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Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello has tested positive for Covid-19 and is isolating at home, Brazil’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
Pazuello, an army general, is the third health minister appointed by President Jair Bolsonaro after the first two were squeezed out after clashing with the President over how to tackle the pandemic. Pazuello has stood behind Bolsonaro’s views.
Dozens of cabinet members and elected officials – including Bolsonaro himself – have tested positive for Covid-19 since the virus was first detected in Brazil in March.
Pazuello had a fever earlier in the week, according to the ministry, and canceled an in-person meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday. He participated in a virtual meeting with governors from the Brasilia hotel where he lives.
Devastating toll: No country in Latin America has been hit harder by the pandemic than Brazil. More than 5.2 million Brazilians have been infected and at least 154,000 have died – the world’s third-highest number of confirmed cases and second-highest death toll, respectively.
Bolsonaro has been widely criticized abroad for his response to the pandemic. He has repeatedly insisted that hunger and unemployment caused by social isolation measures could be more harmful than the virus. He has also been a major proponent of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, although it has not proven effective combating Covid-19.
Spain topped 1 million Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, according to data released by the country’s Health Ministry.
Spanish authorities say a total of 1,005,295 of Covid-19 cases have now been diagnosed since the pandemic began. At least 34,366 people have died.
Another 16,973 new cases and 156 deaths were added to the tally Tuesday.
CNN is tracking worldwide cases:
The United States should have a viable vaccine against the coronavirus in the “next couple of months,” Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said Wednesday.
Collins said it’s “truly breathtaking” that a Covid-19 vaccine will have been developed in under a year given that it can take a decade to create a successful vaccine.
Collins told the Milken panel that the development of therapeutics for Covid-19 is also moving along. Some of those include the antiviral drugs remdesivir and the steroid dexamethasone, both of which were used to treat President Donald Trump after he was diagnosed with Covid-19.
Ohio reported 2,366 new cases of Covid-19 Wednesday, the highest number since the pandemic began, the state’s Department of Health said. A further 66 virus-related deaths were also reported.
The previous daily high had been set Saturday when 2,234 positive cases were reported, according to the department.
Andrew Thomas, chief clinical officer for The Ohio State University, said during a state news conference Tuesday that authorities were concerned that they had not seen cases peak yet.
A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health said that there could be a delay in reporting the number of deaths due to some labs not being open on Sundays that are now reporting numbers.
More than 177,000 positive cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed in Ohio since the pandemic began, killing at least 4,839 people.
There is a “building distrust” in public health agencies as the coronavirus pandemic resurges in large parts of the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a recent interview.
Public transparency in public health information is “absolutely essential,” Fauci said in the interview with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, which was posted online Wednesday by the Project On Government Oversight.
Fauci didn’t say why he believes Americans’ distrust is building, only that he believes it is.
“And we’ve got to admit it, those of us in government, all of us, you and I and all of the people that work for me, and all the people that work for you, that there is a building distrust now in the transparency of what we do,” he added. “It’s the elephant in the room.”
Governments must be transparent in a public health crisis, said Fauci, who has worked through responses to epidemics and outbreaks ranging from AIDS in the 1980s to Zika in the past decade.
Ireland has now moved to “Level 5” measures — in what is now Europe’s strictest coronavirus lockdown.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the restrictions on Monday when the country’s case count topped 50,000. The restrictions are set to be in place for six weeks to deal with the “deteriorating situation with the disease across the country.”
Martin tweeted late Wednesday, “This evening, as we think about the next six weeks of increased restrictions at Level 5, we just need to remember that we are doing this to protect our families and the most vulnerable in our communities. We will come through it and we will see each other again. #LockdownEve.”
Under the new measures, people are asked to work from home, unless providing an essential service. Social gatherings at homes and gardens are prohibited, but people will be allowed to exercise in parks close their homes. Schools, childcare services and “essential retail” services will remain open under the restrictions. Bars and restaurants are allowed to be open only for take-away and delivery service during the period.
Ireland recorded an increase of nearly 2,000 new cases last week over the week before, prompting the government to impose the stringent measures.
US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said Wednesday that the agency does not have a set timeline to review a Covid-19 vaccine.
The goal, he said, is that everyone could get a vaccine by spring. But it “really depends on a number of factors.”
“We want to expedite it,” Hahn said at a conference sponsored by the Milken Institute, a nonpartisan think tank founded by ex-banker Michael Milken.
“We’ve said that we will schedule a vaccine advisory committee to review those data. We have committed for every application to have a vaccine advisory committee,” Hahn said.
“We will make that public, as I mentioned. Our scientists will make an initial determination, will ask specific questions about the product from the vaccine advisory committee. And then we will incorporate that in our decision making,” Hahn said.
To speed up the process, Hahn said the FDA has been working with manufacturers from day one and have stayed in touch throughout the manufacturing process, rather than reviewing everything at the end of the process.
“We need to make sure that there’s quality and consistency and that every lot has the same ability to provide protection to all of Americans,” Hahn said. “We have a lot of confidence in the manufacturing of these developers, and we will be doing our part with respect to working with them to make sure that manufacturing can be ramped up as quickly as possible.”
USA Wrestling announced Tuesday night that it won’t be sending a team to Belgrade, Serbia, for the 2020 Senior World Wrestling Championships in December due to Covid-19 concerns.
Some context: This isn’t the first time USA Wrestling has opted to skip the World Championships due to safety concerns. In 2002, a team was not sent to the Senior World Freestyle Championships in Iran due to a potential threat to the team’s safety.
