September 9 coronavirus news

Public health guidelines surrounding Halloween in Los Angeles are being revised from a ban on trick-or-treating, to simply a recommendation that people don’t go door-to-door on Halloween.

Though trick-or-treating typically takes place outdoors, Ferrer cautioned that there's no guarantee that when you go trick-or-treating the person opening the door will be wearing a mask, that the person is not sick or that they haven't touched the candy being offered.

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said his deputies will not be enforcing the issue.

“We’re going to leave that alone. We want parents out there to practice some common sense,” he said live on Facebook. “By the time October 31 rolls around, let’s see what the conditions are at that time. And if there’s some type of trick-or-treating that will be permissible, that’s going to be up to the public health experts on that.”

California is reporting at least 1,616 new coronavirus cases today – the lowest number the state has seen in four months. 

The last time California recorded a lower number was May 19, when at least 1,365 new cases were reported.

Los Angeles Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer cautioned that closures of test sites and labs due to Labor Day and the extreme heat wave may impact the numbers in L.A. County.

The state’s positivity rate is “encouraging,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

The weeklong positivity rate is 3.6%, and the 14-day rate stands at 4%. Testing has dropped significantly, which Newsom attributes primarily to the ongoing wildfires.

To date, California has recorded at least 739,527 coronavirus cases and approximately 13,841 fatalities, according to state public health data.

Note: These numbers were released by California Department of Public Health, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Dr. Robert Redfield said if we can get a few Covid-19 vaccines approved, “we can get this behind us."

Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he wasn’t always so confident that we’d have a coronavirus vaccine, he said while peaking at the Research America forum on Wednesday.

"We should celebrate when we have a successful, safe and efficacious Covid virus vaccine," Redfield said.

Small businesses stunted by coronavirus closures will be eligible for tax relief in California thanks to new legislation signed into law today.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 1447, which expands Covid-related assistance programs specifically for California’s small business and establishes a hiring tax credit. Each small business that re-hires an employee once stay-at-home orders are lifted will receive a $1,000 credit toward their tax liability, as explained by state Sen. Anna Caballero, who sponsored the bill.

The new relief is expected to cost California about $100 million, Newsom estimated.

President Trump's reelection campaign won't be able to hold a rally on Saturday in Nevada as planned.

The Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority has sent a letter to the company that runs the hangar that is set to be the venue for the 5,000 person rally this weekend, saying the event “may not proceed,” citing Nevada’s restrictions on public gatherings. 

“After reviewing the lease, the airport’s attorney found the rally would be in violation of Directive 021 from the Nevada Governor,” the airport's statement said.

As a result, officials sent a letter to Hanger 9, LLC, the company that leases the private hanger set to be the venue, saying that they “may not proceed with the proposed gathering,” a copy of the letter provided by the airport shows. 

“We would hold our tenants to the same standard whether it was a Democratic or Republican rally or any other type of gathering,” Griffin added. 

Airport officials were also concerned that the rally would draw demonstrations that could “interfere with or impede the operations of the airport,” the statement said.

The Trump campaign suggested that the move was political.

“Democrats are trying to keep President Trump from speaking to voters because they know the enthusiasm behind his re-election campaign cannot be matched by Joe Biden,” Tim Murtaugh, Trump campaign spokesperson, said in a statement.

“President Trump will be traveling to Nevada on the dates planned. Additional details will be announced soon,” the statement added.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said in a tweet that his office “had no involvement or communication with the event organizers or potential hosts regarding the proposed campaign events advertised by the Trump campaign."

“The Nevada-specific White House recommendations have consistently included recommendations to limit the size of gatherings for weeks now,” Sisolak added.

The Trump administration intends to end coronavirus screenings of passengers arriving to the United States from overseas, according to three officials familiar with the plans. 

The US began conducting enhanced screenings of passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, where there had been coronavirus outbreak, at select airports in January. Over the following months, additional airports began the process of checking passengers from high-risk countries. For a brief period, the screenings resulted in long lines and overcrowded conditions at US airports. 

The administration now appears set to end those screenings, a move first reported by Yahoo News. US Customs and Border Protection deferred to the Department of Homeland Security, which hasn’t returned request for comment. 

A TSA official told CNN that a draft public affairs guidance memo lays out the rationale for ending airport screening — of the 675,000 passengers screened at 15 airports, fewer than 15 had been identified as having COVID-19.

It’s been difficult to measure how effective the screenings were to begin with. Data provided to the House Oversight Committee earlier this year revealed few passengers were stopped in initial screenings of international flights from early coronavirus hotspots outside of China. 

The screenings included questions about medical history, current condition, and contact information for local health authorities. 

Calling it a “highly dangerous activity” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said at an afternoon briefing he doesn’t expect bars and nightclubs in his county to open in the foreseeable future.

Bars and nightclubs are "not conducive to maintaining a six-foot separation," Gimenez said. 

 "I just think that that's a highly dangerous activity," said Gimenez.  

Dr. Alina Alonso, the county's health director, says data from other regions shows "bars and discos and so forth have been sites of major, major clusters for Covid-19 so those are high risk areas, the mayor is absolutely right." 

Where things stand: Currently in Miami-Dade County, indoor dining at restaurants is allowed at 50% capacity but bars and nightclubs remain closed.

Gimenez was asked whether strip clubs would also remain closed, to which he responded, "That's something we're going to have to discuss with the medical advisors again" because "it's a little bit different."  

Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon elaborated: "Adult entertainment venues developed specific rules that govern how they were operating and they were required to have their customers seated at tables with social distancing and a certain distance from the entertainers," the bars were not open, "and that is not the same as what happens at a nightclub." 

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has announced that the state's health department has partnered with Baptist Health in order to increase Covid-19 testing capacity by 20%.

According to the governor, the department of health will refer 50% of the tests that come in to Baptist Health for its analysis and will provide the personnel to operate the commercially rated lab equipment, which the department of health is providing.

Baptist Health will be operating the equipment 24 hours per day, seven days a week, according to Hutchinson.

The state expects to be operational with the new equipment, which will run over 1,000 tests a day, by Oct. 1.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced today that the state's Covid-19 numbers aren't where they should be. 

The governor said today's positivity rate is at 7.78%, adding “that’s really bad.”

Justice added that West Virginia has a record high of active Covid-19 cases with at least 2,806 and "the worst reproduction rate, the RT rate is at 1.35. It's the worst in the nation."

The governor called on state residents to do better, as this is a critical time.  

Note: These numbers were released by the West Virginia public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.