World Coronavirus Dispatch: The travails of uncovering the virus origins

UK records its highest daily death toll, some nations are just waiting to see how vaccines work, Biden plans to go all out with vaccines and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Biden plans to go all out with vaccines

Joe Biden is planning to release nearly all the vaccine supplies available to make up for the dire shortages America is facing, once he assumes office. There is a growing debate around the world, as nations rollout vaccines, whether it is right to delay the second doses for those who already got the first one, to maximise on the limited supplies and give them to as many as possible. The Trump administration had till now followed the strategy of holding back shots to administer second doses. Read more

Let's look at the global statistics

Global infections: 88,933,048

Change Over Yesterday: 941,571

Global deaths: 1,914,595

Nations with most cases: US (21,870,425), India (10,431,639), Brazil (8,013,708), Russia (3,344,175), United Kingdom (2,966,244).

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center. 

Can we ever know the mysterious origins of virus?

A team of world health organization (WHO) experts have been negotiating with China for almost a year now, to let them probe the mysterious origins of the virus and how it spread in the first place. But it's been a long and hard battle between both sides, with China seeking to shape the narrative by saying the virus might have emerged outside the country, and not yet finalising access to the probe team. Some of the pressing questions before the expert team are: Whether the virus spilled out of a lab, as many conspiracy theorists would like to believe. Is there an intermediary host before it spread among humans?  Now, the experts say it may be difficult to ever find the true origins of how, where and why the virus spilled to humans, and spread at an alarming rate. They also say that the virus could have infected an intermediate animal from the bats, and then latched onto humans, but the theory is yet to be proven. Read more

UK records highest daily death toll

The highly contagious new coronavirus variant is proving deadlier than any other previous ones for the United Kingdom as it reported its highest ever daily toll of over 1,200 deaths. Alamred by the situation, London mayor said the pandemic is out of control currently, adding that in some parts of the city 1 in every 20 people has been infected with the disease. Mutliple study's have pegged the transmisibility of the virus between 50 to 70 per cent, with another study suggesting younger people are likely to most affected with the new strain. The country is looking to tame the virus with rapid vaccinations and had recently intensified the programme with the approval of Moderna shot. Read more

Some nations are just waiting to see how vaccines work

As the European Union, United States and other western nations are rushing to vaccinate as many as they can, even with limited supplies, some nations like Japan, Australia, and Taiwan are just waiting to see how the shots actually work in other countries, learn form them, and then rollout the shots in their own countries. Even South Korea, and New Zealand, countries which have successfully contained the outbreak, are unlikely to start inoculations until the end of February or later. They want more information and data on the efficacy and safety of vaccines and then see how it goes. Read more

A German bakery is making Syringe-shaped cakes in a vaccine year

As nations rollout vaccinations across the world, public health officials and experts worry that there will be an initial pushback for the medicines, that have been made to end a pandemic that has killed over 2 million and destroyed the global economy, in light of the vaccine hesitancy. A bakery in Germany is making syringe-shaped cakes to mark the year of vaccines, and may be destroy some of the myths surrounding it and this is not the first that they have come up with such funny stuff. Last year, when there was panic buying, due to the lockdown, this bakery created a scarcely available toilet-roll shaped cakes. Read more