September 16 coronavirus news

Florida health officials reported 152 resident deaths on Wednesday, bringing the resident death toll to 12,939, according to the Florida Department of Health (DOH).  

Florida health officials report 161 non-Florida resident deaths in the state as well, DOH data shows.

DOH reported 2,355 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the state’s total to 671,201.

Note: These numbers were released by Florida’s 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   

Federal documents released Wednesday provide new details about the government’s plan to distribute Covid-19 vaccines for free once approved or authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration. 

He noted that vaccines being tested have different transport and storage requirement; some require a second dose at 21 or 28 days after the first; and some require different needles and syringes.

“I think the message we want you to leave with is we are prepared for all of those uncertainties,” Mango said. 

Here are key things to know about the plan:

Limited early supply

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine distribution playbook says that for planning purposes, state and local health agencies should assume “limited COVID-19 vaccine doses may be available by early November 2020” if a vaccine is authorized or licensed by the FDA, but the supply may increase substantially in 2021. The initial supply is expected to go to health care workers, other essential workers and people at higher risk for severe illness from Covid-19. 

The US Department of Defense, CDC and some parts of HHS are coordinating the supply, production and distribution of vaccines. Vaccine administration sites may be limited early on to target particular populations and storage requirements. Later on, sites could expand to include pediatric and adult health care providers and pharmacies. 

IT infrastructure

The effort requires extensive data monitoring to track vaccines, handle claims and payment, identify who needs a second a dose and to monitor outcomes and potential adverse events. Operation Warp Speed will construct and integrate IT architecture to meet these needs, according to the strategy document.

Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski from Operation Warp Speed said during the briefing Wednesday that databases to track vaccines already exist at state and pharmacy levels. “The hard part is being able to get the databases to talk with one another,” he said, for example, so that he could get a vaccine at a public health center and then get the correct second dose weeks later, perhaps at a pharmacy in a different location. 

Cost

On cost, the distribution strategy says the objective is “to ensure no one desiring vaccination will face an economic barrier to receiving one.”

“The federal government is procuring hundreds of millions of doses of safe and effective vaccines, and has contracted with McKesson for purposes of vaccine distribution, such that no American will be charged for either the COVID-19 vaccine or its distribution,” the strategy document says. 

Vaccine information campaign

The strategy document says an information campaign led by HHS public affairs “will focus on vaccine safety and efficacy, and target key populations and communities to ensure maximum vaccine acceptance.” 

“Identifying the right messages to promote vaccine confidence, countering misinformation, and targeting outreach to vulnerable and at-risk populations will be necessary to achieve high coverage,” it says.

Wearing a face mask might provide better protection against Covid-19 than a vaccine, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during Wednesday's Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing.

"So I do want to keep asking the American public to take the responsibility, particularly the 18 to 25 year olds where we're seeing the outbreak in America continue to go like this," Redfield said.

Watch:

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that he thinks it will be the late second quarter or third quarter of 2021 before a Covid-19 vaccine is generally available to the American public. 

When asked when he thought there would be a vaccine ready to administer to the American public, Redfield said he thought that there would be vaccine initially available sometime between November and December, but “very limited supply and will have to be prioritized.” 

Redfield said that he thought the vaccination would begin in November and December “and then will pick up, and it will be in a prioritized way. It will be those first responders and those at greatest risk for death, and then eventually that will expand.” 

Watch:

On the day the Big Ten conference announced a return plan for a fall football season, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott released a statement noting the conference still has significant issues to solve before considering its own return to play. 

Scott sites health restrictions currently in place in California and Oregon that prevent football teams from practicing. There are six Pac-12 universities in those states. Scott also hints to concerns regarding the poor air quality created from the wildfires raging in the western United States. 

The Pac-12 remains the lone Power 5 conference that does not have a plan in place to play football this fall. 

Here's the statement from the commissioner:

3M is a company known for scotch tapes and post-it notes but during the coronavirus pandemic, it has become the largest producer of N95 masks. However, even as the company ramped up production and is on its way to produce 95 million masks a month this fall and 2 billion by the end of 2020, it’s still facing a challenge to meet the demand for the masks, CEO Mike Roman says.

“We are working in partnership with other companies to look at ways that you can reuse N95s. We're also exploring ways to bring other kinds of respiratory solutions. We have reusable respirators, which are another solution. They can't meet all of the demand either but there are other things we're doing to fight them at every angle,” he added.

A lesson already being learned from this pandemic and production process is that investing in inventory and capacity is key.

“Broadly, we were not ready for the demand,” he told CNN about pandemic preparedness at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis.

The Supreme Court announced Wednesday that when the new term begins in October, the justices will hear oral arguments by phone, continuing the format it used for arguments last May due to the pandemic. 

When does the new SCOTUS term start: The new term will launch the first Monday of October with the backdrop of possibly the most litigious presidential election in recent years playing out on the public scene. Emergency election related petitions are likely to come to the high court before the election and possibly after the vote. 

The court has not yet determined plans for the November and December argument sessions. 

Last spring marked the first time the justices heard their cases over the phone and the experiment significantly changed how arguments played out. 

Instead of a free for all with the justices interrupting each other and peppering advocates with a barrage of questions, the court proceeded in order of seniority with each justice having time to ask a series of questions.

For the most part, the experiment won good reviews with advocates expressing satisfaction that they were able to get their answers out without interruption. In addition, the new system attracted Justice Clarence Thomas who rarely asks questions in open court, but spoke up frequently by telephone. The session marked the first time, the public could listen in to a live audio feed.

Retail sales ticked up in August from the previous month but at a slower pace after the enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the federal government ended. 

US retail sales rose 0.6% in August, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. That's below the 1% predicted by economists surveyed by Refinitv. In July, retail sales grew 0.9%, the Commerce Department said. That gain already was significantly slower than the 8.4% gain in June.

A supplemental $600 weekly unemployment insurance, which had been part of the government's first stimulus bill, ran out at the end of July. Since then, Congress has been unable to agree another boost to jobless benefits. President Trump signed an executive order to bolster benefits again, although by less money, by diverting funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Consumer spending is the biggest engine of US economic growth, and retail sales are an important component of that. The report from the Commerce Department, however, does not include spending on services — things like hair-cuts, medical care and financial services. 

Some economists say continued growth in retail sales depends on future government stimulus funds and relief to people who have lost their jobs. 

Some background: Retail sales slumped to a seven-year low in April as the coronavirus prompted stores across the country to shut their doors. Sales bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in July.

Although retail sales have bounced back, the spending has not gone to all retailers equally.

So far in 2020, nearly 8,000 stores have said they will permanently close, according to Coresight Research, a retail research and advisory firm. It anticipates closures will set a new annual record this year with as many as 25,000, breaking last year's record 9,302 closures tracked by the firm.

Nine clubs in England's Football League will be allowed to admit up to 1,000 fans in this weekend’s games as part of a pilot scheme to test the return of supporters, the English Football League (EFL) said in a statement on Wednesday.

The games will be spread out across English football’s second tier Championship (hosting two games), third tier League One (hosting four games) and fourth tier League Two (hosting three games).

EFL Chair, Rick Parry said: “It’s encouraging that we are in a position to move forward with the next phase of the pilot programme and give a small number of our Clubs the opportunity to welcome back up to a 1,000 fans this week."

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week that plans for stadiums to be up to a third full starting Thursday, Oct. 1 would be reviewed.