September 16 coronavirus news

The state of Hawaii will allow people arriving from out of state to skip the mandatory 14-day quarantine if they test negative for Covid-19, Gov. David Ige announced Wednesday.

The new program begins October 15.

The mandatory quarantine has been in effect since March, crippling the state’s critical tourism industry. “I worry about the long-term impacts of economic stress,” said Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who joined the news conference by videoconference because he is recovering from Covid-19.

The test must be taken within 72 hours of travel. If the test results are not in by the time a traveler arrives in Hawaii, they must begin their quarantine until a negative result is returned.

The state will only accept a nucleic acid amplification test processed by a certified lab, which Green says typically costs more than $100 if it is not covered by insurance.

Los Angeles has the lowest number of patients hospitalized from coronavirus since the outbreak started, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced in a news conference on Wednesday.

There are currently 804 patients hospitalized with coronavirus in the county, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Garcetti said this number has been cut by nearly half in the past five weeks.

Five of six critical indicators tracked by the county are headed in the right direction, according to the mayor. “Our hospital inventory remains stable and lower than we’ve seen,” he said. 

The seven-day average of new coronavirus cases has fallen below 1,000 for the first time since May 21, Garcetti said. Los Angeles County estimates the rate of coronavirus transmission, or R0, is now .95, indicating a reduced spread of the virus.

While the case rate and positivity rate continue to improve in Los Angeles, the county still remains in the first of the state’s four-tier, color-coded reopening system. 

Garcetti also urged residents to get a flu shot, warning, “this could be the worst phase of this pandemic just in the next couple months.”

“We need to make sure everyone is vaccinated to avoid the double hit of both Covid and the flu at the same time,” Garcetti said. 

If too few Americans receive a Covid-19 vaccine when one becomes available, it won’t help reduce the spread of the deadly virus, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Asked in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Wednesday whether it would be enough if only a third of Americans got vaccinated, Fauci responded: “No, I don’t think it would be at all.”

Fauci says the public needs to understand that, too.

“It’s a combination of how effective a vaccine is and how many people use it,” he said.
“If you have a vaccine that is highly effective and not enough people get vaccinated, you’re not going to realize the full, important effect of having a vaccine.”

The less protective a vaccine is, the more people need to get it to provide population-wide immunity, Fauci said.

“If a vaccine is not particularly effective, not like ineffective, but it’s not like measles, which is 97 to 98% effective, if the vaccine is moderately effective enough that you definitely want to use it, then you’re going to have to get a lot more people to get vaccinated to get that veil of protection in the community.”

Fauci said, otherwise, public health measures in addition to a vaccine would be crucial in controlling the spread of the virus.

The fundamental goal is to get the level of infection so low that when there are little outbreaks, they’re easy to control, he said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wants President Donald Trump to come to his state for a campaign event – but do it in a way that doesn’t put people at risk.

“The President has said that governors need to be in charge. Our policies are working; they’re making a difference. And I would just ask them, ‘you certainly, we want you to come, we want you to try and get your message out, but do so in a manner that doesn’t put people at risk,’” he said. “Be our partner in keeping Minnesotans safe.”

When asked about Trump’s comments that the United States would be doing much better with coronavirus if it didn’t include the numbers from Democrat states, Walz responded: “I think their families would think differently.”

“I do not know the political affiliation of my 1,900 neighbors who’ve died. I know it is my responsibility to do all I can do to mitigate that risk and keep them alive, and it’s just unfortunate, but I think we’ve seen this pattern that the President has said he takes no responsibility and he left it up to governors to do that, and that’s what we’re trying to do here in Minnesota, and we’ll continue to do exactly that.”

Rich nations including the United States, Britain and Japan have already bought up more than half the expected supply of coronavirus vaccine, the international anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam said Wednesday.

These countries represent 13% of the world’s population, but have bought up future supplies of 51% of coronavirus vaccines, Oxfam said. 

The group used data collected by analytics firm Airfinity to analyze published deals between governments and vaccine makers. Oxfam calculated five organizations – AstraZeneca, Russia’s Gamaleya, Moderna, Pfizer and China’s Sinovac – have the combined production capacity to make 5.9 billion doses. That’s enough to cover nearly 3 billion people – less than half the world’s population, if everyone needs two doses, as seems likely.

Oxfam said in a statement that supply deals have already been agreed for 5.3 billion doses, of which 2.7 billion (51%) have been bought by developed countries and territories including the UK, US, Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Switzerland and Israel, as well as the European Union. The remaining 2.6 billion doses have been bought by or promised to developing countries including India, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico.

Oxfam noted that AstraZeneca has pledged two-thirds of the doses it produces to developing countries.

“Access to a life-saving vaccine shouldn’t depend on where you live or how much money you have,” said Oxfam’s Robert Silverman. “The development and approval of a safe and effective vaccine is crucial, but equally important is making sure the vaccines are available and affordable to everyone. COVID-19 anywhere is COVID-19 everywhere.” 

When will we get enough vaccines? On Monday, Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India (SII), predicted there may not be enough Covid-19 vaccine until 2024. “It’s going to take four to five years until everyone gets the vaccine on this planet,” Poonawalla told the Financial Times. 

Poonawalla estimated that if the Covid-19 shot is a two-dose vaccine, the world would need about 15 billion doses.

President Trump confirmed an earlier report that a White House staff member has tested positive for coronavirus.

“I heard about it this morning at a very small level yes. I heard about it this morning,” Trump said at a White House press briefing on Wednesday. “Last night I heard about it for the first time and it’s a small number of cases, maybe it’s not even cases,” he added, contradicting himself on when he was first made aware of the positive case.

Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany later said that it was just one person who tested positive.

“It did not effect the event and press was not around the individual,” McEnany said, apparently referring to the President’s town hall event last night in Philadelphia.

“And it’s not anybody that’s near me,” Trump added. “It was one person, not a person that I was associated with.”

Trump did not answer when asked if it was at the event in Philadelphia.

The information stems from today’s foreign print pool reporter, Raquel Krähenbühl, who wrote on Twitter earlier today that she was told the press pool was tested late today because: “It was a very busy morning. We had a couple of positives today.”

It’s unclear who told this to the foreign print pool reporter and the information has not been included in any pool reports seen by CNN. The White House declined to comment to CNN. 

Earlier White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters, “I don’t comment on any health-related issues as it relates to the White House ever.”

The suspected positive coronavirus case inside the White House come a day after visits from Trump allies and foreign delegations from Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain for the signing of peace agreements. 

WATCH:

President Trump told reporters that he believes Dr, Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was “confused” when he said a Covid-19 vaccine wouldn’t be widely available in the US until the third quarter or second quarter of 2021. 

“I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information,” Trump said when asked about Redfield’s comments to the Senate earlier today. 

Redfield told Congress earlier Wednesday on a vaccine: “If you’re asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we’re probably looking at late 2nd quarter/3rd quarter 2021.”

Trump added on Redfield: “I believe he was confused” and continued to claim that a vaccine will be distributed “very soon” despite his public health officials testimony.

Trump also said the release of a coronavirus vaccine could happen by mid-October which is quicker than the vaccine distribution materials released today by the CDC outlined.

Trump said distribution of a vaccine will begin as soon as a vaccine is approved, which he said could be “sometime in October.”

“We think we can start sometime in October. So as soon as it is announced, we’ll be able to start. That will be from mid-October on. It may be a little later than that,” Trump said at a news conference at the White House on Wednesday. “We will be all set. As soon as it’s given the go ahead and they are doing trials as you know and as soon as it’s given the go ahead we will get it out, defeat the virus.”

The CDC’s vaccine distribution playbook says that for planning purposes, state and local health agencies should assume “limited COVID-19 vaccine doses may be available by early November 2020” if a vaccine is authorized or licensed by the FDA, but the supply may increase substantially in 2021.

