By Helen Regan, Brad Lendon, Amy Woodyatt, Meg Wagner and Melissa Macaya, CNN
From CNN's Tina Burnside
The United States reported 34,808 new Covid-19 cases and 894 virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
There are at least 6,396,073 virus cases in the US and at least 191,753 people have died, the JHU said.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
CNN’s map is tracking the US cases:
A World Health Organization program aimed at speeding global access to coronavirus tests, treatments and vaccines needs $35 billion, director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.
The Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, launched in April, is a partnership with organizations including the European Commission, to “catalyze the development of and equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics,” Tedros said.
But it needs more funding.
And the program is threatened by bilateral vaccine deals and vaccine nationalism, he said.
“We need to rapidly scale up our clinical trials, manufacturing, licensing and regulation capacity so that these products can get to people and start saving lives,” Tedros said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said new solutions were needed "for prevention, testing and treatment of Covid-19."
"We all know we need them fast. We need them for all those in need, anywhere,” she said. “And we need them on affordable conditions.”
From CNN's Jessie Yeung and Manveena Suri
For months, India has been struggling to control the coronavirus pandemic with limited success.
The country of 1.3 billion people has the second-highest number of cases globally (more than 4.4 million), and the third highest number of deaths (over 75,000), according to Johns Hopkins University.
But India's reported mortality rate -- calculated by the number of deaths per 100 confirmed cases -- is surprisingly low compared to other countries with high infection rates.
India's Covid-19 mortality rate stands at 1.7%. For context, the same rate is about 3% in the US, 11.7% in the UK, and 12.6% in Italy, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Indian government claims India's lower death rate is a sign of its success in handling the crisis, and has used the figure to support its decision to lift some coronavirus restrictions.
But some scientists in India warn that the numbers are incomplete and misleading -- and that relying on them to reopen the country could make matters worse.
So what's behind the numbers?
While the number of coronavirus cases in India may be rising, the mortality rate is dropping.
Some experts warn that the data is full of gaps: India has a weak, underfunded public health infrastructure, and for years it has failed to accurately record the deaths of its own citizens. Even when India isn't facing a pandemic, only 86% of deaths nationwide are even registered in government systems.
India isn't counting all Covid deaths: There's also the issue of undercounting Covid deaths due to insufficient testing and poor medical coding. India has stepped up its testing, but it still has one of the lowest rates of testing per capita in the world. Even if a Covid-19 patient tested positive before dying, they might not be counted as a Covid-19 death if they had other preexisting conditions, such as diabetes or cancer.
The rise in testing creates a misleading death rate: With more tests, authorities are detecting more cases. But the mortality rate is measured against the number of total confirmed cases -- so when cases rise, the rate will go down even if the number of deaths remains the same.
Daily deaths are actually rising: Even if the mortality rate is declining, it doesn't necessarily mean the number of deaths is dropping. Deaths have jumped from around 750 a day at the start of August, to more than 1,000 a day this week.
Read the full story:
From CNN's Swati Gupta in New Delhi
India reported a new highest daily increase today with 96,551 new Covid-19 cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
This is the second day in a row India has reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases registered by a single country, according to John Hopkins University data.
As of Friday morning, India's total number of confirmed cases stands at 4.56 million. Out of the nation's total, about 943,480 are active cases. The total number of recovered patients is more than 3.5 million, the ministry said.
India's death toll from the virus is 76,271, according to the Health Ministry.
More than 54 million samples have been tested to date, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.
From CNN Health’s Maggie Fox
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday it had changed the way it was reporting death rates for coronavirus, and will now report the infection fatality ratio by age.
It’s all still based on approximations, and as part of the update the CDC also estimates it’s missing most cases of coronavirus in the US -- by a factor of 11.
According to the updated “best estimate” numbers posted on the agency’s website:
Transmission time: Under the best estimate scenario, it takes about six days, on average, for people to develop symptoms after they’ve been in contact with the virus.
ICU care: Just below 24% of people under the age of 50 who are hospitalized will need ICU care, the CDC estimates. This rises to 36% of people 50 to 64, and 35% of people 65 and older.
