US 1st nation to top 100k daily cases of Covid

US Covid-19 cases increased by more than 100,000 - the highest daily number ever recorded by any nation - as Americans await the outcome of a presidential election that has exposed strongly opposing views on how aggressively to manage the pandemic.

Illinois, Ohio and Michigan were among states reporting record Covid-19 infections on Thursday, with Ohio’s governor calling the state’s numbers “shockingly high.” New York cases are running at the highest level in six months.

A recent surge in the Midwest has spread more widely, with states from New York to Utah reporting increasing cases. The nation has the most cases, at 9,586,656, and fatalities, 234,777, in the world.

An Associated Press analysis concluded that 93% of the 376 US counties with the biggest increases in per-capita cases voted for President Donald Trump. Most were in rural parts of the Midwest and Plains states, according to the analysis.

Meanwhile, the US said it’s urging WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to invite Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly meeting scheduled for November 9 to 14, a move bound to stoke tension with China.

Taiwan isn’t a member of the WHO, and could only join if the member states would support its candidacy. Taiwan had an observer status at the WHO until 2016.

UK city Liverpool begins mass testing endeavour

Mass testing for coronavirus for people with or without symptoms began in Liverpool on Friday as foreign secretary Dominic Raab went into a 14-day isolation after being in contact with an individual with the virus and new cases continued to mount across the UK.

A spokesman for Raab said that “In line with government regulations and NHS track and trace rules, the foreign secretary has taken immediate steps to self-isolate”.

Nearly 2,000 army personnel are helping roll out the tests in Liverpool, which had one of the largest surges of the virus in recent weeks y. The whole-city pilot may be rolled out elsewhere in the UK.