November 7 coronavirus news

France's overall coronavirus death toll surpassed 40,000 on Saturday.

The country's total death toll now stands at 40,169 after 306 new deaths were registered in a 24-hour period, according to the French Public Health Agency. France has the world's seventh highest coronavirus fatality count, according to official data from Johns Hopkins University, but that is still only a fraction of the death toll seen in the worst-hit countries: the United States and Brazil. 

This grim milestone comes after France had two consecutive days of record new daily coronavirus cases, with more than 60,000 new coronavirus cases announced on Friday alone. The French Public Health Agency has not yet specified the daily case count for Saturday to reflect the previous 24 hours.

As Europe experiences its second wave of coronavirus cases with winter approaching, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that his country needs to live with the virus in the longterm.

"When I listen to the scientists, and the Scientific Council, we foresee [living with the virus] at best until next summer," Macron said, speaking during a visit to a health center.

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and his staff tested negative for Covid-19, after being exposed to someone who tested positive in a meeting on Monday, according to a statement released by the governor's office on Saturday.

The statement says, per the CDC, that the group will not be required to quarantine for 14 days, since they are not considered "close contacts because they met with the individual prior to 48 hours before symptom onset."

This was the second time the group tested negative, after undergoing a test on Wednesday.

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported 12,438 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus and 76 deaths on Saturday, making this third consecutive day of record high coronavirus case numbers and the second day that Illinois has reported over 10,000 daily coronavirus cases.

Illinois underwent "resurgence mitigations" earlier this week, after test positivity rates soared in all regions of the state. All indoor restaurant and bar service has been banned, and all meetings, gatherings or social events are limited to 25% capacity or a total of 25 guests, whichever is fewer.

These numbers were released by the Illinois public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project

CNN is tracking cases of Covid-19 across the US here:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

Election workers risked their health this year to staff polling and ballot counting centers amid the coronavirus pandemic. Now, more than two dozen are self-quarantining after being potentially exposed to other workers who recently tested positive for the virus.

The reported cases underscore lingering concerns about the impact of in-person voting amid a troubling spike in the severity of the pandemic. The fall surge has seen some of the highest days of newly reported Covid-19 cases in the US. On Election Day alone, the US reported about 85,200 cases.

Democrats and public health officials advocated for mail-in ballots in the run-up to the election, urging voters to avoid polling centers to reduce risk of spreading the virus.

Read more:

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Election workers risked their health during pandemic. Now dozens are self-quarantining.

There are at least 9,796,902 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 236,360 people have died from the disease, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

As of 1:30p.m. ET Saturday, 36,086 new cases have been reported across the country.

JHU's totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.  

CNN is tracking cases of Covid-19 across the US here:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

Joe Biden plans to announce a 12-person coronavirus task force on Monday, two sources with knowledge told CNN.

The task force will be headed by three co-chairs: Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Yale University’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.

The announcement, which will come just days after Biden was declared the winner in the presidential election, signals how seriously he plans to focus on the pandemic from the outset of his transition.

Biden is not expected to announce cabinet nominations for weeks and may wait until control of the Senate is clear, the sources said. Biden has potential people in mind for most every top position, but the announcement of the task force underscores the priority he intends to place on that challenge.

America has chosen Democrat Joe Biden as its 46th president, CNN projected on Saturday afternoon, following an election that the former vice president sought to turn into a referendum on President Trump's mismanagement of the pandemic.

Three advisers to the President said Trump's handling of the coronavirus was a massive factor in his election loss. A senior adviser said Trump's dismissive attitude and misinformation about the virus alienated senior voters who rejected the President's performance on Covid-19.  

The adviser said Trump could never understand elderly voters were the most at-risk for contracting and succumbing to the virus, making them fearful of how the President was responding to the pandemic. 

A separate adviser said Trump chose to reopen the economy rather than get the virus under control and suffered the consequences on November 3.  

Biden's victory comes a day after the US racked up more than 126,000 new daily coronavirus cases -- the highest one-day tally yet, Johns Hopkins data show. As of Saturday morning, more than 9.7 million cases have been recorded in the US.

America also reported more than 1,140 coronavirus deaths Friday, the fourth straight day that count has risen above 1,000. The last time that happened was in August.

On the same day, at least 17 states reported record high cases counts for a single day, per the Johns Hopkins data. Sixteen states reported record-high Covid-19 hospitalizations, according to the COVID Tracking Project. More than 54,000 coronavirus patients are now hospitalized across the country -- not far from the country's pandemic peak of 59,940 in mid-April.

24,957 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours in the UK, the government said Saturday, and 413 died of the virus, a toll which continues to rise.

10,274 patients have been admitted to hospital in the last 7 days, and 2,333 have died.

England entered a second national lockdown on Thursday, and passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus cases on October 31.

The strict lockdown has shut pubs, restaurants and non-essential businesses, including hair salons and gyms. Schools, universities and playgrounds will stay open.

Earlier today, the UK banned travellers arriving from Denmark because after the country reported a widespread outbreak of a new variant of the virus which causes Covid-19 in mink farms.

Austria reported a new daily record of 8,241 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, according to data on the country's interior ministry website.

In total, 147,220 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Austria since the start of the pandemic, and 1,377 people have died.

Austria entered its second national lockdown this week, with new measures including a curfew between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. and the closure of leisure and culture facilities.

Lockdowns are multiplying throughout Europe as Covid-19 cases rise exponentially, threatening to push health services across the continent to breaking point.

Fearing all of its intensive care beds could be full by mid-November, France implemented nationwide restrictions at the end of October -- as did Belgium and Ireland. Germany's softer, so-called "lockdown light" restrictions began on Monday, and Austria followed suit on Tuesday.

Iran continued breaking its daily coronavirus record after 9,450 infections were reported on Saturday.

The country also recorded 423 new coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 37,832, health ministry spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari said on Iranian state TV.

Last Monday, 440 deaths were recorded, the country's highest number since the outbreak began in February. 

Lari added that 27 provinces across Iran are categorized as "red zones," and out of the 9,450 new cases, 5,506 of those are patients in intensive care units in critical condition. An additional 3,070 are hospitalized. 

The capital Tehran has made it mandatory to wear masks in public for the past few weeks, as Iran is the worst-hit country in the Middle East with a total number of 673,250 cases.

Iran was also one of the worst-hit countries during the first wave of the coronavirus in March.