Dear Reader:

Worldometer (Nov 22): Yesterday- there were close to 173 thousand new cases and 1,460 new deaths in the U.S., just over 45 thousand new cases and 499 new deaths in India, over 34 thousand new cases and 692 new deaths in Italy, over 32 thousand new cases and 354 new deaths in Brazil, close to 25 thousand new cases and 467 new deaths  in Russia (both numbers for Russia are all-time pandemic record highs), over 23 thousand new cases and 574 new deaths in Poland..

..close to 20 thousand new cases and 341 new deaths in the UK, close to 18 thousand new cases and 253 new deaths in France, over 16 thousand new cases and 163 new deaths in Germany, over 15 thousand new cases and 328 new deaths in Spain, almost 13 thousand new cases and 431 new deaths in Iran, over 6 thousand new cases and 719 new deaths in Mexico, almost 5 thousand new cases and 72 new deaths in Canada, 386 new cases and 2 new deaths in South Korea, zero new cases and zero new deaths in China.

Reuters, WHO Covid envoy fears third wave, calls Europe response ‘incomplete’ (Nov 22): “‘Now we have the second wave. If they don’t build the necessary infrastructure, we’ll have a third wave early next year,’ said Nabarro, a Briton who campaigned unsuccessfully to become the WHO director general in 2017. Europe briefly enjoyed sinking infection rates that are now surging again: Germany and France on Saturday saw cases rise by 33,000 combined, Switzerland and Austria have thousands of cases daily, while Turkey reported a record 5,532 new infections…

“Nabarro lauded the response of Asian countries like South Korea, where infections are now relatively low: ‘People are fully engaged, they take on behaviours that make it difficult for the virus. They keep their distance, wear masks, isolate when they’re sick, wash hands and surfaces. They protect the most endangered groups.’ Nabarro also said Asia did not relax restrictions prematurely. ‘You must wait until case numbers are low and stay low,” he said. “Europe’s reaction was incomplete.'”

anita