US losing one life to coronavirus every 33 seconds

WASHINGTON/TAIPEI: In yet another alarming development amid the coronavirus pandemic in the US, latest figures show that someone died from Covid-19 every 33 seconds in the country during the past one week.

The coronavirus disease has claimed more than 18,000 lives in America in the seven days ending December 20 - up 6.7% from the prior week to hit another record high, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports.

The grim numbers coincide with the total number of Covid-19 infections in the US crossing the 18 million mark. The coronavirus has claimed more than 319,000 lives in the country.

In a welcome development on the virus front, US lawmakers have approved a $900 billion relief package for the world’s biggest economy that will provide a long-sought boost for millions of Americans and businesses battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Overwhelming approval in the Senate and House of Representatives on Monday cleared the way for the legislation to be sent to President Donald Trump to be signed into law.

Trump signed a stopgap measure early on Tuesday to keep the federal government funded until December 28 and avert a shutdown. “The American people can rest assured that more help is on the way, immediately,” Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said.

Taiwan on Tuesday reported its first locally transmitted case of Covid-19 since April 12, a friend of a New Zealand pilot who was confirmed to have been infected earlier this week, and is testing more than 100 contacts of the woman.

Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention methods and widespread mask wearing, with all new cases for more than the last 250 days being among travellers arriving on the island.

Singapore received Asia’s first delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on Monday, capping what the city-state’s premier said had been a “long and arduous” year spent fighting the pandemic. The trade and finance hub last week joined a handful of other countries around the world, including Britain and the United States, which have approved the jab. It plans to vaccinate its 5.7 million people by the third quarter of 2021.