Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
It's Not Just New COVID Cases Surging; Deaths Are Accelerating Again Too
AP: Coronavirus Deaths Are Rising Again In The US, As Feared
Deaths per day from the coronavirus in the U.S. are on the rise again, just as health experts had feared, and cases are climbing in practically every state, despite assurances from President Donald Trump over the weekend that “we’re rounding the turn, we’re doing great.” With Election Day just over a week away, average deaths per day across the country are up 10% over the past two weeks, from 721 to nearly 794 as of Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Newly confirmed infections per day are rising in 47 states, and deaths are up in 34. (Pane and Stobbe, 10/26)
CNN: In Just A Week, The Fall Coronavirus Surge Added Nearly Half A Million Cases To The US Total
In just one week, the fall surge in Covid-19 infections added nearly half a million cases to the national total. The past seven days have been marked by daunting coronavirus records and upticks, with 489,769 new cases reported since October 20. More than 8.7 million people have now been infected since the pandemic again, according to Johns Hopkins University. (Holcombe, 10/27)
The Washington Post: Hospitals In Nearly Every Region Report A Flood Of Covid-19 Patients
Hospitals in many regions of the country — the Upper Midwest, the Mountain West, the Southwest and the heart of Appalachia — are seeing record levels of patients suffering from covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. More than 42,000 people were hospitalized nationally with the virus Monday, a figure that is steadily climbing toward the midsummer peak caused by massive outbreaks in the Sun Belt. In the places hit the hardest, this is nudging hospitals toward the nightmare scenario of rationing care. (Achenbach, Brulliard, Shammas and Dupree, 10/26)
The Hill: Pediatricians Say Nearly 800K Children Have Had Coronavirus
Almost 800,000 children in the U.S. have been infected by COVID-19 this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said Monday, adding that current cases among children are rising. In their latest state-level data report, the AAP shared statistics that demonstrate a growing prevalence of coronavirus among youth. Currently there are about 8.4 million cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., with children now making up 11 percent of that number — about 1,053 cases per 100,000 kids. (Polus, 10/26)
In related news —
The Hill: Fauci On Latest Surge: 'No Matter How You Look At It, It's Not Good News'
Top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said Monday that “no matter how you look at” the latest surge in COVID-19 cases in the U.S., “it’s not good news.” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Yahoo Finance during an interview said the U.S. is “at the highest baseline we’ve ever been” for coronavirus cases, calling the situation “quite precarious.” (Coleman, 10/26)
The Washington Post: As The Coronavirus Surges, It Is Reaching Into The Nation’s Last Untouched Areas
Few places would seem better able to ride out an infectious-disease pandemic than Petroleum County, Mont., whose 500 people spread over 1,656 square miles, much of it public lands and cattle ranches. For most of this year, it did just that, becoming the last county in the state and one of the final few in the nation to have logged no cases of the novel coronavirus. Then came October. Three residents tested positive, knocking Petroleum off zero-case lists, forcing the county’s lone school to close for a week and proving, as Sheriff Bill Cassell put it, that “eventually we were going to get it,” and that the virus “ain’t gone yet.” (Brulliard, 10/26)
