COVID-19 World Updates
by Sriya Sadhu
VOL. 23 — published November 15, 2020 under COVID-19
- Japan reports a record number of daily COVID-19 Cases
- Cases around the world are at an all-time high. For the third day in a row, Japan reports record numbers of new COVID-19 cases, reporting around 1,738 cases on Saturday.The latest numbers in Japan bring the nationwide total to 117,389 cases including 1,896 deaths.
- Austria Goes into Full Lockdown
- On Saturday, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria announced that the country would go into a full lockdown after a failed partial shutdown that didn’t curb rising infection rates. He states during a press conference, “If we do not ready massively there is a great risk that the numbers will continue to rise or remain at a high level and overstretch the health system.” Thus, starting on Tuesday and remaining until at least early December, schools and stores will close and people will be required to work from home. Although heavy restrictions was something that Kurz wanted to avoid, similar restrictions in the spring led to a drop in new infections - albeit significantly damaging the national economy.
- Doctors Call for More Restrictions and Caution as the Virus Surges
- In some hard-hit states in the US, healthcare workers have taken to social media to urgently plea for new restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. Currently, they explain that the issue is that the public doesn’t take current precautions seriously- and in Nebraska, Dr. Dan Johnson (an anesthesiologist) stated that current measures were simply not enough to stop the rate of transmission, urging individuals to take matters into their own hands. On Twitter, Dr. Angela Hewlett (an epidemiologist) warned that “Our community and our hospitals are suffering,” she said. “We are not an unlimited resource.”