WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US registered more than 2,200 deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally on Thursday, a record high since May as the pandemic surges across the country.
The number of cases at 8:30pm (0030 GMT Friday) was 11,698,661 with 252,419 deaths, meaning 200,146 new infections and 2,239 more deaths in 24 hours.
US authorities have urged Americans not to travel for the Thanksgiving
holiday next week as virus cases soar. California on Thursday announced a
night-time curfew aimed at curbing the pandemic.
America was hit by a spike of over 200,000 new infections and 2,239
fatalities — the worst death toll since May — over the past 24 hours.
A powerful weapon against the virus could be coming soon though, as
BioNTech and Pfizer planned to apply on Friday for emergency use
authorisation of their vaccine in the US.
The recent surge in US cases has sufficiently alarmed authorities that they
asked Americans to stay home for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, which
normally sees millions travel to gather with their families for meals —
ideal conditions for virus spread.
“It’s not a requirement. It’s a strong recommendation,” Henry Walke, a US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doctor, told reporters.
Thanksgiving is the busiest US holiday in terms of travel, as it falls on a
Thursday and many Americans take the Friday off work and make a long weekend of it.
Despite the warning, President-elect Joe Biden did not come out for the
type of national shutdown that some European nations have put back in place as cases have jumped after a summer lull.
“There’s no circumstance which I can see that would require total national
shutdown. I think that would be counterproductive,” Biden, who takes office on January 20, told reporters Thursday.
US states and cities have been imposing their own restrictions, including
home confinement, the closure of indoor dining and a limit on gatherings as infections soar across the country.
New York City on Thursday closed its schools — affecting 1.1 million
students — but left gyms and bars open, the opposite of the virus strategy
in many European cities where schools have stayed open.
California will impose a 10:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew from Saturday, with
state Governor Gavin Newsom saying it was “crucial to decrease transmission and slow hospitalizations.”
President Donald Trump has been muted in his public reactions to the surge in cases, staying largely out of the public eye as he presses his
unsubstantiated fraud claims in the election he lost to Biden.
Health Secretary Alex Azar told a White House briefing that the
BioNTech/Pfizer application was expected Friday, confirming a timeline
BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin shared in an interview.
“There is a chance that we can receive approval from the US or Europe or
both regions this year still,” Sahin said.
“We may even start delivering the vaccine in December,” he added, “if
everyone works together very closely”.
The BioNTech/Pfizer shot and another one from US firm Moderna have taken the lead in the race for a vaccine, after large-scale trial data this month showed their jabs were around 95 percent effective against Covid-19.
Trials for another vaccine, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, also show it safely produces a robust immune response in healthy older people, while producing fewer side effects than in younger people, its British maker said on Thursday.
Vaccines would be a major weapon against the virus that has killed at least
1,350,275 people and infected 56 million since the outbreak emerged in China last December.
After the US, the second worst-affected country is Brazil with 167,455
deaths, followed by India with 131,578 and Mexico which hit 100,104 deaths on Thursday. — NNN-AGENCIES
