August 20 coronavirus news

American Airlines announced Thursday it plans to suspend service to 15 cities in October citing “low demand.”  

Airlines have thus far been mostly blocked from stopping service to a destination as a condition of accepting CARES Act payroll funding. But those restrictions expire on Oct. 1. Despite pressure from aviation worker unions, Congress has not extended the funding.  

American said the cuts are not permeant and are “only in place for the October schedule.”  The suspensions will be effective on Oct. 7.

Here are the 15 cities, according to the airline:

The US has reported more than 5.5 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and more than 22 million cases have been recorded worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally.

If you're just reading in this morning, here's the news you need to know from around the globe:

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Wednesday that officials cannot order the closure of religious schools that are following the rules around Covid-19.

It came after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear recommended that school districts delay in-person instruction until September 28, saying that he would issue an executive order to close schools where there was “a severe proven threat to the health of the people in the school, and a failure to take any action to address it."

Religiously affiliated schools and concerned parents wondered whether the Governor, or other state and local officials, “may lawfully co-opt their informed decisions to reopen for in-person instruction,” and asked the Attorney General’s office to issue an opinion on the matter.

Cameron said officials could not close schools that were “in compliance with reasonable social distancing and hygiene guidelines set forth by recognized national or international health agencies and organizations."

His opinion states that the Governor, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and other officials are prohibited from closing religiously affiliated schools because of the First and 14th Amendment of the US Constitution and state law.

For the first time in roughly five months, AMC Theatres will pop the popcorn, dim the lights, and start the show. 

But will anyone buy a ticket? 

AMC, the world's largest movie theater chain, is reopening more than 100 US locations on Thursday after closing their doors in March. Other major chains like Regal Cinemas and Alamo Drafthouse will also return this weekend, while Cinemark started its phased reopening last weekend. Roughly 1,400 of the 6,000 venues in North America are currently open, according to Comscore. (Track how box-office sales have been hit on our recovery dashboard.)

It's a monumental moment for theaters and the film industry at large. The next few weeks and months will give Hollywood an idea of whether the movie theater industry can bounce back after being ravaged by coronavirus. 

It's not going to be easy.

Read the full story here:

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A teenage girl in Southern California has died from the coronavirus, Orange County health officials announced Wednesday. 

The girl had "significant underlying medical conditions," officials said in a news release without providing further details about the child or her health conditions.

Across the state, more than 638,000 people have tested positive for the virus, including 63,000 cases among children younger than 18, state data show. 

The number of Covid-19 cases among children nationwide recently increased 90% over four weeks, according to data released last week by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"We've had 90 deaths in children in the United States already, in just a few months," Dr. Sean O'Leary, vice-chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, told CNN last week.

Read the full story here:

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Europe has been reporting more than 26,000 daily new coronavirus cases on average since governments started relaxing measures implemented to stop the spread of the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

The increase can be explained in part by the fact that "authorities have been easing some of the restrictions and people have been dropping their guard," WHO Europe chief Hans Kluge said during a news conference on Thursday. 

Kluge said that with 3.9 million coronavirus cases, the region accounts for 17% of the global total. While Europe made great strides in suppressing the virus after it was hit "early and hard," Kluge affirmed that the "risk of resurgence has never been far away."

He said that "new cases have been steadily increasing every week in the region" since restrictions began easing. Europe recorded 40,000 more cases in the first week of August compared to the first week of June, when cases were at their lowest, he added.

Kluge said that the key challenge was "that localized outbreaks and clusters are now occurring with greater frequency, often in closed settings." The WHO Europe chief said that these outbreaks should not interfere with the plans for children to return safely to school, and announced a meeting for all 53 countries in the region on ensuring safe, high-quality education.

Suggested measures include opening schools in areas with low virus levels, adjusting schedules and keeping students numbers low in areas with widespread cases.

A new season: Kluge said it was "critical that countries monitor flu activity and restore and reinforce routine surveillance to include both viruses, and that they promote flu vaccination for at-risk groups." He emphasized the greater stores of knowledge countries have for dealing with the virus in the fall.

Kluge said he was "very concerned that more and more young people are counted among reported cases," telling Europe's youth that they "have their part to play" in suppressing the virus and advising against large gatherings. 

Costa Rica has announced that US residents flying from six northeastern states will be allowed entry next month to help revitalize its tourism sector, which has been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Starting in September, Costa Rica will allow six weekly flights for residents from New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut, the country’s tourism minister Gustavo Segura said at a news conference on Wednesday. 

People entering Costa Rica must show an official identification from one of the six US states, Segura said. Travelers must also present a negative Covid-19 test result taken no more than 48 hours before the flight and have travel insurance to cover any possible medical care.

“This gradual opening is still slight, but it is a message of hope not to lose strength and to understand that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Segura said.

The European Commission has concluded exploratory talks with German firm CureVac to purchase a potential Covid-19 vaccine, the Commission said in a statement Thursday.

The Commission will have a contractual framework in place "for the initial purchase of 225 million doses on behalf of all EU Member States, to be supplied once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19."

The European Commission "will have an agreement soon with CureVac. This is the 4th company with which we enter into an agreement," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Thursday, referring to the previous steps with Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

Sweden recorded its highest death tally in 150 years for the first half of 2020, according to the country’s official statistics office. 

Between January and June this year, 51,405 deaths were registered in the country -- more than 6,500 fatalities (or 15%) over the same period in 2019. 

This is the highest number of deaths in Sweden during the first half of the year since 1869, when the country was struck by famine and 55,431 people died.

The country also experienced the lowest population increase since 2005, with a surplus figure of 6,860 in 2020 that was less than half that of the previous year. 

Immigration figures also saw a reduction of 34.7% from the same period in 2019, with the figures primarily dropping in the second quarter between April and June. 

The background: Unlike most countries, Sweden did not go into a lockdown when the pandemic spread across Europe in early spring. Instead, there was an emphasis on personal responsibility, with most bars, schools, restaurants and salons remaining open. 

By early June, the country’s coronavirus death toll was at more than 4,500. According to Johns Hopkins University, it now stands at 5,802.