(Reuters) – Here’s what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
U.S. cases climb by record for second day in a row
Coronavirus cases in the United States surged by at least 120,276 on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, the second consecutive daily record rise as the outbreak spreads in every region.
U.S. cases have risen by over 100,000 for three out of the last seven days.
Twenty out of 50 states reported record one-day increases on Thursday. Previously, the most states reporting records for new cases in a single day were 16, on Oct. 30, according to Reuters data.
Police arrest 104 Londoners for lockdown breaches
British police said they arrested 104 Londoners on Thursday for breach of coronavirus regulations, adding that they expected more arrests as policing operations continued into the night.
People gathered in central London despite new restrictions that have been imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
“Tonight, a crowd of people chose to ignore the new regulations, to behave irresponsibly and meet in a dangerous manner,” the Metropolitan Police said.
Paris bans nighttime food and drink delivery
Paris will ban delivery and takeaway services for prepared food and alcohol between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. from Friday.
The police prefecture also said the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks in public spaces would be banned at night.
President Emmanuel Macron imposed a new lockdown last month, forcing non-essential shops – such as those not selling basic foods or medicines – to close, and making people use signed documents to justify being out on the streets.
Aspirin to be tested as potential COVID-19 drug
Aspirin, a drug commonly used as a blood thinner, will now be evaluated as a possible treatment for COVID-19 in one of the United Kingdom’s biggest trials looking into a range of potential treatments for the illness.
Patients infected by the novel coronavirus are at a higher risk of blood clots because of hyper-reactive platelets, the cell fragments that help stop bleeding. Aspirin is an antiplatelet agent and can reduce the risk of clots, the RECOVERY trial’s website said on Friday.
“There is a clear rationale for believing that it (aspirin) might be beneficial, and it is safe, inexpensive and widely available,” said Peter Horby, co-chief investigator of the trial.
Mink ‘good reservoirs’ for COVID-19
Mink appear to be susceptible to the new SARS-CoV-2 virus and “good reservoirs” for the disease, with a mutated strain having caused infections in a dozen people in Denmark, a World Health Organization official said on Thursday.
Denmark plans to cull its entire mink population and announced strict new lockdown measures in the north of the country to prevent a mutated coronavirus from spreading in the animals and to humans.
“So there is a risk of course that this mink population could contribute in some way to the transmission of the virus from minks into humans, and then onwards from humans to humans,” Catherine Smallwood, a senior emergency officer at WHO’s European office in Copenhagen, said.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
