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Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello has tested positive for Covid-19 and is isolating at home, Brazil’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
Pazuello, an army general, is the third health minister appointed by President Jair Bolsonaro after the first two were squeezed out after clashing with the President over how to tackle the pandemic. Pazuello has stood behind Bolsonaro’s views.
Dozens of cabinet members and elected officials – including Bolsonaro himself – have tested positive for Covid-19 since the virus was first detected in Brazil in March.
Pazuello had a fever earlier in the week, according to the ministry, and canceled an in-person meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday. He participated in a virtual meeting with governors from the Brasilia hotel where he lives.?
Devastating toll: No country in Latin America has been hit harder by the pandemic than Brazil. More than 5.2 million Brazilians have been infected and at least 154,000 have died – the world’s third-highest number of confirmed cases and second-highest death toll, respectively.
Bolsonaro has been widely criticized abroad for his response to the pandemic. He has repeatedly insisted that hunger and unemployment caused by social isolation measures could be more harmful than the virus. He has also been a major proponent of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, although it has not proven effective combating Covid-19.
Spain topped 1 million Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, according to data released by the country’s Health Ministry.
Spanish authorities say a total of 1,005,295 of Covid-19 cases have now been diagnosed since the pandemic began. At least 34,366 people have died.
Another 16,973 new cases and 156 deaths were added to the tally Tuesday.
CNN is tracking worldwide cases:
The United States should have a viable vaccine against the coronavirus in the “next couple of months,” Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said Wednesday.
Collins said it’s “truly breathtaking” that a Covid-19 vaccine will have been developed in under a year given that it can take a decade to create a successful vaccine.?
Collins told the Milken panel that the development of therapeutics for Covid-19 is also moving along. Some of those include the antiviral drugs remdesivir and the steroid dexamethasone, both of which were used to treat President Donald Trump after he was diagnosed with Covid-19.
Ohio reported 2,366 new cases of Covid-19 Wednesday, the highest number since the pandemic began, the state’s Department of Health said. A further 66 virus-related deaths were also reported.
The previous daily high had been set Saturday when 2,234 positive cases were reported, according to the department.
Andrew Thomas, chief clinical officer for The Ohio State University, said during a state news conference Tuesday?that authorities were concerned that they had not seen cases peak yet.
A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health said that there could be a delay in reporting the number of deaths due to some labs not being open on Sundays that are now reporting numbers.
More than 177,000 positive cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed in Ohio since the pandemic began, killing at least 4,839 people.
There is a “building distrust” in public health agencies as the coronavirus pandemic resurges in large parts of the US, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a recent interview.
Public transparency in public health information is “absolutely essential,” Fauci said in the interview with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, which was posted online Wednesday by the Project On Government Oversight.
Fauci didn’t say why he believes Americans’ distrust is building, only that he believes it is.
“And we’ve got to admit it, those of us in government, all of us, you and I and all of the people that work for me, and all the people that work for you, that there is a building distrust now in the transparency of what we do,” he added. “It’s the elephant in the room.”
Governments must be transparent in a public health crisis, said Fauci, who has worked through responses to epidemics and outbreaks ranging from AIDS in the 1980s to Zika in the past decade.
Ireland has now moved to “Level 5” measures — in what is now Europe’s strictest coronavirus lockdown.?
Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the restrictions on Monday when the country’s case count topped 50,000. The restrictions?are set to be in place for six weeks to deal with the “deteriorating situation with the disease across the country.”??
Martin tweeted late Wednesday, “This evening, as we think about the next six weeks of increased restrictions at Level 5, we just need to remember that we are doing this to protect our families and the most vulnerable in our communities. We will come through it and we will see each other again. #LockdownEve.”
Under the new measures, people are asked to work from home, unless providing an essential service. Social gatherings at homes and gardens are prohibited, but people will be allowed to exercise in parks close their homes. Schools, childcare services and “essential retail” services will remain open under the restrictions.?Bars and restaurants are allowed to be open only for take-away and delivery service during the period.???
Ireland recorded an increase of nearly 2,000 new cases last week over the week before, prompting the government to impose the stringent measures.??
US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said Wednesday that the agency does not have a set timeline to review a Covid-19 vaccine.
The goal, he said, is that everyone could get a vaccine by spring. But it “really depends on a number of factors.”
“We want to expedite it,” Hahn said at a conference sponsored by the Milken Institute, a nonpartisan think tank founded by ex-banker Michael Milken.
“We’ve said that we will schedule a vaccine advisory committee to review those data. We have committed for every application to have a vaccine advisory committee,” Hahn said.
“We will make that public, as I mentioned. Our scientists will make an initial determination, will ask specific questions about the product from the vaccine advisory committee. And then we will incorporate that in our decision making,” Hahn said.
To speed up the process, Hahn said the FDA has been working with manufacturers from day one and have stayed in touch throughout the manufacturing process, rather than reviewing everything at the end of the process.?
“We need to make sure that there’s quality and consistency and that every lot has the same ability to provide protection to all of Americans,” Hahn said. “We have a lot of confidence in the manufacturing of these developers, and we will be doing our part with respect to working with them to make sure that manufacturing can be ramped up as quickly as possible.”
USA Wrestling announced Tuesday night that it won’t be sending a team to Belgrade, Serbia, for the 2020 Senior World Wrestling Championships in December due to Covid-19 concerns.?
Some context: This isn’t the first time USA Wrestling has opted to skip the World Championships due to safety concerns. In 2002, a team was not sent to the Senior World Freestyle Championships in Iran due to a potential threat to the team’s safety.
