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Protesters stage mock funeral procession outside White House

WION
DelhiUpdated: May 21, 2020, 09:03 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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Protesters held a mock funeral procession in Washington DC on Wednesday, with 'body bags' laid out in front of the White House

Protests have flared up in the United States against the government's policies to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Protesters held a mock funeral procession in Washington DC on Wednesday, with 'body bags' laid out in front of the White House to denounce the government response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The protest was staged by the family members of those who lost their lives to coronavirus.

Furthermore, hundreds of truck drivers have been protesting outside the White House for over a week. They are protesting against the lack of transparency in their wages. A group of truck drivers even interrupted President Trump's press conference on May 15. 

The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States has exceeded 1.5 million, with as many 95,000 fatalities reported in the country so far.

Meanwhile, Trump administration has awarded a contract worth up to $812 million to a new US company to manufacture drugs and drug ingredients to fight COVID-19 on American soil, aiming to end dependence on other countries.

There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19 being tested by pharmaceutical giants across the world, with governments, drugmakers and researchers working on around 100 programmes and experts predicting a safe and effective means of preventing the disease could take 12 to 18 months to develop.
 

(With inputs from Reuters)