The John Hopkins University has tallied more than a quarter-million people deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, marking a rather unwelcome new milestone for the pandemic.
The US, which has now registered 250,029 fatalities, has by far the highest national death toll, ahead of Brazil with 166,699 deaths, India with 130,993 deaths and Mexico with 99,026.
“There’s a whole lot of things that we just don’t have available to us, including real-time data on personal protective equipment and the distribution plan for COVID-19 vaccines.”
He maintained that keeping this information could slow his transition’s team’s ability to prepare to handle the virus.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci added that the country was “going in the wrong direction at a very precarious time”, with people more likely to gather inside as the weather gets colder.
Dr Fauci warned about the new surge in cases leading to more deaths.
“It’s a very serious situation because there are lagging indicators,” he said. “So when you see the massive increase in cases as we’re seeing now particularly as more and more people are doing things inside, we’re in a very difficult situation.”
He called for people to “double down” on public health measures, such as wearing face coverings, physical distancing and avoiding crowds.
“They sound so simple and we know they can work. But there’s a degree of Covid fatigue – people just are worn out with these restrictions.”
He further urged people to “hold out for just a little longer because help is on the way” in the form of vaccines.
At the end of March, Dr Fauci predicted the pandemic could kill up to 200,000 Americans and infect millions more.
Meanwhile, New York City has cancelled in-person classes and closed all schools. The decision to close the US’s largest public school system came as positive test rates for the virus surpassed the 3% threshold. Officials estimate the pandemic will affect some 300,000 children.
Bill de Blasio, the New York mayor, intimated, “No one is happy about this decision. We all in fact are feeling very sad about this decision because so much good work has been put into keeping the schools open, opening them up to begin with.
“I want to emphasise to parents, to educators, to staff, to kids that we will intend to come back and come back as quickly as possible,” he said.
He also stated that officials had “set a very clear standard” on safety metrics that needed to be met in order for schools to take pupils, “and we need to stick to that standard”.
The USA has recently recorded more than 1,000 deaths and 150,000 new cases each day.
Regions like the Midwest that largely avoided the first and second waves of coronavirus infections in 2020 are also seeing alarming spikes.
It’s not all doom and gloom as data released by Pfizer and BioNTech have revealed the vaccine they have developed to tackle the virus is 95% efficient.
US pharmaceutical company, Moderna Inc has also released promising preliminary trial data for its COVID-19 vaccine that showed it be 94.5 percent effective with similarly promising results from trials of another developed in Russia called Sputnik.
