World Coronavirus Dispatch: US reports all-time high single-day surge

Europe's lockdowns threaten to squash fragile profit rebound, Regeneron halts trial of antibody treatment in seriously ill Covid patients, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

People who contract Covid-19 can quickly spread the virus through their households, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday, based on a study of 101 patients in Tennessee and Wisconsin, and 191 of their household contacts.
 

And “substantial transmission” occurred, whether the first patient was an adult or a child, the researchers found. The transmission rate was high across all racial and ethnic groups.

The findings highlight the need for strict measures, even at home, to help control the spread of the disease. And they reinforce concerns raised by other studies and public health experts that parents exposed to the disease on the job and multi-generational households may pose risks for children. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics: 


Total Confirmed Cases: 45,671,699


Change Over Yesterday: 608,066


Total Deaths: 1,190,516


Total Recovered: 29,737,547

Nations hit with most cases: US (8,946,876), India (8,088,851), Brazil (5,494,376), Russia (1,588,433) and France (1,327,853)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

US reports world record of more than 100,000 Covid-19 cases in single day: The United States set a new all-time high for coronavirus cases confirmed in a single 24-hour period on Friday, reporting just over 100,000 new infections to surpass the record total of 91,000 posted a day earlier. The daily caseload of 100,233 is also a world record for the global pandemic. Read more here

UK mulls national lockdown for England as virus cases surge: If implemented, schools and universities as well as essential businesses would be exempt from the restrictions, said people familiar with the plan, who asked not to be identified because a final decision has not yet been taken. The lockdown will take effect as soon as Wednesday, remaining in place until December 1, said the Times, which first reported on the plan. Read more here

Europe’s lockdowns threaten to squash fragile profit rebound: Plans to shutter bars, restaurants and non-essential services for a month in Germany and France -- while keeping most businesses operating -- are tempering the optimism generated by better-than-expected results from the likes of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, Volkswagen AG and Airbus SE. So far this earnings season, almost two-thirds of companies in the MSCI Europe Index that have reported results have surpassed analysts’ estimates. Read more here

Regeneron halts trial of antibody treatment in seriously ill Covid patients: Regeneron has stopped enrolling seriously ill Covid-19 patients in a clinical trial of the antibody treatment that US President Donald Trump has hailed as a “cure” for the disease. Shares in Regeneron fell as much as 3 per cent after an independent data monitoring committee warned that the risks might outweigh the benefits for hospitalised patients on high levels of oxygen. Read more here

Australia's Queensland votes in Covid-dominated race, Melbourne eases lockdown: Voters in Australia’s Queensland state went to the polls on Saturday in an election overshadowed by Covid-19, with the Labor government expected to retain power for taking strict measures that have put it at odds with the national government. At the same time, residents in Melbourne, on Saturday enjoyed their first weekend of relative freedom after an almost four-month lockdown. Read more here



Belgium locks down in a ‘last chance’ bid to keep its hospitals from collapse: The prime minister of Belgium, which has one of the world’s highest Covid-19 infection rates, announced a national lockdown on Friday, calling it a “last chance” to keep the country’s health care system from collapse. Belgium, with 11 million inhabitants, has an average of 15,000 cases per day, and hospitals have been filling at an alarming rate for weeks. Read more here

Specials 

Covid has put ‘stakeholder capitalism’ on steroids

Pretty much everyone has now jumped on this bandwagon. In July, Joe Biden announced his aim to bring “an end” to the “farce” that is shareholder capitalism, while the pandemic has given renewed energy to the conversation about the purpose of a corporation. The upshot is a long list of organisations asking companies to step back from what used to be their core purpose and to focus on a lot of other things. Climate change is top of the list. In Australia, a new “Climate League 2030” is calling for companies to slash carbon emissions beyond government forecasts. In the US, the “We Mean Business” coalition is pushing for the same thing. There has long been pressure for companies to do something about gender issues. Then there is social justice in general, with the kickback against shareholder primacy opening the floodgates to pressure groups demanding that companies enter the culture wars. Read more here

At home: What happened to those couples who quarantined together: 
Whirlwind domestic bliss hasn’t been the case for everyone this year. A new Pew Research Centre found that 1 in 4 American adults are struggling to pay their bills. Guides on ow to survive cohabiting in close quartered with romantic partners proliferate online. Divorce rates sky-rocketed in China in March after couple emerged from lockdown. But some relationships, confined to tight quarters, have had the room to bloom. Read more here