California became the third US state to top 17,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic on Wednesday. Authorities attributed a further 35 fatalities to the disease, up from 22 the day before.
New York reported 2,000 cases in a single day for the first time since May on Wednesday. A further 2,026 people tested positive over 24 hours, up from 1,201 on Tuesday and compared with 1,232 on Wednesday last week.
Trade bodies across the UK’s hospitality industry are supporting legal action against the government for the enforcement of further restrictions on pubs, bars and other social venues without providing evidence that the virus has been widely transmitted at those sites.
Florida’s health department will conduct a more thorough review of coronavirus fatalities in the state after its most recent batch of data showed, for some cases, lengthy gaps of time between dates of death and when the individual first tested positive.
Wisconsin reported a record one-day jump in coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, with the hotspot state also reporting its second-biggest daily rise in new infections. Authorities attributed 48 fatalities to coronavirus, up from 33 on Tuesday.
The German health minister Jens Spahn has tested positive for coronavirus and is now self-isolating at home. A statement from the German health ministry said he had previously only had cold symptoms.
More of France’s 101 departments will be placed on maximum alert for coronavirus this week, obliging them to apply the 9pm-6pm curfew already imposed on Paris and its surroundings and eight other cities.
Lael Brainard, a top Federal Reserve official, has warned that economic disparities threaten to undermine the US recovery, as she called for Congress and the White House to provide more fiscal support and for the US central bank to stay committed to loose monetary policy.
The Czech Republic announced a swathe of new restrictions on business and movement in a bid to regain control of the pandemic, which is growing faster in the central European nation than anywhere else in the EU.
The British opposition Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has attacked the “grubby” way government is negotiating deals on local coronavirus restrictions, the day after Greater Manchester was forced into the highest tier 3 alert level.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki pledged to boost the number of hospital beds by 15,000 as the central European country reported another record daily number of infections. The health ministry said on Wednesday that there had been 10,040 new Covid-19 cases and 130 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Freight volumes at Europe’s largest seaport climbed in the third quarter, as global trade recovered after an unprecedented decline caused by the worldwide health crisis. The Port of Rotterdam Authority reported handling 103.4m tonnes of freight in the three months ending September, down 8 per cent on a year earlier.