[ad_1]
MILAN / CHICAGO: The United States, Russia, France and many other countries are setting records for coronavirus infections as a wave of cases spreads across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, forcing some countries to impose new restrictions.
The gloom hit global financial markets on Monday (October 26), as mounting infections clouded the economic outlook.
US stocks had their worst day in more than seven weeks due to the double whammy of record coronavirus cases and political stalemate in negotiations to provide more economic aid.
The news that a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca produced immune responses in both the elderly and the young offered some positive news as autumn turns to winter in northern countries and more people socialize indoors.
But British Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that the vaccine would not be widely available until next year, saying: “We are not there yet.”
READ: New COVID-19 cases in France could be 100,000 per day: government medical adviser
Any vaccine faces both scientific and public relations hurdles. Surveys have shown that only about half of Americans would receive a COVID-19 vaccine due to concerns about safety, efficacy, and the approval process.
In the United States, the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 is at a maximum of two months, making it difficult for health care systems in some states.
US President Donald Trump, facing an uphill battle for re-election on November 3, again lashed out at reports that the coronavirus is on the rise.
He reiterated his unsubstantiated claim that COVID-19 cases are on the rise because there is more evidence, a claim not supported by data and which has been rejected by health experts.
“Cases go up because PROOF, PROOF, PROOF. A fake news media conspiracy. Lots of young people heal very fast. 99.9%. Corrupt media conspiracy at all high,” Trump said in a Twitter post.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States last week increased 24 percent, while the number of tests performed increased 5.5 percent, according to an analysis by Reuters.
‘LOCK LIGHT’
In Europe, the outlook was relentlessly bleak as a number of countries reported record increases, led by France, which recorded more than 50,000 daily cases for the first time on Sunday, while the continent passed the 250,000 death threshold.
France may even be experiencing 100,000 new infections a day, Professor Jean-François Delfraissy, who heads a council that advises the government, told RTL radio.
Governments have been desperate to avoid the lockdowns that curbed the disease earlier this year at the cost of shutting down all of their economies. But the steady increase in new cases has forced many in Europe to tighten restrictions.
“We are facing very, very difficult months,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a meeting of leaders of her Christian Democratic party, according to the daily Bild.
READ: The death toll from COVID-19 in Germany exceeds 10,000
She plans a “closing light” that will focus on closing bars, restaurants and public events, the newspaper said.
The Spanish government faced a backlash over its plans to put one of Europe’s worst COVID-19 hot spots under a six-month state of emergency. Opposition parties said six months was too long, epidemiologists said this could be too late, and some citizens resisted night curfews.
Russia’s daily count of new COVID-19 infections rose to an all-time high of 17,347 on Monday as the Kremlin warned that the pandemic was starting to take a higher price outside Moscow.
In August, Russia became the first country to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing, surprising skeptical scientists in the West. Regulators approved a second vaccine earlier this month.
With 1.5 million infections, the country of around 145 million people has recorded the fourth largest COVID-19 case burden in the world, after the United States, India and Brazil.
Italy, the country hardest hit in the early stages of the crisis in March, imposed new restrictions, ordered the closure of restaurants and bars starting at 6 p.m., closed cinemas and gyms and imposed local curfews in several regions.
More than 43 million people are reported to have been infected by the coronavirus worldwide and 1.15 million have died, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has the highest number of deaths and infections.
CHECK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments
Download our app or subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on the coronavirus outbreak: https://cna.asia/telegram
