Tag Archives: United States

U.S. new COVID cases down 21% in past week, deaths fall from peak

(Reuters) – The United States reported a 21% drop in new cases of COVID-19 last week, as all but one state reported declines in new infections, and the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals also fell.

The country reported 1.2 million new cases in the week ended Jan. 24, down from 1.5 million new cases in the previous week. It was the biggest decline on both a percentage and absolute basis in the past year, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports.

New Hampshire is the only state where cases rose. In California, a hotspot where hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of patients, new cases fell 32% in the past week.

Deaths from the virus fell by 6.6% last week to about 21,600 across the country, with Arizona, Alabama and New Mexico having the highest per capita death rates. Deaths rose in 17 out of 50 states last week and are a lagging indicator, meaning they can rise weeks after cases and hospitalizations fall.

Cumulatively, nearly 419,000 people have died from the novel coronavirus, or one in every 780 U.S. residents.

The average number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell 7.5% from the previous week to about 119,000, the biggest one-week drop on a percentage basis since the week ended Aug. 9, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the volunteer-run COVID Tracking Project.

Nationally, 9.2% of tests of tests came back positive for the virus, down from 11.0% the prior week and the lowest since the week ended Nov. 8, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. The lowest positive test rates were in Vermont at 2.3% and Connecticut and Hawaii at 2.5%, and the highest were Iowa at 43.5% and Alabama at 32.5%.

(Graphic by Chris Canipe, writing by Lisa Shumaker, editing by Tiffany Wu)

Mexico’s president disputes rights concerns over trapped asylum seekers

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador brushed away concerns on Friday about the living conditions of thousands of asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico under a U.S. program that President Joe Biden is scrambling to unravel.

Humanitarian organizations have documented cases of attacks, extortion, kidnapping, and sexual violence against those in the program. Most are from Central America and many live in shelters and cramped apartments in dangerous border towns or in a squalid tent city in Mexico’s far northeast.

Lopez Obrador disputed the accounts, saying he had “other data” and that his government would release a report on the migrants next week.

“We have been taking care of the migrants and we have been careful that their human rights are not affected,” Lopez Obrador told a news conference.

“…It’s nothing like it was before, when they were kidnapped and disappeared. We have been attentive and we have protected them.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, under Biden’s new administration, said on Wednesday it would end all new enrollments in the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, which since 2019 has forced more than 65,000 asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court hearings, sometimes for months or even years.

The announcement did not specify what will happen to the tens of thousands currently waiting in Mexico under the program, saying only that they “should remain where they are, pending further official information from U.S. government officials.”

(Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener; editing by John Stonestreet)

Nearly 38 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed, 17.5 million administered: U.S. CDC

(Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 17,546,374 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Thursday morning and distributed 37,960,000 doses.

The tally of vaccine doses are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 9:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, the agency said.

According to the tally posted on Jan. 20, the agency had administered 16,525,281 doses of the vaccines, and distributed 35,990,150 doses.

The agency said 15,053,257 people had received 1 or more doses while 2,394,961 people have got the second dose as of Thursday.

A total of 2,089,181 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.

(Reporting by Trisha Roy in Bengaluru)

U.S. labor market gradually healing; housing, manufacturing power ahead

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits decreased modestly last week as the COVID-19 pandemic tears through the nation, raising the risk that the economy shed jobs for a second straight month in January.

Despite the labor market woes, the economy remains anchored by strong manufacturing and housing sectors. Other data on Thursday showed homebuilding and permits for future residential construction surged in December to levels last seen in 2006. Factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region accelerated this month, with manufacturers reporting a boom in new orders.

The services sector has borne the brunt of the coronavirus crisis, disproportionately impacting lower-wage earners, who tend to be women and minorities. Addressing the so-called K-shaped recovery, where better-paid workers are doing well while lower-paid workers are losing out, is one of the major challenges confronting President Joe Biden and his new administration.

Initial claims for state unemployment fell 26,000 to a seasonally adjusted 900,000 for the week ended Jan. 16, the Labor Department said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 910,000 applications in the latest week.

Unadjusted claims dropped 151,303 to 960,668 last week. Economists prefer the unadjusted number because of earlier difficulties adjusting the claims data for seasonal fluctuations due to the economic shock caused by the pandemic. Including a government-funded program for the self-employed, gig workers and others who do not qualify for the regular state unemployment programs 1.4 million people filed claims last week.

Out-of-control coronavirus infections are disrupting operations at businesses like restaurants, gyms and other establishments where crowds tend to gather, reducing hours for many workers and pushing others out of employment.

