The United States recorded the country’s 12th million Covid-19 case, even as millions of Americans were expected to travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, ignoring warnings from health officials about furthering the spread of the infectious disease.
AstraZeneca started late-stage trials of an experimental long-acting monoclonal antibody combination drug the company hopes could be used as a so-called prophylactic to prevent Covid-19 infection in at-risk people for up to 12 months.
The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the United States jumped nearly 50% in a 14-day period, straining the nation’s healthcare system and forcing states to impose new restrictions to curb the alarming spread of the coronavirus.
The U.S. death toll from Covid-19 surpassed a grim new milestone of 250,000 lives lost as New York City’s public school system – the nation’s largest – called a halt to in-classroom instruction, citing a jump in coronavirus infection rates.
Governments and officials are voicing hopes that Covid-19 vaccines could bring “herd immunity”, with some calculating that immunizing just two-thirds of a population could halt the pandemic disease and help protect whole communities or nations.
The number of reported global daily deaths from the coronavirus reached 10,816 on Nov. 17, according to a Reuters tally, the highest single-day death count as the virus’ global epicenter the United States entered winter.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first Covid-19 self-testing kit for home use that provides results within 30 minutes.
U.S. hospitals, weighing high demand and tight supplies, said they may limit use of the new Eli Lilly and Co. nantibody drug bamlanivimab to Covid-19 patients with multiple risk factors for serious illness or to those whose immune systems have not begun to fight the infection.
Several U.S. governors, from the coastal states of New Jersey and California to the heartland of Iowa and Ohio, acted to restrict gatherings and boost face-coverings in confronting a coronavirus surge they warned is out of control.
North Dakota became the 35th U.S. state to require face coverings be worn in public, as governors across the country grapple with a surge in coronavirus infections that threatens to swamp their healthcare systems.
