November 18 coronavirus news

The novel coronavirus appears to have been introduced to Danish mink farms by a single infected person, but once it got into the densely packed animals it spread fast, Danish researchers reported Wednesday.

The virus doesn’t make the animals very sick but can circulate well among them and they can then pass it back to people, the researchers said.

Silent spread: Hammer's team tested mink and people at three Danish mink farms, as well as the air around the cages and the minks' feed. They found 95% of the mink at one farm were infected, 66% of the mink at the second farm were infected and 3% of the mink at the third farm were. 

“The infections we describe here occurred with little clinical disease or increase in death, making it difficult to detect the spread of infection; thus, mink farms could represent a serious, unrecognized animal reservoir for SARS-CoV-2,” they wrote.

“There is no evidence for spread of the virus outside of farm buildings, either in Denmark or in the Netherlands except by infected persons. However, there appears to be some risk of virus transmission to persons working with infected mink as well as for their contacts and thus, indirectly, for the public.” 

Coronavirus outbreaks on mink farms have caused an uproar in Denmark, where farming the animals for their fur is big business. The government ordered a cull of all 15 million mink on 1,500 farms, then rolled back the order.

West Virginia on Wednesday reported its highest number of hospitalizations and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission rates since the pandemic began, the state's health department dashboard shows.

There were 429 coronavirus patients hospitalized in the state as of Tuesday, including 126 in ICU wards.

The state reported 953 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing its total to 36,277. It also reported 14 new coronavirus-related fatalities, bringing the death toll to 612.

Currently, the state has 11,172 active cases, accounting for 31% of the total caseload. Over the past seven days, 6,097 cases have been reported, according to the health department.

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

A coronavirus test is not a “free pass” this Thanksgiving, Adm. Brett Giroir, the White House's coronavirus testing czar, said Wednesday.

Giroir offered some practical advice for those who do decide to gather this Thanksgiving.

“Try to keep the gatherings within your household or a couple of households that adhere to the rules. Try to have good ventilation,” he said. “Yes, you may need to mask indoors. That's very, very important.” 

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the country is on "maximum alert" as it reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases in a single day since the pandemic began.

The country's Health Ministry recorded 2,191 new coronavirus cases and nine new deaths for Wednesday.

Suga asked the public to wear masks, even at the dinner table, and to abide by prevention measures. He also told ministers to increase testing in high-risk facilities.

Tokyo recorded 493 new cases for Wednesday, the highest since the last peak of 472 cases on Aug. 27. Japan's capital city has now reported a total of 35,723 cases.

Japan's total caseload stands at 123,578, with 1,935 deaths.

The United States may see a “graded rollout” of vaccines in the coming months, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the USA Today editorial board Wednesday.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which both require two doses, “will be going into people sometime towards the end of December 2020 and into January 2021,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

He said people can expect to have “good degree of immunity” about one week after receiving the second dose.

Fauci said that potentially by late January or February, “some of the other candidates will be available, like the Janssen one or the AstraZeneca one.” The Sanofi and Novavax vaccine candidates may be available “a couple months later,” he added.

Inmate transfers at the largest prison in Alaska are suspended as the facility has a rapidly increasing outbreak of Covid-19.

There are 204 confirmed coronavirus cases at the Goose Creek Correctional Center in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, as of Wednesday evening. The prison has capacity for 1,535 inmates.

Staff at Goose Creek are now required to wear surgical quality face masks rather than cloth masks, according to Gallagher.

“Additionally, DOC continues to test and quarantine all newly remanded inmates, screen all staff prior to every shift, provide face coverings to offenders and staff, maintain a heightened level of cleaning, and treat each housing unit as a family in order to keep inmates ‘bubble’ as small as possible,” she said.

Los Angeles County health officials are warning of steep increases in Covid-19 case counts and hospitalizations, and are making plans for even tighter restrictions should the area fail at once again reining in the virus.

Hospitalizations are projected to exceed capacity “without a rapid change in behavior," she said.

By the numbers: The seven-day case average has doubled in Los Angeles since the beginning of November, according to county supervisor Kathryn Barger, and hospitalizations are following closely behind. The county added 3,944 new cases Wednesday for a total of 348,336.

To mitigate the spread, the county’s public health order has been strengthened, requiring all nonessential businesses to shut down between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time beginning Friday.

“This is not a curfew or a lockdown, but a precautionary measure,” Barger said.

There have been at least 250,029 reported deaths from Covid-19 in the US since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

There have been at least 11,485,176 total coronavirus cases in the US, university data showed.

Johns Hopkins recorded the first death from Covid-19 on Feb. 29 in Washington state. Two earlier deaths in California were posthumously confirmed to be from Covid-19 later in the spring.

The US military reported a record high number of Covid-19 cases in one day, with 1,314 new cases on Tuesday, according to a US defense official familiar with the latest statistics from the Defense Department.

There are currently about 25,000 cases in the ranks and another 44,390 service members have recovered from coronavirus, according to the Pentagon. The increase in military cases has been taking place over the last few weeks as cases have also increased in the general population.

A US defense official told CNN that the US military has a positivity rate of 6.8%, compared to a 9.98% positivity rate in the civilian population. The military has claimed since the beginning of the pandemic that it can maintain a lower positivity rate because the military has a younger, healthier population without the co-morbidities. It also can mandate restrictions in a way the civilian world can’t.  

Some context: This comes as several military bases across the country have had to once again tighten health measures to protect the force and military families.

In the Air Force, since Nov. 10, some 10 installations have instituted stronger measures known as Health Protection Condition Level Charlie just one step below the most stringent level.

While commanders can make detailed decisions about their bases, under this Charlie measure, schools, daycare and community activities may be canceled, there will be travel restrictions and more personnel may be ordered to work from home. In addition, family activities may be restricted to homes for a prolonged period of time. 

The impact is being felt at installations across the country and around the world.