“My heart breaks for our athletes, as nobody is more affected by this decision than they are,” said Veronica Carlson, executive committee member and chairperson of the USA Wrestling Athlete Advisory Committee. “In the same breath, abstaining from the 2020 World Championships is the right decision. I am proud that the athlete voice was solicited and considered through every step of this process. In choosing to make this decision now, versus delaying it, the athletes have time to recover and refocus on what is most important — the 2021 Olympic Games.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its definition of a close contact with a Covid-19 patient to include multiple, brief exposures, director Dr. Robert Redfield said Wednesday.
The new definition includes exposures adding up to a total of 15 minutes spent six feet or closer to an infected person. Previously, the CDC defined a close contact as 15 minutes of continuous exposure to an infected individual.?
Some background: The agency changed the definition after a report from Vermont of a corrections officer who became infected after several brief interactions with coronavirus-positive inmates – none of them lasting 15 minutes, but adding up over time.
“As we get more data and understand the science of Covid, we are going to incorporate that in our recommendations,” Redfield said at a news conference held at CDC headquarters in Atlanta.?“Originally, contact that was considered to be high risk for potential exposure to Covid was someone within six feet for more than 15 minutes.”
The new data is being incorporated into recommendations, he said.
Watch:
US stocks closed modestly lower on Wednesday. The market was trapped in a tight trading range for the whole session, with the three major stock benchmarks repeatedly flipping into positive and negative territory.
All that’s to say that stocks lacked clear direction on Wednesday. Earnings season is in full swing but investors are awaiting a potential stimulus deal out of Washington before the election.
Here’s where the market closed:
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and his wife tested negative for coronavirus today after coming in contact with a senior staff member who tested positive.
The governor is canceling in-person events through the weekend and will continue to test.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn has tested positive for coronavirus, his office told CNN on Wednesday.
The minister’s office said so far Spahn has only developed cold symptoms and is currently in isolation at home.?
In response, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wished him well, tweeting, ”Good and quick recovery, Jens Spahn and we will?keep our fingers crossed for you.”
People who have been in contact with the health minister are currently being informed, the spokesperson said.?
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo told reporters Wednesday that the state recorded at least 156 new Covid-19 cases and five deaths Tuesday.?
“The numbers aren’t good. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Raimondo said.?
Raimondo said the state is approaching a 3% positivity rate, which she said “is high. It’s too high.”?
Raimondo said while they haven’t yet approached the threshold of “a runaway train,” she pleaded with residents to “buckle down” to ensure there isn’t a second surge requiring businesses and schools to close again.?
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced today he was informed that he was in close proximity to someone on Saturday that has tested positive for Covid-19.?
“I was just informed by my colleagues that I was in close proximity to someone on Saturday who has just tested positive.” Murphy said at a press event.
Murphy said hospitalizations in the state are at the highest they have been in three months.
“Today, another over a thousand positive cases we’re reporting,” the governor said.?
He added there were 18 deaths reported.
Amtrak is in a “precarious position” because of insufficient federal funding and a continuing plunge in ridership due to the coronavirus pandemic, CEO William Flynn told Congress on Wednesday.
Flynn said ridership is still down 80% compared to 2019, and he warned that “it has become clear that the pandemic’s impacts will extend through, and almost certainly beyond” the next year.??
Revenue in the financial year that ended in September was only 53% of the prior year, he said.?????
Amtrak has restored some of the service it had initially cut along the Eastern seaboard, but new cuts to other long-distance trains that crisscross the nation just took effect.?Flynn said Amtrak is targeting “late May and June 2021” to restore service if health and demand conditions improve.??
But some of Amtrak’s future projections are based on the widespread distribution of an effective coronavirus vaccine in the next year – “which we know is not a guaranteed outcome,” he warned.???
Flynn said the service cuts and nearly 2,000 layoffs were unavoidable.???
“I must emphasize the Amtrak really had no choice but to take these actions,” he said.??
There are at least?8,282,666?cases of coronavirus in the US and at least?221,247?people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported?9,370?new cases and?195?reported deaths.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.?
New York’s test positivity rate including the oversampling of hotspot areas is 1.62%, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.?
The positivity rate in the red zone is 6.61%, the governor said.?
These numbers are from Tuesday and at least 124,789 test results were reported, the governor said.?
The test positivity rate without the hotspot zones stands around 1.42%?
One thing to note: These numbers were released by the state’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.
Greece recorded 865 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday — its highest daily case count since the pandemic began.?
Wednesday’s number marked an increase of nearly 200 more cases than the day before.?
Greece announced six more deaths on Wednesday, and at least 86 individuals are in ICU.
The Greek government announced a local lockdown for the region of Kastoria in Northern Greece. This is the second town placed under lockdown after Kozani, also in Northern Greece,
According to Greece’s National Public Health Organization, Greece has recorded 27,334 cases and 534 deaths in total.?
The Pennsylvania department of health reported 1,425 new cases of Covid-19, the 16th consecutive day the state has reported over 1,000 new infections of coronavirus.?
The statewide number of total cases now stands at 186,297.
Additionally, Pennsylvania reported 29 new due to Covid-19 bringing the statewide death total to 8,533.
The state reported 114 cases in Allegheny county and an increase of 100 new cases in Philadelphia County.?
One thing to note: These numbers were released by the state’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project
In Michigan, there are now 445 cases?of Covid-19 in 84 schools. At least 80 of those cases are from new outbreaks at 24 different schools. These cases include staff and student numbers, according to the state’s official tracker.
The remainder of cases are from schools that have seen ongoing outbreaks. Most K-12 schools have fewer than 10 cases. The K-12 school with the largest number of cases is?a?preschool through elementary school in Alma, Michigan, with 31 cases,?which include?both staff and students.
