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Summary:

• California report another 197 deaths
• Houston hospitalizations decline
• France sees COVID ICU numbers climb for first time in 16 weeks
• Biden slams Trump for ‘failing to protect America’
• Arizona cases top 170k
• Miami-Dade COVID hospitalizations decline
• NY hospitalizations tick below 600
• Florida suffers record jump in deaths for 3rd day
• Italy reports biggest daily COVID tally since June 5
• Herman Cain dies of COVID
• China reports another 105 new cases
• Hong Kong suffers new COVID record
• Japan reports another 1,200+ cases
• Melbourne suffers new record
• Germany sees cases at 6 week high
• Dutch gov’t declines to advise face mask wearing
• Local lockdowns reported in parts of UK
• Poland suffers new daily record

* * *

Update (1420ET): California just reported another 10,197 cases (vs. the 14-day average of 9,191) and 194 deaths (compared with 197 the day before).

Hospitalizations in the state declined by 2.7% while ICU cases climbed by 0.8%.

In other news, Texas Medical Center, the biggest hospital system in Houston, reported its latest daily data, with hospitalizations dropping for a ninth consecutive day, the longest streak of declines since the pandemic emerged, according to Texas Medical Center data. Patients in regular beds have been falling for 15 of the last 17 days.

Virus patients occupied 44% of the region’s intensive-care admissions.

* * *

Update (1330ET): France Health Agency just warned that the spread of COVID-19 is accelerating and the number of people in ICU units has climbed for the first time in 16 weeks.

* * *

Update (1300ET): After saying President Trump should “know better” than to try to delay an election (not that Trump has the power to do that anyway), Joe Biden accused the president of ‘failing to protect’ Americans during the coronavirus outbreak.

Remember, the US’s mortality rate is lower than the worst-hit European countries, and several Latin American economies are still seeing lots of new deaths.

At least Trump has been a daily presence for the American people (not to mention Trump’s supporters) to rely on day after day. Biden has spent most of the last 4 months hiding in his basement.

* * *

Update (1200ET): Arizona just saw its case total top 170k as the state reported another 2,525 cases on Thursday, according to data published via the Arizona Department of Health online dashboard.

ICU occupancy rates ticked higher to 86%.

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County has released its latest report, which illustrates the trend in falling hospital occupancy for COVID-19 patients (even as deaths climb).

The number of newly admitted patients has also been falling.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown.

* * *

Update (1150ET): Andrew Cuomo has reported a slight uptick in new cases, following a much more pronounced increase in NJ, though the state also achieved a new milestone in hospitalizations, with the number hospitalized across the state falling below 600 for the first time.

Today’s update on the numbers:

Of the 73,546 tests reported yesterday, 777 were positive (1.06% of total).

Total hospitalizations fell to 586.

Sadly, there were 13 COVID fatalities yesterday. pic.twitter.com/fkpl7rKM1t

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 30, 2020

* * *

Update (1050ET): Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 9,956 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 451,423.

But the biggest number on the day was the death toll, which smashed the record daily death toll for the third straight day. 253 died in Florida overnight from COVID-19, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The statewide resident death toll has climbed to 6,586.

The state has now reported record daily death totals for 3 days in a row.

To be sure, as the Miami Herald explains, the deaths announced on a given day in Florida could be from several days earlier because the state information does not include the exact date of death. Previously, the highest single-day Florida resident death toll was reported on Wednesday, with 216 deaths. These changes have been made, according to some critics, in an attempt to deliberately obfuscate the data.

The death numbers come just a day or two after the US surpassed 150,000 deaths.

The positivity rate for the day hit 12%. As Gov Ron DeSantis continues to push for schools to reopen next month, Miami-Dade’s school district has already confirmed that students will start classes online only when the school year begins late next month.

In other news, Herman Cain, the former presidential candidate, has died after a battle with COVID-19.

And in Italy, authorities reported 386 new cases, the largest daily tally since June 5, as worries about a European “second wave” intensify.

* * *

We kicked off yesterday’s COVID-19 live blog with the latest alarming numbers out of Asia: Mainland China reported its biggest daily cluster since mid-April, and Hong Kong, which adopted its more restrictive social distancing measures yet last week, reported 100+ new cases for a fifth straight day.

The last 24 hours have seen both outbreaks intensify, in keeping with the general pattern exhibited by SARS-CoV-2 (that is, it spreads, and quickly). On the mainland, public health officials reported 105 new cases Thursday morning. 102 of these cases were domestically transmitted, while only 3 were imported. Of the domestic cases, 96 were recorded in Xinjiang, the far-flung western province occupied by China’s Muslim Uiyghers, a minority ethnic group that has been subjected to unimaginable brutality by the government in Beijing, which has herded more than a million of them into concentration-camp-like settings. All cases were allegedly recorded over the last 24 hours, according to official data reported by Xinhua.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, reported 145 locally-transmitted coronavirus cases, marking a new daily record. 61 of the 145 cases were of unknown origin. The city also reported four imported case. While Hong Kong tightened restrictions on late-night dining and bar-hopping, it is also allowing restaurants to serve dine-in breakfast starting Friday.

