The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness climbed above 218.5 million on Thursday, while the death toll rose to 4.54 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with a total of 39.4 million cases and 642,081 deaths. The daily average of new cases over the past seven days rose to 166,080 as of Wednesday, up 18% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker. The daily average for deaths increased to 1,418 up 75% in two weeks, and is continuing to trend above 1,000 to match the level seen in March. The daily average for hospitalizations rose to 101,343, up 18% from two weeks ago and continuing to trend at the highest levels since winter. The risk of so-called long COVID drops nearly in half after a person receives two doses of coronavirus vaccine, according to a new study. The study, published on Wednesdayin the medical journal The Lancet, found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved by having two vaccine doses. It also found almost all symptoms are less common in vaccinated people, that more people in the vaccinated than in the unvaccinated groups were completely asymptomatic and that COVID-19 was less severe (both in terms of the number of symptoms in the first week of infection and the need for hospitalization) in participants after their first or second vaccine doses compared with unvaccinated participants.
India has the second highest death toll after the U.S. at 439,529 and is third by cases at 32.9 million, the JHU data shows. Brazil has second highest death toll at 581,150 and has 20.8 million cases. In Europe, Russia has 181,560 deaths, followed by the U.K. with 133,066.
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