The Times - UK (2020-11-26)

14 1GM Thursday November 26 2020 | the times

News

More than 2,000 coronavirus deaths
have been recorded in a single day in
the United States for the first time since
the spring amid warnings that family
gatherings for the Thanksgiving holi-
day will further accelerate the spread of
the virus.
The accelerating death toll follows
three weeks in which more than
100,000 new infections have been
reported each day, reaching nearly
200,000 late last week, according to the
Covid Tracking Project.
The number of people in hospital
with the virus rose to 88,080 on Tues-

After a shaky start, experts

agree that fist bumps are safe

belgium

A fist bump is no longer considered a

high-risk contact, unlike shaking hands

or kissing cheeks, Belgian officials have

advised. Health experts say that while

hands can become an infection site the

transfer of breath particles on them

rather than perspiration posed the risk.

The contact with a fist bump was only

glancing. The government said the gui-

dance for greetings — to bump feet or

elbows or to wave — had not changed.

china

Inspections of imported food packag-

ing is being stepped up as colder wea-

ther brings new waves of coronavirus

infections overseas, officials said. The

Chinese testing has provoked contro-

versy, with some exporters suggesting

that it is being used as a trade barrier. Li

Ning, a food safety chief, said 0.48 per

10,000 tests on packaging were positive

and suggested that the virus could be

passed on through contact. Five new

cases were reported, all imported.

japan

Tokyo’s bars, restaurants and karaoke

parlours that serve alcohol have been

told to close at 10pm from this weekend.

People have been told to work from

home as Japan reported new infections.

Tokyo reported 401 new cases after a

recent peak daily count of 539 cases.

russia

A hospital in the Urals region has been

fined 200,000 roubles (£2,000) for

causing an “unconstrained” spread of

the coronavirus after it failed to report

1,414 patients who tested positive. The

hospital in the city of Ufa denied a

cover-up. The number of daily virus

deaths nationally exceeded 500 for the

first time. Russia has officially reported

more than 37,500 deaths.

czech republic

Free tests will be available for all from

December 18 to measure the effect of

relaxing restrictions in one of the coun-

tries worst hit in Europe’s second wave.

Some schools and most shops remain

closed but may reopen. The number of

infections since March has risen above

500,000, with about 7,500 deaths.

Reported new cases

Global deaths

1,397,

World update

Global cases

59,204,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

11

12

13

14

Most new cases

Source: WHO

US

India

Russia

Italy

UK

Brazil

Poland

Iran

Germany

Ukraine

Mexico

Canada

Turkey

Colombia

157,

44,

24,

22,

18,

16,

15,

13,

13,

11,

7,4 8 3

7,0 52

6,

6,

Breath-taking A shop in Tokyo is selling a diamond-studded facemask for £7,

News Coronavirus Wo r l d

US set for ‘mother of all super-spreader events’

Will Pavia New York day and that day there were 2,
deaths — the highest number reported
since May 7, when 2,770 people died,
according to the project.
Its tallies do not match those of the
World Health Organisation, which are
collated differently, but were roughly in
line with data collected by the Reuters
news agency, which reported that the
death toll had reached 2,157 on
Tuesday, or one person every 40 sec-
onds.
The grim figures were reported on the
eve of a national holiday that usually
causes millions to reunite round a table
with their families. The Transport
Security Administration reported a rise

in air travel and more than one million

passengers passing through security in a

single day on Sunday.

“We were already in first place for

[the number of people] infected,”

Tatiana Prowell, of Johns Hopkins

University in Baltimore, wrote on

Twitter, referencing an image from a

flight tracking site recording these

journeys. “But all the #Thanksgiving

travel ensures that no one will catch us

either.

“The US ‘each person for himself’

mindset is killing hundreds of thou-

sands of us. Devastating to watch.”

Jonathan Reiner, a professor of

medicine at George Washington Uni-

versity, said that a small motorcycle

rally in South Dakota was thought to

have caused the spread of cases across

the Midwest. “Now imagine that on a

massive scale, with people leaving

from every airport in the United States

and carrying the virus with them,” he

told CNN. It was “potentially the

mother of all super-spreader events,”

he said.

Polls this week suggested that a

majority of Americans had cut back

their plans in the light of the pandemic;

in New York, where a rising infection

rate has caused the closure of schools,

there are plans for celebrations on

rooftops and stoops, out in the elements

like the Mayflower immigrants whose

1621 feast with the Wampanoag Indians

became the basis for the holiday.

Joe Biden was due to give an address

yesterday about the “shared sacrifices

Americans are making this holiday

season”. As the president-elect’s transi-

tion team and Democrats in Congress

push for a new stimulus package to

stave off further economic woes, prose-

cutors in California have warned of one

of the largest fraud schemes in the

state’s history, the cost of which “could

near $1 billion”, involving benefits

claims filed by or in the name of prison

inmates, including serial killers on

death row.

ISSEI KATO/REUTERS