A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 98.7 million people worldwide and killed over 2.1 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Here's how the news developed this week. All times Eastern.
Jan 18, 2021, 5:25 AM EST
Germany has vaccinated over 1 million people
More than one million people have received the first of two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in Germany, according to the country's public health agency.
As of Saturday, 1,048,160 first doses had been administered nationwide, according to the latest data from the Robert Koch Institute. So far, the European Medicines Agency has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for use in the European Union -- one developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and another developed by American biotechnology company Moderna.
A doctor finishes inoculating Herri Rehfeld, 92, against COVID-19 at a vaccination center at the Messe Berlin trade fair grounds in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 18, 2021, on the center's opening day amid the coronavirus pandemic. The center is the third to open in Berlin. Three more are expected to open in the coming weeks once shipments of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines pick up pace.
Sean Gallup/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
There were 7,141 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Germany on Sunday. An additional 214 deaths from the disease were also registered nationwide. That brings the country's cumulative totals to 2,040,659 cases with 46,633 deaths, according to the Robert Koch Institute.
Jan 18, 2021, 4:17 AM EST
US reports under 200,000 new cases for 1st time in 2 weeks
There were 174,513 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Sunday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It's the first time in two weeks that the country has logged under 200,000 newly confirmed infections in a 24-hour reporting period. Sunday's tally is far less than the country's all-time high of 302,506 new cases on Jan. 2, Johns Hopkins data shows.
An additional 1,723 fatalities from COVID-19 were registered nationwide on Sunday, down from a peak of 4,462 new deaths on Jan. 12, according to Johns Hopkins data.
COVID-19 data may be skewed due to possible lags in reporting over the holiday weekend and earlier holidays.
A mass vaccination of health care workers against COVID-19 takes place at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 15, 2021.
Irfan Khan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
A total of 23,936,772 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 397,600 have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country's cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up over the summer.
The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4, then reaching 200,000 on Nov. 27 before topping 300,000 on Jan. 2.
