China, Germany Suffer Alarming Jump In New COVID-19 Cases As “Second Wave” Spreads: Live Updates

Summary:

• China reports another 105 new cases
• Hong Kong suffers new COVID record
• Japan reports another 1,200+ cases
• Melbourne suffers new record
• Germany sees cases at 6 week high
• Dutch gov’t declines to advise face mask wearing
• Local lockdowns reported in parts of UK
• Poland suffers new daily record

* * *

We kicked off yesterday’s COVID-19 live blog with the latest
alarming numbers out of Asia: Mainland China reported its biggest
daily cluster since mid-April, and Hong Kong, which adopted its
more restrictive social distancing measures yet last week, reported
100+ new cases for a fifth straight day.

The last 24 hours have seen both outbreaks intensify, in keeping
with the general pattern exhibited by SARS-CoV-2 (that is, it
spreads, and quickly). On the mainland, public health officials
reported 105 new cases Thursday morning. 102 of these cases were
domestically transmitted, while only 3 were imported. Of the
domestic cases, 96 were recorded in Xinjiang, the far-flung western
province occupied by China’s Muslim Uiyghers, a minority ethnic
group that has been subjected to unimaginable brutality by the
government in Beijing, which has herded more than a million of them
into concentration-camp-like settings. All cases were allegedly
recorded over the last 24 hours, according to official data
reported by Xinhua.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, reported 145 locally-transmitted
coronavirus cases, marking a new daily record. 61 of the 145 cases
were of unknown origin. The city also reported four imported case.
While Hong Kong tightened restrictions on late-night dining and
bar-hopping, it is also allowing restaurants to serve dine-in
breakfast starting Friday.

Japan also reported more than 1,200 new cases on Thursday one
day after
shattering its daily COVID-19 record.

Japan Covid-19 daily cases
+1264 today pic.twitter.com/VdX3bnbA3N

— Sunchartist (@sunchartist)
July 30, 2020

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike wants bars and karaoke parlors to
limit their hours to close at 2200 local time.

But perhaps the most alarming numbers (at least as far as the
west is concerned) are being reported out of Australia, where the
southern-hemisphere winter is in full swing.

As Bloomberg reported Thursday morning, the chilly weather and
attendant surge in virus cases (just as epidemiologists had
anticipated) could offer a preview of what’s in store for the US
and Europe once Winter arrives. Then again, it could also explain
the explosion of cases across the Sun Belt as more Americans sought
shelter from the elements indoors.

At any rate, Australia’s second-most populous city Melbourne
is experiencing a virus resurgence that – like the outbreak seen in
the Sun Belt – has dwarfed the case tallies it reported back in
March. The state of Victoria on Thursday reported yet another
record high of 723 new infections, early 200 more than the previous
record, which it had reported only a few days earlier.’

hadn’t realized the extent to
which cases had really picked up in Australia. https://t.co/5uFNEoSFnb pic.twitter.com/lEduVe0rIj

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart)
July 30, 2020

Moving on to the US, the biggest news over the last day was the
US passing the 150,000 death threshold, propelled by a surge in
deaths across the Sun Belt, as Florida, California and Texas have
all reported record daily death totals in recent days. The US
yesterday reported its largest daily tally for deaths since May 27,
according to worldometer.

More vaccine news hit Thursday morning, but surprisingly, it
wasn’t enough to ease the malaise gripping equity markets across
the globe. According to
BBG, J&J’s vaccine candidate has proven to be safe…on
monkeys.

The reaction to the news suggests investors might finally be
tiring of “pre-clinical” data. Though the notion that JNJ’s vaccine
might be successful with just a single dose is probably notable,
considering all the hubub over
Moderna’s pricing plans.

Johnson & Johnson’s experimental coronavirus vaccine
protected a group of macaques with a single shot in an early study,
prompting the U.S. drugmaker to start trials in humans this
month.

All of the animals that were exposed to the
pandemic-causing pathogen six weeks after the injection were immune
except one, who showed low levels of the virus, according
to a study published in the medical journal Nature. The health-care
behemoth kick-started human trials on July 22 in Belgium and in the
U.S. earlier this week.

The data “show our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate generated a
strong antibody response and provided protection with a single
dose,” Paul Stoffels, the drugmaker’s chief scientific officer,
said in the statement. “The findings give us confidence as
we progress our vaccine development and upscale
manufacturing.”

J&J aims to embark on the last phase of tests in September,
compressing the traditional timeline as it races against others
such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca for a shot to end the
pandemic. Although others have been faster in development,
with Astra having already administered its experimental vaccine to
almost 10,000 people in the U.K. alone, eliciting protection with a
single dose could prove to be an advantage in the logistical
challenge of rolling out massive vaccination programs around the
globe.

JNJ received a $456 million from the US government’s Biomedical
Advanced Research and Development Authority via project warp speed
and has already started talks with the US, the EU, and governments
around the world about supplying its vaccine.

Finally, over in Europe, fears of a ‘second wave’ are
intensifying as the UK has reported rising daily infection totals
for a week now. What’s more, the infection numbers appear to be
rising beyond the ‘hot spots’ in Catalonia and elsewhere. Germany
and Poland are just two countries seeing a comeback.

Germany reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus
cases in roughly six weeks on Thursday. While the country’s
infection rate remained just above the key threshold of 1 (the
point beyond which the virus is considered to be “spreading”),
there were 839 new cases in the 24 hours through Thursday morning,
bringing Germany’s total to 208,546, per data from JHU (these
disheartening German numbers followed a record contraction in
German GDP in Q2 which was reported on Thursday). Notably, the
Dutch government, which memorably was the first in Europe to send
students back to classrooms, has decided not to advise the wearing
of masks in public spaces. Nearby Poland also reported a record
daily jump in new cases (though it wasn’t alone)…

The
#COVID19
#pandemic is worsening.

Within the last 24 hours ALL of these countries/territories have
posted all-time record high daily number of new infections.#India#Brazil#Colombia#HongKong#Australia#Ukraine#Poland#Japan#Morocco

#Lebanon
#secondwave
#coronavirus

— Tim White (@TWMCLtd)
July 30, 2020

Poland reported 615 new cases, bringing its total to 45,031.

Record number of new Covid-19
cases in Poland announced: 615 (conf. by swab tests).

Prev biggest:
May12: 595
Jun06: 576
Jun07: 575
Jun08: 599
Jul25: 584

The 7-day rolling avg also high.

7-day avg daily deaths around 7

Daily cases per 1M ppl still better than USA / World avg pic.twitter.com/tMBAy4MLhn

— Vector Of Basis (@VectorOfBasis)
July 30, 2020

While the number of daily cases have continued to steadily
decline in the UK from the peak in April, some areas are recording
more infections than others, leading to local lockdowns in
Leicester and Oldham, which we reported earlier this week. Still,
nationwide, the UK reports fewer than 1,000 cases per day.