October 19 coronavirus news

Wales is to enter a two-week "fire break" lockdown that will require everyone to stay at home to fight the spread of Covid-19, First Minister Mark Drakeford announced Monday. 

The lockdown will begin at 6 p.m. local time on Friday and will require all non-essential businesses such as retail stores, restaurants and bars to shut down until November 9.

The only exceptions to the stay-at-home rule will be critical workers and those in jobs that make it impossible to work from home.

Libraries, gyms and places of worship will also be closed during the lockdown, which will take place during a break period for schoolchildren.

Wales last week banned travelers from coronavirus hotspots in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from entering.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber released a video this weekend accusing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis of adopting the controversial practice of herd immunity as a strategy against the coronavirus.

Gelber claimed that one day after DeSantis held a roundtable discussion with Dr. Martin Kulldorff and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya -- two of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which according to Gelber advocates for herd immunity -- DeSantis decided to fully reopen his state. 

CNN reached out to Gov. DeSantis’ press office and his communications director did not wish to comment.

Hollywood has had a disastrous 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic leaving the entertainment industry reeling. But Hollywood's loss is Netflix's gain. 

Netflix thrived in 2020 as people were stuck at home during the global health crisis. The company posted colossal subscriber gains over the past two quarters, which helped drive its stock up nearly 70% this year.

Now, investors are eager to learn whether Netflix can take that momentum into next year.

The company will report its third-quarter earnings after the bell on Tuesday. Wall Street will keep its eye on subscriber growth (as is always the case with Netflix). Still, a lot of attention will focus on what the company has to say about next quarter, and next year, according to Bernie McTernan, a senior analyst at Rosenblatt Securities.

Netflix's subscriber forecast of 2.5 million in the third quarter is a "conservative number" that the company should exceed, McTernan believes. However, it could be an indicator that next year may be much leaner than 2020.

He said the company could raise prices, which could lead some to cancel. It may also face increased competition. Disney+, the company's nascent streaming service, has brought in more than 60 million subscribers in less than a year. 

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A member of parliament for Bolton, in England's Greater Manchester region, has been hospitalized after testing positive with Covid-19.

In a social media statement on Monday, Yasmin Qureshi said she was started feeling ill two weeks ago and was subsequently diagnosed with the virus. After taking a turn for the worse on Saturday, she was admitted to hospital with pneumonia. 

Qureshi thanked workers from the UK's National Health Service in the statement, saying: 

The news comes as local leaders in Greater Manchester remain in a stand-off with the UK government about imposing further restrictions unless national money is allocated for local economies. 

How would things taste if you lost your sense of smell? It's a question that has become surprisingly common this year.

Anosmia -- or "smell blindness" -- is a condition which is thought to affect around 5% of the population. But with loss of smell and/or taste two of the recognized symptoms of Covid-19, this previously little-known condition has come under the global spotlight.

Not only have people been unable to smell or taste while sick with the virus, many people report long-term loss of these senses while recovering. 

Dutch cookbook writer Joke (pronounced Yok-e) Boon suffers from anosmia. She lost her sense of smell at the age of four -- probably a combination of a severe cold and having her tonsils removed. 

Despite this, she has written five cookbooks. So how does someone without a sense of smell experience food? For Boon, it's mainly with her brain -- by employing a facial nerve.

Starting from the ear and branching out in three strands towards your eyes, nose and jaw, the trigeminal nerve is responsible for sensory perception in the face. It's meant to protect us from danger -- stimulated by, for example, smoke and ammonia. But certain food ingredients can also set it off. 

She says the color, texture and even sound of food have big roles, too.

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Katja Brokke, CNN

Russia reported a record increase of 15,982 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, according to its coronavirus response center.

The country's total number of reported infections now stands at 1,415,316. 

Russia has seen a surge in cases since the beginning of October, setting a new record for single-day increases almost every day. Officials previously said the growing numbers could require additional action, but added they believe they can avoid a full lockdown of the kind that was imposed in the spring when the country was reporting on average around 10,000-11,000 cases each day. 

Moscow is Russia's most affected city with over 5,000 cases. On Monday, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reiterated in a blog post that city officials do not view another lockdown as a viable option.

Sobyanin added that the city authorities were trying to strike “a middle ground” between a lockdown and no restrictions at all. So far they have issued orders to limit movements for some groups of people, including residents over 65 years old or those with chronic diseases; asked employers to move a third of their staff to work from home; and imposed distance learning for middle and high schoolers. 

Worldwide cases of Covid-19 passed the 40 million mark on Monday, according to the tally from Johns Hopkins University. 

Globally there have been more than 1.1 million deaths. The US continues to have the most cases, approaching 8.2 million, along with almost 220,000 deaths.

India has the next highest number of cases at close to 7.6 million and more than 110,000 deaths. Brazil comes third for case numbers, having recorded 5.2 million cases. It has also registered more than 150,000 deaths.

Meanwhile, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported that the number of deaths in the European Economic Area had surpassed 200,000, with cases at 4.8 million.

The Polish government has begun converting the Narodowy stadium in Warsaw into the country’s first field hospital for Covid-19 patients. 

The hospital will be set up in the stadium’s conference rooms and will have an initial capacity for 500 Covid-19 patients. Capacity could be expanded to a maximum of 1,000 beds, according to the government. 

Poland reported 132 deaths from Covid-19 on Friday -- its highest daily death toll since the pandemic began. The country has now registered 175,766 cases and 3,573 deaths in total, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The British government is “hopeful” of an agreement with the mayor of Manchester to increase anti-coronavirus restrictions in the city.

Jenrick said a package had been offered to Manchester, which included more resources for the city. He also said “other options” would have to be considered if an agreement could not be reached.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pushing for the city to enter the highest Tier 3 restrictions under a new system introduced in England last week. On Saturday, he said the city's rise in cases was “grave” and “worsens with each passing day.”

But Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, said last week that he and other northwest regions opposed Tier 3 lockdowns, which involve the closure of pubs, restrictions on travel and a ban on socializing with people outside your household.

Burnham said the government's "flawed and unfair strategy" was asking local leaders to "gamble our residents' jobs, homes and business and large chunk of our economy on a strategy that their own experts tell them might not work."