World Reports Record Jump In COVID-19 Cases As Outbreak Explodes Across Europe, Midwest: Live Updates

Summary:

• US sees 2nd highest jump in new cases
• Europe’s hospitals overwhelmed amid surge in COVID
  patients
• Cases in India slow
• Blood plasma treatment proven ineffective
• 8 states reported records

* * *

Record numbers of new COVID-19 cases were reported across Europe
on Thursday, which, combined with a surge in US cases, along with
Russia, Turkey and a handful of other countries, helped to send
global cases to a new daily record: 468,499.

Global cases have reached 41,705,699, while the death toll has
reached 1,137,333 as of Friday morning in New York.

(Source:
JHU)

Meanwhile in the US,
the NYTimes reported that more than 75,000 new cases were
reported yesterday, making Thursday’s tally the second-highest
since July 29, when the US recorded 75,723 new cases. Europe also
posted a new record, driven largely by the 40k+ new cases reported
in France, along with record numbers in Germany, Italy and a number
of countries in Central Europe.

According to Johns Hopkins, the US total is now 8,411,262.

At least 8 states reported record numbers of new cases
yesterday, while 13 have added more cases in the past week than
during any other stretch of the pandemic, according to the NYT.

Record numbers were reported in Ohio, in Colorado and Kentucky,
as the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states are hit particularly hard
by this third wave. In Chicago, the unofficial capital of the
Midwest, officials are seeing 645 new cases a day this week. In
response, the mayor is imposing a nighttime business curfew will be
imposed starting on Friday.

Record daily highs were recorded in at least half a dozens US
states, including Ohio and Tennessee, where last� night’s
presidential debate was held.

Nationally, deaths were little-changed, though some Midwestern
states saw deaths tick higher late this week. But nationwide, the
US saw just 856 new deaths, even as more COVID-19 patients are
crowding American hospitals than at any point since the middle of
the summer. To be sure, a spike in deaths on Wednesday briefly
pushed the 7-day average to the highest level in a month.

A regional breakdown shows that most COVID-19 deaths are coming
from populous southern states like Texas and Florida.

Source:
Bloomberg

In Turkey, which has seen new case numbers rebound to the
highest levels since May, warned on Friday about a nationwide
increase in the virus, which has been centered around Istanbul, the
country’s biggest city.

“The pandemic is on the rise again across the country,”
Fahrettin Koca said on Friday in the northwestern city of Bursa
before heading to the country’s largest city at the weekend,
where the government-led coronavirus science board will also meet.
Istanbul has “40% of nationwide cases,” the minister said, without
elaborating. “I invite Istanbulites to observe measures, by making
sacrifices if necessary,” Koca said.

Turkey has reported more than 2,000 new patients for the past
two days, near levels last seen in early May. The number of
severely ill people rose to 1,599 on Thursday, the highest since
the government started providing the figure in July, according to

Bloomberg.

In the Czech Republic, which has been the worst hit European
country during the second wave, the number of new cases eased to
14,151, down from the record 14,968 from the prior day. The country
has seen a total of 223,065. In neighboring Poland, officials are
planning to close restaurants and bars for two weeks and limit
public gatherings to five people. Older schoolchildren will return
to distanced virtual learning, said Prime Minister Mateusz
Moraweicki.  Back in the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej
Babis has ordered Health Minister Roman Prymula to quit, and has
promised to fire him if he doesn’t. The scandal stems from a
meeting the health minister had at a restaurant closed under his
national order.

Across Europe, hospitals are filling up with the second wave of
patients. In response, Poland has turned its largest stadium into
an emergency field hospital. In Belgium and the UK, the number of
hospitalized COVID-19 patients has doubled in the past 2 weeks. The
Czech Republic, meanwhile, is struggling with a shortage of doctors
and nurses as health-care workers fall ill at an alarming
rate. 

Source:
NYT

Here’s some more COVID-19 news from overnight and Friday
morning:

Infusing hospitalized COVID-19 patients with blood plasma from
people who recovered from the disease had no effect on whether
patients got sicker or died, according to the first completed
randomized trial of the treatments, according to Stats News.
(Source: Stat News)

Malaysia reports 710 new cases, down from Thursday’s 847. The
country has seen its total cases double in the past month, reaching
24,514, with 214 deaths (Source:
Nikkei).

Indonesia reports 4,369 cases, down from 4,432 a day earlier,
bringing the country total to 381,910. There were 118 deaths,
pushing the total to 13,077 (Source:
Nikkei).

India reports 54,366 cases in the last 24 hours, down from
55,839 the previous day, bringing the country total to over 7.76
million. Deaths jumped 690 to 117,306. Of the country’s total
cases, about 9% are active patients and over 89% have recovered.
India’s mortality rate stands at 1.51%, according to health
ministry data (Source:
Nikkei).

About 433,300 people in England had coronavirus in the week to
October 16, equating to 1 in 130 people, according to the latest
analysis by the Office for National Statistics. This is up from 1
in 160 people the week before (Source: FT)