November 11 coronavirus news

By Joshua Berlinger, Jenni Marsh, Nectar Gan, Stephanie Halasz, Kara Fox, Ed Upright, Emma Reynolds and Roya Wolverson, CNN

Updated 12:15 AM ET, Thu November 12, 2020
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2:21 a.m. ET, November 11, 2020

Texas just became the first US state to hit 1 million cases of Covid-19

From CNN’s Joe Sutton

Vehicles travel along Interstate 10 highway in El Paso, Texas on November 9.
Vehicles travel along Interstate 10 highway in El Paso, Texas on November 9. Joel Angel Juarez/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Texas has become the first state in the United States to record 1 million coronavirus cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The Lone Star State has now identified 1,010,364 Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began. At least 19,337 people there have died, according to the university.

California has the second-highest number of cases in the US, with 989,432.

If Texas, which has a population of about 29 million people, were its own country, it would now be ranked 10th in terms of total identified cases of Covid-19.

These are the countries that have identified more than 1 million cases of Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins' data:

  1. United States
  2. India
  3. Brazil
  4. France
  5. Russia
  6. Spain
  7. Argentina
  8. United Kingdom
  9. Colombia

1:14 a.m. ET, November 11, 2020

Havana to reopen its international airport to all commercial flights

From CNN’s Patrick Oppmann in Havana

The international terminal of Havanas airport Jose Marti is seen with passengers of two flights, one to Paris and one to Ghana, waiting to be able to board, on July 31, in Havana, Cuba.
The international terminal of Havanas airport Jose Marti is seen with passengers of two flights, one to Paris and one to Ghana, waiting to be able to board, on July 31, in Havana, Cuba. Sven Creutzmann/Mambo photo/Getty Images

Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport will reopen November 15, more than seven months after the airport was closed to all commercial flights because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cuban Civil Aviation Institute announced Tuesday.

Travelers will be required to submit a health declaration and take a PCR test upon arrival, Cuban state media reported.

Cuba has reported 7,392 Covid-19 cases and at least 130 virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. However, the near-total ban on tourism greatly impacted the already struggling Cuban economy. 

12:43 a.m. ET, November 11, 2020

Pfizer's ultra-cold vaccine, a "very complex" distribution plan and an exploding head emoji

From CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, John Bonifield and Sierra Jenkins

Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past Pfizer Inc. headquarters on July 22 in New York City, New York.
Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past Pfizer Inc. headquarters on July 22 in New York City, New York. Jeenah Moon/Getty Images

As Molly Howell, a state health official in North Dakota, watched a webinar on how to distribute what's expected to be the US's first Covid-19 vaccine, her head began to spin.

"How are we going to do this?" she texted a colleague who was also on the webinar.

Her colleague responded with an exploding head emoji.

On Monday, Pfizer announced that initial Phase 3 clinical trial results show its vaccine is more than 90% effective. If approved, Pfizer's vaccine will also be the most fragile vaccine used in the United States, and the state health officials charged with its distribution worry the process will not go smoothly.

Pfizer's vaccine needs to be stored at about minus 75 degrees Celsius, which is about 50 degrees colder than any vaccine currently used in the United States. Doctors' offices, pharmacies and state labs don't have freezers that go nearly that low.

The solution is a set of handling and storage requirements that a doctor at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described as "very complex."

The CDC has asked states to be ready to receive Pfizer's vaccine by November 15, but state officials say the first time they heard the specific requirements was on October 15, giving them weeks to prepare.

State health officials were "shocked" when they heard the storage requirements for the new vaccine, according to Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which is supporting the frontline workers who will administer the coronavirus vaccine. Those requirements include procuring and handling large amounts of dry ice, which is in short supply in many parts of the country.

"We all are going into this expecting that there are going to be major glitches," she said.

Read more:

11:58 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Flights for the Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble will begin November 22

People are silhouetted against Singapore Airlines Airbus planes at Changi International Airport in Singapore on October 24.
People are silhouetted against Singapore Airlines Airbus planes at Changi International Airport in Singapore on October 24. Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images

The first flights transporting passengers between Hong Kong and Singapore as part of the two cities' travel bubble will begin on November 22, authorities in Hong Kong said.

The bubble will allow residents of both places to travel back and forth without undergoing quarantine or restrictive control measures.

"This is as close as it gets to cross-border travel pre-Covid-19," Singapore Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said.

Open travel in both the Chinese city and the Southeast Asian country has been suspended for months. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, both governments shut borders and denied entry to most non-residents and short-term visitors. Currently, those who are allowed to enter either city must quarantine for 14 days after arrival.

 "Hong Kong and Singapore are similar in terms of epidemic control. Both are regional aviation hubs and international cities, enjoying strong trade, investment, finance, tourism and people-to-people ties," Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said in a statement.
"The revival of cross-border air travel between the two places is of utmost importance. We hope that aviation, tourism, hotel, retail and catering businesses can benefit from it, thereby enabling Hong Kong's economy to recover gradually."

The bubble was announced last month.

Read more about the travel bubble here:

12:00 a.m. ET, November 11, 2020

The CDC says masks protect both the wearers and those around them

Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Wearing a mask can help protect you -- not just those around you -- from coronavirus transmission, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in new guidance Tuesday.

