US breaks new record in daily COVID-19 cases

ANKARA

The US broke a new record in daily COVID-19 cases with more than 120,000 new infections, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The country saw 121,054 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, marking the second consecutive day of over 100,000 new infections nationwide.

The US still leads the world with over 9.6 million cases and nearly 235,000 deaths. Globally, more than 48.6 million infections were registered as of Thursday, with fatalities surpassing 1.2 million.

In India, more than 8.4 million people have contracted the virus with fatalities nearing 125,000, and Brazil has recorded close to 5.6 million cases with more than 161,000 deaths.

China, the birthplace of COVID-19 has registered around 91,500 cases and 4,741 deaths.

Turkey's overall case tally stood at 386,820 with 10,639 deaths as of Thursday, according to the country's Health Ministry.

Worldwide, there are currently more than 170 vaccine candidates for COVID-19 tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO), while none has been approved yet for general use.

On Thursday, Turkey's Erciyes University administrated the first dose of a vaccine candidate for the novel coronavirus, namely ERUCOV-VAC, to a human volunteer.

Several clinical research both at the national and international levels were completed for ERUCOV-VAC, developed by academics of Erciyes University, and it will be administered to 44 more volunteers.

In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, once approved, will go to healthcare workers.

The CDC said it expects having some vaccine for high-risk individuals, such as healthcare workers, sometime in December or early January.

While Italy hopes to test a potential vaccine on 300 volunteers starting next month, Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization made recommendations to the Public Health Agency for high-risk individuals to be vaccinated first against COVID-19.

The WHO said on Oct. 23 there are 10 vaccines in Phase 3 trials, while it expects results from one or two of them late November by earliest.