A December prayer report looking at Progress with developing Vaccines, Covid-19 Hot Spots and some suggested Prayer Pointers with Links to Resources:

As of 1^st December, the total global figure for people infected by Covid-19 stands at 63.5 million according to Johns Hopkins University. In addition to this, the recorded number who have died totals 1,474,643.

Covid-19 hot spots

Here are the 3 most affected countries / regions…

The US continues to be the country with the highest numbers confirmed cases and deaths related to Covid-19 globally with figures at around 13,605,981 and 269,192 respectively. The daily infection rate has increased dramatically over the past month to around 160,000 new cases per day and new deaths are projected at around 1,500 a day (7 day average) according to Worldometer.

India, which reported its first case on January 30, is the second worst-hit country in the world by the pandemic after the United States.  The health ministry's most recent figures reported 31,118 infections and 482 deaths in the past 24 hours - bringing the overall case count above 9.4 million and the death toll to 137,621.

There have been at least 6,335,800 cases of the coronavirus in Brazil, according to data from state governments. As of Tuesday afternoon, 173,120 people had died. President Jair Bolsonaro announced on July 7 that he had tested positive for the virus.

Many nations are approaching or coming out of second spikes of infection cases and deaths.   The economic impact has been vast, with many countries borrowing significant proportions of their GDP at rates not experienced since the second world war.

Vaccine update

Two of the vaccine trials have reported positive results in the last few weeks.  Moderna said Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine continued to deliver strong efficacy results, showing 94% efficacy in the main analysis of its key study. The company said it would immediately seek regulatory clearances in the U.S. and Europe.

The milestone suggests that there could be two vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus before the end of 2020. Pfizer and BioNTech released positive results for a similar vaccine on Nov. 18, and requested an emergency use authorization, or EUA, from the Food and Drug Administration two days later. 

A third one, the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine will undergo a new global trial as critics questioned the claim that it could protect up to 90% of people against coronavirus.

Sir John Bell, Oxford’s regius professor of medicine and the UK government’s life sciences adviser, dismissed suggestions the previous trial had not been properly set up or reported. “We weren’t cooking this up as we went along,” he said, adding that he hoped the full, peer-reviewed data would be published in the Lancet medical journal at the weekend.

In spite of the public excitement generated by the announcement that a third vaccine had been successful – with particular promise for developing countries as it is relatively cheap and can be stored at fridge temperature – AstraZeneca’s share price dropped.

There are currently more than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates under development, with a number of these in the human trial phase. WHO is working in collaboration with scientists, business, and global health organizations through the ACT Accelerator to speed up the pandemic response. When a safe and effective vaccine is found, COVAX (led by WHO, GAVI and  CEPI) will facilitate the equitable access and distribution of these vaccines to protect people in all countries. People most at risk will be prioritized.

Over 150 countries equivalent to 64% of the world’s population have pooled efforts and resources to set up the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, otherwise known as COVAX. The benefits of this are that all member parties can take advantage of successful vaccines produced from their collective library so that everyone will have access to a working product in the shortest time frame possible. In the event that a country’s own vaccine plans fall through, they will have a backup option in COVAX. Notably absent from this coalition are China and USA.

COVAX have now announced a plan to fairly distribute working vaccines around the world going first to front-line workers and then to those at highest risk. However, funding to provide vaccines to lower income countries is not yet sufficient as only $800 million of the $2 billion required has been raised.

Let’s Pray… Let us continue to declare that the novel coronavirus is defeated by the blood of Jesus.
We pray for divine intervention and for God's name to be glorified even as each nation and government tries its best to flatten the curve, prevent and lessen the impact of second and third spikes and finally arrest this epidemic.
We release wisdom, skill, and integrity upon our leaders.
We pray for protection, wisdom and strength, for those working to bring treatment and comfort to the sick and their families.
We pray release and healing from mental illnesses as a result of the lock-downs.
We pray special grace and help for the vulnerable and lesser-developed nations.
We pray for refugees and displaced peoples. We pray against domestic violence and other crimes that have become rampant during lockdowns.
We pray for a safe, effective, and affordable vaccine to be released soonest but without including aborted baby cells in its creation or neglecting proper testing protocols.
We pray that the vaccine will be accessible to all nations and plead generosity of spirit from the wealthier economies.
We continue to release faith, hope, and love over the peoples of the world. May the Church seize this opportune time to manifest Jesus our Lord and Savior to those who are seeking answers and peace.