What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Task force sees ‘unrelenting’ spread
The White House coronavirus task force warned that much of the country is in the grips of an “unrelenting” surge in cases and urged tough countermeasures, as the number of U.S. infections reported on Thursday hit a new daily record of more than 91,000.
The hardest-hit regions in the West and Midwest encompass a number of battleground states expected to play a pivotal role in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.
“We are on a very difficult trajectory. We’re going in the wrong direction,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading task force member and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Here is what you need to know about the coronavirus right now.

EU to fund transfer of patients across borders
The European Union will finance the transfer of patients across borders within the bloc to prevent hospitals from getting overwhelmed as infections and hospitalizations spike in the continent. After a video conference of EU leaders to discuss the health crisis, the head of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen said the EU executive had made available $260 million to move patients.
Moscow authorities promise mass vaccination
Moscow residents who want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 may be able to do so as early as next month if large volumes of doses are supplied by then, city authorities said on Friday as Russia’s daily tally of cases rose past 18,000 to a record high. Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said the capital was creating a large network of specialized vaccination rooms with 2,500 high risk people - primarily doctors and teachers - having already been vaccinated, Russian news agencies reported.
Canary Islands impose negative test rule for tourists
Spain’s Canary Islands have passed a law obliging tourists visiting the archipelago’s hotels to present a negative COVID-19 test result as part of efforts to prevent imported infections. Located around 60 miles off Morocco’s Atlantic coast, the chain of seven islands is popular among sun-seeking northern Europeans, especially during the winter, when half its tourism revenues are generated.
‘Don’t end up a real ghost’
South Korean officials are stepping up efforts to ensure locals stick to social distancing guidelines during Halloween, warning this year’s party “could really turn scary” as it tries to avoid another resurgence in coronavirus infections. Officials are patrolling nightclubs in the capital Seoul to make sure they adhere to social distancing rules and are advising people to host Halloween parties online, Park Yoo-mi, a general director of the city government told a briefing on Friday.

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2020 Elections

More than 80 million Americans have cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, according to a tally from the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida, setting the stage for the highest participation rate in over a century.
The record-breaking pace, more than 58% of total 2016 turnout, reflects intense interest in the vote, in which incumbent Donald Trump is up against Joe Biden. Huge numbers of people have voted by mail or at early in-person polling sites amid concerns the coronavirus could spread at busy Election Day voting places.
Follow our live blog to keep up to date with everything you need to know about the presidential election.

Ahead of the final weekend before Election Day on Tuesday, Trump and Biden will barnstorm across battleground states in the Midwest, including Wisconsin, where the coronavirus pandemic has surged.
A federal appeals court said Minnesota’s plan to count absentee ballots received after Election Day was illegal, siding with Republicans in the battleground state.

Politics aside, there is one outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election that could bring some relief to Pentagon planners: a clear-cut victory. By either candidate. A contested vote could stir the kind of wild speculation that forced America’s top general to assure lawmakers the military would have no role in settling any election dispute between Trump and Biden. A decisive result could allay such concerns by lowering the risk of a prolonged political crisis.

Law enforcement, which has warned of potential violence around the November vote, must prepare for a range of potential threats, from spontaneous acts of violence to more organized, planned attacks, according to officials. Authorities also face a disparate range of potential perpetrators from lone actors to a growing threat from extremist groups, including those that are racially motivated, anti-authority and militias.

Exclusive: The group of Russian hackers accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election earlier this year targeted the email accounts of Democratic state parties in California and Indiana, and influential think tanks in Washington and New York, according to people with knowledge of the matter.