September 10 coronavirus news

A worker gets his temperature taken prior to being tested for Covid-19 in Mexico City, on Thursday, September 10.

Mexico’s Health Ministry reported 4,857 new Covid-19 cases and 554 new virus-related deaths on Thursday.

That brings the total number of cases confirmed in the country to 652,364, including at least 69,649 fatalities.

The latest figures come as Mexico’s government responded to the pausing of the AstraZeneca vaccine trial.

What happened: The company put global trials of its coronavirus vaccine on hold this week over an unexplained illness in one of the volunteers. Mexico was a participant in the phase 3 trials of that vaccine candidate and is still offering volunteers for other vaccine trials. 

The reaction: Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said in a statement Thursday that Mexicans can be “assured” of a vaccine against the coronavirus in future. “We are not betting – as we say – all the eggs in one basket,” he said, adding that Mexico is involved in several vaccine projects.

Mexico has the world’s fourth-highest coronavirus death toll after the United States, Brazil, and India, according to Johns Hopkins University. It is ranked seventh by JHU, in terms of the highest Covid-19 case numbers in the world.

Bars in Florida will be able to reopen at 50% occupancy from Monday, Florida’s Secretary of Department of Business and Professional Regulation Halsey Beshears announced Thursday.

Florida is rescinding amended Executive Order 20-09, issued on June 26, which shut down bars amid rising Covid-19 cases in the state.

At least 28,054,396 people globally have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

JHU also reported that as of 10.30 p.m. ET on Thursday, 907,980 have died around the world. 

The United States is the worst affected country, with 6,397,132 cases. India, Brazil and Russia follow.

The US also leads the world in terms of the most deaths attributable to the coronavirus, reporting a total of 191,769 fatalities. 

CNN is tracking worldwide coronavirus cases here:

A participant receives a Covid-19 vaccination as she takes part in a vaccine study at Research Centers of America on August 7 in Hollywood, Florida. 

The various vaccines being tested to fight coronavirus are undergoing several layers of testing and people should not worry about their safety, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Thursday.

“We sped up this process in a variety of ways but not in a way to compromise safety. In fact, I would say these trials are more rigorous than any others that have ever been done for vaccines,” Collins told Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper on CNN’s Global Town Hall.

The Data and Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMB), independent groups of mostly academic researchers who watch the data from the trials, are a firm line of defense keeping an eye out for any signal that an experimental vaccine is not working safely, Collins said.

In fact, a DSMB is more likely to stop a trial if there’s evidence of a problem – such as the illness in a volunteer that caused AstraZeneca to pause its vaccine trial this week, Collins said.

There have been 639 University of Alabama students issued sanctions for violating Covid-19 regulations as of Sept. 8, according to a statement from the university.

One student organization is pending suspension, and three student organizations also received Covid-19 related sanctions, the statement said.

Of the 639 individual sanctions issued, 33 students have been issued “interim measures, effectively suspending them from campus while their conduct cases proceed through due process,” according to the statement.

The University of Alabama reported 846 new cases of Covid-19 among students between Aug. 28 and Sept. 3, for a total of 2,047 reported cases.

Dr. Leana Wen speaks during CNN's coronavirus town hall on Thursday, September 10.

Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, said Americans should get a flu shot “right now.”

Wen, who is also the former Baltimore city health commissioner, said “it has never been more important” to get a flu shot as the US face “the potential twin-demics of the flu and Covid-19 at the same time.”

“We don’t have a vaccine for Covid-19, but we do have for the flu and the flu ends up hospitalizing hundreds of thousands of people every year, tens of thousands die. So, if we can protect ourselves against one of these things we should,” she added.

Demetria “Demi” Bannister

Terrance Bannister, the cousin of Demetria “Demi” Bannister, a teacher who died after contracting Covid-19, called his late family member “a soldier” who will be greatly missed.

Some context: Demetria “Demi” Bannister was a third grade teacher at Windsor Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina, who died on Monday from complications caused by Covid-19, according to a news release from Richland School District Two, which shared the information about the teacher’s death with permission from her parents, “who wish to remind others about the seriousness of this disease caused by the coronavirus.”

According to the school district, Demetria “Demi” Bannister began her teaching career five years ago and had just started her third year of teaching third grade.

Bannister’s last day at Windsor Elementary School was Aug. 28, the last workday for teachers before starting the school year teaching her students virtually from her home Aug. 31.

Watch:

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, reiterated Thursday that it’s “very unlikely” a coronavirus vaccine will be made available by Election Day. 

“In fact, I would say these trials are more rigorous than ever been done for vaccines. Will we be likely to have results before November 3rd? All of us looking at those timetables say that’s very unlikely. But much more likely we’ll have a readout on one of more of these, maybe in December, possibly in November. But late October seems beyond the likelihood that we could predict.”

For context: President Trump told reporters Monday, “We’re going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date. You know what date I’m talking about.”

Watch:

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), wants Americans to wait for the science to determine the efficacy of a Covid-19 vaccine and not let “crazy conspiracy theories” influence them.

Collins acknowledged that there are a lot of people who “are skeptical and distrustful about where we are right now” but urged Americans to be patient, according to remarks he made tonight during CNN’s global coronavirus town hall.

Watch:

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), shared his shock and disappointment over the sight of Americans continuing to refuse to wear masks despite how effective they are at preventing the spread of Covid-19.

Collins added that “as a scientist, I’m pretty puzzled and rather disheartened.”

Watch:

A CNN crew is at the 2020 NFL season opener in Kansas City, Missouri, today where a limited number of fans are at Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Super Bowl LIV champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, face the Houston Texans.

There are signs throughout the stadium highlighting that masks are required.

Ahead of the kickoff, the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” was played. The rendition was performed by Alicia Keys.

Before the song, which is referred to as the Black national anthem, was played, the entire Houston Texans team left the field to their locker room. The TV broadcast showed the Kansas City Chiefs standing arm-and-arm on the field while the song played out.

See the scenes from the stadium here:

Brazil’s health ministry has reported 40,557 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, raising the countrywide total to 4,238,446.

The ministry also reported 983 new Covid-19 deaths, raising the country’s death toll to 129,522.

Brazil trails only the United States in the highest number of deaths in the world resulting from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil is ranked third in the world for the highest number of coronavirus infections, behind the US and India.

A cyclist crosses an intersection on the campus of Arizona State University on Tuesday, September 1, in Tempe, Arizona.

A total of 1,305 students and 25 faculty and staff members at Arizona State University have tested positive for Covid-19 since Aug. 1, the university reported on Wednesday. 

ASU’s president Michael Crow had announced Wednesday the university would start releasing cumulative numbers of positive cases among students, faculty, and staff. The university was only sharing the number of current positive cases, meaning they were taking out the positive cases that have been medically cleared out of the total positive.

ASU also reported that a total of 610 students have been medically cleared since Aug. 1. A total of 138 faculty and staff members have been cleared — a number much higher than the total cumulative cases among employees. The university noted in its report this is because they have been keeping track of positive cases among employees since before Aug. 1.

