Biden marks US ‘tragic milestone’ of 1 mn Covid deaths
US Prez asks Congress to provide billions of dollars for testing, vaccines and treatments
THE NUMBER of people who have died from Covid in Europe, the long-time epicentre of the pandemic, has passed two million. The World Health Organisation said 20,02,058 people have died from Covid out of the 218,225,294 registered cases in the region. After a resurgence in the first two weeks of March, case numbers are falling in Europe.
Washington, May 12: President Joe Biden appealed to world leaders at a Covid-19 summit Thursday to reenergise a lagging international commitment to attacking the virus as he led the US in marking the “tragic milestone” of 1 million deaths in America.
He ordered flags lowered to half-staff and warned against complacency around the globe. “This pandemic isn’t over,” Biden declared at the second global pandemic summit. He spoke solemnly of the once-unthinkable US toll: “1 million empty chairs around the family dinner table.” The Coronavirus has killed more than 9,99,000 people in the US and at least 6.2 million people globally since it emerged in late 2019, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Other counts, including by the American Hospital Association, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association, have the toll at 1 million. “Today, we mark a tragic milestone here in the United States, 1 million Covid deaths,” he said.
The President called on Congress to urgently provide
billions of dollars more for testing, vaccines and treatments, something
lawmakers have been unwilling to deliver so far.
That lack of funding —
Biden has requested an additional $22.5 billion in what he calls critically needed money — is a US reflection of faltering resolve that jeopardises the global response to the pandemic, he says.