The United States continues to surpass record numbers of new coronavirus cases in a single day, this time with more than 160,000 people testing positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.
On Nov. 12 alone, 163,405 new cases of novel coronavirus infections were tallied in the U.S., according to data compiled by The New York Times, with about 1,171 COVID-related deaths being reported across the country. The Times notes that, as of Friday morning, there have been more than 10,637,400 COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and 242,800 deaths.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement on Monday that in a phase 3 study, their potential coronavirus vaccine was "found to be more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants” who had not been previously infected with the virus.
In response to the news, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized that while an effective vaccine is "needed urgently," it will take more than that to remedy the global health crisis.
“A vaccine is needed urgently to control the pandemic. But as you know, it will not fix the vulnerabilities at its roots,” he said while addressing the World Health Assembly on Monday. “There is no vaccine for poverty, hunger, climate change or inequality.”
“This will not be the last global health crisis. When the next one arrives, will the headlines be the same?” he asked. “Will they say that after the COVID-19 pandemic, the world wrung its hands, wrote reports and changed nothing? Or will they say that COVID-19 was a turning point for global health security, and for global health?”
Ghebreyesus went on to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who have made it clear that tackling the pandemic will be a priority of their administration.
“We need to reimagine leadership, built on mutual trust and mutual accountability — to end the pandemic and address the fundamental inequalities that lie at the root of so many of the world’s problems,” he continued. “It’s time to forge a new era of cooperation, that puts health and well-being at the centre of our common future.”
Texas became the first state in the U.S. to surpass 1 million coronavirus cases earlier this week. As of Tuesday, there have been at least 1,037,792 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Lone Star State, according to the databases from the Times and John Hopkins University.
The grim milestone means Texas has now seen more cases than the entire country of Italy, which was considered a COVID-19 hotspot before the nation entered into a lockdown.
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