Later in his briefing, Trump said a vaccine could be announced “fairly soon, regardless this month, next month, in a level of time nobody thought was possible.”

Today, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said he still anticipates a vaccine would take until November or December before it’s proven safe and effective. 

‘‘I would still put my money on November/December,” Fauci said, during a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute panel on global pandemics.

On Tuesday, Trump said he thinks a vaccine could be ready in three to four weeks.

Chief of staff Mark Meadows echoed that claim on Wednesday.

“I have been on phone calls with individuals who have said that personally to me,” Meadows said in response to a question from CNN, but said he would not give specific names because “it would affect markets and I’m not going to do that.”

WATCH:

Brazil’s health ministry reported 987 new coronavirus-related deaths and 36,820 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday.

The country has so far reported a total of 4,419,083 coronavirus cases, and the death toll stands at 134,106.

With over 4.4 million cases, Brazil is currently the third-worst hit country in the world in terms of cases, behind only India and the United States, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil is second-worst in terms of deaths, with only the US having suffered more coronavirus fatalities so far.

The University of Georgia released its weekly Covid-19 report today showing that cases have declined “more than 70% over the course of a week.”

The university reported a total of 421 positive tests between Sept. 7 to 13.

“Of those, 404 were students, 16 were staff, and one was a faculty member,” according to the report.  

On Wednesday, the school also announced that there will be no on-campus voting in the fall.   

“These data give us some cautious optimism that cases might have plateaued on our campus,” said Dr. Garth Russo, executive director of the University Health Center and chair of UGA’s Medical Oversight Task Force. “However, we are by no means out of the woods yet. We know that we had a short week due to the Labor Day holiday, and we hope that we will not see a spike in positive cases from activities that weekend. Each member of our campus community must remain diligent in our individual efforts to curb the spread of the virus if we want to keep these numbers on a downward trend.”

The University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, has “nearly 50,000 students, faculty and staff,” according to the university.  

As the United States approaches 200,000 coronavirus deaths, Dr. Tom Frieden, a former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, said Wednesday that the number of reported deaths are a “reflection of a failing national response.”

“The actual number is higher because not all deaths have been identified and this is just a horrifying number,” Frieden told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It’s more people than die from suicide or overdose or homicide or HIV. In fact, Covid is on track to be the number three leading cause of death in all of the US for this year.”

The former CDC director said he’s concerned that Americans will get “hardened” to the number of coronavirus deaths.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the US has reported at least 196,465 coronavirus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

According to Johns Hopkins, 1,293 deaths were reported Tuesday, which is the highest one-day total since Aug. 19.

“If you look at Germany, one fifth are death rate,” Frieden said. “If you look at South Korea, 80 times fewer deaths than we’ve had. These are lives that have been lost and jobs that have been lost because we haven’t had an organized, consistent, coherent federal response.”

Mistrust in government agencies is hindering Covid-19 surveillance efforts, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said Wednesday.

“It is very challenging in many areas today, where we’re seeing people who do not want to participate in any kind of follow up with regard to surveillance, because of their distrust of government and the public health system,” Osterholm said during an American Public Health Association webinar.

Osterholm said that challenges in agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and US Food and Drug Administration, have eroded trust in the whole public health system. 

“There has been more than enough public discussion of challenges about the validity of the information coming from those areas, that then often will translate into the public’s trust of even state and local health departments and the compliance with contact tracers,” Osterholm said.

Public health experts have long warned that the Covid-19 pandemic could worsen the world’s hunger crises. Now it appears that the number of people who face acute food insecurity has doubled, said Valerie Guarnieri, the World Food Program’s assistant executive director. 

“Last year, we had anticipated — based on all of the assessments and all of the projections — that the number of people in a state of severe food insecurity this year would be 135 million,” Guarnieri told reporters during a virtual meeting hosted by the United Nations Foundation on Wednesday. “As a result of Covid, we are now anticipating that that number will be 270 million — so basically a doubling of acute food insecurity as a result of Covid and the Covid compounding impact on pre-existing crises.”

She said the World Food Program is looking to scale up its efforts to reach 138 million people who are food insecure this year. 

The Global Network Against Food Crises — launched by the European Union, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program — released a report on Tuesday detailing how the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are driving up acute hunger in vulnerable countries that were already facing food crises.

More details: The report notes that while currently the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the largest food crisis in absolute numbers, there has been a nearly 300% increase in acute food insecurity in Burkina Faso, a 73% increase in northern Nigeria, a 67% increase in Somalia and a 64% increase in Sudan.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker spoke about the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and impacts on housing in the state, saying he would extend the state’s eviction moratorium for an additional 30 days.

Pritzker said at a news conference on Wednesday that he would continue to work with leaders in the general assembly and Congress to advocate for more federal assistance to keep people in their homes.

“Over 100,000 Illinois tenants and homeowners applied for our assistance program. But we only have enough funds to support approximately 40,000 of them. And ours is the largest pandemic housing stability program in the nation. It is for that reason that I will be extending out eviction moratorium for an additional 30 days,” he said.

The governor also said there have been outbreaks of Covid-19 over the summer, tied to youth sports across the state and across the world.

“Over the summer we saw outbreaks across Illinois and around the world, tied to a variety of youth sports leagues. Those continue today even among the lowest risk youth sports,” Pritzker said.

Over the past two weeks, the governor said, nearly every region in the state has seen a stable or declining positivity rate. 

He said the Illinois Department of Public Health will continue to monitor the positivity over the next few says and that if the trend holds for three days, “we will remove the resurgence mitigations and return the entire region to phase four of the Restore Illinois Plan.” 

Of all the viral diseases and emerging infections that he’s encountered throughout his career, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he has “never seen anything with a range” like the novel coronavirus, which he said suggests factors other than underlying medical conditions affect disease severity. 

At least 40% of patients have no symptoms, while some stay ill for months on end, Fauci said. 

“It’s just completely unique to see that degree of variability of a single microbe, which means there are things that are determining that, that we still at this point don’t understand,” Fauci said.

“It isn’t just whether you have an underlying disease or not – it’s just not the case. It’s something more than that,” he added during a virtual panel on the global pandemic sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. 

He said one of those factors may be “the rate of expression of ACE2 receptors.”  These are molecular doorways into cells that the novel coronavirus appears to favor. Some cells have more of these receptors than others do.

Fauci said this variability has created confusion. It’s helped fuel misunderstandings about who can spread the virus and when. 

“One of the things we’re dealing with in this country is a real lack of understanding of the importance of everybody trying to prevent getting infected rather than inadvertently… propagating the outbreak,” he said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the number of patients who lack coronavirus symptoms. It is at least 40%.

During a Covid-19 briefing Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy addressed the party organized by YouTubers that authorities broke up Monday evening, calling it an “egregious display of knucklehead behavior” and “irresponsible from top to bottom in every respect.”

Murphy said that it took a “substantial” amount of law enforcement resources from neighboring towns to break up the party and urged attendees to get tested. 

“We are continuing to see case numbers climb among young people. Many of these cases and clusters are a result of parties and social gatherings,” state health commissioner Judy Persichilli added. 

Since mid-August, the percent positivity rate among 14-18 year-olds has grown from 3% to 7%, while for 19-24 year olds it’s risen from 2.7% to 7.1%, she said. 

Murphy said that “the system is working inside the walls” of schools, while the state’s greater concern is what is happening outside of them. He went on to clarify that the state does not have any clear evidence of in-school transmission of the virus, and that proper protocol has been followed thus far if a case does arise. 

What the latest numbers are: Murphy reported 447 new positive Covid-19 cases, bringing the state’s total to 197,792.

As of Sept. 12, New Jersey’s daily positivity rate is 2.06%, said Murphy, while the statewide rate of transmission remains at 1.06. 

