August 30 coronavirus news

By Joshua Berlinger, Jenni Marsh, Emma Reynolds, Fernando Alfonso III and Amir Vera, CNN

Updated 2001 GMT (0401 HKT) August 31, 2020
19 Posts
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1:14 p.m. ET, August 30, 2020

The number of coronavirus cases in the US approaches 6 million

From CNN's Chuck Johnston

There are at least 5,969,916 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 182,841 people have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.

As of Sunday afternoon, 8,820 new cases and 80 new deaths have been reported in the US since midnight.    

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

12:17 p.m. ET, August 30, 2020

Brazilian Health Ministry corrects Covid-19 death toll figures from Saturday

From Marcia Reverdosa

Andre Coelho/Getty Images
Andre Coelho/Getty Images

Brazil's Health Ministry issued a correction on Sunday regarding its daily Covid-19 death-toll figures for Saturday. 

On Saturday, Brazil surpassed 120,000 Covid-19 related deaths when the country's health ministry reported 758 new deaths, bringing the national death toll to 120,262. 

However, on Sunday, the ministry corrected these figures to 958 new Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, with a new total death toll of 120,462. 

According to the ministry, Saturday's original report was incorrect due to an error in the death toll reported by the Federal District (DF). Despite the mistake in death toll numbers, the ministry's report of 41,350 new cases for a total of 3,846,153 Covid-19 cases countrywide still stands.

Reports of Sunday's Covid-19 data have not yet been published. 

12:12 p.m. ET, August 30, 2020

Joe Biden says he would relaunch "PREDICT" virus detection program if elected

From CNN’s Sarah Mucha

Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

If elected president, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pledged that he would re-launch "PREDICT," a program launched after the 2005 H1N1 virus that was designed to help detect and combat potential pandemic threats like Covid-19. 

The program, which was shut down in 2019, focused specifically on the detection and discovery of "zoonotic diseases." 

Some context: Biden has continually criticized President Trump on the campaign trail for shuttering the pandemic response office established under President Obama — officially called the Global Health Security and Biodefense unit — and promised to restore it if elected, so it is not surprising that he is now adding the "Predict" program to the list of pandemic response mechanisms he would reinstitute. 

"It did not have to be this bad. That's the greatest tragedy of all. Donald Trump's failures didn't just start in July, when he simply gave up in the face of surging infections. They didn't just begin in June, May, April, and March, when he refused to take basic public health measures to lay the groundwork for an effective recovery. Or even in January and February, when he ignored repeated warnings about Covid-19," Biden said in the statement.

Biden's statement continued, "I will re-launch and strengthen U.S. Agency for International Development's pathogen-tracking program called PREDICT, which Donald Trump eliminated."

The New York Times was first to report that Biden would restart this specific program. 

12:07 p.m. ET, August 30, 2020

Tennis player withdraws from US Open after positive Covid-19 test

From CNN's Jabari Jackson

A player scheduled to play in this week’s US Open has tested positive for coronavirus and has been withdrawn from the tournament, United States Tennis Association (USTA) has announced. 

In a statement issued on Sunday, the USTA revealed the player is asymptomatic and has “advised” the player to self-isolate for at least 10 days. In addition, the USTA has begun conducting contact tracing to determine if anyone else will need to “quarantine for 14 days.” 

The statement did not identify the player by name.

The 2020 US Open is set to begin Aug. 31 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. 

11:48 a.m. ET, August 30, 2020

MLB game Sunday postponed due to positive Covid-19 test

From CNN's Wayne Sterling

Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Cody Glenn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Oakland Athletics and Houston Astros game scheduled for Sunday has been postponed "out of an abundance of caution" following a positive coronavirus test in the Athletics' organization, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced.

MLB said additional testing and contact tracing will be conducted. 

The game was slated to be played at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

11:00 a.m. ET, August 30, 2020

Operation Warp Speed officials cannot see coronavirus vaccine data early, official says

From CNN's Maggie Fox

Operation Warp Speed officials cannot peek early at any data coming out of clinical trials of experimental coronavirus vaccine, an official told reporters Friday.

Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff for policy at the US Department of Health Human Services, sought to reassure reporters that the process of approving any eventual coronavirus vaccine will be the same as for any vaccine.

