September 3 coronavirus news

In the month of August alone, nearly 7,000 people in Missouri in the 18-24 age group tested positive for coronavirus, according to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.

The governor said that approximately 30% of the new cases in the state of Missouri are among the 18 to 24-year-old population.

“While young, healthy people are likely to have mild symptoms and quick recoveries … they may unknowingly carry Covid-19 to someone older or with underlying conditions, who is unable to fight off the virus. This is why it is so important for young people to take precautions and understand the responsibility,” Parson said.

Parson said while more young people continue to test positive, the vast majority of those young people have not required hospitalization. 

“I know there is a lot of concern right now regarding college students. But I want to assure you that our colleges, and our universities, have plans in place, and are taking all steps necessary to keep their students and communities as safe as possible,” Parson said.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that the state has formed a rapid response team to do testing in schools and childcare facilities in case of potential Covid-19 infections or outbreaks.

This rapid testing team will act as "one more level of security," Lamont said during a news briefing today, and it will be deployed in partnership with health centers and hospital systems across the state. 

Connecticut has reported a total of 53,209 Covid-19 cases and 4,468 total deaths. 

To note: These numbers were released by the governor's office and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, laid out how colleges and universities should successfully open, and the conditions that he feels would be necessary for sending his own children onto a college campus, in a phone interview with CNN.

As the fall semester begins at colleges across the country with mixed results, Fauci said that colleges and universities should only consider reopening if they can test all of their students at the start of the semester, conduct surveillance testing at various intervals, and have spaces dedicated for students who inevitably contract Covid-19 to quarantine. 

Fauci specifically highlighted the planning around designating specific spaces for students who contract the virus as key to the whole equation.

“The whole thing could fall apart if you don't handle that well” Fauci said. “In other words you could intend to bring people back to person to person learning on a college campus and then if you don't have a good preparation, or a plan of what to do with them if and when they do get infected and likely it's very likely that some students will get infected.”

Fauci said the schools that have followed this game plan “are the ones that have succeeded thus far.” 

More details: Without revealing who, Fauci said that he has consulted with presidents of schools that ultimately decided not to open for in-person instruction this fall, largely because they could not carry out the protocol he deemed as necessary. 

For campuses that have opened, Fauci said that large student parties and social gatherings that violate an institution’s social distancing guidelines are a driving factor in increasing the case counts of their universities.

“I think that's pretty clear. I mean they haven't done the official study to prove that, but the circumstantial evidence is pretty compelling, that when you get students that then congregate without masks in a party setting, particularly if the party is indoors in a sorority or a fraternity, you know that's a recipe for having an outbreak” Fauci said.

French professional football club Paris Saint-Germain has announced that an additional three players have tested positive for Covid-19.

On Wednesday, Neymar was one of three PSG players to have tested positive for the virus, according to multiple reports.

On Thursday, PSG said test results revealed the additional players but the team did not disclose names.

In a letter to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some lawmakers are urging the agency to update its Covid-19 guidance for college and university campuses in order to encourage them to become tobacco free – which would include e-cigarettes – for the fall semester.

This request to the CDC is based on "new evidence demonstrating the link between adolescent tobacco use and COVID-19," Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform's Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin wrote in the letter, sent to CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield on Thursday.

The letter references a study, led by researchers at Stanford University and published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in August, that suggests young people who have used e-cigarettes can be five times more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19.

In the letter, the lawmakers ask for Redfield to confirm by Sept. 9 whether the CDC will make this update to its guidance.

The Nasdaq Composite tumbled nearly 5% and the Dow fell more than 800 points, as investors made a dash for the exits following a streak of record-setting days over the past several weeks.

It was the worst day for stocks since June.

Stocks erased all their gains after a huge bout of exuberance Wednesday, when the S&P 500 — the broadest measure of Wall Street — and the Nasdaq hit yet another record high. The Nasdaq had also climbed above 12,000 points for the first time in history Wednesday.

But it didn't stick. Thursday was the Nasdaq's largest one-day decline from a record high in its history, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

All three major indexes finished the day sharply lower. The Nasdaq closed down nearly 5%, and the S&P fell 3.5%, while the Dow finished 2.8%, or 808 points, lower. 

So, what happened? For one, the Nasdaq has been outperforming the other two major stock indexes — the Dow and the S&P 500 — for months. The rally has been going on for long enough that investors are now taking profit.

Even so, the Nasdaq remains up nearly 28% in 2020, still far outpacing its counterparts. The Dow, which only recently turned positive for the year, is back in the red.

But there are also technical reasons for Thursday's decline: As US-China relations sour, investors are moving money out of tech, which could get hit the hardest from a potential increase in tariffs.

The Big Tech companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, all of which are part of the Nasdaq, have become the safe-haven investment of the summer. But investors have beginning to wonder when the rally will run out of steam, either because of increased regulation or because the economy as a whole picks up enough to void the need for safety picks altogether. Tech stocks were among Thursday's worst performers.

But even investors who are still faithful to their safe tech holdings have reason to be a little concerned: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, told CNN Thursday that a Covid-19 vaccine by October remained "unlikely," though it was possible.

Making matters worse, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late Wednesday that "the cooperative spirit we had in March and April" on Capitol Hill has "dissipated as we move closer and closer to the election."

This doesn't bode well for Congress agreeing on another stimulus bill, which the market has been hoping for.

Iraq reported 4,755 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, which is the highest daily number of infections recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, the country's health ministry said.

The latest recorded cases bring the country's total case count to at least 247,039. There were also 74 new deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, raising the national death toll to 7,275, the ministry said.

Some context: The Iraqi Health Ministry earlier this month warned of "disastrous consequences" if people don't follow the ministry's guidance to contain the spread of the virus.

The guidance included recommendations to stay home, social distance, wear masks and wash hands regularly.

According to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases in the United States, there have been at least 6,125,916 cases of coronavirus reported in the US. At least 186,185 people have died in the US since the pandemic began. 

So far on Thursday, Johns Hopkins has reported 12,406 new cases and 465 reported deaths.

You can track the number of cases in the US here.

Stay-at-home orders issued across the United States in the spring appeared to work at keeping people home, new cellphone data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

The researchers also found that in areas where orders were lifted or expired, movement "significantly increased" immediately afterward.

“Reduced population movement helps prevent close contact among persons outside the household, potentially limiting exposure to persons infected with SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers from the CDC and the Georgia Tech Research Institute wrote in the CDC’s weekly report.

The study included data on stay-at-home orders issued by states, the District of Columbia and five US territories between March 1 and May 31.

The researchers, from the CDC and the Georgia Tech Research Institute, examined those orders and analyzed anonymous location data from mobile devices. They used the location data to estimate movements by county, based on the percentage of devices that moved each day beyond 150 meters of its most common nighttime location, which the researchers assumed was the home.

Some people could have more than one mobile device, the researchers noted. Plus media attention around Covid-19 and the cancellation of events could also have influenced people to stay home.

"These findings can inform future public policies to reduce community spread of COVID-19,” the researchers wrote.