September 16 coronavirus news

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker spoke about the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and impacts on housing in the state, saying he would extend the state’s eviction moratorium for an additional 30 days.

Pritzker said at a news conference on Wednesday that he would continue to work with leaders in the general assembly and Congress to advocate for more federal assistance to keep people in their homes.

The governor also said there have been outbreaks of Covid-19 over the summer, tied to youth sports across the state and across the world.

“Over the summer we saw outbreaks across Illinois and around the world, tied to a variety of youth sports leagues. Those continue today even among the lowest risk youth sports,” Pritzker said.

Over the past two weeks, the governor said, nearly every region in the state has seen a stable or declining positivity rate. 

He said the Illinois Department of Public Health will continue to monitor the positivity over the next few says and that if the trend holds for three days, “we will remove the resurgence mitigations and return the entire region to phase four of the Restore Illinois Plan.” 

Of all the viral diseases and emerging infections that he's encountered throughout his career, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he has “never seen anything with a range” like the novel coronavirus, which he said suggests factors other than underlying medical conditions affect disease severity. 

At least 40% of patients have no symptoms, while some stay ill for months on end, Fauci said. 

“It isn't just whether you have an underlying disease or not – it's just not the case. It's something more than that,” he added during a virtual panel on the global pandemic sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. 

He said one of those factors may be “the rate of expression of ACE2 receptors.”  These are molecular doorways into cells that the novel coronavirus appears to favor. Some cells have more of these receptors than others do.

Fauci said this variability has created confusion. It’s helped fuel misunderstandings about who can spread the virus and when. 

"One of the things we're dealing with in this country is a real lack of understanding of the importance of everybody trying to prevent getting infected rather than inadvertently… propagating the outbreak," he said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the number of patients who lack coronavirus symptoms. It is at least 40%.

During a Covid-19 briefing Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy addressed the party organized by YouTubers that authorities broke up Monday evening, calling it an “egregious display of knucklehead behavior” and “irresponsible from top to bottom in every respect.”

Murphy said that it took a “substantial” amount of law enforcement resources from neighboring towns to break up the party and urged attendees to get tested. 

Since mid-August, the percent positivity rate among 14-18 year-olds has grown from 3% to 7%, while for 19-24 year olds it’s risen from 2.7% to 7.1%, she said. 

Murphy said that “the system is working inside the walls” of schools, while the state’s greater concern is what is happening outside of them. He went on to clarify that the state does not have any clear evidence of in-school transmission of the virus, and that proper protocol has been followed thus far if a case does arise. 

What the latest numbers are: Murphy reported 447 new positive Covid-19 cases, bringing the state’s total to 197,792.

As of Sept. 12, New Jersey’s daily positivity rate is 2.06%, said Murphy, while the statewide rate of transmission remains at 1.06. 

There were nine new fatalities reported, bringing state's total to 14,263 virus-related deaths.

One thing to note: These numbers released by the New Jersey Department of Health may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced Wednesday that he will be signing an order to allow "certain indoor spaces" to opening on Friday.  

The order will apply to movie theaters, bowling alleys, concert halls, convention spaces, banquet halls and certain indoor amusement venues, said Gimenez.  

These businesses "can open at 50% capacity, but they must follow the guidelines in place, including obviously wearing masks, distancing of six feet and special HVAC systems to bring more fresh air into those spaces," Gimenez said. 

Gimenez said businesses must also follow food consumption rules established for casinos. 

“No food or beverages will be allowed while watching movies or bowling, there must be designated areas for food and drink where people can take off their masks and practice social distancing”, said Gimenez.

As for bars and other entertainment venues, Gimenez said he plans to meet with medical experts and business owners next week "to discuss what's doable in the future." 

The mayor said the county's infection rate has steadily remained "under 5% daily."  

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that he believes a coronavirus vaccine may be proven safe and effective by November or December of this year.

‘‘I would still put my money on November/December,” Fauci said, during a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute panel on global pandemics.

Fauci said that current modeling indicates that about 150 infections need to occur in a vaccine trial to be able to make a determination of efficacy. 

“Right now, the trials are over two thirds enrolled – really close to full enrollment on one, and over full enrollment on the other,” he said.

He pointed out that some people, like himself, think it’s likely that an answer about efficacy will be ready by November or December, while others have said it could be as early as October.

“It really depends on where the sites are and how many infections there are in a site,” Fauci said. “So you could get your answer sooner, or you can get your answer a bit later.”

Fauci said his projection of November or December is informed by calculations based on where the clinical trial sites are in their studies.

The final Covid-19 case count on Tuesday for the US has been corrected by Johns Hopkins University to 39,617 cases and 1,293 deaths. Earlier numbers should not be used.

With this fix, Tuesday’s death count is still the highest one-day total since Aug. 19.

Yesterday’s new case numbers are now in line with recent averages. The US is currently averaging 38,037 new Covid-19 cases a day, which is up 5% from the previous week. 

The university explained that the discrepancy was the result of both a data dump in Alabama’s numbers and a misreading on its part, which led to a double count on a single day.

States often have data dumps when they change how to report cases/deaths, and the university normally redistributes those cases to the proper days.

The data dump and the dashboard error have both been fixed, the university told CNN.

 White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters that President Trump is calling for direct payments and more than $500 billion in a coronavirus stimulus bill. 

Trump earlier Wednesday tweeted on the stimulus bill and told Republicans to “Go for the much higher numbers.” McEnany told reporters the President was referring to the Senate GOP “skinny” proposal in his comments.

“What the President was referring to was the 500 billion dollar bill… that got 50 votes in the Senate,” McEnany said in a briefing Wednesday.

McEnany then hammered Pelosi saying everyone in Washington wants a plan except the speaker. She did not answer whether the White House has spoken to Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Even if a vaccine for Covid-19 was released today, it would take six to nine months for enough people to get it to create immunity, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.

“In order to have enough of us immunized so we have immunity, I think it’s going to take us six to nine months,” he said.

In this time, it’s important to for people embrace mitigation steps such as physically distancing, mask use and avoiding crowds, he said.

Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Health and Human Services Department, denied Wednesday he had ever been asked to test fewer Americans to make the pandemic look less serious than it really is.

Sen Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, asked Giroir, who heads testing efforts for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, about comments President Trump has made repeatedly saying the reason the US has so many cases of Covid-19 is because the US does more testing. 

When Durbin asked during Wednesday’s Senate Appropriations Hearing if ending testing would end the spread of Covid-19, Giroir answered, “No, sir.” 

Detecting as many cases as possible means that they can be appropriately isolated and contact tracing can happen, he said.

“It is true that the more testing you do, the more cases you will discover,” Giroir said. “But the cases are there no matter what.” 

Giroir said that he has “never been asked, told, hinted, suggested that we should decrease testing.” He said every time the task force meets, they work to expand testing. 

“My job is to expand testing as much as feasibly, even infeasibly, possible and get the right test to the right people at the right time,” he said. “That’s been my mission. No one’s told me to alter that.”