Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has ended for the day.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a press call Sunday that safely opening schools during the pandemic is “the right direction and the right decision.”
Cuomo made the comment when referencing the decision by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to reopen New York City public schools in early December.
California reported 15,614 new Covid-19 cases and 32 new deaths on Sunday, bringing the state count to 1,198,934 cases and death toll to 19,121 since the pandemic began, according to figures released by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).
There were 234,319 new tests reported in the previous 24-hour reporting period, according to CDPH.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate is 6.2%, and the 14 day positivity rate is 6.1%.
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said Sunday he expects that the rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations to continue.
“I want to be straight with the American people, it’s gonna get worse over the next several weeks,” he said on FOX News Sunday. “The actions that we take in the next several days will determine how bad it is or whether or not we continue to flatten our curve.”
Adams encouraged Americans to continue to wear masks and continue practicing public health measures in order to protect people who are most at risk.
He added: “Make sure you’re washing your hands and make sure again if you’ve been in a gathering of more than 10 people without your mask on over the last several days, please get tested in the next three to five days.”
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said that people who gathered for Thanksgiving should take measures to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
Adams added: “You can still isolate, you can still get tested in three to five days, you can still take measures that have been proven to help us prevent cases, hospitalizations and deaths.”
There have been at least 13,291,126 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 266,357 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported 46,709 new cases and 310 reported deaths.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, told CBS’ Margaret Brennan that mask mandates are critical for keeping schools open.
“Are you asking governors to close the bars to keep schools open, is that your advice?” Brennan asked Birx on “Face the Nation” Sunday.
Birx also said that the US should close any space where people cannot wear masks.
“The first thing you should do is close spaces where people cannot wear masks and we know where that is,” she said. “That’s bars and indoor restaurants – reduce capacity if needed, you may have to even close them.”
Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force told CBS that she hopes to start briefing the Biden-Harris team on Monday.
Birx said that the one thing that will be bought to the Biden team in that discussion is to understand how they want to see the data.
“Data isn’t helpful is it’s not actionable, and each group needs to see it the way it makes them, moves to action,” she said. “That’s why we write the governors report weekly to really ensure every governor understand what we’re seeing and what we think needs to be done.”
New York City public schools grades 3-k, Pre-k, and K-5th grade will begin reopening for in-person learning Dec. 7, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Schools will begin reopening in phases, de Blasio said.
Students will be tested weekly and parents will be required to sign a consent form for every student that will take in-person classes, de Blasio said.
Nearly 300,000 students are eligible to return to school, according to de Blasio.
District 75 schools, which provide specialized instruction for students with significant needs, will reopen beginning Dec. 10, de Blasio said
Schools are moving to five-days a week of in-person classes as much as possible, the mayor said.
In order to mitigate the spread of the virus, White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx, is encouraging Americans to get tested for Covid-19.
Birx said that people over the age of 65 should get tested immediately if they develop any symptoms.
“If you’re over 65 or you have comorbidities and you gathered at Thanksgiving – if you develop any symptoms, you need to be tested immediately,” Birx said.
Birx also encouraged families who gathered for Thanksgiving to consider wearing a mask while inside their homes in order to protect their loved ones from possibly contracting the virus.
Maryland reports 1,999 new cases of Covid-19 and the state has a test positivity rate of 6.53%, according to information on the state’s department of health website.
The state reported 23 additional deaths on Sunday, the website said.
To note: These numbers were released by the state’s health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and our Covid tracker.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC that Americans should have confidence in distribution plans for a Covid-19 vaccine due to a long history of vaccine distribution, despite problems with testing strategies.
While it isn’t to the extent that vaccine goes to 300 million people, every year the system is set up so that they distribute 80 million or more vaccines, he said on “Meet the Press.”
“This isn’t something that they’ve done just for the first time, obviously you’re going to want to scale it up because the numbers are going to be greater,” he said.
More details: There are a couple of aspects to getting vaccine into the arm of someone who needs it, Fauci said.
The first is to get transport from where it is being made and stored to the localities that need it, which Fauci said is being handled by General Gus Perna and the military.
Once the vaccine gets there, the state and local authorities are responsible for the distribution.