Among colleges and universities?in Michigan,?there are?5,358 coronavirus cases. Only two colleges were listed as a part of the new outbreak group. Michigan State University had the largest number of cases with?1,622 students and staff.
According to the government tracker,?new outbreaks are defined as those that are first identified during the current reporting week.
Schools are classified as having ongoing cases if there is at least one new case in the 28 days after being first identified. If 28 days pass since a school first had an outbreak, and no new cases were found, the school will be removed from the list.
All public school instruction in Boston will be remote starting Thursday, following a rise in Covid-19 cases, according to a statement released Wednesday by Boston Public Schools.
The statement cited a 5.7% seven-day Covid-19 positivity rate for the city of Boston, up from last week’s rate of 4.5%.
“We have said all along that we will only provide in-person learning for students?if the data and public health guidance supports it, and this new data shows that we are trending in the wrong direction,” said Mayor Marty Walsh in a statement
The decision comes less than a week after the district announced that it was delaying in-person instruction.
On Twitter Wednesday morning, Cassellius said she was “disheartened.”
“It is the adults who create the conditions in which children succeed,” she?wrote. “We must do better. Please wear a mask, avoid large gatherings & stay home if sick so we can bring our children back to school.”
In-person instruction will resume when?infection rates fall for two straight weeks, according to the district.
It is growing increasingly likely that passing any stimulus deal through Congress will have to wait until after the Nov. 3 elections, according to multiple sources in both parties.
While it’s possible a deal in principle between the White House and House Democrats can be reached before Nov. 3, passing a bill through both chambers is highly unlikely before then.
That’s because of the sharp disagreements within the GOP, the logistical hurdles of passing legislation quickly of this magnitude through both chambers and the fact that Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin still have many outstanding details to sort through.
Pelosi has not yet told her colleagues if she’ll bring the House back to session next week to vote on the stimulus, sources said. So it’s still possible the House could return next week just days before the election.
But the Senate is likely to adjourn after Monday when Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, though the final schedule has not yet been announced.
After Pelosi and Mnuchin blew past the speaker’s self-imposed Tuesday deadline, which she said was essential to getting a bill passed by the elections, she also subtly adjusted her language.
What could come next: Reaching an agreement, of course, is different than passing a bill. Plus Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has no appetite to put a major stimulus bill on the floor that will divide his party just days before the election, something he reiterated to his colleagues at lunch on Tuesday. The Senate GOP is largely opposed to a bill around $2 trillion, which Pelosi and Mnuchin are discussing, as Republicans try to advance their $500 billion bill this afternoon after Senate Democrats blocked it last month.
What Pelosi really wants is to clear the decks and pass a major bill to help Joe Biden if he wins the presidency, sources familiar with her thinking said, meaning that final passage could wait until after the November elections and before January during the lame-duck session.
Still, it’s anyone’s guess how the outcome of the elections could scramble the political calculations of the White House, Senate Republicans and Democrats as well – adding uncertainty to how action in a lame-duck session would play out.
Speaking on CNN’s “Newsroom” this morning, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn suggested that lame-duck action is more likely at this point.
“The election is less than two weeks away, and I believe we will be back in Washington a week or two after the elections and we could something then,” Clyburn said. “At least the elections will be behind us, people will know what their futures are and maybe they will be more apt to sit down and get serious about things after their electoral prospects have been settled.”
“Halloween is happening in New York City, and Halloween will be safe in New York City,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday.
He laid out some safety guidelines for the holiday:
The mayor also stressed a mask in a costume “is not the same as the kind of mask we use to protect ourselves and each other.”
Here are the latest numbers on coronavirus in New York City: 1.56% of people tested positive citywide, keeping the number under the 5% threshold, de Blasio said.?The seven-day rolling average is 1.68%.?
In addition, 77 people were hospitalized. New York City is also reporting a seven-day average of 493 new reported cases, with a threshold of 550 cases.
Five schools are on a 14-day shut down, though one is coming out of the shutdown Thursday.
One note: These numbers were released by the city’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio focused on vaccines Wednesday morning, outlining how that the city will prioritize frontline workers and vulnerable populations when a vaccine is approved for use.
“The vaccine will be a crucial part of our rebirth” and economic recovery, de Blasio said.
“We don’t have the exact data, no one has the exact date,” he said.?“What we do know…it will be sooner rather than later.”?
It’s important to have a “fair” plan and for it to be free for those who need it, de Blasio said.
He said it’s paramount to make sure the vaccine is first “safe” and “effective.”
The city will prioritize frontline workers in the first phase: Health care personnel, frontline and essential workers, “the folks that are making this city run no matter what,” he said. “And of course the most vulnerable New Yorkers, the folks that are in the most danger from this disease.”
The second phase is the general public and wide distribution.
He said the city’s health infrastructure is “battle tested” adding the city will continue to recruit and prepare community providers, pharmacies, urgent care, private and public hospitals and Covid-19 testing sites.
Spanish football giants FC Barcelona on Wednesday began the process of introducing new salary reductions for players and staff as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a crippling effect on the club’s finances.
It comes after Barca had imposed a temporary pay cut of 70% on the playing squad earlier this year to support the club’s non-playing employees during Spain’s State of Emergency.?
It added that the club is anticipating a drop in revenue of more than 30% for the coming year and is therefore “obliged to find immediate solutions to reduce expenditure.”
The club announced on Tuesday that goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, defenders Clement Lenglet and Gerard Pique and midfielder Frenkie de Jong have already agreed to a “temporary salary adjustment” as part of their respective contract extensions.
Covid-19 nearly killed Laurie Terry even though she never contracted it.
