August 5 coronavirus news

The New York City Test and Trace Corps says that one-fifth of all new Covid-19 cases have been linked to travelers coming in from other states, Dr. Ted Long, head of the New York City Test and Trace Corps, said at a news conference. 

Travelers booking a flight, hotel, or arriving in New York City are now required to fill out an online traveler form when coming to the city, according to Long  

“The reason that form is important is because that is how we get the information to reach out and call you and ask how we can help,” Long said.

The Test and Trace Corps will additionally begin deploying teams to Penn Station tomorrow to make sure travelers have filled out the form and will make them do so if they have not, Long added. 

“We want you to come into New York city but we need you to safely separate for 14 days when you arrive to keep new York city safe,” Long said.

“Test and trace corps has made 86.500 phone calls to people in quarantine and sent 20,870 text messages. We have deployed teams that are now knocking on doors to make sure you are safe,” Long added. 

Chicago Public Schools will start the 2020-21 school year with fully remote learning for all its students, the district announced in a press release Wednesday, a decision that could avoid a possible strike from the Chicago Teacher's Union. 

The district will implement remote learning through the first quarter, which ends November 9. At that time they will evaluate if it is safe to open in a hybrid learning model.

“I understand the uncertainty this pandemic has caused our parents, especially communities of color who have been disproportionately impacted. We are making every possible effort to provide a high-quality remote learning experience in the fall, utilizing live, virtual instruction for every student, every day, and we are committed to ongoing engagement and communication with parents," Jackson said.

Some background: The announcement comes a day after a source close to the Chicago Teacher's Union (CTU) told CNN that the CTU planned to convene their House of Delegates early next week to discuss taking a strike vote to demand remote learning for Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago, the nation's third largest school district, had previously hoped to start the school year with a hybrid learning model, and had prepared a scenario to do so.

"This hybrid model would allow students to follow proper social distancing guidelines by effectively cutting the number of students in a classroom and ensuring students can access high-quality in-person instruction from caring teachers," according to a preliminary framework released July 17.

“The decision to begin the 2020-2021 CPS school year remotely during the first quarter is rooted in public health data and the invaluable feedback we've received from parents and families,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. 

“As we build out this remote learning model and seek to establish a hybrid learning model in the second quarter, we will continue to support and collaborate with parents and school leaders to create safe, sustainable learning environments for our students,” Lightfoot added.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 636 additional cases of Covid-19 and 4 deaths from the virus yesterday, a press release from the governor's office said.

The governor said the state tested 72,668 people yesterday — a 0.87% positive infection rate.

The negotiators are, at long last, actually negotiating. After seven meetings, totaling more than a dozen hours, the top Democratic and White House negotiators are not just walking through their disagreements, but putting offers on the table, trading proposals and to a small degree, starting to make concessions.

They've even agreed on a deadline for a deal — the end of this week.

Bottom line: There is still a long way to go and an agreement to a timeline to reach an agreement — one that is already one week after the initial deadline — isn't much on its face. But what's happening behind the scenes is a signal things are actually starting to kick into gear.

What to watch: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows will be back on Capitol Hill for negotiations.

What was put on the table: The Tuesday meeting between Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and the top White House negotiators, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, was by far the most productive of all the meetings up to this point, according to both sides.

Schumer said both sides made concessions and, most importantly, the talks had gone beyond identifying areas of disagreement or even topline points of overlap and have now moved to trading actual paper proposals between sides. It seems minor or just an obvious step in the process, but the trading of paper means things are getting real, finally.

That came in large part due to what the White House negotiators put on the table. To be clear, these proposals weren't agreed to and won't be accepted by Democrats (much to the frustration of the administration negotiators). But they represent tangible movement -- the type of movement that can draw out real concessions and counters.

Read more here.

Wall Street opened higher on Wednesday as investors keep a close eye on the stimulus negotiations in Washington.  

However, Wall Street also have a lot of economic data to digest ahead of Thursday’s weekly jobless claims and Friday’s July jobs report. The US private sector only added 167,000 jobs last month, ADP reported this morning — nearly 10 times lower than expected.

Here's how things looked at the opening:

There are two days before the US government releases its July jobs report, but President Trump is already talking it up.

Trump has spoken about previous monthly jobs reports in similarly vague terms before their release, breaking with years of presidential protocol.

In the "last two months we set a record on the job numbers. Now we will have another big job number on Friday, so it will be interesting to see what that is," he said in the interview.

Some context: Economists expect 1.6 million jobs were added to the US economy in July, markedly fewer than the 4.8 million added in June, which set a record for most new jobs in one month. But even if the July predictions hold true, the US economy will still be down some 13 million jobs since February. 

The unemployment rate is expected to fall to 10.5% in July, still above the Great Recession peak.

Only 167,000 new private sector jobs were added last month, according to ADP, while economists polled by Refinitiv expected a whopping 1.5 million.

This is the third month of job gains in a row for the private sector — 3.3 million in May and 4.3 million in June. But the low number doesn't bode well for Friday's government jobs report, which economists predict will be 1.6 million new jobs.

Economists glance at the ADP number to get an indication for the official numbers, but because the reports are based on different surveys, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.

As per ADP, both small and large businesses added jobs, but mid-sized companies shed 25,000 positions.

Natural resources, construction, financial services and IT were among the sectors that lost jobs, while the professional and business segment added the most positions with 58,000.

In Florida, 43% of all Covid-19 deaths are linked to long-term care facilities, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health.

To date, 3,155 out of 7,402 total deaths are associated with long-term care facilities in the state of Florida, according to the department's data.

The list of long-term care facilities with active Covid-19 cases is available here, and the list of long-term care facilities with deaths is available here, which is updated weekly.

Moderna, one of the companies working on a treatment for Covid-19, said Wednesday that it's on track to finish enrollment for a phase three study of its vaccine by the end of September and plans to eventually price it below $40 per dose for most customers.

The biotech, which has received funding from the United States federal government's Operation Warp Speed program, also said it had about $400 million of customer deposits for a potential supply of its mRNA-1273 vaccine.

People have also been closely watching to see what drug companies plan to charge for treatments after biotech Gilead Sciences revealed in June that its remdesivir drug would cost $520 a vial, or $3,120 for a five-day course of six vials, for people covered by private heath insurance plans.

But Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel vowed during a conference call with analysts that its vaccine would be affordable. 

Moderna made the announcement in its earnings release Wednesday morning. The company posted a loss that was smaller than expected but revenue that topped forecasts.

Shares of Moderna fell about 2% on the news, but the stock has soared more than 300% this year on hopes that it will be able to develop a successful coronavirus vaccine.

The company has also come under scrutiny from some investors as several insiders have sold stock as it has surged.

Moderna is just one of several companies racing to come up with a vaccine. Shares of another smaller biotech, Novavax, soared 20% Wednesday after it announced promising clinical trial results of its own.