September 1 coronavirus news

By Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Mike Hayes and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 12:00 a.m. ET, September 2, 2020

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10:56 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

New York City delays in-person school until Sept. 21

From CNN's Melanie Schuman

Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, listen as he meets with parents at Bronx Collaborative High School on Wednesday, August 26, in New York. Bebeto Matthews/Pool/AP

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:

Sept. 8: Teachers and staff return Tuesday as planned, but instead of bringing students back on Sept. 10, that will be an instruction day teachers and staff.
Sept. 10, 11, 14 and 15 will be devoted to preparation for teachers and staff.
Sept. 16: Remote instruction will begin for all students.
Sept. 21: Students can return to school buildings for blended learning – a model previously outlined by the city. Some students come to buildings some days and learn remotely other days.

10:35 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

Two more states added to New York's Covid-19 quarantine travel list

From CNN's Kristina Sgueglia

Passengers, some wearing masks and protective gear, queue for their flight at Terminal 1 of John F. Kennedy Airport amid the novel coronavirus pandemic on May 13 in Queens, New York. Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

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.

10:02 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

White House will resume tours next Saturday after a 6-month hiatus

From CNN's Betsy Klein

The White House is seen from the North entrance on December 22, 2018 in Washington. Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

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

“In order to ensure the safety and health of all visitors, there have been new policies implemented that align with the guidance issued by Federal, State, and local officials,” a statement from the first lady’s office said.

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.

9:25 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

Don't stigmatize students who catch Covid-19 at college, professor says

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

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.

“But three times a week is financially really tough for most universities to accomplish,” Bromage said. “When you go to once a week, it's impossible to actually catch up to those infections.”

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.

“If…we start forcing them to go underground in regards to their social activities, that makes it even harder to control. We need to be looking at ways to understand what the students want to do — they want to congregate, they want to be together, they want to socialize — but we need to help them do that in a safer way,” Bromage said.

Watch more:

9:06 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

Airline group proposes coronavirus testing for passengers at airports

From CNN's Greg Wallace

International Air Transport Association (IATA) chief executive Alexandre de Juniac speaks during a press conference after the opening session of the annual general meeting of IATA in Seoul on June 2, 2019. Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images

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.

8:45 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

Fauci on his relationship with Trump: "We're all on the same team"

From CNN Health’s Naomi Thomas

In this March 31 file photo, President Donald Trump departs the daily coronavirus task force briefing while walking past Dr. Anthony Fauci in the press briefing room at the White House in Washington. Win McNamee/Getty Images

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.

“I think that’s kind of a distraction to pit me against the President,” Fauci said. “We’re all on the same team.”

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.

8:33 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

Covid-19 sufferers in Syria wait for others to die before they can be put on a respirator

From CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, Eyad Kourdi, Omar AlMuqtad and Gul Tuysuz

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:

The hospitals where Covid-19 sufferers wait for others to die before they can be put on a respirator

8:01 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

It's just after 1 p.m. in London and 8 a.m. in New York. Here's the latest on the pandemic

A teacher gives a lesson to masked school children in Bischheim, outside Strasbourg, eastern France, on Tuesday, September 1. Jean-Francois Badias/AP

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 25.5 million people worldwide and killed more than 851,000. Here's what you need to know:

Russia surpasses one million cases: The country's nationwide tally stands at 1,000,048 cases, after 4,729 new infections were reported Tuesday.
FDA commissioner addresses vaccine concerns: Dr. Stephen Hahn said "all options are on the table" when asked if he would resign if pressured to release a Covid-19 vaccine before he feels it's ready.
French schools reopen: All French schools are reopening for the first time since March, with masks mandatory for students aged 11 and older. Reopening is going ahead despite France's rising infection rate.
Zoom profits skyrocket: The company's profits rose by nearly 3,300% compared with a year earlier.
Germany can avoid second lockdown, says minister: Peter Altmaier, Germany's Minister for Economic Affairs says the worst of the pandemic is behind the country.

7:41 a.m. ET, September 1, 2020

How Covid-19 built a "northern wall" between the US and Canada

From CNN's Paula Newton

There were no bricks and mortar, no fencing or cement, no cross-border diplomatic skirmish, just two government orders. And that was enough to essentially shut down the world's longest international border for visitors.

When the US and Canada mutually agreed in March to shut down the border to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, no one predicted it would be closed this long. There is still no specified date for its reopening, although trade has continued between the countries.

"There's a closeness that we're definitely missing, but I can tell you not anyone that I have spoken to here wants that border opened anytime soon. We miss you, citizens of the US, but we're not comfortable opening the border," Bernadette Clement, the mayor of Cornwall, Ontario, said in an interview with CNN.

East to west, for thousands of miles, the border closure is redefining not just economic relationships, but personal lives, in ways no one expected.

"This really is going to have a long-term impact on our communities, economically, socially and on all the things that are really important to us," said Tim Currier, the mayor of Massena, New York, a "sister" community to Cornwall, just a few miles across the border on the other side of the St. Lawrence River.

No longer. The border is shut tight for any trips that are deemed "non-essential" or discretionary and that includes all recreation and tourism.

Read more:

Covid-19 built a 'northern wall' between the US and Canada and it could stay up longer than anyone expected

By Paula Newton, CNN