The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 35 million on Monday, as doctors expressed alarm at President Donald Trump’s decision to leave his hospital bed to wave to supporters from a motorcade on Sunday, saying he has put all of the people in the vehicle with him at risk of contracting the deadly illness.
Trump had earlier said in a video on Twitter from Walter Reed Medical Center that he was getting “great reports” from the doctors. He then drove by cheering supporters close to the hospital waving from the back seat while wearing a face mask and giving the crowds his signature thumbs-up.
James Phillips, doctor of emergency medicine at George Washington University and attending physician at Walter Reed took to Twitter to express his dismay.
“Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential ‘drive-by’ just now has to be quarantined for 14 days,” he said. “They might get sick. They may die.” Phillips said, “For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity.”
Phillips added, “That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play.”
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“ “Our current best estimates tell us about 10% of the global population may have been infected by this virus. It varies depending on country, it varies from urban to rural, it varies depending on groups. But what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk. We are now heading into a difficult period. The disease continues to spread.” ”
The move came on a day when the U.S. added another 34,491 new cases and at least 332 deaths, according to a New York Times tracker. In the last week, new cases have averaged 43,586 a day, up 6% from the average two weeks earlier.
The U.S. has the highest case tally in the world at 7.4 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, and the highest death toll at 209,725, or about a fifth of the global total of 1.04 million.
About two thirds of states saw an increase in new cases in the last week, according to a Washington Post analysis, suggesting colder weather is driving people indoors, where there is greater risk of transmission.
The highest increases on a per capita basis were in the Midwest and Mountain West, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Utah and the Dakotas, the paper reported.
Raymond James analysts said Monday that hospitalizations are on the rise in the U.S. too, with the average daily number up 2.6% in the past week.
“The uptick in hospitalizations, a lagging indicator, is concerning and could be a sign of the growing next phase of COVID in the U.S.,” analysts led by Chris Meekins wrote in a note to clients. “Meanwhile, average daily tests increased by around 5% compared to last week while average daily identified cases decreased by around 2%, causing the 7-day average positivity rate to fall from 5.0% to 4.7%. As we continue to anticipate varying trends, we encourage individuals to practice strong mitigation measures so that we do not further increase the virus’s strain on our health care system.”
Global trends are also discouraging, according to Meekins. The number of new cases worldwide rose 6.3% last week to more than 2 million new cases, while fatalities rose 3.9% to 39,257. Governments in Europe are considering new measures to restrict movement after a fresh surge in cases across the continent.
The World Health Organization said Monday that roughly one in 10 people may have been infected with coronavirus by now, meaning most of the world’s population is still vulnerable.
“Our current best estimates tell us about 10% of the global population may have been infected by this virus,” WHO top emergency expert Dr. Michael Ryan told the executive board, the Guardian reported.
“ It varies depending on country, it varies from urban to rural, it varies depending on groups. But what it does mean is that the vast majority of the world remains at risk. We are now heading into a difficult period. The disease continues to spread,” he said.
The team attending to Trump at Walter Reed is to decide later Monday whether he can be released or not.
In other news:
• Bars and cafes in Paris will be closed for two weeks under new measures being imposed to stop the spread of the virus, according to local media reports. Paris has been hit by rising cases, increasing hospitalizations and deaths months after it lifted a nationwide lockdown. “These are braking measures because the epidemic is moving too fast,” Paris police chief Didier Lallement told journalists. “From tomorrow, all bars will be closed.” France counted nearly 17,000 new cases on Saturday alone, the highest number since it started widespread testing.
• The official U.K. COVID-19 tally spiked this weekend — because of a backlog caused by a Microsoft Excel error. According to Public Health England, 15,841 cases between Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 weren’t uploaded to the government dashboard, because the column limits on an Excel spreadsheet reached its maximum size. The mistake was made worse because those details weren’t passed to the country’s test-and-trace operations. The issue has been solved by splitting the Excel files into batches, according to the Daily Mail. The U.K. case tally has now passed 500,000 and its death toll is 42,440, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world, the Johns Hopkins data shows.
• Russia reported 10,499 new infections on Sunday, the highest number since May 15 at the peak of the crisis when lockdowns were still in effect, the Guardian reported. Moscow is now considering another strict lockdown to curb the spread, according to the Vedomosti newspaper. Russia has 1.2 million cases, or fourth highest in the world, and 21,375 fatalities.
• The head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is self-quarantining until Tuesday after being told she had participated in a meeting last week attended by a person who has since tested positive for COVID-19, German broadcaster Deutsche Well reported. Von der Leyen tested negative on Monday, but will remain isolated as a precaution.
Latest tallies
There are now 35.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, the Johns Hopkins data shows, and at least 25 million people have recovered.
Brazil has the second-highest death toll after the U.S. at 146,352, but third-highest case tally at 4.9 million.
India is second to the U.S. by case tally at 6.6 million, and has the third-highest death toll at 102,685. Mexico is fourth with 79,088 deaths and ninth with 761,665 cases.
China, where the illness was first reported late last year, has 90,640 cases and 4,739 fatalities, according to its official numbers.
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