Live Updates
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Wearing a mask can help protect you – not just those around you – from coronavirus transmission, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in new guidance Tuesday.
Previous guidance from the CDC suggested the main benefit of mask wearing was to help prevent infected people from spreading the virus to others.
Cloth masks act as “source control” to block virus particles exhaled by the wearer and provide “filtration for personal protection” by blocking incoming infectious droplets from others, the CDC said in its new guidance.
The new guidance cites a number of studies showing that masks reduce the risk of transmitting or catching the virus by more than 70% in various instances. And when officials told people to wear masks, infections and deaths fell significantly, the CDC pointed out.
“Adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns, especially if combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, hand hygiene, and adequate ventilation,” the CDC said.
“The relationship between source control and personal protection is likely complementary and possibly synergistic, so that individual benefit increases with increasing community mask use.”
The agency cited an economic analysis that found a 15% increase in universal masking could prevent losses of up to $1 trillion. It also said that some cloth masks are nearly as good as surgical masks at blocking droplets.
Read more:
Colorado authorities identified 3,890 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, a new daily record for the US state.
Since the pandemic began, 138,427 people in Colorado have contracted the novel coronavirus. At least 2,427 of those have died.
Some 1,116 Covid-19 patients are being treated in the hospital, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and 84% of the state’s intensive care unit beds are occupied.
Miami Beach City Manager Jimmy Morales has extended the city’s Covid-19 state of emergency and its emergency measures through November 18, according to a release from the City of Miami Beach.
The order extends the mask mandate for Miami Beach, and the general curfew established throughout Miami-Dade County continues to be effect daily from midnight until 6 a.m. Eastern Time.
Any business or organization in violation of the provisions of the order may subject to the closure of their establishment for a period of at least 24 hours, or through the duration of the state of emergency.
The southeastern US state of Florida, where Miami Beach is located, has so far recorded more than 852,174 cases of Covod-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Tuesday marked the seventh day in a row that Maryland confirmed at least 1,000 new Covid-19, Governor Larry Hogan said at a news conference.
The US state of Maryland identified 1,338 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. Fifty-four more people were hospitalized, bringing the total number of hospitalizations to 761 – the highest since June 13. Authorities said 176 people are being treated in intensive care units.
Since the pandemic began, at least 4,084 people in the Mid-Atlantic state have died from Covid-19.
The world has come to depend on antibody tests to check whether someone’s already had Covid-19, but a study in the town where the virus first spread in Italy shows that these tests are not completely reliable.
A different test – one that looks for an immune cell, called a T cell – was more effective, according to the study.
“This makes sense. It’s well known that antibodies wane, but T cells have immunological memory,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine.
In the study, researchers in Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States studied people in Vo, Italy, to learn more about testing accuracy.
They conducted blood tests on 70 people who had had confirmed cases of coronavirus about two months earlier.
Theoretically, all 70 of them should have had positive results on an antibody test. But the antibody test returned negative results in 16 of the cases, or 23%. The T cell test missed only 2 cases, or about 3%.
The researchers also tested 2,200 people who had tested negative for Covid-19. Of those, the T cell test returned positive results for 45 of them.
Read more:
More people are being hospitalized in the United States with Covid-19 than at any time during the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project (CTP).
Some 61,964 people are currently receiving hospital care due to Covid-19 as of Tuesday, according to CTP. The nation has never before topped 60,000 hospitalizations. The US currently averages roughly 1,661 new hospitalizations per day, CTP data shows.
These are the highest hospitalization day records according to CTP data:
Nov 10 – 61,964 April 15 – 59,940 April 21 – 59,780 July 23 – 59,718 July 24 – 59,682 April 14 – 59,610
More than 18,000 Californians have now died due to complications from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, state health officials announced Tuesday, a grim new milestone as cases of Covid-19 surge once again at an alarming rate.
The California Department of Public Health reported 24 new deaths on Tuesday, raising the statewide death toll to 18,001. The US state has reported 977,218 confirmed cases of Covid-19 to date.
California Governor Gavin Newsom warned residents that the state’s coronavirus cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations are all on the rise.
San Francisco’s uptick: San Francisco is temporarily closing indoor dining and will reduce the capacity of fitness centers and movie theaters to 25% to a rapid and significant increase in Covid-19 cases, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Tuesday.
Indoor instruction at some high schools will also be paused because the transmission rate among high school students is similar to adults, Breed said. All of the new changes go into effect at 11:59pm Pacific Time on Friday, November 13.
“People have gotten complacent and as a result of this behavior, we’re seeing an uptick,” Breed said. “As a result of that uptick, it has forced our city to make some very hard decisions to not just pause the reopening efforts, but to roll back some of the gains that we have made.”
Since October 2, San Francisco has experienced a 250% increase in Covid-19 cases, according to county health data. The city is averaging nearly 80 new cases a day compared to approximately 32 new daily cases at the end of October.
In a warning to all San Francisco residents, Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax said the current surge in cases is greater than the rate of increase from the last major surge in the summer when cases peaked on July 19. Colfax said the city’s current fall surge will exceed the summer surge if residents are unable to help turn things around.
“This suggests much broader virus transmission and has the potential to be explosive,” Colfax said. “If we stay on our current course of activities and if we do not reverse, it is entirely plausible we face a situation where our health care system becomes overwhelmed and reverses the current progress we’ve made.”
Vermont is enacting a 14-day quarantine for all non-essential travelers entering the northeastern US state in order to slow the spread of Covid-19, the Vermont Department of Health said in a statement.
While Vermont continues to have the lowest positivity rate in the country, cases rose 46% this week, the release said.
Under the new guidelines which begin today, anyone traveling or returning to Vermont must quarantine for 14 days (or 7 days followed by a negative Covid-19 test). Essential travel – including for school, work, personal safety, medical care, care of others, parental shared custody or for food, beverage or medicine – is exempt.
Vermont authorities reported 46 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday. Authorities have identified 2,462 cases in the state since the pandemic began.
The state of Texas reported 10,865 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, a new single-day record for the Lone Star state. Authorities there have now identified 974,230 novel coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.
Some 94 virus-related deaths were reported Tuesday, bringing the state’s death toll to 18,863.
According to the state’s Covid-19 dashboard, there are currently 6,170 lab-confirmed coronavirus patients in Texas hospitals.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown has said she is pausing reopening plans with the state “headed on the wrong road” and running out of hospital capacity.
“Our fears that this virus would spread out of control when the colder months set in are certainly becoming a frightening reality,” Brown said at a news conference Tuesday.
Brown said she was ordering a “two-week pause” in four more counties where community transmission is on the rise, with nine now under additional restrictions. Restaurants and indoor events are reduced to a maximum of 50 people and businesses are encouraged to mandate working from home, according to a statement Monday.
Dr. Dana Hargunani, Oregon Health Authority’s chief medical officer, said at the news conference that the state has 146 available intensive care beds – just 20% of its total ICU capacity, according to its Covid-19 dashboard. Hargunani also noted that they only have 701 regular, adult beds available – 15.6% of the state’s overall capacity.
“While we have plans in place to share beds and ventilators if necessary, that needs to be a last resort,” Brown said Tuesday.
“We cannot and should not be relying on the fact that our hospital systems can withstand a surge.”
“I need Oregonians to know it’s not too late to do the right thing,” Brown said as she urged residents to wear masks and stay home when feeling sick.
More than 200 Covid-19 cases have now been linked to a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Mecklenburg County Public Health.
The county has identified 208 cases among attendees and close contacts associated with events held at United House of Prayer facilities in Mecklenburg County from October 4-11.
Severe cases: At least 11 patients were hospitalized, and there have been 9 deaths, with one additional death under investigation.
According to its latest update, Mecklenburg County Public Health has attempted to contact at least 294 close contacts of confirmed cases.
