Coronavirus around the world: The epidemic reaches the Antarctic, and Europe warns against traveling to Britain, and pharmaceutical companies expect the effectiveness of their vaccines

The World Health Organization said, that “the weekly Coronavirus cases recorded the highest level since the start of the pandemic, and that half of the cases are in the United State”.

The data shows that the trend of increasing infections continues this month, with the start of vaccination operations in some countries.

The Geneva-based organization said in its weekly epidemiological report that “new cases increased 6%, or 4.6 million, in the week ending December 20, and new deaths increased 4%, or about 79 thousand in the same period”.

In a new development, the Chilean army confirmed that the Coronavirus had reached Antarctica, which was the only continent free of the virus, while health officials and the army scrambled to evacuate and isolate workers at a remote research station surrounded by the ocean and icebergs.

The armed forces said that “at least 36 individuals were infected this week at Bernardo O’Higgins base, 26 of them are military personnel and 10 civilian contractors assigned to maintenance work at the base”.

The research station, run by the Chilean army, is located near the tip of a peninsula in the far north of Antarctica, overlooking a bay often dotted with icebergs.

Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey estimate that about 1,000 people at 38 stations across the frozen continent have sailed safely in the southern hemisphere winter without incident. 

But an increase in travel to and from the region this spring and early summer has increased the risk.

In the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that “the total number of Coronavirus infections in the United States rose to 17.9 million, an increase of 183,927 cases from the previous census.

The US Centers for Disease Control added that the number of deaths increased to 318,569, after 1725 new deaths were recorded.

The outcome of the American centers does not necessarily reflect all the cases recorded by each state separately.

This comes while the Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and the director of the American Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine against the Corona virus.

Other senior health officials and workers in the sector have also received the vaccine. 

Azar expressed full confidence in the vaccine that was jointly developed with the National Institutes of Health.

Fauci also urged Americans to receive the vaccine in order to stem the epidemic.

The US Food and Drug Administration had granted a license a few days ago for the emergency use of the Moderna vaccine, from which the distribution of initial shipments began last Sunday.

In light of the outbreak of the new strain of Coronavirus, the European Union recommended that citizens of member states avoid unnecessary travel to and from Britain.

In return, the European Commission recommended that the European Union countries lift the travel ban with Britain to allow the return of British citizens and residents.

In turn, British Transport Minister Grant Shaps said that an agreement had been reached with the French government regarding the opening of the borders, which were closed to those coming from Britain, following the emergence of the new strain of Coronavirus.

This comes at a time when thousands of truck drivers are still stuck in the port of Dover in the southeast of England, waiting for checks, requested by France, to prove that they are free of the Coronavirus, in order to allow them to cross to its lands.

The health authorities in the United Kingdom stated – in a statement – that they had monitored 36,804 cases of people with corona throughout the Kingdom during the past 24 hours, which is almost twice the number of cases recorded last week, in a daily toll that is the highest ever.

According to the statement, 691 died due to the virus during the last day, which is the second highest daily toll since last May.

In light of the world’s high fears of the new strain, at least 4 companies expected that the vaccines they produced to prevent the Coronavirus will be effective against the new strain of the virus that is rapidly spreading in Britain, and they are conducting tests that will provide confirmation of their expectations in the next few weeks.

Ugur Shaheen, CEO of the German company BioNTech that took less than a year, in partnership with the US company Pfizer, to obtain approval for the vaccine, said on Tuesday that he expects the vaccine to remain effective.

The German companies Moderna, CureVac and British AstraZeneca also believe that the vaccines they have developed will succeed in facing the new strain of the virus that has caused chaos in Britain, which led to a wave of travel bans that disrupted trade with Europe and threatens to deepen Britain’s isolation from Continent.

“It is very likely from a scientific point of view that the immune system response with this vaccine could also deal with this strain of the virus,” Shaheen said in a conference call.

He added that getting a final answer will take another two weeks or so for the study and data collection.

The new strain may be up to 70% more contagious and may be a greater cause of concern for children.