Consumers are also hunkering down at home, leading to a weakening in demand. COVID-19 has infected more than 24 million people, with the death toll exceeding 400,000 since the pandemic started in the United States.

U.S. stocks opened higher as investors bet on more pandemic relief and speedy vaccine rollouts under the Biden administration. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices were lower.

Some of the elevation in claims reflects people re-applying for benefits following the government’s recent renewal of a $300 unemployment supplement until March 14 as part of the nearly $900 billion in additional fiscal stimulus. Programs for the self-employed, gig workers as well as those who have exhausted their benefits were also extended.

Claims data is also difficult to adjust for seasonal fluctuations at the start of the year, a task that has been made even harder given the shock caused by the coronavirus.

MOMENTUM WANING

Nevertheless, recent data have shown the labor market recovery has stalled. The claims data covered the week during which the government surveyed establishments for the nonfarm payrolls component of January’s employment report. Claims were little changed between the December and January survey period.

The economy shed 140,000 jobs in December, the first job losses since April when authorities throughout the country enforced stay-at-home measures to slow the spread of the virus. Retail sales fell for a third straight month in December.

Though jobless claims have dropped from a record 6.867 million in March, they remain above their 665,000 peak during the 2007-09 Great Recession.

The claims report showed the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid decreased 127,000 to 5.054 million during the week ending Jan. 9.

About 16 million people were on unemployment benefits under all programs at the start of the year. The economy has recovered 12.4 million of the 22.2 million jobs lost in March and April. Economists say it could take several years for the labor market to recover from the pandemic.

In a separate report on Thursday, the Commerce Department said housing starts jumped 5.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.669 million units last month, the highest level since September 2006. Economists had forecast starts would rise to a rate of 1.560 million units in December. Starts totaled 1.380 million in 2020, up 7.0% from 2019.

Permits for future homebuilding accelerated 4.5% to a rate of 1.709 million units in December, the highest since August 2006. Permits, which typically lead starts by one to two months, totaled 1.452 million last year, a 4.8% increase from 2019.

The housing market is being underpinned by cheaper mortgages and an exodus from city centers to suburbs and other low-density areas as companies allow employees to work from home and schools shift to online classes because of the pandemic. About 23.7% of the labor force is working from home.

A third report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve showed its business conditions index soared to a reading of 26.5 this month from 9.1 in December. A measure of new orders at factories in the region that covers eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, vaulted to a reading of 30.0 from 1.9 in December.

Factory employment measures also improved. While manufacturers reported paying more for raw materials, they were also able to increase prices for their goods. Manufacturers were upbeat about capital investment plans in the six months ahead.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

35.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed, 16.5 million administered: U.S. CDC

(Reuters) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 16,525,281 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Wednesday morning and distributed 35,990,150 doses.

The tally of vaccine doses are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the agency said.

According to the tally posted on Jan. 19, the agency had administered 15,707,588 doses of the vaccines, and distributed 31,161,075 doses.

The agency said 14,270,441 people had received 1 or more doses while 2,161,419 people have got the second dose as of Wednesday.

A total of 1,908,256 vaccine doses have been administered in long-term care facilities, the agency said.

(Reporting by Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru)

UAE signs deal with U.S. to buy 50 F-35 jets and up to 18 drones: sources

By Mike Stone

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates has signed an agreement with the United States to purchase 50 F-35 jets and up to 18 armed drones, people familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.

Although the UAE and the United States were working to ink a deal before President Joseph Biden took office on Wednesday, the new president has said he will re-examine the agreements.

The UAE, one of Washington’s closest Middle East allies, has long expressed interest in acquiring the stealthy F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin and was promised a chance to buy them in a side deal when it agreed to normalize relations with Israel last August.

One of the people said the agreement was signed about an hour before Biden was sworn into office. The document gave the United Arab Emirates the chance to accept the negotiated schedule and configuration of the jets while also making the purchase request official.

The UAE has had the paperwork for more than a week, the people said. The UAE and the United States had once hoped to have a deal in place in December, but the timing of jet deliveries, their cost, the technology packages and training associated with the deal extended negotiations, the people said.

The jets are a major component of a $23 billion sale of high-tech armaments from General Atomics, Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp to the UAE announced this fall.

The UAE government also signed a separate agreement to buy up to 18 drones, the second-largest sale of U.S. drones to a single country, the people said.

The final in-country delivery date for the F-35 jets could not immediately be confirmed, but the initial proposal sent to UAE said 2027, the people said.

