COURTESY HT SEPT 13

Pandemic may last until 2021-end, cautions Fauci
US infectious disease expert says Covid-19 statistics in America are ‘disturbing’

Agencies

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WASHINGTON : The US government’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said on Friday he disagreed with President Donald Trump’s assessment that the country has “rounded the corner” on the pandemic, warning that the crisis may last until the end of 2021.

Fauci, the outspoken director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the US was starting the flu season with a high baseline of around 40,000 new Covid-19 cases a day and deaths are averaging around 1,000 daily.

“The statistics... they are disturbing,” Fauci told MSNBC. “If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to Covid, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021.”

UN: One of the greatest challenges in history

The UN General Assembly said in a new resolution the coronavirus pandemic represents one of the greatest challenges since the establishment of the UN. “The General Assembly recognises that the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the greatest global challenges in the history of the United Nations,” the text of the resolution adopted said.

The total number of Covid-19 cases worldwide has crossed the 28 million mark, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tally, while global fatalities has surpassed 916,000.

Biden slams Trump’s visit to Nevada as ‘reckless’

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Saturday slammed US President Donald Trump’s “reckless” decision to hold a rally in Reno, the venue for which had to be changed because the event breached local Covid-19 restrictions.

The Republican incumbent will speak on Saturday evening in the city in Nevada, a crucial swing state ahead of the November 3 election