CNN is reaching out to the church for comment.
Philadelphia reported its highest single-day count of new coronavirus cases, with 879 infections, bringing the total to 49,775 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley.
Last week, the US city averaged 515 cases per day, higher than the peak in April. There was a 9.3% positivity rate, a fourfold increase since September, Farley said at a news conference Tuesday.
There are 386 patients currently hospitalized, up from 90 in September and 196 in October. There were 12 new deaths, bringing Philadelphia’s total to 1,901, Farley said.
Farley said that new restrictions were under consideration. He noted that much of the spreading occurs in private settings, and urged residents to limit gatherings.
Farley addressed the large election-related gatherings in Philadelphia over the weekend and recommended that anyone who was in a crowd of people, indoors or outdoors, wearing a mask or not and within six feet of others to quarantine for 14 days and get tested seven days after potential exposure.
“We know there were a number of people celebrating or otherwise gathering around the election time, outdoors and perhaps indoors as well, and we do worry about the spread of this infection whenever people gather for any reason,” said Farley.
He said that the city had reached its testing goal of 5,000 people per day, and the next initiative is to expand rapid testing to get results faster using Abbott rapid testing cards.
Chicago has updated its Executive Travel Order to a new color-coded tiered system, effective from 12:01 a.m. on Friday.
“As of today, Chicago’s travel order includes 43 states and Puerto Rico. But we are introducing a new tiered risk level,” Dr. Allison Arwady, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Arwady said states will be designated red, orange or yellow, signifying the level of concern with travel both to and from those areas.
The advice is to avoid travel to states coded red. Anyone coming in from those states is required to quarantine for 14 days. Orange states are also a significant concern and the advice is to avoid traveling to them, Arwady said. Those traveling from orange states will need to quarantine for 14 days or have a negative test result no more than 72 hours before arrival. Travel from yellow states does not require quarantine but Chicago is “recommending avoiding non-essential travel.”
The average number of new Chicago cases per day is at 1,686 and the positivity rate in the city is 13%. “One month ago, we were adding 426 cases per day,” she said. “One month later we’re at more than four times that.”
The list will be updated every two weeks based on state and Chicago case averages. Thirteen states are currently red, and 32 states and Puerto Rico are orange.
State view: Meanwhile, Illinois reached a “critical milestone” of more than 100,000 Covid-19 tests taken in 24 hours, Governor JB Pritzker announced at a news conference Tuesday. Pritzker said Illinois was the first state in the Midwest to reach daily testing numbers in the six digits.
Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said the state has now performed around 8.5 million tests, with free mobile testing sites set up in numerous towns and cities.
San Diego and 10 other California counties were forced to move back into more restrictive tiers of the state’s coronavirus reopening system Tuesday as rates of infection continue to increase statewide, Health Secretary Mark Ghaly has announced.
Sacramento, San Diego and Stanislaus are moving back into the most restrictive, purple tier – which requires the closure of many non-essential indoor businesses – joining counties including Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Monterey and Sonoma.
“If things stay the way they are, between this week and next week, over half of California’s counties will have moved into a more restrictive tier,” Ghaly said. “That is certainly an indication that we’re concerned and that we have to keep a close watch on what’s happening.”
Amador, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Placer and Santa Cruz are moving into the second-most restrictive red tier, which indicates substantial spread of infection. Counties in rural parts of the state, including Modoc, Siskiyou, and Trinity, are moving backward to the orange tier, which shows a moderate infection rate.
California’s reopening system: There are four tiers based on metrics including case rate and test positivity. Before moving forward, counties must remain in a tier for at least three weeks and must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks.
“I implore all Californians to sort of look in the mirror and ask what you can do differently,” Ghaly said. “How much more can you keep your mask on? How much more can you work within your own communities or your own family members to plan events in a lower risk? Each of those efforts makes a difference.”
California’s seven-day average of new cases is 6,078, according to state data. The 14-day test positivity rate stands at 3.7%.
New Jersey is facing a “grave situation” along with most US states, said Governor Philip Murphy on Tuesday as the state introduced new restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the virus.
The state reported 3,877 new Covid-19 cases and 21 additional deaths, according to its data dashboard.
“This is a grave situation as it is probably right now in most American states,” Murphy said during an interview on WKYW radio Tuesday. “New Jersey paid an enormous price early on and we were able to battle through that, but we are clearly not out of the woods.”
The new policies, which go into effect Thursday, include:
Murphy said the tendency of restaurants to turn into de facto clubs at night was thought to be fueling the state’s Covid-19 resurgence.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka signed an executive order on Tuesday enacting additional measures, including a curfew in “hot zones,” to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the city, according to a news release.
“Newark’s test positivity rate is at 19%, while New Jersey’s is at 7.74% – more than double,” said Baraka in a statement. “Stricter measures are required in the city’s hotspots in order to contain the virus and limit the spread. I know we are all tired, but the virus is not, therefore we must remain vigilant and do what is necessary to get this under control and save lives.”
The new measures, effective immediately, include:
Two weeks ago, the city imposed restrictions such as requiring non-essential businesses to close at 8 p.m. and salons to be open by appointment only as cases continued to climb.
As of November 9, the city has reported a total of 12,779 positive cases and 677 deaths.
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acting director Dr. Richard Besser said Tuesday that he was optimistic that the pandemic response will soon be under new federal leadership, noting that in the meantime, states need to step up.
President-elect Joe Biden has named a new coronavirus advisory board to help with the pandemic response as he transitions into the presidency.
Besser said he was optimistic knowing “that politics will follow public health, instead of public health being told to change their recommendations to suit politics.”
“I really see their role being this bridge during this period, so that following inauguration, CDC, FDA [Food and Drug Administration], NIH [National Institutes of Health] can be back in their roles of leading this and driving this and being supported by politics,” he said during an interview hosted by the nonprofit Aspen Institute.
Besser, who heads the health-focused Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said he was glad to see that those appointed to the advisory board are prioritizing equity.
“To hear the Vice President-elect talking about the importance of equity, not being something on the side, but being central to how you think about this response – to me, that’s huge,” he said.
Besser said that the challenge will be getting through a difficult winter with the coronavirus response still led by the Trump administration.
“I hope that governors now of both red and blue states step up, mandate masks, look to see what they can do within their own states, recognizing that the federal response and unified federal response is still several months away,” he said. “There are tens of thousands of lives that could be saved if states drive this forward and do the right thing.”
Read more about Biden’s advisory board here:
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that more than 70% of the state’s outbreaks between June and November were linked to weddings, private social gatherings, and late nights at bars and restaurants.
His comments came as he announced new restrictions across the state in a news conference Tuesday to help fight “a significant surge of coronavirus cases.”
The new restrictions include:
Walz said three of the most significant sources of Minnesota’s Covid outbreaks were:
“Most young people are taking great precautions to protect themselves and their community,” Walz said during the news conference. “Most bars and restaurants have done a great job responding to the pandemic and keeping their customers and employees safe. But this virus is spreading like wildfire, and every gathering place is now more dangerous than it was a month ago.”
Walz said that there would be no change to religious services, saying that data has not shown a connection between services and the increased outbreaks.
Minnesota reported 4,904 new cases Tuesday and 23 new deaths. It has a positivity rate above 10% and 2,698 people have died in total, with more than half of those deaths being in long-term care facilities.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has predicted average Americans will be able to get vaccinated by April.
He told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday that ordinary families could have access to a vaccine within the first quarter next year.
“We have a lot of people in this country who may not want to get vaccinated right away,” Fauci said. “That’s why we were talking that it might take well into the second and third quarter to finally get people to be convinced to get vaccinated.”
He said that many may be persuaded by Pfizer’s announcement on Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective, according to early data.
