Global Cases Hit Daily Record; Trump Backs Big Aid: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) --

Daily virus cases around the world topped a record 350,000, and U.S. infections are ticking up.

President Donald Trump says he’d like to see a bigger coronavirus relief package than what Congress is offering. He announced his first in-person event, at the White House on Saturday, since contracting Covid-19, and plans to hold a rally in Florida on Monday.

European leaders sounded alarms about an epidemic untamed. New cases in France climbed to a record, while the Spanish government declared a state of emergency for the Madrid region. German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Germany faces a crucial moment. The U.K. announced new support for jobs, as the government warned the outbreak is “getting out of control.”

Key Developments:

• Global Tracker: Cases pass 36.7 million; deaths top 1.06 million
• U.S. caps troubling week with deadly rebound of Covid-19
• Distressed debt funds target companies facing loss of Covid aid
• With prices down $200 per room, NYC hotels brace for more pain
• How one of the world’s biggest slums stopped the coronavirus
• One week at the White House was America’s pandemic in a microcosm

Subscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click CVID on the terminal for global data on coronavirus cases and deaths.

Trump to Head to Florida Monday for Rally (5:04 p.m. NY)

Trump plans to travel to Florida on Monday for his first campaign-trail rally since his hospitalization for Covid-19, his campaign said in an email.

Florida is viewed as a must-win for the president, and Trump has consistently polled behind challenger Joe Biden in the state. Florida is tied for third in the electoral-college vote count, with New York and behind California and Texas.

Canada’s Largest Province Imposes Restrictions (4:39 p.m. NY)

Ontario is forcing businesses to close or reduce operations in three major cities after Covid-19 cases hit a record high on the eve of the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

Canada’s largest province ordered indoor businesses including bars, gyms, casinos, movie theaters and restaurant dining rooms to close for 28 days, starting Saturday at 12:01 a.m. The measure applies to Toronto, Ottawa and Peel, a suburban region west of Toronto.

The government is also asking residents to leave their homes only for essential trips, Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference that followed an emergency cabinet meeting. He said the province would set aside C$300 million ($228 million) to help affected companies.

Florida’s Worst-Hit County to Relax Curfew (4:08 p.m. NY)

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez may relax the county’s pandemic curfew starting Monday. In an emailed statement Friday, he said the county has mostly kept rates of new positives below 5% of total tests recently and hospitalizations have remained stable.

If the trend holds through the weekend, he said he would move the curfew back to midnight until 6 a.m., from an earlier start time of 11 p.m. Miami-Dade is Florida’s most populous county and has posted the highest numbers of Covid-19 cases overall.

Pelosi Warns Trump Might Follow U.K. in Rushed Vaccine (3:55 p.m. NY)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she is worried that President Donald Trump would rush to green light a Covid-19 vaccine based on decisions in the U.K. rather than wait for the Food and Drug Administration.

Pelosi told reporters she is concerned that the U.K. does not have the same strict vaccine protocols as the FDA and that Prime Minister Boris Johnson may rush a vaccine.

“My concern is that the U.K. system for that kind of judgment is not on par with ours in the United States. So if Boris Johnson decides he is going to approve a drug and this president embraces that, that’s a concern that I have,” Pelosi said.

This week, the FDA overcame resistance from the White House and published new vaccine protocols that guarantee there will be no vaccine available before the Nov. 3 election. Trump called the guidelines political and subsequently began talking about the various treatments he is receiving as a Covid “cure” that is better than a vaccine.

Trump to Hold First In-Person Event Since Illness on Saturday (3:49 p.m. NY)

President Donald Trump on Saturday plans to host his first in-person event at the White House since being hospitalized with Covid-19, amid questions about the stage of his recovery.

At the event, Trump will discuss law and order, according to a White House official.

Trump has been eager to return to the campaign trail, as Democratic nominee Joe Biden widens his lead just weeks before the Nov. 3 election. Trump returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday, ending isolation in the White House residence even though his physician hadn’t publicly said he was no longer contagious.

Daily Worldwide Cases Hit Record (3:28 p.m. NY)

Global cases of Covid-19 reached a daily record of 350,766, the World Health Organization reported on Friday.

Cases are flaring around Europe and rising again in the U.S. Meanwhile, the number of infections in India is catching up with the U.S. “There are no new answers,” said Michael Ryan, the WHO emergencies chief. “The majority of people in the world are still susceptible to this disease.”

He said the WHO advocates that nations avoid widespread lockdowns that have devastated economies, focusing instead on testing, contact tracing and education.

More than 36 million people around the world have been infected, and more than 1 million have died.

Fauci Calls White House Ceremony a ‘Super-Spreader Event’ (3 p.m. NY)

Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious-disease expert, said that a gathering in the White House Rose Garden last month was a “super-spreader event” for the novel coronavirus.

President Donald Trump held a ceremony in the Rose Garden on Sept. 26 to honor Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Few guests wore masks and attendees mingled and sat in close proximity to one another both indoors and outdoors. Subsequently, the president and several top staffers, as well as senators and military officials, have tested positive.

Rapid Test Effort Stumbles (2:15 p.m. NY)

A federal effort to arm nursing homes with rapid coronavirus tests is stumbling on concern the tests return false positives, putting at least one state at odds with federal officials over the value of the tests.

Nevada this month ordered nursing homes to stop using the point-of-care tests after they found more than 20 instances where positive findings were overturned by more precise assays. That was more than half of the positive samples re-tested. Other states are now also questioning their accuracy.

Trump Says He Wants More Aid Than Either Party Is Offering (2:01 p.m. NY)

President Donald Trump said he wants an even bigger stimulus than what Democrats have offered so far, seeming to undercut his own negotiators, who had prepared a $1.8 trillion offer to make to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today.

