By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Meg Wagner and Melissa Macaya, CNN
From CNN's Tina Burnside
The United States reported 32,711 new Covid-19 infections and 1,162 virus-related deaths on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
At least 6,359,720 cases, including 190,815 fatalities, have now been recorded in the US.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
CNN is tracking US cases here:
From CNN Health's Shelby Lin Erdman
More Americans are foregoing preventive healthcare services amid the coronavirus pandemic compared to last year, a new study by the Health Care Cost Institute has found.
Reviewing health insurance records in 18 states, HCCI examined 184 million claims from 30 million patients in 2019 and 94 million claims from 20 million patients in the first six months of 2020.
“Overall, we found that the pandemic is having a significant dampening effect on the use of certain health care services,” the institute found.
The institute mainly reviewed records on women's preventative health services, select services provided during pregnancy and delivery, childhood immunizations and other preventive medical services including colonoscopies, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests.
By June of this year, many preventive health checks were down compared to 2019 levels:
“This analysis is merely a preliminary glimpse at the impact of COVID-19 on health care utilization in 2020 and is not intended to provide definitive answers about the ways in which the pandemic is affecting people's health care,” the group said.
From CNN's Eric Bradner
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said it is "disgusting" and "almost criminal" that US President Donald Trump knew of the serious risk posed by the coronavirus in February and then downplayed its threat in March.
In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday in Michigan, the former vice president said the revelations about Trump's early understanding of how deadly the virus is and how easily it could spread -- shared in recorded interviews for Bob Woodward's forthcoming book -- are "why we have no confidence in his leadership."
"This caused people to die. And what did he do the whole time?" Biden said. "He acknowledged this -- you breathe it, it's in the air -- and he won't put on a mask. He's talking about, 'It's ridiculous to put on a mask, what do you need social distancing for? Why have any of these rules?'"
Woodward's book, for which Trump gave 18 interviews, includes Trump saying on February 7 that "this is deadly stuff" and on March 19 that "I wanted to always play it down." The news about Trump's handling of the virus comes less than three weeks before his first debate with Biden, who has led recent national and swing-state polls.
"It was all about making sure the stock market didn't come down, that his wealthy friends didn't lose any money, and that he could say anything, that in fact anything that happened had nothing to do with him," Biden said Wednesday, speculating about Trump's motives for downplaying the virus in the early weeks of its spread.
"He waved a white flag. He walked away. He didn't do a damn thing," Biden said. "Think about it. Think about what he did not do -- it's almost criminal."
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From CNN Health’s Maggie Fox
The US federal government said Wednesday it plans to stop limiting international arrivals from certain countries to 15 airports and funneling them through enhanced screening.
Instead, passengers will be advised about risks.
“Beginning September 14, 2020, the US government will remove requirements for directing all flights carrying airline passengers arriving from, or recently had a presence in, certain countries to land at one of 15 designated airports and halt enhanced entry health screening for these passengers,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in an updated post on its website.
“Currently, enhanced entry health screening is conducted for those arriving from, or with recent presence in, China (excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau), Iran, the Schengen region of Europe, the United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe), Ireland, and Brazil.”
Screening for symptoms doesn’t really help much because so many people do not have symptoms, the CDC said.
“Transmission of the virus may occur from passengers who have no symptoms or who have not yet developed symptoms of infection. Therefore, CDC is shifting its strategy and prioritizing other public health measures to reduce the risk of travel-related disease transmission,” the agency said.
It said resources will instead be dedicated to “more effective mitigation efforts” focused on individuals.
These will include “pre-departure, in-flight, and post-arrival health education for passengers; robust illness response at airports; voluntary collection of contact information from passengers using electronic means,” the CDC said. That should help reduce crowding and lines, it said.
Testing may also be an option, as well as reminding travelers to watch for symptoms and quarantine themselves as possible for 14 days.
From CNN's Chandler Thornton
The global death toll from the novel coronavirus surpassed 900,000 on Wednesday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.
There have been at least 900,239 deaths worldwide. The United States has accounted for at least 190,784 coronavirus-related deaths, the most around the world.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases around the world stands at 27,719,952, according to the university.
CNN is tracking worldwide cases and deaths here:
From CNN's Naomi Thomas
The decision to pause AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine trial because of a potential adverse event in one volunteer shows the safety monitoring system is working, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.
“In many respects, obviously, it’s unfortunate that there was this serious adverse event, but in some respects, it shows that the system works,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News.
When there is a serious adverse event, “this is the kind of thing that you’d like to see,” he said.
“Mechanisms are put into place to stop everything, no more enrollment until you can figure out what’s going on and you can alert other people in the sites. Did they see anything either similar to or identical to this, is this a one-off, is this a fluke, or is this something that’s real and that we have to pay attention to?" Fauci added.
Americans should feel reassured, he said. They can “feel comfort that when there is an adverse event, it becomes very transparent and it becomes investigated and the trial is halted until we can clarify that.”
From CNN's Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart
US President Donald Trump admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and "more deadly than even your strenuous flus," and that he repeatedly played it down publicly, according to legendary journalist Bob Woodward in his new book "Rage."
"This is deadly stuff," Trump told Woodward on February 7.
In a series of interviews with Woodward, Trump revealed that he had a surprising level of detail about the threat of the virus earlier than previously known. "Pretty amazing," Trump told Woodward, adding that the coronavirus was maybe five times "more deadly" than the flu.
Trump's admissions are in stark contrast to his frequent public comments at the time insisting that the virus was "going to disappear" and "all work out fine."
The book, using Trump's own words, depicts a President who has betrayed the public trust and the most fundamental responsibilities of his office. In "Rage," Trump says the job of a president is "to keep our country safe." But in early February, Trump told Woodward he knew how deadly the virus was, and in March, admitted he kept that knowledge hidden from the public.
"I wanted to always play it down," Trump told Woodward on March 19, even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."
If instead of playing down what he knew, Trump had acted decisively in early February with a strict shutdown and a consistent message to wear masks, social distance and wash hands, experts believe that thousands of American lives could have been saved.
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From CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, Gregory Wallace and Pete Muntean
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 an outbreak of the virus, 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 comment to the Department of Homeland Security, which declined to comment.
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