUI-202012/01. Accordingly, the patient is a female student, 17 years old, who studied in the UK, entered Singapore from December 6, is isolated and gave positive results for the virus SARS-CoV-2 on December 8. The Singapore Ministry of Health said that the discovery of a new variant VUI-202012/01, also known as B117, does not mean that this variant is spreading in the community.
The National Institutes of Health named Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA) of Portugal announced that scientists have discovered 3 new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the second COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Three new variants have been discovered in all regions of Portugal and are in the “process of human adaptation”. Most likely they were the main cause of Portugal’s second outbreak.
On December 24, a spokesman for the German State Health Authority of Baden-Württemberg confirmed that a woman in the state had been infected with a new variant of the recently discovered SARS-CoV-2 virus in the UK. According to the announcement, the patient flew from England to Frankfurt / Main airport on December 20 and then continued to return to the state of Baden-Württemberg. This is the first case of infection with a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus discovered in Germany. Previously, German scientists said that a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus appeared in this country.
Denmark has detected 33 cases of new variant of the virus SARS-CoV-2 is spreading rapidly in many regions of the UK. These cases were discovered in tests conducted from November 14 to December 14. Denmark as well as a few other countries have stopped flights from the UK, where a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is rapidly spreading in the southern region of England, including London.
On December 24, Japan recorded an additional 3,450 cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, a record high for the second consecutive day. To date, more than 206,100 people in Japan have contracted COVID-19, more than 3,000 cases have died from this epidemic.