The 47-year-old had a serious heart attack and needed to get to an intensive care unit to survive, doctors at the local hospital told her family. For hours, nurses called hospital after hospital but couldn’t find a bed.
A surge in coronavirus cases in Utah has led to increased hospitalizations and ICU admissions. Health experts are beginning?to see how the pandemic is creating a dangerous?competition for medical?resources as other life-threatening cases continue to come in during the pandemic. And it could potentially kill someone without?actually infecting them, Martin Savidge reports.
“There are front line?providers in the emergency room,?our nurses, our doctors on all these?Covid units in the ICU working?tirelessly.?It’s kind of like people just?are going out and living their?lives not realizing that they?are exhausting our health care?system,” says Dr. Emily Spivak, associate professor of medicine at the University of Utah.
Eventually, Terry was able?to get the expert medical help?she needed, but she’s suffered medical setbacks because of the delay in finding an available ICU bed. Deer says she can’t?forget how Covid-19 nearly?killed her, and she blames the?carelessness of others.?
“They need to wear a mask.?They need to care about their?neighbors, their family, their?children, and they need to do it?right now,” she told CNN.
Watch more:
The health department in El Paso, Texas,?is reporting a seven-day Covid-19 positivity rate of 13.74%, the highest average in the city since the pandemic began.?
There are 670 new positive cases in El Paso on Wednesday morning, according to the health department’s dashboard. It also shows that of the 34,760 total cases, 8,820 are currently active.
The health department also reported?three?new deaths, bringing the total of coronavirus-related deaths to?563.?
There are currently 579 people hospitalized with the virus from El Paso, with 148 in intensive care units. This is the highest hospitalization rate in the city since the pandemic began, the dashboard shows.
The Texas Department of State Health Services shows that Trauma Service Area I, which includes El Paso, currently has 345 beds and 17 ICU beds available as of 3:00 p.m. local?time?on Tuesday.?
One thing to note: These numbers were released by the city’s public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.?
Coronavirus cases in South Africa’s Western Cape province have risen by 42% in the past seven days, leading the country’s Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize to warn of a “resurgence” of the virus.?
Mkhize, who is currently isolating after testing positive, said the country is “seeing concerning increases in some of the provinces,” including this “marked increase” in the Western Cape, home to the?port city of Cape Town.?
“According to our resurgence plan, we define this significant spike in new cases in the Western Cape as a resurgence,” he said Wednesday in a statement on Twitter.
Mkhize explained the Western Cape Provincial Health Department has identified clusters that are responsible for the increase in cases. He said the “single biggest cluster outbreak” was “associated with a super-spreader event in a bar”.
He also said country-wide epidemiological reports are showing that over the last seven days there has been an increase of 9.1% in new cases.
Read the tweet:
Cases of coronavirus are rising across Europe, and the continent’s second wave has prompted some countries and areas to implement new restrictions.
If you’re just reading in now, here are some of the latest updates on the situation in Europe:
President Trump lashed out at Dr. Anthony Fauci, claimed “some people don’t like (masks) scientifically,” and said he wouldn’t do much differently in his response to Covid-19 in clips of a Rose Garden town hall with Sinclair released Tuesday evening.?
Asked about his recent comments attacking Fauci, the?director?of the National Institutes of Health, Trump said he gets along “fine” with the doctor, “but he’s made mistakes.”
“He said ‘No masks, don’t wear masks,’ and then he said ‘Wear a mask.’ He didn’t want me to stop people coming in from China and then he admitted it was a great move, that I made, against him. You know, I overrode him,” Trump claimed to the conservative outlet. “With all of that I get along with him nice – I like him, he’s – Tony, he’s a nice guy.”
“He’s made bad moves,” he added, “but he’s been there a long time.”
Trump also claimed to have “no problem” with masks, despite frequently and repeatedly attacking people who wear them, but immediately added that “some people” don’t like them.
“Frankly some people don’t like it, some people don’t like it scientifically,” he claimed. Science overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that masks work.
When host Eric Bolling, a vocal Trump supporter, asked the President what he would do differently if he got a “mulligan” or a “do-over” on his Covid response, Trump replied, “not much.”
“Look it’s all over the world. You have a lot of great leaders, a lot of smart people, it’s all over the world,” he said, before blaming China.
The full Sinclair town hall airs on Wednesday night.
US stocks were mixed at the opening bell in New York on Wednesday. The market is in a holding pattern, awaiting stimulus news from Washington.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are set to continue talks today, investors are still crossing their fingers for the possibility of another stimulus deal before the election.
Here’s how things looked at the opening:
Older people, women and those with a wide range of symptoms in the first week of their illness appear to be most likely to develop “long Covid,” according to a preprint paper posted online by researchers at King’s College London on Wednesday.
The paper defines?“long Covid” as having symptoms persist for more than four weeks, while a short duration of Covid was defined as less than 10 days, without a subsequent relapse.
About 1 in 20 people with Covid-19, or 4.5%, are likely to experience symptoms for eight weeks or more, the preprint analysis of data from the Covid Symptom Study app showed. The analysis has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
The data was collected from?4,182 users?of the app?in the UK who reported testing positive for coronavirus and regularly logged their health information in the app.
When it came to the sets of symptoms reported,?the research identified two main groups of long Covid sufferers.
While most of the people with Covid-19 in the study reported being back to normal in 11 days or less, about 1 in 7 reported symptoms lasting for at least four weeks, about 1 in 20 for at least eight weeks and about 1 in 50 for at least 12 weeks.
Long Covid sufferers were also twice as likely to report a relapse after they recovered compared with those who had “short Covid” (16% vs 8.4%).
