Coronavirus News Update – Nov. 16: U.S. Hospitalizations Reach New High, Germans Should Brace for ‘Severe Measures’ Until Easter

By Anna Breuer on 16 November 2020
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A fruit vendor at a marketplace in Bolzano before the pandemic

On Sunday, Bundeswirtschaftsminister or Economic Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier told the weekly Bild am Sonntag that Germans should brace for severe measures until Easter, another four to five months, in order to stem the spread of coronavirus infections.   Looking ahead to December, Altmaier said “What we can afford to do for Christmas depends entirely on how disciplined and successful we are in fighting the pandemic,” noting that the country reduced the number of infections to 300 per day in June.

The Robert-Koch-Institut reported 16,947 new coronavirus infections in Germany on Sunday, a figure 5,514 lower as the previous day.

Meanwhile, the German government plans to set up hundreds of centers across the country starting in December in order to prepare for mass vaccination against the coronavirus, the newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported.

A Catholic priest in Hannover wants to celebrate Christmas in the HDI-Arena, also known as the Niedersachsenstadion.  Heinrich Plochg of the St.-Joseph-Gemeinde told the Hannoverschen Allgemeinen Zeitung that, if health ministry “gives a green light and conditions allow,” he would have up to 2,000 worshipers present at the stadium, which accommodates over 46,000 spectators,

In the United States, just as the country reported its second-highest number of new coronavirus cases, 159,021, the number of people hospitalized across the country reached a new high, 69,455.  The 14-day average increase in new cases is up by 80%.

Police in Paris broke up a party with an estimated 400 people that took place in Joinville-de-Pont a commune or township in the city’s suburbs.  The party took place in a private home and at least one individual present had tested positive for the coronavirus.  Authorities said that some partygoers threw bottles at the police officers as they attempted to shut down the event.

Italy recorded a record number of new daily Covid-19 infections Friday.  The country reported 40,902 cases and 550 deaths.  Stay-at-home orders are being issued for two regions, Campania and Tuscany, while they are already in effect for Bolzano, Calabria, Lombardy, Piedmont, and the Aosta Valley.

Officials in Jinan in eastern China said they had found evidence of the coronavirus on beef and tripe as well as on packaging for these products that were being imported from Bolivia, Brazil, and New Zealand. This is not the first time a Chinese government has found traces of the virus on frozen foods and the government said it is stepping up its testing efforts on this front.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, after reporting that he received positive and negative test results from multiple Covid-19 tests, said on Saturday that he “most likely” has a moderate case of the virus.

A fire at a hospital in the city of Piatra Neamt, a city in northeastern Romania, killed ten people in an intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients.  Ten additional patients were injured, and seven were in critical condition, local officials there said.  Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into the matter, although the country’s health minister, Nelu Tătaru, told Romanian reporters that the fire at was “most likely triggered by a short circuit.”

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

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