Sources: APNews, CCTV, CCN, WHO, FSA, BBC, SATISTA, YONHAP, FINANCIAL TIMES
This week, the cumulative number of confirmed cases worldwide exceeded 55 million. The Northern Hemisphere has suddenly intensified, and the United States and Europe are still the hardest hit by the epidemic. South Korea, which once had a stable epidemic prevention situation, has also seen a sharp increase in new cases recently.
Also this week, a U.S. pharmaceutical company announced that the effectiveness of one coronavirus vaccine it produced reached 94.5%. In the past two weeks, three coronavirus vaccines around the world have claimed to be more than 90% effective.
On November 16, WHO Director-General Tedros Tedros finally returned to WHO headquarters in Geneva.
Two weeks ago, he began to self-isolate due to exposure to confirmed cases of COVID-19.
But on the same day, an Associated Press report also attracted attention.
Internal emails show that 65 confirmed cases have been reported among WHO headquarters employees since the outbreak of the epidemic.
Of the five recently diagnosed people, four belong to the same working group, and the other has had contact with them.
Among the five people is an infectious disease prevention and control expert in the WHO Director-General’s leadership group.
Switzerland has a population of about 8.5 million, and the cumulative number of confirmed cases currently exceeds 280,000. Geneva, where the WHO headquarters is located, is already one of the hottest spots in Europe with the highest incidence of COVID-19 infection.
South Dakota, USA, is currently one of the worst areas in the United States due to the coronavirus epidemic.
Since November, at least 280 people have died of COVID-19, more than one-third of the state’s total number of deaths.
Even in this situation, many patients refuse to admit the existence of COVID-19.
American TV host: You mean that even now that some COVID-19 patients are in critical condition despite the overload of hospitals, they still don’t believe that they have the novel coronavirus?
Emergency room nurse Dolin: Yes. The most unwatchable thing is that these people are still looking for other reasons to find a magical answer. They don’t want to believe that COVID-19 is real.
This situation is not an individual case, but represents a group whose last words are “This is impossible. This is not true”.
South Dakota has had at least 740 deaths from COVID-19 as of November 21.
South Dakota has died of COVID-19 in 17.4 per million people in the past seven days as of November 15, the third-highest rate in the world in the agency’s list of deaths, according to the Union of American Scientists.
The American media called it a kind of “out of control”, which is inseparable from the neglect of epidemic prevention by the local government and the people.
As the outbreak in the United States accelerated in August this year, South Dakota still allowed thousands of tourists to attend the 10-day 80th Sturgess Grand Motorcycle Rally, and refused to cancel the September state fair and did not require participants to wear masks.
In early November, after several mainstream media announced the victory of Democratic presidential candidate Biden, Biden said that he would personally call the governors of various “red states” who tend to support the Republican Party to persuade them to issue a mask order.
Democratic presidential candidate Biden: We know that the most effective way to stop the spread of COVID-19 is to wear masks.
But South Dakota Governor Nome said in advance that whether to wear a mask is an individual choice and not a legal obligation.
On November 19, CNN released a map of the United States, marked as crimson, and more than a dozen states, including South Dakota, have not yet issued statewide mask orders.
CNN noted that the United States has been arguing about whether to wear a mask for more than half a year, but the attitude of state and local governments is still very different, and it is difficult to reach a consensus, which seriously affects the epidemic prevention process.
On November 18, Assistant Secretary of Health Girol, a member of the White House Coronavirus Working Group, released two amazing data at this stage: the number of patients admitted to hospitals across the United States increased by 25% in a week, and the number of deaths from COVID-19 increased by 25% in a week.
Girol stressed that this is moving in the wrong direction, and the epidemic has worsened to an absolute dangerous level.
On November 19, the U.S. House of Representatives observed a collective silence on the death of COVID-19. The previous day, the cumulative number of deaths in the United States reached 250,000, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the global death toll.
The Institute for the Evaluation of Health Statistics of the University of Washington predicts that 11 states across the United States will face “extreme pressure” on hospital capacity between December and February next year, and 25 states will face “high pressure” on the number of hospital beds.
The BBC believes that the outbreak in the United States has experienced at least three peaks so far, and the peak of the first wave of spring epidemics is likely underestimated, because the United States had not yet widely promoted COVID-19 testing at that time.
The third group, which is still climbing today, has developed more rapidly than the first two groups.
The first peak of the epidemic in spring was the worst in the northeast of the United States, with New York City being the hardest hit.
In the second peak of the summer, the south and west, including Texas and California, were hit hard.
At present, the third peak, the fastest-growing area seems to be the Midwest.
But on November 19, New York City announced the closure of all public schools, which have just reopened less than eight weeks ago.
New York Mayor de Blasio: Unfortunately, the average positive test rate in New York City has reached 3% in the past seven days, so we need to close schools in the next few days.
On November 19, Klug, director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, pointed out that in the past week, on average, one European died of COVID-19 in 17 seconds.
And the epicenter of the epidemic in Europe is still France.
On November 17, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in France reached 2,306,755, becoming the fourth country after the United States, India and Brazil to surpass 2 million confirmed cases.
On October 30, France imposed a second national blockade to contain the epidemic. For two weeks, the use rate of beds in the intensive care unit of La Timone Hospital has been about 95%.
As of the evening of November 19, the total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in France was 3,234, but the number of new patients admitted every day has recently declined.
In recent days, the number of new cases in Europe as a whole has declined for the first time in recent months due to the tightening of epidemic prevention measures in France, Germany, Belgium and other European countries.
South Korea once had a better control of the epidemic.
However, on November 20, South Korea’s epidemic prevention department initially judged that there were signs of a third wave of epidemic in South Korea.
The epidemic curve rose rapidly for the third time, mainly due to the recent sharp increase in the number of confirmed cases in the capital circle. Xu Zhengxie, acting mayor of Seoul, said on the 19th that the average number of new cases in the capital circle in the past week was 125.6 per day, of which Seoul accounted for 59.8%.
Unlike the previous aggregation infection incidents caused by the “New World Church” and “Love First Church”, the recent round of epidemic is mainly attributed to the continuous small-scale infection and community transmission in ordinary family and friends gatherings, schools, offices and other daily living spaces. For example, 21 people in a cafe are infected, and one is happy. 14 people were infected in the ministry and 19 people were infected at a family gathering.
On November 19, the Seoul Municipal Government introduced a number of new epidemic prevention measures, including: banning dancing in entertainment venues in Seoul; banning eating and limiting the number of admissions in KTV; banning eating and eating in indoor performance venues.
On November 16, Modner, a U.S. pharmaceutical company, announced that according to the analysis of the medium-term data of the phase 3 clinical trial, the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine developed by the company reached 94.5%.
In the past two weeks, three coronavirus vaccines around the world have announced the results of the mid-term analysis of clinical trials, namely, the vaccine developed by Ruihui in cooperation with the German Biotechnology Company, the “Satellite V” vaccine developed by the National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Camalea, Russia, and the epidemic developed by the American pharmaceutical company Modner. Miao.
This weekend, the G20 Leaders Summit was held by video.
According to a communiqué, the G20 has deployed $11 trillion to support the post-epidemic economic recovery and agreed to take additional measures to help low-income countries cope with the impact of the epidemic.
Only by safeguarding multilateralism, strengthening international cooperation, and accelerating the research and development of COVID-19 vaccine and treatment methods can mankind get out of the haze of the epidemic as soon as possible.
