26 November,2020 08:10 AM IST | New York | Agencies
NHS workers participate in a national 'clap for carers' to show thanks for the work of Britain's National Health Service staff and other frontline medical employees, in Liverpool. Pic/AFP
The World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic has "slowed down" in the past week although death rates continued to rise, with more than 67,000 new deaths reported.
The WHO on Wednesday said even though there was a "downward trend" in the number of cases in Europe, the region still has the biggest proportion of new cases and deaths globally.
In the past week, WHO said, the number of new cases reported in Europe dropped by about 6 per cent after a 10 per cent decline the previous week, suggesting that lockdowns across the continent are effectively slowing transmission.
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the first citizens in the 27-nation bloc could be vaccinated against the coronavirus by Christmas, but she warned that member countries must urgently prepare their logistical chains for the rollout of hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccines. She said, "there's finally light at the end of the tunnel."
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Meanwhile, Britain's caseload fell by about 13 per cent, its first weekly decline since late August. There were about 1,600 people hospitalised every day in mid-November, but that remains far lower than the over 3,000 patients admitted daily in early April. With major vaccines showing high levels of protection, British officials are cautiously - and they stress cautiously - optimistic that life may start returning to normal by early April.
"If we can roll it out at a good lick ⦠then with a favorable wind, this is entirely hypothetical, but we should be able to inoculate, I believe on the evidence I'm seeing, the vast majority of the people who need the most protection by Easter," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
The US has recorded highest daily fatalities due to COVID-19 since May with 2,146 deaths on Tuesday, according to data by John Hopkins University. With this, the death toll of the country due to COVID-19 has reached 2,59,925, CNN reported.
This is 21st time the country has reported over 2,000 coronavirus fatalities in a day. The US also reported 1,72,935 new infections on Tuesday. The nationwide totals now stand at 12,591,163 cases.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities also registered a record number of deaths on Wednesday, for a second straight day. The government coronavirus task force reported 507 new deaths, the country's highest daily toll. A total of 37,538 people have died in Russia. On Wednesday, officials reported 23,765 new confirmed cases.
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