There were nine new fatalities reported, bringing state’s total to 14,263 virus-related deaths.

One thing to note: These numbers released by the New Jersey Department of Health may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced Wednesday that he will be signing an order to allow “certain indoor spaces” to opening on Friday.  

The order will apply to movie theaters, bowling alleys, concert halls, convention spaces, banquet halls and certain indoor amusement venues, said Gimenez.  

These businesses “can open at 50% capacity, but they must follow the guidelines in place, including obviously wearing masks, distancing of six feet and special HVAC systems to bring more fresh air into those spaces,” Gimenez said. 

Gimenez said businesses must also follow food consumption rules established for casinos. 

“No food or beverages will be allowed while watching movies or bowling, there must be designated areas for food and drink where people can take off their masks and practice social distancing”, said Gimenez.

As for bars and other entertainment venues, Gimenez said he plans to meet with medical experts and business owners next week “to discuss what’s doable in the future.” 

The mayor said the county’s infection rate has steadily remained “under 5% daily.”  

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that he believes a coronavirus vaccine may be proven safe and effective by November or December of this year.

‘‘I would still put my money on November/December,” Fauci said, during a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute panel on global pandemics.

Fauci said that current modeling indicates that about 150 infections need to occur in a vaccine trial to be able to make a determination of efficacy. 

“Right now, the trials are over two thirds enrolled – really close to full enrollment on one, and over full enrollment on the other,” he said.

He pointed out that some people, like himself, think it’s likely that an answer about efficacy will be ready by November or December, while others have said it could be as early as October.

“It really depends on where the sites are and how many infections there are in a site,” Fauci said. “So you could get your answer sooner, or you can get your answer a bit later.”

Fauci said his projection of November or December is informed by calculations based on where the clinical trial sites are in their studies.

The final Covid-19 case count on Tuesday for the US has been corrected by Johns Hopkins University to 39,617 cases and 1,293 deaths. Earlier numbers should not be used.

With this fix, Tuesday’s death count is still the highest one-day total since Aug. 19.

Yesterday’s new case numbers are now in line with recent averages. The US is currently averaging 38,037 new Covid-19 cases a day, which is up 5% from the previous week. 

The university explained that the discrepancy was the result of both a data dump in Alabama’s numbers and a misreading on its part, which led to a double count on a single day.

States often have data dumps when they change how to report cases/deaths, and the university normally redistributes those cases to the proper days.

The data dump and the dashboard error have both been fixed, the university told CNN.

 White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that President Trump is calling for direct payments and more than $500 billion in a coronavirus stimulus bill. 

Trump earlier Wednesday tweeted on the stimulus bill and told Republicans to “Go for the much higher numbers.” McEnany told reporters the President was referring to the Senate GOP “skinny” proposal in his comments.

“What the President was referring to was the 500 billion dollar bill… that got 50 votes in the Senate,” McEnany said in a briefing Wednesday.

“But it didn’t include direct payments. So he wants more than the 500 billion dollars and he is very keen to see these direct stimulus payments. And we hope that Nancy Pelosi will work with us in good faith. There are many nonpartisan proposals out there that have merit.”

McEnany then hammered Pelosi saying everyone in Washington wants a plan except the speaker. She did not answer whether the White House has spoken to Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Even if a vaccine for Covid-19 was released today, it would take six to nine months for enough people to get it to create immunity, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.

“I think we have to assume that if we had a vaccine, say, released today, that it’s going to take us probably in the order of nine months, six to nine months to get the American public vaccinated,” Redfield said during the Senate Appropriations Hearing on coronavirus response efforts.

“In order to have enough of us immunized so we have immunity, I think it’s going to take us six to nine months,” he said.

In this time, it’s important to for people embrace mitigation steps such as physically distancing, mask use and avoiding crowds, he said.

Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Health and Human Services Department, denied Wednesday he had ever been asked to test fewer Americans to make the pandemic look less serious than it really is.

Sen Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, asked Giroir, who heads testing efforts for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, about comments President Trump has made repeatedly saying the reason the US has so many cases of Covid-19 is because the US does more testing. 

When Durbin asked during Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Hearing if ending testing would end the spread of Covid-19, Giroir answered, “No, sir.” 

“Let me just clarify, that the number of cases are going to be the number of cases,” Giroir said. “We do more testing so we can detect more and more cases, that’s a good thing.” 

Detecting as many cases as possible means that they can be appropriately isolated and contact tracing can happen, he said.

“It is true that the more testing you do, the more cases you will discover,” Giroir said. “But the cases are there no matter what.” 

Giroir said that he has “never been asked, told, hinted, suggested that we should decrease testing.” He said every time the task force meets, they work to expand testing. 

“My job is to expand testing as much as feasibly, even infeasibly, possible and get the right test to the right people at the right time,” he said. “That’s been my mission. No one’s told me to alter that.”  

Penn State vice president for intercollegiate athletics Sandy Barbour said the Big Ten Conference will not have fans in the stands during football games this fall.

Barbour noted there is still a chance for families of football players to attend games, but plans are still ongoing. 

“We are looking to see what we can do on a campus-by-campus basis to accommodate the families of our student-athletes, both home and away as well as the families of staff but as a conference we’ve made a decision – no public sale of tickets,” she added.

Florida health officials reported 195 new pediatric Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, according to the Florida Department of Health (DOH).  

DOH reported one new pediatric hospitalization related to coronavirus, bringing the total number of children that have been hospitalized due to the virus to 688. 

To date there have been 54,849 cases of coronavirus among children in Florida, DOH data shows.

The positivity rate among children in Florida is currently 14%, DOH data shows. 

The age group for pediatric cases is 0-17 years old.

Health and Human Services’ assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo will take a 60-day leave of absence, according to a news release from the department. 

“Today, the Department of Health and Human Services is announcing that HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo has decided to take a leave of absence to focus on his health and the well-being of his family. Mr. Caputo will be on leave for the next 60 days,” the HHS statement reads. 

The announcement comes after Caputo apologized to staffers on Tuesday for a conspiracy-laden rant in which he accused government scientists of “sedition” and of working to undermine the President.

As CNN has also previously reported, Caputo is dealing with potential health issues. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to “clarify” confusing and controversial changes made to its guidance about testing people who do not have symptoms of coronavirus, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said Wednesday.

“We are working on a clarification document related to the diagnostic and public health use of testing,” Redfield told a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“We have never recommended against asymptomatic testing. You’ll see in the clarification we are making it very clear asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission is important, and making it very clear if you have been exposed to somebody, you need to be tested and contact traced,” Redfield added.

Testing guidelines were changed on CDC’s site quietly, without public notice, on Aug. 24. 

Here’s what the CDC website said previously: “Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of the potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested.” 

The site was changed on Aug. 24 to say: “If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms, you do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.” 

Redfield said the agency would post new guidance updating those changes, which were broadly denounced by public health experts. “We are going to come out with that hopefully, I hope before the end of the week,” Redfield told the hearing.

He said testing is important not only for diagnosing cases, but for screening groups to find cases that are not obvious. “Screening can be very powerful,” he said. It can help schools reopen and help people get back to more normal lives, he added.

Now that more tests are available, Redfield said, the CDC will also encourage surveillance testing, which can help find cases that might otherwise go unnoticed until an outbreak has started.

Florida health officials reported 152 resident deaths on Wednesday, bringing the resident death toll to 12,939, according to the Florida Department of Health (DOH).  

Florida health officials report 161 non-Florida resident deaths in the state as well, DOH data shows.

DOH reported 2,355 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the state’s total to 671,201.

Note: These numbers were released by Florida’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project   

Federal documents released Wednesday provide new details about the government’s plan to distribute Covid-19 vaccines for free once approved or authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration. 

