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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 20 OcTOber 2020
World struggles as confirmed COVID-19 cases pass 40 million
By MARIA CHENG vaccination, not by delib-
AP Medical Writer erately exposing people to
LONDON (AP) — The num- a potentially fatal disease.
ber of confirmed COVID-19 "Allowing a dangerous virus
cases across the planet has that we don't fully under-
surpassed 40 million, but stand to run free is simply
experts say that is only the unethical," Tedros said last
tip of the iceberg when it week.
comes to the true impact The U.N. health agency
of the pandemic that has said it hopes there might
upended life and work be enough data to deter-
around the world. mine if any of the COVID-19
The milestone was hit Mon- vaccines now being tested
day morning, according to are effective by the end of
Johns Hopkins University, the year. But it warned that
which collates reports from first-generation vaccines
around the world. are unlikely to provide
The actual worldwide tally complete protection and
of COVID-19 cases is likely that it could take at least
to be far higher, as testing two years to bring the pan-
has been uneven or lim- demic under control.
ited, many people have Logistics experts also say
had no symptoms and that some 3 billion of the
some governments have world's 7.8 billion people
concealed the true num- live in areas that lack the
ber of cases. To date, more infrastructure to refriger-
than 1.1 million confirmed ate new vaccines safely,
virus deaths have been re- a challenge that is sure to
ported, although experts slow down the delivery of
also believe that number is vaccines to those areas.
an undercount. This includes most of Cen-
The U.S., India and Brazil are A face mask was left behind near the Euro sculpture in Frankfurt, Germany, early Monday, Oct. tral Asia, much of India and
reporting by far the highest 19, 2020. southeast Asia, Latin Amer-
numbers of cases — 8.1 Associated Press ica except for the largest
million, 7.5 million and 5.2 countries, and all but a tiny
million respectively — al- hold Thanksgiving gather- overwhelmed and warned ing this kind of protection corner of Africa. q
though the global increase ings next month. that governments and citi- needs to be achieved by
in recent weeks has been The World Health Organiza- zens should take all neces-
driven by a surge in Eu- tion said last week that Eu- sary measures to slow the
rope, which has seen over rope had a reported a re- spread of the virus, includ-
240,000 confirmed virus cord weekly high of nearly ing bolstering testing and
deaths in the pandemic so 700,000 cases and said the contact tracing, wearing
far. region was responsible for face masks and following
In the U.S., some states are about a third of cases glob- social distancing measures.
trying more targeted mea- ally. Britain, France, Rus- WHO has previously es-
sures as cases continue sia and Spain account for timated about 1 in 10 of
to rise across the country. about half of all new cases the world's population —
New York's new round of vi- in the region, and countries about 780 million people
rus shutdowns zeroes in on like Belgium and the Czech — have been infected with
individual neighborhoods, Republic are facing more COVID-19, more than 20
closing schools and busi- intense outbreaks now times the official number
nesses in hot spots measur- than they did in the spring. of cases. That suggests the
ing just a couple of square WHO said the new mea- vast majority of the world's
miles. sures being taken across population is still suscep-
As of last week, new cases Europe are "absolutely es- tible to the virus.
per day were on the rise in sential" in stopping CO- Some researchers have
44 U.S. states, with many of VID-19 from overwhelming argued that allowing CO-
the biggest surges in the its hospitals. Those include VID-19 to spread in popula-
Midwest and Great Plains, new requirements on tions that are not obviously
where resistance to wear- mask-wearing in Italy and vulnerable will help build
ing masks and taking other Switzerland, closing schools up herd immunity and is a
precautions has been run- in Northern Ireland and more realistic way to stop
ning high and the virus has the Czech Republic, clos- the pandemic instead of
often been seen as just a ing restaurants and bars in the restrictive lockdowns
big-city problem. Deaths Belgium, implementing a 9 that have proved econom-
per day were climbing in p.m. curfew in France and ically devastating.
30 states. having targeted limited But WHO Director-General
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. lockdowns in parts of the Tedros Adhanom Ghe-
government's top infec- U.K. breyesus has warned
tious-disease expert, said The agency said several against the belief that herd
Americans should think European cities could soon immunity might be a viable
hard about whether to see their intensive care units strategy to pursue, say-