Global COVID-19 Cases Top 400k In 24 Hours For First Time As Outbreaks Flare From Midwest To Europe: Live Updates

Summary:

• Midwestern outbreak hits new records
• Europe tops US in new cases
• Global cases top 400k in a day for first time
• Deaths reported yesterday: 6,189
• North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin lead infections/per 1,000 residents

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A series of new social distancing restrictions have been imposed across Europe this week as the Continent saw its daily number of new COVID-19 cases rocket past the US this week. But on Friday, our attention swings back to the US, where an outbreak in the Midwest has continued to accelerate; fresh daily records for new cases were recorded in Illinois, Wisconsin and North Dakota on Thursday.

The resurgence has brought the number of new cases reported across the world to record highs nine months in a pandemic that has already killed more than 1 million people around the world.

Source: JPM

Since the start of the pandemic, investors have increasingly turned to high-frequency indicators to try and measure fluctuations in economic activity in real time. One agglomeration of high-frequency data covering topics, including overall movement, petroleum demand at the pump, new business applications, TSA checkpoint numbers and department-store sales, from JPM shows that activity has generally fallen since a summer peak, when US daily case numbers and deaths were at their lowest, and states across the US were dialing back restrictions on business activity and socializing.

Source: JPM

According to Bloomberg, this latest outbreak in the Midwest started in Wisconsin, and spread to other more populous states nearby.

Source: Bloomberg

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said Thursday he’ll challenge a decision from earlier in the week handed down by a Wisconsin court blocking the governor’s order limiting capacity in bars, restaurants and other public places. WI recorded a record 3,747 cases Thursday.

By 0800ET, the global tally of COVID-19 cases had hit 38,998,580, leaving the world on track to top 39 million cases before Saturday morning. The world reported a second straight daily record on Thursday, topping 400,000 for the first time (the exact total: 406,660.

Deaths, meanwhile, were relatively steady at 6,189.

Another interesting trend: as the Midwest becomes the locus of the American COVID-19 outbreak, the divide between rural and urban infections has decidedly tilted toward ‘rural’ for the first time.

Source: Bloomberg

In overall viral prevalence, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin are currently leading the country. Though while the mainstream media likes to play up this phenomenon, it’s largely a function of the sparsely populated nature of the states, where workers come together in factories and meatpacking plants, often serving as the center of outbreaks.

Source: COVID Tracking Project

Meanwhile, in NYC, Mayor de Blasio is claiming that outbreaks in ‘hot spots’ around the city have been contained.

However, statewide hospitalization numbers have been creeping higher.