“As a result of all this progress and the tools we all have, we’re moving toward a time when covid isn’t a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said.
A mixed-race, middle-aged woman is the third to be cured of HIV. The “Berlin patient” was the first person in 2009, followed by the “London patient” a decade later.
Beyond the toll directly attributable to the virus, the excess death count exposes the unusually high rates of heart disease, hypertension, dementia and other ailments across two years of pandemic misery.
For the last two years, scientists have built a powerful array of tools to prevent and treat covid-19. With vaccines, home tests and treatments, people can coexist with the virus.
The first confirmed case, an asymptomatic individual, was recorded after the prime minister declared that “keeping our borders closed indefinitely was no longer a viable option.”