Japan also reported more than 1,200 new cases on Thursday one day after shattering its daily COVID-19 record. 

Japan Covid-19 daily cases +1264 today pic.twitter.com/VdX3bnbA3N

— Sunchartist (@sunchartist) July 30, 2020

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike wants bars and karaoke parlors to limit their hours to close at 2200 local time.

But perhaps the most alarming numbers (at least as far as the west is concerned) are being reported out of Australia, where the southern-hemisphere winter is in full swing.

As Bloomberg reported Thursday morning, the chilly weather and attendant surge in virus cases (just as epidemiologists had anticipated) could offer a preview of what’s in store for the US and Europe once Winter arrives. Then again, it could also explain the explosion of cases across the Sun Belt as more Americans sought shelter from the elements indoors.

At any rate, Australia’s second-most populous city Melbourne is experiencing a virus resurgence that – like the outbreak seen in the Sun Belt – has dwarfed the case tallies it reported back in March. The state of Victoria on Thursday reported yet another record high of 723 new infections, early 200 more than the previous record, which it had reported only a few days earlier.’

hadn’t realized the extent to which cases had really picked up in Australia. https://t.co/5uFNEoSFnb pic.twitter.com/lEduVe0rIj

— Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) July 30, 2020

Moving on to the US, the biggest news over the last day was the US passing the 150,000 death threshold, propelled by a surge in deaths across the Sun Belt, as Florida, California and Texas have all reported record daily death totals in recent days. The US yesterday reported its largest daily tally for deaths since May 27, according to worldometer.

More vaccine news hit Thursday morning, but surprisingly, it wasn’t enough to ease the malaise gripping equity markets across the globe. According to BBG, J&J’s vaccine candidate has proven to be safe…on monkeys.

The reaction to the news suggests investors might finally be tiring of “pre-clinical” data. Though the notion that JNJ’s vaccine might be successful with just a single dose is probably notable, considering all the hubub over Moderna’s pricing plans.

Johnson & Johnson’s experimental coronavirus vaccine protected a group of macaques with a single shot in an early study, prompting the U.S. drugmaker to start trials in humans this month.

All of the animals that were exposed to the pandemic-causing pathogen six weeks after the injection were immune except one, who showed low levels of the virus, according to a study published in the medical journal Nature. The health-care behemoth kick-started human trials on July 22 in Belgium and in the U.S. earlier this week.

The data “show our SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate generated a strong antibody response and provided protection with a single dose,” Paul Stoffels, the drugmaker’s chief scientific officer, said in the statement. “The findings give us confidence as we progress our vaccine development and upscale manufacturing.”

J&J aims to embark on the last phase of tests in September, compressing the traditional timeline as it races against others such as GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca for a shot to end the pandemic. Although others have been faster in development, with Astra having already administered its experimental vaccine to almost 10,000 people in the U.K. alone, eliciting protection with a single dose could prove to be an advantage in the logistical challenge of rolling out massive vaccination programs around the globe.

JNJ received a $456 million from the US government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority via project warp speed and has already started talks with the US, the EU, and governments around the world about supplying its vaccine.

Finally, over in Europe, fears of a ‘second wave’ are intensifying as the UK has reported rising daily infection totals for a week now. What’s more, the infection numbers appear to be rising beyond the ‘hot spots’ in Catalonia and elsewhere. Germany and Poland are just two countries seeing a comeback.

Germany reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases in roughly six weeks on Thursday. While the country’s infection rate remained just above the key threshold of 1 (the point beyond which the virus is considered to be “spreading”), there were 839 new cases in the 24 hours through Thursday morning, bringing Germany’s total to 208,546, per data from JHU (these disheartening German numbers followed a record contraction in German GDP in Q2 which was reported on Thursday). Notably, the Dutch government, which memorably was the first in Europe to send students back to classrooms, has decided not to advise the wearing of masks in public spaces. Nearby Poland also reported a record daily jump in new cases (though it wasn’t alone)…

The #COVID19 #pandemic is worsening.

Within the last 24 hours ALL of these countries/territories have posted all-time record high daily number of new infections.#India#Brazil#Colombia#HongKong#Australia#Ukraine#Poland#Japan#Morocco #Lebanon #secondwave #coronavirus

— Tim White (@TWMCLtd) July 30, 2020

Poland reported 615 new cases, bringing its total to 45,031.

Record number of new Covid-19 cases in Poland announced: 615 (conf. by swab tests).

Prev biggest:
May12: 595
Jun06: 576
Jun07: 575
Jun08: 599
Jul25: 584

The 7-day rolling avg also high.

7-day avg daily deaths around 7

Daily cases per 1M ppl still better than USA / World avg pic.twitter.com/tMBAy4MLhn

— Vector Of Basis (@VectorOfBasis) July 30, 2020

While the number of daily cases have continued to steadily decline in the UK from the peak in April, some areas are recording more infections than others, leading to local lockdowns in Leicester and Oldham, which we reported earlier this week. Still, nationwide, the UK reports fewer than 1,000 cases per day.