Coronavirus Global Updates, Oct 23: Global Covid cases pass 41 million – France and Spain exceed one million infections

Fri Oct 23 10:11:10 CAT 2020

International update: Global Covid cases pass 41 million – France and Spain exceed one million infections

Global: Global coronavirus infections have passed 41.3 million cases, reaching 41,341,755. The global coronavirus death toll is 1,133,032 according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

US: US Covid-19 infections exceed 8.3 million, meanwhile, the US coronavirus death toll is 222,263 according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

Alabama’s lieutenant governor, who has called the state’s mask order a government overstep, announced on Wednesday that he has tested positive for Covid-19.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy placed himself in quarantine after coming into contact over the weekend with a senior staff member who tested positive for Covid-19.

New York state posted more than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases for the first time since May, a surge that officials are desperate to head off as they prepare to distribute vaccines in the new year.

Six US states reported record day-over-day increases in Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, as infections rose across the Midwest and elsewhere, prompting new clampdowns on residents, schools and businesses. Deaths attributed to Covid-19 hit daily records in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Kansas, Hawaii and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Colorado and Ohio reported record daily increases in new infections.

US hospitalizations for Covid-19 hit the highest point since 22 August, with New York doubling its count from early September and at least ten other states reporting records. Texas virus hospitalizations jumped to almost 5,000 on Wednesday, the third straight daily increase.

A United Airlines Holdings Inc. flight from London to Newark, New Jersey, performed the first US trial of a new digital health app designed to share travelers’ coronavirus test results. The CommonPass mobile app, created by the Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum, is seen as a tool to help governments reopen borders by providing test data.

Zimbabwe COVID19 Update

COVID-19 update: As at 22 October 2020, Zimbabwe had 8 242 confirmed cases, including 7 742 recoveries and 236 deaths.

India: India added 55,839 cases in a day, bringing total infections in the South Asian country to 7.7 million, government data showed. Deaths from the virus topped 116,000.

Spain: Spain became the first country in Western Europe to surpass one million coronavirus infections, as authorities struggle to control fresh outbreaks and contemplate a curfew for the capital Madrid. Some 6,114 new cases were detected in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,005,295, according to Health Ministry data published Wednesday.

France: France has become the second country in Western Europe to record more than one million coronavirus infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The current total is 1,000,357. France has recorded 34,075 deaths. There are now seven countries worldwide with more than one million cases.

Greece: Greece saw a second straight record day for new cases. The country reported 865 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 27,334. It recorded six more deaths in the past 24 hours with the total number of dead at 534.

Germany: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose by more than 10,000 in a single day for the first time, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday. The institute recorded 11,287 new cases in its daily update for a total of 392,049.

Italy: Italy registered a record of 15,199 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

Czech Republic: The Czech Republic registered a daily record of 14,968 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, Health Ministry data show early on Thursday, confirming the worst current outbreak of the disease in Europe adjusted for population.

Puerto Rico: All of Puerto Rico’s 911 call centers were shut down Wednesday night after several employees tested positive for the coronavirus, officials announced.

New Zealand: New Zealand reported just two new cases of the virus on Thursday, a day after recording its highest number of new Covid-19 cases in a single day for more than six months – most of them diagnosed in border quarantine facilities. Both new cases were diagnosed in travellers returning to the country.

South Korea: South Korea reported 121 more coronavirus cases on Thursday, up from 91 cases a day earlier. The number of new infections is the biggest in a month, with 62 cases in Gyeonggi and 18 in Seoul.

South Africa: South Africa is recording a worrying increase in coronavirus infections, especially in the Western Cape province, which saw a 42% spike in new cases in the past week, according to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.

Vaccine news

US: Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, said he expects the US trials of vaccines made by AstraZeneca Plc and Johnson & Johnson to restart as soon as this week.

New York City officials are beginning to plan for wide-scale distribution of a Covid-19 virus vaccine next year, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Brazil: Brazilian health authority Anvisa said on Wednesday that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University had died but added that the trial would continue. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the trial would have been suspended if the volunteer who died had received the Covid-19 vaccine, suggesting the person was part of the control group that was given a meningitis jab.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro blasted a Chinese coronavirus vaccine being tested in the country just a day after his health minister said it would be distributed nationwide.

“The Brazilian people WON’T BE ANYONE’S GUINEA PIG,” he wrote on his Facebook and Twitter pages, adding that billions can’t be spent on medication that is still being tested. “My decision is to not acquire the aforementioned vaccine.”

Denmark: Bavarian Nordic’s plan to develop a Covid-19 vaccine faces delays after the firm had difficulties raising funding from investors, Borsen reported, citing Rolf Sass Sorensen, head of IR.

Switzerland: Roche Holding AG agreed to pay $350 million in an alliance with Atea Pharmaceuticals Inc. to develop a potential treatment for Covid-19. The Swiss drugmaker will get the rights to distribute Atea’s AT-527 drug outside of the US under the agreement, Atea said Thursday.

Lockdown updates

Italy: Italy’s Lazio region, including the capital Rome, is set to introduce a curfew on Friday from midnight to 5am to try to curb its surging Covid-19 infections, a regional government source told Reuters.

Greece: The northwestern city of Kastoria is being raised to level four, the highest risk, with local lockdown measures to be introduced from 6am on 24 October, Deputy Citizen Protection Nikos Hardalias said Wednesday.

Uruguay: Uruguay’s government issued a 30-day ban on public events and private parties in the province of Rivera that borders Brazil amid a recent surge in Covid-19 cases. It also suspended non-life threatening surgical procedures and made school attendance optional.

Economy updates

US: Donald Trump has said he does not see any way house speaker Nancy Pelosi and senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer “will be willing to do what is right for our great American workers, or our wonderful USA itself, on stimulus.”

