An approved coronavirus vaccine could end up being effective only 50-60% of the time, meaning public health measures will still be needed to keep the pandemic under control, Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, has said.

“We don’t know yet what the efficacy might be. We don’t know if it will be 50% or 60%. I’d like it to be 75% or more,” Fauci said in a webinar hosted by Brown University on Friday. “But the chances of it being 98% effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach.”

Lockdown measures imposed to keep the virus from spreading have devastated the economy, which suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression in the second quarter, with gross domestic product dropping at its steepest pace in at least 73 years.

The coronavirus has infected nearly 5 million people in the US and killed more than 160,000, making it the worst-affected country in the world.

Also read: United States sets record as coronavirus cases top 5 million

Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed Europe on Friday to become the region hardest-hit with 213,120 fatalities Over the last week, 44% of global fatalities – 18,300 out of 41,500 – occurred in the region.

Brazil approaches 100,000 Covid-19 deaths

Rio de Janeiro is approaching the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths from Covid-19. The country has reported an average of more than 1,000 daily deaths from the pandemic since late May.

The health ministry on Friday reported a total of 2,962,442 confirmed cases and 99,572 deaths – tolls second only to the US.