Coronavirus live news: US tops 140,000 daily cases as world suffers record death toll | World news

More on AP’s story about how a resurgence of the coronavirus in New York City is threatening to halt the nation’s biggest experiment with in-person learning.

The city’s public school system this autumn became one of just a few large, urban districts in the US to welcome students back into classrooms. A little more than a quarter of the city’s 1.1 million pupils have been attending classes in person between one and three days a week.

A few weeks ago, parents were told to send their children back to school or forfeit the option of having them return later this academic year.

But as the Sunday deadline, the city also approached the mayor’s threshold for closing all school buildings: if 3% of the Covid-19 tests performed in the city over a 7-day period come back positive. On Thursday, that citywide positivity rate was at 2.6%.

Some parents expressed frustration that they were being asked to make a decision about sending children back into classrooms, when the city itself is not even sure what will happen in the days ahead.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has insisted it is safe for children to be in school as long as officials are quick to close things down when there is a problem. If a shutdown does happen, he said, “we’re going to figure out what it takes to come back as quickly as possible.”

A quick update, courtesy of AP, on some coronavirus news across the world:

US: Trump has publicly disengaged from the battle against the coronavirus at a time when the disease is tearing across the United States at an alarming pace.

Experts are warning that Massachusetts could be headed for a bleak winter as coronavirus cases climb again and confirmed deaths surpass 10,000.

A resurgence of the coronavirus in New York City is threatening to halt the nation’s biggest experiment with in-person learning

ASIA: South Korea has reported its biggest daily jump in covid-19 cases in 70 days as the government begins fining people who fail to wear masks in public.

SINGAPORE: Volunteers spend Sundays to help Singapore’s less fortunate.

Good morning, Amelia Hill here taking over the reins in the northern hemisphere to bring you the news that matters across the globe.

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. In Trump-not-talking-about-coronavirus-but-tweeting-about-a-lot-of-other-stuff news:

The world has suffered the highest death toll of the pandemic so far, with 11,617 people dying in 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The number of cases confirmed was also a record, at more than 666,000 in a day.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• The US topped 140,000 daily cases, again breaking world record. As the US confirmed a world record 143,231 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, Dr. Anthony Fauci says he doesn’t believe the United States will need to go into lockdown to fight the coronavirus if people double down on wearing masks and social distancing.The nation’s top infectious disease expert says “the cavalry is coming” in the form of vaccines. He says, “Help is really on the way.”
• UK confirms record new cases. Britain hit a new daily high of 33,470 confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday. That’s an increase of 10,520 more positives reported Wednesday and pushed the total number of cases in the UK to nearly 1.3 million, AP reports.
• Five passengers test positive for Covid-19 on Caribbean cruise ship. One of the first cruise ships to ply through Caribbean waters since the pandemic began ended its trip early after five passengers tested positive for Covid-19.The SeaDream is carrying 53 passengers and 66 crew, with the majority of passengers hailing from the US, according to Sue Bryant, a cruise ship reporter who is aboard the ship.
• California becomes second state in US to surpass 1m Covid-19 cases. California crossed a grim milestone in its battle against the coronavirus, as the state became the second in the US to surpass 1m cases of Covid-19 on Thursday. With 1,000,631 total cases as of Thursday, California saw nearly 7,000 cases in the past 24 hours, with a seven-day test positivity rate at 5%.
• Japan confirmed a record daily case increase. Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has said there is no need to declare a second state of emergency after the country recorded a record number of daily coronavirus cases. Japan reported 1,660 infections on Thursday – including 393 in Tokyo – beating the previous record set in early August. The surge prompted the president of the Tokyo Medical Association, Toshio Nakagawa, to warn that the country had entered a “third wave” of infections.
• New Zealand reopened downtown Auckland on Friday after contact tracing of a new coronavirus case revealed it was linked to a known case from a border isolation facility, reversing an earlier call for people to work from home.
• Australia will not allow foreign students to return as Canberra prioritises the return of locals stuck overseas, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday. Australia has since March closed its borders to all non-citizens and permanent residents in a bid to slow the spread of Covid-19.

South Korea will begin fining people who fail to wear masks in public on Friday as it reported 191 new coronavirus cases, with daily infections continuing to creep higher, Reuters reports.

People caught without masks in public venues, including nightclubs, malls, theme parks and hair salons, face fines of up to 100,000 won ($90), while the operators of those places could pay up to 3 million won in fines.

The country had been praised for its response to the pandemic including aggressive testing and contact tracing, but has struggled to contain small cluster outbreaks, with daily cases hovering around 100 in recent weeks.

Thousands of ordinary people around Britain volunteered to take part in the Imperial College London coronavirus vaccine trial. Who are they, what motivated them to take part, and what’s it been like?

The answers – and a delightful portrait gallery – below: