September 2 coronavirus news

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the White House Coronavirus Task Force is not discussing herd immunity as a strategy to control the coronavirus pandemic, even though President Donald Trump frequently mentions it as a means of making the pandemic “go away.”

Herd immunity occurs when enough people are infected or vaccinated in a community that a pathogen stops circulating.

“That's not a fundamental strategy that we're using,” Fauci said in an interview Wednesday with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “We're not there yet."

“The fundamental strategy that we clearly articulate and go by, through the task force, is to try to prevent as many infections as you possibly can prevent,” he added. “When you get someone who's infected, you do the identification, isolation and contact tracing and you do the kinds of things to prevent infections.”

Fauci said he didn’t understand what Trump was referring to in his comments about herd immunity.

Mexico’s Health Ministry recorded 4,921 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 610,957. 

The ministry also announced 575 new virus-related fatalities, raising Mexico’s death toll to 65,816.

Mexico trails only Brazil, Peru, and Colombia in terms of the highest number of total coronavirus cases in Latin America, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Economic blow: Addressing the nation on Tuesday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador discussed the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic.

Compared to the first three months of the year, Mexico’s GDP fell more than 17% in the second quarter of 2020 -- and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts the country’s economy could fall another 10.5% before the year’s end. 

Despite the country having one of the highest death tolls in the world, Obrador said he believes the worst of the pandemic is over for Mexico, in terms of both the economy and public health.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made a “plea” to Americans to continue coronavirus mitigation efforts as Labor Day weekend approaches.

Surges in coronavirus were recorded after Memorial Day weekend and the Fourth of July.

“You can have an enjoyable weekend, but you can do a couple of fundamental things that we talk about all the time,” he said. “Masks, distance, avoiding crowds, outdoors much more than indoors, washing your hands — those types of simple things.” 

Colombia’s health ministry reported 9,270 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday for a total of 633,339 cases.  

The health ministry also reported 296 virus-related deaths, bringing Colombia’s total number of fatalities to 20,348.

Some context: Beginning Tuesday, restrictions on air travel, transportation between cities, and non-essential businesses in Colombia were partially lifted.

Bars and restaurants must remain closed to the public until the end of September, with the exception of areas designated for open-air dining. Colombia has reported fewer than 10,000 new daily infections each day in the past week.

In Latin America, Colombia continues to trail only Brazil and Peru in terms of the highest numbers of coronavirus infections in the region, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson tested positive for Covid-19, along with his wife and young children, the actor and former professional wrestler announced Wednesday in an Instagram video.

“I can tell you that this is one of the most challenging and difficult things we have ever had to endure as a family," Johnson said.

Johnson married singer Lauren Hashian last year. The couple has two daughters, Jasmine and Tiana.

Johnson said they got the virus from “very close family friends” who are “devastated” that they unwittingly infected Johnson’s family. He and his family learned of their condition “two-and-a-half to three weeks ago.”

Johnson said his whole family is now fully in recovery.

“We are on the other side, we are no longer contagious, and we are – thank God – we are healthy," the actor said.

The director of the National Institutes for Health, Dr. Francis Collins, said it’s “unlikely” that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by October. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told public health officials around the United States to prepare to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine as soon as late October. It’s also provided planning scenarios to help states prepare. 

“This is like the Boy Scout motto, ‘Be Prepared,’” Collins said. “Even if it's very low likelihood, if everything happened to come together really beautifully and we had an answer by then and we knew we had a vaccine that was safe and effective, wouldn't you want people to be ready to figure out how to do the distribution? That's all that CDC is saying.”

“Now keep in mind that the likelihood of that is pretty low,” Collins added.

There are currently three vaccines in the US in phase 3 clinical trials.

Google search's data visualization programs now include a platform to see what coronavirus-related symptoms have been looked up by users around the world, the US, states, and counties.

Google has for years tried to refine algorithms to come up with ways to predict disease activity based on people’s searches for symptoms.

Google search has previously offered data to help researchers studying health impacts from heatwaves, prediction models for the seasonal flu and monitor Lyme disease incidence.

Brazil’s health ministry reported 46,934 new Covid-19 cases and an additional 1,184 virus-related deaths on Wednesday.

These new figures bring the country’s total number of cases to 3,997,865 and its death toll to 123,780.

Some context: According to figures released by the health ministry during a news conference on Wednesday, the number of deaths from coronavirus reported last week in Brazil reflected an 11% decrease from the week prior. 

Brazil has the second-highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the world, behind only the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The University of Missouri has reported that it has 483 active student cases of Covid-19. 

According to the university's Covid-19 dashboard, a total of 683 student Covid-19 cases, which includes active cases, have been reported since the university began receiving data from the Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services on Aug. 19.