Wave of New COVID-19 Cases Crashes Across US, Europe

By Staff, Agencies

The United States, Russia, France and many other countries are setting records for coronavirus infections as a tidal wave of cases washes over parts of the Northern Hemisphere, forcing some countries to impose new curbs.

The gloom weighed on global financial markets on Monday as surging infections clouded the economic outlook.

US stocks had their worst day in four weeks over the double whammy of record coronavirus cases and political deadlock in negotiations to provide more economic aid.

Word that a vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc produced immune responses in both elderly and young people offered some positive news as autumn turns to winter in northern countries and more people socialize indoors.

But British Health Secretary Matt Hancock cautioned that the vaccine would not be widely available until next year and said, "We're not there yet".

Any vaccine faces both scientific and public relations hurdles. Surveys have shown only about half of Americans would get a COVID-19 vaccination due to concerns about safety, effectiveness and the approval process.

In the United States, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients is at two-month high, straining health care systems in some states.

US President Donald Trump, facing a tough re-election battle on November 3, lashed out again at reports that the coronavirus is surging.

He repeated his unfounded claim that COVID-19 cases are rising because there is more testing, an assertion not supported by data and one that has been rejected by health experts.

"Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST. A Fake News Media Conspiracy. Many young people who heal very fast. 99.9%. Corrupt Media conspiracy at all-time high," Trump said in a Twitter post.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States last week rose 24% while the number of tests performed rose 5.5%, according to a Reuters analysis.

In Europe the picture was unrelentingly grim as a string of countries reported record increases, led by France, which posted more than 50,000 daily cases for the first time on Sunday, while the continent passed the threshold of 250,000 deaths.

France may even be experiencing 100,000 new infections a day, professor Jean-Francois Delfraissy, who heads a council that advises the government, told RTL radio.

Governments have been desperate to avoid the lockdowns which curbed the disease earlier in the year at the cost of shutting down their entire economies. But the steady rise in new cases has forced many in Europe to tighten curbs.