October 13 coronavirus news

Drugmaker Pfizer has plans to start testing its experimental coronavirus vaccine in children as young as 12, and parents have already expressed interest in enrolling their kids, the researcher leading the trial told CNN Tuesday.

It will be the first coronavirus vaccine trial to include children in the United States.

A team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will begin vaccinating teenagers aged 16 and 17 this week, and will move to enroll 12-to 15-year-olds later, said Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the hospital.

The company confirmed on its website it has approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to enroll children as young as 12 in its trial.

“We really think a vaccine for adolescents and children is going to be critical for getting Covid under control,” Frenck told CNN in a telephone interview.
“I think one of the things that is important to remember is that although the death rate for children with Covid is lower than in older adults, it’s not zero,” he saId, noting that more than half a million children have been diagnosed with coronavirus in the US. “It is not a nonexistent infection in children.”

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Related article Pfizer to start testing its Covid-19 vaccine in children as young as 12

A party venue in Long Island has been slapped with $12,000 in Covid-19 violation fines after 37 cases were traced back to a birthday party held there.

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services traced a cluster back to “a Sweet 16 super-spreader event” at the Miller Place Inn on September 25, according to a news release from the department. 

The 81-person guest list, including 49 students and 32 adults, violated New York state executive orders limiting non-essential gatherings to 50 people or less than 50% capacity.

Some 29 guests at the party contracted the coronavirus. Seven household members and one close contact of attendees have also tested positive.

A total of 270 individuals are now under quarantine in connection to the event, the release said.

Schools affected: Eight schools have reported positive cases in connection to the party, and 35 schools have at least one student who has been affected by the event, according to the release. It was not immediately clear how those 35 schools were affected.

“This was an egregious violation and should serve as a stark reminder of the consequences that exist for flouting COVID-19 protocols. These rules and regulations exist for a reason - to keep New Yorkers safe - and we all have an obligation to act responsibly,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in the news release.

CNN has reached out to the venue for comment.

Small family gatherings are becoming a growing source of coronavirus spread in the United States, health officials told the nation’s governors Tuesday.

“I think in the public square, we’re seeing a higher degree of vigilance and mitigation steps in many jurisdictions. But what we’re seeing as the increasing threat right now is actually acquisition of infection through small household gatherings,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield said during a call with the nation’s governors Tuesday afternoon, according to audio of the call obtained by CNN. 

“And particularly with Thanksgiving coming up, we think it’s really important to stress the vigilance of these continued mitigation steps in the household setting,” Redfield said. 

Things will worsen as winter months approach, Redfield and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told governors on the call.

The Labor Department announced on Tuesday night that Secretary Eugene Scalia’s wife, Trish, has tested positive for coronavirus.

The news release said that Eugene Scalia has tested negative so far but will work from home “for the time being.”

Both Eugene and Trish Scalia attended the Rose Garden event on September 26 where President Donald Trump announced Judge Amy Coney Barrett was his pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. They were seated in the second row, directly behind first lady Melania Trump and next to former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway – both of whom would later test positive for Covid-19.

“This afternoon, doctors confirmed that U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia’s wife, Trish, tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Mrs. Scalia is experiencing mild symptoms but doing well,” the release stated.
“This evening, Secretary Scalia received a test and the results were negative; he has experienced no symptoms. The Secretary and Mrs. Scalia will follow the advice of health professionals for Trish’s recovery and the health of those around them. For the time being, the Secretary will work from home while continuing to carry out the mission of the Department and the President’s agenda.”

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U.S. President Donald Trump announces 7th U.S. Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett (R) as his nominee to the Supreme Court in the Rose Garden at the White House September 26, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Related article Labor secretary's wife, who was at Rose Garden event, tests positive for coronavirus

China’s Qingdao city has tested more than 5.6 million people as of Tuesday night amid a citywide testing program, the Qingdao Municipal Health Commission said in a statement.

As of 8:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, the city has collected a total of 5,603,804 nucleic acid samples. More than two million test results have been returned, and no new positive cases were reported, the commission added.

Qingdao city, located in northeastern China, announced on Monday that it would conduct a mass testing program over five days, after 12 cases were reported over the weekend. The city has a population of nine million.

The federal government said Tuesday it was investing close to half a billion dollars in a cartridge-based on-the-spot coronavirus test that it said would help “dramatically” expand its supply of tests by next spring.

Cue Health’s quick polymerase chain reaction or PCR test takes about 20 minutes to find the genetic material of the coronavirus – the so-called gold standard of testing. Being able to deploy it for point-of-care use should speed up testing – something that has held up control of the spread of the virus across the US. 

The Health and Human Services Department and Department of Defense said they were investing $481 million in Cue to help it produce more tests.

“This partnership with HHS and DOD will allow Cue to expand its industrial base and increase domestic production to 100,000 COVID-19 test kits per day by March 2021, and demonstrate this capacity through the delivery of six million COVID-19 tests and 30,000 instruments to the U.S. Government to support the domestic COVID-19 pandemic response,” HHS said in a statement.

“Cue’s tests provide results in about 20 minutes with the kind of accuracy provided by lab tests that can take several days, adding to our dramatically expanding supply of rapid tests that can support safe reopening,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar added.

Dr. Brett Giroir, who heads testing efforts for the federal government’s coronavirus task force, told governors in a call Tuesday the tests were used to help the National Basketball Association control the spread of coronavirus and continue play.

“This was the primary point of care test used in the NBA bubble,” Giroir said in a call, the recording of which was obtained by CNN. “If it was good enough for LeBron, we need to democratize it to the American people,” Giroir added.

“We will not have tens of thousands of these for a period of many weeks. We will have 8,000 — the first delivery in four weeks,” he added. “And we want to work selectively with a few states and a few programs to test these out in the wild, to understand how they will best complement the current ecosystem that has the antigen test up front and the big laboratory tests in the back.”

The Food and Drug Administration gave the test emergency use authorization in June.

At least 38,006,121 cases of Covid-19 have so far been recorded globally as of 6:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.   

The global death toll stands at 1,083,875.  

The United States leads with the most known Covid-19 infections and deaths worldwide.

There are at least 7,850,829 cases and 215,775 deaths from the disease in the country, according to Johns Hopkins count.  

The US, India and Brazil together account for more than half of the world’s coronavirus cases, the figures show.  

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Tuesday that current efforts toward Covid-19 vaccine development are “on a really good track” despite news that a second vaccine was put on hold this week. 

“A couple of the vaccines are very close to getting some sort of information,” Fauci said during a call with the nation’s governors Tuesday afternoon, according to audio of the call obtained by CNN. 

Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, mentioned vaccines being tested by Moderna and Pfizer. “We’re getting to the point where we’re almost being able to look at the first look at the data, which is a predetermined thing done by the data and safety monitoring board,” he said.

The vaccine effort, more broadly, “is on really a good track,” he said. “We should know by November or December whether or not we have a safe and effective vaccine,” he added. “It is conceivable that we might even know before then.”

The NIAID is helping sponsor some of the coronavirus vaccine trials.

“By November or December, at least in one or more of these trials, we’ll have an answer early on so we can start distributing to those groups who have the highest need,” Fauci said. 

Fauci told the governors not to be concerned by the two vaccines in clinical trials that have been placed on hold in recent weeks pending further investigation. AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine trial is on hold in the US and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was paused Monday because of an illnesses in a volunteer.

“I want to emphasize to the governors that this is not an unusual occurrence. Whenever you have clinical trials in which you’re involving tens of thousands of individuals, it is not unusual to get an adverse event and you want, out of overabundance of caution, you want to make sure that that is a not related to the actual vaccine itself,” Fauci said, calling a hold “standard procedure to do that.”

“Many very good vaccines in the course of their testing have actually been put temporarily on hold,” he assured the governors.

Some more context: Fauci’s comments and participation on the task force governors call come hours after President Trump revived efforts to publicly undermine him, tweeting that Fauci’s pitching arm — a reference to his poor first pitch at Nationals Park — is “far more accurate than his prognostications.”

