COVID-19 live news — latest UK updates

7 min readNov 15, 2020

Latest coronavirus news as England’s lockdown continues and people travelling from mainland Greece have to isolate. US aims to immunise 20 million in December, WHO says trust in vaccines vital

cases and deaths. Cities such as New York in the US, Turin in Italy and London in the UK have been placed under stringent lockdowns due to the possibility of a second wave of the outbreak.
Apart from imposition of lockdowns, governments have also increased testing and surveillance to detect those infected at the earliest which in turn would help curb the spread of the disease. But there seems no other way to bring a complete pause to the pandemic other than a vaccine — which is safe, affordable and effective.
Also Read| Covid-19: Deaths, cases breaking global records
Speaking to news agency AFP, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert said that public distrust risked rendering even the most effective treatments useless against the Covid-19 crisis.
The Midwest and the South (including Texas) account for more than two-thirds of all COVID-19 hospitalizations. Earlier surges were concentrated in a few places, but this fall spike is hitting lots of states all at once. From Utah to Wisconsin to Iowa, hospitals are warning that the situation is not sustainable if the volume of new patients doesn’t slow down. An NPR analysis found at least 18 states have crossed into a dangerous zone where their hospitals could be at risk of reaching capacity, which could eventually require extreme measures like rationing care.
2. Parts of Midwest and the West are ‘at the breaking point’
For months, the virus has pummeled the Midwest. There are no signs that is subsiding. In fact, new daily cases have more than doubled over the past two weeks in that region, which is made up of 12 states. Illinois has added far more cases over the past week than any other state — 80,000, which is almost twice as many as California.
The Dakotas, Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska have the highest rate of infections per capita in the U.S. Wisconsin is now averaging more cases a day than New York City did at the height of its outbreak.
In the West, Utah is setting new records in cases as the state’s governor says, “We’re at the breaking point.” Parts of Texas, in particular El Paso, are in crisis and carting in mobile morgues because of rising deaths. Montana is reeling after months of rising case counts, and doctors are warning the region is on the “brink of disaster.”
3. States tiptoe toward new restrictions, but gaping holes remain
From Iowa to Connecticut, state leaders have started tightening restrictions and rolling back their reopening plans. Parts of California have stopped all indoor dining, including San Francisco. Minnesota has told restaurants to stop in-person service at 10 pm, saying that infections spread the most quickly later in the evening.
Indiana is putting caps on gathering sizes, limiting them to 25 people in the hardest hit counties (though religious services are exempted). Meanwhile, New York has put in place a nightly curfew for indoor dining, gyms and bars. In Illinois, state leaders have warned a shutdown could be on the way; Chicago has issued a stay-at-home advisory, although it’s unclear how that will be enforced.
Some states are taking things further: On Friday, New Mexico announced a stay-at-home order that will take effect next week and non-essential businesses will close in person service. Oregon’s governor made a similar decision.
Public health experts caution that states need consistent policies, instead of a patchwork of restrictions that only chip away at certain high-risk settings. As Anne Rimoin of UCLA told NPR recently: “This is a hard moment where we don’t necessarily get to have our cake and eat it too. You want to have bars open, then you might not be able to have schools open. You want to not wear a mask, you’re going to see more COVID.”
4. New mask mandates — kinda?
Some state leaders that resisted mandating mask use are starting to bend, but experts say these new measures don’t go far enough.
Utah’s Republican governor issued a statewide mask mandate. Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds has implemented a limited mask requirement, mostly aimed at large gatherings. Nebraska’s new mandate also only requires people to wear a mask when they spend an average of 15 minutes together and are within six feet of each other.
And there are quite a few states that don’t have a sweeping statewide mask mandate. And even those that do, compliance and enforcement are issues.
“We need to make mask-wearing obligatory and put a lot of stress once again on not having group assemblies of any kind,” says Dr. William Schaffner, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
With less possibilities of a sharp drop in the global caseload which has already infected over 53 million people and killed 1,309,408, here are the latest updates on the coronavirus vaccine:
1. Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui during a press briefing at the White House said that United States hopes to immunise 20 million citizens in December and a minimum of 25 million each month next year. Slaoui added that he hopes two vaccines in the final phase of trials developed by Pfizer and Moderna would soon be approved for emergency use next month.
2. On Friday, software giant Microsoft in its blogpost said that hackers from North Korea and Russia were trying to steal valuable data from companies engaged in the research and development of coronavirus vaccines. Microsoft added that majority of these attacks were unsuccessful.
3. The first phase trials of another vaccine of Biological E, a Hyderabad-based biopharmaceutical, will begin at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, from Monday. People between the ages of 18–55 can volunteer to receive the shot.
Click here for complete coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic
4. COVAX — formed by the WHO and vaccine alliance Gavi to provide equitable access to the coronavirus vaccine — has exceeded an interim target of raising more than $2 billion to buy and distribute vaccines for poorer countries.
5. South Korea-based GL Rapha will produce 150 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine per year. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Friday said that the South Korean firm is expected to begin production next month.
6. According to news agency Bloomberg, Serum Institute of India Ltd’s (SII) CEO Adar Poonawalla pointed out that if the final-stage trial data shows AstraZeneca’s candidate gives effective protection from Covid-19, the SII might get authorisation by December. SII is ramping up the production of AstraZeneca’s vaccine and aims to have 100 million doses ready by next month.
Poland has has reported a record 548 new coronavirus deaths taking the country’s total above 10,000.
Poland reported 25,571 new cases, lower than a record 27,875 recorded on 7 November.
The health ministry said that as of Saturday, Covid-19 patients occupied 22,320 hospital beds and were using 2,126 ventilators, out of 35,182 and 2,805 available, respectively.
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It’s hard to overstate how much the U.S. coronavirus outbreak has deteriorated this past week, with each day ushering in new, disturbing records.
On Thursday, there were more than 150,000 new infections. It was only last week that the U.S. reached a record of more than 100,000 infections in a single day for the first time ever.
“This is the worst the pandemic has been,” says Dr. Preeti Malani, Chief Health Officer in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Geriatric Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Daily cases have gone up more than 70% nationwide, since the beginning of November. Another way to put it: one in every 378 people in the U.S. tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week.
“You have the entire country seeing surges and you’re seeing it in rural areas and in urban areas. It’s a reflection of the fact that COVID is so widespread.”
While the week brought some promising news about a potential vaccine, there are dark months ahead of the country, as people spend more time indoors and travel for the holidays.
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COVID-19 live news — latest UK updates

Written by Martin Luther King