Atul Gawande, a member of President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus task force, told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that the former vice president's team does not believe a nationwide shelter-in-place order is necessary to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
The big picture: Governors and state-level officials have so far made the call on how long stay-at-home orders should be in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, not the federal government. Virus cases are currently soaring in practically every state.
NIAID director Anthony Fauci said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that President Trump's refusal to cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden's transition team hurts public health as coronavirus cases surge across the country.
The state of play: As Trump refuses to concede the election to Biden, General Services Administration administrator Emily Murphy has not signed documents declaring Biden the apparent winner, preventing the president-elect's agency review teams from having access to information they need in order to get to work.
The U.S. is expected to surpass the summer peak of deaths from COVID-19 and near early spring levels this coming week, per the COVID Tracking Project.
The big picture: 1,321 people died from the virus on Saturday, as the seven-day average reached 1,100. COVID-19 hospitalizations have hit record highs, with 69,455 people now in the hospital with the virus in the U.S., according to the project.
Mexico surpassed 1 million coronavirus cases and over 98,200 deaths from COVID-19 late Saturday, per Johns Hopkins data.
Driving the news: Mexican health officials have focused on testing the seriously ill and conducted only about 2.5 million COVID-19 tests in total — representing 1.9% of the population, AP reports.
"Pandemic fatigue" is the main reason for the record rises in COVID-19 cases the United States has seen this month, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams told NPR in an interview broadcast Saturday.
Why it matters: The U.S. is on track for its worst month of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. The latest Johns Hopkins data shows the U.S. broke the world record for the number of new cases again on Friday, with 177,224 people testing positive.
Officials across the U.S. are urging people to forgo their typical large-scale Thanksgiving plans this year and replace them with smaller gatherings or virtual celebrations as coronavirus cases spike nationwide.
The big picture: The U.S. on Thursday set another record, reporting more than 160,000 new COVID-19 cases, the first day over 150,000 since the pandemic began, per the New York Times. Officials worry the numbers will only continue to accelerate due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Many are celebrating a relatively low-key Diwali, the festival of lights, this year as coronavirus cases surge in many parts of the world.
Driving the news: Coronavirus restrictions and social distancing efforts have derailed the plans of many Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists who usually celebrate the festival by attending large gatherings.
Walmart is resuming its monitoring and counting of customers who enter their stores in an effort to promote social distancing, while major grocers including Publix, Wegmans, Giant and Kroger are reinstating purchase limits on some essential items, CNBC reports.
Austria will impose a nationwide lockdown on Tuesday, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Saturday, after a nighttime curfew and partial shutdown failed to control the country's surge in coronavirus cases.
Why it matters: Austria is experiencing an average of 7,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, Kurz tweeted on Saturday. The nation confirmed a record 9,586 new virus cases on Friday, per Reuters.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) issued a statewide mask mandate late Friday evening that will apply when individuals are inside businesses, indoor public spaces or outdoor spaces when social distancing is not sufficient.
Why it matters: North Dakota's coronavirus numbers per capita are soaring, with the state reporting over 1,800 new cases on Thursday and another 1,400 new cases on Friday. The state's hospitals are overloaded, as are its neighbor, South Dakota's. States nationwide are approaching or already in similar conundrums.
The first cruiseliner to return to the Caribbean since the coronavirus pandemic shut the industry down was forced to return to its home port of Barbados after passengers tested positive for COVID-19, the ship's owner, SeaDream Yacht Club, said Thursday.
Why it matters: Cruise ships were the sites of some of the most severe coronavirus outbreaks early in the pandemic, before the industry suspended operations in March.
