Warning Wire

On Wednesday, the United States set new records for daily Covid deaths, hospitalizations and new cases. But new records were set a day later, as 2,857 people died and more than 216,500 tested positive on Thursday.

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx warns that if you traveled for Thanksgiving, assume you were infected with coronavirus and get tested soon and avoid seeing grandparents, other elderly relatives or anyone with pre-existing conditions.

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised against traveling for Thanksgiving because of climbing coronavirus cases around the country, more than 3 million people passed through Transportation Security Administration lines at airports this weekend.

In a joint op-ed, the governors write: “Think about your last Thanksgiving and the people you were surrounded by ... As hard as it will be to not see them this Thanksgiving, imagine how much harder it would be if their chairs are empty next year.”

Despite the antipathy of President Trump and many Republican voters to Covid restrictions, GOP governors are ordering residents to sometimes wear masks in public as infections in their states continue to soar.

Yesterday, the U.S. recorded more than 160,000 cases for the first time, eight days after recording 100,000 new cases in one day for the first time. The country also set a record for hospitalizations for the third day in a row, with 67,096 receiving treatment.

The drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech, a German company, said in a news release that the Covid vaccine they are jointly developing and testing is 90 percent effective in clinical trials and no serious safety concerns have yet emerged. If those results hold, it would make the coronavirus vaccine as effective as common childhood vaccines.

Along with record turnout in a wild presidential race, voters in some states weighed in on issues affecting all aspects of life, including wages, taxes and abortion. And just because the election drove it off the metaphorical front page doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. The U.S. yesterday reported a record 121,000 new coronavirus cases.

Supporters of President Trump have a new rallying cry: “Fire Fauci! Fire Fauci!” Greeted by this chant at a campaign rally in Florida, the president responded by suggesting he would consider it: “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election,” Trump said. “I appreciate the advice.”

The White House declared that ''ending the Covid-19 pandemic'' was President Trump’s top accomplishment in his first term of office. Yesterday, the U.S. recorded at least 89,000 new infections, the largest single-day total since the pandemic began.

The U.S. has averaged at least 71,000 new coronavirus cases a day over the past week, more than at any other point during the pandemic. More than 8.7 million people have contracted the virus, and about 226,000 have died.

Some 75,000 new Covid-19 cases were logged in the U.S. yesterday, the second highest single-day total since the pandemic began. The fall surge has gripped the country and, with more time being spent indoors, experts expect the next few months to be the worst yet. They are imploring people to wear masks and social distance.

With new coronavirus cases rising again around the country, the next few months may be the "darkest of the pandemic," Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, warned this week.

Coronavirus infections are surging in Europe and the U.S., which has reached these grim numbers: 8 million cases and 218,000 deaths. With Covid relief benefits largely exhausted, studies show millions of Americans have fallen back into poverty.

At the Senate confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, one senator spoke without a mask despite a recent Covid diagnosis, saying his doctor had cleared him, and others attended remotely.