“I would like to see a bigger stimulus package, frankly, than either the Democrats or the Republicans are offering,” Trump said on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program, saying he’s going in the “exact opposite” direction from his earlier stances.

France New Cases Top 20,000, Rise to Record (2 p.m. NY)

France reported a record 20,339 new coronavirus cases on Friday, with the weekly pace of infections rising for a seventh day. The seven-day rolling average of new infections, which smooths out daily variations, jumped to 14,618, the highest since the start of the outbreak.

While cases have jumped, deaths have increased at a slower pace, remaining near an average 70 a day this month.

Trump Won’t Hold Rallies Over Weekend (1:37 p.m. NY)

President Donald Trump will remain at the White House this weekend, people familiar with the matter said, after he said he wanted to hold rallies in Florida and Pennsylvania despite questions over the stage of his recovery from Covid-19.

Trump, who told Fox’s Sean Hannity late Thursday that he wanted to hold rallies Saturday and Sunday, won’t travel until Monday at the earliest, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Ireland Cases Surge (1:34 p.m. NY)

Ireland reported the most new cases since April for the second time in a week, as authorities warned the profile of the virus continues to deteriorate. There were 617 new cases, the most since April 26, with five deaths. The cases were spread across every county in the nation.

NYC Mayor Says City, Schools Doing Well Overall (11:55 a.m. NY)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in an interview with WNYC on Friday that the overall situation for Covid-19 cases in the city is “very good,” with a seven-day positivity rate of 1.66%. The daily positivity rate in New York City is just 1.16%.

Parts of Queens and Brooklyn have faced tighter restrictions due to spikes in cases there, and de Blasio said the pause could last as little as two weeks if residents follow the restrictions. “My hope is this is a very brief measure to get us through this problem,” he said.

He also said that there’s been little sign of Covid-19 spread in schools, pointing to testing done in 44 schools in the ZIP codes that have seen heightened cases of Covid-19. He said there were just three positive cases out of 2,155 tests completed.

“That’s a staggeringly good result,” de Blasio said.

EU Issues Virus Travel Rules (11:26 a.m. NY)

European Union diplomats meeting in Brussels on Friday reached a deal on common thresholds for imposing bloc-wide travel rules such as requiring quarantine or negative Covid-test results for visitors.

The non-binding policy, on which ministers will formally sign off on Tuesday, could offer some relief to the continent’s battered airlines and travelers confused by the patchwork of country-by-country measures.

Under the plan, restriction-free travel will be allowed between regions with fewer than 25 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people for the previous 14 days, and with a reading of positive virus tests lower than 4%.

Italy Cases Spike Again (11:10 a.m. NY)

Italy’s new cases surged for a fourth day, reaching 5,372, the most since late March. That’s well above the previous seven-day average of 2,999. Daily testing hit a new record and the positivity rate kept climbing to 4.1%, the highest since April.

Lombardy, the epicenter of the outbreak earlier this year, reported a 44% increase in new cases to 983. Patients in intensive care units rose by 29 to 387, still about a 10th of the April peak. Another 28 deaths were reported.

McConnell Says Stimulus Unlikely Before Election (10:50 a.m. NY)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the differences are likely too big and the time is too short for Congress to agree on a new comprehensive stimulus package before the election, despite President Donald Trump’s renewed interest in striking a deal.

“We do need another rescue package, but the proximity to the elections and the differences of opinion about what is needed are pretty vast,” McConnell said at an event in his home state of Kentucky. He also said that while both sides agree on the need for aid to U.S. airlines, that too is unlikely to happen in the next three weeks.

Jets Send Players Home After Presumptive Positive Test: ESPN (10:09 a.m. NY)

The New York Jets have sent all players and coaches home after a presumptive positive player test Friday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports, citing an unidentified person familiar with the matter.

U.K. to Support Virus Hot Spot Jobs (10:00 a.m. NY)

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak announced new support for jobs in coronavirus hot spots, as tougher restrictions are readied to try to contain a pandemic the government warned is “getting out of control.”

Under Sunak’s plans, the government will pay two-thirds of the wages of workers in companies forced to close as a result of virus restrictions, and will also offer increased cash grants while they are shuttered. The extra support, which Treasury officials said will amount to hundreds of millions of pounds a month, comes before new curbs next week which could involve shutting bars and restaurants in areas of England where the disease is spreading most rapidly.

Broadway Shutdown Extended Again to May 30 (9:44 a.m. NY)

New York’s Broadway venues will remain dark at least through May 30. Specific return dates for new and resuming Broadway shows will be determined by their production companies, the Broadway League trade association said in a statement Friday. Plays and musicals, suspended since March 12, previously were expected to resume ticket sales in January.

Dutch Premier Says New Measures May Be Needed (9:40 a.m. NY)

Additional measures in the Netherlands to battle the outbreak are “inescapable” if there’s no change in the daily numbers in the coming days, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at his weekly press briefing on Friday after cases hit a new daily record. He declined to elaborate on possible new steps.

Merkel Says Germany Faces Watershed in Virus Fight (9:10 a.m. NY)

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Germany faces a crucial moment that can determine whether it regains or loses control of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Now are the days and weeks that will determine how Germany heads into the winter,” Merkel said Friday after talks with mayors of the country’s 11 biggest cities, adding that they agreed to thresholds that would trigger tighter restrictions.

Merkel will speak with city officials again in two weeks to determine how effective the measures have been. Germany recorded more than 4,000 new coronavirus cases for a second straight day on Friday.

New London Lockdown Restrictions ‘Inevitable’ (8:42 a.m. NY)

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said new stricter lockdown restrictions for the capital are “highly likely” soon, LBC radio reported. Khan said his forecast is that there’ll be further restrictions brought in because “we don’t want to see in October and November what we saw in March and April.”

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