{"id":114626,"date":"2021-02-22T11:59:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T03:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=114626"},"modified":"2021-02-22T11:59:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T03:59:57","slug":"covid-19-us-nears-500000-deaths-as-globally-figure-approaching-2-5-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=114626","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: US nears 500,000 deaths as globally, figure approaching 2.5 million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States stood on the brink of recording 500,000 Covid-related deaths since the start of the
pandemic, while nations globally pressed on with vaccination rollouts,
including with Australia giving its first shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The catastrophic US toll comes as some signs of hope are emerging in the
world\u2019s hardest-hit country, with millions of people now vaccinated and
winter\u2019s massive spike in infections dropping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But deaths are still coming, and President Joe Biden last month warned
that \u201cwell over\u201d 600,000 people in the US could die from the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s terrible. It is historic. We haven\u2019t seen anything even close to
this for well over a hundred years, since the 1918 pandemic of influenza,\u201d
Biden\u2019s chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci told NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet The Press.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that is stunning when you look at the numbers, almost
unbelievable, but it\u2019s true,\u201d Fauci added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Sunday night, the US toll on the Johns Hopkins University tracking
website stood at 498,879. Globally, the figure was approaching 2.5 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After America\u2019s first Covid-19 death was announced in February last year,
it took about three months to pass the 100,000 mark, during a first wave that hit New York particularly hard. But as the outbreak surged across the
country, the pace of deaths increased, with the toll jumping from 400,000 in
just over a month amid a spike fueled in part by holiday gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fauci noted the number of daily new infections was on a steep decline
after peaking in January, but he added normal life may still be some way off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll have a significant degree of normality\u2026 as we get into
the fall and the winter, by the end of the year,\u201d Fauci said on CNN\u2019s \u201cState
of the Union.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more
than 61 million people have received at least one shot of vaccine in the
United States, with some 18 million getting the full two doses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden has made it a priority to get 100 million people vaccinated within
the first 100 days of his administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Australia, top officials Sunday were among a small group receiving the
first vaccinations, a day before the program starts in earnest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Scott Morrison got the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine at a medical
center in Sydney, in what the government said was a bid to boost public
confidence in the vaccinations that have been subject to some anti-vaccine
protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in Britain, the government vowed to offer a first coronavirus
vaccine dose to every adult by the end of July, as it readied to announce a
gradual easing of its third lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 17 million people have now received at least a first vaccine
dose \u2014 one third of the adult UK population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in Gaza on Sunday, some 20,000 Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine doses
arrived from the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jabs came via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, meaning they did not pass
through Israel, which has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza since 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden last week said the program to deliver vaccines into people\u2019s arms is
as complicated as the already intense challenges of manufacturing them in
huge quantities at speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said his 100-million-shot goal is on track to be easily surpassed,
with a current average of 1.7 million vaccinations a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden said he did not want to give firm predictions of when the crisis
will be curbed, but said that 600 million doses \u2014 enough to provide the two-
dose regimen to most of the country \u2014 were expected to be ready by the end of July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president is expected to speak Monday about the latest toll, and he is
to be joined by Vice-President Kamala Harris at sunset for a moment of
silence and a candle-lighting ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though concern has grown over variants of the virus, especially those that
appear to spread more easily and render current shots less potent, Fauci
sounded a hopeful note on whether another surge was coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think at all that it is inevitable,\u201d he told CNN. \u201cThe vaccines
we are currently distributing now, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, work very well against the UK variant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underscoring the remaining risks, German Health Minister Jens Spahn urged caution Sunday in the face of rising coronavirus infection numbers, just as schools across the country prepare to reopen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in Italy, a top virologist warned that cases were on the rise again. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States stood on the brink of recording 500,000 Covid-related deaths since the start of thepandemic, while nations globally pressed on with vaccination rollouts,including with Australia giving its first shots. The catastrophic US toll comes as some signs of hope are emerging in theworld\u2019s hardest-hit country, with millions of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":114627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215,209,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114626"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}