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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 6, 2020. – Three days after the record turnout of 160 million US elections, there was still no declared a winner. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)
WASHINGTON, United States – The United States reported new record cases of coronavirus for the third day in a row, as Joe Biden promised to act against the pandemic on the “first day” if he wins the presidential election in the worst affected nation in the world.
Biden expressed confidence that he would defeat President Donald Trump as the vote count dragged on since Tuesday’s election, but he failed to declare himself the winner.
He promised to unite a bitterly divided nation.
“It’s time for us to come together as a nation to heal,” Biden said.
Global infections have exceeded 49 million and Europe has become the new epicenter of the pandemic in recent weeks, with more than 300,000 deaths, almost a quarter of the global total.
More than 127,000 new infections were reported in the United States on Friday, the third consecutive day of record cases, while votes were still being counted from the close presidential election.
No winner has been declared, but Biden vowed Friday night that he would waste no time tackling the pandemic if he is victorious.
“I want everyone, everyone to know that from day one we are going to implement our plan to control this virus,” said the Democrat.
The infection figures came as President Donald Trump, who survived a Covid-19 attack in October and has been widely criticized for his handling of the crisis, followed his Democratic rival in the ongoing vote count.
Cases in the United States are fast approaching 10 million, with more than 236,000 deaths, and the pandemic has hit the world’s largest economy, leaving millions out of work.
Trump has openly opposed the lockdown measures, citing their impact on the economy, and has repeatedly clashed with experts from his own administration about coronavirus policy.
Unlike Biden, Trump held massive campaign rallies ahead of the Nov. 3 vote and had insisted the United States was “turning around” the virus despite the waves.
Several senior officials in his administration have contracted the virus in recent weeks, and Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows was the last to test positive, US media said Friday night.
The pandemic has been cited as one of the factors behind the delay in the results of the US elections, with state authorities inundated with millions of ballots submitted by citizens unwilling to risk being infected by voting in person.
– ‘More distrust’
Across the Atlantic, Greece became the latest European nation to go into lockdown on Saturday with the continent reeling from a second, relentless wave of coronavirus.
According to the measures, which went into effect at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT), Greeks can only leave their homes if they make an official request by mobile phone and then receive authorization. Only “essential stores”, including supermarkets and pharmacies, can remain open.
The measures follow the imposition of restrictions in Italy, France, Ireland and Great Britain, while Switzerland is also being hit hard by the virus.
Poland will also impose new measures on Saturday, closing most stores in shopping malls, with a few exceptions such as grocery stores, pharmacies and beauty salons. The government is also closing cinemas, theaters, galleries, and other cultural institutions and making hotels available only to business travelers.
Governments are also exploring mass testing as a way to curb the pandemic.
In England, Liverpool started the country’s first city-wide coronavirus testing program on Friday. The 500,000 residents will be offered repeat tests, even if they are asymptomatic, under a pilot scheme that could be rolled out across the country if successful.
With populations increasingly tired of the confinements, protests have broken out in some countries. Protesters and police have clashed in parts of Italy and the Czech Republic in recent weeks.
Giorgio Gori, the mayor of Bergamo, the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in Italy earlier this year, said that “there is more fatigue and more distrust” than during the first lockdown, after people protested in front of his house.
Before the closure of Greece, people were quick to get their hair cut even though hair salons and salons may open two more days.
Athenian hairdresser Apostolos Gelbas said he was struggling to find time to serve all his clients: “It seems this was one of the main things people lost during the first shutdown.”
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