October 14 coronavirus news

The National Football League announced Wednesday they are canceling the 2021 Pro Bowl.

The Pro Bowl was originally scheduled to played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Jan. 31, 2021. According to the league, Las Vegas will now be hosting the 2022 Pro Bowl.

In a statement, on Wednesday, the NFL said it will still hold a fan vote for the 2021 Pro Bowl roster in November and will announce the rosters a month later. Additionally, the league said it will work with the NFL Players Association and other partners “to create a variety of engaging activities to replace the Pro Bowl game this season.” 

The league’s cancellation of the Pro Bowl is the first time it won’t have a postseason all-star since the 1949 season.

An El Paso man was arrested last week and charged with practicing medicine without a medical license for selling and administering fraudulent Covid-19 treatments, according to the Texas Department of Public Service (DPS). 

Texas DPS confirmed in an email to CNN that Hugo Chico was arrested on Oct. 5 by DPS Criminal Investigations Division Special Agents and Homeland Security Investigations during an undercover operation. 

Chico was charged with a third degree felony of practicing without a medical license and booked into El Paso County Jail. Records show he bonded out on Oct. 6. 

DPS said investigators, who were tipped off in July through an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip, found that he was giving medical treatments to try and prevent the virus and was charging patients hundreds of dollars. 

More details: Meanwhile, the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Texas announced through a news release on Oct. 9 that authorities have obtained a temporary restraining order against Chico to ensure that he and anyone else working with him will stop advertising and performing treatments for Covid-19. The release said the government "is employing a federal statute that permits federal courts to issue injunctions to prevent harm to potential victims of fraudulent schemes."

CNN has been unable to confirm if Chico has an attorney. 

Paris and other French cities will be subject to a nighttime curfew starting Saturday to try to slow the spread of coronavirus, French President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday. 

The 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will also apply to Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Grenoble, Montpellier, Toulouse, Saint Etienne, Lille and Lyon, he said. 

It takes effect starting at midnight Friday night into Saturday.

"The aim is to reduce private contacts, which are the most dangerous contacts," Macron said.

Violating the nighttime curfew will carry a fine of 135 euros (about $160) for a first offense, and 1,500 euros ($1,760) if the offense is repeated, he said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of two French cities that will be impacted by the curfew. The cities are Aix-en-Provence and Marseille.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Wanda Vazquez Garced, announced Wednesday that she has canceled all scheduled meetings after learning that the Secretary of Health, Lorenzo Gonzalez Feliciano, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to a press release. 

The governor was tested Oct. 8, after returning from New York, and again Tuesday, each time testing negative, according to the release. The governor met with the Feliciano Tuesday prior to being tested.” 

The governor will be tested again in five days and is currently asymptomatic, working remotely, the release said. 

House Republican Bill Huizenga announced that he tested positive for Covid-19. He was tested ahead of seeing Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to Michigan. 

"Earlier today, I was expected to appear with the Vice President. While taking part in offsite testing protocols, I took a rapid test that came back positive for COVID-19. I am awaiting the results of a PCR test and I am self isolating until I have confirmed results," Huizenga wrote on Twitter. 

Here's his tweet:

Italy on Wednesday recorded its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic, the latest figures from the country's Ministry of Health show. 

Italian health authorities said there had been 7,332 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to at least 372,799 since the pandemic began. 

The number exceeds the previous record set during the first wave of the pandemic on March 21, when at least 6,557 cases were recorded over a 24-hour period. 

Over the past day, 43 people have died of coronavirus, bringing Italy’s total number of deaths to at least 36,289.

The number of patients in intensive care has increased by 25.

Some background: Italy was one of the worst-hit countries in Europe during the first wave of the pandemic and the country is battling to contain another outbreak.

Additional restrictions were announced on Tuesday by the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Health Minister Roberto Speranza making masks mandatory indoors except when at home and urging people to not gather in groups of more than six at home. 

The Florida Department of Health reported 2,869 new cases of Covid-19 and 66 deaths on Wednesday, which includes both residents and non-residents of the state, according to Covid-19 dashboard. 

This marks the 10th day in October that the health department has reported at least 2,200 new cases in a single day, CNN's tally shows.  

The state now has a total of 741,632 coronavirus cases, the department's data shows. The Florida death toll now stands at 15,788, the data shows.   

One thing to 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. 

Officials at Brigham Young University-Idaho say they are looking into accounts of students intentionally contracting Covid-19 to sell their plasma with antibodies for profit.

The university said it condemns this behavior and is actively looking for students who might have engaged in this alleged activity.

The statement went on to warn the student body that reckless activities and the rise in Covid-19 cases in Idaho could force the university to move to a fully-remote model.

"We urge all members of the campus community to act respectfully and responsibly by observing all public health and university protocols and placing the well-being of others above personal benefit or convenience," the statement said.

A spokesperson for Eastern Idaho Public Health said that they have no evidence that this is happening. 

Based on what she has heard from their partners at the school, the school put out the statement as a pre-emptive measure to keep students from getting any ideas and to squash it if it was happening. 

In-person learning for middle school and high school students, which was expected to start on Oct. 21 at Denver public schools, is being pushed back for at least three weeks after a rise in Covid-19 cases in the Denver area, Mayor Michael Hancock and Superintendent Susana Cordova announced Tuesday night.

Elementary schools will still open for in-person learning next week as planned, according to the announcement, but middle and high schools will continue with all remote learning until at least Nov. 6.

Cordova said the situation will be re-evaluated in late October.

"This was not an easy decision to make. Yet given our overriding focus on health and safety and the current COVID conditions and guidance we are receiving, we feel this is the right decision," Cordova said.