Iran Press/ America: The US, the worst-hit country, has more than 11 million cases, and nearly 250 thousand have died from the disease there. It is followed by India, which has 8.7 million cases, Brazil (5.8), France (1.9), and Russia (1.8).
In Asia, South Korea has confirmed 205 new cases of coronavirus – the first time it has been above 200 since early September – the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Saturday, as a new law fining those not wearing masks in public started to be enforced.
The latest daily count was slightly higher than Friday’s 191, taking the country’s total number of cases to 28,338 with 492 deaths.
In the worst-hit US, Donald Trump has publicly disengaged from the battle against the coronavirus at a time when the disease is tearing across the United States at an alarming pace.
Trump, fresh off his re-election loss to President-elect Joe Biden, remains angry that an announcement about progress in developing a vaccine for the disease came after Election Day. And aides say the president has shown little interest in the growing crisis even as new confirmed cases are skyrocketing and hospital intensive care units in parts of the country are nearing capacity.
With more than 100,000 new confirmed US cases reported daily for more than a week, Trump has been more focused on tracking the rollout of a vaccine, which will not be widely available for months. He has fumed that Pfizer intentionally withheld an announcement about progress on its vaccine trial until after Election Day, according to a White House official who was not authorized to publicly comment and spoke on condition of anonymity. Pfizer said it did not purposely withhold trial results.
Although the president has consistently played down the pandemic, which has killed more than 240,000 Americans and infected more than 10 million people in the US, public health experts expressed worry about Trump’s silence on the troubling spike in cases, as well as his refusal to begin coordination on virus issues with Biden’s transition team.
Again in Asia, India has reported 45,343 fresh COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The total caseload now stands at 8,773,479. The country's death toll has mounted to 129,225.
Delhi recorded a spike of 7,802 COVID-19 cases on Friday taking its infection tally to over 474,830, while 91 more fatalities pushed the national capital's death toll to 7,423.
In Latin America, Brazil has recorded more than 5.6 million cases of COVID-19 and 162,000 deaths, making the outbreak the world’s second-deadliest, trailing behind the United States.
The pandemic has been marked by bitter clashes between Bolsonaro and local governments, as the president railed against lockdown measures, called the virus a 'little flu', and urged Brazilians to go back to work.
Yet the controversial leader’s messaging seemed to resonate with Brazilians, especially with the millions of frustrated informal workers for whom staying at home was financially devastating.
At its peak in April, social isolation in Brazil reached just 59 percent and plunged as low as 46 percent soon after.
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