The overall number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus-borne disease stood at 81 million months, while the US number exceeded 19 million, and experts warned that the coming weeks would be difficult after millions of Americans traveled for Christmas. holidays.
“We are indeed at a very critical time,” he said. “If you put more pressure on the system through what could be a post-season increase due to travel and probably gathering people for, you know, the good and warm purposes of being together for the holidays, it’s very hard for people not to to stay. ”
The latest data from the Transportation Security Administration showed that 1.13 million passengers were checked at US airports on Saturday, the most every day since mid-March. In the last 10 days, five have seen more than 1 million passengers pass through US airports.
Fauci said he supports the decision to request negative COVID-19 tests before allowing people from the UK to enter the US, which comes after a new strain of the virus was detected there.
The variant is something “to be followed very carefully” and “we are analyzing it very intensely now”, he said.
“Does it make anyone sick?” Is it a more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is that it doesn’t seem that way. “
British officials say it looks like the vaccines that will be launched will be strong enough to cope with the new variant, but, Fauci said, “we will do the studies ourselves.”
Read now: How many people need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to get herd immunity? “The sooner we do it, the sooner we get back to life.”
The United States counted at least 152,102 new cases on Sunday and at least 1,230 people died, according to a New York Times tracker. In the last week, the US recorded an average of 184,951 cases per day, down 12% from two weeks earlier.
Currently, 118,720 patients with COVID-19 are in hospitals in the US, according to the COVID follow-up project, below the record of 119,463 set on December 23, but still worryingly high.
Fauci said the United States is in a critical phase of the pandemic, with the worst likely yet. He predicted that the general population would be widely immunized by the end of March or early April – beyond front-line workers, the elderly and certain other segments of the public who are first in line.
The United States continues to lead the world by cases, at 19.1 million, and deaths at 333,140, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, or about one-fifth of the global number for each.
Many were relieved when President Donald Trump signed a $ 900 billion pandemic aid package late Sunday after spending days refusing to do so. The package will provide the necessary cash to companies and individuals and will prevent the closure of the federal government, as reported by the Associated Press.
The massive legislation includes $ 1.4 trillion to fund government agencies by September and contains other priorities at the end of the session, such as an increase in the benefits of food stamps. The move triggered a massive rally of stocks that sent leading indices, including the Dow Jones industrial average
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and the S&P 500
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to record highs.
In another train of thoughts:
• Novavax Inc.
NVAX
begins a late-stage study of its candidate for the COVID-19 vaccine with plans to enroll up to 30,000 volunteers at approximately 115 sites in the US and Mexico. The process is supported by partners of Operation Warp Speed, a federal government program that aims to rapidly develop vaccines and therapies, including the Department of Defense and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Research Authority. Advanced Biomedical Development, or Barda, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Training and Response. Barda is providing up to $ 1.6 billion to fund the lawsuit under a Department of Defense agreement. The study will be randomized, placebo-controlled and will evaluate the effectiveness of treatment, called NVX-CoV2373, in patients 18 years of age and older.
See also: AstraZeneca believes its coronavirus vaccine will be effective against the new strain
• The European Union began its vaccination program on Sunday by administering doctors, nurses and the elderly with the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc.
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and German partner BioNTech SE
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reported AP. The first strikes were coordinated throughout the trading block in a show of solidarity. The vaccine had arrived on Friday in very cold containers at EU hospitals on Friday from a factory in Belgium. Each country received only a fraction of the required doses – less than 10,000 in the first batches for some countries – with a larger release expected in January, when more vaccines will be available. Everyone who receives photos on Sunday must return for the second dose in three weeks. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said that with the development of additional vaccines, the EU will have more fires than necessary this year and could share its surplus with the Western Balkans and Africa. “Europe is well positioned,” she insisted.
• China has detained a 37-year-old citizen journalist for four years, who reported the spread of the virus in Wuhan in late 2019, Reuters reported. Her lawyer said the sentence was imposed for “raising quarrels and causing trouble”. Zhang Zhan is the first such person known to have been tried and was among a handful of people whose accounts in crowded hospitals and empty streets painted a darker picture of the pandemic than official accounts did.
• Indonesia bans all foreign travelers for two weeks from January 1, The Guardian reported. The news was announced by Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, citing concerns about the broadcast. The new rule will apply to all foreign visitors, except senior government officials.
Latest accounts
There are now 80.9 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, according to Johns Hopkins, and at least 1.77 million people have died. Nearly 46 million people have recovered.
Brazil has the second highest number of deaths, at 191,139 and is the third in cases, with 7.5 million.
India is second in the world with 10.2 million cases and third with 147,901 deaths.
Mexico has the fourth highest number of deaths, with 122,426 and the 13th highest number of cases, with 1.4 million.
Italy has 71,925 deaths, the highest in Europe and 2 million cases. The UK has 2.3 million cases, most in Europe and 70,860 deaths, second in Europe and sixth in the world.
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has recorded 95,693 confirmed cases and 4,773 deaths, according to its official figures.