The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness rose above 155 million on Thursday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while the death toll rose above 3.24 million. The U.S. continues to lead the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 32.6 million cases and 579,2800 deaths, or about a fifth of the worldwide tallies. There was positive news on the vaccine front, in comments from U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the U.S. supports the waiver of intellectual-property protections on COVID-19 vaccines. Separately, Moderna Inc. said a single-dose booster COVID-19 vaccine worked against the novel coronavirus’ variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil, according to initial data from a Phase 2 study.
India is second to the U.S. by cases at 21.1 million and third by fatalities, at 230,168. Brazil is third with 14.9 million cases and second by fatalities at 414,399. Mexico has the fourth-highest death toll at 218,007 and 2.4 million cases, or 15th highest tally. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,830 deaths, the fifth-highest in the world and highest in Europe.
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