The U.S. has reported an average of 52,156 new daily COVID-19 cases over the past week, an increase of 21 percent from two weeks prior, reports The New York Times.
Four updates:
1. Eli Lilly has halted its COVID-19 antibody drug trial over a safety concern, the company confirmed with The New York Times. The trial's independent data safety monitoring board recommended a pause in enrollment for the trial, "out of an abundance of caution due to a potential safety concern." Details haven't been released yet, but are expected soon.
2. Eight Midwestern states set 7-day COVID-19 case average records Oct. 13, while 12 other states have reported new virus records since Oct. 10, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio are driving the surge, while states to the west — such as Colorado, Idaho and the Dakotas — have seen cases steadily rise for weeks. Wisconsin — again hitting record highs for its COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations Oct. 13 — is home to 10 of the nation's 20 metro areas with the highest rates of recent cases, according to the NYT and Wisconsin State Journal.
3. A Dutch woman's death is the first known death from a COVID-19 reinfection, according to a paper accepted for publication in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The 89-year-old woman's immune system was compromised due to a cell-depleting therapy she received for a separate illness. Meanwhile, the first U.S. case of COVID-19 reinfection has been confirmed in a peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Reinfection cases remain rare, but are possible, said Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, an immunologist at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University, who wrote a commentary for the case study in The Lancet, according to the NYT.
4. "Small household gatherings" are emerging as a key threat, said Robert Redfield, MD, director of the CDC, according to audio obtained by CNN. As COVID-19 cases rise rapidly in many states, Dr. Redfield urged governors to stress the importance of maintaining social distancing guidelines amid the holiday season.
Snapshot of COVID-19 in the U.S.
Cases: 7,859,417
Deaths: 215,914
Recovered: 3,124,593
Counts reflect data available as of 7:45 a.m. CDT Oct. 14.
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