While coronavirus cases continue to rise at an alarming rate in North America and Europe, one of the creators of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Germany’s Pfizer and BioNTech says normal life will return next winter.
BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said he was “very confident that human-to-human transmission will be reduced with such an effective vaccine, maybe not 90%, but maybe 50%.”
It is essential that all immunization programs are completed before fall, he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday.
North Dakota previously became the 35th state in the US to require face coverings to be worn in public, as governors across the country are grappling with a surge in coronavirus infections. North Dakota joined 38 other states this month in reporting record daily jumps in new cases.
New cases across the country rose to a daily record of more than 177,000 on Friday, the fourth consecutive day a record high was set, according to a Reuters tally of figures from US public health agencies.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the use of masks, and a widely cited model estimated that a nationwide mandate could save 68,000 lives by next spring.
In France, the number of new confirmed cases and deaths increased dramatically in the last 24 hours. France registered 32,095 new cases and deaths in hospitals from Covid-19 increased by 359.
Ten people died on Saturday in a fire at a Romanian hospital treating patients with coronavirus, the country’s emergency agency said. The fire broke out in the ICU of Piatra Neamt County Hospital and spread to an adjoining room.
.