Jay Thorne, the assistant vice president of media relations and strategic communications at ASU, expanded on this Thursday, telling CNN in a statement that “for employees who may have tested positive over the summer, there were – and are – very strict back-to-work protocols and there were positive cases who had not yet been released because the employee hadn’t finished their protocol process.”

“Those backdated/backlogged cases cleared as we entered August – but they were not cases that were recorded as positive post-August 1, which is what our reporting covers,” Thorne added.

Vaccine hesitancy isn’t just a problem in the United States; a large, global vaccine confidence survey released Thursday found that there are hesitancy hotspots around the world.

Tracking attitudes towards vaccines is especially important at a time when one or more vaccines against the novel coronavirus are expected to become available soon. The large-scale acceptance and uptake of an effective vaccine could help end the pandemic sooner rather than later.   

The new research examines the beliefs of more than 284,000 adults from 149 countries about how safe, effective and important vaccines are. Data was collected from 290 nationally representative surveys conducted between September 2015 and December 2019; some countries were surveyed just once while others were surveyed several times. 

The study was published Thursday in The Lancet. 

Among the findings: vaccine confidence in Europe remains low compared to other regions, ranging from a low of 19% in Lithuania who strongly agree that vaccines are safe to a high of 66% in Finland.

But the researchers found signs that public trust in vaccine safety is increasing, particularly in Finland, France, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom.  

In contrast, six countries saw substantial increases in people strongly disagreeing vaccines are safe — not just being less convinced, but actively opposing the use of vaccines—between 2015 and 2019: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Serbia.   

The researchers note that this “worrying trend” in negative attitudes mirrors trends in political instability and religious extremism. Poland saw a significant loss in confidence in vaccine safety, reflecting the growing impact of a highly organized local anti-vaccine movement. 

In the US: The percentage of respondents who strongly agree that vaccines are safe remained steady between 2015 and 2019, in the 50-59.9% range.

Those who strongly agreed that vaccines are important increased in the US to between 70 and 80% in 2019 while the percentage saying vaccines are effective went up to 60-69.9%.

At least three teachers in three states have died due to complications of Covid-19 in recent weeks, according to reports from CNN and local media outlets.

AshLee DeMarinis, a 34-year-old middle school teacher in at John Evans Middle School in Potosi, Missouri, died Sunday at Missouri Baptist Medical Center after battling complications related to Covid-19 for three weeks, CNN affiliate KMOV reported.

While McCaul would not confirm that DeMarinis, a social skills teacher, had passed away due to Covid-19, he told CNN that contact tracers had come to the school where DeMarinis taught, as was required by the local health department, and determined that she hadn’t had close contact with any teachers, staff or students. Students had not returned to the classrooms at John Evans Middle School when DeMarinis first became ill. 

Thomas Slade, a teacher at Vancleave High School in Jackson County, Mississippi, for 13 years died last week, district superintendent John Strycker said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“It is with a heavy heart that I send this letter to you. This past week, our school family lost one of our staff members — Vancleave High School teacher, Mr. Thomas Slade,” Strycker wrote. “Slade served the Jackson County School District honorably and with distinction as department chairman and history teacher at Vancleave High School. He was truly the personification of a public servant, devoting his life and career to serving the community where he was raised.”

CNN affiliate WLOX reported that Slade died on Sunday due to complications related to Covid-19.

Students began returning to the classroom in Jackson County on Aug. 6, according to the school district’s reopening guide.

CNN previously reported that a third grade teacher at Windsor Elementary School in Columbia, South Carolina, died on Monday from complications caused by Covid-19, according to a news release from Richland School District Two, which shared the information about the teacher’s death with permission from her parents, “who wish to remind others about the seriousness of this disease caused by the coronavirus.”

According to the school district, Demetria “Demi” Bannister began her teaching career five years ago and had just started her third year of teaching third grade.

Bannister’s last day at Windsor Elementary School was Aug. 28, the last workday for teachers before starting the school year teaching her students virtually from her home Aug. 31.

AstraZeneca should still be on track to have a set of data to submit for approval of a Covid-19 vaccine before the end of the year, despite having to pause the trial because of an illness in a volunteer, company CEO Pascal Soriot said Thursday.

The company has been working with Britain’s University of Oxford to develop the vaccine. The trial has shown promising early results, but was paused Tuesday because of an unexplained illness in one of its volunteers.

Regulators will review the data to determine when and if the trial can proceed. Experts said it’s common for vaccine trials to pause for investigators to review results. The World Health Organization’s chief scientist said Thursday that it is a normal procedure that is good clinical practice.

Soriot said the company will be ready to resume manufacturing once the trial starts up again. He said he believes that the late stage trials being conducted by Pfizer and Moderna could also produce results quickly and that those vaccines also have the potential to be released before the end of the year.

The standard for authorizing any eventual coronavirus vaccine will be like an “emergency use authorization plus,” a top US Food and Drug Administration official said Thursday.

FDA requirements will be stricter than for an emergency use authorization for an experimental drug, said Dr. Peter Marks, who heads FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. But it will not be as stringent as the requirements for full licensure.

Vaccines are not licensed as drugs, but rather as biologics under a Biologics License Application or BLA.

Emergency use authorization is a “relatively low bar,” Marks said. “It’s a product that may be effective,” he added.

A BLA requires substantial data from controlled clinical trials showing the product is effective. “Along that spectrum it is going to be closer to the BLA, even though that is not going to be exactly identical,” Marks said.

Usually, a full license requires details about how a product would be manufactured, along with extensive safety data from months of follow-up. “But the substantial information about efficacy and the most important information regarding safety will be there,” Marks said.

Gov. Mike DeWine speaks during a news conference on Thursday, September 10.

Ohio is seeing consistently high positivity rates of Covid-19 in six counties, Gov. Mike DeWine said. Overall, Ohio’s transmission rates have stabilized, but Butler, Mercer, Preble, Putnam, Montgomery and Summit counties all meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s threshold for high instances. 

The governor also reported on the status of cases at a nearby University. DeWine said Butler County has specifically been affected by numbers influenced by Miami University, stating that between Sept. 2 and 8, there were 545 student positive cases and the previous week, there were 495 cases. In addition to the Miami University student cases, DeWine said there have also been small outbreaks at workplaces and long-term care facilities in Butler County.

“Mercer County continues as red because they meet the CDC threshold for high incidence. Their number is 206 cases per hundred thousand. Their per case number sadly increased this past week from 179 last week to 206 this week, so we’ve seen it coming down from Mercer County for a couple of weeks now we’re seeing it starting to go back up. Still a very high-level Mercer County continues to see spread throughout the community. They’ve had outbreaks at workplaces and long-term care facilities and they’ve got just pretty much spread throughout the county,” DeWine said.