“I believe the incentive to get vaccinated will be greatly enhanced by the degree of efficacy. When you hear something is 90 to 95% effective, it makes it much more likely that someone would want to get vaccinated,” he said.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in an interview on NBC’s Today earlier Tuesday that he anticipated being able to vaccinate most vulnerable Americans by the end of December and all Americans by the end of March to early April.
“The timeline is Pfizer will be producing and delivering to us approximately 20 million doses of vaccine each month, starting at the end of this month in November,” he said, adding that Moderna is also already producing its vaccine candidate.
Utah, Illinois and Montana all broke records on Tuesday as cases in the United States top 10.2 million and deaths exceed 239,000.
Illinois reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases with 12,623 infections, plus 79 more deaths, its Department of Public Health said in a statement on Tuesday.
It is the fifth state in the US to surpass 500,000 cumulative Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 511,183 confirmed.
Utah hit record highs for its seven-day case average and test positivity percentage, according to its data dashboard.
The state’s new case average, which has been climbing since the start of October, hit 2,554. The percentage of positive tests hit 21.86% after climbing since October 11, where it had been holding steady at approximately 14%.
This weekend, Utah Governor Gary Herbert issued a declaration of a state of emergency and statewide mask mandate. Utah has reported 137,385 Covid-19 cases in total.
Montana announced 1,101 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday – a record high for the state since the pandemic began, its data dashboard shows.
The state’s previous record daily record of 1,013 new cases was set on November 5, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
The Montana Department of Health said the state has had 41,151 Covid-19 cases and 462 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said he was concerned over the rise in Covid-19 cases heading into the holiday season, particularly in the southwest of the state.
Northam said the state positivity rate was 6.2%, with 1,435 new cases, while southwest Virginia was seeing 9% of tests coming back positive.
“We continue to be concerned about southwest Virginia, which has rising cases, community spread and fewer hospitals than other regions of our state,” said the governor.
Northam said the state’s Department of Health was focusing a communications campaign in that region to emphasize the importance of avoiding indoor gatherings, washing hands and adhering to Virginia’s face covering mandate.
He announced that Virginia has signed contracts with three labs to participate in the state’s new One Lab network – a system that will allow the state to increase testing capacity by an extra 7,000 tests per day by the end of the year.
Northam said the Pfizer vaccine was good news but “not a magic bullet.”
“Any approved vaccination will still take months to distribute. Virginia, like other states has spent months already preparing plans for how to equitably distribute a vaccination. When a vaccine is ready, one that is safe and effective, we will be ready in Virginia,” added the governor.
Humans carried coronavirus onto mink farms in the Netherlands, starting a viral back and forth that ended up with 68% of fur farm workers and their associates infected, researchers reported Tuesday.
They said it was “imperative” that the fur trade should not fuel further spread of the virus into the human population, noting that densely packed conditions on such farms are ripe for amplifying the virus in ways that could help it mutate.
A team in the Netherlands ran whole genome analyses of virus samples taken from animals and people on 16 mink farms in the country – looking at the full genetic sequence of the virus for clues about where it may have come from, how it spread and whether it was mutating.
“We conclude that the virus was initially introduced from humans and has since evolved, most likely reflecting widespread circulation among mink in the beginning of the infection period several weeks prior to detection,” the team wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.
“Despite enhanced biosecurity, early warning surveillance and immediate culling of infected farms, transmission occurred between mink farms in three big transmission clusters with unknown modes of transmission. Sixty-eight percent of the tested mink farm residents, employees and/or contacts had evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” they added.
People infected the animals, and the animals infected people, they found. The virus has not yet spread from the farms into the wider community and no troubling mutations have turned up so far, they added.
Danish authorities have seen spread on mink farms and mutations that are not necessarily harmful, but whose significance is not yet fully understood.
“It is imperative that fur production and trading sector should not become a reservoir for future spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to humans,” the Dutch researchers wrote.
Italy recorded its highest number of daily coronavirus deaths since April 14, with 580 fatalities reported Tuesday, according to the latest Italian Health Ministry data. That brings the country’s death toll to 43,233.
It also recorded a further 35,098 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to nearly one million cases, with 995,463 positive infections since the pandemic began.
The country has 2,971 coronavirus patients in intensive care – an increase of 122 compared to the previous day.
Hospitals at risk: Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is one of the parameters the Italian Health Ministry considers when declaring regions “red zones” or “orange zones” – meaning they face tighter restrictions. Hospitals should not exceed 30% of their ICU capacity.
President of the National Health Council Franco Locatelli said during a weekly Covid-19 update that two regions – Lombardy and Umbria – have surpassed the 30% threshold of ICU capacity and the regions of Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta are at 29% capacity.
Virologist Giorgio Palù of Padua University said in a TV interview on Tuesday that, as Europe’s second wave continues and ICUs are pushed to their limits, anesthetists are required to make difficult choices.
“Anesthetists, resuscitations, those that are on the field, are already obliged to take painful choices: who are they going to intubate and who not,” Palù said.
The head of Italy’s National Institute of Health Silvio Brusaferro, said on Tuesday that the transmission rate was “stable.” Brusaferro said the epidemic curve was still growing but at a slower rate, as a result of the government’s successful restrictive measures.
A federal appeals court on Monday denied Catholic and Jewish houses of worship’s request to halt the enforcement of New York State restrictions on gatherings due to the Covid-19 pandemic while it considered appeals cases related to the matter.
Eight separate appeals were filed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who issued an executive order to limit the spread of the coronavirus, which has caused more than 25,000 deaths in the state.
The Jewish and Catholic institutions challenged the order that limits non-essential gatherings based on the severity of the outbreak in each area.
“Red zone” rules:
The executive order allows houses of worship to hold services but only at 25% capacity, for a maximum of 10 people. The plaintiffs claim the executive order violates the “Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” the appeals court decision states. CNN has reached out to both sets of plaintiffs for comment.
The panel of judges denied the motion for an injunction while an appeal is pending in the case filed by Agudath Israel. The panel also denied the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s request for an injunction.
The ruling acknowledged that the executive order “burdens” the plaintiffs’ religious practices, but that the order has “greater or equal impact on schools, restaurants, and comparable secular public gatherings.” The panel said that the order treats the religious institutions “on par with or more favorably” than the secular gatherings.
The decision does not address the plaintiffs’ overall appeals cases – only their requests to halt the restrictions while the appeals cases are considered. Arguments in the cases may be heard as early as the week of December 14, according to the ruling.
The National Football League and NFL Players Association report 15 players have tested positive for Covid-19 during the latest round of league-wide testing.
The previous testing window reported just eight players testing positive for the virus. There was also a significant increase in coronavirus cases among team staff members with 41 positive tests – up from 17 during the previous monitoring period.
The background: The NFL’s latest monitoring window ran from November 1-7 with 42,978 tests administered to 7,922 players and personnel. Since testing began on August 1, a total of 78 players and 140 personnel have tested positive for the virus.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that the government is providing $61 million to support First Nations’ efforts to fight Covid-19 in Manitoba as the country faces “a resurgence” of infection.
The Manitoba First Nations funding “will support public health measures, food security, and other surge-capacity needs,” Trudeau said.
He called on provincial and territorial governments to take steps to limit the spread, including shutdowns of businesses.
Trudeau added that he had spoken by phone with US President-Elect Joe Biden on Monday, and that the two had talked primarily about Covid-19.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds told reporters Tuesday that capacity was “at risk” in the state’s healthcare system following a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Reynolds said there have been more than 21,000 new cases in the past week and the percentage of people testing positive is more than 19%, with 1,131 patients in hospital.
While there are surge plans in place and there are still beds available, the governor said staffing had become “increasingly challenging.”
“This situation has the potential to impact any Iowan who may need care for any reason,” Reynolds said. “We don’t want anyone to be turned away from our hospitals.”
