The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness headed above 177 million on Thursday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while deaths climbed above 3.8 million. The U.S. continues to lead the world in total cases at 33.49 million, while deaths total 600,653. The number of fully vaccinated Americans rose to 146.5 million, or 44% of the total population, according to the latest data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with the number of U.S. adults receiving at least one dose increasing to 64.7%. There was disappointing news on the CureVac vaccine when the company said it’s only 47% effective at preventing COVID, well below the more than 90% efficacy of the vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc. , which also use mRNA technology. CureVac said that its “pivotal” study, conducted in 10 countries and involving about 40,000 people, showed the vaccine candidate’s being a poor match against a “fast changing environment” of at least 29 COVID-19 variants, with the original coronavirus strain “almost completely absent.” The news sent its stock down sharply premarket.
On a global basis, India is second in total cases at 29.7 million and third by fatalities at 381,903, although those numbers are expected to be undercounted given a shortage of tests. Brazil has the third-highest caseload at 17.6 million, according to JHU data, and is second in deaths at 493,693. Mexico has fourth-highest death toll at 230,624 and 2.5 million cases. The U.K. has 128,190 fatalities and 4.6 million cases, the highest number of deaths in Europe and fifth-highest in the world.
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