Bhinneka News Online: Monday Morning Briefing: U.S. coronavirus death toll hits 170,000 ahead of fall flu season

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Concern over U.S. autumn resurgence
The United States surpassed 170,000 coronavirus deaths on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally. U.S. public health officials and authorities are concerned about a possible resurgence in cases in the autumn at the start of the flu season, which will likely exacerbate efforts to treat the coronavirus.

The United States has at least 5.4 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the highest in the world and likely an undercount as the country still has not ramped up testing to the recommended levels. Cases are falling in most states except for Hawaii, South Dakota and Illinois.

Track the spread of the virus with this state-by-state and county map.

Pandemic spreads in India
India’s COVID-19 death toll surpassed 50,000 on Monday and the total number of recorded cases neared 2.65 million as the outbreak spread further into smaller towns and rural areas, government data showed. The world’s second-most populous country recorded 57,981 new infections in the last 24 hours, raising the total to 2,647,663, while an additional 941 deaths raised the overall death toll to 50,921. India is only the third country, behind the United States and Brazil, to record more than 2 million infections. Experts have said India’s testing rates are far too low.

South Korea battles worst outbreak in months
South Korea warned of a looming coronavirus crisis as new outbreaks flared, including one linked to a church where more than 300 members of the congregation have been infected but hundreds more are reluctant to get tested. The outbreak linked to the Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul is the country’s biggest in nearly six months and led to a tightening of social distancing rules on Sunday. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 197 new cases as of midnight on Saturday, most in the Seoul metropolitan area, marking the fourth day of a three-digit tally.

New Zealand postpones election
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern postponed the general election by a month to Oct. 17, bowing to pressure after some parties complained they could not campaign with nearly a third of New Zealand’s 5 million people under lockdown in Auckland. Ardern’s opponents accuse her of using the pandemic to shore up support as she appears on television nearly every day to reassure New Zealanders, while other party leaders struggle to get attention. Her rivals are hoping Ardern loses some of her appeal once economic hardships caused by the lockdown begin to bite.

“Shocking” rise in Lebanon
Lebanon must shut down for two weeks after a surge in infections, the caretaker health minister said on Monday, as the country reels from the massive Beirut port blast. “We are all facing a real challenge and the numbers that were recorded in the last period are shocking,” Hamad Hassan said. “The matter requires decisive measures.” Intensive care beds at state and private hospitals were now full, he added. Lebanon on Sunday registered a record 439 new infections and six more deaths from the virus in 24 hours.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Japan, Gig workers, Sportswear.
Read concise views on the pandemic’s financial fallout from Breakingviews columnists across the globe.

Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

We need your help to tell these stories. Our news organization wants to capture the full scope of what’s happening and how we got here by drawing on a wide variety of sources. Here’s a look at our coverage.

Are you a government employee or contractor involved in coronavirus testing or the wider public health response? Are you a doctor, nurse or health worker caring for patients? Have you worked on similar outbreaks in the past? Has the disease known as COVID-19 personally affected you or your family? Are you aware of new problems that are about to emerge, such as critical supply shortages?

We need your tips, firsthand accounts, relevant documents or expert knowledge. Please contact us at coronavirus@reuters.com.

We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how.

Top Stories

With less than 80 days to go before the U.S. presidential election, it looks like Joe Biden’s race to lose.

Yet, as Democrats nationwide gather online this week to nominate him as their party’s choice to challenge President Donald Trump on Nov. 3, many fear Biden may just do that - for factors almost entirely out of his control. The former vice president and his allies have every reason to feel bullish. Polls show Biden has built an expansive lead in nearly every battleground state that Trump won narrowly in 2016, as the Republican’s approval numbers tumble amid the coronavirus pandemic.

For the first time in a decade, retaking the Senate - and full control of Congress - is within sight. Yet interviews with more than a dozen Democratic officials, activists and voters reveal deep anxieties that Trump will make voting as difficult as possible during the pandemic, and should he lose the vote, he won’t accept its outcome.

Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said he had “serious concerns” over the tactics used in the arrest of a 25-year-old protester on Saturday, after the detention led a crowd of demonstrators showing up at the mayor’s home. Matthew Cartier, 25, was arrested on Saturday at a Black Lives Matter protest. A video cited by CBS News showed armed officers putting Cartier into an unmarked van; police say he interfered with public safety. Local media footage showed a crowd gathering outside Peduto’s home on Sunday, carrying signs with slogans such as “Defund the Police”.

'I'm not a saint': Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Belarus, said he would be willing to hand over power after a referendum, in a bid to pacify mass protests and strikes that pose the biggest challenge to his 26 years in office. He made the offer, which he insisted would not be delivered on while he was under pressure from protesters, after exiled opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she was willing to lead the country.

“I can say that in this blast, 20 years of my professional life was on the ground”: Two decades of Maya Husseini’s work to restore stained glass windows destroyed in the Lebanese civil war was lost in an instant in the seismic port explosion in Beirut. “Part of me has gone,” said Husseini, 60, who has worked on historic landmarks including many of Beirut’s churches. The detonation of a massive quantity of explosive chemicals stored unsafely at Beirut port killed at least 178 people, and damaged buildings across a swathe of Beirut, carpeting streets in broken glass.

Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou and her lawyers are set to attend hearings in a Canadian courtroom via telephone on Monday, arguing for the Canadian attorney general to release more confidential documents relating to her arrest. Meng, 48, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on a U.S. warrant charging her with bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei’s business dealings in Iran.