She said 42% of new cases were among 14 to 18-year-olds.
Reynolds said she had signed a proclamation, which goes into effect Tuesday at midnight, extending the public health emergency for 30 days and imposing new restrictions.
The restrictions:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that he hopes US President Trump is not planning to fire him.
Trump recently suggested that he might fire Fauci after the election. Asked by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell whether he is concerned that the President may pressure the National Institutes of Health director to fire him, Fauci said, “I hope not.”
He said that would not help with the common goal: “No matter who you are, regardless of what administration, we all want this pandemic to end.”
“My entire activity, every minute of my life right now, is devoted to trying to end this pandemic, so I would hope that I’m allowed to continue to do that, because I think I do it well,” Fauci said. “I’ve been doing it for many, many years, and I’ve done it under many different circumstances.”
He said he attended a “good meeting” of the White House coronavirus task force on Monday and was now “focusing like a laser beam on the job I have of ending this epidemic and really preserving the health and the welfare of the American public.”
He said the Pfizer vaccine, along with continued public health measures, has the potential to end the pandemic.
“The vaccine is a very, very important tool in ending this pandemic both domestically and internationally,” Fauci told Mitchell.
If the vaccine is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, Fauci said he believes doses will be available for “highest priority” people by December.
He said he hoped that a vaccine will be given to everyone who wants and needs it “after a reasonable period of time.”
Fauci said that “a vaccine that has this potential, this together with the continuation of the public health measures, really should get us out of this very difficult situation we’re into.”
He said he trusted Pfizer and the FDA to make the right decision.
“If they look at this data, and they say, ‘This data is solid. Let’s go ahead and approve it,’ I promise you… I will take the vaccine, and I will recommend that my family take the vaccine.”
Fauci said Eli Lilly’s antibody treatment was an “important first step in the development and distribution of interventions that are given early in the course of disease.”
“We need more of those interventions that prevent people from going in the hospital,” Fauci added.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned that cases were rising across the country on Tuesday – but he said the news about a potential vaccine showed the “finish line is in sight.”
Adams, who spoke in South Dakota on Tuesday, said that “unfortunately we know right now the cases are going up across the nation – they’re rising particularly quickly here in South Dakota.”
“But there’s hope,” Adams said. “Great news yesterday out of Pfizer, that we have a vaccine candidate that right now looks like it’s 90% effective, and that’s important because I know people are fatigued.”
Adams said it “seems like it’s been going on for forever.”
“But the fact is, a finish line is in sight. We have one candidate right now, that has results showing 90% effectiveness. And we have several other candidates that may soon be coming across the finish line.”
“Our intention, our hope, that we will start injecting people with vaccinations, before the end of this year, before the end of 2020,” he added.
The mask debate: Despite South Dakota not having a statewide mask mandate, residents should do the right thing and wear a mask, Adams said.
“You don’t have a mask mandate here,” he said. “But what I would say to the people of South Dakota is, you really shouldn’t need a mandate to do the right thing for your community, for your family, and for your friends.”
“There’s been a lot of politics around the wearing of masks. As many of you know, even I have changed my position on masks, but that’s because the science has changed.”
He said that masks were “one of the most effective tools we have” in preventing asymptomatic spread of coronavirus.
Pennsylvania again broke its record for new Covid-19 cases in 24 hours, reporting an additional 4,361 in a news release Tuesday.
The state also added 62 new deaths, according to the department of health release. Pennsylvania has now reported 238,657 cases and 9,086 deaths.
There are 1,827 coronavirus patients in state hospitals, with 393 of them in intensive care.
Behind the numbers: Mask-wearing is mandatory in Pennsylvania outside the home. The state has seen significant increases in the number of Covid-19 cases among younger age groups, particularly 19 to 24-year-olds, according to the department.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf commended President-elect Joe Biden and his coronavirus task force in a statement Tuesday.
“It is reassuring to see President-elect Biden take this virus seriously and move forward with a task force that is focused on science and reality,” Wolf said.
The governor praised Biden for “the team he has put together to lead the country out of this very difficult period,” which Wolf said included some of the country’s most respected public health experts, including two Philadelphia-area physicians.
“We need leadership that is consistent and committed to ending this pandemic, to saving lives and livelihoods, and to making decisions based on facts and science,” Wolf said.
A lower dose of Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody treatment will work just fine to help coronavirus patients, a top government official said Tuesday.
Dr. Janet Woodcock said she was confident that the dose to be distributed to Covid-19 patients will be enough to help them.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave an emergency use authorization (EUA) for a 700 milligram dose – the lowest dose given to patients in a trial used as the basis for the EUA.
The results of the trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in October, showed that patients on all doses were less likely to need hospital treatment and had fewer symptoms than patients given placebos. But it also showed patients given a middle dose of 2,800 mg cleared the virus more quickly than those given higher or lower doses.
Woodcock, a former top FDA official who is now therapeutics lead for Operation Warp Speed, said that did not matter.
She told a news conference that the dose level was the FDA’s decision, but said that the study showed that patients had fewer hospitalizations at every level.
“Most people can clear the virus on their own, and giving them additional antibodies isn’t doing very much, because they are going to make their own antibody and clear the virus,” Woodcock said. “Amongst those who are not clearing the virus at each level, each one of these doses that was tested reduced the virus spread very rapidly.”
The goal with these treatments is to stop the progression of the disease, Woodcock said. Intervening early with monoclonal antibodies should keep patients out of hospital.
“The lower dose is a rational choice in this situation because you don’t want to give more of a drug than you need,” Woodcock said. “All drugs have side effects, and adverse effects, and so forth, and so getting the lowest dose that actually gets the job done is a very important thing. I think you probably could go lower, frankly.”
The US government anticipates “challenges” in distributing Eli Lilly and Company’s cutting-edge Covid-19 monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab, Dr. Janet Woodcock, therapeutics lead for Operation Warp Speed, said Tuesday.
The therapy was given emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration on Monday.
The drug doesn’t come in pill form but requires an IV infusion over an hour, with another hour needed afterwards to observe the patient for poor reactions. The government requires it to be given to patients in settings where they can be monitored and emergency drugs are available.
“We anticipate that initially, there’ll be challenges for the healthcare system in administering IV infusions to infected patients,” Woodcock said during a news conference with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense.
Woodcock said Lilly and HHS have been making plans to help set up infusion centers and that distribution will require multiple different solutions.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that distribution will begin this week and the treatment will be free of charge.
The US government has a contract for 300,000 doses of the therapy through December with the option to purchase another 650,000 through next June. There are 80,000 doses currently available, Azar said.
How the treatment will be allocated: A HHS Public Health Emergency dashboard shows where the first shipments are going. States with the most confirmed Covid-19 patients, and those with the most hospitalized patients, will be given priority.
Bamlanivimab will be allocated in two phases, Dr. John Redd of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.
In phase one, states and territories will allocate the antibody treatment to hospitals and hospital-affiliated locations, Redd said. Phase two will include more outpatient sites.
The treatment will also be allocated in phase one to the Department of Defense, the Veterans Health Administration, the Indian Health Service, the Bureau of Prison and the Department of State.
Estonia has recommended canceling “all joint events,” including Christmas parties, as part of coronavirus measures that take effect from Thursday, according to a government statement.
“Celebrating Christmas with family is, of course, allowed,” the statement added, noting that the cancelation recommendations apply to all events attended by people who are not in daily contact.
Some of Europe’s Christmas markets have been canceled, while others will go ahead:
New Estonian measures also include mandatory face coverings in public places and a recommendation for all employees to work remotely, if possible.
“In addition, in the current situation, we consider it necessary to tighten restrictions in commercial establishments and catering and entertainment establishments so that we could control the spread of the virus,” said Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas.
