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The United States recorded its 10 millionth case of the coronavirus on Monday, according to a count from Johns Hopkins University, the same day Pfizer and BioNTech announced their vaccine was 90% effective.
Shortly before 2:00 p.m. GMT Monday, the Baltimore-based university tracker showed 10,018,278 cases recorded in the United States since the start of the pandemic and 237,742 deaths.
Both are the highest tolls in absolute terms in the world.
Related video: COVID-19 death toll in the United States exceeds 200,000
The United States is now well into its third and by far the biggest wave of the epidemic.
But the interim results provided by Pfizer and BioNTech offered hope for a game change in the trajectory of the pandemic.
According to preliminary results, patient protection was achieved seven days after the second of the two doses of vaccine and 28 days after the first.
Outgoing President Donald Trump, heavily criticized for his handling of the health crisis, called the breakthrough “good news”, while leading US pandemic expert Anthony Fauci said the result was “extraordinary”.
President-elect Joe Biden, meanwhile, urged Americans on Monday to wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and not to view it as a “political statement,” as he named the scientists who will lead his administration’s response to the pandemic.
“We’re still facing a very dark winter,” Biden said. “Bottom line: I will spare no effort to reverse this pandemic once we are sworn in on January 20.
Biden applauded the vaccine announcement, but insisted that a mask still remains “the most powerful weapon” against the virus, and that “today’s news does not change this pressing reality” .
bur-ia / cl
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