US COVID-19 Deaths Top 1k For 5th Day As US Outbreak Slows, Europe Accelerates: Live Updates

Summary:

• Florida deaths top 7k
• Poland suffers 3rd record jump in COVID-19 cases
• Germany sees “R” rate hit 1.06
• Tokyo reports 472
• Russia hopes to start mass vaccinations in October

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For the next few days, the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be the only major disaster unfolding in the Sun Belt: Hurricane Isais is headed straight for Miami-Dade, the worst-hit county in the worst-hit state.

To be sure, as we pointed out yesterday, hospitalizations and single-day case tallies, and daily positivity percentages appear to finally be declining across the Sun Belt.

However, deaths have continued to climb. In the US, COVID-19 daily deaths topped 1,000 – another 1,353 deaths, to be exact – for the fifth consecutive day of fatalities over 1,000. for the fifth straight day, even as the shuttering of testing sites in some parts of the state has caused positivity numbers to decline.

According to the latest data published by Bloomberg and JHU on Saturday morning, the US added 66,545 new virus cases on Friday, a 1.5% increase, compared with the daily average increase of 1.6%. Total cases were 4,561,511.

On Saturday, Florida reported 179 new deaths, snapping a 4-day streak of record daily death numbers, while also pushing the state’s death toll past 7k to 7,022.

Fla also reported another 9,642 cases (+2%), lower than the 2.3% average increase over the prior week. The state’s total is now 480,028.

Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency as the storm nears, and many state-run testing facilities have been closed.

Meanwhile, in Europe and Asia, new case numbers continued to climb.

Public health officials in Tokyo announced 472 new cases on Saturday, a new record for Japan’s capital city, according to NHK public television, which quoted Tokyo officials as saying such. The number of cases reported out of the capital megacity topped 400 for 2 days in a row.

Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike has said Tokyo could declare its own state of emergency if the situation continues to worsen, however, the central government says there is still no need to do so nationally, despite a record spike in several cities around the nation.

As thousands of protesters gathered in Berlin to campaign against the government reimposing economically-painful COVID-19 restrictions – with some claiming the hysteria surrounding the virus, Germany recorded 864 new infections in the 24 hours through Saturday morning. A spate of smaller outbreaks has kept the infection rate above the key threshold of 1.0 for eight consecutive days. The most recent reading put the “R” rate at 1.06.

After reporting its lowest death rate in five days, Russian health officials announced Saturday that the government is preparing to start mass vaccinations against the virus, with health workers and teachers first in line for innoculation said Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

A vaccine has reportedly been developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute (with help from the Russian Direct Investment Fund) and has completed clinical trials and the authorities are preparing to register it with regulators. It will be used for the vaccinations.

Russia hopes to start the mass vaccination program in October. Meanwhile, below is the latest chart from JHU showing the 5-day-moving averages for the ten worst-impacted countries in the world.

Poland reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases for a third day in a row on Saturday, with 658 new cases confirmed, according to the Health Ministry. 5 new deaths were also reported. The country has reported a total of 46,346 coronavirus cases and 1,721 deaths.

Poland’s prime minister hasn’t ruled out tightening some social distancing restrictions if the situation continues to worsen.