From Monday, November 16, bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues must close at midnight and can have a maximum of 10 people per group.
The Health Board of Estonia reported 128 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours on Monday, bringing its total to 6,376 cases. The country has recorded 76 deaths since the pandemic began.
A small minority of places people frequent account for a large majority of coronavirus infections in big cities, according to a new modeling study.
The study, published in the journal Nature on Tuesday, suggests that reducing maximum occupancy in such places – including restaurants, gyms, cafes and hotels – can substantially slow the spread of illness.
“Our model predicts that capping points-of-interest at 20% of maximum occupancy can reduce the infections by more than 80%, but we only lose around 40% of the visits when compared to a fully reopening with usual maximum occupancy,” Jure Leskovec, an author of the study and associate professor of computer science at Stanford University, said during a news briefing on Tuesday.
The model also found significant racial and socioeconomic disparities in infections.
The researchers from Stanford University and Northwestern University used cellphone location data to model the potential spread of Covid-19 within 10 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington DC. The data, representing the hourly movements of 98 million people, included mobility patterns from March to May.
The researchers examined Covid-19 case counts for each area and how often people traveled to “points of interest” including grocery stores, fitness centers, cafes, snack bars, doctor’s offices, religious establishments, hotels, motels and restaurants.
“On average across metro areas, full-service restaurants, gyms, hotels, cafes, religious organizations, and limited-service restaurants produced the largest predicted increases in infections when reopened,” the researchers wrote in their study.
The model predicted that “infections are happening very unevenly – that there are about 10% of points of interest that account for over 80% of all infections, and these are places that are smaller, more crowded and people dwell there longer,” Leskovec said at the briefing.
The model showed that people living in areas with the lowest income, based on Census data, were more likely to be infected – partly because of places in their areas tending to be smaller, leading to crowding.
“Our model predicts that one visit to a grocery store is twice more dangerous for a lower-income individual compared to a higher-income individual,” Leskovec said. “This is because of grocery stores visited by lower-income individuals have on average 60% more people by square foot, and visitors stay there 17% longer.”
The study comes with limitations, including that the model is a simulation – not a real-life experiment – and the data is based on 10 metropolitan areas and does not capture all places someone could frequent.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the continued increase in the percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 was “very worrisome.”
The positivity rate was up 2.8% Tuesday, with a seven-day rolling average of 2.31%, which de Blasio said was “not someplace we want to be.”
If the seven-day average goes above 3%, schools will go remote for a period, he said. If it continues climbing, some businesses could face “full scale closures,” or “limits on hours.”
“We can turn this back, but this is a warning sign if ever I’ve seen one that we have some work to do quickly to make sure the city stays safe and we do not have that second wave,” de Blasio said.
“We believe we can still fight back the second wave,” he added later.
The mayor said one area of “tremendous concern” was new cases on a seven-day average. NYC had set a threshold of 550 cases, which it has “far surpassed” with 795, de Blasio said.
While some of the extra cases is indicative of more testing, “some of it obviously indicates a problem,” he said.
“We have not had major events or major gatherings be the cause … of spread that we’ve been able to identify,” added de Blasio.
Dr. Jay Varma, health advisor to the city, said about 5% of cases were associated with gatherings, and around 10% were due to travel.
For more than half, “we don’t have a way to directly attribute the source of infection and that’s a concern,” Varma said.
Lebanon’s lockdown will include the closure of government departments, schools, universities, and retail stores – but some key institutions will remain open, the government said on Tuesday.
Beirut’s Rafic Hariri airport will stay open, as will security directorates, telecommunication departments, banks, and private and public health sectors.
It is unclear if the lockdown will affect movement on the streets.
What else? The lockdown includes suspension of work in companies, private institutions, stores of all kinds and offices of self-employed workers.
Exceptions to the lockdown include mills, bakeries, everything related to the manufacturing, storage and sale of basic food, and delivery services in restaurants, the government said.
The reconstruction of the area damaged by the August blast in Beirut’s port will continue, the government added.
The director of Brazil’s biomedical Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas, has said that a “serious, adverse event” suffered by a Sinovac vaccine trial volunteer was unrelated to the trial itself.
Brazilian health authorities halted the clinical trials of the Chinese vaccine on Monday after the event.
“The serious adverse event observed in a volunteer in the trial has no relation to the vaccine,” Covas said at a press conference in Sao Paulo Tuesday.
“It was analyzed and determined that there was no relation.”
But he could not provide more details about the event or the volunteer, citing privacy reasons, insisting that regulators had all the information showing that the event was unrelated to the trial.
Chinese firm Sinovac began the Phase 3 clinical trial of its CoronaVac vaccine in collaboration with the Butantan Institute and the state of Sao Paulo in late July.
CoronaVac has been at the heart of a political feud between Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and the governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, who is expected to run against him in the country’s next presidential elections in 2022.
While Doria said he hopes to eventually vaccinate Sao Paulo state residents with CoronaVac, Bolsonaro has disparaged the vaccine and has backed a vaccine candidate produced by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
Covas said Tuesday that there was no reason to interrupt Sinovac’s trial.
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro said on social media that with the suspension of the Sinovac trial the “president wins one.”
Separately, Sinovac said Brazil’s decision to halt clinical trials was not due to the vaccine itself.
Britain has a “70 to 80% chance” of life getting back to normal by Easter if the UK doesn’t “screw up” the distribution of a potential Covid-19 vaccine, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University John Bell said Tuesday.
Bell is a member of the government’s vaccine taskforce. He appeared at a parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday where he discussed Pfizer’s promising Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Pfizer said Monday that the vaccine had more than 90% efficacy, based on early data.
Bell said that Monday’s announcement by Pfizer was “a massive step forward” and that he’s optimistic of getting enough vaccinations done in the first quarter of 2021. But he cautioned that obstacles to approving and distributing the vaccine remained.
“We’ve got to get a regulatory approval, we’ve got to get more material manufacturing. We have to get it distributed,” he said.
However, he said it signals that many of the other vaccines “that have the same immunogenicity are likely also to be efficacious so I wouldn’t be surprised if we hit the new year with two or three vaccines, all of which could be distributed.”
“That’s why I’m quite optimistic of getting enough vaccinations done in the first quarter of next year that by spring, things will start to look much more normal than they do now,” he added.
The chair of parliament’s Health Committee Jeremy Hunt tweeted that the UK could at least start feeling “more optimistic.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Tuesday that the UK government doesn’t yet know “whether or when the vaccine is approved,” but that it has asked the National Health Service (NHS) “to be ready from any date from the 1st of December.”
“The logistics are complex, the uncertainties are real and the scale of the job is vast. But I know that NHS brilliantly assisted by the armed forces will be up to the task,” Hancock said during a Covid-19 statement in the House of Commons.
The European Union will authorize a contract on Wednesday for up to 300 million doses of a candidate vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced.
“Once this vaccine becomes available, our plan is to deploy it quickly, everywhere in Europe,” von der Leyen said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This will be the fourth contract with a pharmaceutical company to buy vaccines. And more will come. Because we need to have a broad portfolio of vaccines based on different technologies.”
The EU’s announcement comes after drug giant Pfizer announced Monday that an early look at data from its coronavirus vaccine shows it is more than 90% effective – a much-better-than-expected efficacy.
“This is the most promising vaccine so far. A safe and effective vaccine is our best chance to beat coronavirus and return to our normal lives,” von der Leyen said, highlighting that the EU had already begun working with member states to prepare national vaccine campaigns.
The European Commission has also signed contracts for vaccines with drug giants Sanofi-GSK, Astra Zeneca and Janssen Pharmaceutica NV.
Wales has cancelled end-of-year school exams for students in 2021 out of “fairness,” the country’s Education Minister Kirsty Williams said on Tuesday, following controversy over an an algorithm that was used to determine results in Wales, England and Northern Ireland.