Previous guidance from the CDC suggested the main benefit of mask wearing was to help prevent infected people from spreading the virus to others. 

Cloth masks act as “source control” to block virus particles exhaled by the wearer and provide “filtration for personal protection” by blocking incoming infectious droplets from others, the CDC said in its new guidance.

The new guidance cites a number of studies showing that masks reduce the risk of transmitting or catching the virus by more than 70% in various instances. And when officials told people to wear masks, infections and deaths fell significantly, the CDC pointed out.

“Adopting universal masking policies can help avert future lockdowns, especially if combined with other non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, hand hygiene, and adequate ventilation,” the CDC said.

“The relationship between source control and personal protection is likely complementary and possibly synergistic, so that individual benefit increases with increasing community mask use."

The agency cited an economic analysis that found a 15% increase in universal masking could prevent losses of up to $1 trillion. It also said that some cloth masks are nearly as good as surgical masks at blocking droplets.

Read more:

11:08 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Colorado saw a record number of Covid-19 cases identified on Tuesday

In this Oct. 27, 2020, file photo, a tester prepares to administer a swab test at a drive-in Covid-19 testing site in Federal Heights, Colorado.
In this Oct. 27, 2020, file photo, a tester prepares to administer a swab test at a drive-in Covid-19 testing site in Federal Heights, Colorado. David Zalubowski/AP

Colorado authorities identified 3,890 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, a new daily record for the US state.

Since the pandemic began, 138,427 people in Colorado have contracted the novel coronavirus. At least 2,427 of those have died.

Some 1,116 Covid-19 patients are being treated in the hospital, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and 84% of the state's intensive care unit beds are occupied.

10:44 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

More people hospitalized in US with Covid-19 than ever before

From CNN’s Amanda Watts and Virginia Langmaid

More people are being hospitalized in the United States with Covid-19 than at any time during the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project (CTP). 

Some 61,964 people are currently receiving hospital care due to Covid-19 as of Tuesday, according to CTP. The nation has never before topped 60,000 hospitalizations. The US currently averages roughly 1,661 new hospitalizations per day, CTP data shows.

These are the highest hospitalization day records according to CTP data:

  1. Nov 10 – 61,964
  2. April 15 – 59,940
  3. April 21 – 59,780
  4. July 23 – 59,718
  5. July 24 – 59,682
  6. April 14 – 59,610

Read more:

10:40 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

California surpasses 18,000 coronavirus deaths, nears 1 million cases

From CNN's Sarah Moon and Alexandra Meeks

More than 18,000 Californians have now died due to complications from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, state health officials announced Tuesday, a grim new milestone as cases of Covid-19 surge once again at an alarming rate.

The California Department of Public Health reported 24 new deaths on Tuesday, raising the statewide death toll to 18,001. The US state has reported 977,218 confirmed cases of Covid-19 to date. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom warned residents that the state’s coronavirus cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations are all on the rise.

“People are letting their guard down by taking their masks off. They're starting to get together, outside of their household cohorts,” Newsom said at a news conference

San Francisco's uptick: San Francisco is temporarily closing indoor dining and will reduce the capacity of fitness centers and movie theaters to 25% to a rapid and significant increase in Covid-19 cases, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Tuesday.

Indoor instruction at some high schools will also be paused because the transmission rate among high school students is similar to adults, Breed said. All of the new changes go into effect at 11:59pm Pacific Time on Friday, November 13.

"People have gotten complacent and as a result of this behavior, we're seeing an uptick," Breed said. "As a result of that uptick, it has forced our city to make some very hard decisions to not just pause the reopening efforts, but to roll back some of the gains that we have made."

Since October 2, San Francisco has experienced a 250% increase in Covid-19 cases, according to county health data. The city is averaging nearly 80 new cases a day compared to approximately 32 new daily cases at the end of October.

In a warning to all San Francisco residents, Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax said the current surge in cases is greater than the rate of increase from the last major surge in the summer when cases peaked on July 19. Colfax said the city's current fall surge will exceed the summer surge if residents are unable to help turn things around.

“This suggests much broader virus transmission and has the potential to be explosive,” Colfax said. “If we stay on our current course of activities and if we do not reverse, it is entirely plausible we face a situation where our health care system becomes overwhelmed and reverses the current progress we’ve made.”
10:18 p.m. ET, November 10, 2020

Texas set a new record for Covid-19 cases identified in a day

Medical workers put on personal protective equipment (PPE) before starting shifts at a Covid-19 drive-thru testing site in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, November 9.
Medical workers put on personal protective equipment (PPE) before starting shifts at a Covid-19 drive-thru testing site in El Paso, Texas, on Monday, November 9. Joel Angel Juarez/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The state of Texas reported 10,865 Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, a new single-day record for the Lone Star state. Authorities there have now identified 974,230 novel coronavirus cases since the pandemic began.

Some 94 virus-related deaths were reported Tuesday, bringing the state's death toll to 18,863. 

According to the state's Covid-19 dashboard, there are currently 6,170 lab-confirmed coronavirus patients in Texas hospitals.