(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

U.S. exceeds 400,000 coronavirus deaths

By Anurag Maan and Roshan Abraham

(Reuters) – The U.S. coronavirus death toll topped 400,000 on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the country hardest hit by the pandemic struggled to meet the demand for vaccines to stem the spread of infection.

States including Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Carolina and Vermont have shown signs of vaccine supply strain and are asking for more doses of both approved vaccines, one from Pfizer-BioNTech and the other from Moderna.

The number of deaths has spiked since Christmas.

During the past three weeks, U.S. coronavirus fatalities have totaled 63,793 compared with 52,715 deaths in the three weeks prior to Christmas, an increase of 21%, according to a Reuters analysis.

The daily COVID-19 death numbers crossed 4,000 for the first time on Jan. 6.

Eighteen U.S. states, including California, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington reported their highest daily death numbers in January, according to the Reuters tally.

The number of coronavirus cases has risen across all U.S. regions and on Tuesday crossed 24 million since the pandemic started.

While seriously ill patients are straining healthcare systems in parts of the country, especially in California, the national rate of hospitalizations has leveled off in the past two weeks and was near 124,000 on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Anurag Maan, Roshan Abraham and Chaithra J in Bengaluru; Editing by Howard Goller)

U.S. exempts U.N., aid groups from effort to cut off Yemen’s Houthis

By Daphne Psaledakis and Michelle Nichols

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States on Tuesday exempted aid groups, the United Nations, the Red Cross and the export of agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices from its designation of Yemen’s Houthi movement as a foreign terrorist organization.

The carve-outs are not enough to allay U.N. fears that Washington’s move would push Yemen into a large-scale famine. The United Nations describes Yemen as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with 80% of its people in need.

“Our concern from the beginning … is the impact on the commercial sector and that the vast majority of food and other basic supplies that come into Yemen comes in through the commercial sector,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

U.N. officials and aid groups said the designation will scare off commercial trade in Yemen, which relies almost solely on imports, creating a gap the humanitarian operation cannot fill regardless of U.S. humanitarian exemptions.

The United States has exempted the export to Yemen of agricultural commodities. Its description of that includes food for people, including raw, processed, and packaged foods, live animals, vitamins and minerals, and bottled drinking water.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the move against the Iran-aligned Houthis last week and it took effect on Tuesday, one day before Democratic President-elect Joe Biden succeeds Republican President Donald Trump.

A Saudi Arabia-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015, backing government forces fighting the Houthis in a war widely seen as a proxy conflict between U.S. ally Saudi Arabia and Iran. U.N. officials are trying to revive peace talks to end the war as Yemen’s suffering is also worsened by an economic collapse and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The designation freezes any U.S.-related assets of the Houthis, bans Americans from doing business with them and makes it a crime to provide support or resources to the movement.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Daphne Psaledakis; writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Grant McCool)

Average U.S. air fares fall to lowest price after COVID-19 pandemic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Average U.S. airfare prices in the three months ending in September fell to the lowest inflation-adjusted price since the government began tracking the issue in 1995, the Transportation Department said Tuesday.

The average ticket price was $245, down 30% over the same period in 2019 and down 7% over the second quarter, when average prices were $262 a ticket. Prices have declined as air demand has fallen sharply, especially for business travel. U.S. airlines reported 27 million passengers in the third quarter, down from 86 million passengers a year earlier.

(Reporting by David Shepardson)

IMF chief sees ‘high degree of uncertainty’ in global outlook

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Monday the global economic outlook remained highly uncertain given the coronavirus pandemic, and a growing divergence between rich and poor countries required the IMF to find more resources.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told reporters a new allocation of the IMF’s own currency, Special Drawing Rights, would give countries more fiscal space to address the health crisis and accelerate moves to a digital and green economy.

Under President Donald Trump, the United States, the IMF’s largest shareholder, has blocked such a move, arguing it would provide more resources to richer countries since the allocation would be proportionate to their shareholding.

Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson, the new chair of the IMF’s steering committee speaking at an online news conference with Georgieva, said it was clear the need for liquidity remained great, and she would consult with member countries on options for expanding liquidity.

Georgieva said the IMF had rapidly increased concessional financing to emerging market and developing economies, including through donation of some $20 billion in existing SDRs. That would continue to play an important role, but further steps were needed, she said.

“It will continue to be so important, even more important, for us to be able to expand our capacity to support countries that have fallen behind,” Georgieva said.

The option of carrying out a new SDR allocation – something akin to a central bank printing money – had never been taken off the table by IMF members, she said, adding that some members continued to discuss it as a possible move.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Simon Johnson in Stockholm; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Bill Berkrot)