About 1 in 5 adults older than 70,?or 21.9%, who tested positive for coronavirus developed long Covid, compared with about 1 in 10 18- to 49-year-olds, the study found. Women were more likely to suffer from long Covid than men – at 14.9% of women compared to 9.5% of men – but only in the younger age group.?
People who developed long Covid also had a slightly higher average BMI than those with short Covid, according to the paper. The researchers also found that people with asthma were more likely to develop long Covid, but found no clear links to any other underlying health conditions.
The analysis has several limitations, including that it is based on self-reported information, was conducted online via an app, and the app users were disproportionately female and younger than 70.
The researchers used the information to develop a model to predict who is most at risk of long Covid based on their age, sex, and count of early symptoms. Statistical tests showed that this simple prediction was able to detect more than two thirds (69%) of people who went on to get Long-Covid (sensitivity), and 73% effective at avoiding false alarms (specificity).?
The team then tested this model against an independent dataset of 2,472 people who reported a positive coronavirus antibody test result with a range of symptoms and found that it gave similar predictions of risk.
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams revealed in an interview that some of his family members and friends have been ill with Covid-19 – and that his wife had a delayed cancer diagnosis due to the pandemic.?
“I think about family members and friends of mine personally who have had the virus. And fortunately for me, none of them have succumbed. But I think that reflects a very real difference in outcomes if they have gotten it in March or April versus getting it now – with remdesivir, with steroids,” Adams?told NewsNation’s Marni Hughes in an interview posted online on Wednesday, referring to Covid-19 treatment approaches.
“I think about my wife, who had a cancer diagnosis delayed, and who’s undergoing cancer treatment right now. I hope she does well, but again, there are real negative, negative outcomes for people who are living through this pandemic, apart from the actual virus itself,” Adams said.
Meanwhile, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said his father died during the coronavirus pandemic — and he wasn’t able to say goodbye.
According to?NewsNation, the interview –?which also included White House Coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx – is the first time these top health three health leaders fighting the coronavirus pandemic have sat down for an interview together.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar responded to questions about mixed messaging coming from the White House about the coronavirus pandemic in an interview with NewsNation’s Marni Hughes posted online on Wednesday.
Azar was asked whether there was anything to “add clarity and accuracy” on.
“That is the message of this administration and the strategy of this administration for dealing with the coronavirus and that is from the President through me,” Azar added.
According to?NewsNation, the interview –?which also included US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx –?is the first time these top health three health leaders fighting the coronavirus pandemic have sat down for an interview together.
European countries and regions are imposing stricter lockdown restrictions as cases of Covid-19 rise to record levels in many countries.
Here’s a look at some recent measures in countries across Europe:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin engaged in fast-paced negotiations on Tuesday to cut a deal on a major relief package that could pass before Election Day — but Senate Republicans continued to throw cold water on any deal with the enormous price tag envisioned by Democrats and President Trump.
After speaking for 45 minutes on Tuesday afternoon, the two planned to resume talks on Wednesday as they tried to continue to hash out their differences on a range of matters, including funding for state and local governments, jobless benefits, funding for schools and liability protections for businesses — among other matters.
While Pelosi and her aides sounded upbeat about the progress in the talks, time is running short, meaning it’s growing more likely that any proposal would likely get voted on after the elections during a lame-duck session of Congress.
Here are key things you need to know about the negotiations:
The bottom line: If Pelosi is successful in getting Mnuchin and the White House to sign?off on a nearly $2 trillion stimulus proposal and it gets drafted before the election, she’ll force the Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to decide if he’s willing to hold a vote ahead?of?the election at a time when putting anything in the ball park?of?$2 trillion is going to fracture the GOP and force members to say no to something that could benefit their constituents and buoy the President even if the price tag is far more than they are comfortable with.
It’s the same negotiation that has been happening for months, and yet with less than two weeks to go until the election,?the stimulus talks have become a litmus test for just how much GOP loyalty is left for a President who is sinking in the polls.?After years?of?sticking with Trump despite his antics and despite the fact that some?of?the President’s policies flew in the face?of?long-established GOP orthodoxy, the stimulus bill is the make or break moment where Republican senators may finally throw up their hands and tell Trump “no.”
The negotiation according to the negotiators: If you are paying close attention to Pelosi’s tone over the last few days, you’ll notice she’s much more upbeat about a deal than perhaps we’ve seen in weeks or even months. Suddenly what was a deadline?of?Tuesday evening to strike an agreement has stretched into Wednesday and perhaps will stretch even further into this week.
Democratic House members who have been impatient with Pelosi’s negotiation, her intention to wait for the White House to capitulate on nearly every one?of?the Democratic priorities are watching closely with awe as they see their Speaker get one concession after another from the White House. As one Democratic member put it to me questioning Pelosi’s negotiating tactics isn’t really a game worth?playing and this moment is illustrating exactly why.
Negotiations according to everyone else: GOP leaders in the Senate still believe that Pelosi and Mnuchin — despite all the happy talk — are still far from pulling this?off. Aides involved and familiar with these discussions tell CNN that there are still vital chunks?of?information that is missing.
On Monday, aides struggled to understand what exactly Pelosi and Mnuchin had decided on when it came to rental assistance. As?of?Tuesday evening, there still wasn’t much clarity. Questions about how to handle liability insurance, unemployment insurance, how much exactly has been agreed to on?state?and local funding: it’s all still unclear to the people who will have to sit down and write this legislation.
GOP leadership aides and some Democratic aides involved tell CNN that they just don’t see that as much progress has been made as Pelosi and Mncuhin are laying out right now. Again, that doesn’t mean a deal can’t come together very quickly if the White House and Pelosi sign?off, but right now they are not there yet.
