The coronavirus pandemic records nearly half a million deaths worldwide. Coronavirus cases have already reached 10 million on Sunday.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, a quarter of the total number of coronavirus cases are in the US. It is followed by Russia, Brazil, and India. The global death count is almost half a million, at 499,124, based on JHU’s latest figures.
Despite the growing number of coronavirus pandemic deaths worldwide, the White House says that there is no second wave of coronavirus coming.
During an interview with “Squawk Box” co-host Becky Quick, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said he is not too concerned about the resurgences of coronavirus cases in several states.
“There is no second wave coming,” said Kudlow. “It’s just hot spots. They send in CDC teams, we’ve got the testing procedures, we’ve got the diagnostics, we’ve got the PPE. And so I really think it’s a pretty good situation.”
“Actually, I think nationwide the positivity rate is still quite low, well under 10%.”
Stimulus package
Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council and chief economic advisor to President Donald Trump, mentioned that the legislators will likely come up another stimulus package by the end of next month.
His statements came after the US recorded over 30,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday and Saturday, the highest figures since May 1, based on Johns Hopkins University data.
There is an increase of coronavirus cases in several states in the South, West and Midwest, such as Florida and South Carolina.
Health officials said that upswings in new coronavirus cases may have originated from younger people who are going to bars and social gatherings. The World Health Organization stated that the pandemic has entered a “new and dangerous phase” as the disease spreads in new locations globally and multiplies in areas that have started to relax protective rules.
However, Kudlow stressed that the resurgence in the national numbers is focused on a handful of “hot spots” including Arizona, Florida, and Nevada. He said he is not concerned about a bigger return of the coronavirus.
“There are some hot spots. We’re on it. We know how to deal with this stuff now, we’ve come a long way from last winter,” he said.
Meanwhile, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro CNN said the administration is gearing up for a comeback in the disease.
“We are filling the stockpile in anticipation of a possible problem in the fall. We are doing everything we can beneath the surface, working as hard as we possibly can,″ Navarro told CNN. “You prepare — you prepare for what can possibly happen. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but of course you prepare.”
WHO says second wave is possible
On the other hand, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist of the World Health Organization, says the possibilities of a second wave of coronavirus are “very real."
“We don’t know if it will be a second wave, a second peak or a continuing first wave in some countries, it (the infection rate) really hasn’t come down that much at the time of reopening and so all of these possibilities are very real,” she said on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”
She explained that a second wave of infection is “a very real risk” as the virus does not simply disappear. Social distancing and lockdowns have helped curb the spread of the disease because people had to stay apart.
“Now, the moment you start having that mixing again, there’s every chance that the transmission could restart — unless it’s gone down to such a low level in a place where it’s very, very rare to have the infection in the community,” she said.
