Overnight Health Care: US sets a new record for average daily coronavirus cases

Welcome to Monday’s Overnight Health Care.

Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are rising sharply even as President TrumpDonald John TrumpFox News president, top anchors advised to quarantine after coronavirus exposure: report Six notable moments from Trump and Biden’s ’60 Minutes’ interviews Biden on attacks on mental fitness: Trump thought ‘9/11 attack was 7/11 attack’ MORE continues to downplay the pandemic. White House Chief of Staff Mark MeadowsMark Randall MeadowsPence’s ‘body man’ among aides who tested positive for coronavirus: report Murphy says US would be ‘better off’ if Trump admin ‘did nothing’ on coronavirus Biden: Meadows coronavirus remark a ‘candid acknowledgement’ of Trump strategy ‘to wave the white flag’ MORE said the administration has effectively given up on controlling the spread of the coronavirus, and more cities have begun reimposing restrictions.   

We’ll start with new numbers: 

The cases just keep going up: The US set a new record for average daily coronavirus cases

The average new cases per day over a seven-day period was 68,954 on Sunday, according to the Covid Tracking Project, beating the previous record of 66,844 set on July 23.

Big picture: The country has now passed the July peak, and there is no end in sight as the weather gets colder and more activity moves indoors, where the virus spreads more easily.

It’s not just more testing: The president blamed the rise in cases on an increase in testing in a tweet Monday. However, hospitalizations are also rising, a sign that the rise in cases is not just because of more testing. There are more than 41,000 people hospitalized with coronavirus, up from around 30,000 at the end of September.

The percentage of tests coming back positive is also rising, another sign of the rising spread of the virus. It is now at about 6 percent nationally and climbing, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Read more here.

Meadows doubles down on White House pandemic response: ‘We’re not going to control it’

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows attempted to clarify his remarks indicating that the Trump administration has given up on fighting the spread of the coronavirus, but then doubled down on them.

“We’re going to defeat the virus; we’re not going to control it,” Meadows told reporters outside the White House. “We will try to contain it as best we can, but … we need to make sure that we have therapeutics and vaccines.”

Meadows was seeking to defend comments he made Sunday, when he told CNN “we’re not going to control the pandemic,” an extraordinary admission that the administration has essentially given up on fighting the spread of the coronavirus.

The comment from Meadows runs counter to the rosy campaign trail message from President Trump that the country is “rounding the turn” on the pandemic, that the media is overreacting, and that there will soon be vaccines and therapeutics widely available. 

The context:  Meadows said “the full context” of his remarks was about making sure people have access to the same kind of experimental therapies that Trump had when he was treated for COVID-19 earlier this month. 

The reality: The White House is putting all its hope on a…