October 1 coronavirus news

Hope Hicks, one of President Trump's top aides, has tested positive for coronavirus, three sources told CNN.

Hicks traveled with the President multiple times recently, included to the debate in Cleveland on Tuesday and was seen boarding Marine One on Wednesday as Trump was heading to a campaign rally in Minnesota.

Some White House staffers who were in close proximity were notified of the positive test result today, the official said. 

This development was first reported by Bloomberg News. 

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The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus proposal put forward by House Democrats with no bipartisan deal in sight even as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have continued talks in an effort to reach an agreement.

The measure passed largely along party lines amid GOP opposition with a final tally of 214-207.

Eighteen Democrats crossed party lines to vote against the bill, while Republicans were united in opposition.    

The legislation will give Democrats something to point to as lawmakers face pressure from constituents to deliver more aid as the pandemic continues to take a devastating toll across America. But the Democratic plan has been rejected by Republicans as too costly and is not expected to be taken up by the GOP-led Senate, and time is quickly running out to clinch a bipartisan agreement that could be signed into law ahead of the November elections. 

Pelosi, as she walked off the House floor, told a group of reporters Thursday evening ahead of the vote that there will be no agreement on any stimulus deal tonight, but talks with Mnuchin will continue.

Some context: Both the White House and House Democratic leaders are struggling with internal party divisions over how to move forward in the stimulus talks. 

For months, moderate Democrats in the House have been pushing their leadership to go back to the table and get a deal with the White House on stimulus rather than forging ahead with another Democratic-only package. 

Fourteen Democratic members voted against the original Heroes Act back in the spring, arguing it was not a plan that was going to be signed by the President. The legislation voted on Thursday has been referred to by House Democrats as an updated version of the Heroes Act. 

The positivity percentage rate in 20 Covid-19 hotspots in New York has increased, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday at a daily presser.

The positivity rate has increased from 5.5% to 6.5%, the governor said.

“There are increases primarily in Brooklyn,” Cuomo said.

The governor called on local government to move from compliance to enforcement and to start fining people if they do not wear a mask.

The governor reiterated that he spoke with people in the Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in the hotspot area and told them enforcement would be stepped up.

Cuomo also announced that Covid Alert, an app to help with Covid-19 contact tracing, will launch in New York Thursday.

The app will allow users to know if they were in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, the governor said.

Using cellphone data and Bluetooth technology, the app will tell users if they have been within six feet of someone who tested positive for Covid-19. It will also tell users if they were near someone for longer than 10 minutes, Cuomo said.

The governor said he will make the app available to any other state that wants to use it. 

The state of Pennsylvania also launched a Covid-19 tracking app in September.

In New York City: The city is now tracking 11 zip codes where Covid-19 cases continue to grow and are outpacing the citywide average by 3.4 times over the past 14 days.

The 11 neighborhoods all have a positivity rate higher than 3% and are a part of four Covid-19 clusters the city is monitoring.

The cases in the 11 neighborhoods account for 29.9% of all Covid-19 cases in New York City over the past two weeks, despite representing 8.8% of the cities population.

The city of New York is additionally monitoring seven zip codes that have a positivity rating below 3% but “are quickly becoming an area of concern."

The US Food and Drug Administration won’t allow political pressure to interfere with the agency’s decision-making on a potential Covid-19 vaccine, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said. 

Hahn sought to reassure Americans about the FDA’s vaccine development process at a discussion recorded on Tuesday with the National Consumers League.

When it comes to authorizing or approving drugs and therapeutics, “science will guide our decisions,” he told the group. “FDA will not permit any pressure from anybody to change that." 

Hahn has been responding in recent days to concerns about political pressure potentially influencing the approval or authorization of coronavirus treatments or vaccines in recent days after President Trump said last week that the White House could overrule FDA rules on vaccine development.

But even before that, Hahn was criticized for announcing an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma at a news conference with Trump in August. The agency also revoked an EUA for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in June, a drug pushed by Trump, because it didn’t work in Covid-19 patients and in fact, may have caused harm, studies found.