Fatality rate for those hospitalized:
Not only are the numbers an estimate, but reports of death rates lag by weeks, the CDC said. On average, it takes about 45 days for a coronavirus death to be reported.
Asymptomatic cases: The CDC calculates that 40% of cases are asymptomatic, and that these people without symptoms are about 75% as infectious as people with symptoms, although this is “highly uncertain.”
Infection fatality ratio is one of several ways of reporting mortality rates. It’s calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the number of actual infections -- and since the true number of coronavirus infections is not known, it is by necessity an estimate.
From CNN Health’s Shelby Lin Erdman
White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said she’ll “absolutely” get a coronavirus vaccine right away when one is approved, if she’s eligible.
“The reason I said if I'm eligible is because the first vaccines that come off, we're getting advice on who best to use those on because obviously we want it to be for the people who need it the most,” she said in an interview with WTVD during a visit to Raleigh, North Carolina.
“We're going to have lots of vaccine in January and February, but in October, November and December, there'll be less vaccine available,” she said. “It's very important that the people who need it the most are prioritized.”
“So, if I am eligible, I would. I always get my flu shot,” Birx said.
She also said she’d recommend President Trump get one, too.
“Absolutely. I give the same advice to any person not matter if they’re president, vice president or my parents.”
From CNN Health’s Shelby Lin Erdman
White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx on Thursday urged college students to get tested for Covid-19 and to wear masks.
“To every student out there, please get tested,” Birx said during an interview with CNN affiliate WTVD in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“It is really critically important because I know that if you know that you're positive, that you will protect others for those 14 days, and you'll really ensure that you don't spread the virus.”
Birx said she’s been traveling around the country talking to governors and heads of universities about how to keep people safe at school, including in North Carolina, which has seen a number of recent coronavirus clusters on college campuses around the state.
“It's very difficult to tell a young person to have a certain type of very restricted behavior for three and a half months, but what I do know, if they know that they're positive, they will do what is needed to protect others,” she added.
And taking classes online does not mean students will be isolated, she noted.
“Many of those college students, even though they're online, are living in the college town, and they're living off campus, in many cases,” she said.
“How do we get information to them, how do we encourage them to be tested, how do we encourage them to protect the vulnerable members of the community, to really ensure that they are wearing masks and when they’re in the community, they're wearing masks and protecting those around them and I think that's really going to become very key,” Birx said.
CNN's Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta hosted a global town hall answering your questions about what the future holds for the fight against Covid-19.
They were joined by guests including National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins, Dr. Leana Wen, and Terrance Bannister, who lost his 28-year-old cousin to coronavirus just days after she was diagnosed.
Watch here:
From CNN Health’s Shelby Lin Erdman
Coronavirus is not going to ease up and is in fact likely to worsen again in the fall and winter in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday.
“I just think we need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it's not going to be easy,” Fauci said in a talk with doctors from Harvard.
Fauci said that as fall approaches "and we do more indoor things, we're likely going to see upticks in Covid-19."
The US is still reporting about 36,000 Covid-19 cases a day right now, which is better than mid-August when the number was almost 80,000 a day. But it’s still too high, Fauci said.
“I keep looking at that curve, and I get more depressed about the fact that we never really get down to the baseline that I'd like,” he said.
Fauci predicted the US will continue to see coronavirus surges in some places.
“I don't talk about second surges because we're still in the first surge,” he said. “We're going to see these surges that we've seen in the southern states, in the Midwest and now, if you look at the map, it's Montana, North and South Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa. Those are the ones that are surging.”
Fauci said it’s hard to predict at this point how influenza may play into the pandemic this winter. He pointed to Australia’s mild flu season this year because of Covid-19 mitigation efforts such as mask-wearing and social distancing.
“What I would like to see is keeping the lid on, keeping the baseline down until we get a vaccine,” he said. Fauci, as he has said before, believes a coronavirus vaccine will be available by late this year or early in 2021.
“I think that’s going to be the thing that turns it around,” he said.
