The novel Coronavirus has so far claimed the lives of more than 2.956 million around the world since its outbreak in December 2019, according to the latest statistics conducted by the American World Meters website.

The website said that global COVID-19 infections have reached 137,176,187, while the deaths are 2,956,749 and the recoveries are 110,292,859.

The United States still occupies the lead in the list of the most affected countries in terms of the number of infections and deaths.

576,247 deaths out of 31,976,010 coronvirus cases have been registered in the United States. India comes second with 171,089 deaths out of 13,686,073 cases and then Brazil with 354,617 deaths out of 13,517,808 cases.

Vaccine-makers around the world face shortages of vital components including large plastic growbags, according to the head of the firm that is manufacturing a quarter of the UK’s jab supply.

Stan Erck, the chief executive of Novavax – which makes the second vaccine to be grown and bottled entirely in Britain – told the Observer that the shortage of 2,000-litre bags in which the vaccine cells were grown was a significant hurdle for global supply.

His warning came as bag manufacturers revealed that some pharmaceutical firms were waiting up to 12 months for the sterile single-use disposable plastic containers, which are used to make medicines of all kinds, including the Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax Covid-19 vaccines.

Director of Preparedness and Emergency at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Tawfiq Hassaba, confirmed that the process of vaccinating  medical and administrative staff working in hospitals against Coronavirus will resume this month after the arrival of a new batch of vaccines.

Dr. Hassaba stated in a statement to SANA that this batch targets 50 thousand staff members working in hospitals from various governorates, indicating that 2500 health workers  benefited from the last batch of vaccine which was donated by a friendly country.

He pointed out that the process of giving the vaccine to the cadres working in hospitals and health centers continues with the arrival of any batch of vaccines. After this, the vaccination will be given to the cadres working in the education sector according to the older age groups.  Then, upon the arrival of the batch of vaccines that include one million doses from the World Health Organization in coordination With "Corona Vaccine Global Platform .. Kovacs", the vaccine will be available to anyone who wishes.

According to Dr. Hassab, the Ministry of Health’s plan to give the Corona vaccine to 20-25 percent of the citizens in Syria until the end of 2021, depending on the arrival of the vaccine batches.

Inas Abdulkareem

More than 2,872,144 people have died because of the Corona pandemic around the world since the outbreak of the deadly disease in December 2019.

According to data published by the American “Worldometers” website, the total number of infections with Coronavirus across the world reached 132,363, 318 of whom 106, 652,407 patients have recovered.

The United States still tops the list the most affected countries in this virus in terms of the number of infections and deaths. Most recent statistics show that the United States recorded 569,282 deaths because of corona out of 31,496,976 infections. Brazil ranked second while India comes third in the list.