N.Y. Deaths Surge; Germany Weighs Tighter Lockdown: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) — President-elect Joe Biden will ask Congress for $1.9 trillion to fund immediate relief for the pandemic-hit U.S. economy, a package that risks swift Republican opposition over big-ticket spending on Democratic priorities.

Led by the U.S., the world is about to hit a frightening Covid-19 benchmark, with 2 million people dead and few expectations for the numbers to start dropping any time soon. New York state reported more than 200 daily Covid-19 deaths for the first time since May. Florida also reported over 200 deaths, the most in one day since August.

France will extend a 6 p.m. curfew across the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to tighten Germany’s lockdown as cases surpassed 2 million.

Nations quickest to enact social distancing and contact-tracing systems have mostly kept Covid-19 in check, but their citizens now find themselves lagging in receiving the shots needed to finally end a pandemic.

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The U.K. aims to have all people over 50 vaccinated by the end of March as the government prepares to more than double the pace of the program next week, the Times reported, citing unidentified Whitehall sources.

The U.K. has administered three million vaccines so far, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a tweet. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set a target to deliver about 15 million shots to the most vulnerable people by mid-February.

Kentucky reported a near-record 51 deaths, pushing the state’s toll to more than 3,000. “That puts us past an awful milestone,” Governor Andy Beshear said in an video update. “We are absolutely at war. We are suffering more casualties than most wars we have ever fought in. Let’s treat it like it.”

Beshear, a Democrat whose authority to impose virus restrictions is being challenged by the Republican-controlled state legislature, urged Kentuckians to continue to wear masks and follow other health guidelines. He announced another 4,084 infections for a total of 317,345.

A major New York hospital system alerted its physicians that it hadn’t yet been allocated Covid-19 vaccine doses for next week and can’t continue its vaccination program without them.

NYU Langone Health has given about 30,000 shots to date, a hospital official said. As of Thursday morning, the health system told its physicians that it hadn’t gotten commitments from New York state or New York City for new supplies next week, according to an email reviewed by Bloomberg News and confirmed by the hospital.

Texas said it’s the first U.S. state to top 1 million vaccinations. The announcement comes just days after the Lone Star state opened a network of large hubs to administer the shots to thousands of people per day.

Meanwhile, Houston posted 1,620 new virus cases, bringing the total for the fourth-largest U.S. city to more than 135,000, Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a tweet.

Florida posted 217 Covid-19 deaths among residents on Thursday, matching the highest single-day total since Aug. 19, according to the state health department. Its all-time high was 276 on Aug. 11. Florida, like much of the Sun Belt, experienced its worst stretch of the pandemic between July and August, and the pandemic’s impact was relatively subdued for several months thereafter. But the virus is now returning to southern states in earnest, with the Sunshine State’s hospitalization levels and rolling seven-day deaths now approaching their previous highs.

Moderna plans to test a booster shot of its Covid-19 vaccine beginning in July, CNBC reports. Trial sites have begun contacting participants from earlier studies, CNBC reports, citing an email shared by one of the people.

Severe oxygen shortages at hospitals in Brazil’s Amazon prompted local authorities to impose a curfew and some patients are being airlifted to other states to deal with the onslaught of a second coronavirus wave.

The state of Amazonas set a 7 p.m. curfew and suspended public transportation in roads and rivers, governor Wilson Lima said on Thursday.

Ohio is coping with a shortage in vaccines and will begin inoculating those 80 and older Jan. 19, before adding other age groups through phases. Governor Mike DeWine, who released the state’s vaccination schedule on Twitter, said there are 750,000 provider locations to distribute about 100,000 vaccines. The state has given out 361,603 doses so far, DeWine said.

“We don’t have enough vaccines in Ohio right now, but we hope our allotment will increase in the future – but as of right now we must deal with this scarcity,” he said.

He also warned that cases are starting to rise again in spite of the drop of ICU patients, which he said is a lagging indicator.

California’s intensive-care unit bed capacity fell to one of its lowest levels since the pandemic started as hospitalizations surged in the past two months. The number of available ICU beds dropped by 89 to 1,094.

The number of cases increased by 35,930 to 2.8 million. The state added 552 new deaths, bringing the total to 31,654.

Most of the state remains in some form of a lockdown as its hospitals, especially those in Southern California, run of ICU capacity.

Covid-19 infections at new In-N-Out Burger restaurants in Colorado, which opened to hours-long lines in November, now stand at almost 170 employees, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported. The number of cases at the restaurants in Colorado Springs and Aurora have steadily increased since detected in December, but local health officials have said there are no plans to close the sites, the newspaper said. State data indicate no customers have been infected, the Gazette reported.

New York state reported more than 200 daily Covid-19 deaths for the first time since May. The additional 202 fatalities bring the total to 32,379. Of 212,589 tests reported yesterday, 13,661, or 6.42%, were positive.

Both the cases and positive rate were lower than in recent days. Hospitalizations also declined, by 106 to 8,823, even as New York leads the Northeast in people hospitalized with Covid-19. “New York is pushing forward to conduct more tests, add to hospital beds and make it easier to get the COVID-19 vaccine across the state,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

The health department’s appointments for vaccinations are booked 14 weeks out as the state expanded the eligibility criteria.

Spain reported a record number of new cases for the third consecutive day as regions put in place restrictions to contain the spread. The Health Ministry reported 16,676 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, more than double those reported on Monday. Deaths over the past week rose to 774, from 576 on Monday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to tighten Germany’s lockdown, fearing a more contagious coronavirus variant may cause infections to spiral out of control.

Merkel wants to meet with regional leaders soon to discuss additional curbs aimed at decisively lowering the infection rate, a government official said. There is no consensus with the state premiers yet about such further restrictions, the person added, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

On Thursday, the nation surpassed 2 million virus cases since the start of the pandemic, and hospitals in some German states are running out of intensive-care beds.

France will extend tighter curfew measures across the country. The 6 p.m. curfew already in place across much of eastern France will become nationwide from Saturday, Prime Minister Jean Castex said at a news conference on Thursday. It will last at least 15 days.

The country’s cases increased by 21,228 to 2.85 million on Thursday, while the seven-day rolling average was little changed at close to 18,000. Deaths linked to the virus rose by 282 to 69,313.

The European Union may secure an extra 50 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Moderna Inc. as the bloc seeks to accelerate inoculations, according to people familiar with the matter.

The deal being arranged by the European Commission would bring to 210 million the total number of vaccine doses from Moderna for EU countries, with the additional supply costing 33% more than the 160 million doses covered by the original accord, said one of the people.

Sibanye Stillwater Ltd., one of South Africa’s largest precious metals producers, offered to help the government’s vaccination campaign by inoculating hundreds of thousands of mineworkers and people living in communities near its mining operations.

The company that employs about 84,000 workers has enough capacity at its 45 health and medical facilities to vaccinate 18,000 people a day, Chief Executive Officer Neal Froneman said in an interview Thursday.

Italy registered 17,246 new virus cases on Thursday, from 15,774 the day before, and…