WASHINGTON/LONDON, Jan 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Joe Biden said “well over 600,000” Americans could die of the coronavirus as he stepped up federal aid in the world’s worst-hit country.
“The virus is surging. We’re at 400,000 dead, expected to reach well over
600,000,” Biden told a news conference, giving his highest estimate yet for
the US outbreak’s eventual toll.
His new administration boosted stimulus handouts as well as payments to
help families buy food, with more poor children going hungry after the school lunches they depended on disappeared as classrooms shuttered.
“The American people can’t afford to wait,” said Brian Deese of the White
House’s National Economic Council, adding that many people were “hanging by a thread.”
Various US states meanwhile grappled with vaccine distribution, with New
York reporting its supply of shots would run out Friday.
The country marked its third consecutive day of more than 4,000
coronavirus deaths, bringing the overall count to 413,000 with 24.8 million
confirmed infections.
BRITAIN: Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a new strain of the virus
that has swept his country and beyond could be more deadly as well as more transmissible, with the variant having spread to more than 60 countries already.
In Britain, imams were using their Friday sermons to reassure worshippers
that coronavirus vaccines are safe, exercising their clout in Muslim
communities to support the immunization drive.
“The hesitancy, the anxiety (and) concern is driven by misinformation,
conspiracy theories, fake news and rumors,” said Qari Asim, chairman of
Britain’s Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board.
The imams’ campaign comes as Britain battles to constrain the new strain
of Covid-19.
Chief government scientist Patrick Vallance said the strain could be 30-40
percent more deadly for some age groups, though he stressed the assessment relied on sparse data.
The British strain, along with variants first detected in South Africa and
Brazil, are fuelling a tightening of travel restrictions, with Belgium
banning non-essential trips out of the country.
Meanwhile, there was good news for poorer nations, as the WHO and
pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer announced a deal for up to 40 million initial
doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to be made available to them through the Covax global pool.
“We can only end the pandemic anywhere if we end it everywhere,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
A separate deal, brokered by international agencies working with the WHO,
will supply developing nations with tens of millions of rapid antigen tests
at half the usual $5 price. — NNN-AGENCIES
