September 28 coronavirus news

United Airlines has agreed to not furlough any of its pilots until at least next June, according to a union email obtained by CNN. United planned to furlough 2,850 of its 13,000 pilots in only three days when CARES Act pandemic payroll support expires.

Some context: CNN analysis finds at least 50,000 airline workers are facing furloughs that start on Thursday. Airline CEOs and labor groups are lobbying Congress for a six-month extension of the Payroll Support Program costing $28 billion.

The incidence of Covid-19 among adolescents appears to be much higher than what's seen among younger children, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, published on Monday, found the average weekly incidence of Covid-19 among adolescents ages 12 to 17 between May and September was about 37 cases per 100,000 children—nearly double the 19 cases per 100,000 children ages 5 to 11.

"Although mortality and hospitalization in school-aged children was low, Hispanic ethnicity, Black race, and underlying conditions were more commonly reported among children who were hospitalized or admitted to an ICU, providing additional evidence that some children might be at increased risk for severe illness associated with COVID-19," the report said.

More on this report: The report included data on 277,285 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases among school-aged children in the United States from March 1 to Sept. 19. Among those cases, 37% were in children ages 5 to 11 and 63% were in adolescents. 

The report also noted that the weekly incidence and percentage of positive Covid-19 tests among the school-aged patients appeared to vary over time and by region.

Overall, 58% of the patients reported at least one Covid-19 symptom, 5% reported no symptoms and information was missing or unknown for the rest of the cases. The data also showed that 1.2% were hospitalized, including 404 patients who required ICU admission and 51 patients who died of Covid-19.

At least one underlying health condition was reported for 3% of all the cases, such as asthma, diabetes, psychological conditions, cardiovascular disease and severe obesity, according to the report.

The data might underestimate the true incidence of disease among school-aged children, as testing was often prioritized for people with symptoms and those without symptoms may not have been tested as often, the researchers noted.

Yet overall, the CDC researchers wrote, "These findings can provide a baseline for monitoring national trends."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended residential tenant eviction protections amid the pandemic through Jan. 1.

The “Safe Harbor Act” protects tenants from Covid-19 related residential evictions and foreclosures. 

Commercial eviction protection had already been extended, he said. 

The World Health Organization announced an agreement to make rapid Covid-19 tests available to lower and middle income countries across the world.

During a Monday news conference, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general said, “a substantial proportion of this rapid tests — 120 million — will be made available to low and middle income countries. These tests provide reliable results in approximately 15 to 30 minutes, rather than hours or days, at a lower price, with less sophisticated equipment.” 

Tedros said these “vital” tests will help expand testing in remote areas, “that do not have lab facilities or enough trained health workers to carry out PCR tests.”  

Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund said, “Being able to deploy quality antigen RDTs, rapid diagnostic tests, will be a significant step forward in enabling countries to contain and combat Covid-19.”  

The tests are “not a silver bullet,” Sands said. “But hugely valuable as a complement to PCR tests.”  

“Although they're a bit less accurate — they're much faster, cheaper, and don't require a lab,” he explained. 

Sands said these tests will help low and middle income countries to “close the dramatic gap in testing between rich and poor countries.” 

“Right now, high-income countries are conducting 292 tests per day per 100,000 people. For upper middle income countries, that number is 77. For lower middle income countries, 61, and from low income countries, 14,” Sands said, though he did not expand on where that data originates. 

On the eve of the in-person start date for the remaining majority of New York City school kids, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that the state will be receiving daily testing numbers from schools and will act accordingly if the numbers show there is a problem.

“We are going to be getting daily testing numbers, so we’ll be able to tell on a day to day basis what is actually happening with the test in NYC schools both with the teachers and the pupils,” he said. 

“If there’s a problem, there is a problem, and the numbers will show that there’s a problem, and then we’ll act accordingly," Cuomo said.

On Sunday, New York City's principals and school administrators union declared a unanimous vote of "no confidence" in the mayor and schools chancellor and requested the city leaders to ask the New York State Education Department to intervene in the schools reopening plan.

Cuomo was asked if there was any specific scenario wherein the state department of education would take over. 

“We could act below 5% if the circumstances justified it,” he added. “If you saw what we’re seeing now with this Brooklyn cluster, we have to get to the bottom of that. But the data is key and we’ll act on the data.”

He reiterated he understood the concerns of the principals union, adding “look if they are right and there’s a health concern, then yes the state will act.”

“The state has overall jurisdiction over all these things and we’ve exercised it in the past as you know, and we’ll do it again," Cuomo said.

Classes for students at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island will remain all online for another week after an outbreak of Covid-19 at the small liberal arts college. 

According to the school's Covid-19 dashboard, 199 students and two faculty members have tested positive for Covid-19, including a spike of 86 cases reported over two days in mid-September. 

