October 15 coronavirus news

London will be moved from medium coronavirus alert level Tier 1 to high coronavirus alert level Tier 2, the UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced Thursday,

He urged London residents to support government efforts to suppress the spread of the virus.  

“We know from the first peak that the infection can spread fast and put huge pressures on the NHS, so we must act now to prevent the need for tougher measures later on,” he added.  

According to the Health Secretary, tougher restrictive measures for all areas placed under Tier 2 will come into force at one minute past midnight Saturday local time (that's 7:01 p.m. ET.)  

London residents will no longer be able to meet with other households in any indoor setting, including at home or in restaurants, and the "rule of six" will still apply for all outdoor venues.   

“To Londoners and all who work in our great capital, I want to say thank you for what you have done to suppress the virus once.  We now all need to play our part in getting the virus under control once again, and I know the sacrifices that this will mean,” Hancock said.  

Earlier on Thursday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that the capital has reached a “critical moment” in its fight against the pandemic, warning that the virus is spreading rapidly “in every corner” of the city.  

CNN reports from London and Bordeaux, France: 

Covid-19 cases are surging in Wisconsin, and “it’s going to get worse,” says Dr. Paul Casey, medical director of the emergency department at a hospital in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Over the course of three weeks, there has been “an alarming spike” in patients with Covid-19 who need admission to the hospital, he reported. 

“What that has done is placed entire wards full of Covid patients on top of all the other patients we have to take care of. Under normal circumstances, hospital capacity is typically 70% to 80%. So you throw on top of that an entire ward of patients with Covid-19, it stretches us to the limit,” he said.

Wisconsin’s seven-day moving average of daily positive cases is 21.8%.

Given his own prediction of the coronavirus crisis worsening in his community, he is anticipating a reduction in non-emergency services.

“We have not yet eliminated needed but non-emergency surgery. So, for example, if you need a hip replacement, that's not an emergency, but you need it. Those kind of surgeries will have to be delayed until the pandemic is over. We have not gotten there yet, but we're very, very close.”

Casey also warned that while they're currently able to take care of all patients that come in, if this surge continues, the system is soon going to be overwhelmed.

Watch more:

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist and dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, says he is “very worried” as coronavirus cases continue to rise in the United States.

“We are now about to exceed 60,000 new cases a day, so we are looking at a doubling of new cases a day over just the last few weeks. This is a very ominous sign. I think we are in for a pretty bad fall and winter,” Hotez said in an interview on CNN.

Hotez decried the continued lack of a national plan for the pandemic, and encouraged people to start planning themselves for the winter. He also said people should have a network of family, friends or mental health providers to be able to talk to.

“This is a normal reaction to a very tough situation and especially since we're being largely abandoned by the federal government,” he said. 

Hotez added that the US will very likely be in a much better situation by this time next year, but “it’s a matter of getting through these next few months.” 

Watch more:

Peru’s Machu Picchu will gradually reopen starting on Saturday, Cusco’s regional governor Jean Paul Benavente announced on Thursday, according to state news agency Andina.

The Inca ruins have been closed for seven months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The famous UNESCO World Heritage site, which recently reopened for a single Japanese tourist after he was stranded in Peru for seven months, will expand to slowly allow more tourists.

Locals can visit the site starting on Saturday, Benavente announced, while national tourists will be allowed in November followed gradually by international visitors. 

Visits will be limited to 675 people a day in groups of 8 people. The site will only allow 30% of its usual capacity, Alejandro Neyra, Minister of Culture announced, according to Andina. 

"The coordinated work between the central government and the region has allowed us to get the Safe Travels stamp, a recognition that implies safety amid this pandemic, as well as commitment and responsibility to all," Benavente added. 

Wall Street opened sharply in the red on Thursday.

Investors have plenty to worry about: There is still no US stimulus deal on the horizon and Europe is returning to restrictions to limit the spread of Covid-19.

The Dow opened 1.1%, or 322 points, lower, while the S&P 500 – the broadest measure of the US stock market – fell 1.3%.