“We’re dealing in a world of great uncertainty,” Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the US Department of Health Human Services, said during a briefing with reporters on Wednesday. “We don’t know the timing of when we’ll have a vaccine. We don’t know the quantities. We don’t know the efficacy of those vaccines.” 

He noted that vaccines being tested have different transport and storage requirement; some require a second dose at 21 or 28 days after the first; and some require different needles and syringes.

“I think the message we want you to leave with is we are prepared for all of those uncertainties,” Mango said. 

Here are key things to know about the plan:

Limited early supply

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine distribution playbook says that for planning purposes, state and local health agencies should assume “limited COVID-19 vaccine doses may be available by early November 2020” if a vaccine is authorized or licensed by the FDA, but the supply may increase substantially in 2021. The initial supply is expected to go to health care workers, other essential workers and people at higher risk for severe illness from Covid-19. 

The US Department of Defense, CDC and some parts of HHS are coordinating the supply, production and distribution of vaccines. Vaccine administration sites may be limited early on to target particular populations and storage requirements. Later on, sites could expand to include pediatric and adult health care providers and pharmacies. 

IT infrastructure

The effort requires extensive data monitoring to track vaccines, handle claims and payment, identify who needs a second a dose and to monitor outcomes and potential adverse events. Operation Warp Speed will construct and integrate IT architecture to meet these needs, according to the strategy document.

Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski from Operation Warp Speed said during the briefing Wednesday that databases to track vaccines already exist at state and pharmacy levels. “The hard part is being able to get the databases to talk with one another,” he said, for example, so that he could get a vaccine at a public health center and then get the correct second dose weeks later, perhaps at a pharmacy in a different location. 

Cost

On cost, the distribution strategy says the objective is “to ensure no one desiring vaccination will face an economic barrier to receiving one.”

“The federal government is procuring hundreds of millions of doses of safe and effective vaccines, and has contracted with McKesson for purposes of vaccine distribution, such that no American will be charged for either the COVID-19 vaccine or its distribution,” the strategy document says. 

Vaccine information campaign

The strategy document says an information campaign led by HHS public affairs “will focus on vaccine safety and efficacy, and target key populations and communities to ensure maximum vaccine acceptance.” 

“Identifying the right messages to promote vaccine confidence, countering misinformation, and targeting outreach to vulnerable and at-risk populations will be necessary to achieve high coverage,” it says.

Wearing a face mask might provide better protection against Covid-19 than a vaccine, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

“I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70% and if I don’t get an immune response, the vaccine is not going to protect me. This face mask will,” Redfield explained, adding that the American public has not yet embraced the use of face masks to a level that could effectively control the outbreak.

“So I do want to keep asking the American public to take the responsibility, particularly the 18 to 25 year olds where we’re seeing the outbreak in America continue to go like this,” Redfield said.

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Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that he thinks it will be the late second quarter or third quarter of 2021 before a Covid-19 vaccine is generally available to the American public. 

When asked when he thought there would be a vaccine ready to administer to the American public, Redfield said he thought that there would be vaccine initially available sometime between November and December, but “very limited supply and will have to be prioritized.” 

“If you’re asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American public, so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we’re probably looking at third, late second quarter, third quarter 2021.” 

Redfield said that he thought the vaccination would begin in November and December “and then will pick up, and it will be in a prioritized way. It will be those first responders and those at greatest risk for death, and then eventually that will expand.” 

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On the day the Big Ten conference announced a return plan for a fall football season, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott released a statement noting the conference still has significant issues to solve before considering its own return to play. 

Scott sites health restrictions currently in place in California and Oregon that prevent football teams from practicing. There are six Pac-12 universities in those states. Scott also hints to concerns regarding the poor air quality created from the wildfires raging in the western United States. 

The Pac-12 remains the lone Power 5 conference that does not have a plan in place to play football this fall. 

Here’s the statement from the commissioner:

“At this time, our universities in California and Oregon do not have approval from state or local public health officials to start contact practice. We are hopeful that our new daily testing capability can help satisfy public health official approvals in California and Oregon to begin contact practice and competition. We are equally closely monitoring the devastating fires and air quality in our region at this time. We are eager for our student-athletes to have the opportunity to play this season, as soon as it can be done safely and in accordance with public health authority approvals.”

3M is a company known for scotch tapes and post-it notes but during the coronavirus pandemic, it has become the largest producer of N95 masks. However, even as the company ramped up production and is on its way to produce 95 million masks a month this fall and 2 billion by the end of 2020, it’s still facing a challenge to meet the demand for the masks, CEO Mike Roman says.

“We are working in partnership with other companies to look at ways that you can reuse N95s. We’re also exploring ways to bring other kinds of respiratory solutions. We have reusable respirators, which are another solution. They can’t meet all of the demand either but there are other things we’re doing to fight them at every angle,” he added.

A lesson already being learned from this pandemic and production process is that investing in inventory and capacity is key.

“It’s public-private partnerships that are doing that. Part of the investment with the DoD is to be able to have capacity to build an inventory of N95s. It’s also true that we’re doing that in partnership with health care providers, making sure that they have sufficient inventory.”

“Broadly, we were not ready for the demand,” he told CNN about pandemic preparedness at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis.

The Supreme Court announced Wednesday that when the new term begins in October, the justices will hear oral arguments by phone, continuing the format it used for arguments last May due to the pandemic. 

“In keeping with public health guidance in response to COVID-19, the Justices and counsel will all participate remotely,” Kathy Arberg, the court’s public information officer, said in a statement. She noted that the court would also provide live audio feed for the October arguments as it did last term. 

When does the new SCOTUS term start: The new term will launch the first Monday of October with the backdrop of possibly the most litigious presidential election in recent years playing out on the public scene. Emergency election related petitions are likely to come to the high court before the election and possibly after the vote. 

The court has not yet determined plans for the November and December argument sessions. 

Last spring marked the first time the justices heard their cases over the phone and the experiment significantly changed how arguments played out. 

Instead of a free for all with the justices interrupting each other and peppering advocates with a barrage of questions, the court proceeded in order of seniority with each justice having time to ask a series of questions.

For the most part, the experiment won good reviews with advocates expressing satisfaction that they were able to get their answers out without interruption. In addition, the new system attracted Justice Clarence Thomas who rarely asks questions in open court, but spoke up frequently by telephone. The session marked the first time, the public could listen in to a live audio feed.

Retail sales ticked up in August from the previous month but at a slower pace after the enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the federal government ended. 

US retail sales rose 0.6% in August, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That’s below the 1% predicted by economists surveyed by Refinitv. In July, retail sales grew 0.9%, the Commerce Department said. That gain already was significantly slower than the 8.4% gain in June.

A supplemental $600 weekly unemployment insurance, which had been part of the government’s first stimulus bill, ran out at the end of July. Since then, Congress has been unable to agree another boost to jobless benefits. President Trump signed an executive order to bolster benefits again, although by less money, by diverting funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Consumer spending is the biggest engine of US economic growth, and retail sales are an important component of that. The report from the Commerce Department, however, does not include spending on services — things like hair-cuts, medical care and financial services. 

Some economists say continued growth in retail sales depends on future government stimulus funds and relief to people who have lost their jobs. 

“A partial relapse [in retail sales] is likely over the next couple of months as people who have been receiving enhanced unemployment benefits…cut their spending,” Ian Shepherdson, economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a research report Tuesday. “The income hit from the benefit cut-off is too big for people to ignore.” 

Some background: Retail sales slumped to a seven-year low in April as the coronavirus prompted stores across the country to shut their doors. Sales bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in July.

Although retail sales have bounced back, the spending has not gone to all retailers equally.

So far in 2020, nearly 8,000 stores have said they will permanently close, according to Coresight Research, a retail research and advisory firm. It anticipates closures will set a new annual record this year with as many as 25,000, breaking last year’s record 9,302 closures tracked by the firm.

