Coronavirus live updates: Daily Covid-19 cases below 60,000 for 3 days

Covid-19 tightens grip on US Midwest; 6 states report record daily deaths

Six US. states reported record daily increases in Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, including Wisconsin, a battleground in the November 3 election, according to a Reuters analysis, as infections kept rising across the Midwest and beyond. Coronavirus deaths hit daily records in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Kansas, Hawaii and Wisconsin, the Reuters analysis found. Wisconsin also reported a record daily increase in new cases, together with Illinois, Kentucky, Colorado and Ohio, the analysis showed.

India recorded less than 60,000 new Covid-19 cases for the third day in a row (not counting Monday’s tally), indicating another step down in infections in the country

Alabama lieutenant governor tests positive for Covid-19

Alabama's lieutenant governor, who has called the state's mask order a government overstep, announced Wednesday that he has tested positive for Covid-19. Republican Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth said he had a positive test result but so far, he has no symptoms. He said he took the test after being notified Wednesday that a member of his Sunday school church group had acquired the coronavirus. Ainsworth has criticized mandatory mask orders, although he says he personally wears one.

Melbourne suburbs on alert as new Covid-19 case sparks outbreak fears

Residents in five suburbs in Australia's second-largest city have been put on alert and people living in a public housing block urged to self-isolate after a new coronavirus case in a school sparked fears of a fresh outbreak. Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, is just emerging from a second wave after a hard lockdown since July helped bring down daily Covid-19 cases to single digits in recent days from a peak of 700 in early August. Authorities have asked people in the affected suburbs and 120 residents living in a public housing block to get tested if they experienced any flu-like symptoms.

US coronavirus hospitalizations hit two-month peak

The number of COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals hit 40,000 for the first time since August on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the nation battles a surge in infections led by Midwest states. Hospitals have seen a 36% rise in coronavirus patients over the past four weeks and Midwest hospitals are setting new records every day. So far in October, 16 states have reported their highest daily numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 since the pandemic started, including the Midwest states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Hospitalizations of virus-stricken patients have set records in every region except the Northeast. Hospitalizations are a closely watched metric because they are not influenced by how much testing is done.

AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine trial Brazil volunteer dies, trial to continue

Brazilian health authority Anvisa said on Wednesday that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University had died but added that the trial would continue. Oxford confirmed the plan to keep testing, saying in a statement that after careful assessment "there have been no concerns about safety of the clinical trial."

High caseloads, but Maharashtra, Rajasthan & Bengal scale down testing

Some coronavirus high caseload states such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan and West Bengal have scaled down testing despite their positivity rates (total confirmed cases per 100 tests) being at alarming levels of 15%, 10% and 9% respectively. Maharashtra’s total testing over 14-day periods has come down to 9.7 lakh during October 5-18 compared to 11.52 lakh during the previous fortnight (September 22-October 5).