En route to Taiwan from Seattle on EVA Air
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 879th day of the pandemic.
There’s good news on the pandemic-induced supply chain crisis, at least to some extent.
The cost of container shipping, which rose to record levels per container earlier in the pandemic, has fallen on average by some 75% from peak pandemic highs. The cost remains above pre-pandemic levels but prices have yet to bottom out.
It would cost $5,400 today to ship a 40’ container from China to a West Coast port in the United States, down 60% from January, according to data from the Freightos Baltic Index. Similarly, the cost of shipping a container from Asia to Europe would run around $9,000 today, a decline of 42% since the start of the year.
To give you an idea how high shipping costs rose – which translated to higher prices in stores – the peak cost for both routes was over $20,000 one year ago, in September 2021. In February 2020, at the very start of the pandemic, the cost was below $2,000 so we still have a ways to go.
Still, as inflation roared, the pandemic spending spree on consumer goods as cooled and that has relieved the pressure on shipping channels. The wildcard, of course, is whether fuel costs will start to climb again, which will have a direct impact on the cost of ocean freight.
In news we cover today, Israeli researchers say bats are not to blame for the pandemic and 60 million Chinese are under pandemic lockdowns across the country.
Here’s a look at what has taken place over the past 24 hours.
UNITED STATES
The director of the State Fair in New York said Saturday that he tested positive for the coronavirus and will miss the final days of the event. In a statement, the fair said that Sean Hennessey “met and mingled with many fairgoers… in the last few days. It urged anyone who came into contact with him to get tested for the virus.
GLOBAL
China is fighting a new wave of coronavirus cases, with new infections being reported in virtually every province. The country’s health officials reported 3,083 cases Monday, the fifth time since August 15 that there have been over 3,000 new cases in a single day. The rising number of infections is causing officials to respond with lockdowns and mass testing. Currently, some 60 million Chinese, including 22 million in Chengdu alone, are in either partial or full lockdown.
Meanwhile, a new study from Tel Aviv University found no evidence that bats were responsible for the transmission of the coronavirus to humans. Noting that bats have a highly effective immune system “that enables them to deal relatively easily with viruses considered lethal for other mammals,” the TAU researchers said that the correlation between bats and humans “was not based on sufficient compelling scientific proof and caused unnecessary stress and confusion worldwide.”
TRAVEL
Taiwan will resume visa-free entry for visitors from numerous countries including the United States and Canada, government officials said Monday. The move is part of a plan to ease controls put into place to check the spread of the coronavirus.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Monday, September 5.
As of Monday morning, the world has recorded 610.4 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.4 million cases, and 6.5 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 587.4 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.7 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Monday is 16,574,628, a decrease of 375,000. Out of that figure, 99.7%, or 16,532,314, are considered mild, and 0.3%, or 42,314, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical changed from 2% to 3% over the past 24 hours.
The United States reported 5,823 new coronavirus infections on Monday for the previous day, compared to 7,437 on Sunday, 88,353 on Saturday, 108,660 on Friday, and 154,500 on Thursday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 84,886. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 87,301, an 8%decrease, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 492, an increase of 7% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 36,347, a 10% decrease.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Saturday, recorded over 96.6 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of over 1.07 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, over 44.4 million, and a reported death toll of 528,007.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of May, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 820,307, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat reported that 4,991 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in June, down from 7,008 in May and from 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, 34.59 million, although Brazil has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 684,427, and has recorded 34.52 million cases, placing it in the number four slot.
Germany is in the number five slot with over 32.2 million cases.
The other three countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 23,6 million cases, moving into the number six position on Monday, the United Kingdom, with 23.52 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with over 21.9 million, as number eight.
Meanwhile, Russia, with close to 19.8 million recorded cases, will likely cross the 20 million mark within under two weeks.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of this past Thursday, over 262.9 million people in the United States – or 79.2% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 67.5%, or 224.1 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 610 million. Breaking this down further, 90.2% of the population over the age of 18 – or 232.8 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77.3% of the same group – or 199.7 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 51.6% of that population, or 103.1 million people, has already received a third, or booster, dose of vaccine.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 67.7% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Saturday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.59 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 4.81 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 20.9% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain in the single digits, if not lower.
In addition, North Korea and Eritrea are now the only two countries in the world that have not administered vaccines.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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