Fauci’s recommendations and assessments have largely been in line with public health experts throughout the coronavirus pandemic but not aligned with what the President perceives his political interests to be.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar also reminded the governors of an upcoming deadline for states to provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with a vaccine distribution plan. 

“We want you to be in close touch with your CDC liaison throughout this process as you approach the deadline for submitting a vaccine distribution plan to CDC, this Friday, October 16,” Azar said. 

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is announcing a partial rollback of the state’s economic reopening, as coronavirus numbers increase rapidly. 

“When the community spread of the virus becomes uncontrollable – and we are fast approaching that point – our only option is to simply shut down those opportunities for the virus,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement Tuesday.

Starting on Friday, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol will have to close by 10:00 p.m local time and mass gatherings will be limited to only five people.

Hotel occupancy is being reduced from 75% of normal capacity to 60%, and only after the business completes a state training program on avoiding virus spread. Hotels that are not certified by that program will only be allowed to serve 25% of their regular capacity.

New Mexico reported 488 new Covid-19 cases on Oct. 9, the state’s largest single-day total.

The governor’s office says the state has not met its benchmark goals for reopening in several weeks. 

“Absent an improvement in those data, the state of New Mexico will once again restrict indoor dining service and significantly roll back maximum occupancy allowances at other retail and dining establishments,” the office said in a statement.

After announcing five new Covid-19 positive tests within the football team earlier on Tuesday, the University of Florida has paused team activities, according to a statement from Athletics Director Scott Stricklin. 

Stricklin said the decision was made out of an abundance of caution.

Stricklin said in his statement that he has had conversations with Southeastern Conference leaders as well as Texas A&M, who Florida played last week, and LSU, who Florida is scheduled to play this Saturday. Stricklin added that head coach Dan Mullen has been in communication with the football players and their families.

At a news conference Monday, Mullen told reporters, “I think if you look at what we’ve been able to do, the safety precautions we have that our players have followed, our coaches follow, our staff follows, you know, I think we’re a model of safety of what we’ve been doing during this time period. So I’m really proud of how we’ve handled everything and how safe we’ve been with everything we’re doing and all the precautions we’ve had in place during this time.”

Stricklin said the situation will be re-evaluated by UF Health and the athletic department’s sports medicine staff on Wednesday.

Utah is experiencing “one of the worst outbreaks in the country” and has announced a new three-tier Covid-19 monitoring system for counties, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Tuesday. 

Gov. Herbert said during a news conference Utah has seen infection rates and case counts skyrocket over the past month to the highest they’ve been, with new cases hovering around 1,000 per day since Oct.4.

“We are utilizing 15.8% of our ICU beds to treat COVID-19 patients, more than double what we were before, and our total ICU utilization is at 69.6%,” Gov. Herbert tweeted. “This leaves our hospitals precariously close to being unable to treat COVID and non-COVID patients in need of critical care.” 

Gov. Herbert also tweeted, “The new system is based on the Transmission Index, which calculates the level of COVID-19 transmission in each county by analyzing three data points - percent positivity of tests, cases per 100,000, and hospital capacity.”

Counties will be placed on a low, moderate, or high transmission level which will determine things like when masks are required to be worn, and how large of a group can gather. 

American golfer Dustin Johnson, who sits atop the World Golf Rankings, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to a statement from the PGA Tour. As a result, Johnson has withdrawn from this week’s tournament in Las Vegas.

“Obviously, I am very disappointed,” said Johnson. “I was really looking forward to competing this week, but will do everything I can to return as quickly as possible. I have already had a few calls with the TOUR’s medical team and appreciate all the support and guidance they have given me.”

Johnson won the PGA Tour’s season-long $15 million FedEx Cup title in September after winning the Tour Championship event at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia. He last competed at the US Open in September, where he finished in sixth place.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said today that they have to get the virus under control in the state to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed. 

Evers said the state reached a “grim milestone” of over 150,000 positive cases over the weekend and that hospitalizations have nearly tripled over the past month. 

The Wisconsin Department of Health says that there is a total of 155,471 confirmed cases of Covid-19, up 3,279 from yesterday. There are 34 new deaths being reported today, for a total of 1508 deaths since the pandemic began.  

During Tuesday’s news conference, Evers said they need a huge, united statewide effort, which includes elected officials, to combat the virus. He said that the state legislature hasn’t met for 180 days but that they have tried to “thwart every state effort to keep Wisconsinites health and safe.”

He said he is inviting Republican leaders in the state to meet and is hopeful they will put their feedback and plans on the table so they can “urgently address the challenges of our state.” He is encouraging residents to reach out to their legislators to find out if they support the mask mandate and the public health emergency. 

On Monday, Evers sent a letter to the speaker and the majority leader asking for their thoughts and feedback to the public health emergency. Evers said in today’s news conference that he has yet to hear back from them. 

The University of Florida has released an updated number of Covid-19 positive tests among its football student-athletes, which indicate that the football team has had five new positive tests over the past week. 

The total number of positive tests the team has seen in the month of October now stands at six

The Florida Gators, who are ranked number 10 in the nation, are scheduled to play the defending national champion Louisiana State University Tigers on Saturday at home in Gainesville, Florida.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said that “some 65 staff” members had to quarantine after he and his wife tested positive for Covid-19, he said today at a press conference.

“To my knowledge, those 65 staff members all tested negative,” Northam added. “No one tested positive.”

Northam called the result “a testament to wearing these masks.”

Northam added that both he and his wife “have been cleared by health officials to leave isolation and go back to work” since it has been several days since their last symptoms.

Drugmaker Eli Lilly said Tuesday it was pausing its trial of a combination antibody treatment for coronavirus for safety reasons. 

Usually, clinical trials are paused because a volunteer has suffered a side effect or become ill, but the company did not say what happened.

“Safety is of the upmost importance to Lilly,” a spokesperson told CNN by email.

It said the trial’s Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent group of medical experts who monitor clinical trials, had recommended the pause.

“The trial, evaluating Lilly’s investigational neutralizing antibody as a treatment for COVID-19 in hospitalized patients, is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Lilly is supportive of the decision by the independent DSMB to cautiously ensure the safety of the patients participating in this study,” the company said in the statement.

Lilly is testing a combination of two lab-engineered immune system proteins called monoclonal antibodies to treat severely ill patients with coronavirus. It is similar to the treatment made by Regeneron that was given to President Trump earlier this month.

The news comes after drugmaker Johnson & Johnson announced that it learned of an “unexplained illness” in one of the volunteers which caused it to pause its Phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial in the US on Sunday, and immediately informed the DSMB, which monitors clinical trial developments.

The drugmaker said it did not know whether the volunteer who became ill had received the vaccine or placebo.

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06:19 - Source: cnn

Florida health officials reported 2,725 new cases of Covid-19 and 119 deaths on Tuesday, according to the Florida Department of Health.      

This marks the ninth day in October that the health department has reported at least 2,200 new cases in a single day, CNN’s tally shows.  

The state now has a total of 738,749 coronavirus cases, the department’s data shows.       

The Florida death toll now stands at 15,531, the department’s data shows.   

Note: These numbers were released by Florida’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.

For the first time in the 178-year history of the New York Philharmonic, the symphony orchestra is canceling its entire season, citing mandatory state and city government health regulations during the pandemic.

The cancelation will last until at least June 13, 2021.

There will be no live, indoor concerts as the organization had hoped, according to a statement from President and CEO Deborah Borda that cited “deep regret” for the cancelation.

“In the 178-year history of our institution, the cancellation of an entire season marks a historic first, and a dreadful one at that,” according to the statement. “If you are disappointed, please know how devastated we all are by this turn of events. The health and financial challenges, indeed the experiential challenges we all face, are profound.”

