On October 17, 2021, COVID-19 case statistics were updated. There have been 426,000 new cases and 6,420 deaths worldwide, which puts the total number of cases at 241 million and deaths at 4.91 million. The United States has the highest case count out of other countries with 45.1 million cases, and a death rate of 727,000. New Zealand is supplying its small Pacific neighbors with doses, but unvaccinated public employees are facing suspension or dismissal in Massachusetts and Washington. Ukraine has reported an average of 14,348 cases a day over the past week with the population of 44 million, but since the country has a low testing rate, the numbers could actually be higher or there may be new infections. 

In Washington, Monday was the final day for more than 800,000 workers, including those at state agencies, schools and health care facilities, to show proof of their full vaccination against COVID-19. On October 21, 2021, a news article released by statnews.com just realized that there is an estimate of 115,000 health workers that died from COVID-19 from January 2020 to May of this year. The agency pushed efforts to address vaccine inequity once again. Annette Kennedy, the president of the International Council of Nurses, argues that governments ignored their duty in protecting health care workers, and warned that the pandemic would have long term effects. This may have many nurses considering leaving the workforce.

“The backbone of every health system is its workforce- the people who deliver the services on which we rely at some point in our lives,” said World Health Organization DIrector, General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The pandemic is a powerful demonstration of just how much we rely on health workers and how vulnerable we all are when people who protect our health are themselves unprotected.” However, he added, “that average masks huge differences across regions and economic groupings.” 

Experts are cautiously optimistic that the virus will continue to lose ground throughout the U.S. Roughly 57% of the U.S is fully vaccinated. Experts say that this number will increase when kids are able to get fully vaccinated, but millions of people have some level of immunity from prior infection. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Thursday that the country’s health workers have now administered more than 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses. Citizens worldwide continue receiving the vaccine, which is the cause for global optimism.