September 7 coronavirus news

Nearly 20% of new Covid-19 cases in Kentucky are from children ages 18 and younger, according to a news release issued by Gov. Andy Beshear’s office.

According to the governor's office, 291 new coronavirus cases were reported Monday, 52 of which were under the age of 18. The youngest is just one month old, according to the governor. 

No new deaths were reported.

Beshear attributed the dip in numbers to the holiday weekend.

“I’ll take any day we’re not announcing new deaths, but we know this is only due to less reporting because of the long holiday weekend,” the governor said. “We’ve lost nearly 1,000 of our fellow Kentuckians to this deadly virus.”  

He urged Kentuckians to keep gatherings to 10 people or fewer, wear a mask and to continue to practice social distancing.

In the midst of comments about the timeline of a Covid-19 vaccine from both sides of the aisle, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says the process should not be politicized.

"Let's not politicize this thing. We have developed vaccines for decade after decade after decade. We have to give the resources to the doctors and the scientists to do their work," Sanders told CNN on Monday.

Some background: This comes after President Trump said there could be a coronavirus vaccine "before a very special date."

While Trump did not specially mention which date, he has previously suggested that a vaccine for coronavirus could be ready before Election Day.

But, several officials have raised questions about Trump's timeline.

Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, told NPR last week that it’s “extremely unlikely, but not impossible” that a Covid-19 vaccine could be authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration before the end of October.

Dr. Larry Corey, who’s leading a group set up by the National Institutes of Health to work on coronavirus vaccines, told CNN he also said he doesn’t think there will be a vaccine available by Election Day.

Watch here:

New graphics from the World Health Organization illustrate how much worse the coronavirus pandemic is in the Americas compared to other regions of the world.

The US has more cases and more deaths than any other country, with Brazil coming in for a close second.

“The United States of America and Brazil account for nearly three quarters of all COVID-19 cases in the Americas,” WHO said.

Yet President Trump continues to claim that the US case count and death counts are improving, and compare favorably to Europe’s.

How these regions compare: While the WHO Americas region and European regions have similar populations – around 1 billion for the Americans compared to 900 million for Europe – WHO’s statistics show the Americas account for 46% of all new coronavirus cases over the past seven days, and 59% or newly reported deaths.

Cumulatively, the Americas accounts for 55% of all coronavirus deaths globally, with roughly one-seventh of the total global population.

Europe, in contrast, accounts for 13% of all reported new cases over the past seven days, 8% of deaths and 25% of the global total cumulative deaths.

WHO says the Americas reported nearly 3.5 times as many new cases as reported by Europe in the last seven days. New cases in the Americas now account for 52% of cumulative cases worldwide.

Another federal official is making it clear that despite President Trump’s predictions, there’s hardly any chance a vaccine will be available to Americans by Election Day.

Trump, however, has projected optimism for a quicker timeline.

“[It’s] going to be done in a very short period of time – could even have it during the month of October,” the President said at a news conference Monday. “We’ll have the vaccine soon, maybe before a special date. You know what date I’m talking about.”

On August 6, Trump said he was “optimistic” a vaccine would be ready by Nov. 3.

"I believe we'll have the vaccine before the end of the year, certainly, but around that date, yes. I think so," Trump said.

And at a rally last week, he said, "It will be delivered before the end of the year, in my opinion, before the end of the year, but it really might even be delivered before the end of October."

Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, told NPR last week that it’s “extremely unlikely, but not impossible” that a Covid-19 vaccine could be authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration before the end of October.

Dr. Larry Corey, who’s leading a group set up by the National Institutes of Health to work on coronavirus vaccines, told CNN he also said he doesn’t think there will be a vaccine available by Election Day.

“I would agree with Dr. Slaoui. The chances are very low, very remote,” said Corey, who leads the COVID-19 Prevention Network.

There are at least 6,292,206 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 189,095 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

So far on Monday, Johns Hopkins has recorded 15,841 new cases and 154 reported deaths.

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

In his Monday afternoon news conference, President Trump got into an exchange with Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason after Mason would not remove his face mask at the request of the President.

The President stopped Mason as he began to ask the first question, saying "you're going to have to take that off, please." He gestured to the space between the reporter and the podium, inquiring, "you're...how many feet are you away?"

Mason replied that he would just speak louder to counter the effects of the mask. 

Trump was not satisfied with this response, telling the reporter his voice was "very muffled" with the face covering, "so if you would take it off, it would be a lot easier."

Mason raised his voice and repeated his offer to speak louder, asking "is that better?"

The President sighed saying, "it's better. Yeah, it's better."

Later in the news conference, Trump remarked that one reporter who did remove his mask sounded "so clear. As opposed to everybody else, where they refuse."

This is not the first time that the President has requested a reporter take off his or her mask so that he could hear a question more clearly, but his disappointment with Mason's response was notable.

President Trump said there could be a coronavirus vaccine "before a very special date."

While Trump did not specially mention which date, he has previously suggested that a vaccine for coronavirus could be ready before Election Day.

"President Trump is getting this vaccine in record time. By the way, if this were the Obama administration, you wouldn't have that vaccine for three years, and you probably wouldn't have it at all," Trump said today at a news conference.

Facts First: It's possible that a vaccine could be approved by the Food and Drug Administration at some point in November, but there is obviously no firm timeline or guarantee that one will be. And even when one is approved, it will likely still be many months before it's widely available across the US.

You can read CNN's full fact check on Trump's previous suggestion that there could be a vaccine ready before Election Day here.

Watch here:

President Trump said congressional Democrats don't want to make a stimulus deal because such a deal would be beneficial to him in the November election.

"They think it's good for politics if they don't make a deal," Trump said at an ongoing Labor Day news conference

"They don't want to make a deal because they know that's good for the economy. And if they make deal that's good for the economy — and therefore, it's good for me for the election in November, Nov. 3 — and therefore, they're not going to make a deal," he added.

About the stimulus stall: Lawmakers don't appear any closer to striking a deal on additional coronavirus stimulus. Democrats are pushing for a wide-ranging, multi-trillion dollar proposal with funding for schools, rental assistance, health providers and small businesses.

Senate GOP leadership, meanwhile, has been working for weeks behind the scenes toward building internal consensus on a scaled-back, or "skinny" proposal that would include funds for education, small business, a scaled-back enhanced federal unemployment benefit and liability protections.

Watch CNN analysis here:

Florida health officials reported 1,838 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, the lowest daily tally of cases in nearly three months.

The last time the state reported a low caseload was on June 15 when it recorded 1,758 coronavirus cases, according to numbers released by the Florida Department of Health.

In spite of the holiday weekend, today’s new count reflects a downward trend of new coronavirus cases and does not deviate that much from the number of new cases reported on previous Mondays. Last Monday, on Aug. 31, Florida reported 1,885 new cases.

The total number of positive coronavirus cases across the state is at least 648,269, and today’s death toll of 22 fatalities brings the state total to 11,871 among Florida residents.