The statement continued: “But the Philharmonic didn’t survive and indeed flourish for nearly two centuries by giving up, so we won’t now! We are energetically working to bring you and all New Yorkers live music experiences with NY Phil Bandwagon, which I’m delighted to report will resume by popular demand in the spring.”

NY Phil Bandwagon is a series of free, pop-up concerts at announced locations around New York City. 

Additionally, the organization is developing an expanded live-streaming series for the winter, if allowed by Covid-19 restrictions, and hopes to announce that soon, according to the statement.  

The New York Philharmonic’s 2021-22 season will be announced in the spring of 2021.   

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday announced a series of additional measures in an effort to contain skyrocketing coronavirus infections.

Here are some of those new measures:

“All in all, there are too many people who have not adhered enough to the rules,” Rutte said during a news conference.

Asked whether his leadership was to blame, and if Dutch citizens had acted so much worse than their neighbors in France and Germany, Rutte said, “I have said before that I don’t venture into sociological comparisons. I am prime minister in this country.”

What we know: Coronavirus infections in the Netherlands rose 60% over the seven-day period ending Monday compared to the previous week-long period, according to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.

The nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said that shortages of testing supplies are disconcerting, and speak to the disconnect between the information that he receives and the experiences of those who are working on the ground. 

“That’s really very disconcerting, in October of 2020, when we knew about those shortages in the spring of 2020,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The suppliers for these materials – such as the chemical reagents needed to process the tests – have said there should not be shortages, Fauci said at an event hosted by the College of American Pathologists.

“That’s a bit of the disconnect that I get concerned about when centrally, we think that things are going well, and yet when you talk to people on the ground and in the trenches … you find that still there are problems.”

The Philadelphia Eagles announced they will welcome fans to Lincoln Financial Field for the first time this season for their game vs. the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

Occupancy will be limited to 7,500 people, which includes players, coaches, team and stadium personnel, media and fans. The total seating capacity at Lincoln Financial Field is over 65,000.

In making the announcement Tuesday, Eagles president Don Smolenski said, “We have been working very closely with state and local officials, public health experts and the National Football League on a number of scenarios to safely bring Eagles fans back to Lincoln Financial Field. After many thoughtful and active discussions, we are thrilled to announce that the fan experience will return to Lincoln Financial Field this Sunday.”

“On behalf of the Philadelphia Eagles, I would like to thank Governor [Tom] Wolf, Mayor [Jim] Kenney and their respective representatives for the support and guidance over these past few months,” Smolenski added. “We will all continue to stay in close communication and will be prepared to adjust and adapt as needed.”

Fans attending games at Lincoln Financial Field will have to wear masks at all times, other than when actively eating or drinking, which will be allowed in seats only. Fans will also be required to maintain six feet of distance from other fans and stadium staff at all times. The team has established personalized seating pods for proper social distancing and limited fan-to-fan contact.

Social gatherings or tailgating at the sports complex in which Lincoln Financial Field is located are not permitted for the entirety of the 2020 season.

Increasing coronavirus test positivity in various regions of the country might mean that a resurgence of cases is soon to come, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said Tuesday.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he’s observed a trend in various regions of the country – particularly the Midwest, the upper Northwest and the states above the Sunbelt.

“We’re seeing an uptick in what’s called test positivity – namely, the percentage of tests that you do in a community surveillance that turn out to be positive,” Fauci said at an event hosted by the College of American Pathologists. “You’d like to see them less than 3%, optimally 1% or less.” 

Fauci said that test positivity is a good indicator of what’s to come.

“We’re starting to see a number of states well above that, which is often – in fact, invariably – highly predictive of a resurgence of cases, which historically we know leads to an increase in hospitalizations and then ultimately an increase in deaths,” he said.

At least 26 schools in Michigan are reporting outbreaks of Covid-19 totaling 116 new cases, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday.

This is in addition to the 5,151 Covid-19 cases already reported from outbreaks in 81 schools. Michigan includes K-12 and colleges among its count.

The department defines an outbreak as “two or more Covid-19 cases who may have shared exposure on school grounds and are form different households.”

Michigan schools have a choice of specifying if the cases are from students, staff or both so these numbers are not all a direct comparison.

Of the 26 schools to report new outbreaks, 7 are from preschool through elementary schools, 7 are from middle schools, 6 are from high schools and 6 are from college. Kalamazoo reported the highest number of new cases, with a total of 21, which includes both students and staff.

Of the 81 ongoing school outbreaks, 17 are from pre-school through elementary schools, 7 are from middle schools, 26 are from high schools, 30 are from colleges, and one is from a graduate school. Michigan State University has the most cumulative cases at 1,531, which includes both students and staff.

The data is updated on Mondays by 3 p.m.

Note: These numbers were released by Michigan’s HHS Dept. and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The National Football League and NFL Players Association confirmed that eight players and seven staffers tested positive for coronavirus between Oct. 4 and Oct. 10.

This brings the NFL’s total number of positive cases to 39 players and 60 other personnel since Covid-19 monitoring testing began Aug. 1.

Eighteen employees from a United States Postal Service processing center in Las Vegas have tested positive for coronavirus since Sept. 26, USPS spokesperson Rod Spurgeon tells CNN. There are 775 employees that work at the facility.

Spurgeon said they’re continuing with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s protocols, such as social distancing, mask wearing and sanitizing, but there has been no “operational impact” at the center.

The condition of the employees who tested positive will be kept confidential, according to Spurgeon.

A patient in Mexico tested positive for Covid-19 and influenza, José Luis Alomía, the health ministry’s director of epidemiology, confirmed Sunday.

This is the first case in the country where a patient has tested positive for both viruses simultaneously.

Alomía, speaking during a nightly briefing in Mexico City, reported that the 54-year-old patient has a history of autoimmune disease, cancer, obesity and chronic lung disease.

Health authorities confirmed the patient remains hospitalized and in stable condition.

There are at least 7,817,863 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 215,355 people have died from the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

So far today, Johns Hopkins has recorded 13,664 new cases and 270 reported deaths.

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

Nineteen student-athletes from the swimming and diving teams at the University of Delaware were sanctioned and suspended after violating the school’s Covid-19 protocol, the university confirmed on Tuesday.

According to a statement from a university spokesperson, the suspensions were issued after a “large indoor social gathering hosted on September 26, 2020 at an off campus residence.”

The school said all student-athletes who attended the gathering were quarantined and tested for Covid-19, all tested negative.

“We have spoken to our student-athletes at length about their responsibility of being back on campus,” said Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation Services Chrissi Rawak. “While we have been fortunate with the behavior from a majority of our student-athletes in following the guidelines and social pledge, we cannot let up, we must stay focused and disciplined in all of our choices.”

The latest numbers: The University of Delaware has reported at least 361 cases of Covid-19 since Aug. 30, according to the school’s online Covid dashboard. The university’s protocol includes a surveillance testing pool where groups are tested twice per week.

Facebook announced on Tuesday that it will no longer allow ads that discourage people from getting vaccinated. 

“Today, we’re launching a new global policy that prohibits ads discouraging people from getting vaccinated. We don’t want these ads on our platforms,” Kang-Xing Jin, Facebook’s head of health, and Rob Leathern, a Facebook director of product management, wrote in a post Tuesday. 

“Ads that advocate for or against legislation or government policies around vaccines – including a COVID-19 vaccine – are still allowed,” the company wrote.  

Facebook also said it will be rolling out the ad ban in the coming days.

The test positivity rate across New York City is 1.90%, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. 

The mayor did not immediately specify if this test positivity rate included the hotspot areas across the city.  

As of October 11, there were 520 confirmed Covid-19 cases across the city, according to de Blasio. 

At least 59 people were admitted to NYC Heath and Hospitals for Covid-19, according to data collected on October 11, the mayor said. 

NOTE: These numbers were released by the city of New York and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

After self-quarantining for several days the US Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville has returned to work.

“I’ve been screened and tested multiple times,” McConville told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday, adding “I’ve been cleared by the docs to come back in.”