The pandemic has disrupted school life across the United Kingdom, and many students responded with anger over the algorithm, which was used for A-levels, final high school exams that help determine student’s eligibility for university courses.
“The time learners will spend in schools and colleges will vary hugely, and in this situation it is impossible to guarantee a level playing field for exams to take place. We will instead work with schools to take forward teacher-managed assessments,” Williams said in a statement.
The changes affect students set to take three types of high school exams, known as GCSEs, AS levels and A levels, next summer.
The decision follows Scotland’s announcement on October 7 to cancel National 5 exams - the first set of exams high school students are required to sit.
England maintains that its exams will go ahead in 2021, but the government plans to delay them by three weeks to give students more time to prepare
Drug giant Pfizer sparked a stock market rally with its Monday announcement that its coronavirus vaccine is more than 90% effective, based on early data. It also kicked off a battle over who deserves credit for the preliminary good news.
US President Donald Trump’s administration was quick to applaud itself.
Others, however, pointed to the fact that Pfizer’s senior vice president and head of vaccine research and development, Kathrin Jansen, publicly distanced the company from the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine initiative. Jansen was quoted Monday by The New York Times as saying: “We were never part of the Warp Speed. We have never taken any money from the US government, or from anyone.”
The real story is more nuanced than both Pence’s tweet and Jansen’s comment made it sound.
Facts First: Pfizer’s vaccine progress is certainly not solely attributable to the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed public-private partnership program. But it was not accurate for Pfizer to suggest that it is operating entirely apart from Operation Warp Speed; the company has a major agreement to sell at least 100 million doses to the federal government, and Pfizer acknowledged in a Monday statement to CNN that it is in fact “participating” in Operation Warp Speed through this deal. Also, at least some independent experts say the Trump administration deserves partial credit for Pfizer’s progress.
But there’s more to the story. Read here for the facts:
Moscow is introducing a new set of coronavirus restrictions amid a record-breaking surge in new infections, the city’s mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced Tuesday in a blog post.
The measures will be in force for two months, from November 13 until January 15, 2021. They impose significant restrictions on the city’s social scene.
Under the new rules, entertainment venues, bars, and restaurants will close between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Takeout and food delivery can still operate 24 hours a day, the statement added.
Sobyanin said that university and college students would switch to distance learning, bringing them in line with middle and high school students, who have been taking classes online for the past several weeks.
Most indoor venues for children, such as entertainment centers in malls, will be closed for the time being.
Theaters, concert halls and cinemas will be required to cap audiences at 25% capacity, while the organizers of mass sports events will need to secure special permission from local health authorities to host spectators.
“For two and a half months there has been a real fight against this disaster, a fight for health and lives of Muscovites,” Sobyanin wrote.
“A week ago, the infection rate seemed to have stabilized at a high but still non-critical level. However, in recent days, we again saw a significant growth … and unfortunately in the coming weeks we might see the situation worsening.”
On Monday, Moscow officially reported 6,897 new cases of coronavirus, the highest increase since the start of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, the city accounted for 5,902 cases among 20,977 new infections registered across Russia.
Hospitals in the Swedish capital Stockholm are struggling to cope with a sharp increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations, according to the regional health authority.
Björn Eriksson, Stockholm’s regional healthcare director, said that hospitals were having to postpone certain planned procedures, but he assured the public that they were ready to take care of all Covid-19 patients.
Sweden took a sharply different approach to its European neighbours in its Covid-19 response in the spring. The country did not enter lockdown and instead issued guidance to citizens, urging them to practice social distancing and personal hygiene. Its coronavirus death toll during the spring was one of the highest in the world per capita.
The regional health authority reports that 349 patients are in hospital in Stockholm, an increase of 76 from the end of last week. The numbers may appear low, but Sweden currently has an infection rate of approximately 346 cases per 100,000 people, far higher than Finland (53), Denmark (254) and Norway (112), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)’s latest data.
“The strain on our emergency hospitals is great,” Eriksson said.
“We consider the situation to be serious and are increasing coordination within the Stockholm Region in order to continue to be one step ahead in our planning so that healthcare capacity increases faster than healthcare needs.”
Sweden has tightened its guidance this month, limiting the number of people gathering in restaurants and bars as cases surge.
As of Friday, Sweden has registered 6,022 Covid-19 related deaths and a total of 146,461 cases, according to official health data.
European countries have welcomed Pfizer’s announcement that it believes its vaccine is more than 90% effective with relief, as much of the region remains under lockdown. Here’s what’s happening in some countries:
Germany
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said Pfizer’s announcement, based on early data, was “very encouraging” and that he was “very pleased” that a German research and development team played a role. German company BiOnTech has been Pfizer’s partner in the vaccine’s development.
Germany has registered 15,332 new coronavirus cases since Monday, as well as 154 further coronavirus-related deaths. The country’s total death toll now stands at 11,506 according to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
France
A French government spokesperson said Tuesday that it was too early to propose a “loosening of the rules” on coronavirus restrictions in France. The spokesperson added that while there is some evidence that restrictive measures imposed by the government “might be having an impact,” the country must remain “cautious.”
The spokesperson’s remarks come just a day after France’s National Health Agency Director Jérôme Salomon said that the country’s second wave of Covid-19 had yet to peak.
Italy
Five more local regions in Italy have been declared “orange zones,” meaning tighter restrictions will come into effect in the areas starting Wednesday and last for at least two weeks.
The regions of Abruzzo, Umbria, Toscana, Liguria and Basilicata will see “non-essential” shops close, and bars and restaurants will be limited to serving takeaway only. People will also be restricted from leaving their towns of residence.
Portugal
The government of Portugal imposed a two-week state of emergency in 121 municipalities on Monday, mostly concentrated around the country’s two largest cities, Lisbon and Porto. In those municipalities, a mandatory curfew between 11p.m. and 5a.m. local time has been introduced, with an extension from 1p.m. – 5a.m. over the weekend.
Mandatory body temperature checks will be carried out when accessing workplaces, schools, universities and public transport, as well as commercial, cultural and sports venues.
It is now also compulsory to wear a face mask in all public areas, including outside if social distancing is impossible to maintain.
Denmark’s government has backtracked on an order to kill all mink in the country after conceding it had no legal authority to order a mass cull.
Denmark ordered the cull, which included killing healthy mink, after finding that a coronavirus mutation had spread widely across more than 200 Danish mink farms. The mutated virus has also spread to 12 humans.
Though healthy minks may have been saved from the cull for now, a prior government order requiring the killing of all infected mink herds, as well as herds within a radius of 7.8 kilometers (4.8 miles), appears to still be in place.
Prior to the culls, Denmark was home to more than 15 million mink, which are raised for their pelts. The country’s human population stands at around 5.5 million.
The cull of uninfected mink was thrown into doubt when questions were raised about the order’s legal basis, according to state broadcaster TV2.
After facing questions from the opposition, the government admitted that it did not have the legal authority to order the cull of healthy mink on farms unaffected by the outbreak.
Covid-19 mutations are normal, and it is not yet clear if this mutation was significant.
“There are huge doubts relating to whether the planned cull was based on an adequate scientific basis,” Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the leader of the Liberals opposition, told broadcaster TV2.
“At the same time, one’s depriving a lot of people of their livelihoods.”
Europe’s CDC has said that the mutation “may have implications for immunity, reinfections and the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines,” but that “there is currently a high level of uncertainty over this.”
US drugmaker Pfizer’s announcement Monday that it believes its Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective has triggered a wave of optimism around the world, parts of which are under a second round of lockdown, desperately looking for a way out.
Pfizer’s announcement, based on early data from its Phase 3 trial, was much better than expected and some experts are saying doses could be produced and distributed in the next month. The trial of the vaccine, made in partnership with Germany’s BioNTech, has enrolled more than 43,500 participants since July 27.
