As voters across the United States lined up to cast their ballots in a hotly contested presidential race Tuesday, the nation posted one of its biggest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 infections in a single day.
Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Research Center shows a total of 91,530 total confirmed cases on Election Day, including 1,130 deaths. Additionally, there were more than 50,000 hospitalizations on Tuesday, according to separate data compiled by The COVID Tracking Project, an effort launched by The Atlantic magazine.
More than 20 states have announced more new COVID-19 cases in the past week than in any other seven-day period, with states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania — three states that play a major role in the presidential contest — setting single-day records on Tuesday.
The pandemic continues to affect the U.S. sporting world on all levels. The athletic department at the University of Wisconsin announced Tuesday that its football team, one of the country’s top programs, is cancelling its scheduled game against Purdue University this Saturday due to an ongoing surge of coronavirus cases among the team’s players and coaching staff, including head coach Paul Chryst. This is the second consecutive cancellation for the Badgers after calling off last Saturday’s contest against Nebraska.
The United States leads the world with more than 9.3 million of the world’s 47.4 million total COVID-19 infections, including 232,627 deaths.
France also reached another grim milestone Tuesday, as it recorded 854 new COVID-19 deaths, its highest increase since mid-April, according to Reuters news service.
India, second only to the United States in the number of total COVID-19 infections with more than 8.3 million , appears to have turned a corner in its battle against the pandemic. The health authority recorded more than 46,000 new infections over the past 24 hours ending Wednesday, the tenth consecutive day the South Asian nation has posted fewer than 50,000 new cases. But New Delhi reported more than 6,700 new cases Tuesday, the highest single-day rise for the Indian capital city.
The situation is also improving in Australia, as Premier Gladys Berejiklian of New South Wales state announced Wednesday on Twitter that the border between New South Wales and the southern state of Victoria will reopen on November 23.
The border has been shut down since July, when a second wave of COVID-19 cases swept across Victoria and its biggest city, Melbourne, which peaked at more than 700 new cases a day and 819 of the nation’s 907 total deaths. The surge led state authorities to impose a strict lockdown of the city and its 5 million residents that was finally lifted last week.
