ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska on Saturday reported hitting a daily record in new coronavirus cases.
The state reported 604 cases, the highest in a single day since Oct. 25, when 526 cases were tallied, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
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The Department of Health and Social Services says there were no new deaths from the virus. The state has had 19,306 cases and 79 deaths since the coronavirus hit.
The Daily News reports that 95 people were currently hospitalized with the virus in Alaska as of Saturday, slightly down from Friday’s record of 97 hospitalizations. Another 10 hospital patients were suspected of having COVID-19, according to state data.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Biden wins White House, vowing new direction for divided US
— Italy hits record 39,800 daily coronavirus cases
— Germany reports daily record of more than 23,000 virus cases
— North Dakota, South Dakota have nation's worst virus deaths per capita in last 30 days
— Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows diagnosed with the coronavirus
— Books? Hairdressers? Europeans split on lockdown essentials
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— Follow AP’s coronavirus pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/virus-outbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico on Saturday for the second day in a row reported nearly 1,300 additional COVID-19 cases and 16 additional deaths.
Officials say there are 1,287 additional cases, a one-day record that was the same number reported Friday. But officials on Saturday also said that 10 of the cases reported Friday had turned out to be duplicates or not lab-confirmed. With those adjustments and the latest reported cases, the statewide case total reached 53,671 with 1,104 deaths.
State officials warned Thursday that new records would be set over the coming weeks as the rate of spread remains high.
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WICHITA, Kan. — A council member in Kansas’ largest city has tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing the mayor and other council members to quarantine for about two weeks.
Wichita announced Council Member Brandon Johnson’s positive result Saturday in a tweet. The city says Mayor Brandon Whipple, members of the City Council and some staff, including city manager Robert Layton, must temporarily stay away from city hall.
“The City continues to strongly urge all Wichita residents and City employees to practice safe social distancing whenever possible, to wear face masks when distancing isn’t possible, limit public exposure and to wash hands frequently,” the City of Wichita tweeted.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Johnson said he had a cough Thursday that worsened Friday, so he went to be tested. He received his results Saturday morning.
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CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Nevada has reported a record number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases for the second day in row. State officials on Saturday reported 1,846 additional cases with five additional deaths.
The state reported 1,562 new cases on Friday. The state’s totals increased to 108,746 cases and 1,850 deaths. State COVID-19 response Director Caleb Cage said Friday the case increase in Nevada is a surge in cases.
According to Johns Hopkins University data analyzed by The Associated Press, seven-day rolling averages for daily new cases and daily new deaths in Nevada increased over the last two weeks as the average for COVID-19 testing positivity dropped.
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HILLSBORO, Ore. -- The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating reports that a circuit court judge is endangering the health of workers and jurors by ignoring a statewide mask mandate in his courtroom.
The Oregonian/OregonianLive reports in a story on Saturday that Washington County Circuit Judge Charles Bailey describes the mask mandate as a “nanny state” requirement. He doesn’t wear a face covering and isn’t requiring others to do so in his Hillsboro courtroom. Bailey told attorneys and jurors in the Oct. 29 recording of the proceedings that it was up to them whether they wanted to wear a mask. The incident occurred as coronavirus infections surge in the state.
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OKLAHOMA CITY -- The number of newly reported coronavirus cases in Oklahoma on Saturday more than doubled the previous one-day record, but the state Department of Health said a bureaucratic backlog and duplicate reporting partially account for the steep increase.
There were 4,741 new cases, bringing the total to 136,492 since the pandemic began, the department said. The previous one-day record of 2,101 new cases was recorded Thursday as cases in the state have surged in recent weeks.
“We have reason to believe that our normal case count would have continued on an upward trajectory without the backlog and duplication,” which is due to a transition from a manual to electronic reporting system, according to a health department statement. Officials said they were not sure how many cases were recorded twice but were investigating.
