The latest on the coronavirus pandemic

The number of coronavirus cases in Europe has exceeded the 10 million mark since the beginning of the pandemic, with more than 1.5 million cases confirmed last week alone, the World Health Organization’s Europe director Dr. Hans Kluge said Thursday. 

“At the risk of sounding alarmist, I must express our very real concern and convey our steadfast commitment to stand beside you and support you as best we can.”

The situation in Europe: Kluge warned that hospitalizations have risen to “levels unseen since the spring,” with cases moving from 7 million to 9 million in the past two weeks and deaths rising by 32% across the region last week.

Testing systems have not kept up with “very high-speed transmission,” and test positivity rates have reached new highs in most European countries. 

Return to lockdown: As Europe is well into its second wave, many countries are implementing new restrictions in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

With France introducing a national lockdown from Friday, Kluge said lockdowns were a “last resort option” because they bypass the “still-existing possibility of engaging everyone in basic and effective measures.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the two top negotiators for a new round of coronavirus relief, are engaged in open warfare after weeks of private negotiations -- casting new doubt on whether they will be able to reach agreement on stimulus legislation even after the November election.

On Thursday afternoon, Mnuchin slammed Pelosi in their highest-profile clash so far, saying the speaker is refusing to compromise to get much-needed aid to Americans. 

His remarks came after Pelosi sent her own letter to Mnuchin earlier Thursday that emphasized just how divided the two sides remain on the details of a potential stimulus bill, and hit the Trump administration for not accepting Democratic demands on key issues.

Mnuchin said he first learned of Pelosi’s letter from media reports Thursday morning, and he “can unfortunately only conclude that it is a political stunt.”

What this means for the bill: The confrontation between the two is inauspicious for the odds of a new stimulus bill. When everyone else had essentially given up on the idea of another round of coronavirus relief over the summer, Pelosi and Mnuchin continued to have phone calls to negotiate and work towards a deal. 

With Democratic leaders standing firmly behind their call for a massive aid package and Republican lawmakers instead advocating for a much smaller, targeted bill, an agreement never really appeared imminent.

But Pelosi and Mnuchin continued to insist progress was being made -- and sometimes, it was. Both had previously expressed hope that a deal could be finalized before Election Day, but talks have faltered in recent days.

At a news conference earlier in the day, Pelosi said the talks were not over. She indicated she is eyeing the congressional lame duck session after the election as an opportunity for lawmakers to approve new aid.

An influential model of the coronavirus pandemic has predicted 399,000 total coronavirus deaths in the US by Feb. 1, a 15,000-death increase over last week’s prediction.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine said it’s most likely that by the middle of January, 2,250 Americans will be dying every day from coronavirus -- three times more than the current rate.

The IHME said if states would require mask use or find other ways to encourage more people to use them, fewer people would die.

“Scaling up mask wearing can delay the need for further social distancing mandates and save 62,000 lives by February 1,” it said.

Some context: Just last week, the IHME projected 385,000 deaths by Feb. 1.

Cases and deaths have skyrocketed across the US in recent days and Thursday saw the highest single Covid-19 case count on record in the US, with cases passing 88,219 before 11:45 p.m. ET.

Moderna and Pfizer appear to be "neck and neck" in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine -- so much so that the United States could see critical safety and efficacy data for both companies' vaccine candidates around the same time, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Facebook Live session on Thursday. 

Currently, there are six Covid-19 vaccine candidates in the United States -- four of which are in Phase 3 trials, Fauci said, adding that Moderna and Pfizer are "neck and neck." 

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said he believes the United States will cross the 100,000 cases per day threshold sometime in the next couple of weeks -- or maybe even this week.

Gottlieb added that this is due to the public's behavior and lack of caution. 

"The reality is that I think we're not going to start to see a slowdown in the pandemic until you see consumer behavior change, and until you see mobility data start to decline. That's been the lesson of the past surges in the virus," Gottlieb said. 

Europe's whack-a-mole strategy of imposing local lockdowns to squash the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic didn't work. Now it's time to pull out the big guns.

Germany and France both announced new four-week national lockdowns on Wednesday night. They followed the Czech Republic and Ireland, which put country-wide restrictions in place earlier this month. Spain and the United Kingdom could be next.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the local measures imposed on a number of major cities including Paris over the past few weeks were "not working anymore" and that a national lockdown was needed. Under the new rules, people will only be allowed to leave their homes to go to work or school, for a medical appointment, to care for a relative, to do essential shopping and to exercise. Non-essential businesses, restaurants and bars will be closed. Like in the spring, they will need a certificate to venture outside.

Macron's speech came just hours after Germany also gave up on local lockdowns, announcing a nationwide stay-at-home order starting next Monday after regional restrictions in major cities including Frankfurt, Berlin and Stuttgart and a partial lockdown in the state of Bavaria failed to slow down the spread of the virus.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said people residing in Germany are advised to stay home, avoid travel and "keep their contacts to an absolute minimum." Social contacts will be limited to two households in public.

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