Spain reaches 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases

Spain this week became the first country in western Europe to record more than 1 million confirmed infections, as it struggles to contain a resurgence of the new coronavirus.

After being brought under control during a nationwide lockdown in the spring, the virus started spreading again a couple of months after restrictions were lifted and people started to move around and socialize again. By September, hospitals in Madrid were once again beginning to fill up as Spain recorded the highest numbers of new infections in the 27-country European Union. 

Confirmed cases rose beyond the 1 million mark on Wednesday, when nearly 17,000 new infections were added. 

Experts say the real number is probably much higher because insufficient testing, asymptomatic cases and other issues impede authorities from capturing the true scale of the outbreak.

Like elsewhere in Europe, the resurgence has prompted authorities to impose restrictions on travel and social gatherings. Curfews are being considered in some of the most affected areas, including the capital, Madrid. The northern region of Navarra has prohibited non-essential travel from and to the region.

Belgian Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes has been hospitalized in intensive care with the coronavirus.

Wilmes, who was in charge when the first wave of infections hit the country this spring, now serves in the new government led by Alexander De Croo.

Elke Pattyn, a spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press that Wilmes is in a stable condition and conscious. She said her condition "is not worrying."

The 45-year-old Wilmes, who was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday evening, said last week she thought she got infected within her family circle.

Belgium, a country of 11.5 million inhabitants, has been severely hit by the coronavirus and is currently seeing a sharp rise in new cases. More than 10,000 people have died from coronavirus-related complications in Belgium.

UAE breaks single-day record for new cases

The United Arab Emirates has broken its single-day record for new coronavirus cases with 1,578 confirmed. The cases reported Thursday bring the country's total in the pandemic to over 120,700, including 470 deaths. 

Despite an uptick in infections in recent weeks, authorities have pushed ahead with reopening the country.

Schools are back in session and Dubai, the region's air travel hub, is welcoming back tourists. Earlier this week, authorities in Dubai allowed weddings and other major social events to resume under strict health conditions.

Slovenia and Croatia set new case records

Slovenia's confirmed coronavirus cases have soared to another daily record of 1,663, and the country has reported the deaths of five more people with COVID-19. Neighboring Croatia also set a new daily record on Thursday with 1,563 new cases and 13 deaths, most of them in the capital, Zagreb.

Authorities in both countries have warned that if the infection rates continue to climb at their current pace, hospitals could run out of unoccupied beds.

Several general hospitals in Croatia have already been turned into facilities treating only COVID-19 patients and are preparing tents to accommodate more people.

Confirmed infections now constitute over 25% of all virus tests in Slovenia, well above the 5% threshold recommended by the World Health Organization.

Health officials have called on the Slovenian government to introduce stricter measures to combat the virus spread, including a complete lockdown of the small Alpine state of 2 million people.

Coronavirus: 11 cases, 10 recoveries, 1 resolved outbreak reported in London-Middlesex

Eleven people have tested positive for the coronavirus and 10 more people have recovered, officials with the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU) reported on Thursday.

The region has recorded a total of 1,071 cases since the pandemic began, of which 944 people have recovered and 59 have died. The most recent death was reported on Wednesday involving a 71-year-old man. The death was the second to be reported in under a week.

Thursday’s update leaves 68 known active cases in the city and county.

Of the 11 new cases, all are from London, health unit data shows. Four are aged 19 or younger, four are in their 20s, and one each are in their 40s, 60s and 80s.

Eight cases are the result of close contact with confirmed cases, two cases are listed as having a pending or undetermined source, and one has no known link.

At the same time, the health unit’s non-intensive care hospitalized case tally rose by one compared to the previous day. It’s at least the third day in a row that the tally has risen by one. On Monday, it rose by two.

A total of 127 people have been hospitalized during the pandemic, including 33 in intensive care.

In other news:

•       France and Spain set grim milestones overnight with both countries passing the 1 million COVID-19 case mark, the Johns Hopkins data shows. They join the U.S., India, Brazil, Russia and Argentina, all of which also have more than million cases. France has imposed a four-week nighttime curfew in Paris and other cities that bans people from being out between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Spain’s government is reported to be considering a curfew to control its latest outbreak.

•       Italy, an early hot spot in the pandemic, may impose a new lockdown on Rome if the number of patients admitted to intensive care units exceeds 2,300, newspaper Il Corriere della Sera reported, citing government sources. Italy counted 15,199 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, its biggest daily rise since the start of the outbreak. Italy has 449,648 confirmed cases and at least 36,832 Italians have died, according to the Johns Hopkins data.

•       Women aged 50 to 60 are most at risk of becoming so-called “long haulers” if they contract COVID-19, according to a new study conducted by King’s College London, the Guardian reported. The study analyzed data from 4,182 users of a COVID Symptom Study app who had consistently recorded their own data. Long haulers are those who continue to suffer from severe symptoms of the illness weeks after testing positive. Older age, and experiencing five or more symptoms in the first week, were also found to come with a heightened risk of lasting problems, the paper reported.

•       The CDC has tweaked its guidance for who is considered at risk of getting COVID-19 by changing the definition of a “close contact” of an infected person. In updated guidance, the agency said the definition includes someone “who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated.” Previous guidance defined a close contact as someone who had spent at least 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of a patient.

Brazil has the second highest death toll at 155,403 and is third by cases at 5.3 million. India is second in cases with 7.7 million, and third in deaths at 116,616.

Mexico has the fourth highest death toll at 87,415 and 10th highest case tally at 867,559.

The U.K has 44,248 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world, and 792,194 cases.

China, where the disease was first reported late last year, has 91,055 cases and 4,739 fatalities, according to its official numbers.

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