Shomporko Desk:-ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. – The United States was grappling with the most noticeably awful coronavirus flare-up in the world on Monday, as Florida broke the national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in new confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, two World Health Organization experts went in China for a mission to trace the source of the pandemic. The virus was first identified in focal China’s city of Wuhan before the end of last year. Beijing had been hesitant to permit a test however yielded after scores of countries approached the WHO to direct a thorough investigation.
Deaths from the infection have been rising in the U.S., particularly in the South and West, however, they are still well underneath the numbers came to in April.
“I really do think we could control this, and it’s the human element that is so critical. It should be an effort in our country. We should be pulling together when we’re in a crisis, and we’re definitely not doing it,” said University of Florida epidemiologist Dr. Cindy Prins.
Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, called mask-wearing in public, which has been met with resistance in some U.S. states, “absolutely essential.”
President Donald Trump wore a mask in public for the first time Saturday, something Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday showed he has “crossed a bridge.”
In Florida, where parts of Walt Disney World reopened Saturday, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded, according to state Department of Health statistics reported Sunday.
California had the previous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday.
Regarding the WHO experts in China, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, said they would work with Chinese scientists and medical experts on “scientific co-operation on the new coronavirus tracing issue.”
China has argued that the virus might have originated outside of China and has angrily denied allegations that it covered up the scale of the outbreak as infections first began to spread.
U.S. President Donald Trump has harshly criticized WHO over its response to the coronavirus pandemic and accused it of bowing to Chinese influence. The Trump administration formally notified the U.N. last week of its withdrawal from WHO, although the pullout won’t take effect until July 6, 2021.
“We have a basic consensus with the WHO that virus tracing is a scientific issue, and that requires international scientific research and co-operation of scientists across the world,” ministry spokesperson Hua said at a daily briefing. “WHO also believes that the virus tracing is an issue in progress, which may involve multiple countries and regions, and WHO will also conduct similar inspections in other countries and regions as needed.”
The WHO has confirmed the visit by an epidemiologist and an animal disease specialist but has not given out information on their agendas while in China. The virus causing the deadly illness COVID-19 is believed to have originated in bats and then jumped to humans via an intermediary species, possibly the anteater-like pangolin that is prized in China for its scales used in Chinese medicine as well as its meat.
In other parts of the world, the number of infections has been rising dramatically in India, South Africa and Brazil, whose virus-denying president has tested positive.
Photo credit: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
News source: The Associated Press