The Nasdaq Composite opened down 1.6%.

It's looking to be the third straight day of losses for the three indexes.

Investors got a mixed bag of economic data Thursday morning:

First-time jobless claims rose and more people moved onto benefit programs designed to bridge the gap after regular aid rolls off. Meanwhile, the New York Federal Reserve Bank's manufacturing index came in far lower than expected, while the Philadelphia Fed's business index beat expectations.

Everyone needs to be careful around Thanksgiving this year and evaluate the risks and benefits of celebrating in the traditional way, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on “Good Morning America” Thursday.

In particular, when people are coming in from out of town and may have been on planes or in airports and then coming into the house, he said.

If there are elderly or vulnerable people there, Fauci gave this advice:

“You better consider whether you want to do that now or maybe just forestall it and just wait and say, you know, this is an unfortunate and unusual situation, I may not want to take the risk. But then, it’s up to the individuals and the choices they make.”

Dr. Fauci warns public to be cautious ahead of winter: 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reacted to the idea of focused protection – put forward in the Great Barrington Declaration – saying the idea is nonsense, and the idea of letting the virus go without any protection measures is “ridiculous.”

Fauci told “Good Morning America” host George Stephanopoulos that the declaration has a couple of things in it that he thinks are fooling people, “because it says things that are like apple pie and motherhood.”

He said that hidden in the declaration is the implication that if you let people get infected and worry about essentially protecting the vulnerable, “There’s about 30% of the population has underlying conditions that make them more susceptible to getting the adverse events and outcomes of serious disease with Covid-19.”

Fauci said the idea that “we have the power to protect the vulnerable is total nonsense,” and that has been shown to not be the case by history. Talking to anyone who has any infectious disease or epidemiology experience will say that it’s risky and will lead to many more infections of vulnerable people which will lead to hospitalizations and deaths, he said.

“So, I think that we just got to look that square in the eye and say it’s nonsense,” he said.

Watch:

For yet another week hundreds of thousands of American workers filed for unemployment benefits.

Americans filed another 898,000 first-time jobless claims last week on a seasonally-adjusted basis, according to the Department of Labor.

That's up 53,000 from the prior week.

Weekly claims have fallen a long way since peaking at 6.9 million in late March. But the improvements have slowed to a snail's pace in recent weeks, and went into reverse last week. That means it could take a long time to get back to the pre-pandemic level of around 200,000 claims per week.

On top of regular jobless claims, 372,891 Americans filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program designed in response to the pandemic to help those not usually eligible for unemployment benefits. That was down 91,000 claims from the prior week.

Adding those together, total first-time claims stood at about 1.3 million last week.

Continued jobless claims, which count workers who have filed for benefits for more than two weeks in a row, stood at 10 million. That's down around 1.2 million from the prior week.

That sounds like good news, but economists worry continued claims might be declining because people have maxed out their benefit allowance. States provide up to 26 weeks of aid before workers move on to other government programs, such as the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.

The latest from CNN Business:  

Cristiano Ronaldo watched the Nations League in mandatory isolation at home as Portugal cruised past Sweden 3-0 Wednesday.

The Juventus forward returned to Turin on Wednesday via a private air ambulance to continue his isolation after testing positive for Covid-19 the day before.

Ronaldo posted a picture of himself supporting from home wearing his international kit as he watched his teammates' resounding win.

Portugal’s captain and all-time leading goalscorer was not missed, as goals from Bernardo Silva and a brace for Diogo Jota sealed all three points for the defending Nations League champions. The result puts them on top of group A3, level on points with France.

The Portuguese Football Federation, which confirmed Ronaldo's positive test, said he was doing "well" and was "without symptoms."

Ronaldo’s club side Juventus announced that the whole of their squad has gone into isolation after American midfielder Weston McKennie tested positive on Wednesday as well, with results from further tests on the rest of the team still to be announced.

Ronaldo would need to return a negative test by October 21 in order to be eligible to play against Barcelona -- and old rival Lionel Messi -- in the Champions League on October 28, according to UEAF rules.

Read the full story here.