Providence College President Rev. Kenneth Sicard released a statement Friday that undergraduate classes will be all remote until October 3 and students are under a stay-at-home order. He also apologized for the college contributing to an overall rise in cases in the state of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo blamed the "incredibly selfish" parties for impacting the state's overall number of positive Covid-19 cases. 

"To all the people at PC who played a hand in this, these are real consequences," Raimondo said Wednesday. "This is hurting people's business in Rhode Island."

New York State added 834 positive Covid-19 cases, marking a 1.5% positivity rate, the governor said adding that Brooklyn, Orange County and Rockland county are heavy contributors to the rise.

“We’re also seeing in these numbers, significant actions in clusters. It's basically Brooklyn, Orange, and Rockland that are increasing this number,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Once the epicenter of the pandemic in the US, New York had boasted a test positivity rate — the percentage of tests being performed that come back positive for the virus — of less than 1% for more than a month.

State health officials are going to be reaching out in the specific areas and doing additional testing and compliance measures, the governor said.

“Brooklyn is a major contributor,” he added.

“We have specific zip codes in Brooklyn that we’re going to be looking at because its very targeted, and our health officials are going to be reaching out to those Brooklyn communities, Orange and Rockland today to do additional testing and compliance measures in those areas.”

“It is very targeted and very focused in those clusters," he added.

Brooklyn is at 2.6%. Mid Hudson is at 3%

The southern tier “has a blip” tied to 3 clusters, a nursing home, a church gathering “that created issues” and a pub in separate counties, he said. 

Cuomo added that 11 more New Yorkers died from Covid-19, and that 543 are hospitalized.

The governor is also signing an executive order requiring the department of health to alert all travelers that the state will have a “mandatory quarantine” for all level 2, and level 3 countries. This is all but 31 countries on the globe, he added.

“We are going to increase our presence,” he said.

His move comes after, as he referenced, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ended enhanced screening at airports for some international travelers despite “alarming increases in countries around the world.”

He noted France, Spain and Israel by name. 

Ontario, Canada’s largest province, reported 700 new Covid-19 cases Monday, a single day record for the province since the start of the pandemic. 

The figure represents a significant increase from the previous high of 640 cases reported on April 24.

The previous record set in April came during a restrictive lockdown when stay-at-home orders were in place and most non-essential business and schools were closed. 

Ontario has reopened most businesses, many with restrictions and the majority of Ontario students are now back to in-person learning. 

Nearly half of all cases were reported in Toronto, Canada’s largest city. Ontario reported that nearly 60 % of all new infections Monday were detected in people under the age of 40. 

Quebec is reporting a similar surge in Covid-19 cases with the province’s health minister telling a French-language broadcaster Sunday that Montreal and Quebec City will soon be subjected to tighter restrictions. 

"Montreal and Quebec City are the hardest hit areas at the moment. They're very close to the red zone," he said in French to broadcaster Radio Canada. 

Several European countries, in the throes of a second wave of the pandemic, are witnessing a rise in virus cases, deaths and restrictions. Here's Monday's latest:

Belgium: New rules to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the Belgian capital, Brussels, come into force today. The city's mayor announced the restrictions on Sunday after Brussels recorded 2,353 infections over seven days and an incidence of 327.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants over 14 days.

From today, bars, cafes and restaurants will close at 11 p.m.;  gatherings of more than 10 people in public spaces is banned from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.; and food consumption is prohibited in markets. 

From Thursday, it will be compulsory to wear a mask in heavily frequented commercial areas and catering premises, carrying a face mask will be obligatory, and mask wearing will be mandated when entering or leaving schools.

Germany: A rise in infections "worries us greatly," said German government spokesman Steffen Seibert.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet with the leaders of Germany's federal states on Tuesday, Seibert said, adding that a possible “traffic light” virus warning scheme would be part of the discussion.

The country saw an increase of 1,192 infections on Sunday and three deaths, according to the disease control and prevention federal agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). At least 285,332 people in Germany have registered as infected since the pandemic started, and there have been 9,460 deaths, according to RKI.

France: Coronavirus admissions at intensive care units in the Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azur region — which includes France's second biggest city of Marseille -- have tripled since the beginning of September, according to official statistics.

Bars and restaurants closed for seven days in the Marseille area, starting Sunday night, due to the deteriorating situation there.

England: Households in England's northeast will be banned from mixing indoors under new legislation, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Parliament on Monday.

He said at the request of local councils legislation will be introduced to ban "indoor mixing between households in any setting." The changes will apply to parts of the country's northeast where local action was brought in two weeks ago, Hancock explained.

It comes as the UK government reported at least 4,044 new Covid-19 cases and 13 deaths from the virus in the latest 24-hour period on Monday. However, figures typically lag following the weekend. On Monday, a legal duty to self-isolate if people test positive or are contacted by NHS Test and Trace came into force in England.