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A disturbing new variant of Covid-19 was first detected in the United States and Latin America on Tuesday as President-elect Joe Biden vowed he would dramatically speed up an incipient vaccination campaign.
The new strain, which first emerged in the UK, pushed Britain to a new daily record for coronavirus infections and led South Africa to impose a series of new measures, amid worldwide fears that revelers will worsen the peak in infections.
The EU health agency has warned the strain has a high risk of hospitalizations and death – not because infections are more serious, but because it spreads more easily.
The Rocky Mountain state of Colorado has recorded what is believed to be the first case in the United States – which has suffered the highest death toll from the year-old pandemic that has claimed more than 1.78 million dead in the world.
US President-elect Joe Biden speaks about the Covid crisis in Wilmington, Delaware. By Brendan Smialowski (AFP) Governor Jared Polis said a man in his twenties in Elbert County, near Denver, had been infected with the variant known as B.1.1.7 and was in the process of self-isolating.
Biden, after receiving an expert briefing on the pandemic, warned that the dire Covid situation might not improve until “until March.”
“The weeks and months ahead are going to be very difficult – a very difficult time for our nation, perhaps the most difficult in this whole pandemic,” Biden said in Delaware.
Covid hospitalizations are back to a record high in the United States, at more than 121,000 on Monday.
In Los Angeles, ambulances waited all day to unload Covid patients, with more than 95% of hospitals being forced to turn away new cases, and one of them reportedly treating patients in his gift shop and chapel . Southern California extended a three-week lockout indefinitely on Tuesday.
‘The biggest operational challenge’
Argentina was among the countries that started mass vaccination. By Edgardo A. VALERA (TELAM / AFP) Biden called the mass vaccination against Covid the “biggest operational challenge we have ever faced as a nation” – and vowed the United States would do better after replacing defeated President Donald Trump on January 20.
“The Trump administration’s plan to distribute vaccines is far behind,” Biden said, promising, “I’m going to move Heaven and Earth to put us in the right direction.”
The Trump administration had predicted that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of December.
Within days of the end, some 2.1 million received the first injection of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Trump defended his record on Twitter, saying the federal government had helped develop vaccines quickly but it was up to individual states to distribute them.
Biden renewed his pledge to administer 100 million doses of the vaccine in his first 100 days in office and confirmed he would invoke a Korean War-era law to force private industry to step up production.
“We are planning a whole-of-government effort and we will work to set up vaccination sites and send mobile units to hard-to-reach communities,” Biden said.
As health workers wait desperately, politicians were among the first to get vaccinated with the stated aim of setting an example, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris taking her first dose on Tuesday in front of cameras in Washington.
As conspiracy theories spread across the internet, a new Ipsos Global Advisor poll has shown that only four in ten people in France want to be vaccinated, a figure that is only slightly higher in Russia and South Africa. South.
Record case in Great Britain
Health chiefs have warned that England is “back in the eyes” of the coronavirus storm. By Tolga Akmen (AFP / File) The UK government has come under pressure to tighten restrictions by announcing a 24-hour record of 53,135 new infections.
Intensive care doctor Samantha Batt-Rawden said medical staff were at “breaking point”.
“We are incredibly skinny on the ground. NHS (National Health Service) staff have not been prioritized for the vaccine and are falling ill en masse with the new strain,” she tweeted.
In South Africa, which has recorded more than 300 cases of the new variant and is the first African country to hit a million cases, the government has banned the sale of alcohol and made masks mandatory in public.
“We have let our guard down, and unfortunately we are now paying the price,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing the new strain and an “extreme lack of vigilance during the holiday period” for the peak.
Chile on Tuesday became the first Latin American country to detect the new strain, in a woman who returned there from Madrid after also traveling to Britain and Dubai.
Many countries have started rolling out coronavirus vaccines, but the pandemic has shown no signs of slowing down. By Alfredo ESTRELLA (AFP) Health officials responded by announcing that from December 31, anyone arriving in Chile would have to spend 10 days in quarantine.
The new strain has also been detected in the United Arab Emirates and India, which has the second highest number of cases in the world.
Worrisome trends have intensified around the world, with South Korea – hailed for its early successes – recording its highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic.
And Moscow health officials reported a 27% increase in deaths in the capital from October to November – a day after Russia admitted the death toll from Covid-19 was more than three times higher. higher than what she had previously reported.
Bursa-SCT / st
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