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 White House considers lifting European travel restrictions
The White House is considering rescinding entry bans for most non-U.S.
citizens who recently were in Brazil, Britain, Ireland and 26 other
European countries, five U.S. and airline officials told Reuters.
The plan has won the backing of White House coronavirus task-force
members, public health and other federal agencies, the people
briefed on the matter said, but President Donald Trump has not made
a final decision and the timing remains uncertain.
Americans urged to stay home over holiday
U.S. health officials and politicians pleaded with Americans on
Tuesday to stay at home over the Thanksgiving holiday as record
coronavirus caseloads pushed hospitals to their limits.
The chorus of public appeals intensified heading into a holiday
weekend that is expected to further fuel an alarming surge of
infections nationwide, while the daily U.S. death toll climbed above
2,000 - at least four deaths every three minutes. It marked the
highest 24-hour loss of life from the pandemic since early May.
"We are on fire with COVID," Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on
CNN, defending unpopular restrictions he ordered last week that
included new limits on retail activity and school closures. "We're
just trying to do the right thing."
Death toll spikes across Europe
Poland reported on Wednesday a new daily record of 674 coronavirus-related
deaths, while Russia reported a record 507 deaths in the last 24
hours, taking its national death toll to 37,538 since the pandemic
began.
Germany reported a record 410 deaths in the last 24 hours, before
the 16 federal state leaders and Chancellor Angela Merkel were due
to meet on Wednesday to discuss restrictions for the Christmas and
New Year holidays.
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More than 59.8 million people have been reported to be infected globally and
1,409,664 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Singapore nearly virus-free
Having once had the highest COVID-19 rate in Southeast Asia, Singapore has all
but eradicated the virus after reporting 14 days without any new local cases on
Tuesday, and saying it had snuffed out the last cluster of infection at a worker
dormitory.
The cramped dormitories for young, low-wage labourers, mainly from Bangladesh,
India and China had been at the centre of the city-state's spiralling cases
earlier this year.
While Singapore has reported zero local cases for two weeks, there has been a
trickle of infected people arriving from abroad who have been immediately
isolated, authorities say.
Mutations not making virus able to spread more rapidly
The coronavirus is mutating as it spreads around the world in the pandemic, but
none of the mutations currently documented appears to be making it able to
spread more rapidly, scientists said on Wednesday.
In a study using a global dataset of virus genomes from 46,723 people with
COVID-19 from 99 countries, researchers identified more than 12,700 mutations,
or changes, in the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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