Wittenberg University in Springfield is contributing to the increased number of cases in the area with an increase of more than 70 new cases this week. These cases are being associated with out of class social gatherings. To help combat the spread the university announced on Sept. 9, classes will be remote for two weeks.

White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Thursday that when presented with data on the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration has taken it seriously.

President Trump told investigative reporter Bob Woodward that he purposely downplayed the danger of Covid-19, excerpts of interviews obtained by CNN show.

People who may have relaxed social distancing precautions over Labor Day weekend should get tested for Covid-19, White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Thursday.

Birx said that much of asymptomatic spread is happening between and within families and in settings like neighborhood parties.

“Just because we know someone, we think that there’s no way that they could have Covid, but I want to tell you, you can’t tell,” Birx said.

Birx urged those who socialized closely with others over Labor Day weekend, especially without a mask, to get tested.  

An ensemble forecast published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects there will be 205,000 to 217,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Oct. 3.

Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections a few weeks into the future.

The previous ensemble forecast, published Sept. 3, projected up to 211,000 coronavirus deaths by Sept. 26.

At least 191,444 people have already died from Covid-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The University of Central Florida has placed an entire class on quarantine after it was reported that a student who had tested positive for Covid-19 attended a class where face coverings were not worn the entire time and the faculty member moved the tables closer and the class ate together, the school’s interim provost Michael D. Johnson said in a statement on Wednesday.

Johnson said that there were numerous reports of faculty members and students not wearing a face covering during class.

“I am concerned — really, shocked — about several reports of faculty members not wearing face coverings during class and advising students that they can take theirs off. Wearing face coverings and practicing physical distancing are critical to preventing the spread of Covid-19,” Johnson said.

UCF reported 75 cases of Covid-19 among students and staff the week of Sept. 5, according to the school’s coronavirus dashboard.

CNN has reached out to UCF to see if additional cases have been identified among the class.

Adults who test positive for Covid-19 were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those who test negative, according to a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study, published on Thursday, included data on 314 adults who were tested for Covid-19 in July because they were experiencing symptoms: 154 tested positive and 160 tested negative. The tests were done at 11 different health care facilities across the United States, in California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.

The researchers – from the CDC and other institutions – took a close look at how those patients responded to questions about wearing masks and various activities in the community, including whether they recently dined at a restaurant, hung out a bar or went to a gym.

What the study found: The data showed that 42% of the adults who tested positive reported having close contact with at least one person known to have Covid-19, compared with 14% of those who tested negative – and most, 51%, of the close contacts were family members.

The researchers also found that 71% of the adults with Covid-19 and 74% of those who tested negative reported always using a face covering while in public.

There were no significant differences between those who tested positive versus negative when it came to shopping, gathering with fewer than 10 people in a home, going to an office, going to a gym, going to a salon, using public transportation or attending religious gatherings, according to the study.

However, the data showed that people who tested positive were more likely to have reported dining at a restaurant in the two weeks before they started to feel ill.

“Adults with confirmed COVID-19 (case-patients) were approximately twice as likely as were control-participants to have reported dining at a restaurant in the 14 days before becoming ill,” the researchers wrote.

“In addition to dining at a restaurant, case-patients were more likely to report going to a bar/coffee shop, but only when the analysis was restricted to participants without close contact with persons with known COVID-19 before illness onset,” the researchers added.

As states reopen, the CDC’s guidelines for restaurants and bars list dining options from the lowest to the highest risk on the agency’s website:

The study’s limitations: The study comes with some limitations, including that more research is needed to determine whether similar findings would emerge among a larger group of patients, and the question assessing dining at a restaurant did not distinguish between indoor versus outdoor dining. 

“Reports of exposures in restaurants have been linked to air circulation. Direction, ventilation, and intensity of airflow might affect virus transmission, even if social distancing measures and mask use are implemented according to current guidance,” the researchers wrote. “Masks cannot be effectively worn while eating and drinking, whereas shopping and numerous other indoor activities do not preclude mask use.”

Almost 41% of US adults avoided getting medical care during the pandemic because of concerns about Covid-19, including 12% who avoided urgent or emergency care and 31% who avoided routine care, according to a new survey of almost 5,000 US adults conducted online during the last week of June.

The consequences of delaying or avoiding routine medical care, while less immediate than missing urgent or emergency care, include early detection of new conditions, missed opportunities to manage chronic conditions and missed routine vaccinations.

The survey found that those most likely to skip urgent or emergency care are those who are at increased risk for more severe Covid-19 disease.

For example, almost 23% of people with two or more underlying medical conditions said they skipped emergency care compared to 8% of those without comorbidities. And 23% of Black and 25% of Latino adults skipped emergency care compared to 7% of White adults.

“Increased prevalences of reported urgent or emergency care avoidance among Black adults and Hispanic adults compared with White adults are especially concerning given increased Covid-19-associated mortality among Black adults and Hispanic adults. In the United States, the age-adjusted Covid-19 hospitalization rates are approximately five times higher among Black persons and four times higher among Hispanic persons than are those among White persons,” the researchers wrote. 

The study was published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on death and disease.

A health official conducts a Covid-19 test in Rennes, France, on September 7.

France has reported 9,843 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, according to figures from the country’s health agency on Thursday.

This is the largest daily infection increase in France since the pandemic began, eclipsing the previous record of 8,975, which was set last Friday.

The new infections brings the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases to 353,944, as the country’s death toll rose to 30,813.

Testing has gradually increased in the country as authorities aimed to test a million people per week. So far this week, France has carried out 1,081,208 million tests, with 5.4% returning positive results, according to Thursday’s figures.

There are at least 6,373,349 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 191,248 people have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases.

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

So far on Thursday, Johns Hopkins has reported 12,084 new cases and 389 reported deaths.

People relax on socially distant mini-lawns on the rooftop of Pier 17 in the Seaport District of New York City on August 14.

New York’s percent positivity remains less than 1% for its 34th day, the Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday in a press call. The percent positivity is 0.98% the governor said.

The state has performed more than 9 million Covid-19 tests so far, Cuomo added.

The State Liquor Authority and Police task force did 900 establishments visits yesterday, resulting in 4 violations, Cuomo said, noting compliance has gone up because of enforcement.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn testifies on Capitol Hill on June 30.

US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said on Thursday that he has no regrets about issuing an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma for Covid-19.

“So, no regrets about that decision?” David Rubenstein, of The Economic Club, asked Hahn during a virtual interview on Thursday.

“None,” Hahn replied.

Remember: A National Institutes of Health panel said earlier this month that there’s no evidence backing the use of convalescent plasma to treat coronavirus patients and that doctors should not treat it as a standard of care until more study has been done.

The statement, which was posted quietly, contradicts the Trump administration’s characterization of the treatment as “historic” and a “major advance” and directly refers to last week’s emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has helped drill down on what needs to be in the national stockpile, Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said during a Research! America forum on Thursday.

