Cuomo Closes Indoor Dining In NYC; US COVID Deaths Top 300K: Live Updates

Summary:

• US passes 300K deaths
• NYC closes indoor dining
• US tops 3K deaths for 2nd day
• Virginia imposes stay at home order
• China reports 15 cases
• Indonesia reports another 175 deaths
• South Korea confirms another 689 cases
• Hong Kong secures 15MM doses

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Update (1415ET): As we await the FDA’s emergency approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine (President Trump is reportedly threatening to fire heads of the agency if the green light isn’t handed down by end of business on Friday).

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Friday told Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to submit his resignation if the agency does not clear the nation’s first coronavirus vaccine by day’s end, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss what happened.

And the latest morbid milestone probably won’t help President Trump feel any better: Johns Hopkins University just confirmed that the US death toll has topped 300K.

France’s pace of new cases increased further over the past week, with the seven-day average of daily cases approaching 12,000 on Friday, according to official data.

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Update (1200ET): During Friday’s press briefing, NY Gov Andrew Cuomo announced that indoor dining will be closed in NYC once again, as new cases, hospitalizations and the positivity rate reach new thresholds. Hospitalizations in the state are nearing 5.5K.

Today’s update on the numbers:

Total COVID hospitalizations are at 5,321.

Of the 212,672 tests reported yesterday, 10,595 were positive (4.98% of total).

Sadly, there were 87 fatalities. pic.twitter.com/M4ijz1WRiU

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 11, 2020

Gyms and barber shops can remain open, Cuomo said, but dining rooms will close on Monday.

Indoor dining will close in New York City starting Monday.

Hospitalizations have not stabilized, and with a rising infection rate and NYC’s density, this means that indoor dining is too high of a risk.

Takeout, delivery and outdoor dining will continue.

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 11, 2020

Watch the rest of the briefing below:

In Albany holding a COVID briefing. Watch live: https://t.co/hYWbkI4gSD

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 11, 2020

The state reported more than 10K new cases on Friday, topping the 10K mark for the third straight day.

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As we head into the final trading session of the week, daily deaths topped 3k again on Thursday, marking the second highest daily tally, (second only to Wednesday’s number), while the total number of hospitalizations has hit a new high north of 107K. The US topped 200K new cases again, bringing the 7-day average to 205.5K, a new high.

According to the COVID Tracking Project, even though the national 7-day average for deaths is the highest it’s ever been, only two states reported single-day record deaths today. This may be an indicator that we will see this number rise in the coming weeks.

Switching to a per-capita view, another northeastern state – Rhode Island – recorded the highest 7-day average of cases per million people in the country today: 1,150, taking the place of nearby Connecticut. Only 12 states are below 500 cases per capita.

In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam is imposing a nighttime curfew and a 10-person limit on social gatherings in a new executive order announced Thursday evening to try and slow the spread of COVID as more states and cities impose new restrictions.

Under the curfew, which Northam described as a “modified stay at home order,” residents are asked to stay home between 2359 and 0500ET, although exceptions will be made for people traveling for work or seeking medical attention and obtaining food.

Looking ahead on Friday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said urgent action was needed to avoid even tighter measures after the city reported 4.14K new virus cases on Thursday, more than the 2.6K reported on Wednesday.

As we wait for the emergency authorization, which could arrive in the coming days, the FDA says it’s working toward delivering its emergency-use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, which was reviewed by an oversight panel that met Thursday. With the rollout of Pfizer’s shot in the US looking imminent, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline have been forced to delay their COVID-19 jab.

In Germany, officials reported the biggest jump in cases and deaths since the start of the pandemic,

Inoculations may start as early as Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC. The US may vaccinate 20MM people in December, rising to 30MM in January and 50MM in February, said Assistant Secretary Brett Giroir said on Fox News.

Finally, global cases have reached 69.5K, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, while the international death toll has hit 1.58MM.

Here’s some more COVID-19 news from overnight and Friday:

• Indonesia reported another daily high of pandemic-related deaths, with 175 people dying in the past 24 hours, and cases jumping to 6,310 from 6,033 yesterday. Total infections are now at 605,243, with 18,511 deaths.
• The U.K.’s AstraZeneca has withdrawn its application for a clinical trial in the Philippines, according to Enrique Domingo, head of the country’s food and drug administration. “They said they have enough data already,” Domingo told Nikkei Asia when asked the reason for the withdrawal.
• Hong Kong has agreed with two vaccine makers — Beijing-based Sinovac and New York-based Pfizer — to secure 15 million shots for the city’s 7.5 million residents, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announces. Around 1 million shots will be delivered as early as January.
• India reports 29.39K cases in the last 24 hours, down from 31.5K a day earlier, and bringing the country total to nearly 9.8MM. Deaths rose by 414 to 142,186.
• South Korea confirms 689 cases, up from 680 a day ago, marking the largest daily rise since February as the government battles a third wave of infections.
• China reports 15 cases for Thursday, up from 12 a day earlier. Officials said 9 of them were imported.

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For all those ‘Green New Dealers’ concerned about the imminent threat of climate change, thanks to the pandemic, Co2 emissions have fallen this year by 7%, according to the Global Carbon Project show. Scientists calculated that the world is expected to have emitted 34 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2020 – that’s less than the 36.4 billion tons emitted in 2019.

So, maybe we need to revisit those projections showing the world is going to end in 12 years.