There were more new coronavirus cases reported on Friday across the world than there have been on any single day since the health crisis began late last year.
The new high achieved on Friday was 350,766 cases, the United Nations health agency said. The previous high mark, set earlier this week, was nearly 12,000 fewer cases in a single day.
“The majority of people in the world are still susceptible to this disease,” Dr. Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, warned during a press briefing reported by the Associated Press.
More than 1 million doses of a coronavirus antibody treatment may be available at no cost to patients by the end of the year. United States Department of Health and Human Services official Paul Mango said that Regeneron Pharmaceutical and Eli Lilly & Company are currently each producing hundreds of thousands of doses.
The treatment, known as monoclonal antibodies, is made of antibodies produced in a laboratory that prevent a virus from spreading by imitating the body’s immune response. President Trump received the drug from Regeneron last week. Trump said Friday he was working to get both drugs approved under Operation Warp Speed.
Both companies have submitted their treatment to the Food and Drug Administration for an emergency use authorization. They say that the treatments have proven successful in clinical trials.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that approval of a coronavirus vaccine from the United Kingdom would not mean the vaccine would be ready for use in the U.S.
“We have very stringent rules about the Food and Drug Administration here about clinical trials, timing, number of people, etc., so that when a drug is approved by the FDA that it’s safe and efficacious, then it has the trust of the American people,” Pelosi said at a press conference on Friday. “My concern is that the U.K.’s system for that kind of judgment is not on par with ours. So if Boris Johnson decides he’s going to approve a drug and this president embraces that, that’s the concern I have.”
The remarks appeared to be a response to Trump’s desire to have a vaccine approved before the election. In August, Trump suggested he might seek an emergency authorization for a British vaccine. However, the vaccine being developed in the U.K. by AstraZeneca/Oxford University will not be ready before November.
To date, over 7.6 million coronavirus cases and more than 213,000 deaths have been confirmed in the U.S.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused the Trump campaign of fomenting protests in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in New York City. At his press briefing Friday, the Democrat played a recorded robocall that said, “We are in touch with the Trump campaign. They are urging everyone to come out with signs ‘Cuomo killed thousands.’ Come to 13th Avenue, and hold big signs ‘Cuomo killed thousands,’ as many as possible, as big as possible. The more signs we have, the bigger the national outcry will be.”
In recent days, numerous protests have erupted in Jewish neighborhoods in New York City after Cuomo imposed new restrictions on them in response to a coronavirus outbreak.
Spain’s government declared a two-week state of emergency in Madrid on Friday in an effort to deal with a serious coronavirus outbreak. The move will require local authorities in Madrid to restore travel restrictions that had been imposed by the national government but were successfully challenged in court by Madrid authorities. Health Minister Salvador Illa said the measures thrown out by the court would come back into force, but the legal framework for them would change.
China has reversed course and said it will join an international effort, called COVAX, to distribute vaccines to about two-thirds of the world by 2022. The effort is being spearheaded by the WHO. China previously declined to join the effort. The U.S. and Russia have also declined to join.