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By RUSS BYNUM / AP
The United States further increased the distance between itself and much of the rest of the world on Thursday, as it is close to administering 200 million coronavirus vaccines in a race to protect the population even as other countries, rich and poor, they deal with high rates of infections and deaths.
About half of the adult population in the United States has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 30% of American adults have received both, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the outlook remains relentlessly bleak in parts of Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia as variants of the virus have driven a spike in cases and the global death toll is approaching 3 million.
France surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths on Thursday, becoming the eighth country to reach that threshold.
Meanwhile, India’s two most populous cities, New Delhi and Mumbai, ordered business closures and imposed movement restrictions after the number of new cases surpassed 200,000. Some hotels and banquet halls were ordered to convert their spaces into medical centers and the spike in infections prompted India, a major producer of COVID-19 vaccines, to postpone exporting the doses to other countries.
Japan was also seeing a rapid increase in cases just three months before the start of the Olympics. The western metropolis of Osaka reported more than 1,200 infections on Thursday, its highest number since the pandemic began. A high-ranking official from the ruling party mentioned the possibility of canceling the Olympic tournament if the spike in infections prevents it from taking place.
And the decision to suspend the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson due to reports of blood clots has left South Africa without a dose in its fight against an aggressive variant of the virus. South Africa has more than 1.5 million confirmed cases, including at least 53,000 deaths, representing more than 30% of all confirmed infections in the 54 countries on the African continent.
More than a third of deaths worldwide have been registered in three countries: the United States, Mexico and Brazil, where together more than 1.1 million people have lost their lives. The virus is causing around 12,000 deaths a day.
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