May 11, 2020 — A roundup of the latest news about COVID-19

Nearly 80,000 people have died in the U.S., and a new model projects we’re in for at least 50,000 more by early August. COVID-19 is inside the White House. And countries around the world are trying to figure out how to reopen safely. Here’s what happened over the weekend and this morning:

• The world saw another large leap in the number of cases over the weekend. Globally we now have more than 4.1 million confirmed. More than 283,000 people have died, and more than 1.4 million have recovered. In the U.S. more than 1.3 million cases have been confirmed. Almost 80,000 people have died here, and 216,000 have recovered.

• One of the leading models for measuring the impact of the coronavirus is now projecting a total of 137,184 cumulative COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. through the beginning of August, an increase of roughly 2,700 from its previous forecast May 4. The number of cases is predicted to particularly increase in areas where people become more mobile.

• Government scientists, academic researchers and for-profit pharmaceutical firms all are scrambling for blood plasma from COVID-19 survivors in hopes of developing a range of potential treatments.

• New York has been the epicenter of the outbreak in this country, but nearby New Jersey is being hit nearly as hard. The coronavirus has sickened so many emergency workers that some units are holding off on risky procedures like CPR. Half of the state’s COVID-19 fatalities are linked to nursing homes. Nowhere has the devastation been starker than at one built for members of the military, where 72 people have died.

• Russia’s coronavirus cases overtook Italian and British infections today to become the third highest in the world after the U.S. and Spain. 

• Plastic barriers and millions of masks appeared today on the streets of Europe’s newly reopened cities, as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands sent children back to school and Greece and Spain further eased restrictions. In New Zealand, meanwhile, businesses including malls, movie theaters, cafes, and gyms will reopen on Thursday after some of the tightest restrictions in the world to stop the spread of the coronavirus were further loosened today.

• In South Korea and China, new outbreaks are causing problems. South Korean officials are searching for thousands of people who may have been infected in a cluster of cases linked to nightclubs and bars in the capital Seoul. And Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began, reported its first cluster of infections since a lockdown on the city was lifted a month ago, stoking concerns of a wider resurgence of the disease.

• African nations are looking for homegrown ways to have enough ventilators to handle an avalanche of COVID-19, well after dozens of other countries have bought out available supplies.