8 January
Globally, the total confirmed cases of COVID-19 have reached over 88,100,000, with over 1,900,000 deaths and 49,100,000 recoveries.
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The US, India, and Brazil remain the top three most affected countries in the new year.
The US has reported more than 3,800 COVID-19 deaths this week, continuing to break unwanted records.
Arizona is becoming one of the worst affected state in the country. Worldwide, vaccine distribution continues, with some people already having received the second dose of the vaccine.
However, overall, the vaccine distribution has fallen far behind projected coverage.
New strains of COVID-19 from the UK and South Africa are alarming public health officials, as the UK nears 3 million cases less than three weeks after passing the 2 million mark.
These two new strains appeared to have already become the dominant types in these two communities, which may be an indicator that they are more contagious.
The impact of these virus mutations on the effectiveness of the currently available vaccines are unclear.
Kasey Fu, MPH, Director of Epidemiology at GlobalData
