November 11 coronavirus news

A voter arrives at the Staples Center to drop off a ballot during the presidential election on November 3, in Los Angeles.

The reigning NBA champion, the Los Angeles Lakers, announced Wednesday that the team will not allow fans to attend home games at Staples Center until further notice.

The team says it is following the guidance of state and local health officials and acting to protect the health and safety of fans, players, team staff, and the community. 

“The health and safety of our fans, players, staff and community are our main priority,” the Lakers said in a statement.

“We appreciate your continued support and look forward to coming together, when it is safe to do so, to celebrate the raising of our banner and the quest for another NBA championship.”

The Lakers will continue to work with health officials to develop a plan to allow fans back to games.

The 2020-2021 NBA season is set to begin on December 22. 

The United States has set a record for the second consecutive day for the number of people in hospital with Covid-19, according to the Covid Tracking Project (CTP). 

As of Wednesday, 65,368 people were in hospital with Covid-19, according to CTP. This is the second day in a row that the nation has topped 60,000 current hospitalizations. 

The highest hospitalizations records according to CTP data are: 

Record high hospitalizations are expected to continue daily as new Covid-19 cases continue to sky-rocket.

An ambulance pulls into the Long Island Jewish Forest Hills Northwell Health Hospital in the Queens borough of New York City, on November 10.

New York state’s largest hospital system is anticipating it won’t get an ample supply of Covid-19 vaccine for all of its frontline workers in the first rounds of distribution. 

Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine could be sent around the country within a matter of weeks. The company announced Monday that initial clinical trial results show it’s more than 90% effective and it could apply for authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for its vaccine as soon as next week.

Healthcare workers, essential workers, the elderly, and those with underlying immune conditions will be given priority. 

Northwell Health is expecting monthly shipments of the vaccine, said Dr. Mark Jarrett, who’s coordinating the health system’s immunization program and has been on regular calls with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Operation Warp Speed, which is also working on the federal government’s vaccine distribution plan.  

Northwell Health has about 55,000 workers who have face-to-face contact with patients, Jarrett said. 

Who’ll get the vaccine first: Northwell has about 55,000 workers who have face-to-face contact with patients, Jarrett said. It has developed a tiered system for deciding who gets it first. The most important factor is how closely the employee works with coronavirus patients, but they’ll also take into account a worker’s age, since older people are more vulnerable. It will not be mandatory.

How they’ll get it: Pfizer’s vaccine has to be kept at minus 75 degrees Celsius (-103F), and hospitals typically don’t have freezers that cold. Pfizer is shipping the vaccines in boxes packed with dry ice that needs to be replenished. Northwell is not depending on those “thermal shippers” and has bought ultra-low temperature freezers for its 17 hospitals.

Who’ll get it next: The federal government has not yet decided what formula it will use to distribute the vaccines to states, according to Jarrett. He said he suspects the vaccine will be distributed to states based on how many cases they have, but there’s a “medical controversy” over whether that’s the right approach. 

The goal would be to protect hardest hit communities, but the vaccine doesn’t take effect for a month to six weeks after the first dose is given, and by that time other communities could be harder hit. The vaccine is given in two doses three weeks apart.  

The government could be considering other factors, such as the number of elderly people in each state, or which states have populations living in higher densities, which could allow the virus to spread more rapidly. 

“I’m sure they are figuring this out now as we speak,” Jarrett said, adding that health officials might not want to make a decision until closer to the vaccine’s distribution date, since the spread of the virus could change.

There have been at least 140,543 new coronavirus cases reported in the United States so far today, Johns Hopkins University data shows. This is the highest single day reporting since the pandemic began. 

This also marks the ninth consecutive day of more than 100,000 cases of Covid-19 in the US.

This count is not final – and the total number of new cases will not be available until overnight tonight. 

The second highest number of cases reported to date is November 10 at 136,325 daily new cases, as reported by JHU. 

CNN is tracking Covid-19 cases in the US here:

Hospitals in the United States are coming under immense strain as some reach full capacity and others face threats of strikes by staff.

Mississippi’s Department of Health announced Wednesday that the state’s Covid-19 hospitalizations “are on track toward the crisis level we saw this summer,” warning that if changes weren’t made immediately, there would be critical shortages of first-line care for those seriously ill or injured.  

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves extended mask mandates for 15 countries through December 11, according to a release from the Governor’s office. 