McConville and other members of the Joint Chiefs, except the commandant of the Marine Corps, self-quarantined after attending a meeting attended by the Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard who tested positive for coronavirus.

The assistant commandant of the Marine Corps subsequently tested positive for the coronavirus.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a statement Tuesday, announced Senate Republicans will attempt to move forward on a targeted bill to restart the small business loan program that served as a centerpiece of the coronavirus relief efforts when the Senate returns to session next week. 

“Republicans do not agree that nothing is better than something for working families,” McConnell said in the statement. “The American people need Democrats to stop blocking bipartisan funding and let us replenish the PPP before more Americans lose their jobs needlessly.”

The effort is likely to be blocked – Democratic leaders have repeatedly rejected piecemeal approaches to the next relief effort, including a roughly $300 billion Senate GOP relief bill, which Democrats voted unanimously against last month. Instead, they have insisted on a broad, comprehensive response to the twin economic and public health issues facing the country. 

Those negotiations, however, have remained at a stalemate for months. While President Donald Trump offered a momentary boost to the prospects of an agreement last week when he called for a “big” deal and proposed a $1.8 trillion offer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has rejected the effort and the talks are once again stuck without a clear path forward. 

Pelosi, in a letter to her House Democratic colleagues Tuesday, listed off a myriad of significant issues with the latest Trump administration proposal. 

“Significant changes must be made to remedy the Trump proposal’s deficiencies,” Pelosi wrote to her colleagues. 

The Senate GOP move, which aides have said was under discussion for several days, follows a request to lawmakers from Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to pass a bill restarting the small business loan program, known as the Paycheck Protection Program. The program came to an end with roughly $130 billion in funds unspent. 

Covid-19 testing numbers in New York City Public Schools are “very encouraging,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. 

Out of 1,751 tests conducted across 56 schools in New York City on Friday, only one person tested positive, the mayor said. 

For Friday there was a 0.6% test positivity rate, the mayor said. 

The mayor went on to remind parents to sign their child’s testing consent form and send it to school or complete the form online.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday the city is beginning to see a “leveling off” in the red zone cluster areas across Brooklyn and Queens.

The mayor said the city is days into the restrictions imposed in the red zone and “we are seeing some results.” 

“This is the week we can start changing the tide in those fundamental areas,” the mayor said. 

Very robust enforcement has begun and will deepen across those areas, de Blasio added. 

There were at least $150K in fines and over 100 summonses given out in the red, orange and yellow zone areas over the weekend, the mayor said. 

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that it learned of the “unexplained illness,” which caused it to pause its Phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial in the US, on Sunday and immediately informed the Data and Safety Monitoring Board, or DSMB, which monitors clinical trial developments.

The drugmaker said it did not know whether the volunteer who became ill had received the vaccine or placebo.

“We are now awaiting further medical information and evaluation, which we will then forward to the DSMB for further independent recommendations,” Mathai Mammen, Global Head of Research and Development at Janssen, said Tuesday on the company’s third quarter earnings call.
“It’s not at all unusual for unexpected illnesses to occur in large studies over their duration,” Mammen said. In some cases, these are called serious adverse events, or SAEs, and may have something or nothing to do with the drug or vaccine being investigated,” Mammen said.

Mammen said the company has “very little information right now” regarding the illness which paused the trial, but said that the DSMB has submitted a number of specific questions for them to answer.

As of Tuesday morning, the trial remains blinded, meaning that participants and those administering the vaccine candidates are unaware if they are receiving the vaccine or a placebo. Mammen added that the DSMB has the ability to unblind the study in order to investigate the unexplained illness if necessary.

Johnson & Johnson announced the clinical trial pause on Monday, making it the second Phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial to be paused.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial was paused last month because of an a neurological complication in a volunteer in the UK. While the trial resumed there and in other countries, it remains paused in the United States while the US Food and Drug Administration investigated.

Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has tested positive for coronavirus, the Portuguese Football Federation said in a statement Tuesday.

“Cristiano Ronaldo has been released from working with the National Team after testing positive for Covid-19, so he will not be facing Sweden,” the statement said. 
“The Portuguese international is well, without symptoms, and in isolation.”

“Following the positive case, the remaining players underwent new tests this Tuesday morning, all with negative results, and are available to [coach] Fernando Santos for this afternoon’s training session, at the Cidade do Futebol.” 

“The game, part of the qualification phase of the League of Nations, is scheduled for Wednesday, at 19:45, in Alvalade,” the statement said.

The Mayor of London said it was “inevitable” the UK’s capital would meet the threshold for tougher coronavirus restrictions in the coming days.

Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Sadiq Khan said:

“All the indicators I have – hospital admissions, ICU occupancy, the numbers of older people with cases, the prevalence of the disease, the positivity – are all going the wrong direction.
“Which means, I’m afraid, it’s inevitable over the course of the next few days London will have passed a trigger point to be in the second tier.”

Like most of England, London is currently on “medium” alert – the lowest level of the government’s new three-tier system announced Monday – meaning bars and restaurants are still open until 10 p.m. and up to six people from different households can meet indoors. 

The mayor is calling for the capital to be moved into the second tier “high” alert level, which would ban people from socializing with other households indoors. 

He added it should cover the whole city because people frequently travel between boroughs to work and study. 

The Liverpool City Region is currently the only part of England in the third tier and is on “very high” alert, with bars and pubs closed. This area is situated in the northwest of the country, which has the highest infection rate of 1,741 per 100,000 people. 

The current rate of infection in London is 695 per 100,000 people, according to government data. 

The UK’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer on Monday voiced “great concern” that the virus was spreading to southern parts of the country. 

Hear from London residents on how police are enforcing Covid-19 rules:

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The US stock market was mixed at Tuesday’s opening bell in New York, with only the Nasdaq Composite starting the day in the green.

Tech stocks are in focus again as Apple is set to reveal its latest iPhone and Amazon’s Prime Day kicked off. 

Earnings season is upon us as America’s big banks reported third quarter results this morning. This – along with stimulus hopes, the election and the path of the pandemic – will keep investors on their toes for the coming weeks.

Here’s where things opened:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a letter to House Democrats Tuesday morning, detailed a series of major differences between Democrats and the Trump Administration in their stimulus negotiation – underscoring that the two sides are nowhere near an agreement.

Pelosi laid out eight key areas where tangible differences exist between the two sides, the issues largely mirror the splits that have existed between them for more than three months. 

Pelosi also made clear that those eight areas “are not exhaustive of our many outstanding concerns.”

“Significant changes must be made to remedy the Trump proposal’s deficiencies,” Pelosi wrote to her colleagues.

A Broward County first grader tested positive for Covid-19 after attending the first day of school on Friday, according to Pembroke Pines spokeswoman Marianne Wohlert.  

The first day of face-to-face instruction on school campuses for Broward students was Friday.  

The child attended Pembroke Pines Charter Elementary West campus, which is overseen by the city of Pembroke Pines, Wohlert said.  

On Saturday “the parents notified the school” of the confirmed Covid-19 results, Wohlert told CNN.  

The charter school follows Broward County Schools policies and procedures regarding confirmed covid cases and the entire school was notified of the positive results, according to Wohlert. 

For our international readers: Broward Country is located in southeastern Florida and is the second most populous county in the state. First grade is the first year after kindergarten in the US, so students average about 6 to 7-years old, although we don’t know exactly how old this particular student is.

Delta Air Lines posted more massive losses in the third quarter, warning investors “it may be two years or more” for demand for air travel to return to normal.

The airline posted a $2.1 billion operating loss in the third quarter, excluding special items – like charges for buyout packages for employees who voluntarily left the company and early retirement of aircraft. Including those items, its net loss topped $5 billion for the second consecutive period.

The third-quarter loss was larger than forecast by Wall Street analysts, and Delta shares fell 3% in premarket trading on the news.

Analysts expect total losses among US airlines to top $10 billion for the last quarter, as the pandemic continues to fuel a huge drop in demand. Delta is the first US airline to report results for the quarter.

