Tag: Trump botched COVID-19 response killed over 280000 Americans

21 COVID-19 deaths push Minnesota above 4,000 for pandemic

Pressure on Minnesota hospital ICUs shows continued signs of easing.

Twenty-one more COVID-19 deaths were reported by Minnesota health authorities on Monday, pushing the state above 4,000 deaths amid signs that the latest pandemic wave is easing.

The Minnesota Department of Health on Monday reported a total of 4,005 deaths from COVID-19, meaning that the state needed less than one month to add another 1,000 fatalities to its pandemic toll. It took three months for Minnesota to go from 1,000 to 2,000 COVID-19 deaths this summer, and nearly two months to go from 2,000 to 3,000 this fall.

The milestone reflects the fall surge in COVID-19 — with 5,296 newly confirmed infections bringing the state’s total to 356,152 — that has declined over the past two weeks. Continue reading.

Jobs report shows weakening trend heading into holidays, increasing the case for stimulus

Job growth slowed significantly in November and looks set to decline even more, as the spreading pandemic hits all sorts of economic activity and results in more shutdowns.

The creation of just 245,000 payrolls, about 200,000 below forecast, signals a decline in the labor market that economists say could result in a negative number for December. The report also adds to the case for fiscal stimulus to bridge the economy to a time next year, when vaccine distribution is expected to allow a return to a more normal environment, economists said.

“This is pretty poor overall. It’s really hard to find anything good to say about it, to be honest. Payroll growth came in weaker than expected, significantly weaker than any time since the recovery began,” said Tom Simons, money market economist at Jefferies. “Everything was pointing to job growth slowing and of course, it’s related to the surge in Covid. The hiring in retail and hospitality was very weak here and that’s signs of Covid and social distancing rules keeping the recovery from expanding … On the plus side, average hourly wages are up 0.3%.” Continue reading.

US Covid-19 hospitalizations set another daunting record at 100,667

Thursday marked yet another bleak day of the pandemic, with the United States reporting a record high of 100,667 Covid-19 hospitalizations, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

So far, each day this week has brought a new record. More than 2,800 Covid-19 deaths were reported Wednesday in the United States — the most the country has ever reported in a single day. 

As of Thursday evening, Johns Hopkins University has reported 203,304 new cases and 2,702 reported deaths for the day. This is the second highest daily report of new cases since the pandemic began. Continue reading.