The Mayo Clinic Health System said its hospitals in Northwest Wisconsin were full to capacity, with 100% of its beds filled in the region. It said that half of the intensive care unit capacity is occupied by Covid-19 patients, while 40% of regular medical surgical beds are being used by Covid-19 patients – who it said normally stay in hospital 2-3 times longer than non-Covid patients. 

Approximately 300 hospital staff in the area are on work restrictions due to exposure to Covid-19, the statement added. 

Meanwhile, at least 1,500 nurses in Philadelphia are on the verge of striking, according to a spokesperson with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP). 

The nurses feel they have been “pushed to the brink by unsafe staffing that seriously undermines patient safety,” according to the release.

CNN has reached out to Trinity Health, Tower Health and Einstein Health for comment. 

The United States has reported more than 240,000 coronavirus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally.

There have been at least 10,290,284 Covid-19 cases in the US and at least 240,044 people have died, the JHU figures show. 

So far today, Johns Hopkins has tallied 38,155 new cases and 373 reported deaths. On Tuesday, the US hit another single-day record with 136,325 Covid-19 cases – and the eighth day in a row that more than 100,000 people were diagnosed.

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

CNN is tracking US cases here: 

Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey said his confidence in hosting the remaining football season was “shaken but not deterred” after four SEC games were postponed this week.

The Saturday games were postponed after Covid-19 contact tracing protocols left schools with an insufficient number of players. They were:

Sankey addressed the media in a Wednesday teleconference, saying the disruptions to the season were “a difficult circumstance … No way to paint it otherwise, but we knew that challenges would emerge for college sports.”

He said the SEC would “continue to move forward with our efforts to support healthy competition, leading us to a conference championship in football. That’s been our goal while acknowledging the potential for adjustments that may be needed.”

The SEC championship is scheduled for December 19.

Basketball: Meanwhile, the University of Miami and Stetson University’s season-opening men’s basketball game has been postponed due to a positive Covid-19 test within the Stetson basketball program.

Stetson men’s basketball temporarily suspended all team activities on Wednesday after a student-athlete tested positive for Covid-19. The school said the entire men’s basketball team is in isolation and following state and CDC guidelines.  

The two schools, who were scheduled to play on November 25, will look to reschedule the game for another time.

The White House coronavirus task force is again alerting states of “accelerating” coronavirus spread and strongly recommending increased testing as cases and hospitalizations rapidly rise across the country.

The task force, which warned of “significant deterioration in the Sunbelt” in last week’s set of reports, said that that deterioration has only continued in the past week, “leading to the most diffuse spread experienced to date.”

The weekly reports continue to provide an unvarnished, unfiltered look at the reality of each state’s current situation, which comes as President Donald Trump and task force leader Vice President Mike Pence have declined to address the pandemic publicly in weeks. The task force leadership is under constant scrutiny, while the White House has repeatedly declined to make all of its reports publicly accessible.  

In recommendations to several states, the task force called for an expansion of testing, particularly to target asymptomatic cases. 

The reports added: “Proactive testing must be part of the mitigation efforts, inclusive of mask wearing, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and immediate isolation, contact tracing, and quarantine.”

Read the full story here:

Related article White House coronavirus task force warns of 'accelerating community spread'

South Africa will lift its remaining international travel restrictions, opening its borders to all travelers presenting a negative Covid-19 certificate. 

Ramaphosa said the country was ready to move into the recovery phase of its Covid-19 response, as he announced a further opening of the country’s economy. 

“It is our individual actions over the next few weeks and months that will decide the fortunes of our nation. The actions we must take are straightforward, but they are not insignificant. They can and do save lives.” 

For more than two months, the number of new infections nationwide has remained below 2,000 per day. South Africa’s recovery rate is 92% with deaths and hospital admissions declining for 14 consecutive weeks. Ramaphosa did warn, however, that the situation in the Eastern Cape Province was showing signs of a resurgence that would need to be dealt with swiftly. 

Healthcare workers handle swabs during a mass testing for COVID-19 at a temporary testing centre in Ronda, Spain on November 11.

Spain has reported more than 40,000 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began, data from the Spanish Health Ministry on Wednesday showed. 

It has the second-highest number of deaths per 100,000 people of any country except for Belgium, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Spain is the fourth country in Europe to pass the 40,000 deaths mark, after the United Kingdom (which today passed 50,000), Italy and France.

Spanish authorities reported a one-day increase of 349 deaths from Covid-19, with the total death toll from the virus now standing at 40,105. Spain also reported 19,096 additional infections Wednesday, taking it to more than 1.4 million infections total since the start of the pandemic.