In a statement, Gov. Kevin Stitt, called on residents to wash hands often, socially distance and voluntarily wear masks at indoor public places.
“Oklahomans pulled together back in April so we could safely reopen our economy, and I am asking for that same unified effort once again to slow the spread of this virus and keep Oklahomans safe,” Stitt said.
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MILAN – Italy registered a record 39,811 daily confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday.
That tops the 37,809 cases on Friday. In Lombardy, one quarter of the coronavirus tests came back positive for a daily total of nearly 11,500.
Lombardy is one of four regions designated a “red zone,” with a partial lockdown in effect since Friday.
Hospitalizations continue to rise, with 1,104 more people hospitalized on Saturday and 119 more in intensive care.
There are more than 862,000 total confirmed cases in Italy. Deaths nationwide rose by 425 for a confirmed total of 41,063, sixth highest in the world.
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NEW DELHI — India reported 50,356 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, while cases in New Delhi surpassed 7,000 on Saturday.
The country has seen an overall steady dip in positive cases after reaching nearly 100,000 a day in mid-September.
The government warned that the situation can worsen due to people crowding markets for festival shopping and high air pollution levels in the capital.
India’s confirmed cases exceeds 8.4 million, the second highest in the world behind the United States. The Health Ministry reported 577 deaths on Saturday, increasing the total confirmed death toll to 125,562.
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OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska reported a record 2,681 coronavirus cases and a record 748 people in the hospital.
The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska has increased in the past two weeks from 836 cases on Oct. 23 to 1,408 on Friday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The state’s rate of coronavirus cases is the seventh highest in the nation.
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services says nine staff members tested positive, bringing the confirmed total of 225 staff members.
Nebraska has a total of 80,693 confirmed cases. The state added 27 deaths Friday, bringing the total to 701.
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ATHENS, Greece — Health authorities registered 2,556 new coronavirus cases and a record 34 deaths on Saturday.
Greece has gone into a second nation-wide lockdown after a recent spike in cases.
All retail stores except those selling essential items such as food, medication and fuel have been shut. Travel inside the country is severely restricted.
Greece has a total of 54,809 confirmed cases and 749 deaths.
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HONOLULU — Hawaii public health officials reported 122 coronavirus cases and no deaths on Friday.
Oahu moved on Oct. 22 to the less-restrictive Tier 2 of Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s four-tier economic recovery plan and must stay there for at least four weeks.
To move to Tier 3, Oahu must maintain a seven-day average of 49 cases or fewer and a seven-day average positivity rate of 2.49% or lower for two weeks.
The seven-day average cases reached 73 cases on Friday, with a positivity rate for Oahu at 3%.
Hawaii’s totals stand at 15,691 confirmed cases and 219 deaths.
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BALTIMORE — The United States set a record of more than 126,400 confirmed cases in a single day on Friday.
The seven-day rolling average of new daily cases in the U.S. is approaching 100,000 for the first time, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Total U.S. cases since the start of the pandemic are nearing 10 million, and confirmed cases globally are approaching 50 million.
Worldwide infection numbers are also setting records. The world reached 400,000 daily confirmed cases on Oct. 15; 500,000 on Oct. 26, and 600,000 on Friday.
The seven-day rolling average for daily deaths in the U.S. rose in the past two weeks from 772 on Oct. 23 to 911 on Friday. Those numbers were higher in the spring and August.
The global death toll hit a daily record of 11,024 confirmed deaths on Wednesday.
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WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as the nation sets daily records for confirmed cases for the pandemic.
Two senior administration officials confirmed Meadows tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so far this year. Meadows traveled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day and last appeared in public early Wednesday morning without a mask as Trump falsely declared victory in the vote count.
He had been one of the close aides around Trump when the president came down with the virus more than a month ago.
The number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. have increased more than 50% in the past two weeks, the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases rose from 61,166 on Oct. 22 to 94,625 on Thursday, according to an AP analysis of data from John Hopkins University.
