September 14 coronavirus news

In the US, the term "rage mom" has been used to describe fed-up mothers who are demanding change after months of juggling their roles as teachers, employees, caregivers, and parents with limited support during the pandemic.

And while it's not a movement, the sentiment is also felt in the United Kingdom, one of the countries worst hit by coronavirus.

British "rage mums" say they, like their sisters across the Atlantic, are mobilizing to hold their government to account and make their voices heard.

Watch:

Not everyone in China will need to get vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the country's top medical official, as Beijing looks to prioritize frontline workers and high-risk populations in a move that underscores rising confidence among policy-makers of their ability to contain the virus.

The question of vaccinating the public was one of balancing "risks and benefits," he added, pointing to factors like cost and potential side effects. There isn't currently a need for mass vaccination at this stage -- though that could change if another serious outbreak takes place, Gao said.

The policy marks China apart from many Western governments, most notably Australia, that have outlined plans to introduce mass public vaccination drives.

Outbreak under control: China's reported virus numbers have stayed low since the spring. There have been a few flare-ups -- clusters in the northeastern Jilin province in May, an outbreak in Beijing in June, and another in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi in July -- but these were met with immediate lockdown measures and mass testing, and the outbreaks were contained within a few weeks.

Gao cited these brief outbreaks as evidence of China's effective containment measures. "The facts have proven that we have several magic weapons to respond to the epidemic," he said, according to China News Service.

Any potential vaccine would instead be prioritized for those on the front lines, he added: medical workers, Chinese nationals working overseas in virus hostpots, and people working in dense, high-risk environments like restaurants, schools or cleaning services.

Read the full story:

RELATED

China says no need to vaccinate entire population against Covid-19 at this stage, only frontline workers

The United States reported 34,450 new Covid-19 infections and 378 virus-related deaths on Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

At least 6,520,235 cases, including 194,081 fatalities, have now been recorded in the US.

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

CNN is tracking US cases here:

RELATED

Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

Cathay Pacific Group, the owner of Hong Kong's flagship airline, says it's losing hundreds of millions of dollars a month as the coronavirus pandemic continues to pummel global demand for travel.

The company said Monday that its two main carriers -- Cathay Pacific and regional sister airline Cathay Dragon -- only carried about 36,000 passengers altogether last month, plunging 98.8% compared to the same time a year ago.

While the company has continuously taken steps to cut costs, it is still "burning cash" at a rate of 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars ($194 million) to 2 billion Hong Kong dollars ($258 million) per month, according to chief customer and commercial officer Ronald Lam.

Cathay was bailed out by Hong Kong's government in June. That helped give the company "time and a platform from which to transform our business and continue to operate in the short term," said Lam. "However, it is an investment that we need to repay."

The company expects a long road back to recovery. Lam noted that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently pushed back its global forecast for an industry rebound "by a year to 2024, demonstrating just how slow a return to pre-pandemic levels will be."

France’s daily coronavirus infections dipped slightly on Sunday, a day after the country recorded more than 10,000 new cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Health authorities said Sunday’s total number of new Covid-19 cases was 7,183, down from Saturday’s high of 10,561.

No lockdown: A nationwide lockdown is not in the French government's "mindset" despite the "clear deterioration" of the coronavirus situation in the country, Prime Minister Jean Castex said during a televised address on Friday.

The Prime Minister said a national lockdown should be avoided and gave power to local authorities to impose restrictions, instead of the central government. 

US President Donald Trump offered a glaring new example of his refusal to put medical science before politics with a large indoor rally Sunday night that made a mockery of social distancing, while the pandemic he mismanaged has now claimed more than 194,000 American lives.

The event in Nevada -- his second rally in the state in as many days -- did not only risk the health of those present, thousands of whom were packed together inside a manufacturing facility in defiance of the state's ban on local gatherings of 50 people or more. It also has the potential to turn into a super spreader event that could seed Covid-19 outbreaks in the wider community.

Trump hadn't held an indoor rally in nearly three months, since his last one, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after which the city saw a surge in cases and multiple campaign staffers along with Secret Service agents tested positive for the virus.

The jarring scenes of the indoor event clashed with footage from the first weekend of NFL games that went ahead in cavernous empty stadiums, reflecting how almost alone the President, who might be expected to set an example, is responsible for the most dangerous breaches of his own government's coronavirus recommendations.

Rare precautions: CNN's Brian Stelter reported that major television networks, including CNN, decided not to send their crews and correspondents into the rally for their own safety. It's not unusual for media companies to take steps to shield their employees in war zones abroad, but such precautions are exceedingly rare on home soil.

Read the full analysis:

RELATED

Analysis: Trump ignores science at dangerous indoor rally

Japan recorded 441 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, bringing its total caseload to 76,369, the Japanese Health Ministry announced Monday.

The country also reported three new deaths on Sunday, with its total death toll now at 1,455.

In the capital Tokyo, the total number of infections has surpassed 23,000, with 146 new cases confirmed Sunday, according to the Tokyo metropolitan government.

Easing restrictions: Japan has been grappling with a second wave of infections since July, with more than 1,000 cases recorded daily during its peak in August. But the daily infections have been decreasing in recent weeks, and authorities are planning to ease restrictions.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike plans to end the 10 p.m. closure request on Tuesday for bars and restaurants that serve alcohol in central Tokyo.

The Japanese government has decided to ease the attendance restrictions for events including professional sports games. From September 19, the current restriction limiting the number of attendees in stadiums and large-scale facilities to 5,000 will be scrapped.

South Korea is planning to stockpile 4 million sets of additional personal protective equipment by December to prepare for a large scale spread of the coronavirus, according to its Ministry of Health.

The government also plans to secure additional ECMO machines -- a specialized heart-lung bypass machine used when the lungs cannot function themselves -- and ventilators, Health Ministry official Yoon Tae-ho said in a briefing Monday.

New cases: South Korea recorded 109 Covid-19 infections on Sunday, of which 98 were locally transmitted. Some 81 of the local cases were found in the Seoul metropolitan area, according to data from the ministry. Five new deaths were also reported on Sunday.

The country's total caseload stands at 22,285, including 363 deaths.

The race for a coronavirus vaccine shows no signs of slowing as more companies move their vaccine candidates through clinical trials, growing closer to determining which will be considered safe and effective. 

One such candidate is in development by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which announced along with its German partner BioNTech on Saturday they proposed expanding Phase 3 clinical trials to include 44,000 participants and more diverse patient populations, including people as young as 16. 

That's up from the initial plan of 30,000 participants, a benchmark they plan to meet next week, according to a news release. 

Diversity matters: The proposal, which would need approval by the Food and Drug Administration, would allow the companies to collect more data on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine candidate while diversifying the pool of participants.

Read the full story:

RELATED

Pfizer proposes expanding Covid-19 vaccine trial to include more diversity as race for a vaccine continues