Nine clubs in England’s Football League will be allowed to admit up to 1,000 fans in this weekend’s games as part of a pilot scheme to test the return of supporters, the English Football League (EFL) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The games will be spread out across English football’s second tier Championship (hosting two games), third tier League One (hosting four games) and fourth tier League Two (hosting three games).

EFL Chair, Rick Parry said: “It’s encouraging that we are in a position to move forward with the next phase of the pilot programme and give a small number of our Clubs the opportunity to welcome back up to a 1,000 fans this week.”

“By extending across more EFL Clubs we hope to further demonstrate that the measures developed can allow fans to return in greater numbers from as early as next month,” he continued.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week that plans for stadiums to be up to a third full starting Thursday, Oct. 1 would be reviewed.

New York State is back under 1% Covid-19 infection rate after breaking its nearly 40-day streak. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that of the 75,087 tests reported yesterday, 652 were positive, which is .87% of the total. 

The state hit a 1% positivity rate Tuesday after being under the 1% threshold for 39 days.

The Welsh government has locked down one of the nation’s biggest regions — barring people from entering or leaving — following a sharp increase in coronavirus cases.

Rhondda Cynon Taf, in the south of Wales, is the second county to be locked down. It has a population of nearly 240,000 people. 

In a statement on Wednesday, Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething said:

“We now have evidence of wider community transmission in the borough, which means we need to take urgent action to control and, ultimately, reduce the spread of the virus and protect people’s health.”

The new measures will be imposed on Thursday from 1 p.m. ET. The rules apply to everyone living within the Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The government said people will not be allowed to enter or leave the Rhondda Cynon Taf Council area without a reasonable excuse.

Enforcement of the new restrictions will be undertaken by the local authority and by the police.

The Big Ten Conference will play football this fall after all. On Wednesday, the conference reversed its postponement decision made last month.

The Big Ten announced the season will start the weekend of Oct. 23 and 24. 

The conference will require student-athletes, coaches, trainers and other individuals that are on the field for all practices and games to undergo daily antigen testing.

Test results must be completed and recorded prior to each practice or game. Student-athletes who test positive for the coronavirus through point of contact (POC) daily testing would require a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to confirm the result of the POC test.

Some context: The Big Ten announced on August 11 that it was postponing the 2020-21 fall sports season because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at US Health and Human Services, said during a briefing on Wednesday it’s an aspiration that no American will have to pay for a Covid-19 vaccine

“In terms of a principle and an aspiration, it’ll be that no American has to pay a single dime out of pocket to get a vaccine,” Mango said. “And we’re getting very close to that aspiration right now.” 

Where things stand on vaccine development: The AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine trial, halted last week after an unexplained illness in one of the volunteers, will resume, the University of Oxford announced Saturday.

The university, which is developing the vaccine with AstraZeneca, did not say when the trial would resume. AstraZeneca said the trial will only resume in the United Kingdom, adding that it’s working with health authorities across the world to determine when other trials can resume.

Before the pause, the company was testing its vaccine, dubbed the Oxford vaccine, in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is one of three coronavirus vaccines in late-stage, Phase 3 trials in the US. It has the backing of the US federal government. Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTec are the other two groups with phase three trials under way, also with federal government funding.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended her approach to coronavirus stimulus negotiations on Wednesday morning, as a vulnerable swath of her caucus is raising concerns about the impasse over new aid between top Democrats and Republicans.

“What we want is to put something on the floor that will become law, and that requires a negotiation,” Pelosi said during an interview with MSNBC. 

She said there are “a number of schools of thought” among Democrats about how they should proceed as talks remain stalled. Some members want the House to vote on the more than $3 trillion Heroes Act again, Pelosi said. 

Pelosi argued that Republicans don’t recognize the needs of the moment and noted Democrats have already lowered their offer. GOP lawmakers hold that a $2 trillion package would be too expensive. 

“We have come down, but the needs of the American people, we can only go so far,” Pelosi said. 

“We think they should come to the table,” she added.

The US Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense on Wednesday released two documents outlining the Trump administration’s strategy to distribute Covid-19 vaccines.

HHS said it developed the documents with the Department of Defense and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Preparing for the implementation of the safe and efficacious Covid-19 vaccine programs is a critical next step in the efforts to protect Americans and reduce the impact of Covid-19 and restore our normal way of life,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said during a briefing with reporters on Wednesday.

Broward County School Superintendent Robert Runcie is recommending Broward schools reopen for in-person learning on Oct. 5, according to a tweet from the superintendent’s verified account.  

Runcie is proposing the school district advance to “eLearning Phase 2,” which opens schools but allows for learning from home as well, according to the Broward County Public School (BCPS) coronavirus website.   

The phase two reopening plan will be presented to the Broward County School Board for review on Tuesday, said Runcie.  

BCPS has reported at least 50 Covid-19 cases among its school staff and contract employees, affecting 38 school and administrative office sites, according to the BCPS coronavirus dashboard.  

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain’s coronavirus testing record compares favorably to other European countries, adding that recent problems are due to a “colossal spike” in demand.

“What is happening is that the British people – quite understandably – are responding to that system with a huge, huge surge in demand and so it’s very important that everybody follows the guidance about when they should be getting a test,” Johnson told the House of Commons on Wednesday.

However, the government has at times sent mixed messages on who should be getting coronavirus tests.

Last week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC that there had been “a rise in the number of people who are not eligible for a test coming forward and getting those tests.” He estimated that 25% of those getting tested were not eligible.

UK government guidelines are that only those displaying one of three symptoms, or those who have been asked by a government body, are eligible for a test.

Nonetheless, on July 21, Hancock tweeted that “anybody who needs a test can get a test,” and that “if you have symptoms, if in doubt, get a test.”

But the National Health Service Providers organization, which represents many of the UK’s hospitals and other health services, says some health staff are having to isolate for extended periods because they are unable to access coronavirus testing.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said Tuesday that it is “unacceptable” that some people in the country have reportedly been asked to wait weeks, or travel hundreds of miles, for a coronavirus test.

Testing is the latest hurdle for Johnson’s government, which has been criticized for its handling of the pandemic as the UK has so far recorded the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe.

And reported coronavirus infections have been surging again in the UK. There were an average of 3,004 new infections per day in the seven days to Tuesday, compared to 2,032 per day in the previous seven-day period.

Racism and discrimination are factors that play a role in the larger number of minority deaths and hospitalizations from Covid-19, according to a new analysis from the Epic Health Research Network and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Although minorities were more likely to test positive for Covid-19 and need more immediate care at the time of testing than Whites, they were also more likely to require hospitalization and to die from the virus than White patients, the analysis found.

Researchers examined the Epic electronic health records of about 50 million patients in 21 states, including 53 health systems and 399 hospitals.

“The racial disparities in illness and death are not fully explained by differences in underlying sociodemographic characteristics and health conditions,” the authors said.

“This analysis points to delays in testing for people of color, who are sicker and more likely to be infected when they do get tested,” said KFF President and CEO Drew Altman. “The findings highlight the continued importance of addressing racial disparities in responding to COVID-19 as in health care more broadly.”

Among the key findings of the research: Hispanics were more than two and a half times more likely to test positive for Covid-19, and Blacks and Asians were nearly twice as likely to test positive compared to Whites – and they were more likely to be hospitalized by the time they were tested.

Covid-19 infection rates for Hispanics were three times higher and for Blacks and more than two times higher compared to their White counterparts. Hospitalization rates for Hispanics were four times that of Whites – and for Blacks, it was more than three times that of Whites.

“Death rates for both groups were over twice as high as the rate for White patients (5.6 and 5.6 compared to 2.3 per 10,000)” the analysis found. “Asian patients also faced significant disparities in these measures.”

