Post-election pandemic update — 10 million total U.S. cases, record daily cases, COVID-19 vaccine, and transition team task force

Yesterday, I telegraphed my choices for today.*

I'm looking forward to a break from the election here. Whether my next post will be about entertainment or the COVID-19 pandemic, I don't know yet. Stay tuned.

It's the pandemic. I begin with the bad news from ABC, At least a dozen states report record hospitalizations due to COVID-19.

Utah's governor is placing the state under a mask mandate, and now there are concerns about celebrations in the streets and on sports fields. ABC's Alex Presha reports.

While one of the chyrons displayed that the U.S. has passed 10 million cases, the narration didn't seem to include that statistic, so I'm adding the following from Reuters: U.S. crosses 10 million COVID-19 cases as third wave of infections surges.

The United States became the first nation worldwide since the pandemic began to surpass 10 million coronavirus infections, according to a Reuters tally on Sunday, as the third wave of the COVID-19 virus surges across the nation.

The grim milestone came on the same day as global coronavirus cases exceeded 50 million.

The United states has reported about a million cases in the past 10 days, the highest rate of infections since the nation reported its first novel coronavirus case in Washington state 293 days ago.

The country reported a record 131,420 COVID-19 cases on Saturday and has reported over 100,000 infections five times in the past seven days, according to a Reuters tally.

The U.S. latest reported seven-day average of 105,600 daily cases, ramped up by at least 29%, is more than the combined average for India and France, two of the worst affected countries in Asia and Europe.

More than 237,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since the illness caused by the coronavirus first emerged in China late last year.

That's the bad news. Now the good news, Vaccine 90% effective in trial as cases surge.

Dr. Richard Besser weighs in on Pfizer's newly announced two-shot vaccine, possible efficacy and production as COVID cases surge in the U.S.

Next summer or fall? That means that my response to my favorite supermarket checker's question "when do [you] think things will return to normal?" as "spring of next year, when a vaccine becomes available" was too optimistic. I wasn't being pessimistic enough!

George Stephanopoulus teased the next interview in the video above, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo talks about the rise in COVID-19 cases.

As multiple states see a rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, Cuomo weighs in on what President-elect Biden can do with his coronavirus plan.

Governor Cuomo thinks it's good news-bad news as well, but the bad news is different. He's not confident that the Trump Administration's plan to distribute the vaccine will be sufficient. Based on Trump's handling of the pandemic, I agree. However, if the vaccine is ready for distribution in the summer, then it will be the Biden Administration overseeing it, which I have more confidence in. With Joe Biden creating a COVID-19 task force already, that looks good. Watch COVID-19 task force announced as Biden plans transition to White House from Euronews about that news.

President-elect Joe Biden says dealing with the pandemic will be his top priority - a move backed by the head of the World Health Organization.

I wish Biden luck with this. Not only does he need it, we the American people do, too!

*I forgot I had a third choice, Hurricane Eta, which is breaking most of the records set by Hurricane Delta, including the most named systems in the Atlantic during a single season, previously held by the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season. I might get to that later, certainly if there is another named system. In the meantime, my prediction that there could be a system designated as Theta looks very good, while Lambda or Mu is still within the realm of possibility. Stay tuned.