Schools are reopening in parts of Argentina, with measures in place to limit the spread of the pandemic, even as coronavirus cases in the country top 900,000.

The nation’s largest province, Buenos Aires, is planning a return to school on Tuesday, with at least 24 of its districts resuming in-person classes, according to a statement published Monday on the country’s state-news agency, Telam.

“Classes will last 90 minutes without breaks and students will be divided into the necessary subgroups to respect social distancing according to the protocols,” reads the statement. Students’ temperatures will be taken at school entrances and they must certify that they “are in conditions to attend.”

In the capital city itself – considered medium risk for Covid-19 contagion – “non-scholar, educational activities such as artistic, recreational [ones]” will go ahead “with a maximum of 10 people, including the teacher,” according to Telam’s statement.

The Governor of Buenos Aires province, Axel Kicillof, has announced a “significant reduction” in cases, but authorities have tightened restrictions in 18 other regions of the country for another two weeks, in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. 

Argentina’s health authorities reported 9,524 new coronavirus infections late Monday, bringing the country’s Covid-19 case count to 903,730.

Additionally, 318 new virus-related deaths were reported, taking the country’s death toll to 24,186, according to the Ministry of Health.

Bavarian state premier Markus Söder is warning that Germany could “lose control of the coronavirus” pandemic, urging “something must be done this week,” ahead of a key meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s federal states. 

“Everywhere around us, there are extremely negative indications. That’s why it is important that Germany sets its course now. We have to act this week or risk that things get out of control,” Söder said at a news conference on Tuesday.

He said European countries including Spain, France, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands were already struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Warning that “the autumnal coronavirus is no weaker or less dangerous than the coronavirus in March and April,” he added “we don’t want a second national lockdown” but said “serious conversations” were needed to avoid that situation. 

On Tuesday, Germany reported its highest weekly infection numbers since April, with 24,584 cases.

Last week, Chancellor Merkel urged German citizens to stick to the country’s coronavirus restrictions and warned that tougher restrictions may have to be imposed in the coming days. 

JPMorgan Chase unexpectedly grew its bottom line last quarter, as the bank’s Wall Street business and its Main Street arm withstood turmoil in the global economy.

The US’s largest bank blew away expectations by reporting a profit of $9.4 billion during the third quarter, up 4% from the year before. Per-share profit jumped to $2.92, easily topping estimates. 

JPMorgan’s big beat was driven by strong trading and investment banking performance, as well as far fewer credit losses than feared. 

CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank decided in the third quarter to maintain its credit reserves at $34 billion, “given significant economic uncertainty and a broad range of potential outcomes.”

JPMorgan’s revenue dipped 11%, but that also was better than feared. 

The pandemic has slammed the banking industry: JPMorgan has lost about a quarter of its value so far this year and its $308 billion market valuation is now dwarfed by those of Tesla and Nvidia, but JPMorgan has weathered the storm better than some of its rivals. 

Citigroup’s share price is down more than 40% on the year and the bank recently announced the surprise retirement of CEO Michael Corbat.

Wells Fargo has lost more than half of its value this year, and the money-losing bank recently cut its dividend for the first time since the Great Recession. 

There was a time when Boris Johnson claimed his government was following the science at every step of its plan for dealing with coronavirus. 

But as the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK soars once more, and the country braces for a long, miserable winter, the British Prime Minister appears to be at odds with those same advisers he once placed front and center of the pandemic response. 

His Chief Medical Officer on Monday night poured a bucket of cold water over his latest plans to tackle a worrying upturn in the spread of coronavirus in the UK.

And on Tuesday he faced further criticism, after it emerged that his top scientific advisers recommended a significantly tougher package of measures three weeks ago.

Johnson, it seems, is trapped by his bitterly divided Conservative Party – faced down by the hawks, such as finance minister Rishi Sunak, who want to keep the economy as open as possible and doves, who think tough measures now would be better in the longer run.

His attempts to walk that tricky line were evident in a news conference on Monday evening.

Instead of introducing a short, sharp “circuit breaker” lockdown, advocated by experts who want to disrupt the current rate of transmission immediately and buy the country time before a difficult winter, Johnson outlined a three-tiered system of lockdown measures, to be applied locally according to the number of reported cases in a given area.

Even the top tier of these restrictions is a far cry from the hard UK lockdown in March. Children will still attend schools, restaurants will remain open and it will be up to local authorities to decide whether other parts of the hospitality sector close. 

It was clear that some of Johnson’s senior scientific and medical advisers were not convinced.

Standing next to the Prime Minister was his Chief Medical Officer, Chris Whitty, who said he was “not confident” that even the restrictions envisaged for highest tier “would be enough to get on top” of the virus spread.

Read the full story here:

(L-R) Britain's Chancellor Rishi Sunak, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance give a press conference about the ongoing situation with the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak inside 10 Downing Street on March 17, 2020 in London, England. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. (Photo by Matt Dunham/WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Related article Analysis: Boris Johnson has split from his top scientists on coronavirus

With 33 states reporting a rise in new Covid-19 cases and a nationwide uptick in hospitalizations, officials worry this could be the beginning of the fall surge experts have warned about. 

In Colorado, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said Covid-19 cases were rising at a “concerning rate,” and warned new restrictions could be needed, with the city’s seven-day average daily case rates as “high right now as they were at the height of the pandemic back in May.”

Officials across the country are warning of similar patterns.

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx last week cautioned that the Northeast was seeing “early suggestions” of alarming trends.

Kentucky’s governor said recently the state is seeing a third major escalation in infections.

And in Wisconsin, a field hospital is opening this week in response to a surge in Covid-19 patients – days after the state reported record-high numbers of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and daily deaths. 

The US is now averaging more than 49,000 new infections daily – up 14% from the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Last week, the nation recorded more than 50,000 new cases for at least four days in a row. The last time that happened was in early August. 

That doesn’t have to mean another lockdown, the infectious disease expert has previously said, but means more people heeding to safety guidelines like wearing masks and social distancing. 

Otherwise, the US could be in for a devastating winter. Researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation project that more than 135,000 Americans could die within the next three months.

Read the full story here:

A medic prepares to transfer a patient on a stretcher from an ambulance outside of Emergency at Coral Gables Hospital where Coronavirus patients are treated in Coral Gables near Miami, on July 30, 2020. - Florida has emerged as a major new epicenter of the US battle against the disease, with confirmed cases recently surpassing New York and now second only to California. The state toll has leapt over the past week and more than 6,500 people have died from the disease there, according to health officials. More than 460,000 people have been infected with the virus in Florida, which has a population of 21 million, and a quarter of the state's cases are in Miami. The US has tallied a total of 151,826 deaths from COVID-19, making it the hardest-hit country in the world. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Amid rising Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, local US leaders and public health experts worry of a coming surge

Iowa reported 100,451 coronavirus cases across the state on Monday, hitting the 100,000 mark 218 days after the state reported its first cases in March, according to numbers released by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). 

To date, the state has reported 1,481 coronavirus related deaths, according to IDPH.

Iowa’s uptick in coronavirus cases stems from the outbreaks seen in the spring as clusters of Covid-19 cases popped up in nursing homes and at meatpacking plants, Dr. Ravi Vemuri, director of infection prevention at MercyOne Des Moines, told CNN affiliate KCCI.

US President Donald Trump is heading to Iowa on Wednesday for his first visit of the general election season, as several polls show him locked in a tight race with Joe Biden.

The same story is unfolding in Iowa as in many battlegrounds: Independents, women and seniors appear to be turning away from Trump, amid dissatisfaction over his handling of coronavirus and his broader conduct in office.

A total of 26 US states have now passed the 100,000 coronavirus case mark.

The Austrian capital, Vienna, has recorded 306 new infections within the past 24 hours.

Austria reported 1,028 new infections on Tuesday, bringing its total to 57,324, according to the country’s public health authority, the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). 