Read more here.
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams plans to get a Covid-19 vaccine once one is authorized or approved in the United States.
“My family will get a Covid vaccine when they are told that they can get one because I trust the process,” Adams added.
Adams also referred to incidence of vaccine hesitancy within Black and brown communities.?
“We’re in the midst of a social justice movement right now. I think one of the greatest injustices in the world are the people who are pushing misinformation out there that is causing minorities in particular to disproportionately be harmed by vaccine-preventable diseases,” Adams said.
“Fifty percent of Americans get a flu shot in any given year. Only 40% of Hispanics and African Americans and Native Americans get their flu shot every year,” Adams said. “That results in tens of thousands of people of color dying every year because of a lack of vaccine confidence or because we haven’t done enough to make it easy for them.”
According to?NewsNation, the interview –?which also included US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Deborah Birx –?is the first time these top health three health leaders fighting the coronavirus pandemic have sat down for an interview together.
More than 2.5 million years of life have been lost in the United States?due to the coronavirus and each person who had a Covid-19-associated death lost over 13 years, according to a preprint study posted Tuesday on MedRxiv.?
MedRxiv is a preprint server, which means that the study has not year been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal.?
“In this study I have attempted to quantify the extent of life lost so far in this pandemic as of October 3, 2020 where data for the age and sex distribution of over 194,000 Covid-19 associated deaths was available,” said the preprint, authored by Stephen Elledge, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Elledge found that a total of 2,572,102 years of life were lost due to 194,087 deaths. Breaking it down by gender, men lost 1,461,662 years from 104,896 deaths and females lost 1,110,440 years from 89,191 deaths.?
Each person lost, on average, 13.25 life years per Covid-19 associated death. Males lost slightly more years of life at 13.93 compared with females losing 12.45.?
To work out the number of years of life lost, Elledge used data from the Social Security Administration to look at normal life expectancies, and data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Covid-19 deaths per 10-year age group.?
The study comes to similar conclusions as others that looked at life years lost, it says, although previous studies project slightly fewer years lost per death, which could be to do with the method of analysis or the fact that they were conducted earlier in the pandemic.?
Elledge wrote that his research has potential sources of error, such as the distribution of deaths within 10-year spans provided by the CDC, the lack of distribution of ethnicities in fatality data and the effect of comorbidities on life expectancy of Covid-19 deaths.
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Wednesday tweeted that a herd immunity approach to combat coronavirus could lead to many deaths and “there is no example” of herd immunity as a successful strategy against Covid-19.
“So far, there is no example of a large-scale successful intentional infection-based herd immunity strategy,” Adams wrote, adding that the best way to stay safe, reduce the spread of infection and keep the country open was to wear masks, wash hands and watch distances.
The topic has recently gained traction in the US and White House senior administration officials last week discussed a controversial declaration from a group of scientists during a call with reporters.
The Great Barrington Declaration advocates for ending lockdowns, building immunity and pushing for those who are not vulnerable to Covid-19 to resume normal life. A senior administration official?said it aligned “very strongly with what the President has said for months – that is strongly protect the high-risk elderly and vulnerable and open schools and restore society to function.”
Amazon plans to let some of its employees work from home until the middle of next year.
Amazon currently allows office workers to go into work, and the company said it had invested significant resources in changing the structure of its office space to allow for physical distancing. It also deep-cleans its offices, facilitates temperature checks and provides face masks and hand-sanitizer for employees.
Amazon continues to “to prioritize the health of our employees and follow local government guidance,” the spokesperson said.
The numbers: Earlier this month, Amazon said 19,816 of its frontline US employees at Amazon and Whole Foods had tested positive or been presumed positive for the coronavirus. It marked the first time the company had shed light on the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases at its warehouses. Amazon had repeatedly resisted sharing that comprehensive data with the public and with its own workers.?
Amazon warehouses have become crucial hubs for household supplies during the pandemic. Despite numerous confirmed cases at warehouses across the country and the world, the e-commerce company has downplayed the significance of releasing site or aggregate data, making it difficult to get a clear picture of overall infections.
Sara Ashley O’Brien contributed to this report.
Isolation during Covid-19 was meant to protect, but for some, it has proved deadly.?The world is experiencing an explosion of domestic abuse on a global scale.
As more people have to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic, many victims are locked in with their abusers, and some domestic abuse support services have been put on hold. Ongoing job loss, government inaction, judicial backlogs and many other factors have all contributed to a global crisis that the United Nations is calling a “shadow pandemic.”
France saw a 42% year-on-year jump in the number of domestic violence interventions during lockdown. In Venezuela, there was a 65% increase in femicides for the month of April compared to the same month in 2019. Calls to a women’s hotline went up more than 500% in Uganda.
In the United States, one teenager shared his mother’s tragic story:
See CNN’s full interactive coverage of the world’s domestic abuse crisis here:
The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays are facing off in the World Series. With the coronavirus pandemic, it’s a Fall Classic the likes of which we have never seen before.?
A limited number of fans are being allowed to attend, and it’s the first time the best-of-seven series is being played on a neutral site – the newly opened Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
This is the 20th World Series appearance for the Dodgers, who competed for the title in three of the last four years. The team won six times, but not since 1988.?
It’s just the second time the Rays have made it to the World Series, which they won in 2008.
See the best photos here:
After?launching to the International Space Station on April 9, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner will return to Earth on Wednesday, October 21.?
The crew launched just weeks after the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a pandemic, making them the first crew to launch to space under such conditions.
