One million corona deaths in the USA: "Pandemic not over"
Created: 05/12/2022, 18:32
US President Joe Biden is calling on the international community to do even more in the fight against the corona virus.
© Andrew Harnik/AP/dpa
Around a million Americans have died related to Covid-19.
One thing is clear: more people will die - worldwide.
Biden puts pressure on a video summit in the fight against the virus.
Washington – US President Joe Biden has called on the international community to do more in view of the one million corona deaths in the United States.
“There is still so much to do.
This pandemic is not over yet,” he warned at an international Covid video summit on Thursday.
"We all have to do more, have to honor those we've lost by doing everything we can to prevent as many deaths as possible." Biden ordered the flags in the US to be flown at half-staff.
The summit was hosted by the USA, Germany and other countries.
According to the White House, billions in new financial commitments have been made.
Flags at half mast
Up to and including Monday, the flags on all public buildings in the USA are to be flown at half-mast in memory of the corona dead.
“Now is the time for us to act.
All of us together," Biden said in his video statement.
No country has registered more corona deaths than the United States, which is home to around 330 million people.
According to the official figures, the million mark has not yet been completely exceeded.
The US health authority CDC recorded almost 996,000 deaths as of Tuesday.
Most recently, around 300 people died every day in the USA in connection with a corona infection.
Even at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, the million mark was not exceeded on Thursday - their regularly updated website usually shows a slightly higher level than the official figures.
Based on its own counts, the US broadcaster NBC had already reported more than a million corona deaths last week.
In the 53 countries of the WHO Europe region, more than two million people have been proven to have died as a result of Covid 19 disease.
However, the number represents only a fraction of the total deaths that are directly or indirectly related to Covid-19, according to the European regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Copenhagen.
New fund for pandemic preparedness
On the occasion of the Corona summit, various countries, non-governmental organizations and private donors made pledges of three billion US dollars (around 2.9 billion euros), the White House said.
These are sums that have not been announced before and that go beyond the previous commitments for 2022.
Around 962 million US dollars (923 million euros) are intended for a new fund for pandemic preparedness and global health security of the World Bank.
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The federal government also announced that it would participate in the new fund.
"I am pleased to be able to announce to you today that Germany will initially contribute EUR 50 million, subject to parliamentary approval," said Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in a video statement.
The fund is to become a “worldwide success story” in cooperation with the WHO.
“We have to acknowledge that reality has changed.
In 2021 we had too few vaccines, in 2022 we will have the vaccines, but we are lagging behind with the vaccinations," said Scholz.
The development organization Oxfam criticized that governments, especially in wealthy countries, had not done enough to vaccinate 70 percent of the world's population by September.
The donation model for vaccines has failed.
"More than two years into the pandemic, millions have still not received the first doses that could protect them from this deadly disease," it said.
US government shares important technologies in the fight against Corona
US President Biden announced that he would make important US-owned technologies available worldwide in the fight against Corona.
Specifically, he mentioned the stabilized spike protein that is used in several corona vaccines.
The information is to be shared via the WHO’s so-called Covid-19 Technology Access Pool.
Vaccination progress has stagnated in the United States.
Around 66 percent of people have been vaccinated twice, 46 percent of them also have a booster vaccination.
The US government warns again and again that the money for free tests and other projects is running out.
Biden again urged the US Congress to approve the $ 22.5 billion in corona emergency funding he had requested.
dpa