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U.S. tops 116,000 cases, another record, as health officials worry people are ‘giving up’
November 6, 2020 at 1:03 p.m. GMT+8
Another day, another record shattered. The United States reported 116,707 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, as 20 states saw their highest daily counts yet and the number of fatalities nationwide exceeded 1,000 for the third consecutive day.
A second day of six-figure case counts pushed the total number of infections reported in the United States to nearly 9.6 million on Thursday, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. At least 234,000 fatalities have been reported to date.
No region of the country is being spared from the onslaught of infections: The 20 states reporting record single-day increases on Thursday span New England, the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest. Those witnessing the most dramatic increases over the past week include Maine, Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Since cases began climbing in mid-September, states have periodically introduced incremental restrictions but largely steered clear of sweeping actions. Some health officials hope that will change in a post-election landscape.
“There’s been this sense of people giving up,” Michael Fraser, chief executive of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told The Post. “You had state leaders looking at the election and deciding it was not worth taking bold, unpopular moves against the virus that might save lives but hurt your side politically. There’s been state health officials debating whether to continue telling people to do things, because they know many are not going to listen.”
Maine tweaked its statewide mask mandate on Thursday to cover all public settings, including those where people are able to remain more than six feet apart. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., largely abandoned its mandatory two-week quarantine for visitors from most states, which was widely ignored and not strictly enforced.
Coronavirus updates: U.S. shatters records with more than 114,000 new cases in a single day
November 6, 2020 at 4:52 a.m. GMT+8
As Americans anxiously await the results of the presidential election, the United States is adding new infections at an unprecedented rate, prompting states to mandate new restrictions to try to stop the virus and sounding alarms about somber weeks ahead.
With more than 9.5 million coronavirus cases reported as of Thursday, at least 11 states — including Iowa, Missouri, West Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho, Oklahoma and Minnesota — reported record numbers of patients hospitalized with covid-19, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a wide expansion of coronavirus testing Thursday for lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The U.S. Air Force will provide as many as 2,000 PCR tests for free each week, for all Congress members, during the next six weeks, Pelosi said during a private call with House Democratic leaders, Politico reported.
Fifteen states set new daily records for infections Thursday, including Missouri, Washington, Nebraska, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Iowa and North Dakota, according to data tracked by The Post.
To deal with a surge in covid-19 cases, Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) issued an executive order Thursday that requires people to wear face masks in public regardless of the distance they keep from others.
“We have recorded yet another day of record high case numbers. This deadly and dangerous virus is spreading all across our state,” Mills said, according to WMTW News 8. “Protect your family. Protect a health-care worker. Protect the elderly. Wear your face covering. Save lives. It is that simple.”
The face mask mandate applies to all children 5 and older in public settings, including school and child-care facilities, with exemptions for those with severe medical conditions.
Across the Great Plains and the Midwest, surging caseloads have left many hospitals struggling to find space for coronavirus patients — or, crucially, to find qualified workers to care for them. Dozens of Kansas hospitals told the Associated Press that they expect to face staffing shortages next week, while the Star Tribune reported that the number of nurses who have entered quarantine meant that only nine intensive care beds were available in Minnesota’s Twin Cities as of Wednesday morning.
As Illinois recorded nearly 10,000 new cases Thursday, its highest number of new infections for the third consecutive day, the state’s top public health official warned of a potential hospital bed shortage in some areas, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“We have had calls for assistance from the state for medical staff. We know of some hospitals that have already slowed down elective surgeries to have beds,” Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said Wednesday.
A poll worker in Missouri who had tested positive for the coronavirus Oct. 30 and worked on Election Day has died, KSDK News reported.
The election judge supervisor worked at the Blanchette Park Memorial Hall polling site in St. Charles County, ignoring medical advice to quarantine for 14 days after being diagnosed with the virus, a government spokesperson said. The cause of death is unclear.
In Oklahoma, where a record 1,026 coronavirus patients were being treated in hospitals Wednesday, doctors called for a statewide mask mandate and warned of an impending crisis. Already, covid-19 patients are being moved around the state as hospitals juggle available beds and staffing, Oklahoma State Medical Association President George Monks told KFOR.
“We’ve got to do something different,” Monks said. “The pathway we are on is unsustainable.”
The Dakotas continue to add more new coronavirus cases per capita than any other part of the country — and many areas of the world. One hospital in Rapid City, S.D., has been freeing up space by moving non-covid-19 patients who will be discharged soon to an unfinished addition that is still under construction, KELO reported. In North Dakota, only 12 intensive care beds were available statewide by Wednesday morning, according to the Grand Forks Herald.
“We North Dakotans are in crisis,” Jeffrey Sather, chief of staff at Trinity Hospital in Minot, N.D., said Tuesday, according to the paper. “The general population doesn’t realize the struggles that health systems are going through unless you or your family is one of those patients getting transferred across the state … or laying on an ER gurney rather than a hospital bed for 24 hours or more.”
Both Europe and the United States are witnessing a dramatic increase in infections, and China is making its already stringent border restrictions even tougher. Starting Friday, travelers from the United States, France and Germany will have to take a blood test that looks for coronavirus antibodies, in addition to a nucleic acid test for the virus, Reuters reported.
