Summary:
- US sees record 4K+ new deaths; 266K new cases
- Global cases are 88.2
- UK approves Moderna jab for emergency use
- London mayor warns city in "crisis mode"
- Alabama, Nevada and Arizona see most hospitalizations per person
- Queensland, Australia imposes 3 day lockdown on Greater Brisbane
- EU agrees to buy 300MM more Pfizer jabs
- Greece orders mandatory 1-week lockdown
* * *
For the first time since SARS-CoV-2 escaped Wuhan roughly 13 months ago, the US reported more than 4K COVID-linked deaths in a single day, a new record. Meanwhile, down in Brazil, authorities saw the national death toll eclipse 200K.
All told, the US is closing in on 21.6MM confirmed cases, while the death toll (still the highest in the world, according to the official number) is closing in on 400K. Cases also saw a record-breaking surge of 266K new cases, as the backlog of cases from the holiday has finally disappeared.
Among the four major regions of the US, the South is now struggling with surging hospitalizations led by Texas and Florida, while California (itself led by LA County) drives hospitalizations higher in the West.
On a per capita basis, Alabama, Nevada and Arizona are leading the country in current hospitalizations.
Europe, meanwhile, is seeing cases surge, presumably driven by the "mutated" strains first isolated in Britain and South Africa. Case in point: daily infections per capita in the UK have surged.
Speaking of the "mutant" COVID variants, new early study data shows the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine likely is effective against the new COVID "variants" discovered in the UK...