Cases top 90 million as more virulent coronavirus strains crop up worldwide

Members of the Lebanese Red Cross transfer an elderly COVID-19 patient to a hospital in Nabatiyeh on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Novel Coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, cases have now surpassed 90 million around the world, as more countries braced for wider spread of more virulent strains of a disease that has now killed nearly 2 million worldwide.

The number of infections worldwide has doubled in just 10 weeks, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University on Sunday. COVID-19 infections had hit 45 million as recently as late October. As of Sunday afternoon, 90,005,787 cases were waround the world.

Japan on Sunday said four travellers from Brazil have tested positive for a new variant of novel Coronavirus, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The four people, including a man in his 40s, a woman in her 30s, a 10-year-old girl and a boy aged above 10 - all asymptomatic, arrived in Tokyo from Amazonas on January 2, reported CNBC. The National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo said the new variant found in the four travellers contains 12 mutations, including one identified in the new SARS-CoV-2 strains in Britain and South Africa, according to reports.

It also contains another mutation - E484K that was found in South Africa. This mutation is said to help the virus fight off the antibodies produced by the immune system.

WHO team headed to China

Meanwhile, experts from the World Health Organization are due to arrive in China this week for a long-anticipated investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, the government said on Monday. It wasn't immediately clear whether the experts would be travelling to Wuhan.

Free vaccines to all 52M South Koreans

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in on Monday said the country will offer free COVID-19 vaccinations to all its people in phases.
The government earlier said that inoculations will start in February. South Korean officials have said they'll have vaccines for 56 million people, an amount seemingly enough for the country's 52 million people. They say those recommended to get vaccinations first will include medical personnel, elderly people, adults with chronic diseases, police and soldiers.

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