The number of reported deaths due to the coronavirus in the United States hit 250,000 Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
The number of deaths exceeds National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci’s spring prediction that the U.S. would confirm 240,000 deaths due to the coronavirus disease.
At least 1,707 new deaths due to COVID-19 were confirmed Tuesday alone, the highest daily death toll since May 14.
At this rate, CNN reported, at least one person in the U.S. is dying of COVID-19 every minute of the day. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor at George Washington University School of Medicine, warned that the mortality rate will increase as the weeks go on because deaths lag behind the initial infection and disease progression.
“On average, two to three weeks ago, we were seeing 70,000 to 80,000 [new] cases per day,” Reiner said. “Yesterday, there were about 155,000 [new] cases. So if you’re alarmed at the 1,700 deaths today, two to three weeks from now, we’re going to see 3,000 deaths a day.”
To date, nearly 11.5 million coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the U.S. The test positivity rate has averaged near 10% over the past week, suggesting that more infections are going unconfirmed and that the virus is spreading.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced their COVID-19 vaccine candidate is now 95% effective and will soon be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization. The companies said no “serious safety concerns” were observed among the 43,000 people enrolled in the trial, with only 3.8% reporting fatigue and another 2% reporting a headache. The companies said Wednesday that they “plan to submit a request within days to the FDA for an EUA based on the totality of safety and efficacy data collected to date, as well as manufacturing data relating to the quality and consistency of the vaccine.”
“The study results mark an important step in this historic eight-month journey to bring forward a vaccine capable of helping to end this devastating pandemic,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said.
Fauci projected that the first doses of an approved vaccine could become available to the public as early as April, USA Today reported. Front-line healthcare providers will likely get access to the vaccine first, possibly by the end of December or early January. Then, people who are most vulnerable to severe illness, such as the elderly or people with existing health problems, will get access to the shot, followed by the general public starting in April and through July.
“Then, you can start talking about this umbrella or blanket of protection on society that would diminish dramatically the risk of a person being exposed or even being infected,” he said. “When so many people are protected, that’s when you get into the real herd immunity.”
New York City public schools will close Thursday and shift to full-time remote learning, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday, after the city hit the 3% weekly test positivity rate threshold.
“Unfortunately, this means public school buildings will be closed as of tomorrow, Thursday, Nov. 19, out of an abundance of caution. We must fight back the second wave of COVID-19,” the Democrat said.
The controversial dinner party where Gov. Gavin Newsom was seen breaking his own coronavirus restrictions also included California Medical Association leaders.
California Medical Association CEO Dustin Corcoran and CMA lobbyist Janus Norman were among those present celebrating the birthday of Jason Kinney, Newsom’s political adviser, Politico reported Wednesday.
Photos of the event also surfaced this week and show none of the 12 partygoers wearing face masks, most notably the Democratic governor.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, extended a mask mandate for his state as well as a state of emergency until 2021 amid rising coronavirus cases.
“It’s clear based on where we’re headed, we cannot afford to stop or have a gap in some of the only mitigation efforts we still have in place,” Evers said.
He made the call after Wisconsin reached a single-day record of 92 deaths attributed to COVID-19 on Tuesday and a single-day record of new cases, with nearly 8,000, on Wednesday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed new mandates announced by several state governors that will limit the number of people who can attend Thanksgiving celebrations this year due to worrying spikes in cases. Several governors have placed states under temporary lockdowns, such as Kate Brown of Oregon and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, or imposed curfews, such as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
“I think a lot of the guidelines you’re seeing are Orwellian,” McEnany said Wednesday on Fox and Friends.
Large groups protested the German government’s coronavirus restrictions Wednesday, leading police to use water cannons on the crowd and arrest more than 200, according to CBS News.
Demonstrators decried “corona dictatorship” as lawmakers voted to amend the laws governing measures to stem the spread of the virus.
