The United States declared record numbers of coronavirus cases this week as president-elect Joe Biden announced an overhaul of the US response to the pandemic.
Mr Biden is set to announce a 12-person coronavirus taskforce on Monday. His campaign said the taskforce would be led by former surgeon general Vivek Murthy, Yale University's Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler.
The taskforce will come up with a plan “built on a bedrock of science,” Mr Biden said to a crowd in Wilmington Delaware on Saturday, adding he would “spare no effort, or commitment, to turn this pandemic around.”
Coronavirus cases worldwide exceeded 50 million on Sunday and the US continues to be the country with the largest number of total cases with over 10 million. The US also accounts for 243,322 of the world’s 1,259,189 registered deaths from the disease.
The second wave is now crashing on the US, with a record-breaking 100,000 daily coronavirus cases on the latest seven-day average. It reported more than 130,000 cases on Saturday.
The virus appeared to drop off the agenda as the country geared up for a contentious election, of which Mr Biden was declared winner on Saturday.
His rival and outgoing president Donald Trump’s rallies, some open-air and with few masks and little social distancing, led to 30,000 additional confirmed cases and likely led to more than 700 deaths, Stanford University economists estimated in a research paper.
As part of his campaign, during which he pilloried Mr Trump for inaction on the crisis, Mr Biden said would appoint a national supply chain commander and a testing committee. He has also floated the idea of a national mask-wearing mandate.
He said a robust Covid-19 response was essential to his first months in the presidency.
“We cannot repair the economy, restore our vitality, or relish life’s most precious moments – hugging a grandchild, birthdays, weddings, graduations, all the moments that matter most to us – until we get this virus under control."
Mr Biden’s strategy to fight the virus may come too late to save thousands of US lives, as he won’t take power until January 20. Cases are rising in 27 states and almost 55,000 people were hospitalised with the disease on Friday, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
"If we don't do anything to stop it, we are in the trajectory going straight up," Dr Carlos Del Rio, executive associate dean of the Emory School of Medicine and Grady Health System in Georgia told The Guardian.
The American public may not have to wait for Mr Biden’s new strategy. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said the crisis was “job one” for Congress.
“Hopefully, the partisan passions that prevented us from doing another rescue package will subside with the election," he said on Wednesday.
"And I think we need to do it and I think we need to do it before the end of the year.”
Talks had largely stalled on the issue between Democrats and Republicans.
In pictures: coronavirus around the world
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A woman wearing a protective face masks casts her ballot for the general election at a polling station in Yangon, Myanmar. Reuters -
Children wearing protective face masks attend their First Communion ceremony at the Dulce Nombre de Jesus's Catholic church in the Petare neighbourhood of Caracas, Venezuela. AP -
Fishmongers wait for customers during a new lockdown in Athens, Greece. Bloomberg -
A protester, wearing a face mask, holds a sign reading 'stop lockdowns' in Toulouse. AFP -
People line up at a Covid-19 rapid test site, in Miami Beach, Florida. AP -
A woman wearing a face mask protests in support of coronavirus deniers and restrictions by the government in downtown Madrid, Spain. AP -
Marcosi, an Andean woman, poses for a picture as she talks with AFP in the city of Cusco, southern Peru, during the coronavirus pandemic. AFP -
Lung specialist Davinder Kundra checks the case history of a patient at his Breathe Better clinic in New Delhi. AFP -
People wearing facemasks participate in a walkathon organised by Ram Manohar Lohia hospital to raise awareness on the Covid-19 coronavirus, in New Delhi. AFP -
A visitor wearing a protective mask has her temperature checked at a machine at the entrance of the venue of Friendship and Solidarity Competition, the first international event at a Tokyo Olympic venue since the Games were postponed in March. Reuters
