France Suffers Another Daily COVID-19 Record As New York Reports Most Cases Since Early June: Live Updates

Summary:

• As COVID cases rise, mortality falls
• California suffers 100 new COVID deaths
• Arizona surge eases
• ULK cases top 4k for 2nd day
• NY reports most new cases since early June
• US on track for second day of 49k cases
• US reports nearly 50k cases
• France sees sudden jump in deaths
• Russia tops 6k new cases for first time since mid-July
• UK PM considers whether to “go further” with new restrictions
• Indonesia reports record jump in new cases

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Update (1645ET): Some of the biggest COVID-19 news out of the US and Europe on Saturday is coming out of California and France. In the Golden State, new cases came in slightly above the 14-day average: The state reported 4,304 new coronavirus cases, compared with the 14-day average of 3,350. The state reported 100 new deaths, compared with 91 yesterday. California has counted a total of 14,912 cases.

France’s daily coronavirus cases surged to the highest since the national lockdown ended in May. Another 13,498 cases were reported on Saturday, the second straight day of 13,000+ new cases. The higher numbers reflect increased testing to a degree, as the country runs 5x the number of tests seen in May.

New York reported 986 cases, the most since early June, while Arizona’s recent spike tapered as the state added 610 infections, compared with double that number reported Friday and nearly triple the day before. The 0.3% rise on Saturday was slightly less than the average 0.4% daily increase of the previous seven days. Total cases are now 213,551. The death toll declined to 16, the lowest in five days, for a total of 5,467.

Finally, in the UK, officials reported 4,422 new cases on Saturday, reporting the most new infections since May 8 for the second day. Another 27 people died.

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Update (1615ET): Early readings on the number of new COVID-19 cases reported Saturday suggests that the US outbreak has continued to accelerate, with another daily reading just shy of 50k new cases. Reuters reported an increase of 49,575 cases bringing the total to 6,706,374. The number of deaths in the US increased by 983 to 198,099, placing it even closer to the 200k threshold.

While the number of confirmed cases appears to be accelerating in the US and Europe, around the world, the number of deaths from the virus has remained subdued. As Bloomberg reports, since COVID-19 first arrived in the US, doctors have gone from “fumbling in the dark” to developing a better understanding of which drugs work.

They’ve also learned new techniques, and discovered some early misconceptions may have had deadly consequences. For example, doctors have learned not to place patients on ventilators so quickly.

“Health-care preparedness today is much better than it was in February and March,” Badley said in an interview. “We have better and more rapid access to diagnosis. We have more knowledge about what drugs to use and what drugs not to use. We have more experimental treatments available. All of those contribute to possible improvements in the mortality rate.”

Treating patients with steroids or blood thinners early on can also help, doctors have found, as can positioning patients on their stomachs, a technique known as prone positioning.

The report comes one day after the EU’s medical regulator, the EMA, endorsed dexamethasone as the EU’s second approved treatment for COVID-19.

Globally, some 230k+ new COVID-19 cases were confirmed yesterday. We’re still waiting for the initial reading on Saturday’s number.

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US cases accelerated again on Friday, with the US adding nearly 50k, or 49,299 new cases (+0.7%), bringing the total for the country to 6,688,827. However , the spike appears to be driven largely by an increase in testing rates, as schools reopen, and states including Texas and Hawaii roll back more social distancing restrictions.

The 0.7% increase is slightly higher than the 7-day average of +0.6% for the daily spike, according to Bloomberg.

Outbreaks are flaring in states across the Midwest including Wisconsin, Missouri and the Dakotas, while some states that have gotten outbreaks under control have seen cases edge higher again. Still, the US outbreak has slowed substantially from its springtime peak.

Globally, cases topped 30 million earlier this week, with the global death toll rapidly closing in on the 1 millions mark. Meanwhile, deaths in the US are right around 200,000 (depending on whose numbers one uses). The chart above, courtesy of the Atlantic’s COVID-19 Tracking Project, includes all probable and confirmed cases.

As the situation worsens in Europe, Germany added more than 2,000 new cases for the second consecutive day. Germany added 2,179 cases on Friday as infections increasing at a pace not seen since April.

In Southeast Asia, Indonesia reported another daily record on Saturday, recording 4,168 new infections, bringing the total figure to 240,687. The death toll, meanwhile, has hit 9,448.

The health ministry reported a sudden jump in the country’s COVID-19 death toll on Friday, reporting 154 new deaths, bringing its total to 31,249. That’s a four-month high in the daily death, according to Reuters, and triple the level of daily deaths from the last three weeks.

That figure included 76 deaths registered in a hospital near Paris, according to an explanatory note issued online by Santé Publique France, the French health agency. This isn’t the first time the country has retroactively added a bunch of deaths all at once, leading to several massive spikes in the country’s daily totals, which must be explained.

“This data catch-up concerns 237 admission files, including 76 deaths…which explains the increase in the number of deaths reported to date,” the health agency said.

Rising daily totals in the UK have prompted London Mayor Sadiq Khan to consider a “local” lockdown, even though the city’s downtown streets remain mostly empty. An upsurge of cases in the UK prompted Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon to request an emergency four-way meeting of the constituent countries to coordinate their policy response. UK PM Boris Johnson said that he’s weighing whether to “go further” with new COVID-19 restrictions.

Further east, Russia reported 6,065 new cases, the first time the country has topped the 6k mark since July 19.

Finally, Argentina extended a nation-wide lockdown to Oct. 11, allowing provincial authorities to determine the specific measures. As Argentina struggles, Brazil continued to report nearly 40k new cases (39,797 to be exact), bringing the total to almost 4.5 million, while deaths increased by 858 to 135,793.

President Jair Bolsonaro responded to the news by proclaiming that “stay-at-home is for weak people,” during an event in Mato Grosso state.