Summary:
- World tops 50 million COVID cases
- US tops 1k deaths for 5th day
- Dr. Gottlieb says Joe Biden needs to release COVID strategy
- Italy reports another 30k+ new cases
- Greece reports another 35 deaths
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With most of the world focused on political developments in the US, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has surpassed the 50 million mark, almost exactly a year after the first cases were supposedly discovered in Wuhan, China.
Meanwhile, US deaths remained at more than 1,000 for a 5th day, a streak that we last saw in August, according to data from Johns Hopkins. On Sunday, the US reported more than 126,000 new infections for the third day. Globally, the world reported more than half-a-million new cases for at least a fourth day.
As the world waits to see how President-elect Joe Biden is going to handle the virus, or whether there is going to be another national lockdown in the US, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said that Biden needs to launch a national strategy.
“If you’re not going to have a federally led national strategy in the next couple of months, and it’s going to be led at the state level, you at least want to coordinate across different states so it starts to have the semblance of a more cohesive plan,” Dr. Gottlieb said on “Face The Nation”.
Here’s some more COVID-19 news from Sunday:
Greece reported 35 additional deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday, a record number for the second straight day. With patients swamping intensive-care units, Greece began a nationwide lockdown on Saturday that’s scheduled to stay in place through November. Cases increased by 1,914 on the day to 56,698 (Source: Bloomberg).
Italy reported 32,616 new cases on Sunday, some 7,000 fewer than a record number the day before but the fifth consecutive day with more than 30,000. Another 331 deaths were blamed on Covid-19. More Italian regions are considering lockdowns after authorities imposed tighter restrictions on the worst-hit areas, including Milan and Turin (Source: Bloomberg).
The UK reported more than 20,000 cases for the sixth straight day, though the 20,572 reported Sunday were below the seven-day average of 22,826. With 156 new deaths, the toll was less than half of the weekly average. Reporting has lagged on weekends (Source: Bloomberg).
