Comparatively lower number of coronavirus cases and deaths were reported in the United States at the Holiday weekend, that was capped by President Donald Trump signing the COVID-19 Economic Relief and government spending Bill.
The action helped avert a government shutdown and provide financial assistance to millions of Americans devastated by the pandemic.
With 1209 additional fatalities reporting in the last 24 hours, the total U.S. death toll from the deadly disease rose to 333125, as per latest data from the Johns Hopkins University.
During the same period, 150,092 new cases were reported across the country, taking the total number of patients infected with the disease to 19136158. These figures are far lower than the seven-day average.
The national Covid test positivity rate fell considerably to 10.29 percent.
As per the latest update published by COVID Tracking Project on Monday, a total of 118,720 patients are currently admitted in U.S. hospitals with the deadly disease. More than one sixth of these hospitalizations are reported in California. Different from the national trend, the outbreak continues to worsen in the state, where all three metrics are higher than that of the previous week.
The U.S. collaborative volunteer-run effort to track the pandemic cautioned that the data may be incomplete as many states did not report due to the holiday while others gave incomplete updates. “Holidays have had major impacts on COVID data reporting this year,” it said on Twitter.
Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said he believes worst is still to come in the pandemic in the coming weeks.
“The reason I’m concerned and my colleagues in public health are concerned also is that we very well might see a post-seasonal, in the sense of Christmas, New Year’s, surge,” he told CNN. “We are really at a very critical point…. So I share the concern of President-elect Biden that as we get into the next few weeks, it might actually get worse,” said Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
In COVID-related news in other parts of the world, a mass vaccination program against the disease was launched in 27 member states across the European Union.
In Germany, where the pandemic has returned more powerful, death toll crossed 30000.
South Korea announced that it has detected new Covid-19 variant from UK travelers.
Japan banned foreign nationals from entering the country to contain the Covid-19 variant first reported in England.
Japan’s digital transformation minister Takuya Hirai said the government will introduce a tracking system for overseas travelers before the Tokyo Olympics.
Saudi Arabia extended entry ban by air, land and sea for another week.
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