A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now infected more than 90 million people worldwide and killed over 1.9 million of them, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
The game between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics Sunday night has been postponed after Miami announced it does not have the minimum eight players available because of ongoing COVID-19 contact tracing, ESPN reported.
Earlier Sunday, Heat guard Avery Bradley was placed into the health and safety protocol and was ruled out for Sunday night's game.
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) January 10, 2021
The Celtics were set to play with the minimum eight players after nine players were ruled out, including seven because of the NBA's health and safety protocols.
The NBA postponed a Dec. 23 game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets after the Rockets didn't have the minimum number of available players.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected at least 90 million people worldwide, according to data from John Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.
There were an additional 10 million global cases reported over the last 15 days, the data showed.
As of Sunday, 1,931,571 COVID-19 deaths have been reported around the globe, Johns Hopkins said.
The United States leads the world with cases and deaths, according to the data.
As of Sunday, the U.S. has 22,293,281 cases, roughly a quarter of the total world cases, and 373,588 deaths, roughly 19% of the world's deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.
California's coronavirus surge continues to worsen, according to new data released Sunday by the state's Health Department.
The state recorded 49,685 new cases after administering a record 473,076 tests, the Health Department said. There were 468 new fatalities on Sunday, according to the Health Department.
All metrics were over 1% increases from the previous day, the health data showed. Since the start of the pandemic, California has 2,670,962 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 29,701 deaths, the Health Department said.
As of Jan. 9, 734,405 coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered, according to the Health Department.
The United Kingdom saw another day of rising coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations, according to the British government.
The nation recorded 54,940 new cases Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 3,072,349, the health data showed. The seven-day average for new cases rose from 21,698 on Dec. 10 to 61,106 on Jan. 1, the British government said.
The U.K. saw 563 new COVID-19-related fatalities Sunday, according to the health data. The country has 81,431 total deaths since the start of the pandemic, the government said.
There are currently 32,294 people hospitalized in Britain. The seven-day average for new hospital admissions rose from 1,728 on Dec. 10 to 3,345 on Jan. 1, officials said.
Rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by England's University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca began in the United Kingdom on Monday morning.
Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old dialysis patient, was the first person in the country -- and the world -- to receive the newly approved vaccine outside of a clinical trial, according to a press release from National Health Service (NHS) England. He told reporters that he felt "pretty good" after getting the shot at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, England.
"I am so pleased to be getting the COVID vaccine today and really proud that it is one that was invented in Oxford," Pinker, who was born and raised in Oxford, said in a statement released by NHS England. "The nurses, doctors and staff today have all been brilliant and I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary with my wife Shirley later this year."
Trevor Cowlett, an 88-year-old music teacher and father of three, and Dr. Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator into the clinical trial of the shot, were also among the first to get the jab Monday.
"It was an incredibly proud moment for me to have received the actual vaccine that the University of Oxford and the AstraZeneca teams have worked so hard to make available to the UK and the world," Pollard said in a statement released by NHS England. "As a pediatrician specialising in infections, I know how important it is that health care workers along with other priority groups are protected as soon as possible -- a crucial role in defeating this terrible disease."
NHS England said the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine will be delivered to a small number of U.K. hospitals for the first few days for "surveillance purposes, as is standard practice, before the bulk of supplies are send to hundreds of GP-led services later in the week." Hundreds of new vaccination sites are set to open this week, in addition to the 700 already in operation.
The U.K. became the first country to approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency supply last week. Another COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was authorized in the U.K. on Dec. 2 and rollout began a week later. Both vaccines are administered in two doses.