Speaking to the forum’s host, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Giroir said when he started March 12, “Diagnostics were not emphasized at all. The National Stockpile – it’s not a Trump administration, it’s not an Obama administration – it’s been a long-standing practice that diagnostics were really not emphasized. I think we see the importance of them now.”

Giroir said, “On March 12th, how many swabs did we have in the stockpile? Well, there were no swabs in the stockpile.”

When they opened up drive-thru testing sites across the US, HHS realized, “We would blow through 80% of the Strategic National Stockpile of personal protective equipment within the first month, and we couldn’t really do that.”

HHS needed to change the types of swabs they were using at testing sites and have “more technological breakthroughs.”

“We need to invest over a long-term period of time in diagnostics,” he said.

“And when I talk about that, you know some things are whiz-bang, and some are is just as simple as validating a nose swab instead of a nasal pharyngeal swab,” he explained.

Giroir said in February, March and April, HHS was calling up hospital systems in New York City and asking them questions like: How many ventilators were being used? How many anesthesia machines were used? What’s in the stockpile?

That system needs to be updated.

“There’s just a lot of things we’re going to have to do over a period of years, that no matter how hard you try in a matter of months, you can’t redo that,” he said.

Pandemic preparedness starts today, Giroir said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi panned Republicans’ pared-back coronavirus relief bill on Thursday ahead of a procedural vote to advance it in the Senate.

She went on to further criticize the legislation: “I think that McConnell is being his cynical self by saying, ‘I’ll just put something on there to look like we’re trying to do something — while we ignore the needs of the American people, while we shy away from defeating and crushing the virus, while we say to people at their kitchen tables, we don’t care if you don’t have food or if you’re out on the street in another month and the rest of that. But just to say I put something there.’”

Pelosi also continued to rule out addressing coronavirus stimulus in an upcoming government funding package.

“Those negotiations are separate from this,” she said.

She reiterated that Democrats and the Trump administration agree on pursuing a clean continuing resolution to keep the government running ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline.

She didn’t provide details on timing for the continuing resolution — if it will last a full year or if it will be shorter than that. She said negotiators will figure out timing in the days ahead.

Maryland has purchased 250,000 rapid antigen tests that will be deployed to locations where they are needed most, including nursing homes, correctional facilities and colleges, Gov. Larry Hogan announced in a news conference Thursday morning.

The state is a founding member of a bipartisan interstate testing compact for rapid point-of-care antigen testing in which five Democratic and five Republican governors have agreed to work with The Rockefeller Foundation to acquire and deploy five million antigen tests.

The new acquisition will help Maryland “tackle isolated outbreak and cluster scenarios” similar to what took place at some nursing homes and meat processing plants along the east coast during the coronavirus pandemic.

These are the governors who have signed onto the interstate compact:

Republicans:

Democrats:

Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Thursday that “there are technical limitations” to getting more testing in the United States. 

Giroir said “there’s been no limitations on money, research, motivation.”

“We are not in a situation now where we have a highly accurate home test. We’re getting close. We really are getting close,” he said.

 “Don’t expect it in the next month or two. Yes, a miracle could happen. There could be an ‘aha moment’ … it’s just that we don’t have it today,” Giroir said.

“There’s no barriers. It’s just the technology and the development,” he explained.  

He said, every day, “I look at the data, I call companies, I know what every manufacturer is doing. I think we have great situational awareness. And when there is an opportunity to invest, we’ve done it.”

“There’s been no barrier to do that,” he added.

A student arrives for classes at a school in the Bronx, New York, on September 9.

Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, teased assurance testing for Covid-19 at K-12 schools while speaking during a Research! America forum today.

Giroir said, “Assurance testing or screening – it’s really the same thing – it’s testing asymptomatic individuals,” to make sure there isn’t widespread disease.

Giroir likened this to what is already happening at nursing homes across the United States.

At universities, they are in “a different ballpark,” Giroir said. Many have testing on-campus. Universities can “turn on their research infrastructure. They have incredible capability there. They can pool. They could do wastewater surveillance. Many universities are doing that well.”

“K-12 – not so much. You don’t have PCR machines in a fifth grade laboratory, at least in most. That’s why we want to put the rapid point of care testing there,” he added.

A person gets tested for Covid-19 in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 26.

The high number of Covid-19 deaths in Africa is linked to patients who also suffered from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes and hypertension, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

WHO says around 50% of Covid-19 deaths in Kenya and 85% in the Democratic Republic of Congo were patients with such conditions.

People with NCDs are more susceptible to contracting severe cases of Covid-19 and yet NCDs remains the most underfunded public health issue, according to Dr Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. 

The issue is also raising mental health concerns among those who are not able to access appropriate care during the pandemic.

Dr Moeti announced the launch of a network of laboratories to reinforce genome sequencing of the novel coronavirus in Africa WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

“As we continue to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic in Africa, being able to not only track its evolution, but also assess the possible mutation of the virus is crucial to mounting an effective response,” said Dr Moeti.

Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, underscored that asymptomatic people who think they’ve been exposed to Covid-19 should be tested for coronavirus, especially in outbreak areas.

At the end of August, the CDC suggested asymptomatic people may not need to be tested for Covid-19. Giroir said the intent was to get people tested under the supervision of public health or medical professionals and to deter any overconfidence that people may feel from a negative test. 

In hotspot areas, Giroir said “we need to test a lot.” 

“Trust me, we want to test asymptomatic people, because as you know and everyone knows, that you can have asymptomatic people who spread the virus. And indeed, that’s been the biggest issue with this,” Giroir said during a Research! America forum.

President Trump’s coronavirus testing czar, Admiral Brett Giroir, told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta that while at-home tests are not yet authorized or reliable enough to be read, that the public will see the administration taking “a lot of actions over the next few weeks” to spur development of these tests.

“We’re moving science forward,” he said.

“There will be a day where there will be at-home tests that are widely available in the hundreds of millions, that are cheap, that we can test as frequently as we want – we’re just not there right now,” Giroir added.

Giroir said we need to use the tests available to us now in a “strategic manner.”

Adm. Brett Giroir attends a hearing on July 31 in Washington, DC.

Adm. Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said, “I have never been told to slow down testing, or to reduce our efforts – and in fact, we built on testing every single month.”

He told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta that the US is at “an inflection point” in terms of testing.

This month, over 100 million tests should be available, he said. “Between 55% and 60% of those – that’s 55 to 60 million – will be rapid point of care,” he added.

“This really puts us at an inflection point that we can really protect the elderly, we could protect the vulnerable, and we can do those kinds of screening testing for schools and work that we’ve been talking about for months now we have the tools to do that,” Giroir told Gupta.

Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health with the Department of Health and Human Services, said health officials are planning to deliver more rapid point-of-care tests, which screen asymptomatic people to study the widespread circulation of coronavirus to historically Black colleges and universities.

Black and brown communities have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus throughout the pandemic.

