유럽, 코로나19 급증…미국 일평균 확진 6만 명 근접

Moving on to the COVID-19 situation worldwide.
Things are beginning to deteriorate in Europe,... and there are predictions from health experts that the U.S. will also experience a spike of daily COVID-19 cases in a week or two.
Meanwhile, a first death has been reported from a clinical trial for COVID-19 vaccine.
Jang Tae-hyun reports.
The total number of COVID-19 cases globally surpassed 41 million on Thursday.
And according to the Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus has killed more than one-point-one million people around the world.
The situation in Europe in particular is beginning to worsen.
A surge in daily cases of COVID-19 has forced some countries to impose lockdowns.
Belgium could impose a lockdown of its own next weekend if the situation hasn't improved.
Curfews were put in place on Monday while restaurants and cafes have been closed completely.
Meanwhile, Spain on Wednesday became the first country in Western Europe to surpass one million confirmed cases.
Lockdown was imposed early this year, but after restrictions were eased, numbers began to surge.
Over the past week in the U.S., there has been a daily average of around 60-thousand new cases.
Health experts say that after one to two weeks, daily figures can spike even further throughout fall and winter.
U.S. health officials on Wednesday added the term "multiple and brief exposures" to its definition of close contact with someone infected with COVID-19.
"Individuals who had a series of shorter contacts, but over time added up to more than 15 minutes became infected."
A first death has been reported from a COVID-19 vaccine trial.
Brazil's health agency, Anvisa, said Wednesday that a participant in a clinical trial of a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has died, but the trial would resume.
It has been reported that the person in question was in the control group and wasn't given a dose of the experimental vaccine.
Jang Tae-hyun, Arirang News.