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Coronavirus hospitalizations in the US surpassed an all-time high on Wednesday. A record 100,226 Americans are hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data collected by the Covid Tracking Project.
The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, warned: “December, January and February will be difficult times. In fact, I think they will be the most difficult times in history. of the public health of this nation. “
The pandemic has put enormous pressure on the US healthcare system, the worst affected nation in the world. Nearly 200,000 new cases and 2,753 new deaths were reported Wednesday.
Europe
the United Kingdom became the first country in the Western world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use. It will be released to the public next week.
the EU Medicines Regulator, The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will hold a special meeting on December 29 on whether to launch the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use. The agency insisted it had the “most appropriate” method for approving the vaccines, after Britain announced that it would release the vaccine for public use next week.
UK ministers falsely claimed that Brexit had freed them to adopt the vaccine to the EU. In reality, individual Member States are free to approve a vaccine for temporary emergency use if they so wish.
Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who was in power from 1974-81, died Wednesday at the age of 94, due to complications from COVID-19. He had previously been hospitalized due to heart problems.
German federal and state governments They agreed to extend the current partial blockade of the country until January 10, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on Wednesday. He will meet again with the 16 state leaders of Germany on January 4 to reassess the situation.
“Generally, things will continue as they are now,” Merkel said.
Data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) showed that cases in Germany rose by 22,046 to 1,106,789, on Thursday. The death toll increased by 479, bringing the figure to 17,602.
Read more: Coronavirus: German rail operator launches plan for ‘safer’ Christmas trips
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a large scale immunization campaign in Russia, which will start at the end of next week. The country will administer its nationally developed Sputnik V vaccine, which received regulatory approval in August.
Experts have warned that the Russian vaccine has not yet completed the advanced studies necessary to ensure its efficacy and safety under current scientific protocols.
the The Italian Ministry of Health has banned midnight masses, as the country reports more deaths than any other European nation in recent weeks. Italians will also not be able to move between regions during the holiday period, except in cases of emergency.
Christmas Eve Mass will end at 8:30 pm this year, so that attendees can get home in time for the 10 pm curfew that has already been imposed.
Americas
President Elect of the USA Joe Biden warned of a “dark winter” during a live broadcast panel discussion with workers affected by the pandemic.
“We are likely to lose another 250,000 people dead between now and January. Do you hear me? Because people are not paying attention,” he said. His predictions seemed much grimmer than those made by experts, but his team has yet to clarify the observations.
Asia and Oceania
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australian borders it will be closed for “some time” to people who are not Australian citizens or permanent residents. “At international borders we are still a while away from that,” he told reporters.
Australia’s pharmaceutical regulator said it is on track to review Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for January 2021. The country has not made any changes to its schedule to launch the vaccine in March, despite UK approval.
Global
the UN General Assembly will hold a special session starting Thursday on responding to COVID-19 and the best path to recovery, in which about 100 world leaders and some ministers are scheduled to speak.
Volkan Bozkir, President of the General Assembly, said the session “provides us with a historic moment to come together to defeat COVID-19.”
tg / aw (dpa, AFP, AP, Reuters)
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