October 6 coronavirus news

All public, private, charter, and religious schools and educational facilities in two areas in Orange County, New York, will be immediately closed for at least two weeks, according to a Monday order from the Orange County Commissioner of Health.

The order states that the village of Kiryas Joel and the town of Palm Tree reported a three-day average Covid-19 positivity rate of 27.6% and that all schools will not be allowed to resume without clearance from the county health department. 

County officials said that the schools will continue to be closed until the the area’s seven-day rolling average positivity rate is below 9% and no transportation would be provided to students residing in those locations to schools or services in other communities. 

Schools that provide in-person group special education or pre-school will also be closed for the same amount of time, the order states.

Orange County currently has 12,493 Covid-19 cases, with an overall county positivity rate of 7.4%, according to New York state data. 

Syracuse University reported 13 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, saying the cluster appears to have started after off-campus parties late last week. The new cases can be traced "directly or indirectly to this event," according to a statement.

"Our initial investigation suggests that this emerging cluster is the result of one or more students returning to campus after traveling outside Central New York to visit another college late last week," wrote Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation J. Michael Haynie. "We are working closely with the Onondaga County Health Department to quickly identify and isolate all those potentially impacted and at risk because of this unfortunate series of events."

The overall number of positive Covid-19 cases is now 25, according to Syracuse's online Covid-19 dashboard, meaning this cluster accounts for more than half of positive cases for the whole university.

The university is asking any students who attended last weekend's gathering to shelter in place and not attend classes.

Boeing expects that demand for new commercial airplanes will fall over the next decade due to the impact of Covid-19, cutting its 2019 projections by 11%.

The company said in a press release Tuesday that the new projection amounts to 18,350 commercial planes over the next ten years, valued at about $2.9 Trillion.

The company forecasts 43,110 commercial aircraft deliveries over the next 20 years, down 2% from the 44,040 projected a year ago. 

However, Boeing says air cargo demand is “a relative bright spot in 2020,” expecting it to grow 4% annually.

America's trade deficit widened to more than $67 billion in August, rising to its highest level in 14 years, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday.

The deficit has rapidly expanded from $37 billion in February, before the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the country and sunk the US economy.

Foreign trade was hit hard by lockdown efforts, and exports still haven't recovered to their pre-pandemic levels, experts said.

The last time the trade deficit was higher was in August 2006.

The deficit has increased nearly every month since the spring lockdown, with only one month-on-month decrease in June. This trend will weigh on economic growth in the third quarter, said economists at Citi said in a note to clients.

The UK has recorded a further 14,542 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, representing an increase of 1,948 cases compared to the day before.

This rise comes as the UK government continues to deal with the fallout from a technical issue with its recording system which almost caused 16,000 cases to go unreported over the weekend.

According to UK government data, 76 additional fatalities from the virus have been recorded, bringing the official UK death toll to 42,445 deaths. At least 19 deaths were recorded the day before.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a televised interview Monday that the higher case numbers “really correspond to pretty much were we thought we were,” adding that “the slightly lower numbers” the UK had previously recorded “didn't really reflect where we thought the disease was likely to go.”

There are at least 7,464,372 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 210,313 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

So far today, Johns Hopkins has recorded 6,970 new cases and 132 reported deaths.

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

Alaska reported a new record-high daily case count of 197 Covid-19 cases Monday, the state health department said.

This is the highest daily new case count since July and it comes almost two weeks into a streak of days where daily totals were regularly over 100 cases.

Specifically, this record comes on the 12th consecutive day Alaska has seen 100-plus new Covid-19 cases, according to the state's Covid-19 dashboard.

Alaska’s test positivity rate is also at a record high of 4.19%, the state dashboard showed.

To date, the state health agency has reported 8,613 Covid-19 cases and 58 deaths.

Remember: These numbers were released by Alaska’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     

The US Food and Drug Administration made clear Tuesday it will want to see two months of follow-up data after volunteers get their second dose of a vaccine as part of clinical trials testing potential coronavirus vaccines.

That would make it difficult, if not impossible, for any vaccine maker to apply for emergency use authorization by Election Day, as President Trump has tried to promise, or by the end of October, as the CEO of Pfizer has hinted. 

The agency posted documents for an Oct. 22 meeting that has long been scheduled for vaccine advisers to meet and discuss requirements for either emergency use authorization or a full biologics license application for any potential coronavirus vaccine.

The document also outlines other advice for companies seeking FDA consideration for emergency use. It is the first detailed document describing what should be included in applications in order to issue an emergency use authorization for a vaccine.

The agency said it wants to make sure any vaccine is safe before giving authorization to deliver it to millions of people.

"In general, FDA’s guidance documents, including this guidance, do not establish legally enforceable responsibilities. Instead, guidances describe the Agency’s current thinking on a topic and should be viewed only as recommendations, unless specific regulatory or statutory requirements are cited. The use of the word should in Agency guidance means that something is suggested or recommended, but not required," the documents read.

FDA officials have been clear in saying they want to have conversations with vaccine makers, rather than laying down strict rules that must be followed, for providing emergency use authorization for any vaccine.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio added another zip code to the city’s “watchlist,” which is a compilation of zip codes that are on the radar but have not met the criteria of being above 3% positivity for 7 days.

The city’s hot spot points, tier 1, remains at 9 zip codes.

Tier 2 has an added zip code, 11206, bringing the “watchlist” total to 13. This list of zip codes would not face the same restrictions as the nine that have been a priority for the city to address.

Earlier this week, the mayor called for indoor dining, gyms, and pools to be halted in these areas, as part of his proposal to the state.

De Blasio called this time a “crucial” moment in the city’s effort to contain Covid-19 in hot spot communities.

“We have to be tough about it” he said adding the “tough restrictions” are nothing the city wants, but effectively what it needs.