Coronavirus deaths in the United States climbed by 1,450 in the past 24 hours, a tally by Johns Hopkins University showed Sunday, bringing the total number of fatalities to more than 67,600.
Why coronavirus deaths are higher in Italy, Spain than in China
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As the U.S. death toll tops 67,000, the strain the coronavirus pandemic is placing on ordinary Americans has started to emerge. Aging grandparents are being robbed of spending precious time with their families while millions of people are forced to adjust to life without a stable income for the foreseeable future.
As the number of confirmed U.S. cases hit 1.1 million, stores, restaurants and movie theaters began to reopen in Texas, despite a rise in cases, while in New York police dispatched 1,000 officers this weekend to enforce social distancing and a ban on congregating in public spaces. Beaches were also closed in California.
Meanwhile, as scientists work to find a vaccine for the virus, British scientists said Sunday that the potential vaccine they’re developing could yield evidence to its efficacy by June.
Trump says US to have vaccine soon
The vaccine prediction moves up the timeline that has been discussed as the United States and other countries race to be the first to bring out a way to prevent COVID-19.
President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of this year.
“We are very confident that we’re going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year,” Trump said in a Fox News “town hall” show broadcast from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
He also said he would urge the reopening of schools and universities in September, saying “I want them to go back.”
The vaccine prediction moves up the timeline that has been discussed as the United States and other countries race to be the first to bring out a way to prevent COVID-19.
Trump insisted he would be happy for another country to beat US researchers to the medicine, saying “if it’s another country I’ll take my hat off.”
“I don’t care, I just want to get a vaccine that works.”
Asked about risks during human trials in a research process that is going unusually quickly, Trump said “they’re volunteers. They know what they’re getting into.”
Trump appeared to acknowledge that he was getting ahead of his own advisors on the prediction for the vaccine.
“The doctors would say ‘well, you shouldn’t say that.’ I’ll say what I think,” he said.