“I know that there's been particular attention paid to a few of the decisions reached by FDA scientists over the past few months,” Hahn admitted. “As Commissioner, it's my responsibility to help explain why support for and confidence in the FDA is justified,” he added.

“I want to assure you that every one of the decisions we have reached has been made by FDA scientists based on science and data, not by politics.”

Hahn told the NCL that if and when a Covid-19 vaccine is authorized or approved, Americans “should have complete confidence in that decision.”

“I will fight for science and data to guide our decisions,” he said. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters there will be no agreement on any stimulus deal tonight, but talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will continue. 

Pelosi stressed that the central issue is less about whether they can reach a top line agreement in principle, but about whether they can nail down the actual details in legislative language. 

Pelosi said she was headed back to her office to review documents sent to her by Mnuchin and would figure out where things go next after that. 

As to the odds of reaching an actual agreement, Pelosi said, “I don’t know, it just depends."

Wisconsin teachers unions are requesting that virtual learning be implemented from kindergarten through college across the state due to the increase of new Covid-19 cases, according to a release from Milwaukee’s teachers union.  

The Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association called on the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to begin virtual instruction until the community spread is contained, according to a statement posted on its Facebook page on Thursday.

"DHS should confirm that plans are feasible, and the district, school, college or university does in fact have the necessary PPE and resources to accomplish the reopening plan," the statement said. 

Teachers believe authorities have not done enough to keep in-person learning safe.

“Families are knowingly sending COVID-19 positive sick symptomatic students to school,” said Amy Mizialko, a representative of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association.

Traci DeSalvo, with Wisconsin Department of Health Services, told CNN affiliate WKOW they are providing information for schools to make safe decisions.

On Thursday, the state's health department said that 45 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties “meet the threshold of very high activity” for Covid-19 infections, with 41 counties showing cases on the rise as reported in an earlier alert. 

Wisconsin has 122,274 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 1,327 total virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The Pennsylvania House voting session was canceled this morning after a representative tested positive for Covid 19, according to a news release. 

State Rep. Paul Schemel, a Republican, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday morning after experiencing mild symptoms and quarantining on Wednesday, according to a statement. He was last in the Capitol on Tuesday, he said. 

The House voting session for Oct. 1 was canceled "out of an abundance of caution," House Speaker Bryan Cutler said in a statement. He said human resources is working with Schemel to determine all interactions with members and staff, and those who were exposed will be contacted. 

Cutler also noted that the chamber, meeting rooms and staff work areas are professionally sanitized on a nightly basis. 

The CEO of a defense contractor in Hawaii has been charged with fraud and money laundering in connection with the government’s Paycheck Protection Program.

The US Attorney’s office says Martin Kao inflated the payroll figures of his company, Navatek LLC (which has since changed its name to Martin Defense Group).

Kao is also accused of applying for loans with two different banks, even though the program limited him to one application.

Five counts of money laundering relate to five checks written on the loan funds, two of which were made out to Martin Kao personally. Kao allegedly deposited $2 million into a personal investment account.

Martin Defense Group designs and produces specialty marine equipment.

Kao appeared in court Thursday. Federal prosecutors asked that he be held without bond because of what they say is a “serious risk defendant will flee.”

Kao’s attorney, Victor Bakke, did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.

Martin Defense Group also did not return CNN’s request for comment, but told CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now they were surprised by the charges.

“As a company, we will address the allegations and have retained legal counsel to review these claims,” the company said.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan reported that the state had no coronavirus-related deaths for the first time in 187 days.

Hogan said in a news conference Thursday afternoon that this is the first time since March 28 that the state has not had a Covid-19-related death. 

The statewide positivity rate is now at 2.8%, which is down from a high of 26.91% in April, according to Hogan. He said that all jurisdictions in the state currently have positivity rates under 5%. 

Hogan also announced that indoor visitation will begin in all nursing homes that are not experiencing a current outbreak or have not experienced a positive test in the past 14 days. Hogan said that based on federal guidelines, visitation will not be permitted in local jurisdictions that have a positivity rate over 10%.