Here’s how Giroir, Trump’s testing czar, described the tests: “It’s testing it asymptomatic individuals to give an idea that we know that there isn’t widespread circulation, that we need to up the game and really test everyone at that point. We’re doing it for nursing homes and for assisted living and home health care. We’re going to start doing it for K-12. We’ll also deliver more to tribes and HBCUs.”

He continued: 

India reported at least 95,735 virus cases Thursday, a new record for the highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in one day by a single country, according to John Hopkins University data.

Per JHU, India is seeing daily case numbers well above that of other countries, including high-reporting nations such as the U.S and Brazil.

As of Thursday morning local time, India has seen a total of 4.4 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 nationwide, and more than 919,000 of them are active cases, according to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total number of recovered patients stands at over 3.4 million, the health ministry also said.

A person gets a flu shot in Washington, DC, on January 31.

If there is a silver lining to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that the technology around developing a vaccine could change the effectiveness and universality of the influenza vaccine.

During a Thursday webinar with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said there “has been an unprecedented use of new platforms to develop vaccines.” 

“Remember, the flu vaccine, we still develop in eggs — chicken eggs,” she said. “Which seems really archaic, given that in six months we’ve developed Covid vaccines using these incredible platforms.” 

Marrazzo said the pause taken for the AstraZeneca trial “should give people more reassurance that we will be sure to get a safe vaccine out, that we think is effective.”

“Studies are being conducted very, very cautiously and carefully,” she said.

Marrazzo said Operation Warp Speed’s name may have caused undue vaccine hesitancy among Americans, saying that the moniker, which gave people “confidence that we were moving fast, also made a lot of people nervous, because in some ways you would like a vaccine to come at warp speed, but you also don’t want the safety measures sacrificed.”

“The messaging has been the problem throughout this pandemic,” she said.

“We have not had a consistent national message for almost any aspect of pandemic control — whether it relates to how severe the illness is, whether it relates to whether masks are important, and whether it relates to when we’re going to get a vaccine.”

“If we could do anything for this winter season, it would be to have a reliable, trusted, consistent national message from trusted, scientifically informed leaders to get us through this and that’s what we need,” she said.

People in New York dine outside on June 26.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio laid out the rigorous precautions being taken as indoor dining ramps up to commence in the city on Sept. 30.

The safety measures include:

“What a good thing that indoor dining will be back” he said adding later the measures are important because “we have to get it right.”

The mayor said the city’s daily Covid-19 indicators are all under desired thresholds. The daily number of people admitted to hospitals for Covid-19 is at 78, under the 200 threshold. The confirmed positivity rate for Covid-19 for those patients is 10%.

With regard to new reported cases on a 7-day average, with a threshold of 550 cases, New York City reports 213.

The percent of people who tested positive for Covid-19 city wide is at 1.09%, under the 5% threshold.  

Note: These numbers were released by the citys 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 Singapore Airlines plane prepares to land at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines, on February 13.

Singapore Airlines Group announced that it will cut around 4,300 positions across Singapore Airlines, SkillAir, and Scoot due to the debilitating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a statement released on Thursday.

The airline statement said that after considering a “recruitment freeze, natural attrition, and voluntary departure schemes, the potential number of staff affected will be reduced to about 2,400 in Singapore and in overseas stations.”

The airline said it is more vulnerable than other major airlines in the world, as it does not have a domestic market. It said to remain viable in an uncertain landscape it will operate a smaller fleet and reduced network in the coming years.

“The next few weeks will be some of the toughest in the history of the SIA Group as some of our friends and colleagues leave the company,” Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong said in a statement. 

“This is not a reflection of the strengths and capabilities of those who will be affected, but the result of an unprecedented global crisis that has engulfed the airline industry.”

A Century21 store in Queens, New York, is pictured on May 12.

New York department store chain Century 21 filed for bankruptcy Thursday and said it will shut down its business.

Century 21 has 13 stores mostly in the New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area. The company blamed the lack of payment on its business interruption insurance as the cause of its demise. 

Department store chains large and small were struggling even before the Covid-19 pandemic caused stores to shut temporarily and shift more purchases online. Stores that depended on clothing sales, such as Century 21, have been hit particularly hard as millions of people are out of work and millions more are working from home and not needing to buy as many dress clothes.

Larger, national department store chains, such as JCPenney, Neiman Marcus and Lord & Taylor have filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic, with Lord & Taylor announcing its own plans to shut down.

But Century 21 said the final straw was the fact that it did not get $175 million it had filed for under its business interruption insurance. It said the policy had saved it in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks — it had a store directly across the street from the World Trade Center, which was destroyed. But it said it has not been able to get the payment this time.

US stocks opened higher on Thursday, as the rebound from the late summer selloff continues at a more moderate pace.

It’s only the third trading day of this shortened week and it’s been a wild ride between the Nasdaq Composite falling into correction territory and stocks roaring back with their best day in months.

Economic data did little to sway investors’ view of the market on Thursday, even though initial jobless claims were unchanged from the prior week, which could be a bad sign for the labor market recovery.

 Here is where things stood at opening:

Kristin Urquiza, whose father died from the coronavirus, says President Trump’s remarks to journalist Bob Woodward on the virus are “simply inexcusable.”

Trump told Woodward that he knew Covid-19 was deadly but “wanted to always play it down” to avoid creating “a panic.”

“My father didn’t panic. Instead, he died,” Urquiza said. “That is what happened to tens of thousands of people across the United States, because of his decision, and because of that, I think he needs to resign.”

Urquiza said her dad would’ve been shocked to hear Trump’s comments.

Watch the interview:

An elementary school teacher died of coronavirus complications a week into the start of the school year in South Carolina.

Demetria Bannister was diagnosed with the virus Friday and died Monday. The 28-year-old had taught at the Windsor Elementary School in Columbia for five years, CNN affiliate WIS reported. She started her third year of teaching third-grade students virtually on August 31.

In addition to teaching, Bannister was also passionate about music, and worked with the school choir in various projects. She also hosted a student club for aspiring singers.

“Known as Windsor’s Songbird, Ms. Bannister used her musical talents to bring a great deal of joy to our school,” said Denise Quickel, principal of Windsor Elementary.

At a school attendance event last year, she wrote a song about the importance of not missing classes to the tune of “Old Town Road,” the popular song by rapper Lil Nas X.

“The song and video were a big hit with our school family,” Quickel said. “Ms. Bannister loved her students and never missed an opportunity to advocate for students and public education.”

Read more:

16448600: COVID- 3RD GRADE TEACHER

Related article A 28-year-old elementary school teacher dies of coronavirus in South Carolina

Another 884,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits on a seasonally adjusted basis last week, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. The number of claims filed was unchanged from the prior week.

That said, the headline number only counts claims for regular benefits that not everyone who lost their livelihood due to the pandemic has access to.

That’s why claims for benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, that help workers like independent contractors, are so important. First-time claims under the PUA program totaled 838,916 last week, up from the prior week.

Meanwhile, 13.4 million American workers filed claims for unemployment insurance for at least two weeks in a row.

