New York: US coronavirus deaths passed a quarter of a million people Wednesday as New York announced it would close schools to battle a rise in infections and protests in Europe against restrictions turned violent.
America has now registered 250,029 fatalities, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University, by far the highest national death toll.
US states and cities are imposing a raft of new restrictions, including home confinement, the closure of indoor dining and a limit on gatherings as cases soar across the country.
According to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, the city’s 1,800 public schools would revert to remote learning beginning Thursday after the Big Apple recorded a seven-day average positivity rate of three percent.
“We must fight back the second wave of Covid-19,” he said.
The toughened measures in America’s most-populous city despite the pharma giant Pfizer boosting hopes of a possible end to the pandemic by announcing improved results for its vaccine.
Europe remains the hardest-hit region, accounting for 46 percent of new global cases and 49 percent of deaths last week, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Its figures additionally showed the only region where cases and deaths declined last week was Southeast Asia.
Worldwide, more than 1.3 million people have died of Covid-19 and over 55 million have been infected with the virus since it first surfaced in China late last year, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.
AFP
