The Johns Hopkins COVID Dashboard for Friday, December 4 at 5:27 a.m.:

Worldwide cases: 65,408,787   Worldwide deaths: 1,509,743

U.S. cases: 14,160,405   U.S. deaths: 276,513

According to the Dashboard, the reported worldwide case report increased by 714,074  in the last 24 hours.  Deaths worldwide increased by 13,496.

According to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard, the United States has added 219,304 cases in the last 24 hours.

In the last day,  the number of reported deaths in the U.S. from  COVID-19 increased by 2,767.

The COVID Tracking Project reports that 100,667 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of yesterday.  Although that is the highest number reported since the start of the pandemic, it’s a relatively modest increase from the previous day at only slightly more than 400 additional patients.    A.  Hawaii County Civil Defense reported on Thursday afternoon that two patients are in the hospital with COVID-19.

The FDA is set to review two vaccines for COVID-19:  on Dec. 10, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (already approved for use in the U.K.) and on Dec. 18, the Moderna vaccine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a mass vaccination program in Russia with its vaccine, Sputnik V.  The Johns Hopkins Dashboard reports that Russia has the fourth highest case count of COVID-19 in the world, with 2,382,012 cases.  Russia follows the U.S., India, and Brazil.