December 28 coronavirus news

France’s health minister says he cannot rule out the possibility of a third national lockdown.

"We never rule out measures that might be necessary to protect populations," Olivier Véran told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday. 

"This does not mean that we have decided, but that we are observing the situation hour by hour," he added. 

While the French government had previously announced its aim to reduce the daily increase in new coronavirus cases to 5,000, this goal has yet to be achieved. 8,822 new coronavirus cases were recorded Sunday. 

"The target of 5,000 [daily cases] is moving away," Véran said.

"We will be attentive to what we will observe in the next few days," he added. 

President Donald Trump reversed course on Sunday, signing into law a massive $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill that he had objected to at the last minute.

That signature does two important things for the US economy: It averts a government shutdown that was set to begin on Tuesday, and extends billions of dollars in coronavirus aid to struggling Americans.

However, because Trump did not sign the bill on Saturday, those in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs will likely not receive a payment for the final week of the year. Their payments could also be delayed several weeks while state agencies reprogram their computers.

Additionally, the $300 federal enhancement may only last 10 weeks instead of 11 weeks for most folks. That's because states can't provide benefits for weeks that start before programs are authorized, but the legislation calls for the extra payments to end on March 14.

Some background: The Covid-19 relief legislation was passed by Congress last Monday and was flown to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to await Trump's signature. But after sitting on the sidelines during the negotiations, Trump emerged with an eleventh-hour complaint that a separate provision in the deal, which the President's own White House helped broker, would only provide up to $600 in direct payments.

Trump wanted to send out $2,000 checks. 

Trump signaled in a statement Sunday night that he signed the coronavirus relief bill only after securing a commitment for the Senate to consider legislation to increase stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, however, did not reference that commitment in his own statement Sunday night praising the President for signing the relief bill.

Southwest Airlines said the just-signed stimulus bill will allow it to avoid employee furloughs – which would have been a first in the company’s approximately 50-year history.    

CEO Gary Kelly wrote in memo to employees on Sunday that the law extending the Payroll Support Program, known as PSP, "means we can stop the movement towards furloughs and pay cuts that we previously announced."  

A copy of the memo was obtained by CNN.

Southwest was planning on furloughing 6,828 employees in the spring, which would have been a first in the company’s 50-year history. The airline had offered the unions representing its employee groups a choice: either take a pay cut to preserve jobs, or furloughs. 

The law means "we can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that we will not be forced to follow through with those steps that are so foreign to all of us," Kelly wrote.

The new stimulus gives airlines another $16 billion for worker payroll support and bars any new furloughs until March 31, 2021.  

American Airlines also said prior to the bill’s passage that if it did become law, American would bring back all furloughed employees.

Phase 3 clinical trials of the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine are set to start in the United States and Mexico, the company announced on Monday. 

The trial for the vaccine candidate, known as NVX-CoV2373, will evaluate safety, efficacy and immune response in up to 30,000 people age 18 and older. It builds on Phase 1 and 2 studies that demonstrated the vaccine provoked an immune response and appeared to be safe.

The trial is examining whether the vaccine prevents moderate Covid-19 symptoms, as well as severe Covid-19 symptoms. 

Two-thirds of participants will be assigned to randomly receive two injections of vaccine administered 21 days apart, the remaining one-third will receive a placebo. The trials sites are in locations that currently have high transmission rates "to accelerate the accumulation of positive cases that could show efficacy," a statement said.

Novavax says it aims for at least 25% of the study population to be age 65 or older, at least 15% to be Black, at least 10 to 20% Latinx and 1-2% American Indian.

The trial is being funded with up to $1.6 billion from Operation Warp Speed.

Some background: Novavax is also currently conducting a Phase 3 clinical study in the United Kingdom, a Phase 2b trial in South Africa and a Phase 1/2 continuation in the US and Australia, data from which are expected as soon as early first quarter 2021. 

Two coronavirus vaccines, those made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, have received emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration. Two more vaccines, those from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, are in Phase 3 trials in the United States.

