The US White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has said on Sunday the United States is “not to control the pandemic” despite surging coronavirus cases and death toll.

The center for systems science and engineering at the Johns Hopkins University puts the total number of confirmed cases in the country has surpassed eight and a half million persons, and deaths resulting from the virus have risen to more than two hundred twenty-five thousand on Sunday.

During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, meadows said, quote, “we’re not going to control the pandemic.  We are going to control the act that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas,” end quote.

When asked why the country is not going to get control of the pandemic, meadows said, quote, “because it is a contagious virus just like the flu.”

Meadows’ statement came one day after chief of staff to vice-president mike pence, and four others tested positive for the coronavirus and were quarantined.

Former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, tweeted on Sunday that coronavirus hospitalizations, a critical and objective measure o the disease burden in the U.S., are starting to accelerate, reaching nearly forty-two thousand on that day.  He said criteria for hospital admission has been tightened over time, making the high numbers more concerning.

Russia has opened a representative office in the Central African Republic, C.A.R., and has donated ten armoured vehicles to the country.

Moscow has been solidifying its presence in the C.A.R. in recent years, sending weapons, contractors and political advisors, and has been growing its role on the continent overall as part of a renewed push for global prestige.

The RIA news agency cited the Russian ambassador as saying on Saturday that five members of the Russian military had arrived in Bangui, C.A.R.’s capital, on Saturday, led by senior military officer – Oleg Polguev who will head up the Russian defence ministry’s representative office in the country.

The African nation has asked for Russia`s help in lifting an arms embargo imposed by the United Nations.