Cassidy, the current Expedition 63 mission commander, handed over the command of the space station to newly arrived Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov during a change of command ceremony on Tuesday.
Out of space: The departing crew will bid farewell on Wednesday to NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Russian cosmonauts Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who just launched and arrived?on the space station last week.
They will close the hatch to their Soyuz spacecraft on Wednesday at 4:10 p.m. ET, undock from the station at 7:32 p.m. ET and are expected to land at 10:55 p.m. ET southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan on the steppe of Kazakhstan, according to NASA. The agency will provide live coverage of the crew’s departure and landing on its?website.
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The Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jan Hamacek has tested positive for Covid-19, the spokesperson Czech Social Democratic Party, Eva Gregorova, told CNN on Wednesday.?
Hamacek is also Minister of Interior and the chairman of the Central Crisis Staff, a governmental body tasked with dealing with crises situations, including Covid-19.
The Czech government was on Wednesday meeting in an emergency session, discussing additional measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.?
Authorities in the Czech Republic reported 11,984 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, the highest daily increase on record.
At least?193,946?cases have been confirmed in the country since the pandemic began, according to data released by Czech health authorities early on Wednesday, and at least 1,619 people have died.
The Czech Republic was hailed as a success story during Europe’s first wave of Covid-19 in March, mainly thanks to a strict mask mandate. But after relaxing the rules at the end of the summer after case numbers dropped, it has struggled to cope with the rising number of infections.
According to the European Centre for Disease Control, the Czech Republic has the worst infection rate in Europe, with more than 900 infections per 100,000 people in the past 14 days.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham slammed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after the northern English city was forced into the country’s strictest Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions, after local leaders and the central government failed to reach an agreement on an economic relief deal on Tuesday.
Burnham said he requested ￡90 million ($117 million) in government support until the end of the financial year – based on a ￡15 million per month costing – but the government tabled ￡60 million. Burnham said he later agreed to ￡65 million but the government did not budge and walked away.?
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at a Downing Street news conference Tuesday that the government “made a generous and extensive offer to support?Manchester’s businesses” but “the Mayor didn’t accept this unfortunately.
He said that Greater Manchester will receive?￡22?million?of financial help, adding that not to enforce the new restrictions “would put Manchester’s NHS [National Health Service], and the lives of many of Manchester’s residents, at risk.”
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in the House of Commons that the ￡60 million offer was still on the table.
The opposition Labour party will today force Parliament to vote for a fair deal for communities facing restrictions, according to its leader Keir Starmer.
Under the new Tier 3 rules, Manchester will have to shut pubs and bars and there will be a ban on?social mixing indoors and in private gardens – although questions have been raised over how the region will comply following the stand-off.
Many in the UK – including Starmer and scientists advising the government – have called for a national?“circuit-breaker”?lockdown, as seen in Wales and Ireland. But Johnson has resisted the calls so far, favoring a tiered, localized approach.
WATCH:
A leading health expert says US?Covid-19 cases?will begin to rapidly accelerate in a week as the country topped 60,000 new infections Tuesday –?triple what the daily average was back in June, when restrictions had begun to ease.
The prediction comes after?several state leaders reimposed some measures?to help curb the spread of the virus, fueled by small gatherings increasingly moving indoors with the colder weather, as well as other factors such as college and school reopenings. The?national seven-day case average has increased?at least 18% since the previous week and is now a staggering 61% higher than what it was five weeks ago. And as multiple experts have warned, things will likely get worse before they get better.
The difference is many European countries were able to suppress their numbers of new cases over the summer, but the US entered the fall season with a relatively high baseline average of new infections – something experts warned wouldn’t help in containing another surge of cases.?Dr. Anthony Fauci said earlier this week European Union countries were able to bring their baseline down because of strict and stringent lockdowns, adding the US did not “shut down nearly as much as our colleagues in Italy and Spain.”
Ahead of?bleak outlooks of the coming weeks, hospitalizations in the US have also began to rise, with more than 39,000 Covid-19 patients nationwide, according to the?COVID Tracking Project.
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Authorities in the Czech Republic have reported 11,984 new coronavirus infections for Tuesday, the highest daily increase since the pandemic reached the country.
At least?193,946?cases have been confirmed in the country since the pandemic began, according to data released by Czech health authorities early on Wednesday. Of those,?113,219 are still considered active,.
At least 1,619 people have died.
Czech authorities were hailed as a success story during Europe’s first wave of Covid-19 in March. But recently they have struggled to cope with the rising number of infections throughout the country.
According to the European Centre for Disease Control, the Czech Republic has the worst infection rate in Europe, with more than 900 infections per 100,000 people, in the past 14 days.
Read more about the Czech Republic’s efforts to stop the pandemic:
Only a few weeks ago, the cafés, bars and restaurants of Paris were bustling late into the night, neon signs gleaming and masked patrons spilling onto flower-filled terraces, still reveling in their freedom after a strict spring lockdown.
The street life the city is famous for was back, and it was almost as if the French capital was back to its old self
Now, those same streets are being deserted again, as a strict new nightly curfew is imposed to combat a worrying surge in coronavirus cases in France that are part of a wider trend of numbers rising across Europe.
Hospitality venues must close and citizens stay home between between 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. across Paris. Other French cities, including Aix-en-Provence, Grenoble, Marseille, Montpellier, Toulouse, Saint Etienne, Lille, Rouen and Lyon are also affected.
Violating the rules carries a fine of €135 (roughly $160) for a first offense, and goes up to €1,500 ($1,760) if the offense is repeated.
Photographer Kiran Ridley took to the boulevards and alleyways of Paris on October 17 – the night the curfew was introduced – to capture what it’s like when the city goes dark, and contrast these eerie images with snapshots of livelier scenes of the same spots back in September and early October.
