November 30 coronavirus news

The NFL has postponed the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers for a third time. The game originally scheduled for Thanksgiving, was first postponed to Sunday and then again to Tuesday.

The game is now set for Wednesday at 3:40 p.m. ET in Pittsburgh. 

The Ravens have been struggling to manage a coronavirus outbreak within the team. Since facing the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 22, the Ravens have placed 21 players on the team’s Reserve/Covid-19 list. As of Monday afternoon, the team’s website states that 19 of those players remain on the list.

The NFL describes the Reserve/Covid-19 list as being for players who either test positive for Covid-19 or who have been quarantined after having been in close contact with an infected person or persons.

“As we continue to follow the advice of the NFL’s health experts, as well as the Ravens’ medical professionals, we are preparing for our game against the Steelers,” the Ravens said in a statement. “This evening, we hosted a safely distanced walk-through/conditioning session at the Under Armour Performance Center. Players arrived already prepared to work out on the field, and they did not enter the locker room or training room.”

“We intend to hold another walk-through session on Tuesday, in preparation for traveling to Pittsburgh Tuesday evening,” the team said.

The NFL has yet to cancel a 2020 regular season game.

The federal government must take “urgent actions” in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report from the US Government Accountability Office.

For example, the GAO report found medical supply shortages persist, despite efforts made by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mitigate shortages and expand the supply chain.

States and US territories are concerned about ongoing shortages of some Covid-19 testing materials and medical supplies, including rapid point-of-care tests and reagents needed for testing and nitrile gloves, an October GAO survey found.

About one-third of states that responded to the October survey said they were “greatly” or “completely” concerned about having enough vaccine-related supplies to administer a potential Covid-19 vaccine. Another 21 states said they were “moderately concerned.”

The GAO made recommendations to HHS and FEMA in September, but they have not been implemented.

“In light of the surge in COVID-19 cases, along with reported shortages, including GAO’s nationwide survey findings, GAO underscores the critical imperative for HHS and FEMA to implement GAO’s September 2020 recommendations,” the independent agency, the investigative arm of Congress, said.

The new report is also concerned with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s changes in testing strategy and guidance, saying the CDC has not been transparent about the changes.

The GAO report made 11 recommendations for improving the federal pandemic response. It recommended that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services quickly develop a plan to respond to 27 recommendations in the Coronavirus Commission on Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes analysis, a report released on Sept. 16.

The GAO report also recommended the Department of Veterans Affairs develop a plan to inspect state veterans homes and “should collect timely data on COVID-19 cases and deaths in each state’s veterans homes.”

With coronavirus cases already at record-breaking levels, the US may see an additional surge just before Christmas, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday.

Too many people have traveled and gathered for Thanksgiving, he said.

“Because of the travel and people congregating for meals, et cetera, you don’t see any difference for a day, two, three, five days,” he said. “You’ll see the difference two or three weeks from now, which would put it right at the time that people would be traveling for Christmas.”

Though a coronavirus vaccine is on the horizon, Fauci urged people not to let their guard down.

“We have it within our power to get ourselves through this until we ultimately get a vaccine,” Fauci said.

He emphasized the importance of adhering to five basic public health measures: wearing masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds, doing activities outdoors instead of indoors and washing hands.

Universal mask-wearing is particularly important, Fauci noted, because the virus is being spread by people who may not look sick.

“The infection in the community level now is driven by people who are without symptoms, because about 40 to 45% of the people who are infected have no symptoms,” he said. “We know that a substantial proportion of the people who get infected, get infected from someone who doesn’t even know they’re infected.”

Watch: Dr. Fauci sends message of encouragement:

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Moderna headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Vaccine maker Moderna says it has filed for emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine.

“Moderna’s data for the Emergency Use Authorization request for mRNA-1273 has been submitted to the U.S. FDA,” the company said in a tweet from its official Twitter account.

Earlier, the US Food and Drug Administration said it had scheduled a meeting of its vaccine advisers, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, for December 17 to consider Moderna’s EUA. But the FDA cannot confirm the submission. Only the company can do so – and now it has.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers a Covid-19 update in Rochester, New York, on November 25.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that state will begin using hospitalizations as a main metric to determine cluster zones and closures across the state

Hospitalization rates are increasing across the state, Cuomo said, adding that “every region is dealing with a hospital issue now,” and that capacity is the top concern.

“We are now worried about overwhelming the hospital system,” Cuomo said.

The governor said he is talking to hospital administrators across the state.

“We want to know where they are today with their capacity, with their PPE, et cetera,” Cuomo said. “We learned this lesson the hard way. We have about 54,000 hospital beds in this state, we were told we would need about 120,000. We lived this nightmare. We learned from this nightmare, and we’re going to correct for the lessons we learned during this nightmare.”

New York state has a 4.5% positivity rate currently, Cuomo said.

In addition to using hospitalizations as a main metric to trigger zone designations and closures, Cuomo also outlined four additional strategies the state will employ to combat the spread of Covid-19: increasing testing across the state, working towards vaccine distributions, keeping schools open safely and keeping the 10 person limit on private gatherings that the governor announced earlier in the fall.

