Al Jazeera :
China’s city of Wuhan marked one year since the start of its traumatic 76-day coronavirus lockdown on Saturday while the pandemic continued to rage elsewhere, with President Joe Biden warning the US death toll could pass 600,000.
Traffic hummed, sidewalks bustled, and citizens packed parks and public transport in Wuhan, underscoring the scale of the recovery in the metropolis of 11 million where the pathogen first emerged before going global.
The spread of COVID-19 was accelerating elsewhere, however, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying a new strain that emerged in the United Kingdom could be deadlier and more transmissible than the one that menaced Wuhan a year ago.
“In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant … may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” Johnson told a news conference.
The sobering news came as Britain reported record deaths from COVID-19 following a surge in cases and hospitalisations since the variant was first identified in southeast England in September.
The nation’s death toll – 95,981 as of Friday – is the highest in Europe.
In the United States, the world’s worst-hit country, the new president gave his highest estimate yet of its eventual toll as he stepped up federal aid.
“The virus is surging,” Biden told a news conference. “We’re at 400,000 dead, expected to reach well over 600,000.”
Globally, the virus has killed more than two million people, infected tens of millions of others, and hammered economies.
There were new signs of the depth of damage dealt to the global economy, with the closely watched Purchasing Managers’ Index showing Europe was heading for a new recession, while Latin America suffered its steepest drop in foreign trade since the global financial crisis.
In Wuhan, a team of World Health Organization experts was still in hotel quarantine before a mission to investigate the source of the virus, and the body said it was too early to conclude whether the pandemic actually started there.
“All hypotheses are on the table,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a news conference in Geneva.
China’s city of Wuhan marked one year since the start of its traumatic 76-day coronavirus lockdown on Saturday while the pandemic continued to rage elsewhere, with President Joe Biden warning the US death toll could pass 600,000.
Traffic hummed, sidewalks bustled, and citizens packed parks and public transport in Wuhan, underscoring the scale of the recovery in the metropolis of 11 million where the pathogen first emerged before going global.
The spread of COVID-19 was accelerating elsewhere, however, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying a new strain that emerged in the United Kingdom could be deadlier and more transmissible than the one that menaced Wuhan a year ago.
“In addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant … may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” Johnson told a news conference.
The sobering news came as Britain reported record deaths from COVID-19 following a surge in cases and hospitalisations since the variant was first identified in southeast England in September.
The nation’s death toll – 95,981 as of Friday – is the highest in Europe.
In the United States, the world’s worst-hit country, the new president gave his highest estimate yet of its eventual toll as he stepped up federal aid.
“The virus is surging,” Biden told a news conference. “We’re at 400,000 dead, expected to reach well over 600,000.”
Globally, the virus has killed more than two million people, infected tens of millions of others, and hammered economies.
There were new signs of the depth of damage dealt to the global economy, with the closely watched Purchasing Managers’ Index showing Europe was heading for a new recession, while Latin America suffered its steepest drop in foreign trade since the global financial crisis.
In Wuhan, a team of World Health Organization experts was still in hotel quarantine before a mission to investigate the source of the virus, and the body said it was too early to conclude whether the pandemic actually started there.
“All hypotheses are on the table,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a news conference in Geneva.
