Key developments for Thursday, August 13, 2020

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Welcome to the newly refreshed Key Developments, now published twice a week and expanding beyond just COVID-19 news. For now, it’s still heavily focused on the pandemic, but we aim to broaden its scope gradually as we move forward.

Globally, the number of confirmed cases has surpassed 21 million, with an additional 1.8 million cases reported since last week. This trend of accelerating case growth continues to be concerning. Over 752,000 people have lost their lives due to the virus. In the United States, there are over 5.4 million cases and more than 170,000 deaths. Yesterday alone saw an increase of over 51,000 new cases in the US. Brazil remains second in terms of daily case growth, followed by India and Russia. India is now leading the world in daily new cases. Meanwhile, Mexico ranks third globally in total deaths, with over 54,000 fatalities.

A recent antibody study conducted in the UK found that approximately 6% of the population has been infected. Healthcare workers and those employed in care homes faced significantly higher infection rates compared to other groups. Roughly one-third of these infections were asymptomatic. While this initial survey involved over 100,000 participants, a follow-up study planned for the fall will be twice as large. Given that over 40,000 people have already died in the UK with such low seroprevalence, reaching herd immunity could result in many more deaths before that threshold is achieved.

Iowa is grappling with severe challenges after being hit by a derecho with winds exceeding 100 miles per hour, which destroyed a significant portion—around a third—of the state’s crops. This amounts to roughly 10 million acres of farmland affected. Beyond impacting food security within Iowa, this disaster also has broader implications for global food supplies. Cities like Cedar Rapids have been left devastated. With the pandemic response already struggling, addressing this crisis will take priority for the time being:

https://twitter.com/LauraMLippman/status/1293938817762762759?s=20

There are growing concerns about the role of cold storage in spreading the virus:

https://twitter.com/next_china/status/1293760429395673088?s=20

This issue isn’t confined to China; New Zealand authorities are also investigating similar incidents:

The pandemic has exacerbated existing food insecurity issues, pushing areas already classified as food deserts further into crisis. Supply chain disruptions continue to ripple through the system, even though store shelves aren't as empty as they were earlier in the pandemic. Certain products remain scarce, leading to reduced availability and higher prices. Manufacturing sectors haven't fully recovered yet either.

A research team from the University of Florida successfully isolated live, infectious virus particles from the air inside a hospital—up to 17 feet away from infected patients. This confirms definitively that transmission occurs not only through direct droplet contact but also through airborne means. Herd immunity should not be seen as a universal solution to ending this crisis.

The US continues to face some of the worst outcomes related to COVID-19 worldwide. Our test positivity rates are alarmingly high, our total death toll is among the highest globally, and we lead the world in sheer numbers of confirmed cases. Yet, there remains no cohesive national strategy combining testing, tracing, and isolation efforts.

In another grim milestone, California has surpassed 600,000 confirmed cases:

While South Africa appears to be improving, several other African nations are seeing record-high daily case counts:

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