The findings of this analysis suggest that racism and discrimination are affecting outcomes among similar sociodemographic groups, the authors wrote.

“Understanding the factors underlying COVID-19 infections and severe complications can help us devote resources appropriately to the most vulnerable communities,” Dr. Christopher Alban, Epic Vice President of Clinical Informatics, said in a news release.

“This study adds nuance to our understanding of inequities in our COVID-19 response by showing racial and ethnic disparities that persist when comparing populations with similar health and socioeconomic status.” 

A wedding in Maine is linked to 176 Covid-19 cases and the deaths of seven people who didn’t attend the celebration, demonstrating just how easily and quickly the virus can spread at social gatherings, public health experts say.

As officials continue to push preventive measures, such as wearing masks and practicing social distancing to keep infection rates low, they also have been vocal in warning against large gatherings.

But Americans have continued to congregate, leading to outbreaks tied to a number of events, from Memorial Day and Fourth of July celebrations to a massive motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota.

The wedding held in Millinocket on August 7 had about 65 guests, in violation of the state’s 50-person cap for indoor events, Maine CDC said.

The event is linked to outbreaks that have unfolded at a nursing home and a jail, both more than 100 miles away from the wedding venue, and among people who had only secondary or tertiary contact with an attendee.

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In this image courtesy of the Henry Ford Health System, volunteers are given the Moderna mRNA-1273 Coronavirus Efficacy (COVE), on August 5, 2020, in Detroit, Michigan. - The first COVID-19 vaccine trial volunteers in Michigan received their first shots Augus 5, in an effort to help find a safe, effective vaccine to the deadly coronavirus. This is a historic moment, said Dr. Marcus Zervos, Division Chief of Infectious Disease for Henry Ford Health System. A vaccine is our best hope in the fight against COVID-19, and were glad to be a part of bringing this opportunity to the Midwest. (Photo by - / Henry Ford Health System / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Henry Ford Health System" - NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by -/Henry Ford Health System/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article A Maine wedding is linked to the deaths of 7 people who didn't attend

Eli Lilly and Co. says early data from its mid-stage trial of an antibody therapy shows it is safe and may reduce some symptoms of coronavirus disease.

It’s one of several so-called monoclonal antibodies being tested in coronavirus patients. These are lab-engineered immune system particles designed to home in on specific parts of the virus. LY-CoV555 is targeted against the spike protein of the virus – the part it uses to attach to the cells it infects.

This Phase 2 trial involving about 450 volunteers with coronavirus infections showed nearly everyone had cleared the virus by 11 days – including people given placebo. The highest dose of antibody sped up the process of clearing the virus, Lilly said in a statement. No one needed help breathing using a ventilator, and no one who got placebo or treatment died.

There was a 72% reduction in hospitalization rates among those treated, but only a very few people were hospitalized. Lilly said 1.7% of the patients who got the antibody were hospitalized, compared to 6% of those on placebo. But in terms of numbers, this meant five people out of 302 treated with the antibody were sick enough to need hospitalization, compared to nine people out of 150 given placebos.

“Most study hospitalizations occurred in patients with underlying risk factors (age or BMI), suggesting a more pronounced treatment effect for patients in these higher-risk groups,” Lilly said. 

“LY-CoV555 was well-tolerated, with no drug-related serious adverse events reported,” it added.

“These interim data from the BLAZE-1 trial suggest that LY-CoV555, an antibody specifically directed against SARS-CoV-2, has a direct antiviral effect and may reduce COVID-related hospitalizations,” said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories.

“The results reinforce our conviction that neutralizing antibodies can help in the fight against COVID-19.”

The company is recruiting volunteers to try a combination of this monoclonal antibody with another one that targets a different part of the virus.

The Czech Republic has recorded its biggest increase in new Covid-19 infections since the begin of the pandemic, the country’s ministry of health said Tuesday.

A total of 1,677 cases were recorded, beating the previous record of 1,538 cases from last Saturday.

The total number of infections now stands at 38,896, the ministry said, with 476 deaths.

The reason for the increase is a massive increase in testing, according to the ministry, with authorities testing around 15,000 people a day.

Last Wednesday health minister Adam Vojtech announced that people in the Czech Republic would once again be required to wear masks in enclosed public spaces, citing the “worsening epidemiological situation” in the country.

More than half of Latinx, Black and Native American households are facing serious economic hardship during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey conducted on behalf of National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The survey found 72% of Latinx, 60% of Black and 55% of Native American households report the coronavirus outbreak has caused them serious financial problems, including trouble paying their mortgage, paying for utilities, buying food, making car payments or affording medical care. Thirty-seven percent of Asians and 36% of Whites reported similar serious financial problems.

“Billions of dollars have been appropriated by federal and state governments since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, with the aim of broadly protecting Americans who are particularly vulnerable during this time,” the researchers wrote.

“Despite these actions, results from this survey show substantial shares of Latino, Black, and Native American households across the U.S. – populations who are at high risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19 – have not been protected from financial problems, reporting serious impacts across many areas of their lives.”

Sixty-three percent of Latinx, 46% of Native American and 44% of Black households report that an adult in the household has lost their job, lost their business, been furloughed, or had wages or hours reduced since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Forty-two percent each of White and Asian households reported experiencing the same.

The survey also found that among households with savings, 46% of Latinx, and 41% of both Black and Native Americans households said they had used up all or most of their savings as a result of the pandemic. In comparison, 25% of White and 23% of Asian households reported using up all or most of their savings.

This poll was conducted between July 1 and August 3, 2020, in a representative sample of more than 3,400 US adults 18 and older. It includes responses from 1,750 non-Hispanic whites, 666 non-Hispanic Blacks, 648 Latinos, 224 non-Hispanic Asians and 101 Native Americans.

It is the first of five reports being released on the effect of the pandemic across different sectors of the US population.

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund says it will supply 100 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine Sputnik-V to Indian pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. once it receives regulatory approval in India. 

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has agreed to cooperate with the Indian firm on clinical trials and distribution of the vaccine, it announced in a statement Wednesday.

The announcement comes as India topped 5 million coronavirus cases Wednesday after reporting 90,123 new cases in the past 24 hours. 

Last week, CNN was the first to report a deal to supply India with millions of doses of its Sputnik vaccine was expected to be announced. 

“Upon regulatory approval in India, RDIF shall supply to Dr. Reddy’s 100 million doses of the vaccine,” the RDIF statement said, adding that “subject to completion of successful trials and registration of the vaccine by regulatory authorities in India” deliveries could potentially begin in late 2020.

“India is amongst [the] most severely impacted countries from Covid-19 and we believe our human adenovirus dual vector platform will provide a safe and scientifically validated option to India in the battle against Covid-19,” RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said in a press release. 

France has already closed 81 schools and 2,100 classes due to Covid-19 cases since the start of the school term this month, according to education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer.

In addition, Blanquer said about 1,200 new infections among students had been recorded since last week.

“These are numbers that remain low,” Blanquer told French TV channel LCI on Wednesday.

Blanquer said the 81 closed schools represented only 0.13% of total schools in the country.

France recorded more than 10,000 new virus cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic over the weekend.

This week, the cities of Marseille and Bordeaux have tightened coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings in a bid to curb rising numbers of cases.

The move comes after French Prime Minister Jean Castex addressed the nation on Friday, asking local authorities to present new measures and emphasizing that Marseille, Bordeaux and the Guadeloupe were particularly affected areas.

Authorities in the Spanish capital of Madrid will announce new coronavirus restrictions on Friday as the country responds to an uptick in the number of cases.

Spain has now recorded more than 30,000 deaths since the start of the outbreak, with more than 600,000 total cases.

Madrid accounts for approximately a third of all new infections, according to data from Spain’s health ministry.

The president of the city’s regional government, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has suggested that migrant populations are partly to blame.