See the photos here:
A total of 60,315?new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in the United States on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. At least 933 new virus-related deaths were also reported.
At least 8,273,296?coronavirus cases have now been identified nationwide since the pandemic began, killing at least 221,052?people, according to the university’s tally.
The totals include cases from 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.?
Track US cases here:
A familiar scene is taking place in northern India. Vast fields burn, flames engulfing bare stalks of already-harvested crops. Billowing smoke travels across state borders. In towns and cities, the air is thick with yellow haze.
Stubble burning, the practice of intentionally setting fire to cultivated fields to prepare the land for its next crop, is one of the chief drivers of India’s so-called annual pollution season, which begins each winter.
It is especially bad in cities like the capital New Delhi, where smog from the burning crop fields, vehicular emissions, power plants, construction sites, and smoke from Diwali firecrackers combine to create a toxic cloud that lingers until spring.
Authorities have been trying for years to combat this serious public health risk – but there’s a new urgency this year, with fears that pollution could compound the danger of Covid-19.
The coronavirus outbreak in India has infected nearly 7.6 million people and killed more than 115,000, according to the country’s Health Ministry. India went into a months-long nationwide total lockdown in an attempt to contain the virus – but with little success. Presently, India has the second highest number of infections globally, after the United States, and the third highest number of deaths.
Experts and politicians now worry that the arrival of pollution season could pose a double threat, putting people at higher risk of severe infection, while increasing the strain on public health services.
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The number of Covid-19 cases in children across the United States jumped 13% in the first two weeks of October, according to a new report released Tuesday.
A total of 84,319 children nationwide were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus from October 1-15, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association.
The overall rate of infection is 986 cases per 100,000 children in the population, the group added.
However, children still make up a small number of deaths and serious cases from Covid-19, according to state by state data.
As of October 15, children represented 1%-3.6% of total hospitalizations, depending on the state. Between 0.5% and 7.2% of all child coronavirus cases resulted in hospitalization and no more than 0.24% of total deaths. Fourteen states reported no deaths among children.
Some caveats: The data is limited because of its reliance on how each state reports its cases, but it still “underscores the urgent need to control the virus in communities so schools may reopen,” the Academy said. It defines children as those 17 and younger.
The report’s count is likely underestimated and is incomplete because not all states report data in the same way.
Forty-nine states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam contributed data for the AAP report. A smaller subset of states report information about hospitalizations and deaths by age.?
Cathay Pacific?is eliminating thousands of jobs and shuttering its regional airline Cathay Dragon as the Covid-19 pandemic roils the global travel industry.
The cuts will affect 5,300 employees in Hong Kong, where the company is based. Some 600 workers outside of the Asian financial hub will also be affected, Cathay said in a statement.
The company also plans to eliminate additional jobs that remained unfilled, either through a recruitment freeze or natural attrition. All told, Cathay is reducing about 8,500 jobs across the company, accounting for about 24% of its headcount.
He said the airline has scaled back capacity, deferred new aircraft deliveries, frozen recruitment and cut executive pay, among other measures.
Even so, Tang said the company continues to burn as much as 2 billion Hong Kong dollars ($258 million) per month. Wednesday’s changes will reduce the company’s cash burn by about 500 million Hong Kong dollars ($65 million) per month, he added.
Bank tellers are out and robotics engineers are in, according to a new report that says the?coronavirus recession?is accelerating?technological changes?that could displace 85 million jobs within the next five years.
“Automation, in tandem with the Covid-19 recession, is creating a ‘double disruption’ scenario for workers,” said the report published Wednesday by the World Economic Forum, which warns that inequality is likely to increase unless displaced workers can be retrained to enter new professions.
More than two-fifths of large companies surveyed by the WEF plan to reduce their workforces due to the integration of technology.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a sharp spike in unemployment around the world. Several major economies in Europe and elsewhere have?extended support for wages?in order to offset the alarming rise in joblessness. Unemployment in the United States, meanwhile, continues to?march higher?while lawmakers quarrel over new stimulus measures.
The pandemic risks deepening existing inequalities because industries that have been hardest hit, including travel and tourism, hospitality and retail, tend to have younger, and lower-wage workers who are disproportionately female.
The World Bank has warned that the pandemic could increase income inequality and push up to 115 million people into?extreme poverty?this year.
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In about a week, the United States may see a “rapid acceleration” in Covid-19 cases, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, predicted on Monday.
“We’re seeing hospitalizations go up in 42 states right now, cases are going up in 45 states, and there really is no backstop,” Gottlieb said. “The summer was a backstop of sorts to the spring surge and we have no therapeutic backstop and this season, the fall and winter season, is when this coronavirus is going to want to spread.”
The UK recorded 241 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday — more than three times the?80 deaths reported on Monday — according to the government’s website.?
In each case, the person died within 28 days of first testing positive for coronavirus, the government explained.?
On Tuesday, another 21,331 cases were reported in the UK.?
Daily?coronavirus case numbers?in the US are at levels not seen since the summer, and more than a dozen states set record highs for Covid-19 hospitalizations in the past week – yet more evidence, experts say, of a?difficult fall and winter ahead.
The country’s seven-day average of new daily cases was above 58,300 as of Monday – a level not seen since the first week of August, and climbing closer to the summer’s peak of 67,200 on July 22.
Average daily new cases have soared 70% since September 12, when the country was at a two-month low of about 34,300.
As cold weather is likely to drive more gatherings indoors, the case level appears too high to avoid dangerous levels of infections and hospitalizations in the coming weeks, experts have said.
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