“There is a thing called a Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent body that is assigned to each clinical trial,” Mango said during a telephone briefing. “We have no insight into the data until the DSMB says we can look at it. They can come back and say, ‘This is not a good vaccine.’ They could come back before we even have 30,000 folks enrolled and say ‘We have enough. This looks great.’ ”

Adverse reactions to the vaccine could also trigger the DSMB to stop the trial.

Makers of vaccines in advanced clinical trials in the US are seeking to enroll at least 30,000 volunteers so they can tell whether the vaccine is really safe and protects people from infection. But there could be enough data even before 30,000 people are enrolled, Mango said.

“What we are really looking for is cases — the number of positive cases from both the placebo and the vaccine group,” Mango said. “Once we get to 150 or so, statistically that is significant regardless of how many enrollees we have in the trial." 

“That may be surprising to some, but really the number of events that have to occur … is relatively small,” added US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield.

10:53 a.m. ET, August 30, 2020

This woman is beautifying Skid Row one makeover at a time. And not even the pandemic can stop her

From CNN's Alicia Lee

For a few hours every Saturday, Los Angeles' Skid Row -- home to one of the nation's largest concentrations of homeless people -- transforms into an outdoor beauty salon.

There, where tents line city blocks, people gather to get makeovers from Shirley Raines, or one of her team of volunteers, made up of licensed hair stylists, barbers, makeup artists.

Raines came up with the idea for her non-profit, Beauty 2 The Streets, after recognizing that a haircut, a new hair color and makeup can help homeless people to thrive.

"Just because they live on the streets doesn't mean that there aren't things we can do to help them not appear as they live on the streets," Raines told CNN. 

When California ordered all its residents to stay at home in late March due to the coronavirus, Raines and her volunteers complied. But the following Monday, she found messages on her social media from community members who were alone and hungry. 

"I realized that we didn't have the luxury of self isolating because we built this relationship with the community so we need to still go out there and help them." 

Homeless people are very vulnerable to Covid-19 because they live in close quarters and have limited access to cleaning facilities. So the team began handing out food, hand sanitizer and water, while adhering to distancing guidelines and wearing masks.

Still, the desire for beauty products is there, Raines said, so they have been slowly bringing out wigs, makeup, combs and brushes so homeless people can style themselves.

She said if there's anything to learn from the pandemic, it's that "any one of us could be them (homeless) at any given time." 

Read the full story here:

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6:25 a.m. ET, August 30, 2020

Two Indian cricketers and 11 support staff test positive for Covid-19

From CNN’s Rishabh Pratap in New Delhi

Two cricket players and 11 staff members in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 Season have tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement issued Saturday by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"Upon landing in the UAE [United Arab Emirates], all the participants have followed a mandatory testing and quarantine programme. Total of 1,988 RT-PCR COVID tests were carried out between August 20th-28th across all participant groups in the UAE. These groups include Players, Support Staff, Team Management, BCCI Staff, IPL Operational team, Hotel and ground transport Staff," read the statement.

"13 personnel have tested positive of which 2 are players. All the affected personnel as well as their close contacts are asymptomatic and have been isolated from other team members. They are being monitored by the IPL Medical Team," the statement said.

As per the IPL 2020 Health and Safety Protocols, testing on all participants will be conducted regularly throughout the IPL 2020 Season, the statement added. 

The IPL 2020 will begin on September 19 and the final will be played on November 10. 

6:02 a.m. ET, August 30, 2020

Colleges and universities work to control outbreaks as a new school year starts amid coronavirus

From CNN's Madeline Holcombe

A return to campus for the new academic year has colleges and universities across the United States struggling to both contain outbreaks of Covid-19 and enforce policies meant to prevent its spread. 

At least 36 states have reported positive cases at colleges and universities, adding more than 8,700 cases to the country's tally. More than 5.9 million infections have been recorded in the US, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Since classes started on August 19, 1,200 students at the University of Alabama have tested positive for the virus, the university system's website showed Saturday. Classes at the University of Dayton will continue online for at least two weeks after the school reported 116 cases on Thursday and another 148 on Friday, according to the university's website.

Several hundred students tested positive at Kansas State University and the University of Kansas, according to their schools.

Providence College in Rhode Island has implemented policies to prevent the virus' spread, but 17 students have been placed on "interim suspension" for violating those measures, meaning they will not be allowed on campus or in classes until they attend a hearing, college spokesperson Steven Maurano told CNN Saturday.

Read the full story here: