September 1 coronavirus news

Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor Greg Fischer announced 195 new Covid-19 cases and three more virus-related deaths during a news briefing Tuesday, bringing the city’s total to 12,612 confirmed cases and at least 282 deaths. 

There are currently 111 residents hospitalized, of whom 52 are in the ICU, said Fischer. 

The city’s positivity rate currently stands at 9.42%, he said. 

Cases are starting to trend downward but are still “way too high,” she continued, adding that the positivity rate is still increasing. 

In terms of testing, Louisville’s capacity is “quite robust,” said Bill Altman, Chief Strategy Officer for Kindred Health and former Chair of the Board of Health, who is leading the city’s work on testing as a consultant. 

Altman also noted that testing turnaround times are back to 48 hours or less after the city started to rely more on local and regional labs. 

New York City students will not return for in-person learning until Sept. 21, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at a press conference this morning. The first day of school in NYC was previously scheduled for next Thursday, Sept. 10.

After discussions with unions, this resolution was done “in a constructive spirit,” the mayor said.

More preparation days for teachers will now be built in to the schedule. The mayor said all of the changes are taking place in “absolutely unprecedented conditions” and the city is setting the “global gold standard.”

Here are details on NYC's new plan for school reopening:

New York state added two more states to its list of states and territories that are subject to its Covid-19 travel advisory, bringing the total to 33.

People traveling to the state from Alaska and Montana will now have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

New Jersey and Connecticut are expected to add the states to their list too, as all three neighbor states issued the same travel advisory guidance initially.

"As we continue to pursue a phased, data driven reopening, the number of areas that remain on New York's travel advisory is a stark reminder of the continued extent of the COVID-19 crisis throughout the nation," said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Meanwhile the State of New York has remained under a 1% transmission rate for its 25th day and ICU patients are at lows not seen since mid-March.

Of more than 1,000 establishments visited by the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task force, only three were observed in violation – including two in New York City.

The full, updated travel advisory list is here.

White House tours, which were suspended on March 12, are set to resume six months later on Saturday, Sept. 12. 

Face coverings will be required for those over the age of 2, and group sizes will be limited to 18% of normal capacity, the first lady’s office said.

Across the United States, 36 states are reporting 20,000 coronavirus cases at colleges and universities. 

In an interview on CNN’s “New Day,” Erin Bromage, a UMass Dartmouth biology professor, said that one of the best way to keep Covid-19 in check is to test students three times per week. 

Bromage also warned that we should not stigmatize against students who get coronavirus on campus.

“Administrators had the choice of designing a plan of how they delivered education, and they had all of summer to do this,” he said.

He said that it falls on school officials to find safe ways for students to socialize. 

Watch more:

The group representing airlines worldwide on Tuesday endorsed passenger coronavirus testing at airports as a method for restoring international air travel.  

International Air Transport Association CEO Alexandre de Juniac told reporters that testing “appears to be ready for being used in travel, giving confidence both to travelers and to governments.”   

He said the group believes “the speed, accuracy and scalability of testing is rapidly improving,” and that testing will serve to “rebuild confidence, reopen borders, restart aviation, recharge demand, and support jobs.” Among the challenges, de Juniac acknowledged, is having enough testing technology to deploy to each airport and to process a large number of passengers with minimal waiting.  

The group sees testing as one part of a three-point plan to expand international travel, including adopting a set of guidelines and international coordination so that entrance requirements are the same in every country.  

It believes those protections would allow countries can drop restrictions, such as quarantine periods, which the group said is a key barrier to the industry’s success.  

“The main issue we face is that most countries borders are closed to international travel,” said IATA economist Brian Pearce.  

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Tuesday responded to comments by President Trump that he doesn’t always agree with Fauci, and that he inherited him from previous administrations.

Asked on ABC’s Good Morning America whether he thinks the President trusts him and his advice, Fauci said, “You know, I think he does.”

“I think when you get statements like that, that doesn’t really reflect what actually goes on,” he added.

Fauci said he was at the White House yesterday at a coronavirus task force meeting with the vice president, and that everything discussed gets to the President – and that he understands that.

Previously, the President has questioned how high Fauci's approval ratings are and criticized him openly in interviews and on Twitter. Fauci has defend his policy actions on several occasions.

Catastrophic conditions in chaotic ill-equipped hospitals overflowing with Covid-19 patients -- patients forced to wait for others to die so they can be put on ventilators that could save their lives.

This is the situation in government-controlled parts of Syria, where medics say the coronavirus pandemic has reached crisis levels with health workers and facilities overwhelmed by the surge of cases across the country in recent weeks.

The Syrian Health Ministry has only confirmed 112 Covid-19 deaths in the country since March, with a total of 2,765 cases in regime-held areas.

Just in the last three weeks, the official number of cases has doubled but, according to health workers in Syrian regime-held areas, the figures do not begin to reflect the real scale of the outbreak.

Read more:

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