Active coronavirus cases worldwide hit 5.5 million

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic early this year, more than 12 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus disease and at least 548,896 have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. About 6.5 million patients have recovered. The United States and Brazil have reported the most cases and the highest death tolls.

The humanitarian group Oxfam says that as many as 122 million people could go hungry this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, warning that up to 12,000 people could die each day from hunger linked to the social and economic impacts of the disease.

The US has now confirmed more than three million cases of coronavirus.The outbreak is surging in several southern and western hot spots.

However, Dr Antony Fauci, the leading US infectious disease expert, says he is cautiously optimistic that a coronavirus vaccine with some degree of effectiveness will be successfully developed by the end of the year or the beginning of 2021.