President Donald Trump holds a news conference at the White House on August 5.

A majority of Americans — 62% — believe political pressure from the Trump administration will cause the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to rush approval of a coronavirus vaccine before Election Day on November 3, according to a new Health Tracking Poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF)

The KFF poll, conducted between August 28 and September 3, found 85% of Democrats, 61% of independents and 35% of Republicans believe the FDA would cave to pressure from President Donald Trump and push through a Covid-19 vaccine before ensuring it’s safe and effective.

More women than men — 70% compared to 55% — said they worried the FDA would rush approval of a vaccine, the poll found.

If a Covid-19 vaccine was ready and available for free before the upcoming election, just over half of respondents, 54%, said they would not get one, while 42% said they would

However, 81% of those surveyed said they don’t believe a coronavirus vaccine would be available before November 3.

President Donald Trump and members of his administration have suggested in recent weeks that a vaccine could be available before November, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked states to prepare to distribute one.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 27.8 million people worldwide and killed more than 904,000. Here’s what you need to know about Covid-19:

Supporters of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange protest outside London's Old Bailey court on September 7.

The extradition hearing for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was halted after it was revealed that a lawyer representing the US government may have been exposed to Covid-19, PA Media reported on Thursday. 

The revelation prompted Assange’s defense, joined by lawyers representing the US government, to call on judge Vanessa Baraitser to adjourn the hearing.

Judge Baraitser agreed to the request saying she would suspend the hearing until the lawyer in question – whose identity was not revealed – was tested for coronavirus. 

The judge also asked both parties for submissions on what to do, should the test come back positive.

A private biomedical company in India has paused Phase 3 clinical trials of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University, according to a statement provided by the company to CNN.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) said Thursday that it had “paused the trial in India until further instructions from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on what to do next.”

The DCGI heads the government body in charge of approving new drugs and clinical trials in India.

SII is described on its company website as the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by the number of doses produced and sold globally.

The development comes after the drug giant AstraZeneca said Tuesday that it had paused global trials of its coronavirus vaccine because of unexplained illness in one of the volunteers.

The trials were taking place at more than a dozen sites in India with more than 1,000 participants, according to a source with knowledge of the trials.

SII received approval from the Drug Controller General of India on August 3 to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

The US Senate will vote on Thursday to advance a Republican party proposal to address the health and economic crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic, four months after House Democrats passed their $3 trillion plan.

The narrower Senate bill is expected to fail to reach the requisite 60 votes but could help Republican senators in tough reelection races by giving them a rebuttal to Democratic challengers attacking their delayed response.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced the bill after negotiations with Democrats stalled over a month ago. McConnell has acknowledged that the bill “does not contain every idea” that Republicans want but asserted on Wednesday that it is much better than “doing nothing.”

Read more:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) puts on a mask after speaking to the press after a meeting with Republican Senators in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, May 19, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Related article After negotiations falter, Senate to vote on Republican bill addressing coronavirus pandemic

Pictured from left to right are Jim Hontalas, Rachel Lelchuk, Helen Hontalas and Louis Hontalas, outside Louis' Restaurant circa 1946.

As Thomas Hontalas cleaned out the restaurant he shared with his brother, it was hard to fathom that his 83-year family legacy was coming to an end.

Louis’ Café, which sat on a San Francisco cliff overlooking Ocean Beach, was started by his grandfather at the end of the Great Depression. Through World War II, devastating fires and threats of demolition, Louis’ held his grandfather’s name and stayed in the family through three generations. Until the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.

Coronavirus shuttered much of the US at the outset of the pandemic, and the hit on restaurants was especially devastating. A recent study showed that nearly two-thirds of New York restaurants could be out of business as soon as January without government aid.

Already, several restaurants across the US that weathered the economic chaos of the Great Depression to become fixtures in their communities have not been able to withstand coronavirus.

Read more:

Related article These restaurants made it out of the Great Depression but couldn't weather coronavirus

As schools begin their fall semester, universities and colleges are struggling to contain coronavirus outbreaks with cases reported at campuses in all 50 states.

There have been more than 40,000 cases of Covid-19 among students, faculty and staff at colleges and universities across the country. The number represents cases that CNN has reported so far – and is likely higher due to a lag from schools that update their data every few days.

With social life trickling back to life on campuses, coronavirus outbreaks have hit places students congregate such as fraternities and sororities, where some have continued to gather despite remote learning.

A cluster of Covid-19 cases was linked to a fraternity party at the University of New Hampshire last weekend. More than 100 people attended the August 29 party and few wore masks. Eleven people connected to the party have tested positive for the virus, university officials said.

Read more:

BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 24: Mend Urgent Care workers wearing personal protective equipment perform drive-up COVID-19 testing for students and faculty on the first day of school at Woodbury University on August 24, 2020 in Burbank, California. Most California schools are have gone virtual while others are placing physical distancing and other protocols like testing to keep in-person classes in session. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Related article Colleges in all 50 states report coronavirus cases as clusters linked to fraternities and sorority parties grow

The United States plans to stop limiting international arrivals from certain countries to 15 airports and funneling them through enhanced screening. Instead, passengers will be advised about risks.

As of Thursday, there were more than 6.3 million coronavirus cases reported and over 190,000 people dead nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Screening for symptoms doesn’t really help much because so many people do not have symptoms, the CDC said.

Read more:

A United Airlines passenger checks in for a flight at San Francisco International Airport

Related article US to no longer limit international arrivals from certain countries to 15 airports

AstraZeneca denied news reports Wednesday that suggested its coronavirus vaccine trial was stopped because of a case of transverse myelitis – a rare inflammatory condition of the spinal cord.

AstraZeneca said Tuesday it had paused vaccine trials globally because of an undisclosed event, but did not elaborate on what it was. The New York Times had quoted a source saying a trial volunteer had transverse myelitis.

On Wednesday, STAT News reported that the company’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, told investors in a conference call that the trial was stopped because a woman volunteering in the trial had symptoms consistent with transverse myelitis.

 There was a similar incident earlier, the AstraZeneca spokesperson said.

As global pharmaceutical companies race to complete their Covid-19 vaccine trials, the logistics that will be required to deliver them to all corners of the world are coming into focus – and it will be a mission like no other. 

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), providing a single dose of the vaccine to 7.8 billion people will require the use of 8,000 Boeing 747 cargo aircraft – and planning needs to begin now. 

“We urge governments to take the lead in facilitating cooperation across the logistics chain so that the facilities, security arrangements and border processes are ready for the mammoth and complex task ahead,” he added.

The air cargo industry has long played an important role in vaccine distribution, providing well-established time- and temperature-sensitive systems – which will be crucial to the quick and efficient transport of Covid-19 vaccines, notes IATA.

Read the full story:

Related article 'Mission of the century': 8,000 cargo jets needed to transport Covid-19 vaccines around the world, says IATA

French immunologist Jean-Francois Delfraissy looks on in the courtyard of the French Interior ministry in Paris, on March 13.