State health officials in the US have told CNN that they are feeling “overwhelmed” and “daunted” at the prospect of distributing Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, should it become widely available soon.
On Monday, Pfizer announced that early data from its Phase 3 trial showed its vaccine was more than 90% effective. The drug giant could apply for authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as early as this month.
The vaccine’s handling requirements are stringent — it has to be stored at about minus-75 degrees Celsius (minus-103 Fahrenheit), more than 50 degrees Celsius lower than any other vaccine currently on the market in the US.
The required conditions are far colder than the temperatures in freezers kept in doctors’ offices, pharmacies and public health clinics.
Molly Howell, who’s in charge of the immunization program in North Dakota, said she felt “overwhelmed” and “daunted” while watching a webinar last month on how to distribute Pfizer’s vaccine.
“How are we going to do this?” she texted a colleague who was also on the webinar.
Her colleague responded with an exploding head emoji.
Pfizer has offered “thermal shippers” about the size of a suitcase to keep the vaccine cold. They’re only temporary, and need to be replenished with dry ice every five days.
“It would be hard to with a straight face say, ‘Oh, we’re all set,’” said Christine Finley, Vermont’s immunization program manager.
“[This] equals a challenge I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”
Misinformation, mistrust and public hesitancy to take a coronavirus vaccine could undermine the fight against Covid-19, British scientists said, warning that the UK may not meet the threshold of vaccine uptake to protect the community.
If a vaccine is released, 80% of the population will likely need to be vaccinated to offer widespread protection, according to a report published Tuesday by The British Academy and The Royal Society.
But it found that around 27% of people in Britain felt uncertain about receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, while 9% said they were “very unlikely” to be vaccinated.
The report urges the UK government to address public concerns over vaccine safety and efficacy. But in order to ensure such widespread uptake, scientists have urged the British government to tackle the public’s concerns about vaccines.
“There needs to be a frank conversation with the public about just how long it will take and that things will not immediately go back to normal when vaccines arrive.”
She added: “We must learn from lessons of history and move away from the one-way provision of information and instead generate an open dialogue that addresses misinformation and does not dismiss people’s real vaccine concerns and hesitancy.”
School closures and restrictions on movement have caused children in England without strong support structures to regress in key skill areas, including numeracy, reading and writing, and even how to use a knife and fork.
The findings were laid out in a report Tuesday by Ofsted, an education standards watchdog which monitors schools in England. Ofsted employees carried out the assessment by visiting more than 900 education and social care providers during September and October.
Some children in the earliest years of education had to return to nappies despite having been potty-trained, according to the report, while many in the same age group also lost early progress with words and numbers.
“Among older children, inspectors heard that many now lack stamina in reading and writing; some have lost physical fitness; and others are showing signs of mental distress, manifesting in an increase in eating disorders and self-harm,” the report added.
Chief Education Inspector Amanda Spielman said the decision to keep schools open during England’s second national lockdown in November was “very good news indeed.”
“The impact of school closures in the summer will be felt for some time to come – and not just in terms of education, but in all the ways they impact on the lives of young people,” Spielman added.
Despite educational institutions reopening this autumn, an increasing number of parents are choosing to homeschool. Teachers say parents are motivated by virus fears, as opposed to a commitment to delivering robust home education.
Ofsted said it was also concerned about a fall in referrals to social services, which raises alarm bells that abuse may be going undetected.
Collins Dictionary’s word of the year is typically a sign of the times — previous winners include Gangnam Style (2012), photobomb (2014) and binge-watch (2015). But in 2020 the dictionary’s pick is decidedly bleaker: “Lockdown.”
Collins said it has registered over 250,000 usages of “lockdown” this year so far, compared to just 4,000 usages in 2019.
Collins selected the term from a longlist dominated by pandemic-related terms, including “coronavirus,” “furlough” and “key worker.”
According to Collins, the dominance of words linked to Covid-19 was “no surprise.”
“Our lexicographers chose ‘lockdown’ as Word of the Year because it is a unifying experience for billions of people across the world, who have had, collectively, to play their part in combating the spread of Covid-19.”
On its website, Collins described lockdown as “the condition we’ve most dreaded in 2020 – a state of national stasis, where almost everything that constitutes normal public life is suspended.”
Australia has recorded three consecutive days of zero locally-transmitted Covid-19 cases for the first time since March.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison made the announcement Tuesday on Twitter, while urging Australians to continue following safety measures and to not become complacent.
Australia has 27,678 total confirmed Covid-19 cases and 907 deaths from the virus, as of Monday.
A coronavirus vaccine, if successfully developed, will not be made mandatory in the United Kingdom, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC News on Tuesday.
Hancock’s comments come a day after the Prime Minister’s spokesperson confirmed that 10 million doses of Pfizer’s candidate vaccine would be manufactured and made available to the UK by the end of 2020, if approved by regulators. The UK has procured 40 million doses of the candidate vaccine, the spokesperson said.
When asked if children will need to be vaccinated, Hancock said that the vaccine “is not for children” as they have a “very low susceptibility” to the virus.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Hancock added that those “most vulnerable” will be prioritized, such as those who live or work in care homes and healthcare workers.
“The faster we can protect those who are most at risk, the easier it will be to be able to have confidence, to be able to take the steps that will allow life to get back to normal,” Hancock said.
Chinese biotechnology firm Sinovac says that Brazil’s decision to halt clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine CoronaVac is not due to the vaccine itself.
“We have communicated with our Brazilian partner, the Butantan Institute, and the head of the institute believes the incident has nothing to do with the vaccine,” said the company in a statement on Tuesday, without giving a reason for the reported suspension.
“Sinovac will continue to communicate with the Brazilian side on this matter. Work-related to our clinical research in Brazil will continue to be carried out in strict accordance with GCP (Good Clinical Practice) requirements. We are confident in the safety of the vaccine.”
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman read the company’s statement to reporters when asked to comment on the development at the ministry’s daily press briefing Tuesday.
The halted trials: Brazil’s health regulator suspended clinical trials of CoronaVac following a “serious adverse event” involving a volunteer recipient on October 29, according to sources cited by CNN’s affiliate, CNN Brasil.
The note from Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency did not elaborate on the specific nature of the event or where it took place, citing privacy concerns.
Race for a vaccine: Sinovac’s Phase 3 trials began in late July, with an aim to recruit 130,000 volunteers. Phase 3 trials represent the final and most important testing stage before regulatory approval is sought.
This pause in testing marks a potential setback for one of China’s leading vaccine candidates and comes as US drugmaker Pfizer said Monday that early data from its own coronavirus vaccine showed more than 90% effectiveness.
Read the full story:
Asian markets were muted in Tuesday trade, as investors weighed the effect that promising news about Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine could have on the post-pandemic global recovery. Tech stocks sputtered.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.4%, losing some of the momentum it had built earlier in the morning. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.5%, also paring earlier gains. South Korea’s Kospi was up 0.2%. But China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.5%, pulling back from early gains.
On Monday, stocks soared as drugmaker Pfizer announced that an early look at data from its Covid-19 vaccine shows a 90% efficacy rate. Investors also reacted positively to greater political certainty following Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election.
“Investors have been patiently waiting for the news of any vaccine development breakthrough and last night this patience paid off,” said Tai Hui, chief Asia market strategist for JP Morgan Asset Management.
Read more here:
The United States reported 119,944 new Covid-19 cases and 472 deaths on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The total number of reported cases in the US stands at 10,110,552 and at least 238,251 people have died.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
Surging cases: On Monday, the US passed 10 million total cases. The most recent 1 million infections happened faster than any previous million – in just 10 days.