The World Health Organization said Thursday that Europe is experiencing an “explosion” of coronavirus cases and warned of a “tough time” ahead.
“We do see an explosion … in the sense it only takes a couple of days to have over the European region an increase of 1 million cases,” Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, told Agence France-Presse.
Kluge called for “proportionate targeted measures” and widespread use of face masks, which, he said, could save as many as 266,000 lives by February in the whole region.
Meanwhile, Greece followed in the footsteps of other European countries, including Ireland, France and Belgium, in announcing a three-week national lockdown after a sharp spike in infections. “I choose to take measures sooner rather than later,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday in a televised address.
As of early Saturday, travel between regions will be banned and retail stores will close. Secondary schools will remain shut, with classes resuming online. Unlike during the first lockdown in the spring, kindergartens and primary schools will stay open. In addition, Greece will reintroduce a system requiring citizens to send text messages to a government number to leave home to work, shop, visit a doctor or exercise.
In France, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced further coronavirus restrictions Thursday as case numbers in the French capital continued to rise and hospitals approached their breaking point. The city is already under a strict lockdown, although with more flexibility than earlier in the spring. Authorities are seeking to impose further restrictions late at night to limit the spread of the virus. Starting at 10 p.m. Friday, Hidalgo said, certain businesses that sell alcohol for delivery or takeout will be forced to close. The aim is to cut down on crowds that authorities have observed outside such establishments.
In England, which went into its second national lockdown Thursday, new stimulus measures were unveiled to help cushion the economic impact of the restrictions. Notably, the government announced that it would continue paying up to 80 percent of salaries for workers furloughed because of the pandemic, until the end of March. The Bank of England also said it would extend a stimulus package by a further $193 billion.
The announcements come amid growing concerns in Europe that the new lockdowns and tougher curbs will hinder economic recovery.
The European Commission on Thursday cut its euro-zone growth forecast for 2021 from 6.1 percent to 4.2 percent, according to Reuters. The executive arm of the European Union said the economies of Ireland, France and Belgium would be among the hardest-hit.
Others are concerned about the impact of fresh restrictions on mental health.
A new study published Thursday by researchers in New Zealand found that the country’s lockdown in April took a “significant psychological toll,” especially on younger adults.
In a statement, Susanna Every-Palmer, head of the department of psychological medicine at the University of Otago in Wellington, said: “It is clear that the consequences of the pandemic will be pervasive and prolonged. Our findings emphasize the need to put resources into supporting mental well-being both during and after lockdowns.”
November 6, 2020 at 1:03 p.m. GMT+8
Another day, another record shattered. The United States reported 116,707 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, as 20 states saw their highest daily counts yet and the number of fatalities nationwide exceeded 1,000 for the third consecutive day.
A second day of six-figure case counts pushed the total number of infections reported in the United States to nearly 9.6 million on Thursday, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. At least 234,000 fatalities have been reported to date.
No region of the country is being spared from the onslaught of infections: The 20 states reporting record single-day increases on Thursday span New England, the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Pacific Northwest. Those witnessing the most dramatic increases over the past week include Maine, Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota and Nebraska.
Since cases began climbing in mid-September, states have periodically introduced incremental restrictions but largely steered clear of sweeping actions. Some health officials hope that will change in a post-election landscape.
“There’s been this sense of people giving up,” Michael Fraser, chief executive of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told The Post. “You had state leaders looking at the election and deciding it was not worth taking bold, unpopular moves against the virus that might save lives but hurt your side politically. There’s been state health officials debating whether to continue telling people to do things, because they know many are not going to listen.”
Maine tweaked its statewide mask mandate on Thursday to cover all public settings, including those where people are able to remain more than six feet apart. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., largely abandoned its mandatory two-week quarantine for visitors from most states, which was widely ignored and not strictly enforced.
Coronavirus updates: U.S. shatters records with more than 114,000 new cases in a single day
November 6, 2020 at 4:52 a.m. GMT+8
As Americans anxiously await the results of the presidential election, the United States is adding new infections at an unprecedented rate, prompting states to mandate new restrictions to try to stop the virus and sounding alarms about somber weeks ahead.
With more than 9.5 million coronavirus cases reported as of Thursday, at least 11 states — including Iowa, Missouri, West Virginia, North Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho, Oklahoma and Minnesota — reported record numbers of patients hospitalized with covid-19, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a wide expansion of coronavirus testing Thursday for lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The U.S. Air Force will provide as many as 2,000 PCR tests for free each week, for all Congress members, during the next six weeks, Pelosi said during a private call with House Democratic leaders, Politico reported.
Fifteen states set new daily records for infections Thursday, including Missouri, Washington, Nebraska, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Iowa and North Dakota, according to data tracked by The Post.
To deal with a surge in covid-19 cases, Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) issued an executive order Thursday that requires people to wear face masks in public regardless of the distance they keep from others.
“We have recorded yet another day of record high case numbers. This deadly and dangerous virus is spreading all across our state,” Mills said, according to WMTW News 8. “Protect your family. Protect a health-care worker. Protect the elderly. Wear your face covering. Save lives. It is that simple.”