“(The outbreaks are partly) due to the way of life of Madrid’s immigrants and the population density of these districts,” she said Tuesday.

“It is a way of life in Madrid.”

China’s state-owned pharmaceutical company SinoPharm said that “hundreds of thousands” of people in the country have received Covid-19 vaccinations under an emergency use program.

The company’s general counsel Zhou Song said SinoPharm has provided emergency vaccinations to high-risk groups, including medical professionals, diplomats deployed to high-risk areas, and workers for state-owned enterprises who participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a statement on its website.

“(The vaccines) have been applied … hundreds of thousands of times, and there was not a single case that demonstrated significant negative effects, nor was anyone infected,” Zhou said.

In the statement, SinoPharm said it is currently developing two Covid-19 vaccines, and both vaccines are now in Phase 3 clinical trial. 

The company also claimed that 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines can be produced by the end of this year.

Zhou said that “the vaccines were proven effective” because none of those who traveled to high-risk places after receiving the injections were infected with Covid-19.

He added that individuals receiving the vaccine will have to get two doses to generate antibodies, with the second shot coming two to four weeks after the first shot.

Wu Guizhen, chief biosecurity expert of China’s CDC, told China’s state-run broadcaster CGTN on Monday that Covid-19 vaccines will be ready by November.

“The public can start taking the vaccine around November or December as the performance of Phase III trials goes well,” said Wu. 

Children and teens from minority groups are disproportionately hit by coronavirus, just as older adults are, according to the findings of a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children from ethnic and racial minorities, those with underlying health conditions and those between the ages of 18 and 20 are more likely to die, a CDC-led research team wrote in a study published Tuesday in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The report also showed just how unusual it is for children and young adults to die from coronavirus. Among the 190,000 deaths tallied in the country, only 0.08% – or 121 – were reported in those under 21. The most updated report from the CDC shows 377 children, teens and young adults aged up to 24 have died from coronavirus.

The researchers asked 50 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands to submit information on coronavirus deaths in those under 21, between February 12 and July 31. Forty-seven jurisdictions responded.

Minorities at higher risk: Among the approximately 6.5 million Covid-19 cases in the country, the researchers found a total of 391,814 cases of Covid-19 and MIS-C in those under 21. While people under 21 make up 26% of the US population, they make up only 8% of all reported cases.

Hispanics, Blacks and American Indian/Alaska Natives were disproportionately affected. A total of 44% of the 121 who died were Hispanic children, 29% were Black children, 4% were American Indian/Alaska Natives and 4% were Asian or Pacific Islander. While these groups represent 41% of the US population under the age of 21, they accounted for approximately 75% of deaths in that age range. Fourteen percent of the deaths were in white children.

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Related article CDC study finds coronavirus rarely kills children, but minorities at higher risk

Israel recorded a new daily highest spike in coronavirus cases on Tuesday with 5,523 new diagnoses, according to Ministry of Health data – an increase of more than 10% on the previous high set just one day earlier.

Cases are climbing throughout the country just two days before a second general lockdown is set to begin. The number of serious cases also rose to 535 on Tuesday, with 138 patients now on ventilators.

US visit: The new daily high came on the day Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, DC signing normalization agreements at the White House with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Netanyahu, who has repeatedly stressed the importance of wearing masks and social distancing, appeared to do neither at the White House, where administration officials did not require masks and many of the hundreds of attendees went without them.

Schools close early: In light of the surging cases, Netanyahu announced that schools would close on Thursday, one day earlier than planned.

The former director of public health at the Ministry of Health, who resigned her position after blaming the government for failing to heed the advice of health experts, said in her resignation letter that the reopening of schools was one of the key sources of spreading coronavirus infections throughout the country.

Israel’s second general lockdown is scheduled to start Friday afternoon and last for a period of three weeks.

A Trump administration mental health official has accused the media of being dishonest about the coronavirus pandemic.

The assistant secretary of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, also reiterated talking points about coronavirus that President Donald Trump has pushed for months, including complaints that schools should reopen for in-person learning and that very few children are affected by Covid-19.

“I just wish that the media would get honest about its coverage of Covid,” McCance-Katz told embattled Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Michael Caputo in the HHS “Learning Curve” podcast Friday. “For children this is not a life-threatening illness.”

McCance-Katz, who was appointed to SAMHSA by Trump in 2017, acknowledged that children do get severe symptoms from the virus “in rare cases,” but said “with a great, great majority of children this is not a serious illness,” something Trump has also repeated for months.

“And when we put them in school with safety measures in place, why can’t they go to school?” she said at one point in the interview.

Many studies have shown children do get Covid-19 and do die from it. They also can spread the virus to others. The American Academy of Pediatrics says more than 500,000 children have been diagnosed with the infection.

“So, lost in all of this response to Covid and nonstop 24/7 horrors of Covid and if you can’t find something to talk about, it appears to me they make things up. It just does,” McCance-Katz said at another point in the interview, referring to media coverage of the pandemic.

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WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 25: Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, assistant secretary for mental health and substance abuse at Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing concerning federal efforts to combat the opioid crisis, October 25, 2017 in Washington, DC. Lawmakers on the committee threatened to subpoena information from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) regarding their delayed responses about drug distributors that poured in millions of pain pills into West Virginia. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Related article Trump mental health official accuses media of overblowing dangers of Covid-19

China has locked down a city on its border with Myanmar and rolled out mass testing for hundreds of thousands of residents, after two Myanmar nationals who entered the country illegally were diagnosed with Covid-19.

The two imported cases were identified among a group of six people who crossed the border illegally into the city of Ruili in China’s southwestern Yunnan province on September 3. The two patients were diagnosed with Covid-19 on Sunday, according to the Ruili government.

Authorities ordered a citywide lockdown, told all residents to quarantine at home and announced a three-day mass testing program for its 200,000 residents.

As of Tuesday, the city had collected nucleic acid samples from 60,000 residents, according to Ruili’s Communist Party secretary Gong Yunzhun.

Ruili authorities also vowed to step up border controls and crack down on illegal entries.

Myanmar has faced a surge in coronavirus infections since late August. The country has reported a total of 3,636 cases and 39 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally.

The United States reported 36,985 new Covid-19 infections and 1,077 virus-related deaths on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

At least 6,606,293 cases, including 195,937 fatalities, have now been recorded in the US.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

CNN is tracking US cases here:

Pakistan recorded 665 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the country’s highest daily increase since August 16, when it reported 670 new cases.

The country has reported 303,089 total cases, according to its Ministry of Health.

The ministry also reported four new virus-related fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing Pakistan’s death toll from Covid-19 to 6,393.

Schools reopen: Pakistan reopened its educational institutions Monday, according to Minister of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Faisal Sultan.

“Let us welcome our children and students on the first day of opening of educational institutions. Please don’t forget basic protective steps. Masks, reduced density in classes, hand hygiene. Parents, school administrators, teachers, students - all together,” Sultan said in a tweet Monday.

CNN is tracking worldwide Covid-19 cases here:

Footage showing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrival to the White House on Tuesday looked like it could have been shot any other year.

Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were greeted by President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, who were flanked by soldiers outside the doors of the West Wing. Netanyahu briefly waved to cameras, posing alongside the group for pictures before heading inside.

But unlike past White House trips by Netanyahu, the 2020 visit was taking place in a year headlined by a pandemic. And remarkably absent during the White House arrival was any sort of facial mask or any clear attempt at social distancing.

Outside the bubble of the White House and Trump’s events attempting to evoke a sense of normalcy, the United States continues to grapple with the effects of the pandemic. On Tuesday alone, Johns Hopkins reported more than 39,500 new cases and more than 921 reported deaths.

And in Israel, citizens are bracing for a second nationwide lockdown caused by the pandemic after observing a daily high of 4,217 new cases in 24 hours last Thursday.

