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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Coronavirus outbreaks in the Midwest and Western United States have driven the national case count to its highest level since August, fueling fears of what the coming winter will mean for the country. COVID-19 cases are starting to climb in 36 states, including parts of the Northeast, which is starting to backslide after months of progress, The New York Times reported. More than 820 new deaths and more than 54,500 new cases were announced across the country on Tuesday, the newspaper said. Idaho and Wisconsin set single-day records for new cases. About 50,000 new cases are being reported each day in the United States for the week ending Monday, the Times reported. That is still less than in late July, when the country was seeing more than...

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Bedside tests for COVID-19 may speed results and improve infection control, making them better than standard laboratory tests, a new study suggests. Results of the bedside test take about 2 hours, compared with 21 hours for PCR lab tests, the researchers said. These findings are from more than 1,000 British hospital patients tested with the QIAstat-Dx POCT test. Reducing the time to diagnosis allows patients to be quickly isolated and treated, the researchers said. As a second wave of the pandemic looms, rapid testing will be key to containment and preventing hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, the study authors added. "Our findings are the first to suggest the clinical benefits of molecular point-of-care COVID-19 testing in hospitals,...

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A study to assess whether certain approved or experimental drugs are effective against COVID-19 and warrant testing in large clinical trials has been launched by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research will largely focus on monoclonal antibody medications. These types of drugs garnered headlines last week as President Donald Trump credited one such drug cocktail, made by Regeneron, with helping him recover from his coronavirus infection. However, the therapy is not yet approved against COVID-19 and is still considered experimental. "The goal here is to identify as quickly as possible the experimental therapeutics that demonstrate the most clinical promise as COVID-19 treatments and move them into larger-scale testing,"...

TUESDAY, Oct. 13, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In a sign that many young Americans may no longer be boozing it up, a new study finds that fewer young people are drinking alcohol now than 20 years ago. In fact, the number of men and women in the United States between the ages of 18 to 22 who abstained from drinking increased from 20% to 28% for college students and from 24% to 30% for those not in school, the researchers reported. Not only that, alcohol abuse dropped by about half. But the news was not all good: The number of young adults who used marijuana, and those who used alcohol with marijuana, increased, the investigators found. For the study, the researchers collected data on more than 180,000 young U.S. adults who took part in a survey. "We're encouraged by the significant...