The Johns Hopkins COVID Dashboard for Tuesday, November 24, at 5:26 a.m.:

Worldwide cases: 59,373,667    Worldwide deaths:  1,399,983

U.S. cases: 12,430,825   U.S. deaths: 257,991

According to the Dashboard, the reported worldwide case report increased by 564,703  in the last 24 hours.  Deaths worldwide increased by 9,467.

According to the Johns Hopkins Dashboard, the United States has added 170,866 cases in the last 24 hours.

The COVID Tracking Project reports that more than 85,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19.  Many hospital systems throughout the mainland are being stressed by the number of people with COVID-19 in their facilities.  The concern is not just ICU and regular bed capacity, but healthcare workers’ ability to keep up with the situation.

In the last day,  the number of reported deaths from  COVID-19 increased by 1,161.

In good news, a third vaccine–made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University–has shown positive results in Stage 3 clinical trials.  The drug company will be seeking regulatory approval, as are Pfizer and Moderna.   The FDA is set to review the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Dec. 10.

So vaccines are on the way, although the task of getting hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and around the world is a big one.  Meanwhile, and even afterwards, until the world has achieved herd immunity with a large percentage of people having been vaccinated, health officials urge everybody to keep their guard up and wear masks, wash hands frequently, and avoid gatherings.