Sunday, November 15, 2020

U.S. Tops 11 Million as Cases Surge Coast to Coast

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U.S. Tops 11 Million as Cases Surge Coast to Coast: Virus Update

The U.S. surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases on Sunday as Florida reported the most new infections since July and California reached a three-month high. New Jersey counted record Covid-19 cases ...
U.S. Tops 11 Million as Cases Surge Coast to Coast: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) --

The U.S. surpassed 11 million coronavirus cases on Sunday as Florida reported the most new infections since July and California reached a three-month high. New Jersey counted record Covid-19 cases for the second straight day.

In a respite for New Yorkers, the city’s public schools will remain open on Monday. Michigan is expected to announce a new clampdown after Washington state reimposed curbs earlier Sunday, including on most indoor social activity.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who overcame a serious brush with the virus in the spring, is self-isolating after exposure to a lawmaker who tested positive. A spokesman said Johnson is well and asymptomatic.

Key Developments:

Global Tracker: Cases top 54.2 million; deaths 1.3 millionCovid’s rampage means no medical cavalry coming to the rescueTrump calls for “big and focused’ virus relief billThe death toll from the latest spate of U.S. cases is poised to get worseBloomberg is mapping coronavirus cases across the U.S.NYC’s private schools brace for lockdown with Covid rate spikeVaccine Tracker: Encouraging breakthroughs offer hope

Subscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on coronavirus cases and deaths.

chart: Second Waves© Bloomberg Second Waves

California Tops 10,000 New Cases (5 p.m. NY)

California reported 10,968 new cases Sunday, a three-month high. Along with Saturday’s 9,875 infections, this makes it the worst weekend in months after the state surpassed 1 million cases last week.

The number of deaths, at 35, however, brings the 14-day average to the lowest level since April.

Florida Cases Reach Four-Month High (4:17 p.m. NY)

Cases in Florida rose the most since July, when the last virus surge peaked. Sunday’s 10,105 reported infections compare with a seven-day trailing average of 5,900.

Hospitalizations have risen by a third, to more than 3,000, since the beginning of October but are nowhere near the summer peak of almost 10,000.

U.K.’s Johnson Isolates After Covid Contact (3:45 p.m. NY)

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will self-isolate after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19, his spokesman said.

Johnson, 56, is well, isn’t showing symptoms and “will carry on working from Downing Street,” the spokesman said in a statement Sunday.

Johnson met with members of Parliament at 10 Downing Street on Thursday and one of them, Lee Anderson, later tested positive. The prime minister overcame a bout of Covid-19 in late March and April that had him in intensive care for three nights.

Washington State Resumes Curbs on Business, Gatherings (2:58 p.m. NY)

Washington Governor Jay Inslee reinstated a series of restrictions on social gatherings on Sunday as the state enters what he called a “third wave” that’s more dangerous than ever before.

Indoor dining is banned and outdoor dining will be limited to no more than five people, under the new measures, effective from Monday through Dec. 14. Indoor gatherings with people outside of the same household are also prohibited, unless visitors follow quarantine rules.

Grocery stores and retailers are limited to 25% capacity. Childcare services or K-12 education will not be affected.

“We are today in a more dangerous position than we were in March,” Inslee said on a media briefing Sunday. “Inaction here is not an option. We have to take bold, decisive action.”

New York Cases Slow (1:54 p.m. NY)

New York reported 3,649 cases, after two days with more than 5,000 new infections. Hospitalizations rose to 1,845, while the positive-test rate dropped slightly to 2.74%, among the lowest in the nation. Another 30 people died.

France Cases Slow, I.C.U.s Level Off (1:51 p.m. NY)

France reported 27,228 new coronavirus cases on Sunday. The seven-day average, which smooths out fluctuations in the data, shrank by 5.5% to 27,786, showing a continued decline over the past week. Deaths rose by 302 to 44,548 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The pressure on France’s intensive-care wards has been stabilizing in the last days, as seriously ill patients now occupy 96.5% of the country’s initial I.C.U. capacity, French health authorities reported. That rate rose sharply in the last weeks to reach 96.6% on Thursday.

