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Coronavirus update: U.S. sets record for hospitalizations with 17 states at peak levels; ‘Wisconsin,’ pleads Gov. Tony Evers, ‘this is serious!’

The U.S. case tally for the coronavirus illness COVID-19 climbed above 10.3 million on Wednesday, as hospitalizations set a record with Midwest hospitals now fuller than the South was during its summer peak. Read More...

The U.S. case tally for the coronavirus illness COVID-19 climbed above 10.3 million on Wednesday, as hospitalizations set a record with Midwest hospitals now fuller than those in the South were during the summer peak.

There are currently 61,694 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals, according to the COVID Tracking Project, surpassing the previous record of 59,940 hit on April 15, when the Northeast was the U.S. epicenter. That’s a 40% increase over the number just two weeks ago.

“Seventeen states are at their current peaks for hospitalizations today,” according to the COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitals are already on the brink of being overwhelmed in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. Officials in many other states are warning that their health-care systems will be dangerously stressed if cases continue to rise.

“We have seen no indication that there is an end in sight to the outbreaks in the region,” said the COVID Tracking Project.

‘Each day this virus goes unchecked is a setback for our economic recovery. … Wisconsin, this is serious! The crisis is urgent.’

— Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers

North Dakota’s COVID dashboard crashed early Wednesday, and Gov. Doug Burnum said the state is now at full capacity and health-care workers who test positive but show no symptoms are being allowed to care for COVID patients.

During the spring peak when New York and New Jersey were the hot spots, both were able to fly in extra health-care workers from other states to help out.

“With so many states experiencing severe outbreaks at the same time, it could be harder to mobilize surges of frontline workers to areas where health-care systems are at risk of failure,” said the COVID Tracking Project.

The U.S. has averaged 123,315 cases a day in the past week, according to a New York Times tracker, a 69% increase from the average two weeks ago. On Tuesday, the U.S. added another 139,855 cases, with infections rising in 49 states and territories.

The U.S. has already added 1 million new cases in November — just 10 days into the month. With 4% of the world’s population, the U.S. has the highest case tally in the world and highest death toll at 240,265, or about a fifth — or 20% — of the global counts.

With no communication on the virus coming from the White House, governors are again taking matters in their states into their own hands.

Read now:Biden’s pandemic plan: Restore Obamacare, mandatory masks, paid sick leave and free COVID-19 tests

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, ordered bars and restaurants to close at 10 p.m., and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, said she will require masks at indoor gatherings of 25 or more people, inching toward more stringent measures after months of holding out, the AP reported.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo set a 10 p.m. curfew for bars, restaurants that serve liquor and gyms, starting Friday.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, said in a televised address Tuesday evening that deaths in his state could double to 5,000 by January without action now.

“Each day this virus goes unchecked is a setback for our economic recovery,” he said, urging Wisconsinites to stay at home and comply with safety measures.

“Wisconsin, this is serious! The crisis is urgent,” he said.

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Against that background, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its clearest message yet on the use of face masks as a preventive measure against the virus. Wearing a face mask doesn’t just protect others from catching the coronavirus — it protects the wearer, too, and even the economy, the agency said.

In a scientific brief published Tuesday, the CDC said that while “masks are primarily intended to reduce the emission of virus-laden droplets,” they “also help reduce inhalation of these droplets by the wearer.”

“Experimental and epidemiological data support community masking to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2,” the CDC said. “The prevention benefit of masking is derived from the combination of source control and personal protection for the mask wearer. … Individual benefit increases with increasing community mask use.”

In other words, the more people who wear masks in a community, the less the virus will spread.

In other news:

• Russia said its fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, is showing 92% efficacy in a large-scale clinical trial based on an interim analysis of results, the Wall Street Journal reported. The trial involves 40,000 volunteers and has shown no sign of adverse effects among participants, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the nation’s sovereign-wealth fund. The news comes days after Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said their COVID-19 vaccine candidate was proving to be 90% effective in a Phase 3 trial, a far higher benchmark than originally expected.

Don’t miss:Everything you need to know about BioNTech and the married couple behind the COVID-19 vaccine at the front of a global race

Russia recorded a record high of 432 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, boosting its official death toll to 31,593, Reuters reported. Officials also counted 19,851 new cases in the last day, including 4,477 in the capital Moscow. Russia has the world’s fifth highest case tally at 1.8 million, according to the Johns Hopkins data.

• Pfizer Inc. PFE, -1.24%  and BioNTech SE BNTX, -2.67%  have agreed to provide a supply of 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the European Union, marking the largest order for the potential vaccine to date. As part of the deal, the EU has an option to request an additional 100 million doses. Deliveries are expected to begin by the end of 2020, subject to regulatory approval. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “Since the onset of the pandemic, Pfizer’s priority has been to develop a safe and effective vaccine, while simultaneously scaling up our manufacturing to deliver doses before the end of the year,” said Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla.

• A new study has found that most COVID-19 cases in big U.S. cities stem from visits to a handful of places, including gyms, restaurants and hotels. The study, published in the journal Nature, used mobile-phone data to map people’s movements, and the authors suggest spread can be contained by greatly reducing occupancy of those venues. The model “has concrete pointers as to what may be cost-effective measures to contain the spread of the disease, while at the same time limiting the damage to the economy,” says Thiemo Fetzer, an economist at the University of Warwick in Coventry. “This is the policy sweet spot.”

• More than 15,000 mink have died in the U.S. from coronavirus since August, the Guardian reported. Authorities are keeping a close eye on farms, and about a dozen are under quarantine as experts investigate. The news comes after Denmark said it would cull all of its 17 million mink after a mutated strain of the virus, which could pass to humans and weaken future vaccines.

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Latest tallies

The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide now stands at 51.8 million, the Johns Hopkins data show, and the death toll is 1.3 million. At least 33.7 million people have recovered from COVID-19.

Brazil has the second highest death toll at 162,802 and is third by cases at 5.7 million.

India is second in cases with 8.6 million, and third in deaths at 127,571.

Mexico has the fourth highest death toll at 95,482 and 10th highest case tally at 978,531.

The U.K has 49,862 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world, and 1.2 million cases, or eighth highest in the world.

China, where the disease was first reported late last year, has had 91,737 cases and 4,742 fatalities, according to its official numbers.

What are companies saying?

• Air Products & Chemicals Inc. APD, -9.25%   reported a fourth-fiscal-quarter profit that fell below expectations, as the COVID-19 pandemic weighed on results, while revenue topped forecasts. The industrial-gases company’s sales grew 1.6% to $2.32 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $2.26 billion, as beats in the Americas and Europe, Middle East and Africa regions offset a miss in Asia. “Around the world, the energy transition is a focus for economic recovery, and our expertise, technology and people put Air Products at the heart of providing sustainable energy and environmental solutions,” said Chief Executive Seifi Ghasemi.

• ConocoPhillips COP, -0.14% has made a significant gas discovery offshore Norway. The company said the discovery is in Production License 1009 located 22 miles northwest of the Heidrun Field and 150 miles from the coast of Norway in the Norwegian Sea. ConocoPhillips Skandinavia AS is operator of the license with a 65% interest, while PGNiG Upstream Norway AS owns the remaining 35%. “Preliminary estimates place the size of the discovery between 50 and 190 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent,” the company said in a statement. “Further appraisal will be conducted to determine potential flow rates, the reservoir’s ultimate resource recovery and plans for development.” Shares have fallen 45% in the year to date, hurt by the twin effects of lower energy prices and lower demand during the pandemic.

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