Shock at losing seats Daily cases in US top 100,000

WASHINGTON: Some US House of Representatives Democrats on yesterday blamed Wednesday’s election losses on colleagues who embraced defunding police departments and ‘‘socialist’’ policies, according to sources familiar with a phone call they held.

Democrats went into this week’s congressional elections, in which all 435 House seats were up for grabs, with high hopes of significantly building on their majority control of the chamber.

Instead, in a jolt that has cast a pall over the party even as Democrat Joe Biden was close to toppling President Donald Trump, the party suffered the net loss of about a halfdozen House seats.

Democrats are expected to nonetheless hold on to their majority in the new Congress that convenes on January 3.

According to a source who was on Thursday’s phone call, Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger criticised some of her fellow Democrats for support of defunding police departments after a string of deaths of black people during arrests or shootings by law enforcement personnel. Spanberger did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Spanberger, a former CIA analyst, was narrowly leading a Republican opponent in her bid for a second term representing a formerly Republican stronghold district in Virginia.

The source said several Democrats on the call voiced anger over liberal members embracing socialism, saying that caused election losses.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, this year’s election ‘‘has been a life or death fight for the very fate of our democracy. We did not win every battle but we did win the war.’’ — Reuters

NEW YORK: The US topped 100,000 coronavirus cases, a troubling new highwater mark as the country faces the prospect of a sustained increase in illnesses and deaths over the coming months.

As of yesterday afternoon, 106,414 cases had been reported in the country, bringing the total to 9.6 million, according to Johns Hopkins University Data compiled by Bloomberg. The number of new infections had been surging across the country, including in many of the battleground states in the Midwest.

Even as the number of cases has surged, testing was growing more slowly. According to the Covid Tracking Project, in the week through November 4, new cases increased 7.1%, while tests increased 6.2%.

The number of deaths from

Covid19 was also on the climb, topping 1000 for the third day in a row yesterday. While mortality rates remained lower than in the initial phase of the pandemic in the northern spring, the overall number of deaths was likely to follow the number of cases higher as infections accelerated. Deaths tend to lag infection trends by several weeks.

Epidemiologists have been warning for some time that the US could have a marked increase in infections during the colder months. New cases were also jumping in Europe, where leaders had taken measures to lock down economic activity and try to avert crippling healthcare systems. There had been little talk of similar measures in America, however, even as many hospitals were bracing for an expected influx of Covid19 patients in weeks ahead.

Governors from states including New York, New

Jersey and Ohio raised further concerns yesterday of more infections, while Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said earlier in the day the recent increase in cases was ‘‘particularly concerning’’.

The surge was playing out as scientists raced to develop viable vaccines, an effort that has been set back at times as some clinical trials were paused for safety concerns. While there were an expanding array of treatment options available to doctors, including recently approved antiviral therapy remdesivir, other highly touted therapies are likely to be in more limited supply even once cleared by regulators.

British police said they arrested 104 Londoners early yesterday for breach of coronavirus regulations, adding that they expected more arrests as policing operations continued.

People gathered in central London despite new restrictions that have been imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The French director of public health early yesterday reported 58,046 new Covid19 infections over the previous 24 hours, setting a daily record for the second time in four days, versus 40,558 the previous day. — TCA/Reuters