A crowded hallway at North Paulding High School in the US state of Georgia. Photo: AP
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https://scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3096733/world-nears-20-million-coronavirus-cases-dr-anthony United States & Canada
World nears 20 million coronavirus cases as Dr Anthony Fauci tempers US vaccine optimism
- United States leads world with more than 5 million cases
- Global death toll passes 730,000; UK may scrap daily count
Vaccine trial volunteer Paulo Roberto Oliveira receives a Covid-19 vaccine produced by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech at the Sao Lucas Hospital, in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil. Photo: AFP
The world was fast approaching 20 million reported coronavirus cases after the United States passed the 5 million mark, by far the highest of any country.
America’s extraordinary milestone came as its top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci said chances of developing a highly effective vaccine against the virus were “not great”.
Several nations, including China and the United States, were at varying stages of developing vaccines.
“You’ve got to think of the vaccine as a tool to be able to get the pandemic to no longer be a pandemic, but to be something that’s well controlled,” Fauci said, according to CNBC.
A highly effective vaccine would be more than 90 per cent effective at preventing coronavirus from spreading, but medical experts were hoping for at least a 50 per cent effective vaccine, on par with annual flu vaccines.
More than 731,000 people have died worldwide since the coronavirus was first detected in December in China, where 4,634 fatalities have since been reported among 84,668 cases.
On Monday, the global infection tally passed 19.8 million – but that likely reflected only a fraction of the actual number of cases.
The United States leads the world with 5 million confirmed cases, followed by Brazil with some 3 million cases and India with more than 2.2 million, Johns Hopkins University reported.
More than 12 million people around the world have recovered from the coronavirus disease, including more than 1.6 million in the US.
Five states – California, Florida, Texas, New York and Georgia – account for over 40 per cent of US infections, CNN reported.
The milestone comes amid a resurgence of the Covid-19 virus across much of the US as the new school year there opens.
But the risks of prematurely opening schools was highlighted by a high school in Georgia where nine students and staff tested positive for the coronavirus.
North Paulding High School made headlines soon after students returned to school August 3 when photos posted on social media showed hallways crowded with students, and many of them not wearing masks.
The school will provide online classes on Monday and Tuesday. It was possible in-person classes could resume later this week after the school was cleaned and disinfected.
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said the Trump administration and Congress could reach an agreement on further economic relief amid the novel coronavirus pandemic as soon as this week if Democrats were “reasonable”.
Mnuchin, in an interview on CNBC, said there was room for compromise on a deal for more aid and that legislation should get passed, but he declined to say when talks could resume.
“I think there is a compromise if the Democrats are willing to be reasonable. There is still a lot of things we need to do and that we’ve agreed on,” he said.
Mnuchin said he would not comment on the specifics of when administration officials and Democratic leaders might resume talks, but added: “If we can get a fair deal, we’ll do it this week.”
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. US President Donald Trump, who declared a national emergency, has been keen to show himself taking decisive action ahead of a November 3 election that could see him ousted from office.
Trump has defended his actions and the US record on testing as “the best ever, the best in the world”.
But Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said it was “mind-blowing” that the US government had not improved Covid-19 testing that he described as slow and lacking fair access.
“You’re paying billions of dollars in this very inequitable way to get the most worthless test results of any country in the world,” Gates said on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday. “No other country has this testing insanity.”
Gates cited long lines at commercial labs and delays in obtaining test results, meaning that “you pay as much for the late result as the timely result.” Meanwhile, “very wealthy people have access to these quick-turnaround tests,” he said.
US public officials have regularly cited delays in testing results in the US as an impediment to quick contract tracking and isolation of people infected with the virus.
Elsewhere around the world, Britain’s official Covid-19 daily death count could be scrapped following an investigation into Public Health England’s method of counting the toll, The Telegraph newspaper reported.
The conclusions of the investigation, which was ordered by Health Secretary Matt Hancock after it emerged officials were “exaggerating” virus deaths, were expected this week, the newspaper said.
One recommendation could be to move to a weekly official death toll instead, a government source said.
Britain paused the daily update of its death toll last month and the government ordered a review into how Public Health England reports coronavirus deaths, after academics said the daily figures may include people who died of other causes.
In France, growing infections in and around Paris have prompted officials to make face masks compulsory outdoors in crowded areas and tourist hotspots in the city and surrounding areas from Monday.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia has reported fewer new daily cases from its virus hotspot in the city of Melbourne than on any single day since last month. But it has also reported the nation’s highest daily death total since the virus outbreak began.
The state of Victoria reported 322 new infections and 19 new deaths on Monday, with 14 of the deaths connected to outbreaks at aged-care facilities.
Australia has reported more than 21,000 infections and more than 300 deaths.
Desperate to contain the outbreak, Australia’s states and territories have closed their borders and slowed a timetable to remove remaining social-distancing restrictions.
India on Monday registered a record 1,007 fatalities in the past 24 hours, with the total death toll reaching 44,386 on Monday.
The country has reported more than 2.2 million cases. At least 634,935 patients were still undergoing treatment. India has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil.
Vietnam’s health ministry on Monday reported six more coronavirus infections and two additional deaths, bringing the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 847, with 13 fatalities.
Most of the new cases, including an eight-year-old boy, were linked to the central city of Da Nang, where a new outbreak began late last month.
The ministry said more than 182,000 people were being quarantined in the country, including some 5,000 at hospitals, 28,000 at centralised quarantine centres and the rest at home.
Tribune News Service, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, Reuters