The COVID-19 case count in the United States is troubled

Washington: Pending the arrival of the vaccine the world hopes for later this year, the United States has once again broken the record level of COVID-19 infections, while a number of countries have reset the blockade, as has the Hungary Wednesday.

Data from Johns Hopkins University, which is considered a reference for monitoring injuries and deaths resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, showed that between 8:30 pm Monday and 8:30 pm Tuesday (01:30 GMT of Wednesday), the United States recorded 201,961 new cases of the virus. .

While this record number in the US is due to recent data reported from last week, it reflects the trend the country is heading towards.

It also indicated 1,535 deaths in one day. The United States is the country with the highest number of recorded deaths from Covid-19 in the world, with around 240,000 cases.

A week ago, the United States recorded more than 100,000 new HIV infections a day, at a never-before-seen threshold, while the number of people entering hospitals hit a record high.

A pandemic, long downplayed by outgoing President Donald Trump, plunged the country into its worst health crisis since the 1918 Spanish flu.

And US President-elect Joe Biden outlined the characteristics of his plan to fight the epidemic over the weekend, which he made a top priority of his next term. On Monday he revealed the names of members of a crisis cell dedicated to working on the pandemic once it enters the White House on January 20.

The United States is also proud of the announcement by the “Pfizer” and “Biontech” laboratories on Monday that they have achieved a vaccine “90% effective” in preventing Covid-19.

With Trump’s payment, the US administration signed a $ 1.95 billion contract with Pfizer to get one hundred million doses, if the vaccine was authorized. He hopes to start vaccinating vulnerable groups by the end of this year.

Pfizer intends to apply for a license from the US Food and Drug Administration after completing the latest measures within the next week. US Secretary of Health Alex Azar said the next release would be a matter of “weeks”.

And the European Union announced Wednesday that it had agreed a contract with Pfizer that it would sign in the coming days to purchase up to 300 million doses of the vaccine.

The European Union is likely to have granted a license for a Covid-19 vaccine in early 2021, according to a European source.

European restrictions intensify

Waiting for European countries to step up restrictions to stop the spread of the second wave of the virus. The latest of these was after France, England and several other countries, Hungary, which has imposed a partial closure since Wednesday that should last at least thirty days, as rallies have been banned, restaurants closed, cultural events and entertainment canceled, while the curfew was extended from eight in the evening to five in the morning.

“I agree with all these measures, but everything is resolved quickly with only a few hours notice,” retired Maria Paksay told AFP, as she wore a mask on a Budapest street Wednesday.

In the hours before closing, customers and employees talked about their opinion of a life without a bar for a month.

“We’re going to take trips or something like that instead of going to the pub,” said Lorenck Fritz, the 22-year-old student. For his part, Chapolk Sisley, who works as a waiter in the “Bim Buffet” restaurant, said he is looking for a new job.

The director of the European Agency for Epidemiology announced in an interview with Agence France-Presse that the first vaccines against Covid-19 in the European Union could be available “in the first half of 2021”.

In early September, the European Commission entered into a preliminary agreement with “Biontech” and “Pfizer” to pre-order 200 million doses of their vaccine, with the option to purchase an additional 100 million doses.

The European Union had already signed three contracts to obtain possible vaccines with the Swedish-British company “AstraZenaka” and the American “Joseon & Johnson” (up to 400 million doses each), as well as the French-British duo Sanofi / GlaxoSmithKline (300 million doses).

Other countries, such as Japan, Canada and Great Britain, have also signed orders with Pfizer. However, NGOs have for months expressed their concern over the acquisition of available doses by rich countries.

“The vaccine will be 0% effective for people who don’t have the money to get it,” said Robin Guitar, spokesperson for “Oxfam” in France.

The American “Pfizer” and the German “Biontech” confirmed that the vaccine, which is taken in two batches, separated by three weeks, is “90% effective” based on the preliminary results of a large-scale experiment which is now underway, and its details have not been disclosed. The vaccine reduced the risk of infection by 90% in the group that received it compared to a group that received a placebo vaccine.

And after it has been one of the few countries that the virus has not reached so far, health authorities in Vanuatu announced on Tuesday the first confirmed infection with the emerging corona virus in this archipelago located in the Pacific Ocean.

The health ministry said a 23-year-old young man recently returned from the United States tested positive for COVID-19 while in quarantine.