New Jersey Breaks Record for Second Straight Day (12:53 p.m. NY)

New Jersey reported 4,540 new infections, breaking a record for the second consecutive day. “These numbers are ALARMING and continue to rise,” Governor Phil Murphy tweeted. “Take this seriously. Wear a mask. Social distance. Stay safe.”

Hospitalizations rose to 2,004 and patients in intensive care rose to 392.

Musk Tweets He Has ‘No Symptoms’ (12:05 p.m. NY)

Elon Musk tweeted Sunday morning that he has “no symptoms right now,” after admitting on Saturday that he “most likely” has a moderate case of Covid-19 and has had symptoms of “a minor cold.”

He didn’t mention any results from his PCR tests, which are typically performed in labs and are more accurate than rapid tests. He continued to cast doubt on the accuracy of Covid tests on Saturday, citing his “wildly different results from different labs.”

Ohio Hospitals Showing Strain, Governor Says (12:03 p.m. NY)

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said some hospitals in the state are pulling back on elective surgeries, signaling the increasing strain of Covid-19 on U.S. health care.

“We’re certainly not overwhelmed yet, but we monitor this every day.” DeWine said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” The number of hospitalized patients in Ohio jumped from 2,000 to 3,000 over the past week, he said.

Ohio will enforce a public face-covering mandate starting Monday, said DeWine, a Republican whose state was won by President Donald Trump in this month’s election. “We have agents tomorrow for the first time who are actually going out to the different retail establishments to make sure that people are wearing a mask,” DeWine said.

U.K. Virus Cases Rise by Almost 25,000 (11:28 a.m. NY)

The U.K. added 24,962 cases on Sunday, in line with the average of 24,702 in the previous seven days. The country’s tally has risen by more than 20,000 cases every day since Nov. 2. Deaths increased by 168, below the weekly average of 411. Figures have been lower on weekends, when some reporting is delayed.

Italy Infections Slow (11:15 a.m. NY)

Italy reported 33,979 new coronavirus cases and 546 new deaths Sunday as new regions including Florence and Naples adapted to new restrictions, including the closure of all shops and restaurants. The number of cases remains close to recent highs but has been slowly falling from a record 40,902 cases Friday.

Meanwhile, sporadic protesters gathered in some Italy’s cities including Rome and Turin to rally against the measures taken by the government.

Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said that Italy will receive the first shots of vaccine between December and January.

Biden Virus Advisers See No Lockdown on Agenda (10:41 a.m. NY)

Two of President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisers said they favor targeted local measures to stem the pandemic and oppose a nationwide U.S. lockdown as too blunt.

Vivek Murthy, a former U.S. surgeon general who’s one of Biden’s top three advisers on the virus, said that based on what the nation has learned about Covid-19 since the spring, the preferred approach to fighting it is “a dial that we turn up and down, depending on severity.”

“If we just lock down the entire country without targeting our efforts, then we are going to exacerbate the ‘pandemic fatigue’ people are feeling, you’re going to hurt jobs and the economy, you’re going to shut down schools and hurt the education of our children,” Murthy, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

New York City Schools Will Remain Open Monday: Mayor (10:06 a.m. NY)

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that New York City’s schools will remain open on Monday because Covid-19 positive tests haven’t risen above the threshold for closing down.

“Thankfully, schools will remain open on Monday, but we have to keep fighting back with everything we’ve got,” de Blasio tweeted.

The mayor has set a threshold of 3% positivity for closing the city’s public schools. He tweeted Sunday that number was at 2.57%, with 937 new cases.

Vaccine Developer Sees 50% Cut in Transmission (8:15 a.m. NY)

Normal life will return by next winter, according to one of the creators of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech SE of Germany.

BioNTech Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin said he was “very confident that transmission between people will be reduced by such a highly effective vaccine -- maybe not 90% but maybe 50%.” It’s essential that all immunization programs are finished before the autumn, he said Sunday on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

Austria Plans Mass Testing (6:30 a.m. NY)

Austria plans to take a cue from neighboring Slovakia’s mass-testing of the entire population in December, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in an interview. One period for such tests for the nation of almost 9 million people would be before the new lockdown ends on Dec. 6, and another one just before the Christmas holiday. Kurz said details of the plan could be presented next week. One group that could be targeted first are teachers, he said.

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