Watch Dr. Carlos Del Rio:

President Trump signed the massive $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill into law last night, averting a government shutdown that was set to begin on Tuesday, and extending billions of dollars in coronavirus aid to millions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had seized on Trump's call for $2,000 checks last week and brought to the floor a standalone bill that would have boosted the amount for relief checks on Thursday. House Republicans, however, objected to the bill over deficit concerns.

The Democratic-led House is set to vote on the expansion of the direct payments today.

Here are key things to know about the bill and what happens next:

Some more context: The Covid-19 relief legislation was passed by Congress last Monday and was flown to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to await Trump's signature. But after sitting on the sidelines during the negotiations, Trump emerged with an eleventh-hour complaint that a separate provision in the deal, which the President's own White House helped broker, would only provide up to $600 in direct payments.

Trump wanted to send out $2,000 checks. 

Read more here.

The Transportation Security Administration said it screened a record number of people at US airports nationwide on Sunday, breaking a pandemic air travel record set only last Wednesday. 

At least 1,284,599 people passed through security checkpoints Sunday, the TSA said. That is the highest level air travel has reached since March 15th. 

The new figure is about one half of the number of fliers from the same day a year ago.

That is a sign that some people are staying home, but not as many as health experts and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would like. Earlier this month, the CDC urged Americans to stay home to avoid spreading coronavirus. 

Air travel has spiked, according to the TSA, with US air travel numbers hitting more than a million passengers for six of the past ten days. 

Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services said on Good Morning America that when it comes to the number of Covid vaccines that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported being administered, “the two million number is probably an underestimate.”

On Saturday, the CDC Covid Data Tracker said that 9,547,925 vaccine doses had been distributed and 1,944,585 had been administered.

Giroir said that 10.8 million doses have been distributed to the states, “that two million number is delayed three to seven days, so we certainly expect that to be a multiple of two million.”

Giroir said that another four point seven million doses would be distributed this week, so by the end of the week there would be over 15 and a half million doses “in the hands of the states.”

There will be another allocation Tuesday, he said, saying “that’s the rhythm,” with states being told what they will get the following week.

The delivery of hundreds of thousands of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to countries in the European Union has been delayed due to a “minor logistical issue,” Pfizer told CNN on Monday.

“We have rescheduled a limited number of our deliveries. The logistical matter has been resolved and those deliveries are now being dispatched,” Pfizer said in a statement.

“There are no manufacturing issues to report,” the US pharmaceutical giant added.

Vaccination deliveries delayed: Spain’s Health Ministry has said it had expected to receive a further 350,000 vaccine doses on Monday after launching its vaccination campaign the day before, but confirmed that the delivery has since been delayed due to a problem encountered “in the loading and shipping process.”

“The next delivery of vaccines will be delayed a few hours and will arrive in Spain on Tuesday, December 29, for the continuation of vaccinations throughout the national territory,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Transporting the newly-developed Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has proven to be a major logistical challenge, as the vaccine has to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius, or -94 degrees Fahrenheit, while in transit.

Beijing is cutting down its New Year's Eve events after the city reported local coronavirus infections over the weekend.

The Chinese capital's Happy Valley amusement park announced it will close at 5:30 pm beginning Monday and cancel its planned New Year's Eve concert and celebrations, an announcement from the amusement park read.

Another major New Year's event from Beijing's China Central Television Tower is also canceled, according to a CCTV Light Show announcement on its official WeChat account.

The tower's light show usually runs from December 31 to January 3 but all four days will be canceled this year out of precaution due to the Covid-19 pandemic, CCTV said.

The cancellations come after two locally transmitted Covid-19 cases were reported in Beijing's Shunyi district Friday. The city has collected 838,270 samples as of Sunday afternoon in its latest round of mass testing, Beijing's Center for Disease Control and Prevention said. Of the samples collected, close to 390,000 testing results have returned, and five people who are identified as close contacts of the initial two cases have returned positive results for the virus.

On Sunday, Beijing officials discouraged people from attending temple fairs and gatherings for the New Year and Spring Festival holidays, adding that holding major events will need to go through a strict application and review process.

Officials also discouraged travel agencies and online travel companies from organizing group tours to Beijing during the holiday season.

Parks and tourist attractions are required to operate at 75% capacity during the two holidays.