The face mask mandate applies to all children 5 and older in public settings, including school and child-care facilities, with exemptions for those with severe medical conditions.
Across the Great Plains and the Midwest, surging caseloads have left many hospitals struggling to find space for coronavirus patients — or, crucially, to find qualified workers to care for them. Dozens of Kansas hospitals told the Associated Press that they expect to face staffing shortages next week, while the Star Tribune reported that the number of nurses who have entered quarantine meant that only nine intensive care beds were available in Minnesota’s Twin Cities as of Wednesday morning.
As Illinois recorded nearly 10,000 new cases Thursday, its highest number of new infections for the third consecutive day, the state’s top public health official warned of a potential hospital bed shortage in some areas, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“We have had calls for assistance from the state for medical staff. We know of some hospitals that have already slowed down elective surgeries to have beds,” Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said Wednesday.
A poll worker in Missouri who had tested positive for the coronavirus Oct. 30 and worked on Election Day has died, KSDK News reported.
The election judge supervisor worked at the Blanchette Park Memorial Hall polling site in St. Charles County, ignoring medical advice to quarantine for 14 days after being diagnosed with the virus, a government spokesperson said. The cause of death is unclear.
In Oklahoma, where a record 1,026 coronavirus patients were being treated in hospitals Wednesday, doctors called for a statewide mask mandate and warned of an impending crisis. Already, covid-19 patients are being moved around the state as hospitals juggle available beds and staffing, Oklahoma State Medical Association President George Monks told KFOR.
“We’ve got to do something different,” Monks said. “The pathway we are on is unsustainable.”
The Dakotas continue to add more new coronavirus cases per capita than any other part of the country — and many areas of the world. One hospital in Rapid City, S.D., has been freeing up space by moving non-covid-19 patients who will be discharged soon to an unfinished addition that is still under construction, KELO reported. In North Dakota, only 12 intensive care beds were available statewide by Wednesday morning, according to the Grand Forks Herald.
“We North Dakotans are in crisis,” Jeffrey Sather, chief of staff at Trinity Hospital in Minot, N.D., said Tuesday, according to the paper. “The general population doesn’t realize the struggles that health systems are going through unless you or your family is one of those patients getting transferred across the state … or laying on an ER gurney rather than a hospital bed for 24 hours or more.”
Both Europe and the United States are witnessing a dramatic increase in infections, and China is making its already stringent border restrictions even tougher. Starting Friday, travelers from the United States, France and Germany will have to take a blood test that looks for coronavirus antibodies, in addition to a nucleic acid test for the virus, Reuters reported.
The World Health Organization said Thursday that Europe is experiencing an “explosion” of coronavirus cases and warned of a “tough time” ahead.
“We do see an explosion … in the sense it only takes a couple of days to have over the European region an increase of 1 million cases,” Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, told Agence France-Presse.
Kluge called for “proportionate targeted measures” and widespread use of face masks, which, he said, could save as many as 266,000 lives by February in the whole region.
Meanwhile, Greece followed in the footsteps of other European countries, including Ireland, France and Belgium, in announcing a three-week national lockdown after a sharp spike in infections. “I choose to take measures sooner rather than later,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Thursday in a televised address.
As of early Saturday, travel between regions will be banned and retail stores will close. Secondary schools will remain shut, with classes resuming online. Unlike during the first lockdown in the spring, kindergartens and primary schools will stay open. In addition, Greece will reintroduce a system requiring citizens to send text messages to a government number to leave home to work, shop, visit a doctor or exercise.
In France, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced further coronavirus restrictions Thursday as case numbers in the French capital continued to rise and hospitals approached their breaking point. The city is already under a strict lockdown, although with more flexibility than earlier in the spring. Authorities are seeking to impose further restrictions late at night to limit the spread of the virus. Starting at 10 p.m. Friday, Hidalgo said, certain businesses that sell alcohol for delivery or takeout will be forced to close. The aim is to cut down on crowds that authorities have observed outside such establishments.
In England, which went into its second national lockdown Thursday, new stimulus measures were unveiled to help cushion the economic impact of the restrictions. Notably, the government announced that it would continue paying up to 80 percent of salaries for workers furloughed because of the pandemic, until the end of March. The Bank of England also said it would extend a stimulus package by a further $193 billion.
The announcements come amid growing concerns in Europe that the new lockdowns and tougher curbs will hinder economic recovery.
The European Commission on Thursday cut its euro-zone growth forecast for 2021 from 6.1 percent to 4.2 percent, according to Reuters. The executive arm of the European Union said the economies of Ireland, France and Belgium would be among the hardest-hit.
Others are concerned about the impact of fresh restrictions on mental health.
A new study published Thursday by researchers in New Zealand found that the country’s lockdown in April took a “significant psychological toll,” especially on younger adults.
In a statement, Susanna Every-Palmer, head of the department of psychological medicine at the University of Otago in Wellington, said: “It is clear that the consequences of the pandemic will be pervasive and prolonged. Our findings emphasize the need to put resources into supporting mental well-being both during and after lockdowns.”
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