France should avoid going back into lockdown as it fights the resurgence of Covid-19 in the country, but the government cannot rule out imposing such restrictions at a local level, scientific adviser Jean-François Delfraissy said during an interview with RTL today.

However, he also said that local lockdowns could “not completely be ruled out,” and stronger restrictions could be imposed in regions showing higher infection rates. 

Rising cases: The virus has “started to significantly circulate again” in the past few weeks, leading to “worrying” situations in some regions, Delfraissy explained. 

He added that the “difficult” choices to be made by the government would not only be determined by sanitary reasons, but also by economic and social factors. 

Decisions had to be made quickly to curb the epidemic, he said, as any decision would take “about three weeks” to have visible impacts. 

On the list of traditions canceled by the coronavirus pandemic, Halloween might be next on the cultural hit list.

Los Angeles County, for example, has led the charge by issuing formal guidance that recommends against trick-or-treating and bans outright haunted houses, festivals and other traditional festivities that would fall under current Covid-19 health guidelines, according to the county’s public health department.

The decision is history repeating itself: During the 1918 influenza pandemic, “Halloween parties in general, as well as other social functions attracting large numbers of people (were) discouraged” by LA health authorities, according to an October 30, 1918, Los Angeles Times report.

The fall of 1918 was the second and worst wave of the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed between 50 million and 100 million people worldwide.

The highest death rates occurred from October to December, possibly due to a deadlier strain of the virus and crowding in hospitals and military camps.

“In most places in the United States, by October 31 of 1918, conditions would have been grim,” said Elizabeth Outka, a professor of English at the University of Richmond and author of the book “Viral Modernism: The Influenza Pandemic and Interwar Literature.”

As the flu ravaged the globe, many US cities saw the need to restrict or ban Halloween celebrations.

Read the full story:

Spanish Flu Epidemic 1918-1919 in America. Policemen in Seattle, Washington, wearing some of the 1700 masks provided by the Red Cross to prevent the spread of influenza. Dec. 1918

Related article The 1918 flu caused Halloween bans. It's happening again

In this file photo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey on August 25.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday he would have taken more aggressive action to fight Covid-19 if US President Donald Trump had been more honest about the true threat of coronavirus during the early days of the pandemic.

Murphy’s comments come after CNN obtained audio tapes of Trump telling legendary journalist Bob Woodward that he knew weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” and that he repeatedly played it down publicly.

Murphy said Wednesday had he known – as Trump did – that the virus was airborne, he would’ve taken steps earlier to protect his state.

“I can’t tell you, as I sit here, how many we would have saved, but there’s no question in my mind we would have saved lives.”

Read the full story:

Related article New Jersey governor says he would have shut state down earlier if Trump was honest about coronavirus threat

People wearing face masks line up for testing at a Covid-19 assessment center in Toronto, on August 11. 

Editor’s note: Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst and a former spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

There are a number of theories as to why Canada has managed to flatten the Covid-19 curve much better than the United States. One is that Canadians, who entered confederation with the motto “peace, order and good government” are much more compliant than our southern neighbors with their attachment to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – even if it means potentially killing others by refusing to wear masks in the name of freedom.

It can also be argued that the federal and provincial governments enabled Canadians to respect lockdowns and stay at home by offering unprecedented and generous financial aid from early on – including up to C$2000 per month for Canadians out of work, as well as more time to pay taxes and mortgage payment deferrals, allowances for seniors, and wage subsidies for businesses – all a far cry from the limited amounts offered south of the border. Even the media received a C$30 million handout from Ottawa in the form of forgiveness of broadcasting fees.

In all, the Covid-19 measures helped push the federal deficit to C$343.2 billion this year and the federal debt past the C$1 trillion mark for the first time, former federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in July.

And all that is on top of free public health care, including free testing.

Read the full op-ed:

A woman undergoes a swab test for coronavirus at a drive-through testing site of the Santa Maria della Pieta hospital in Rome on August 18, 2020. - On August 16, Italy suspended its discos and ordered the mandatory wearing of masks from 6:00pm (1600 GMT) to 6:00am to clamp down on the spread of infection among young people, less than a month before the restart of school. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP) (Photo by TIZIANA FABI/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Opinion: Why Canada flattened the curve -- and the US didn't

Funeral workers wearing protective suits bury a Covid-19 victim at Pondok Ranggon cemetery in Jakarta, Indonesia, on September 9. 

Jakarta is putting the “emergency brakes” on relaxing coronavirus restrictions and instead reimposing strict measures, the Indonesian capital’s governor said, according to state news agency Antara.

 The governor said his decision was based on three factors, Anatara reported:

“In the past two weeks, mortality rates have spiked back up. In terms of percentage, they may still be considerably low, but in terms of the numbers, they have gone back up. The availability of beds is at maximum capacity and they may be fully filled by the end of the month, if there are no restrictions,” Baswedan said.

The new measures will go into effect September 14, according to Antara.

Jakarta’s government reported that 12.2% of those tested for Covid-19 in the city last week tested positive. The city, home to more than 10 million people, has confirmed a total of 49,837 Covid-19 infections. That’s nearly a quarter of Indonesia’s total number of cases, according to government figures.

Jakarta’s death toll from the virus is 1,347. Indonesia’s nationwide death toll is 8,336, according to Johns Hopkins University.

A health worker collects a swab sample from a man to test for Covid-19 at Nehru Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, Defence Colony in New Delhi, on September 9.

India has recorded a new highest 24-hour increase in Covid-19 infections with 95,735 new cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As of Thursday morning, India had confirmed at least 4.4 million cases of Covid-19 nationwide, of which at least 919,018 are active.

India’s death toll now stands at 75,062, after another 1,172 fatalities were reported on Thursday, according to the Health Ministry. 

In the capital: In its daily evening bulletin on Wednesday, the Delhi government announced its highest jump in infections, with 4,039 fresh cases, including 20 deaths. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted that the rise in numbers is related to an increase in testing. Kejriwal said the city conducted 54,000 tests on Wednesday, more than double the tests conducted in the past week.

The Delhi government has steadily opened up its economy over the past three months. Earlier this week, the subway system was allowed to operate with restrictions.

Delhi has recorded more than 200,000 coronavirus cases, including 4,638 deaths, since the start of the pandemic. 

US President Donald Trump takes questions after delivering remarks during a news conference at the North Portico at the White House on September 7, 2020 in Washington, DC. 

It matters who the president is.

Millions of lives and livelihoods depend on the character, competence, altruism and integrity of the person in the Oval Office – whatever their party or ideology. But President Donald Trump – as he devastatingly revealed in his own voice to Bob Woodward – met the great crisis of his age with ineptness, dishonesty and an epic dereliction of duty.

Rarely have a president’s actions – or inaction – and individual decisions on such a critical issue been so consequential and so exposed in his own time – in this case in taped interviews with The Washington Post reporter for his new book, “Rage.”

