September 11 coronavirus updates

President Donald Trump is now not just downplaying the coronavirus -- he's resorting to absurd historical allusions about great World War II leaders to try to disguise his culpability in 190,000 American deaths.

Trump ridiculously invoked former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a Thursday night rally, claiming that like them, he had tried hard to calm public panic in a dark hour.

It was a historically illiterate gambit, since unlike Trump in the pandemic, both statesmen leveled with their people about grave national crises.

But it reflected his struggle to explain his failure to tell the American people the truth about the seriousness of the virus -- even though he told Bob Woodward in interviews for his new book in February that it was "deadly stuff."

In a low-energy news conference earlier in the day, Trump doubled down on falsehood, declaring that "I did not lie" when he warned Woodward the pathogen was worse than the flu while publicly comparing it to the seasonal illness.

In one stunning moment, he said that if the Washington Post reporter, whose book "Rage" comes out Tuesday, was so concerned about what was said in their taped conversations, he should have gone to the "authorities" so they could prepare the country. Of course, under the Constitution, the President is the ultimate authority and whether Trump likes it, the buck stops with him for the pandemic and every other national crisis.

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Britain has stumbled through a highly political pandemic.

Virtually every move Boris Johnson's government has made in response to the Covid-19 crisis has sharply divided the weary nation — starting with his refusal to sack a roaming chief aide in May, and encompassing since his struggles on testing, contact tracing, technology, schools and lockdown restrictions.

But as the country enters a new stage in its coronavirus response and cases tick upwards at an alarming rate, the political back-and-forth is entering a new arena: the lounges, bedrooms and studies of millions of British workers.

Nearly half of the United Kingdom's 30 million employees have worked from home during the pandemic, according to the country's statistics body, with an additional 9 million placed on the country's furlough scheme.

They were sent there by the government, who ordered workplaces to shut as the virus started spreading.

But now, despite rising cases and a growing public desire for flexible work arrangements, the government desperately wants employees back in offices.

Ministers and business leaders cite the economic impact on city centers as the driving force behind their push — but their rhetoric is irking many employees, who feel it suggests they're not working hard enough from home.

Read the full story here:

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Globally, there have been more than 28 million recorded cases of coronavirus, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. More than 900,000 people have died. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

India again reports the most new coronavirus cases anywhere in the world: India reported a new highest daily increase today with 96,551 new Covid-19 cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This is the second day in a row India has reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases registered by a single country, according to John Hopkins University data.

Americans need to "hunker down" this fall and winter as Covid-19 pandemic will likely worsen, Fauci says: Coronavirus is not going to ease up and is in fact likely to worsen again in the fall and winter in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday. The warning isn't new: experts -- including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director -- have 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.

CDC says Covid-19 death rate is under 1% for everyone but people over 70: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday it had changed the way it was reporting death rates for coronavirus, and will now report the infection fatality ratio by age.

According to the updated “best estimate” numbers posted on the agency’s website, 0.003% of children aged 18 and younger who are infected with coronavirus die, while the fatality rate is 0.02% of people aged 20 to 49., 0.5% of people aged 50 to 69, and 5.4% of people 70 and older. It’s all still based on approximations, and as part of the update the CDC also estimates it’s missing most cases of coronavirus in the US -- by a factor of 11.

WHO program to speed access to vaccines needs more money: A World Health Organization program aimed at speeding global access to coronavirus tests, treatments and vaccines needs $35 billion, director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday. The Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, launched in April, is a partnership to catalyze the development of vaccines, diagnostics and thereputics, as well as equitable access to such treatments. But the program, which Tedros said is threatened by bilateral vaccine deals and vaccine nationalism, needs more funding.

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund will supply Brazilian state with up to 50 million doses of Sputnik-V: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Brazil's state of Bahia have signed a cooperation agreement to supply up to 50 million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik-V. The agreement, made through the state's Health Secretariat, will also enable the parties to distribute the vaccine across Brazil in the future, the Russian Direct Investments Fund (RDIF) said in a statement on Friday.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Brazil's state of Bahia have signed a cooperation agreement to supply up to 50 million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik-V.

Deliveries are expected to start in November 2020 subject to approval by Brazil’s regulators with the consideration of results of post-registration trials.

The agreement, made through the state's Health Secretariat, will also enable the parties to distribute the vaccine across Brazil in the future, the Russian Direct Investments Fund (RDIF) said in a statement on Friday.

“The Government of the State of Bahia, in Brazil, is very pleased with the agreement signed with the Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation, which will guarantee access to the Sputnik V vaccine for the Brazilian people, as soon as it is approved by the Brazilian national regulatory authorities,” Dr. Fabio Vilas-Boas Pinto, Health Secretary of the State of Bahia, said in the statement released by RDIF. 

“As it is a vaccine built using human adenovirus, which is one of the safest and most effective vaccine development platforms in the world, we believe that the results of the ongoing phase 3 clinical trials will confirm the data observed in phases 1 and 2,” he added.

The RDIF told CNN they expect to announce deals to supply tens of millions of doses of Sputnik-V to other countries around the world in the coming days.

Here's some background: Russia drew criticism when it announced the world's first approved coronavirus vaccine for public use in August -- even before crucial Phase 3 trials had been completed.