Cuomo said that the goal was to keep K-8 schools open wherever it was safe. The state will implement testing on a weekly basis for schools in orange and red zones.

He also emphasized the importance of having a balanced distribution of testing among various groups — health care workers, school workers and the general traveling population.

On the vaccine, he said that delivery could start in the next few weeks, and that he is working with fellow governors on distribution plans, but noting that widespread distribution will likely not occur until “late spring or early summer.” He noted that the state will be doing outreach to Black and brown communities, as well as lower income communities.

Medical personnel treat a Covid-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles on November 19.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is considering “drastic action,” including reinstating a stay-at-home order, as projections show the surge of Covid-19 cases will cause the state’s intensive care unit capacity to be overrun by Christmas Eve.

Hospitalizations could double or triple within the next month if there are no major changes, he said. They are expected to reach 78% of capacity statewide with even higher numbers in Southern California and other areas, Newsom said in a news conference.

Los Angeles County reported today a total of 400,919 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, a grim new milestone as the virus continues to “run rampant through almost every part of the county,” the county’s Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a news conference.

Daily hospitalizations in Los Angeles also sharply increased 93% over the past week, according to latest county health data. There are currently 2,185 Covid-19 patients hospitalized in Los Angeles and it is very possible that the daily number of people hospitalized will soon be over 2,500, Ferrer said.

CNN’s Alexandra Meeks contributed to this report.

Pfizer is almost finished enrolling volunteers in its Phase 3 clinical trial of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The company has stated it plans to enroll approximately 44,000 participants. On Monday, it announced the addition of 270 more volunteers, bringing the current enrollment to 43,931 people.

More than 42,722 participants have received their second vaccination.

A final analysis of the Phase 3 trial of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine showed it was 95% effective in preventing infections and caused no serious safety concerns, the company said previously.

Pfizer has sent states storage boxes for its Covid-19 vaccine so that health care workers can become accustomed to using them, according to a spokesperson for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Unlike any other Covid-19 vaccine, Pfizer’s vaccine has to be kept at minus 103 degrees Fahrenheit. Doctors’ offices, pharmacies and state vaccination clinics don’t have freezers that go that low, so Pfizer invented special boxes they call “thermal shippers” that hold dry ice.

The boxes being sent to the states will be empty, with no dry ice and no vaccines.

“Pfizer is sending out the sample shippers so jurisdictions can feel better about what it is,” the spokesperson said.

Some states received the boxes Monday, and others will receive them in the next few days, according to the spokesperson.

State immunization clinics have been concerned about using the boxes because they must be regularly re-stocked with dry ice and can only be opened twice a day, each time for no more than a minute.

State immunization managers have for weeks expressed concern about administering Pfizer’s vaccine because of the temperature requirements.

“We all are going into this expecting that there are going to be major glitches,” Dr. Kelly Moore told CNN earlier this month. Moore is associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which is supporting the frontline workers who will administer the coronavirus vaccine.

Pfizer’s vaccine will likely be the first to receive emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Americans could start receiving Pfizer’s vaccine, as well as one made by Moderna, by Christmas, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Monday.

The large shipment sizes of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine will complicate an already complex distribution process for small and rural communities, experts say.

Pfizer has planned for the ultra-cold storage requirements of its vaccine, with thermal shippers that can hold at least 975 and up to 5,000 doses.

“That’s not workable from a small town, rural perspective,” Alan Morgan, chief executive officer of the National Rural Health Association, told CNN Monday. “It just isn’t.”

Smaller communities will have to spread those doses among multiple providers, Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, told CNN Monday.

“States that have smaller providers or rural communities, they’re looking for ways to break up those 975 doses, spread them across more providers, without endangering the cold chain,” she said. 

Hannan said immunization managers are looking into various solutions, like using a hub-and-spoke model, where the vaccine is stored in a central location for providers to pick up, or having doses sent to a warehouse site, where they will be repackaged before distribution.

If rural communities don’t come up with workable plans for distribution, the danger is that rural hubs will be sidelined, Morgan said.

“That type of approach just sets up these rural communities across the US for really unacceptable mortality rates and the potential for the collapse of the health care system,” he said.

Pfizer did not have an immediate response questions about the concerns over shipment sizes.

The US Food and Drug Administration says it has scheduled a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) for Dec. 17 to discuss the request for emergency use authorization (EUA) for a Covid-19 vaccine from biotech company Moderna.

“In keeping with the FDA’s commitment to ensuring full transparency, dialogue and efficiency, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, made up of outside scientific and public health experts from around the country, will meet to discuss the totality of the safety and effectiveness data provided by Moderna for their EUA submission,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement.

Moderna said earlier Monday it would apply for an EUA from the FDA for its vaccine, which it says is more than 94% effective.

“The FDA intends to make background materials available to the public, including the meeting agenda and committee roster, no later than two business days prior to the meeting. In general, advisory committees include a chair, members with scientific and public health expertise, and a consumer, industry, and sometimes a patient representative,” Hahn added.

VRBPAC meetings are livestreamed. The FDA has promised to consider the VRBPAC’s advice on coronavirus vaccines. The same panel is meeting Dec. 10 to discuss Pfizer’s application for an EUA for the vaccine it and BioNTech have developed.