The total number of global coronavirus cases on Saturday surpassed 80 million as countries around the world face spikes of the disease during the holiday season.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins UniversityGlobally, about 472,000 new COVID-19 cases were recorded on Christmas Day, with deaths from the virus now exceeding 1.75 million.
The US far outstrips other countries in the total number of cases with more than 18.8 million infections on Saturday. The US is followed by India with nearly 10.2 million cases and Brazil, with 7.4 million cases of infections.
The US also leads the world in coronavirus-related deaths with more than 330,000, followed by Brazil with 190,488 and India with 147,343.
The grim milestone comes as some countries are now fighting a new strain of the virus that British scientists discovered this week 56 percent more contagious than the original.
The first reported cases of the new strain were found in the United Kingdom, several European countries and others around the world to limit foreign travel.
Japan announced this on Saturday it would be temporary prohibition non-resident aliens enter the country, citing the risk of the new COVID-19 strain.
Japanese officials confirmed that a more contagious variant of the virus had entered the country from the UK, with the first cases discovered involving passengers coming from Great Britain.
Despite the increase in coronavirus infections and deaths, the approval of vaccines in several countries could mean a definitive end to the pandemic.
Pharmaceutical company Moderna said in a statement Wednesday that its vaccine is likely to be able to protect people against the new, highly contagious strain, adding that it planned to conduct tests to confirm the vaccine’s efficacy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has so far approved the Moderna vaccine and the candidate developed by Pfizer and BioNTech for emergency use. Millions of doses of these vaccines have already been distributed to health professionals and other primary care workers.
Several public figures and elected officials, including Vice President Pence and President-elect Joe Biden, have publicly received the vaccine to promote public confidence in the safety of the vaccination.
Countries in the European Union started receive their first shipments of a COVID-19 vaccine this weekend ahead of a massive rollout on Sunday.
On Sunday, efforts will be made to vaccinate at-risk populations and medical workers in some of the countries affected by the first wave of the virus this spring, including the Czech Republic, Italy and Spain. The Associated Press reported.