Results from Phase 1 and 2 studies of the vaccine, published in The Lancet medical journal, showed the vaccine generated neutralizing antibodies in dozens of study subjects.

According to the study, the vaccine generated neutralizing antibodies in dozens of study subjects, and while it often caused side effects such as fever, those side effects were mostly mild.

Scientists not involved in the study said that, while the results are a positive sign, only larger, Phase 3 trials can confirm whether the vaccine actually prevents illness with Covid-19.

Still, the researchers are already distributing the vaccine to high-risk groups, according to Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is financing Russian vaccine research.

Russian authorities have singled out teachers -- as well as doctors -- as key workers who will get access to the vaccine first, even before crucial phase 3 human trials have finished.

White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx denied that the White House and the task force are sending mixed messages to Americans on appropriate coronavirus safety protocols.

Birx, who was in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday meeting with the governor and university officials on Covid-19 issues, told CNN affiliate WTVD she has never sent a mixed message on the coronavirus.

“No, I give the same message to everyone. I'm very consistent in the messages,” she said. “The messages that I give within the White House, the messages I give to governors, it’s a very straightforward message to every American.”

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump held a rally in Winston-Salem where few people were wearing masks or social distancing. The next day he held another rally in Michigan where, again, people crowded together and few wore masks.

“I am sure masks were offered to the people who attended the rally,” Birx said. “And what I'm saying to everyone who decides to attend a rally, to everyone who decides to go out into public spaces, please wear a mask.”

Birx said Trump has never asked her for advice on whether to hold large rallies, and although he rarely, if ever, wears a mask in public, she defended him.

“I'm not asked specifically those questions,” she said. “What I'm asked about is what is the public health message, and you can see it when he is out and giving press briefings he talks about the importance of social distancing, wearing masks, and I think he repeats that every time he goes out. So does the vice president." 

But she did admit feeling discouraged when people don’t follow coronavirus guidelines.

“I’m frustrated any time I see anyone without a mask,” Birx said.

The United States reported 34,808 new Covid-19 cases and 894 virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

There are at least 6,396,073 virus cases in the US and at least 191,753 people have died, the JHU said.

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

CNN’s map is tracking the US cases:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

A World Health Organization program aimed at speeding global access to coronavirus tests, treatments and vaccines needs $35 billion, director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

The Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, launched in April, is a partnership with organizations including the European Commission, to “catalyze the development of and equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics,” Tedros said.

But it needs more funding.

And the program is threatened by bilateral vaccine deals and vaccine nationalism, he said.

“We need to rapidly scale up our clinical trials, manufacturing, licensing and regulation capacity so that these products can get to people and start saving lives,” Tedros said.  

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said new solutions were needed "for prevention, testing and treatment of Covid-19."

"We all know we need them fast. We need them for all those in need, anywhere,” she said. “And we need them on affordable conditions.”

For months, India has been struggling to control the coronavirus pandemic with limited success.

The country of 1.3 billion people has the second-highest number of cases globally (more than 4.4 million), and the third highest number of deaths (over 75,000), according to Johns Hopkins University.

But India's reported mortality rate -- calculated by the number of deaths per 100 confirmed cases -- is surprisingly low compared to other countries with high infection rates.

India's Covid-19 mortality rate stands at 1.7%. For context, the same rate is about 3% in the US, 11.7% in the UK, and 12.6% in Italy, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Indian government claims India's lower death rate is a sign of its success in handling the crisis, and has used the figure to support its decision to lift some coronavirus restrictions.

But some scientists in India warn that the numbers are incomplete and misleading -- and that relying on them to reopen the country could make matters worse.

So what's behind the numbers?

While the number of coronavirus cases in India may be rising, the mortality rate is dropping.

Some experts warn that the data is full of gaps: India has a weak, underfunded public health infrastructure, and for years it has failed to accurately record the deaths of its own citizens. Even when India isn't facing a pandemic, only 86% of deaths nationwide are even registered in government systems.

India isn't counting all Covid deaths: There's also the issue of undercounting Covid deaths due to insufficient testing and poor medical coding. India has stepped up its testing, but it still has one of the lowest rates of testing per capita in the world. Even if a Covid-19 patient tested positive before dying, they might not be counted as a Covid-19 death if they had other preexisting conditions, such as diabetes or cancer.

The rise in testing creates a misleading death rate: With more tests, authorities are detecting more cases. But the mortality rate is measured against the number of total confirmed cases -- so when cases rise, the rate will go down even if the number of deaths remains the same. 

Daily deaths are actually rising: Even if the mortality rate is declining, it doesn't necessarily mean the number of deaths is dropping. Deaths have jumped from around 750 a day at the start of August, to more than 1,000 a day this week.

Read the full story:

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Why India's low coronavirus death rate has experts worried

India reported a new highest daily increase today with 96,551 new Covid-19 cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

This is the second day in a row India has reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases registered by a single country, according to John Hopkins University data.

As of Friday morning, India's total number of confirmed cases stands at 4.56 million. Out of the nation's total, about 943,480 are active cases. The total number of recovered patients is more than 3.5 million, the ministry said.

India's death toll from the virus is 76,271, according to the Health Ministry. 

More than 54 million samples have been tested to date, the Indian Council of Medical Research said.