By Helen Regan, Brad Lendon, Amy Woodyatt, Meg Wagner and Melissa Macaya, CNN
From CNN’s Carma Hassan
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott announced today that he is extending the state of emergency for the coronavirus crisis to Oct. 15.
While making the announcement, he credited the state’s low case numbers to the measures currently in place.
“As I've said, this is the vehicle that allows us to manage and continue to suppress this virus. It makes sure supports for workers and families remain available, things like unemployment benefits and the eviction moratorium,” he said.
From CNN's Betsy Klein
The White House coronavirus task force placed a sharper focus on colleges and universities in its recommendations to states this week, pushing the states to take measures to prevent further outbreaks as the school year begins.
CNN reached out to all 50 states for their weekly task force reports, which the White House has declined to make public, and obtained responses from 12 states as of Friday morning. This week’s report, sent to states Tuesday evening, was directed to governors and their senior staff, as well as health officials, emergency managers, epidemiologists, lab directors and preparedness directors for each state.
The reports, individually tailored to each state with information on cases and test positivity and county-specific data, show concern with spread among institutes of higher education and mitigating cases in surrounding towns. The task force stressed that students who have been infected or exposed should isolate on campus and not return home.
Of the 12 reports CNN has obtained, there are rising cases in Arkansas, Delaware, Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Utah. Iowa, which was the number one state for rising cases last week, is number three this week.
There’s also an item in most of the state reports about exploring “use of focused wastewater surveillance to detect cases early and to direct diagnostic testing and public health interventions.”
From CNN's Christina Maxouris
Nearly 30 US states are reporting downward trends in Covid-19 cases, but the pandemic will likely worsen again, according to the country's leading infectious disease expert.
"We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it's not going to be easy," Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.
The warning isn't new: Experts -- including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director -- have for long warned the months ahead will be challenging. It doesn't help that the US continues to see about 36,000 new cases each day -- which is better than where we were in August, but still too high, according to Fauci.
"I keep looking at that curve and I get more depressed and more depressed about the fact that we never really get down to the baseline that I'd like," he said.
There's a lot that could potentially help drive Covid-19 numbers up as the fall season arrives:
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
Jenifer Johnston, a 40-year-old Oregon mother who has been battling coronavirus for six months, has been in the hospital multiple times after experiencing symptoms including extremely high blood pressure, trouble standing and loss of memory.
“I can only stand for a few minutes at a time. I turn purple, my hands and legs, and I get lightheaded,” she said on CNN’s “New Day.”
“My heart rate doubles just standing, and I have blurry eyes. I feel like I'm going to faint, in and out, most days … I can't watch TV or read, and my memory's gone,” she added.
Johnston said she tries not to go to the emergency room, “otherwise I’d be there every night,” but last weekend, her symptoms got so bad for days that she had to call a doctor.
“At night, I wake up and I gasp for air pretty often, and my whole left side goes numb, my blood pressure skyrockets to really scary ranges and my heart rate gets to like 180, which is really fast,” she said.
Doctors seem flummoxed by her situation, she said, and are treating her symptom-by-symptom. She’s on heart medication and multiple vitamins to try to help.
Watch more:
From CNN’s Alexis Benveniste
Executives at America's largest bank are calling its senior managers back into the office after months of remote work, according to a person familiar with the plans.
JPMorgan Chase conducted calls with senior managers in its sales and trading unit in London and New York Wednesday, the person said. Those managers have been asked to return to the offices starting Sept. 21, with some exemptions allowed.
Employees will not be asked to come in if they are high-risk, live with someone who is high-risk or have issues coordinating child care or homeschooling, this person said.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and most of the firm's operating committee have been in the office for most of the summer, the person said.
The decision to call senior managers back was important for training, the person said, especially with a new analyst class joining the company.
From CNN’s Anneken Tappe
Used car sales are booming so much they pushed up consumer price inflation last month. Prices for used cars and trucks climbed 5.4%, the largest monthly increase since March 1969, and contributed 40% to the core inflation index, which strips out items that tend to be volatile in price, like food and energy.
"The categories with the highest increases tell the tale of today's economy," Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, said. "The demand for these is stiff given the high expense of new cars, and that people are closely watching their spending while the economy is depressed by the pandemic."
People are also abandoning air travel during the pandemic and hitting the road after being cooped up at home for much of the spring and summer. And it doesn't hurt that gas prices in the US cheaper than they've been in years.
US core consumer prices rose 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, less than the 0.6% increase in July,
Prices for air travel, shelter, recreation and household furnishings also rose, contributing to the increase.
Meanwhile, the overall consumer price index also increased 0.4% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Over the past 12 months, the index increased 1.3% before seasonal adjustments. That's a significant jump, as back in May the 12-month increase was only 0.1% after prices got clobbered during the spring lockdown.
From CNN's Simon Cullen
The coronavirus reproduction rate, or R-number, in the UK has risen to above 1.0, the country’s Government Office for Science said Friday, indicating the number of cases is growing.
The office puts the R-number as being between 1.0 and 1.2.
Here's what that means: “An R-number between 1.0 and 1.2 means that on average every 10 people infected will infect between 10 and 12 other people,” the office said.
The R-number is highest in London and in the northwest of England.
From CNN's Elizabeth Hartfield, Faith Karimi and Alec Snyder
Demetria Bannister, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher in Columbia, South Carolina, was diagnosed with coronavirus last Friday and died Monday from Covid-19 complications, a week into the start of the school year there, CNN affiliate WIS reported.
Bannister had taught at the Windsor Elementary School for five years, WIS reported. She started her third year of teaching third-grade students virtually on Aug. 31.
Patricio Aravena, her friend and coworker, spoke to CNN about Bannister's impact as a teacher and person.
“Her classroom was always full of joy, always full of music," Aravena said.
Watch the interview:
From CNN's Ben Tinker
An ensemble forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects there will be 205,000 to 217,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Oct. 3.
More than 191,800 people have already died from Covid-19 in the US, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That means the new forecast projects between approximately 13,000 and 25,000 more people could die in the next three weeks.
About the forecast: Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections a few weeks into the future.
The previous ensemble forecast, published September 3, projected up to 211,000 coronavirus deaths by September 26.