150,000 fatalities: America crosses bleak milestone

The death toll from Covid-19 in the US crossed 150,000 on Wednesday, the highest in the world, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.

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The bleak milestone comes amid signs that the nation’s outbreak is beginning to stabilise in the Sun Belt but heating up in the Midwest, fuelled largely by young adults who are hitting bars, restaurants and gyms again.

The Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker put the nation’s confirmed infections at nearly 4.4 million, also the highest in the world.

The current surge in the number of people infected and killed by the disease has been accompanied by a burgeoning outbreak of misinformation and conspiracy theories about supposed cures and the effectiveness of masks.

People with travel links to China, Iran, and Italy accounted for nearly two-thirds of the initial cases outside mainland China in the pre-pandemic period between December 31, 2019 and March 10 this year, a study published in the medical journal Lancet says.

The study says one in four of the first cases originated in Italy, and one in five in China. It also found four large clusters and outbreaks triggered in different countries to be linked with “transmission in faith-based settings”.

Scientists have been researching how the coronavirus rapidly spread outside China since March when the World Health Organization declared the disease a pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Emmy Awards show, slated for this September, may go virtual due to the pandemic, with celebrities having to appear online.