US sets record of Covid cases

For the second day in a row, the United States on Friday notched a record number of coronavirus cases in 24 hours, reaching 225,201 new infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. 

The novel coronavirus has killed at least 1,519,213 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1100 GMT yesterday.

At least 65,865,820 cases of coronavirus have been registered. Of these, at least 41,777,200 are now considered recovered.

On Friday, 12,177 new deaths and 677,808 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on the latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were the United States with 2,506 new deaths, followed by Italy with 814 and Brazil with 694.

The United States is also the worst-affected country with 279,008 deaths from 14,372,570 cases. At least 5,470,389 people have been declared recovered.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 175,964 deaths from 6,533,968 cases, India with 139,700 deaths from 9,608,211 cases, Mexico with 108,863 deaths from 1,156,770 cases, and Britain with 60,617 deaths from 1,690,432 cases.

After a brief reprieve from the first wave, the United States has seen a dramatic resurgence in its epidemic in recent weeks. It had surpassed 200,000 new daily cases three times in the past month.

US health officials warned of a surge after millions of Americans traveled to celebrate last week's Thanksgiving holiday despite pleas from authorities to stay home.

For two weeks, the US has regularly topped 2,000 deaths per day.

The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 is also steadily increasing, especially in the most populous states of California, Florida, New York and Texas, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Meanwhile, British medical chiefs said the arrival of a vaccine should see deaths reduce "significantly" by early next year but warned social mixing over Christmas could cause another spike before then.

"We think it likely that by spring the effects of vaccination will begin to be felt in reducing Covid admissions, attendances and deaths significantly but there are many weeks before we get to that stage," the chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said.

But the country's health chiefs warned that  vaccine deployment will have "only a marginal impact in reducing numbers coming into the health service with Covid over the next three months".

Deploying the vaccines "safely, rapidly and in a sequence which is most likely to reduce mortality" will also be "a very considerable logistical exercise," they added.

The letter to health professionals said they should brace for more pressure on the system after Christmas, with social mixing rules relaxed over the festive period to allow three households to meet.

Britain has recorded more than 60,000 deaths of those testing positive for the virus, the worst toll in Europe.

Italy is seeing a dramatic resurgence of infections after it largely tamped down an earlier outbreak by enforcing a strict lockdown, while Latin America and the Caribbean region has seen an 18 percent spike in cases in a week.

Other countries are also unveiling holiday restrictions, with Switzerland banning Christmas carolling in the streets and Madrid cancelling most New Year events in the city centre.