US-HEALTH-VIRUS-EMERGENCY

After administering him with oxygen, County of Los Angeles paramedics load a potential Covid-19 patient in the ambulance before transporting him to a hospital in Hawthorne, California on December 29, 2020 as a family walks by. - The new variant of coronavirus was detected for the first time today in the United States and Latin America as President-elect Joe Biden vowed to significantly ramp up the vaccination drive. The coronavirus has killed at least 1,775,272 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to an AFP tally on December 29 based on official sources. The United States is the worst-affected country with 334,967 deaths, followed by Brazil with 191,570. (Photo by Apu GOMES / AFP) (Photo by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)