Authorities there say 611 Covid-19 patients are being treated in hospital, 107 of whom are in intensive care units. Austria’s death toll stands at 861, the tally shows. 

Last week, Austria recorded 1,209 new cases in 24 hours – its highest daily increase since the outbreak began, surpassing the record set in March when the initial wave of infections was at its peak. The country has seen a gradual rise in daily coronavirus infections since late June. 

In March this year, popular ski resorts in the western Austrian province of Tyrol were identified as one of the hotspots in spreading the coronavirus across Europe.

An Austrian expert commission on Monday criticized the country’s Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, for what they said was his government’s poor handling of the crisis.

Crowds of people potentially infected with Covid-19 were allowed to leave the resorts of Ischgl and St. Anton in March – helping to spread the virus across Europe – before officials announced quarantine measures.  

Ronald Rohrer, head of the panel appointed by the province of Tyrol to look into Austria’s handling of the outbreak, told reporters this was “a wrong decision, from an epidemiological perspective.”

“The Austrian chancellor announced the imposition of the quarantines unexpectedly, without immediate authority, and without substantive preparations,” Rohrer said.

Kurz announced a quarantine on March 13, but his government had not informed the local authorities which had to implement the measures, the commission found.

The Austrian Chancellor said foreign tourists would be allowed to leave, but according to the commission, this led to a panicked rush instead of an orderly departure.

In September, Kurz said that the country’s upcoming ski season would go ahead, but that apres-ski parties will be banned to try and curb the spread of coronavirus.

European Union countries have agreed to a set of criteria to make the reporting of coronavirus cases and travel restrictions easier to understand.

The EU hopes they will make travel more predictable, and help prevent further disruption caused by the pandemic. 

The recommendations adopted Tuesday include a new weekly “traffic light” map that will be published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) showing countries’ different epidemiological situations. 

The three categories for countries are:

The categories will be based on a clear set of comparable data from each country. 

The new guidelines also set out how much notice should be given when travel restrictions are to be applied when a country moves from one category to another.

A member state intending to apply restrictions should inform the affected country and the European Commission at least 48 hours in advance. Members of the public and businesses should then be given clear, comprehensive and timely information at least 24 hours before new restrictions come into place. 

“It is our common duty to ensure coordination on any measures which affect free movement and to give our citizens all the information they need when deciding on their travel,” said Roth.

The recommendations are not legally binding, and the decision whether to implement them remains up to each member state.

These European countries are seeing rises in Covid-19 cases:

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Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche plans to launch a Covid-19 antigen test to support high-volume testing for laboratories by end of 2020, according to a news release from the company on Tuesday. 

“These fully automated systems can provide test results in 18 minutes for a single test (excluding time for sample collection, transport, and preparation), with a throughput [rate of production] of up to 300 tests per hour from a single analyzer,” Roche said in the release.

Roche also agreed to obtain an emergency tax approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.

France’s Covid positivity rate – the percentage of tests that come back positive – is continuing to rise and has now reached 12.8%, the country’s health authority said on Monday evening.

The rate, a key indicator of how fast the virus is spreading, now stands at more than double what it was a month ago – 5.4% on September 12.

As of Monday night, 1,539 Covid patients were in intensive care in French hospitals. The last time the country had more than 1,500 Covid patients in the ICU was May 27, when the tally reached 1,501.   

Paris: The capital is faring worse that the rest of the country, with an incidence rate of 413.2 cases per 100,000 in the city versus a national average of 166, according to the Paris region health authority.

More than 40% of ICU beds in the Paris region are occupied by Covid patients, well above the 30% threshold used to decide when areas or cities should be placed in the “maximum alert” category. 

The Defense Council – a meeting of key ministers chaired by President Emmanuel Macron – is due to meet later Tuesday to discuss the next measures to be taken to slow the spread of the virus. 

Government ministers have reiterated that all measures should be considered while the circulation of the virus continues to increase, including curfews and localized lockdowns.

President Macron is expected to give a primetime television interview on Wednesday evening local time.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said a second wave of coronavirus was sweeping the country, describing it as a “national outbreak” in a tweet early on Tuesday.­

“We have confirmed a resurgence of #COVID19 cases. Although hospitals remain relatively empty and the pandemic is still relatively under control, the number of consecutive days with an increase in cases indicates that a national outbreak has begun,” Bukele said on Twitter.

Cases of Covid-19 in El Salvador reached a peak on August 9, when the country reported a record number of 449 new daily cases.

“Whether or not this resurgence turns into an upturn in the epidemiological curve will depend on our behavior and compliance with the protection measures (wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, washing of hands and isolating ourselves when symptoms are detected),” Bukele wrote.

As of Tuesday, El Salvador has recorded 30,480 cases of coronavirus and 899 virus-related deaths, according to official data. 

Russia reported 13,868 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday – another record-high daily increase, according to data from the country’s coronavirus response center.

Moscow is the worst affected city with 4,618 new cases – also a record-high daily increase.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Russia as of October 13 is 1,326,178.

Russian officials have previously indicated that growing numbers might “require additional action” from the government, but so far haven’t clarified whether they will reinstate measures similar to those imposed in the spring, when the country was officially reporting 10,000-12,000 cases a day.

Anna Popova, the head of Russia’s health and consumer rights agency Rospotrebnadzor, said Tuesday the regulator sees “no sense” in shutting down the economy.

“Despite the fact that we see growth figures, today in Russia we are not talking about shutting down the economy or hitting a pause on some activities or some enterprises, some sectors of the economy, because today we do not see any sense in this,” Popova said, according to state-run news agency RIA Novosti.  

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Friday that this week would be “crucial” in any decisions to impose stricter coronavirus restrictions.

“Social distance.” It’s a phrase that’s become a mantra of the pandemic. We see the signs everywhere telling us to stay six feet apart, emphasizing the need for physical separation. While this is an important message to help keep us all safe, the phrase has it all wrong. We don’t need to be socially distant. Physically apart, yes, but that social connection is exactly what we all need during this pandemic.

“It’s an extremely challenging time with mental distress,” Kevin Hines tells me. He has been an advocate for mental health for almost 20 years and knows how even a single moment of connection could change someone’s life.

On September 25, 2000, when Hines was 19 years old, he walked to the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and as he stared down into the water, he waited for someone, anyone to offer a kind word or even a friendly glance. That never happened. Hines jumped.

Hines says even though we may not be able to physically reach out, put our hand on someone’s shoulder, we can still offer those moments of support that could change the trajectory of someone’s life.

“We have got to think of the people in our lives that don’t have someone physically next to them to, to hold on to,” he said. “And we’ve got to be the people to make that phone call and make it on a regular basis.”

Here are ways Hines says we can all make sure we stay in this together:

How to get help: In the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide also can provide contact information for crisis centers around the world.

Read the full story:

Related article Physically, but not socially distant: How to reach out in the time of Covid

Like many travelers around the world, Jesse Takayama found his dream trip thwarted by the spread of Covid-19. But after an unexpected seven-month stay in Peru, he is finally crossing “visit Machu Picchu” off of his bucket list.

Takayama, a native of Osaka, Japan, arrived in the Peruvian town of Aguas Calientes on March 14. He already had his entry ticket and permit to enter the UNESCO World Heritage site on March 16.

Then, the Peruvian government opted to close the site – and Takayama was stranded.

Since then, Takayama has become a local in Aguas Calientes, where he has been renting an apartment for the past seven months. However, as he started to run out of money, it looked like Takayama would have to head back home without ever having used his Machu Picchu ticket.

Enter Andean Roots Peru, a local tour company. With help from the national Ministry of Culture, Takayama was given special permission to enter Machu Picchu – and to have the normally crowded site nearly all to himself. He was accompanied by two photographers who documented the experience.

In a celebratory Instagram post, Takayama wrote, “I thought I never make it (to Machu Picchu) but everyone asked the government and the town and they game me super special permission.” He added: “Peruvians are soooo kind. Thank you soooo much!”

