Michigan and Washington states have brought in strict measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been recorded that the COVID-19 cases in the US surpass 11 million.
High schools and colleges are to halt on-site teaching and restaurants are prohibited from offering indoor dining in Michigan from Wednesday.
Indoor restaurants are also banned in Washington State, and gyms, cinemas, theatres, and museums will close down.
This increase comes with hospital admissions at record levels.
On average, more than 1,000 people a day are dying from the virus, and the overall death toll is close to 250,000.
The Trump administration struck an optimistic note on Friday, saying it hoped to distribute 20 million doses of an approved vaccine in December, and for each month after that – although vaccines have yet to get official approval.
But aides to President-elect Joe Biden said the White House’s refusal to facilitate a presidential transition means his team is being excluded from planning around a vaccination campaign that will be a priority for Mr. Biden when he takes office in January.
“Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we’re going to have on January 20th,” the president-elect’s chief of staff Ron Klain was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
Mr. Klain said the Biden team would nonetheless start talking to vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer.
President Donald Trump has continued to claim he won the 3 November election, tweeting late on Sunday night: “I WON THE ELECTION!”
Twitter affixed a warning label to the tweet reading: “Official sources called this election differently.”
Mr. Trump has ruled outputting the nation into lockdown, but many states are introducing their own restrictions as fast-rising cases threaten to overwhelm their healthcare systems.
Source: bbc.com
