October 10 coronavirus news

The US could record nearly 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths by February 1, according to Dr. Chris Murray, a researcher behind an influential coronavirus model from the University of Washington.

Daily deaths will likely peak in the middle of January, Murray said during CNN's global coronavirus town hall tonight.

Murray urged people to wear masks to mitigate the transmission of the virus.

Watch:

Brazil on Saturday reported 559 new deaths from Covid-19, raising the country's total fatalities to 150,198, according to the National Council of Health Departments.

After the United States, Brazil is now the second country in the world to reach 150,000 deaths, attributed by critics to the country's haphazard response to the outbreak, personified in President Jair Bolsonaro's leadership.

The actual death toll is believed to be much higher because of low Covid-19 testing capacity in some parts of the country.

The council also reported 26,749 new cases of the virus on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 5.08 million.

In terms of total cases, Brazil is ranked third worldwide, after the US and India, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

While pregnant women generally experience mild coronavirus symptoms, they can persist for two months or more for 1 in 4 women, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Researchers from the University of California San Francisco and UCLA looked at 594 women across the US who tested positive for Covid-19 while pregnant. They found that 40% of the women still had symptoms by week four, and 25% experienced symptoms for eight weeks or longer.

The most common symptoms among the women were cough, sore throat, body aches and fever, and symptoms were most prevalent in the first three weeks. The median length of symptoms was 37 days. The vast majority of participants – 95% – were not hospitalized.

The participants were enrolled in the study between March 22 and July 10 of this year. More than half of the women had contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19 or had symptoms. About 30% of the women were health care workers, and 60% were White.

The researchers acknowledged that their findings may not generalize to the larger population. They noted that availability, timing and accuracy of testing may have impacted the results.

Nepal recorded 5,008 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the country's highest daily increase in new infections, taking the national tally to 105,684, according to its health ministry.

The tiny South Asian nation has seen a surge in new Covid-19 infections recently, with its total number of cases doubling in only four weeks, according to the ministry.

The ministry announced 14 new coronavirus-related deaths, raising the total deaths to 614.

The capital, Kathmandu, is the worst-hit area so far, accounting for nearly a third of the country's total infections, according to health ministry data.

Meanwhile, Nepalese Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Yogesh Bhattarai tested positive for the virus on Saturday, according to his official Facebook page.

Emergency physicians across the US are beginning to see an uptick in severe coronavirus cases, prompting fears that the second wave of the virus is coming, according to Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine physician with Brown University in Rhode Island.

"We are all seeing increasing numbers of Covid-19 patients who are coming into our ER's, who are getting really sick, requiring hospitalization and even intensive care," Ranney told CNN’s Erica Hill.

She noted the spike in cases which occurred among younger people about a month ago is now spreading within communities.

 Ranney emphasized that there is still no cure for the virus.

 "We're quite fearful for what we are heading into," she said.

France recorded 26,896 new cases of coronavirus Saturday, setting a new record for daily reported infections since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the French Health Ministry.

Saturday's record was an increase of 6,557 more cases than the day before when the previous record was set with 20,339 cases.

The rise in infections takes the total of reported infections in the country to 718,873.

An additional 54 deaths were reported by the ministry on Saturday, bringing the total of fatalities to 32,684.  

An outbreak of coronavirus cases in Anchorage, Alaska, are being tied to a youth hockey tournament held on Oct. 2-3.

The exact number of cases tied to the event has not yet been determined, as contact tracing continues, but Anchorage Public Health Director Heather Harris says up to 300 attendees are being asked to isolate or quarantine as a result of their potential exposure.

“All teams that have participated in the tournament have been quarantined since Tuesday, Oct. 6 and have been advised to get tested for the virus,” according to a post on the Anchorage Hockey Association’s website.

The three-day event, the Termination Dust Invitational, hosted players, coaches, and fans at two separate sites. Organizers had mitigation plans in place and kept a contact log of participants, Harris said.

“It is just a continual reminder about how pervasive Covid is and how it can strike anyone at any time,” Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said in a news conference Friday.

Alaska has confirmed 9,182 coronavirus cases to date, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

President Trump, in his first public event since he was diagnosed with coronavirus, gave a brief campaign style speech from the balcony of the White House where he attacked Joe Biden and focused on his law and order messaging.

Though members of the audience were mostly Black Americans — members of a group known as "BLEXIT" that was founded by conservative firebrand Candace Owens to encourage African Americans to leave the Democratic Party — the lines of Trump's speech seemed aimed at White suburbanites who are not sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement.

"If the left gains power, they will launch a nationwide crusade against law enforcement," Trump said.

Some context: Just as the US sees an upward trend in hospitalization rates, Trump invited some 2,000 people for the speech from a White House balcony, in just the latest sign that his staff and doctors are acquiescing to his desires rather than following public health guidelines and common sense.

The large gathering follows Trump's acknowledgment during a televised interview with Fox News Friday that he may have contracted the virus at one of the recent events at the White House. It's unknown whether he's still contagious, but Trump gave an incomprehensible answer about his latest coronavirus test results Friday.

The White House said attendance at today's event is expected to be less than a thousand people, according to reporters at the scene.

Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told the White House press pool that President Trump's speech is expected to last roughly 30 minutes.

"This is an official event," not a campaign event, and no campaign staff is involved, Deere said.

"The campaign is not involved in this," he said.

More details: CNN took video of the line to get onto White House grounds for the event.

There was a large group of people seen wearing blue shirts associated with "Blexit," a group founded by conservative commentator Candace Owens. Some people were not wearing masks as they waited in line.