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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia’s government says it will expand movement restrictions to most parts of the country after coronavirus cases tripled in a month. Another 1,168 new cases were reported Saturday, bringing the total tally to 39,357 -- compared to just 13,993 cases a month ago. The death toll stands at 282.
Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob says the entire peninsula Malaysia, except for three states, will be placed under a conditional movement control order from Monday until Dec. 6. He says the move will help curb the virus spread and allow targeted screening to be done.
The restrictions have been imposed since Oct. 14 in Kuala Lumpur, the administrative capital Putrajaya and the richest state of Selangor.
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TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has reported 9,460 cases of the coronavirus, breaking its previous single-day record earlier this week.
The health ministry registered 423 deaths on Saturday, pushing its confirmed death toll to 37,832, the highest in the Middle East.
Iran has seen a recent surge of infections as the government resists a centralized lockdown to salvage its sanctions-hit economy. However, authorities have recently tightened movement restrictions and introduced travel bans and mask mandates as hospitals in the hard-hit capital of Tehran near overwhelming numbers of patients.
Iran’s medical council announced Saturday that 300 health workers had died from the virus.
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BANGKOK — Health authorities in Thailand on Saturday confirmed a new case of local transmission of the coronavirus, one of a handful discovered in recent months.
The Department of Disease Control identified the new case as a 37-year-old Indian man working as a waiter in the southern province of Krabi. It says he tested positive for the disease when he applied Wednesday to have his work permit renewed.
Krabi is a province on the Andaman Sea and normally popular with tourists, though Thailand was completely shut to foreign tourists from early April until last month.
The health agency says it confirmed 12 new cases of coronavirus, including the Indian man. Two each had traveled from France, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Myanmar, and one each from Mexico, Switzerland and the Netherlands. All arrivals from abroad must be quarantined for 14 days.
Thailand has confirmed a total of 3,830 coronavirus cases and 60 deaths since January.
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BERLIN — Germany’s disease control center is reporting a daily record of 23,300 coronavirus infections.
The Robert Koch Institute says that surpassed the record of 21,506 set the day before, which was the first time the country had registered more than 20,000 daily cases.
It reported 130 deaths, a number trending upward but far lower than the high of 315 deaths reported one day in April.
Germany has imposed significant new restrictions to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed. A four-week partial shutdown took effect on Monday, with bars, restaurants, leisure and sports facilities closed and new contact restrictions imposed. Shops and schools remain open.
Germany has recorded 642,488 coronavirus cases and 11,226 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
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MOSCOW — Russia reports the coronavirus death toll has exceeded 30,000.
The national coronavirus task force says 364 people died on Friday, bringing the total to 30,251 since the start of the pandemic.
It says 20,396 new infection cases were recorded, down slightly from Thursday’s record of 20,582. Overall, some 1.75 million people in Russia have been infected with the virus.
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AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas district judge on Friday upheld an order from El Paso County’s top elected official shutting down businesses while the region fights an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases.
The decision from Judge Bill Moody of El Paso’s 34th District Court came as federal military medical teams deployed to the border region at the request of the state.
The county’s top elected official, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, ordered a two-week shutdown of nonessential activities late last week.
In making his decision, Moody pointed out that during the Spanish flu pandemic in the early part of the 20th century, city and county elected officials had authority to respond as they “thought was necessary to protect the health and financial interests of their individual communities.”
Chris Hilton, an attorney with the Texas attorney general’s office, said the state would appeal. Attorney General Ken Paxton has argued that Samaniego’s order is illegal because it goes against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s statewide order to reopen businesses.
Meanwhile, three Air Force medical teams were expected to arrive in El Paso by the weekend, according to Seth Christensen, chief of media and communications for the Texas Department of Emergency Management.
El Paso joins a list of 10 other cities, including Houston, San Antonio and multiple communities in the Rio Grande Valley region, to receive aid from the Department of Defense at the request of Texas officials, Christensen said.
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