U.S. Cases Climb 1.1%; Trump Pressures Schools: Virus Update

President Donald Trump turned up pressure to open America’s schools. Two senior Federal Reserve officials lamented the failure of the U.S. to control the coronavirus pandemic compared with other advanced nations.

Russia defended the safety of what it said was the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine. In Asia, Hong Kong’s recent outbreak is showing signs of coming under control, while the Philippines said it would begin clinical trials for a Japanese antiviral drug.

Some hard-hit U.S. states showed signs of improvement, with Texas and California reporting falling hospitalizations from the virus. New Jersey dropped a requirement that public schools conduct in-person teaching only.

Key Developments

  • Global Tracker: Global cases top 20.4 million; deaths pass 745,000
  • Vaccine nationalism makes a deadly disease worse
  • After 146 days in lockdown, Argentina hasn’t peaked
  • Banks are surveilling traders at home for compliance slips
  • Biggest meatworks in Australian state shuts as cases multiply
  • Hundreds quarantined in schools that followed Trump’s advice

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.

Argentina Could Produce Covid Vaccine with AstraZeneca, mAbxience (8:00 a.m. HK)

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez spoke after a meeting with representatives of AstraZeneca and biotechnology company mAbxience of Grupo INSUD, according to a statement and said Argentina and Mexico could produce 150 million initial doses of “active substance in the potential Covid-19 vaccine” after the requisite trials.

Fernandez said the deal allows Argentina to make use of the potential vaccine “when it needs it and at a reasonable price.” The goal is to produce vaccines for Argentina and other regional countries as of the first semester 2021.

Texas Hospitalizations at Six-Week Low (5:20 p.m. NY)

Texas hospitals counted 7,028 Covid-19 patients, the lowest in six weeks, according to state health department data. The tally has declined for nine straight days, the longest since the pandemic emerged.

The Lone Star state reported 324 new fatalities, bringing the cumulative total to 9,034. The 6,200 new cases posted in Wednesday’s update was down 30% from a day earlier.

In the Houston metro area, the effective rate of transmission ticked down to 0.87 from 0.9 on Tuesday, according to the Texas Medical Center. Anything below 1 signals the spread is slowing.

Trump Hosts Event Touting In-Person School (4:45 p.m. NY)

President Donald Trump stepped up his effort to push school systems to reopen by hosting an event at the White House featuring parents, educators and researchers who argued for in-person learning.

Trump criticized as “a little ridiculous” some school districts’ plans to have students attend in person some days and online on other days so that they have enough space to socially distance in classrooms. “One thing we’ve learned during this horror show of the China plague is that virtual is not as good as being there,” he said.

At a briefing with reporters later Wednesday, Trump said his administration will provide up to 125 million reusable masks to schools around the country. The administration is ready to deploy teams from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help support schools in safely reopening, Trump said. He also outlined eight steps for how to reopen schools safely, including encouraging masks when social distancing isn’t possible.

California Reports More Positive Trends (4:30 p.m. NY)

California is seeing more trends that indicate the state is “turning the corner on this pandemic,” Governor Gavin Newsom said at a news briefing. The state had 5,433 new cases in the last 24 hours, when a backlog of tests from prior days is excluded, marking a slowdown from the 14-day average of 7,911.

Hospitalizations and the number of patients in intensive care also continue to decrease, a sign that efforts to contain the virus are working, Newsom said. The most-populous state had 5,442 Covid-19 hospital patients as of Tuesday, down from a peak of 7,170 last month.

Peru Bans Family Gatherings (4:25 p.m. NY)

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra said a resurgence of the coronavirus has forced him to reimpose a ban on social gatherings and place some areas back under lockdown.

Vizcarra specifically mentioned family gatherings and quinceaneras — or a coming of age birthday party for 15-year-old girls — as a reason for the acceleration in infections. An all-day curfew on Sundays will be reintroduced, he said in Lima.

A strict lockdown earlier this year devastated Peru’s economy but failed to contain the virus and confirmed cases are set to reach 500,000 in the coming days, one of the highest in Latin America. The country has seen a jump in infections after lifting stay-at-home restrictions in most areas last month.

U.S. Cases Rise 1.1% (4 p.m. NY)

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. increased 1.1% as compared with the same time Tuesday to 5.17 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. The increase matched the average daily gain over the past week. Deaths rose by 0.7% to 165,328.

  • California reported 11,645 additional cases, which includes 6,212 cases from a backlog of tests due to lab-reporting issues, Governor Gavin Newsom said in a news briefing. Excluding that backlog, the state had 5,433 new infections, below the two-week daily average of about 7,900.
  • Florida reported 550,901 cases, up 1.5% from a day earlier, compared with an average increase of 1.3% in the previous seven days. Deaths among Florida residents reached 8,765, an increase of 212, or 2%.
  • Arizona reported 148 new deaths from Covid-19, the highest since July 30. But the number of new cases, 706, represented a 0.4% increase, lower than the prior seven-day average of 0.6%.
  • Montana experienced a 3.3% increase in cases, bringing the total to 5,268, according to the data from Johns Hopkins and Bloomberg News.

Florida Says Data Dump Skewed Case Report (3 p.m. NY)

Florida’s Department of Health warned that a dump of months-old Covid-19 data had severely skewed the latest daily report, making it appear worse than it was.

The disclosure sheds new light on a report that, on its surface, seemed to suggest a stalling of the recent downward trend in coronavirus cases and positivity rates in hard-hit Florida. It had an especially outsize impact on statistics for Miami-Dade, Florida’s largest county.

French Health Minister Takes Jab at Russian Vaccine (3 p.m. NY)

French health minister Olivier Veran said France will never offer a Covid-19 vaccine to its population if it hasn’t passed phase 3 trials, adding that vaccines from European and American research teams are currently undergoing phase 3 trials.

“For an efficient and safe vaccine, access to scientific data is needed but it’s not the case of the project Sputnik V launched by the Russian President,” Veran said during an interview on France 2 TV on Wednesday.

Veran’s comments follow an announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin saying Russia cleared the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine for use and hopes to begin mass inoculation soon, even before clinical testing has finished.

Finland Backtracks on Traveler Quarantines (2:15 p.m. NY)

Finland’s government won’t impose blanket quarantines on travelers, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said, backtracking from comments by a minister in her government.

Authorities are already able to impose mandatory quarantines when such measures are deemed necessary, but no political decision will be taken to force all travelers from certain countries to isolation for 14 days, Marin told reporters on Wednesday. Such measures remain voluntary for the most part, she said.

Murphy Backs Off N.J. Classroom Mandate (1:45 p.m. NY)

Governor Phil Murphy on Wednesday abandoned a requirement that New Jersey’s 2,500 public schools conduct in-person teaching and said some districts may return to distance-only learning.

Murphy said certain districts may have “legitimate and documentable reasons” for not meeting state-mandated health and safety standards. Those can “begin their school year in an all-remote fashion,” he said.

The governor didn’t immediately name any potential districts or estimate how many may not be able to meet the standards.

Fed Officials Say U.S. Virus Failures Sap Recovery (1 p.m. NY)

Two senior Federal Reserve officials lamented the U.S. failure to control the coronavirus pandemic, which stood in poor comparison with efforts in other advanced countries and was undermining the nation’s economic recovery.

Drawing a strikingly unflattering contrast with the experience of Europe, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said U.S. overeagerness to reopen commercial activity without sufficiently containing the spread of Covid-19 had backfired.

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan sounded a similar note.

— With assistance by Kara Wetzel

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