(NEW YORK) — Here are today’s In Crisis headlines:
Trump appears to admit Biden won, yet still refuses to concede
More than a week after the election was called for President-elect Joe Biden, President Trump still refuses to concede, although on Sunday he tweeted what could be interpreted as a first step toward recognizing Biden’s win. The president wrote that Biden “won because the election was rigged,” but he later followed up with “I concede NOTHING!”
ABC News has now projected winners in all 50 states. It puts the final projected Electoral College tally at 306 for Biden, 232 for Trump, the exact same split as 2016, when President Trump won. Two hundred seventy electoral votes are necessary to win the presidency.
In the meantime, a hand audit of presidential ballots continues in Georgia, which ABC News has already projected for Joe Biden, who leads there by about 14 thousand votes. Georgia has until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday to complete the audit. Despite widespread acceptance of President-elect Biden’s win, the Trump campaign and its supporters have filed at least 18 cases of alleged voter fraud in battleground states, targeted because the president trailed Biden there by a comparatively narrow margin. With rare exceptions, the Trump campaign has been losing in court, regardless of whether the judges were appointed by Democratic or Republican presidents. The filings have garnered but two favorable rulings to date, and numerous denials and dismissals. Friday, after one of the leading firms handling the Trump campaign’s legal effort in Pennsylvania filed papers to withdraw from the case, the president’s longtime personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, said he would be taking the lead in the fight.
Despite President Trump’s refusal to concede and cooperate with the presidential transition, Joe Biden is going about his business as president-elect and will address the nation later today about the state of the economy. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will join Biden from Wilmington, Delaware. Biden’s Chief of Staff Ron Klain says their scientific advisers will meet with vaccine makers in coming days as the presidential transition remains stalled
Check ABCNews.com for the latest vote counts and other election updates.
COVID-19 numbers
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections and deaths.
Latest reported numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 54,495,858
Global deaths: 1,318,884. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 246,224.
Number of countries/regions: at least 191
Total patients recovered globally: 35,040,737
Latest reported numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 11,038,998 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 246,224. New York State has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 34,032.
U.S. total patients recovered: 4,185,463
U.S. total people tested: 162,748,492
The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in Texas, with 1,059,753 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 29 million. This ranks fourth in the world after Maharashtra, India, which has 1,747,242 reported cases; England, which has 1,174,979 reported cases; and Sao Paulo, Brazil, which has 1,168,640 reported cases.
Moderna declares COVID-19 vaccine to be up to 94.5% effective
One week after Pfizer announced their vaccine is more than 90% effective in protecting people against COVID-19 infection, pharmaceutical company Moderna on Monday announced their vaccine was shown to be up to 94.5% effective in phase 3 trials involving more than 30,000 U.S. participants. Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine, which must be stored and transported at around minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, Moderna says its vaccine can be safely stored for up to six months in a standard freezer, and for up to 30 days in a standard refrigerator. If true, this would have significant advantages for vaccine distribution.
Moderna says they will ask the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) “in the coming weeks.” Pfizer said last week that it would request the same as early as the third week of November, which is this week. Both companies are waiting for crucial safety data about their vaccines before requesting the EUAs. Once a EUA is granted, vaccination priority will likely be given to medical personnel, first responders, the elderly and others who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, with distribution to the general population coming by the spring and early summer of 2021.
In a tweet Monday morning, Pfizer CEO Albert Bouria congratulated Moderna, writing, “I am thrilled to hear the good news coming out of @moderna_tx’s #COVID19 vaccine development program. Our companies share a common goal – defeating this dreaded disease – and today we congratulate everyone at Moderna and share in the joy of their encouraging results.”
Moderna expects to have 20 million vaccine doses this year to go along with Pfizer’s 50 million for global distribution before more can be manufactured in 2021. Both vaccines require two doses to be effective.
US COVID-19 cases now over 11 million, with more than 100,000 new cases daily
The United States now has more than 11 million reported COVID-19 cases and is currently averaging over 140,000 new cases every day. Sunday marked the 12th consecutive day that the U.S. reported more than 100,000 new cases, with 139,109, according to the Covid Tracking Project. The seven-day average of new cases has increased by 38% in the last week.
There are currently 11,041,979 reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. This continues to be more than in any other country, accounting for just over 20% of reported global infections. The U.S. has 18.6% of global deaths, at 246,224, also more than any other nation.
Since November 1, the U.S. has reported over 1.7 million new cases. November is on track to become the worst month on record for COVID-19 cases in the coming days, with an average of over 1,000 reported fatalities daily. Further, in the last week, the U.S. has reported nearly one million COVID-19 cases, yet another weekly record. That means approximately one in every 331 Americans tested positive for COVID-19 this week. Hospitalizations continue to surge to unprecedented levels, with nearly 70,000 patients currently hospitalized. The seven-day average of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 has increased by 24.4% in the last week.
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