“I always wanted to play it down”: The scandal of negligence Woodward exposed is distinct from the whirlwind of political corruption, abuses of power, chaotic West Wing dramas and wild personality paroxysms that have defined Trump’s presidency. He can’t spin this one away as “fake news” because he is on tape. He indisputably told Woodward he purposefully minimized a once-in-a-century health crisis.

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward on March 19. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

Trump contradicts his own White House’s defense: Not every country is a South Korea or New Zealand – which quickly understood the threat from the coronavirus and acted accordingly. There was plenty of failure in Europe, for instance, though most countries bought a summer respite from a mounting second wave.

And a more honest approach by Trump would not have saved every American life. But his deliberate deception and lack of seriousness at a grave national moment turned the US response into one of the world’s worst.

The failure laid bare by Woodward in the President’s own words is the ultimate repudiation of the “I alone can fix it” and “I know more about ISIS than the generals” school of leadership, in which Trump makes gut calls, ignores advice and puts politics above science.

Read the full analysis:

Related article Analysis: Trump's historic dereliction of duty laid bare

The United States reported 32,711 new Covid-19 infections and 1,162 virus-related deaths on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

At least 6,359,720 cases, including 190,815 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:

More Americans are foregoing preventive healthcare services amid the coronavirus pandemic compared to last year, a new study by the Health Care Cost Institute has found.

Reviewing health insurance records in 18 states, HCCI examined 184 million claims from 30 million patients in 2019 and 94 million claims from 20 million patients in the first six months of 2020.

The institute mainly reviewed records on women’s preventative health services, select services provided during pregnancy and delivery, childhood immunizations and other preventive medical services including colonoscopies, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests.

By June of this year, many preventive health checks were down compared to 2019 levels:

“This analysis is merely a preliminary glimpse at the impact of COVID-19 on health care utilization in 2020 and is not intended to provide definitive answers about the ways in which the pandemic is affecting people’s health care,” the group said.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday in Michigan.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said it is “disgusting” and “almost criminal” that US President Donald Trump knew of the serious risk posed by the coronavirus in February and then downplayed its threat in March.

In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday in Michigan, the former vice president said the revelations about Trump’s early understanding of how deadly the virus is and how easily it could spread – shared in recorded interviews for Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book – are “why we have no confidence in his leadership.”

Woodward’s book, for which Trump gave 18 interviews, includes Trump saying on February 7 that “this is deadly stuff” and on March 19 that “I wanted to always play it down.” The news about Trump’s handling of the virus comes less than three weeks before his first debate with Biden, who has led recent national and swing-state polls.

“It was all about making sure the stock market didn’t come down, that his wealthy friends didn’t lose any money, and that he could say anything, that in fact anything that happened had nothing to do with him,” Biden said Wednesday, speculating about Trump’s motives for downplaying the virus in the early weeks of its spread.

“He waved a white flag. He walked away. He didn’t do a damn thing,” Biden said. “Think about it. Think about what he did not do – it’s almost criminal.”

Read the full story:

Related article Biden on Trump concealing coronavirus threat: 'It's almost criminal'

The US federal government said Wednesday it plans to stop limiting international arrivals from certain countries to 15 airports and funneling them through enhanced screening.

Instead, passengers will be advised about risks.

Screening for symptoms doesn’t really help much because so many people do not have symptoms, the CDC said.

“Transmission of the virus may occur from passengers who have no symptoms or who have not yet developed symptoms of infection. Therefore, CDC is shifting its strategy and prioritizing other public health measures to reduce the risk of travel-related disease transmission,” the agency said.

It said resources will instead be dedicated to “more effective mitigation efforts” focused on individuals.

These will include “pre-departure, in-flight, and post-arrival health education for passengers; robust illness response at airports; voluntary collection of contact information from passengers using electronic means,” the CDC said. That should help reduce crowding and lines, it said.

Testing may also be an option, as well as reminding travelers to watch for symptoms and quarantine themselves as possible for 14 days.

Volunteers from a Muslim and a Christian group lower the coffin of a Covid-19 victim at a cemetery in Pune, India, on September 7.

The global death toll from the novel coronavirus surpassed 900,000 on Wednesday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally.

There have been at least 900,239 deaths worldwide. The United States has accounted for at least 190,784 coronavirus-related deaths, the most around the world. 

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases around the world stands at 27,719,952, according to the university.

CNN is tracking worldwide cases and deaths here:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a House Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis hearing on July 31, 2020 in Washington, DC.

The decision to pause AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine trial because of a potential adverse event in one volunteer shows the safety monitoring system is working, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.

When there is a serious adverse event, “this is the kind of thing that you’d like to see,” he said.

“Mechanisms are put into place to stop everything, no more enrollment until you can figure out what’s going on and you can alert other people in the sites. Did they see anything either similar to or identical to this, is this a one-off, is this a fluke, or is this something that’s real and that we have to pay attention to?” Fauci added.

Americans should feel reassured, he said. They can “feel comfort that when there is an adverse event, it becomes very transparent and it becomes investigated and the trial is halted until we can clarify that.”

US President Donald Trump listens during an event in the Oval Office of the White House August 28, 2020 in Washington, DC.

US President Donald Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” and that he repeatedly played it down publicly, according to legendary journalist Bob Woodward in his new book “Rage.”

In a series of interviews with Woodward, Trump revealed that he had a surprising level of detail about the threat of the virus earlier than previously known. “Pretty amazing,” Trump told Woodward, adding that the coronavirus was maybe five times “more deadly” than the flu.

Trump’s admissions are in stark contrast to his frequent public comments at the time insisting that the virus was “going to disappear” and “all work out fine.”

The book, using Trump’s own words, depicts a President who has betrayed the public trust and the most fundamental responsibilities of his office. In “Rage,” Trump says the job of a president is “to keep our country safe.” But in early February, Trump told Woodward he knew how deadly the virus was, and in March, admitted he kept that knowledge hidden from the public.

If instead of playing down what he knew, Trump had acted decisively in early February with a strict shutdown and a consistent message to wear masks, social distance and wash hands, experts believe that thousands of American lives could have been saved.

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Related article 'Play it down': Trump admits to concealing the true threat of coronavirus in new Woodward book

The Trump administration intends to end coronavirus screenings of passengers arriving to the United States from overseas, according to three officials familiar with the plans.

The US began conducting enhanced screenings of passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, where there had been an outbreak of the virus, at select airports in January.

Over the following months, additional airports began the process of checking passengers from high-risk countries. For a brief period, the screenings resulted in long lines and overcrowded conditions at US airports.

The administration now appears set to end those screenings, a move first reported by Yahoo News. US Customs and Border Protection deferred comment to the Department of Homeland Security, which declined to comment.

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Passengers walks past thermal cameras, that check passenger's body temperatures, at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California on June 23, 2020, after they were added as another layer of protection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related article Trump administration intends to end Covid-19 screenings of passengers arriving from overseas