THE COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of billions of people since it first struck the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. Official tallies reckon that it has caused infections and led to the deaths of people. The true toll may be higher still. Vaccines to combat SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, have been developed in record time. So far countries have mass-vaccination programmes underway and together they have administered about jabs. Our global covid-19 data tracker is updated twice a day with the latest figures.
Vaccination
Since the first inoculation in Britain on December 8th, mass-vaccination programmes are now active in every continent of the world. Still, countries have not begun vaccinating, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. So far of the world's adults have received one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. Vaccines for children are yet to be approved.
Doses ordered by country
In total, countries have ordered about vaccine doses from manufacturers to be delivered during 2021 (including vaccines not yet approved for use) according to a tally by Airfinity, a life-sciences data company. Although some manufacturers may face delays, that would mean there would be enough for shots for each of the world's 5.2bn adults. However, these doses are not shared equally. has signed contracts for enough jabs to give every adult doses each, whereas countries are expecting to receive just doses per adult, on average.
Doses by vaccine manufacturer and recipient
Many of the vaccines for poor and lower-middle income countries come from an international programme called COVAX. It plans to distribute as many as doses to 91 countries this year that would otherwise struggle to have secured them. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is the most widely-ordered vaccine. It has promised doses to different countries and organisations this year but has faced production delays. So far vaccines producing a total of doses have received regulatory approval for use in the countries for which they have been ordered.
First doses administered by country
A total of countries have given first doses to over 50% of their adults. leads the way to herd immunity, having given first doses to of adults.
Doses administered by country
Cases and deaths
Confirmed cases by region
It is estimated that perhaps three-quarters of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 show no symptoms. The quality of testing regimes varies enormously across the world. Tanzania has not reported a single case since May 2020 simply because it has not tested anyone. That makes it tricky to compare the number of cases across countries. Nonetheless the trends can be informative. Cases have been rising fastest over the past seven days in .
Confirmed deaths by region
Cases can be hidden from view, but deaths are easier to detect even though reporting standards do vary, too. Fully of the total global deaths from covid-19 have taken place in . Deaths over the past seven days are currently highest in although they are rising fastest in .
Confirmed cases and deaths by country
Sources: Airfinity; Johns Hopkins University, CSSE; Our World In Data; United Nations; The Economist
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