“The Japanese citizen has entered together with our head of the park so that he can do this before returning to his country,” Peru’s Minister of Culture Alejandro Neyra told reporters.

While the world struggles to manage the initial waves of death and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is mounting evidence accumulating that “a second wave” linked to rising rates of mental health and substance use disorders could be building, according to an article published Monday in the medical journal JAMA.

“A second wave of devastation is imminent, attributable to mental health consequences of Covid-19,” wrote authors Dr. Naomi Simon, Dr. Glenn Saxe and Dr. Charles Marmar, all from New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.

“The magnitude of this second wave is likely to overwhelm the already frayed mental health system, leading to access problems, particularly for the most vulnerable persons.”

This second mental health wave, the researchers suggested, will bring further challenges, such as increased deaths from suicide and drug overdoses, and will have a disproportionate effect on the same groups that the first wave did: Black and Hispanic people, older adults, lower socioeconomic groups and health care workers.

Of central concern, the authors wrote, is “the transformation of normal grief and distress into prolonged grief and major depressive disorder and symptoms of posttraumatic health disorder.”

Read the full story:

Related article A 'second wave' of mental health devastation due to Covid-19 is imminent, experts say

The UK government is accused of ignoring its own scientists, who three weeks ago suggested considering a so-called “circuit-breaker,” a short lockdown to bring coronavirus incidence levels down.

The governmental advisory body SAGE group – the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies – said in a document on September 21 that “a package of interventions will need to be adopted to prevent this exponential rise in cases.”

The group also warned that other measures would be required if schools stayed open.

Its recommended actions included the circuit-breaker lockdown, widespread work-from-home practices, and the closure of bars, restaurants, gyms and other personal services.

This document wasn’t published until after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson laid out new coronavirus regulations in parliament on Monday.

South Korea is introducing a new policy requiring the wearing of face masks at all crowded facilities, on public transport and at demonstrations, even as the number of local infections shrinks.

The East Asian nation is only the latest in the region to introduce a mask mandate, a sign of how vital face coverings have been found to be in controlling infections and preventing future outbreaks. And many in Asia watched in shock as Western governments did not encourage mask wearing and in some cases did the opposite.

Initially, the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) downplayed the value of mask wearing, in an apparent attempt to conserve supplies for medical workers. The US Surgeon General Jerome Adams even tweeted in late February – in all caps – “STOP BUYING MASKS!”

The CDC only issued clear guidance on the effectiveness of face coverings in July, months after the pandemic struck the US.

The initial confusion over masks in much of the West helped prevent mass adoption to the extent that even now, face coverings are still used inconsistently in many countries. The supposed “debate” over the effectiveness of masks, which did not reflect the largely settled science on the matter, also created space for conspiracies and disinformation, with covering one’s face becoming an issue of freedom for some people.

In the US, the country worst hit by the pandemic, masks are especially contentious. At a large rally held by President Donald Trump in Florida Monday, few could be seen wearing masks, as is the norm at most of his events. Observers have warned that a planned tour by the US leader, who is only just recovering from his own bout of coronavirus, could well turn into a series of “super spreader” events.

Read the full analysis:

People wearing face masks cross a road in Seoul on September 11, 2020. - South Korea largely overcame an early COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak with extensive tracing and testing, but is now battling several outbreaks. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP) (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Analysis: South Korea mandates mask-wearing as face coverings remain controversial in West

Germany has reported 24,584 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days – the highest weekly count since April, according to the country’s center for disease control, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Tuesday alone saw 4,122 new infections.

To put it into perspective, Germany reported 16,283 new cases the previous week.

This past week, the country’s infection rate reached 29.5 cases per 100,000 residents. There are currently 35 regions in Germany that exceed the threshold of 50 new infections per 100,000 residents within seven days. 

The country’s total now stands at 329,453 cases and 9,634 related deaths. More than 279,000 people have recovered, and 40,495 patients remain active cases, the RKI said.

Government response: German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to meet with the country’s 16 state premiers on Wednesday to discuss and unveil new coronavirus measures.

Germany’s armed forces also said in a tweet on Monday that 1,400 soldiers per day have now been deployed to support municipalities and districts in coronavirus contract tracing.

The United States reported 41,653 new Covid-19 infections and 317 virus-related fatalities on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

That raises the country’s total to at least 7,804,197 cases and 215,085 deaths. 

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

See our live tracker of US cases:

Eric Trump, son of President Donald Trump, is not a doctor. Or an infectious disease expert, And it shows.

Here’s Eric Trump discussing his father’s recovery from Covid-19 during an appearance on ABCs “This Week” on Sunday with host Jonathan Karl (bolding is mine):

Eric Trump: “Yes. Listen, that first day he got hit hard, first day Friday. And I can tell you as son, it’s never fun watching your father fly off to Walter Reed on Marine One, right? I mean, that’s something that – it’s a day that no son wants to, again, remember. It’s – that’s no fun to watch.

“But I’m telling you I spoke to him three times that next Saturday. The guy sounded 100%. It was amazing. It actually probably goes to speak to how good some of these vaccines that are being created are and what my father’s done on the vaccine front, no one could have done. No one could have done.

“I mean, literally, Biden was calling my father xenophobic for shutting down America from travel to China – I mean, and the virus came from China. My father, literally, started day one creating this vaccine. He worked to push this vaccine. And now my father just took it. And you see how well he got over it –

Jonathan Karl: Wait, wait. Can you –

Trump: – an inspiration. I think – as Americans, Jon, we should be very proud of that.

Karl: Can you clarify that? You said your father just took a vaccine?

Trump: Meaning when he was in Walter Reed, the medicines that he was taking.

Karl: The therapeutics?

Trump: – he felt horrible. And on Saturday – again, I spoke to the man three times on Saturday and he sounded tremendous. And I think it goes to show the power of medicine in this country and how far that we’ve come on Covid in the last six, seven months.

Holy cow! There’s a vaccine for Covid-19? This is great news!

Or, well, no. See, either Eric Trump let the biggest cat out of the bag ever – that the President was given a “vaccine” for Covid-19 – or he is simply confused about the difference between medicines designed to help mitigate the course of the virus and an actual vaccine.

(HINT: It’s the latter.)

Read the full analysis:

US businessman and son of the US president Eric Trump attends a French-US ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, northwestern France, on June 6, 2019, as part of D-Day commemorations marking the 75th anniversary of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy.

Related article Analysis: Eric Trump may not get the whole Covid-19 vaccine thing

Fans attended a Major League Baseball (MLB) game on Monday night for the first time since March, when the league shut down spring training due to the pandemic.

It was previously announced that MLB would make approximately 11,500 tickets available for each game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, the site for the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and the World Series.

And the fans came on Monday, for the start of the NLCS between the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers – making this the first 2020 playoff game with fans in the stands. No fans were allowed during the 2020 regular season. 

They were treated to a good game: The teams were tied at 1-1 in the top of the ninth inning when Austin Riley, on a 1-2 pitch, blasted a solo home run 448 feet to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. Atlanta would go on to win 5-1.

“We haven’t heard anything other than fake crowd noise,” Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman said to reporters after the game.

“This was much needed. It was great. 11,000 people, it really felt like 50,000 people to us because we haven’t had any all year. It was just great to hear cheering for both sides of the teams. It’s just great to have baseball fans in the stands again. Hopefully they were very happy for the first game of the 2020 season and hopefully they come out tomorrow and get another good show.”

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be Tuesday.

Donald Trump on Monday launched a three-week quest to save his presidency, behaving as though the pandemic that has killed 215,000 Americans was already a memory in front of a packed-in crowd – even amid chilling new warnings about the resurgent virus.

In his first rally since his own bout with Covid-19, Trump painted a deeply dishonest picture of the nation’s battle with the disease, mocked Joe Biden over social distancing and vowed victory on November 3 as he began a frantic push to Election Day, marked by multiple rallies a day that could act as superspreader events.

