Argentina is now the world’s fifth country with more than one million confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Data collected by Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center shows the South American country has 1,002,662 total cases. Argentina is in fifth place behind the United States (8.2 million), India (7.5 million), Brazil (5.2 million) and Russia (1.4 million).
The one million coronavirus cases in Argentina include 26,716 deaths.
The new figures from Argentina push the total number of worldwide coronavirus infections to more than 40.4 million cases, including 1.1 million deaths.
Reuters news agency says U.S.-based pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German-based BioNTech have begun a combined Phase One and Phase Two trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine in Japan. The study will recruit 160 people between the ages of 20 and 85 to take part in the study.
The United Nations Children’s Fund says it will stockpile 500 million syringes by the end of the year, and one billion by 2021, as part of its preparations for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine.
According to U.N. News, the stockpile of one billion syringes to support the agency’s coronavirus vaccination drive is in addition to the 620 million syringes UNICEF plans to purchase for its normal vaccination programs.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore says the push to vaccinate billions of the world’s children against COVID-19 “will be one of the largest mass undertakings in human history, and we will need to move as quickly as the vaccines can be produced.”
UNICEF is the world’s largest purchaser of vaccines, buying more than two billion doses annually for routine vaccination efforts against such diseases as measles and typhoid, as well as outbreak responses on behalf of nearly 100 countries.
A report in The Guardian newspaper says Chinese health authorities have found traces of live coronavirus on frozen food packaging. The live virus was detected during an investigation of an outbreak in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, marking the first time the virus in an active state has been detected on the outside of refrigerated goods.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously said there has been no evidence of COVID-19 infection through handling or consuming food.
Ireland announced some of the strictest measures in Europe this fall to combat a surge in cases. The government told residents not to travel more than five kilometers from their home, closed nonessential retail businesses and limited restaurants and pubs to takeout only.
Part of Germany’s Bavaria region will go into a strict lockdown on Tuesday. Officials in Berchtesgadener Land district announced Monday that residents will not be able to leave their homes without a valid reason for two weeks. Schools, restaurants and hotels will be closed to stop the spread of the virus.
Wales became the second nation in Britain to lock down large parts of its economy, even as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted calls to do the same throughout England. The Welsh government announced Monday it would close nonessential retail, hospitality and tourism businesses, beginning Friday.
Northern Ireland recently ordered new lockdown measures, closing schools for two weeks and shutting down many businesses, including bars and restaurants, for a month.
Poland’s government said Monday it is transforming its National Stadium in Warsaw into a field hospital to handle the growing number of COVID-19 cases.
The European Commission on Monday launched a system across the EU to link national COVID-19 tracing apps, beginning with COVID-19 trackers in Germany, Italy and Ireland.
In the United States, cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in almost every state, and an analysis by Reuters found the number of new cases in the past week rose 13% to more than 393,000, approaching levels last seen during a summer peak.