The virus is now spreading exponentially in all regions of the country. As of Monday, 43 states reported at least 10% more new Covid-19 cases compared to last week, according to Johns Hopkins.
And the rate of new infections is far outpacing the rate of testing.
Read more on the outbreak in the US:
If Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is authorized for emergency use, it’s “very likely” people will be receiving doses by the end of this year, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday.
Drugmaker Pfizer announced that its coronavirus vaccine appears to be more than 90% effective, based on early data.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he’s certain Pfizer will apply for emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine within the next week and a half or so.
“Which means if that goes along smoothly, that we may have doses that we’re able to give to people by the end of November, the beginning of December, probably well into December,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Fauci said that all the safety and regulatory checks must be completed.
“But we would be giving vaccines to people very likely before the end of this year,” said Fauci. “That is good news.”
Fauci also said that the last time he spoke to President Donald Trump was when he was hospitalized with coronavirus in early October.
Trump was treated for coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from October 2 to October 5. Fauci is a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force but has said Trump has taken less interest in what he and other members of the Task Force have to say in recent weeks in favor of Dr. Scott Atlas, a more recent member of the group.
Anyone who participated in recent celebrations or protests without wearing a face covering or practicing social distancing should get tested and quarantine for 14 days, Los Angeles Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a news conference Monday.
Ferrer issued this recommendation after reporting “real and alarming increases” in Covid-19 cases following numerous large gatherings that occurred over the weekend in the US city.
“If you’re going out in these large crowds and you’re singing, shouting, celebrating, or protesting and don’t have a mask on or you’re not keeping your distance, there’s a lot of transmission happening there,” Ferrer said. “If you’ve been in those situations, you may have been exposed so please quarantine and go get tested.”
Los Angeles county added 1,413 new cases today, bringing the total number of cases to 323,625. There are 855 people hospitalized due to the virus, Ferrer said.
Members and observer states of the World Health Organization (WHO) met virtually for the 73rd World Health Assembly on Monday, with WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying in his opening remarks that the world needed to work together to end the coronavirus pandemic.
But one of the governments with the best track record on containing Covid-19 wasn’t in attendance at the meeting. They weren’t even allowed to observe.
Taiwan, a self-governed island of 24 million people, has only recorded 578 infections and seven deaths from the novel coronavirus, despite its close proximity to the center of the initial outbreak in mainland China.
Only countries which are members of the United Nations can become members of the WHO, and Taiwan has not been represented at the UN since 1971.
Beijing still claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has repeatedly put pressure on international institutions for decades, including the WHO, to not give the island a country-level status. This is despite Taiwan being separately governed from the mainland since 1949.
Taiwan has been fiercely campaigning to be allowed into the WHO or at the very least to be given observer status. On Twitter, the Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been pushing the hashtag #TaiwanCanHelp.
But despite its best attempts, Taiwan was excluded when the WHO leaders met on Monday.
“The Foreign Ministry expresses strong regret and dissatisfaction at China’s obstruction of Taiwan participating in the WHO and the WHO’s continuing to neglect the health and human rights of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people,” Taipei said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) has suspended phase 3 clinical trials of a Chinese-developed Covid-19 vaccine following an “adverse” incident involving a volunteer recipient, according to sources cited by CNN’s affiliate, CNN Brasil.
CoronaVac, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech, began phase 3 trials of CoronaVac in collaboration with the Brazilian Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo in late July.
According to CNN Brasil, the studies were suspended due to the “occurrence of serious adverse event in one of the volunteers in Brazil.” No further details were provided owing to privacy regulations.
The pause in testing marks a potential setback for one of China’s leading vaccine candidates and comes as US drugmaker Pfizer said Monday that early data from its own coronavirus vaccine showed more than 90% effectiveness.
In a note obtained by CNN Brasil, Anvisa mentions a case on October 29 for which the agency “determined the interruption of the clinical study,” adding that it “decided to interrupt the study to evaluate the data observed so far and judge on the risk/benefit of continuing the study.”
“With the study interrupted, no new volunteers can be vaccinated,” reads the Anvisa note published by CNN Brasil late Monday.
The CoronaVac trial vaccine uses inactivated virus cells to stimulate an immune response in patients. Testing began in late July, with 9,000 volunteers in five Brazilian states plus the capital.
The Butantan Institute said it will hold a press conference Tuesday morning local time, according to CNN Brasil.
“No corners were cut” in the development of Pfizer’s 2-dose coronavirus vaccine, the company’s vice president of research and development, Dr. John Burkhardt, said at a news conference in Connecticut Monday.
“Pfizer has been in the vaccine business for quite a number of years with many products on the market, many also in development for other infectious diseases,” Burkhardt said.
“So, with this particular vaccine no corners were cut. We followed this tried and true methodology that has worked so well for us in the past and continues to deliver really superior and safe products,” he added.
Burkhardt said what’s been unusual in the development of its Covid-19 vaccine is that the company started the manufacturing process at the same time it was developing the vaccine, something that is not usually done.
“Normally you wouldn’t spend $1 billion to manufacture a product that may not work. You wait to see whether it works and whether it’s safe and then you do the manufacturing. So, we did that at risk,” he said.
It was a decision made very early in the process to save time, Burkhardt said. He also credited “great volunteerism” in getting 43,000 people enrolled in the clinical trials as a time saver in the development process.
Pfizer announced Monday that early efficacy data on its Covid-19 vaccine appears to be more than 90% effective, much better than expected.
Almost half of the volunteers in Pfizer’s Phase 3 clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine are from diverse backgrounds, the company’s vice president of research and development, Dr. John Burkhardt, said at a news conference in Connecticut Monday.
“Our approach has been to really enroll lots of patients, gain lots of diversity in that population, go into the places where we can enroll diversity and then to learn from that data as it plays out in the study,” Burkhardt said.
Pfizer is studying 43,000 patients in its vaccine trials, he said, and 42% are from ethnic and racial backgrounds that are considered diverse.
It’s unclear whether the vaccine may not benefit some populations or if there might be side effects associated with it.
“We don’t have the sub-level of detail to answer those, but we believe we’ve got the kind of clinical trial design and some simple data set that will be very informative,” he said.
Pfizer announced Monday that early data on its Covid-19 vaccine shows it appears to be more than 90% effective at preventing infection.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that he plans to remain in his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through the remainder of the Trump administration and into President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.
“I have no intention of leaving,” Fauci told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “This is an important job. I’ve been doing it now for a very long time. I’ve been doing it under six presidents.”
“It’s an important job, and my goal is to serve the American public, no matter what the administration is,” he added.
Fauci warned that the United States was in a “serious situation” with cases exceeding 100,000 a day, but said the country “can turn it around.”
“Unfortunately, we predicted it when we were talking about the fact that as we enter into the coolest season of the fall and the upcoming coldest season of the winter, that you’re going to start seeing more indoor activity, and we never got down to a good baseline,” said Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
He said “help is on the way with a vaccine,” following the announcement by Pfizer on Monday that early data shows its vaccine is 90% effective.
“The bottom line is as a vaccine, it’s more than 90% effective, which is extraordinary and will play a major role in what the outcome of this is going to be,” Fauci told Blitzer.
The Data and Safety Monitoring Board, an independent group that monitors vaccine trials, “has … told us that we now have a vaccine that is more than 90% effective,” said Fauci.
“Obviously, we need to go over the details of the data, but this is a highly reputable company that has extensive experience in the development of countermeasures, including vaccines,” Fauci said.
He said there were still questions about how long the vaccine would protect people for, and how effective it is in the elderly versus younger people, but that it was “good news” both in the immediate term and for other vaccines from companies such as Moderna, which work along similar lines.
He emphasized, though, that while Americans should feel good about the news, no one should let their guard down yet.
“We know there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to give up the important public health measures that we continually still have to do every single day,” said Fauci.
