President Donald Trump vowed to unveil plans Thursday to reopen the world’s top economy, claiming the US had “passed the peak” of new coronavirus cases even as the country logged a record number of deaths from the disease.
READ: Trump to ease lockdown, saying virus cases have 'passed peak'
The death toll has topped 134,000 with more than two million infected, according to an AFP tally—with nearly 2,600 dying in the past 24 hours in the US alone.
READ: Top Democrat blasts Trump for putting name on stimulus checks
But a bullish Trump told reporters his “aggressive strategy” against the virus was working and that “the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases.”
Lockdown easing
New Zealand is expected to start easing a nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus next week, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned it would be far from a return to normal.
The Pacific country of five million people has been one of the most successful in containing the outbreak, with just over 1,000 known cases and nine deaths. It had only six confirmed new infections on Thursday.
“There are promising signs our go-hard-and-go-early elimination strategy is working and the lockdown is breaking the chain of community transmission,” Ardern said.
Vaccine needed
A COVID-19 vaccine may be the only thing that can bring back “normalcy,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, hoping for just that before the end of the year.
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“A safe and effective vaccine may be the only tool that can return the world to a sense of ‘normalcy,’ saving millions of lives and countless trillions of dollars,” he added during a video conference with the 50 or so African countries that are members of the United Nations.
He called for its accelerated development and accessibility to all, adding it must have a “universal global benefit” and “allow us to control the pandemic.”
Global cooperation
The wealthy Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called for global cooperation to ready COVID-19 vaccines for seven billion people, while offering $150 million toward developing therapeutics and treatments for the virus.
While it is likely to take as many as 18 months to develop and fully test a safe coronavirus vaccine, global authorities and businesses need to start now on plans to manufacture it, said foundation chief executive Mark Suzman.
“It’s normal to have, at maximum, hundreds of millions of doses manufactured,” he said. “There are seven billion people on the planet. We are going to need to vaccinate nearly every one. There is no manufacturing capacity to do that.”
More cases
Singapore reported 447 new infections late Wednesday, a record daily increase, with the majority linked to crowded dormitories housing low-paid foreign workers.
The city-state, which has registered 3,699 infections and 10 deaths, initially managed to keep its outbreak in check but is now battling a fast-rising second wave of cases.
Around half of its cases are linked to the dorms, and authorities are moving thousands of workers—many of whom are South Asian—to alternative accommodation to reduce the risk of infection.
Imported cases
Following the same pattern of recent days, China reported mostly imported infections—34 brought in from overseas, as well as 12 domestic cases.
China has successfully contained its domestic outbreak since the virus emerged there late last year but is now struggling with a new wave of cases brought in mostly by returning nationals.
Expanded state of emergency
Japan’s government will convene a key panel of medics to advise on its state of emergency over the coronavirus, as local media reported the prime minister would expand the measures to cover the entire country.
Since the emergency came into effect on April 8, several regional governors have called for the measures to be expanded to cover their areas – warning of a growing number of coronavirus infections and overwhelmed medical facilities.
Some have declared their own local emergencies, even though they carry no legal force.
In the eye of the storm
The World Health Organization’s European office said Thursday that despite some “optimistic signs” in some of the countries worst hit by the new coronavirus, the number of cases was rising and approaching one million in the continent alone.
“We remain in the eye of the storm,” WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, told a news conference, urging countries to put adequate controls in place before easing lockdown restrictions.
