Daily US Times: The director-general of the World Health Organization said Monday “There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking at a media briefing in Geneva where he added, “But there is a roadmap to a situation where we can control the disease and get on with our lives.”
He said: “We need to reach a sustainable situation where we do have adequate control of this virus without shutting down our lives entirely or lurching from lockdown to lockdown.”
Tedros said that in order to get to this place, three things would be required. These are a focus on reducing mortality and suppressing transmission; an “empowered, engaged community” that takes individual measures to protect the whole community; and strong government leadership and communication.
The WHO chief said: “It can be done. It must be done.” Cases in the US have been rising for last few days as several states intended to return to normal life.
Tedros said that there are no shortcuts out of this pandemic and that while we hope for an effective vaccine, there must be a focus on using the tools that are available now to suppress transmission and save lives
Meanwhile, more than 135,000 people have died from coronavirus in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases. US is suffering to return to normal life, but several other countries, who once was a hotspot for coronavirus got back to their old lives.
On Monday, 18,490 new cases and 67 deaths have been reported.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, other US territories and the District of Columbia.
On Monday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey along with 17 other state attorneys generals, including Connecticut and New Jersey, filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration. The aim of the lawsuit is to prevent a federal rule that “threatens to bar hundreds of thousands of international students from studying in the United States.”
Healy said In a press release Monday that the lawsuit filed in US District Court in Massachusetts against the Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement challenges what the attorneys general call the federal government’s “cruel, abrupt, and unlawful action to expel international students amidst the pandemic that has wrought death and disruption across the United States.”
On Monday, China announces sanctions on top Republicans after the US imposed sanctions on several Chinese officials for alleged human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province. The nature of the sanctions is not clear yet. Senator Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz were among those targeted. Both of them have been outspoken critics of China.
