Coronavirus Cases Hit 20 Million Worldwide As New Hot Spots Emerge In US
At least 20 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The latest milestone comes just over a month after the world passed 10 million cases. More than 733,000 people have died from Covid-19 globally.
The US leads with over 5 million confirmed cases and more than 163,000 deaths, making up about a quarter of all Covid-19 cases and deaths in the world. Brazil comes in second, with more than 3 million cases and over 101,000 deaths.
According to a New York Times coronavirus database, the US saw nearly 48,000 new cases on August 3, with many of them concentrated in the South. Several states have continued to reopen their schools and economies despite a surge in cases that began in June.
As the US struggles to contain the virus, data show that Americans increasingly believe that other countries are handling the pandemic better. According to a recent HuffPost/YouGov survey, a 46% plurality of Americans said the US is dealing with the coronavirus worse than other nations. A March poll found that just 28% of Americans held that view, while a May survey put that number at 36%.
World leaders appear to share Americans’ concerns about the US response to the virus. The European Union has temporarily banned most travellers coming from the US, even as it begins to open up to other international visitors.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious diseases expert in the US, recently said that he’s “cautiously optimistic” that there will be a vaccine by the end of the year. But he and the World Health Organization have stressed that the virus may never be fully eradicated.
Stopping Covid-19 outbreaks “comes down to the basics of public health and disease control,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this month, adding that there will likely be no “silver bullet” for destroying the virus. He urged “testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining...