“I feel so powerful, I’ll walk into that audience. I’ll walk in there, I’ll kiss everyone in that audience,” Trump said in Sanford, Florida, showing his illness did not teach him to respect his own government’s pandemic guidelines. “I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women and the – everybody. I’ll just give everybody a big, fat kiss.”

While some supporters at the rally wore masks behind Trump in the camera shot, many people in the big, outdoor crowd did not.

Medical experts expressed despair at Trump’s decision to gather huge crowds during a worsening pandemic, ahead of a swing that Trump aides said Monday would involve multiple rallies each day in the coming weeks.

“I promise you, the virus is there, whether it is an indoor event or an outdoor event in these large gatherings,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of health policy and preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University. “Some of those people will become sick, they will spread it to others when they get home and they will become sick. These are accelerator events that promote the distribution of the virus.”

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Just three weeks out from Election Day, the Covid-19 pandemic is making its feared fall comeback across the US – and influenza season has not even kicked in yet.

Health officials have worried the virus would take hold again as Americans returned to school and as pandemic fatigue encouraged cities, counties and states to loosen restrictions.

Now it’s happening – and the West, Midwest, and South in particular have seen numbers going in the wrong direction. 

Denver is reporting an “alarming” increase in coronavirus cases; Montana has counted as many cases in 11 days as it reported in the first five months of the pandemic; North Dakota has broken hospitalization records for three days in a row and Arkansas has broken them for five days straight; Wisconsin consistently reports one of the country’s highest weekly average positivity rates; and Georgia has averaged more than 1,000 new cases per day – every single day – for 114 days.

But the city is paying for it, he said. “During the week of October 3, our seven-day average of hospitalizations was at 126. Today, just a week later, the average is 174 – a 37% increase. We are at a fork in the road.”

South Korea reported 102 new Covid-19 cases and one new death in the past 24 hours, authorities said on Tuesday, after the country announced the easing of social distancing measures.

Of the new cases, 69 are locally transmitted and 33 are imported, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

The new figures raise the country’s total to 24,805 confirmed cases and 434 virus-related deaths.

This is the first time South Korea reported more than 100 new cases in six days and since easing its social distancing measures on Monday.

On Monday, Health Minister Park Neung-hoo announced social distancing restrictions would be eased to Level 1, the lowest level.

While the Asia-Pacific region treads water until a coronavirus vaccine is found, the West’s biggest economies are drowning as a second wave firmly establishes itself in Europe.

Europe is now reporting more daily infections than the United States, Brazil, or India – the countries that have been driving the global case count for months – as public apathy grows towards coronavirus guidelines. Several countries are seeing infection rates spiral again after a summer lull that saw measures to contain the virus and travel restrictions relaxed.

In the United Kingdom, for example, questions are being asked about whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to lift the country’s lockdown in June was premature. Northern England’s current high rates of Covid-19 are down to the fact that infections “never dropped as far in the summer as they did in the south,” Jonathan Van-Tam, Britain’s deputy chief medical officer, told a press conference on Monday.

It is just the latest problem to beset Britain’s slapdash pandemic response. There are now more patients in hospital with Covid-19 in England than there were in March, when a nationwide lockdown was imposed, according to Johnson and health officials.

France and the Netherlands broke their own records over the weekend, reporting the highest numbers of confirmed Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic.

In the US, there were more new positive cases in the White House on October 2 than in the whole of Taiwan, after President Donald Trump became the second G7 leader (after Johnson) to test positive for Covid-19. Despite his illness, Trump has continued to downplay the severity of the virus and potentially endanger the health of those around him, holding a campaign rally on Monday.

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Mandatory Credit: Photo by Top Photo Corporation/Shutterstock (10739563a) Eric Chou performs in concert and invited Ella to be his special guest. Eric Chou in concert, Taipei, Taiwan, China - 09 Aug 2020

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The city of Qingdao in eastern China has tested more than 3.07 million people for Covid-19 since the weekend, when 12 locally transmitted cases were reported, according to the city’s information office.

No new cases have been identified by the citywide testing program from the more than 1.1 million samples already returned, the information office said in its statement on Tuesday.

Containing an outbreak: The 12 cases – split evenly between symptomatic and asymptomatic cases – were all linked to the Qingdao Chest Hospital, which had been treating imported infections. The cluster prompted a mass testing program of the city’s 9 million residents, which began on Monday.

Some 130 testing stations have been set up in Shinan district, the city’s center of political and business activity.

Authorities said the specific source of infection is still under investigation.

Read more about the situation in Qingdao:

China's immigration inspection officers wearing protective suits look at a cargo ship at a port in Qingdao in China's eastern Shandong province on March 31, 2020. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

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Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson said Monday it was pausing the advanced clinical trial of its experimental coronavirus vaccine because of an unexplained illness in one of the volunteers.

“Following our guidelines, the participant’s illness is being reviewed and evaluated by the ENSEMBLE independent Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) as well as our internal clinical and safety physicians,” the company said in a statement.

ENSEMBLE is the name of the study.

“Adverse events – illnesses, accidents, etc. – even those that are serious, are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies,” said the statement.

It’s the second Phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial to be paused. AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial was paused last month because of an a neurological complication in a volunteer in the UK. While the trial resumed there and in other countries, it remains paused in the United States while the US Food and Drug Administration investigates.

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White House physician Sean Conley said Monday President Donald Trump has tested negative for Covid-19 on consecutive days, as the President heads to a crowded campaign rally in Florida.

“In response to your inquiry regarding the President’s most recent COVID-19 tests, I can share with you that he has tested NEGATIVE, on consecutive days, using the Abbott BinaxNOW antigen card,” Conley wrote, noting that those tests were taken “in context with additional clinical and laboratory data.”

That additional data, Conley said, included “viral load, subgenomic RNA and PCR cycle threshold measurements, as well as ongoing assessment of viral culture data.”

PCR suggests a polymerase chain reaction test, which looks for any evidence of the virus, although Conley did not say clearly what type of test was run.

It is also unclear on which consecutive days Trump tested negative – and the Abbott BinaxNOW test might not be completely accurate. It’s only been validated in people within the first seven days of symptom onset. Trump, who first announced he tested positive on Thursday, October 1, is more than 10 days out, and the US Food and Drug Administration has said it does not know how accurate the test is at that point.

The White House still has not revealed the last time Trump tested negative prior to his positive diagnosis, offering varying justifications for withholding that information.

Trump is “not infectious to others,” Conley added.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that the Trump campaign should take down the political advertisement that he’s featured in, calling his presence in the spot “really unfortunate and really disappointing.”

Fauci’s latest comments come one day after he told CNN he did not consent to being featured in the Trump team’s new advertisement and that his words were taken out of context.

“It’s so clear that I’m not a political person,” the nation’s leading infectious disease expert told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.”
“And I have never – either directly or indirectly – endorsed a political candidate. And to take a completely out of context statement and put it in which is obviously a political campaign ad, I thought was really very disappointing.”

The Trump campaign released the new ad last week after the President was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center following treatment for Covid-19. The 30-second ad, which is airing in Michigan, touts Trump’s personal experience with the virus and uses a quote from Fauci in an attempt to make it appear as if he is praising Trump’s response.

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During the coronavirus pandemic so far, there were 20% more deaths than would normally be expected from March 1 through August 1 in the United States – with Covid-19 officially accounting for about two-thirds of them, according to new research published Monday in the medical journal JAMA.

“Although total US death counts are remarkably consistent from year to year, US deaths increased by 20% during March-July 2020,” according to the research, authored by Dr. Steven Woolf and colleagues at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and the Yale School of Public Health.
“Covid-19 was a documented cause of only 67% of these excess deaths,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers analyzed death data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the US Census Bureau. Overall, there were 1,336,561 deaths in the United States between March 1 and August 1, 2020, the study found – marking a 20% increase compared with what would normally be expected.

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This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow)—also known as 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19—isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. Credit: NIAID-RML

Related article US sees 20% more deaths than expected this year, most due to Covid-19, research finds