“The part about 300 million doses getting shipped is going to be taken care of by people who know how to do that,” he said. “The part at the distal end, namely getting into people’s arms, is going to be more challenging than just the regular flu season. I think you’d be foolish to deny that. But I think it’s going to be able to be done because the local people have done that in the past. Hopefully, they’ll get the resources to help them to do that.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said bars and indoor-seated restaurants should be closed to prioritize re-opening schools in New York City.
Fauci said in order to keep schools open, Americans must continue to stop the spread of the virus within the community.
“Let’s try to get the kids back, and let’s try to mitigate the things that maintain and just push the kind of community spread that we’re trying to avoid,” Fauci said. “And those are the things that you know well – the bars, the restaurants where you have capacity seating indoors without masks.”
“Those are the things that drive the community spread – not the schools,” he said.”
Adm. Brett Giroir, the White House’s coronavirus testing czar, responded on Sunday to a question from CNN about whether it would be a mistake for the Biden team to change the vaccine distribution plan.
CNN’s Dana Bash quoted Giroir’s message to the Biden administration team from earlier in the week as “you need to let it work.”
Giroir also gave the reminder that almost everyone on Operation Warp Speed, “who’s actually delivering the vaccine and controlling the logistics, they’ll be there on January 19, they’ll be there on January 21.”
“So, I believe there’ll be a smooth, professional transition,” he said.
He said to remember that they’re starting with about 40 million doses of vaccine, already this year there have been 180 million flu vaccines distributed.
“Now the logistics are more difficult and the cold chain is more difficult, but I really am confident in the plan to get it, and particularly get it to the states and get it to the high risk populations,” he said.
On testing, Giroir said that the US is doing more than enough.
“We’re doing everything we can possibly do on testing,” he told CNN.
“We have our first home based test, it’s only available about 100,000 per month, but we’re going to continue to invest, knock down every door to get the technologies and to scale up,” he said. “We would ultimately like to get to a point in time where we do a lot more asymptomatic testing.”
Mississippi Department of Health has reported its second highest daily total of new Covid-19 cases on Sunday as the state surpasses 150,000 total cases.
The 1,845 new cases reported on Sunday brings the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 151,785.
Hospitalizations are increasing statewide, with 971 patients currently hospitalized with the virus. This is up from 618 patients on Nov. 7, according to the dashboard. Of those, 245 patients are currently in the intensive care unit.
There are 27 new deaths being reported on Sunday, with nine of those occurring between Friday and Saturday, the state’s dashboard shows. The total number of deaths in Mississippi since the start of the pandemic now stands at 3,806.
Note: These numbers were released by the state’s health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and our Covid tracker.
Adm. Brett Giroir, the White House’s coronavirus testing czar, said today if you’ve done any traveling over the holidays, you should get tested.
“Just remember you’ve had an increased risk of being exposed, so you should decrease unnecessary activities for about a week, and if you can get tested in three or five days that’s also a very good idea,” Giroir told CNN on Sunday.
Giroir said he is concerned about a possible surge in cases and hospitalizations as travel increases.
“Our hospitalizations are peaking right now at about 95,000,” he said. “About 20% of all people in the hospital have Covid, so this is a really dangerous time.”
Unless you’ve come into contact with someone for longer than 15 minutes who has tested positive for Covid-19, it is not recommended that you quarantine after gathering for Thanksgiving, according to Giroir.
“That’s not recommended to have a quarantine after travel unless you’ve had a direct exposure to a person with Covid for 15 minutes in close contact,” he said.
“Make really sure you adhere 100% to mask wearing to avoid crowds because you could inadvertently have gotten Covid and spread it, so just be careful during the week after your travel because you are at increased risk,” Giroir said.
Adm. Brett Giroir, the White House’s coronavirus testing czar, told CNN that he wanted to make sure that all Americans knew that Covid-19 vaccines had been tested in tens of thousands of individuals and that there is going to be independent and transparent review of them.
He also said that he, the surgeon general and the rest of the team “are really out there trying to educate the public.”
While they have to wait and see what the data show, Giroir said that “all indications are this is an extremely safe vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine and Moderna, and very, very effective, over 95% effective.”