Trump, Netanyahu and delegations from Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates spent Tuesday at the White House largely ignoring the ongoing pandemic, focusing primarily, if not almost entirely, on the signing the peace agreements.

Read the full story:

Related article White House largely disregards coronavirus precautions during Abraham Accords signing

India topped 5 million coronavirus cases on Wednesday after reporting 90,123 new infections in the past 24 hours, according to its Health Ministry.

The country has identified 1 million cases in just 11 days since crossing the 4 million mark on September 5.

The Health Ministry also reported 1,290 new coronavirus fatalities in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 82,066.

The country of 1.35 billion has seen a rapid increase of new cases in recent weeks. While it took India nearly six months to report 1 million cases, it added another 4 million in just under two months, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.

Experts believe that some of the measures taken by India in the early days have contributed to the rise in cases. According to renowned virologist T. Jacob John, India’s nationwide lockdown imposed in late March was ineffective in interrupting transmission and led to crowding when it was implemented without sufficient warning, he told CNN earlier this month.

However, the country’s health minister maintains India has “successfully” hindered the spread of the virus.

“India has collectively stood up to manage Covid-19 and successfully blunted the aggressive progression of covid,” Dr Harsh Vardhan, India’s health minister, said, adding that up to 2.9 million cases and 38,000 fatalities were prevented by the measure. 

Increased testing: India has been focusing on ramping up testing as part of its “chase the virus” strategy and an average of 950,000 tests are being conducted daily, according to the Indian Ministry of Health. 

More than 59 million tests have already been conducted as of Tuesday, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.

“Our scientists are engaged day and night in developing a vaccine, but until there is one we cannot be careless,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday, reminding citizens to wear masks and maintain social distance.

US President Donald Trump said in March that he didn’t consider the coronavirus pandemic a once-in-a-lifetime leadership challenge, even as the country was going through historic shutdowns to fight the spread, according to a new interview shared by veteran journalist Bob Woodward.

“Was there a moment in all of this, last two months, where you said to yourself – you know, you’re waking up or whatever you’re doing and you say, ‘Ah, this is the leadership test of a lifetime?’ ” Woodward asked Trump on March 19, in a new clip aired on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” on Tuesday night.

“No,” Trump replied

Woodward asked, “No?”

“I think it might be, but I don’t think that,” Trump said. “All I want to do is get it solved. There are many people that said that to me. They said, you’re now a wartime President.”

The comments came more than seven weeks after Trump had been warned by his national security adviser that the virus would be the “biggest national security threat” of his presidency and after multiple interviews in which Trump had told Woodward about his concerns over Covid-19.

By the March 19 interview, there had been 265 reported deaths in the United States from the virus. To date, more than 195,000 Americans have died and more than 6.6 million have contracted Covid-19, and the disease has become the biggest public health catastrophe in more than 100 years.

Read the full story:

"Rage" by Bob Woodward is offered for sale at a Barnes & Noble store on September 15, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. The book, based on interviews that Woodward had with President Donald Trump, went on sale today.

Related article Trump told Woodward that he didn't see coronavirus as the leadership test of a lifetime

The deadly coronavirus may have circulated in the United States as early as December, about a month earlier than believed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to researchers with UCLA.

Their study, published last Thursday in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, found a statistically significant increase in clinic and hospital visits by patients who reported respiratory illnesses as early as the week of December 22.

The first known case of Covid-19 in the US was thought to be a patient in Washington who had visited Wuhan, China, according to the CDC. The case was reported in January.

Dr. Joann Elmore and colleagues looked through nearly 10 million medical records from the UCLA Health system, including three hospitals and 180 clinics.

Elmore said she started the search after receiving a number of emails from anxious patients in March through her clinic’s patient portal at UCLA. Patients kept asking if the cough they had in January could have been Covid-19.

“With the outpatients, I found a 50% increase in the percentage of patients coming in complaining of a cough. It came out to over 1,000 extra patients above the average of what we would typically see,” Elmore told CNN.

Read the full story here.

An Australian Defence Force (ADF) member broke his quarantine restrictions in Sydney Tuesday by allowing a female guest in his hotel room, according to New South Wales police.

“Two Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) have been issued after a serving member of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) entertained a guest while undertaking mandatory quarantine in a Sydney hotel overnight,” a news release from NSW police read.

The ADF member was under mandatory hotel quarantine after returning from an overseas deployment, police said.

ADF officers were “conducting security” at the Sydney hotel around 12:45 a.m. “when they heard a female voice in the room.”

The 26-year-old ADF member and 53-year-old woman, who was a guest staying at the hotel, were each fined 1,000 Australian dollars ($730) for failing to comply with coronavirus restrictions, NSW police said.

ADF officers later escorted the woman from the quarantine area and asked her to check out immediately and get a coroanvirus test before self-isolating at her home. The ADF member remains in hotel quarantine.

US President Donald Trump insisted that he didn’t downplay the coronavirus but rather “up-played it in terms of action taken” at ABC’s town hall on Tuesday night.

Responding to a question from an undecided voter at ABC’s town hall, Trump contradicted his own statements to journalist and author Bob Woodward in which he said he “wanted to always play it down.”

“Well I didn’t downplay it, I actually in many ways, I up-played it in terms of action. My action was very strong because what I did with China, I put a ban on. With Europe, I put a ban on. And we would have lost thousands of more people had I not put the ban on,” Trump said. “So that was called action, not with the mouth but in actual fact. We did a very very good job when we put that ban on, whether you call it talent or luck, it was very important so we saved a lot of lives when we did that.”

Trump said last week that he was a cheerleader for the country and didn’t want to create a panic responding to the comments he made to Woodward.

“The fact is, I’m a cheerleader for this country, I love our country, and I don’t want people to be frightened. I don’t want to create panic, as you say,” Trump said on Sept. 9.

It might not be until 2022 when the world can begin thinking about returning to “pre-Covid” life, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief science officer at the World Health Organization in Geneva, said Tuesday.

“We’re looking at 2022 at least before enough people start getting the vaccine to build immunity. So for a long time to come, we have to maintain the same kind of measures that are currently being put in place with physical distancing, the masking and respiratory hygiene,” said Swaminathan, speaking to reporters during a virtual meeting hosted by the United Nations Foundation.

“Those will have to continue after the vaccine starts getting rolled out, because we need 60% to 70% of the population to have immunity before you will start seeing a dramatic reduction in transmission of this virus,” Swaminathan said. “We also don’t know how long these vaccines will protect for – that’s the other big question mark: How long does immunity last? And it’s possible that you will need a booster.”

Swaminathan added that health officials are currently looking to control the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, rather than eliminate it at this point.

Swaminathan added that she doesn’t think the coronavirus will become a seasonal virus as time goes on, but instead we could expect to see “ups and downs” in cases and transmission.

Countries that are going into the winter months will have to choose between having bars and nightclubs open, or schools in session, Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, said Tuesday.

“We have to sustain pressure on this virus, we have to reduce transmission at community level in order to lower the risk to those older and vulnerable people and to maintain an environment in which our children can continue to attend school,” Ryan said during a briefing in Geneva. 

“So, what is more important? Are children back at school? Are the nightclubs and the bars open?” he said. “I think these are decisions that we have to make in coming into the winter months.” 

Since there isn’t yet a vaccine, in order to keep children in school and protect older and vulnerable people, there is no alternative to sustained surveillance, test and trace, quick results, cluster investigation, isolation of cases and quarantining of contacts, Ryan said.

“I’m sorry to be boring, and I’m sorry to keep saying this over and over and over again, but there are no alternatives,” he said. “This is what we must do.” 

“If we are to serve our children and those older and vulnerable people in our population who might die this winter in these countries, then we must sustain these other activities and these cannot be sustained without government commitment to do this and society’s commitment to participate and be part of this,” he said.