“My heart breaks for our athletes, as nobody is more affected by this decision than they are,” said Veronica Carlson, executive committee member and chairperson of the USA Wrestling Athlete Advisory Committee. “In the same breath, abstaining from the 2020 World Championships is the right decision. I am proud that the athlete voice was solicited and considered through every step of this process. In choosing to make this decision now, versus delaying it, the athletes have time to recover and refocus on what is most important — the 2021 Olympic Games.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its definition of a close contact with a Covid-19 patient to include multiple, brief exposures, director Dr. Robert Redfield said Wednesday.
The new definition includes exposures adding up to a total of 15 minutes spent six feet or closer to an infected person. Previously, the CDC defined a close contact as 15 minutes of continuous exposure to an infected individual.
Some background: The agency changed the definition after a report from Vermont of a corrections officer who became infected after several brief interactions with coronavirus-positive inmates – none of them lasting 15 minutes, but adding up over time.
“As we get more data and understand the science of Covid, we are going to incorporate that in our recommendations,” Redfield said at a news conference held at CDC headquarters in Atlanta. “Originally, contact that was considered to be high risk for potential exposure to Covid was someone within six feet for more than 15 minutes.”
The new data is being incorporated into recommendations, he said.
Watch:
US stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday. The market was trapped in a tight trading range for the whole session, with the three major stock benchmarks repeatedly flipping into positive and negative territory.
All that’s to say that stocks lacked clear direction on Wednesday. Earnings season is in full swing but investors are awaiting a potential stimulus deal out of Washington before the election.
Here’s where the market closed:
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife tested negative for coronavirus today after coming in contact with a senior staff member who tested positive.
The governor is canceling in-person events through the weekend and will continue to test.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn has tested positive for coronavirus, his office told CNN on Wednesday.
The minister’s office said so far Spahn has only developed cold symptoms and is currently in isolation at home.
In response, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wished him well, tweeting, ”Good and quick recovery, Jens Spahn and we will keep our fingers crossed for you.”
People who have been in contact with the health minister are currently being informed, the spokesperson said.
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo told reporters Wednesday that the state recorded at least 156 new Covid-19 cases and five deaths Tuesday.
“The numbers aren’t good. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Raimondo said.
Raimondo said the state is approaching a 3% positivity rate, which she said “is high. It’s too high.”
Raimondo said while they haven’t yet approached the threshold of “a runaway train,” she pleaded with residents to “buckle down” to ensure there isn’t a second surge requiring businesses and schools to close again.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced today he was informed that he was in close proximity to someone on Saturday that has tested positive for Covid-19.
“I was just informed by my colleagues that I was in close proximity to someone on Saturday who has just tested positive.” Murphy said at a press event.
Murphy said hospitalizations in the state are at the highest they have been in three months.
“Today, another over a thousand positive cases we’re reporting,” the governor said.
He added there were 18 deaths reported.
Amtrak is in a “precarious position” because of insufficient federal funding and a continuing plunge in ridership due to the coronavirus pandemic, CEO William Flynn told Congress on Wednesday.
Flynn said ridership is still down 80% compared to 2019, and he warned that “it has become clear that the pandemic’s impacts will extend through, and almost certainly beyond” the next year.
Revenue in the financial year that ended in September was only 53% of the prior year, he said.
Amtrak has restored some of the service it had initially cut along the Eastern seaboard, but new cuts to other long-distance trains that crisscross the nation just took effect. Flynn said Amtrak is targeting “late May and June 2021” to restore service if health and demand conditions improve.
But some of Amtrak’s future projections are based on the widespread distribution of an effective coronavirus vaccine in the next year – “which we know is not a guaranteed outcome,” he warned.
Flynn said the service cuts and nearly 2,000 layoffs were unavoidable.
“I must emphasize the Amtrak really had no choice but to take these actions,” he said.
There are at least 8,282,666 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 221,247 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported 9,370 new cases and 195 reported deaths.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
New York’s test positivity rate including the oversampling of hotspot areas is 1.62%, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
The positivity rate in the red zone is 6.61%, the governor said.
These numbers are from Tuesday and at least 124,789 test results were reported, the governor said.
The test positivity rate without the hotspot zones stands around 1.42%
One thing to note: These numbers were released by the state’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.
Greece recorded 865 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday — its highest daily case count since the pandemic began.
Wednesday’s number marked an increase of nearly 200 more cases than the day before.
Greece announced six more deaths on Wednesday, and at least 86 individuals are in ICU.
The Greek government announced a local lockdown for the region of Kastoria in Northern Greece. This is the second town placed under lockdown after Kozani, also in Northern Greece,
According to Greece’s National Public Health Organization, Greece has recorded 27,334 cases and 534 deaths in total.
The Pennsylvania department of health reported 1,425 new cases of Covid-19, the 16th consecutive day the state has reported over 1,000 new infections of coronavirus.
The statewide number of total cases now stands at 186,297.
Additionally, Pennsylvania reported 29 new due to Covid-19 bringing the statewide death total to 8,533.
The state reported 114 cases in Allegheny county and an increase of 100 new cases in Philadelphia County.
One thing to note: These numbers were released by the state’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
In Michigan, there are now 445 cases of Covid-19 in 84 schools. At least 80 of those cases are from new outbreaks at 24 different schools. These cases include staff and student numbers, according to the state’s official tracker.
The remainder of cases are from schools that have seen ongoing outbreaks. Most K-12 schools have fewer than 10 cases. The K-12 school with the largest number of cases is a preschool through elementary school in Alma, Michigan, with 31 cases, which include both staff and students.
Among colleges and universities in Michigan, there are 5,358 coronavirus cases. Only two colleges were listed as a part of the new outbreak group. Michigan State University had the largest number of cases with 1,622 students and staff.
According to the government tracker, new outbreaks are defined as those that are first identified during the current reporting week.
Schools are classified as having ongoing cases if there is at least one new case in the 28 days after being first identified. If 28 days pass since a school first had an outbreak, and no new cases were found, the school will be removed from the list.