Giroir also spoke about immunizing for impact, or immunizing the groups that are at the highest risk, for example long term care facilities, the elderly and minorities.
If this happens, “we can absolutely get 80% of the benefit of the vaccine by only immunizing a few percent of the population,” he said, “and that’s what we really need to do this month.”
Giroir added that by the end of the year there should be enough vaccine available to immunize 20 million Americans, “and we have to immunize for impact.
The rest of America will get in the second quarter, third quarter of 2021, but we can maximize our impact right now.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, shared concerns he had about US health systems as the coronavirus pandemic persists in the country.
Fauci told NBC that he had a couple of calls from colleagues and associates who are involved in different states throughout the country, just last night, who saying that they were at a point where if things don’t turn around quickly they would have a situation with both hospital capacity and staff.
He said they were asking what they should do and “almost pleading for advice about what can we do, we don’t want to lock down completely, but we might have to.”
Fauci said this was local, not national.
There was a concern entering and coming out of the Thanksgiving holiday as people travelled and congregated, which was why experts tried to get out the message that people shouldn’t have large gatherings but to keep it confined to their immediate households, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told NBC on Sunday.
Fauci said that he didn’t want to frighten people by giving this message, “except to say it is not too late at all for us to do something about this, because as we travel back to be careful when we go back to where we are, to just continue to do the things that we’ve been talking about.”
He said that it is known that something can be done about the infection curve particularly going in to the colder season, by doing things like mitigating with masks, distance and not having crowds or congregate settings.
When asked whether there would be more dire warnings about travel preparing for Christmas and New Year’s, Fauci said “I think we’re going to be faced with another situation, we’re going to have to make decisions as a nation, state, city and family, that we’re in a very difficult time and we’re going to have to do the kinds of restrictions of things we would like to have done, particularly in this holiday season.”
This is because, Fauci said, “we’re entering into what really is a precarious situation because we’re in the middle of a steep slope.”
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though, he said, because vaccines will be seen soon, “we likely, almost certainly, are going to be vaccinating a portion of the individuals in the first priority before the end of December.” Going in to January, February and March, more and more people will be being vaccinated.
Following a month of skyrocketing Covid-19 cases, the US has reached its highest number yet of hospitalizations due to the virus.
The US surpassed 80,000 daily hospitalizations on November 19 and set new records steadily for 17 days straight until Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Then on Saturday, the number reached 91,635.
The spread of coronavirus has been climbing at concerning rates leading up to and just following the Thanksgiving holiday and could soon be getting worse due to holiday travel, experts say. As of Saturday, more than 13.2 million people have been infected by the virus and at least 266,047 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 4 million of the total cases of the pandemic have been reported in the month of November (about 30%), and more than 100,000 cases have been recorded every day for the last 26 consecutive days, JHU said.
Despite calls from officials and health experts to stay home, there was still an uptick in travel during the week of Thanksgiving. With weather getting colder and more people gathering indoors, experts have cautioned that the already climbing number of cases could get worse in the coming weeks.
“If anything, we are rounding the corner into a calamity,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency medicine physician and a visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. “We’re soon going to exceed well more than 2,000 deaths, maybe 3,000, 4,000 deaths every single day here in the US.”
Guadalupe Lopez, known as Lupe (or Lou, in emergencies) died earlier this month of Covid-19. He was a 58-year-old dispatcher and among the essential workers who must show up to work, and one of the more than 9,100 people who have died from the disease in the Chicago area.
“His pride was going to work,” said Erica Lopez, his daughter. “He loved his job. He loved making sure police officers made it home at night.”
A wake for Lopez is scheduled for this weekend, with a funeral planned for Monday. His wife of more than 30 years is also sick with Covid-19 and will be unable to attend the services. She was transferred from the hospital where her husband died to a different one, says Andy Lopez, 21, the couple’s youngest child. She was on a ventilator in the intensive care unit as of Friday.
Doctors are reducing her amount of assistance from the ventilator every day, Andy says. “Every little improvement is good to hear,” Andy said. “We just hope to hear that every day. We’re not settling until she’s out.”
Lopez worked as a dispatcher more than 30 years and grew up in the Little Village neighborhood. As a dispatcher, he handled police emergencies in an area that included where he grew up.
