US COVID-19 Deaths Passes 250,000
Bleak landmark comes as more than 11m have been infected
Biden COVID adviser warns of further hardship over winter
The United States has seen more than 250,000 deaths due to COVID-19 as a new swath of data came alive to push the stricken country over the grim landmark on Wednesday.
Latest figures from Johns Hopkins University showed that the number of people killed by the virus is now 250,180.
This is as reports confirmed that more than 11 million Americans have been infected during the pandemic, by far the largest total in the world. The US also has the highest death toll, and is among the worst-hit of developed nations in terms of its death rate.
The news comes amid record infections across the US, with the Trump administration repeatedly failing to get a grip on the COVID-19 crisis.
Most recently Trump has refused to concede he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden who this week said “more people may die” if he continues to hamper his transition.
For the past two weeks, more than 100,000 people have been infected every day as the country has seen huge rises in positive cases in almost every state, but especially in the midwest and Great Plains states.
Earlier on Wednesday, in a sign of the increasing lockdown steps being taken around the US, officials announced that public schools in New York City will close again, on Thursday, after the city reached a three per cent (3%) COVID test positivity rate.
Case rates are surging in states and cities around the country. In California this week, the governor announced he was pulling the “emergency brake” on reopening, while Los Angeles is bracing for a mandatory curfew.
Hopes of relief on the horizon have grown after the makers of two leading vaccine candidates announced their drugs are far more effective than initially predicted. But these vaccines are months away and will face complex logistical challenges.
Experts are sounding warnings the country could face a difficult winter if safety measures are not widely adopted.
Michael Osterholm, an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, told NBC recently: “We are in a very dangerous period – the most dangerous public health period since 1918.”
Critics say the Trump administration have all but surrendered to the pandemic, especially now that he is a lame duck president with little political motivation to take tough measures.
Trump has not attended a Coronavirus taskforce meeting in “at least five months”, the public health expert Dr Anthony Fauci said last weekend.
