October 19 coronavirus news

Eighteen outbreaks of Covid-19 stemming from church services have been reported in parts of West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice said.

According to the governor, 13 counties —Berkeley, Doddridge, Harrison, Logan, Mason, Mercer, Monroe, Nicholas, Putnam, Upshur, Wayne, Wetzel, and Wood — have reported the outbreaks.

The governor also reported 43 outbreaks at long-term care facilities and 12 new cases at three correctional facilities. Justice said schools have reported 19 outbreaks with 59 confirmed cases.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported 212 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the active case total to 5,095. To combat the rising case numbers, the West Virginia National Guard has distributed over 19 million pieces of personal protective equipment to all 55 counties, the governor said.

Long-term heart damage is likely in some survivors of Covid-19, a team of doctors reported Monday.

It dysregulates the way the blood clots, damages the lungs and their ability to process fresh oxygen into the blood, they wrote in a review for the American College of Cardiology.

Patients who have had to undergo ventilation – and the medicated sedation that goes along with that – are most in danger, Dr. Sean Pinney of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and colleagues wrote. They noted that about a third of survivors of the closely-related severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus in 2003-2004 had persistently abnormal lung function a year after illness, with lower exercise capacity – and Covid-19 appears to damage the heart even more.

A second study noted a kind of damage to the heart known as myocardial injury in about a quarter of coronavirus patients.

A third study in the same journal noted that patients with excess body fat, uncontrolled blood sugar, high blood pressure and high cholesterol have much higher risks of complications from coronavirus. Many Americans have all four problems, they noted.

Doctors need to be aware of these risks, they said, and the findings make it more important than ever for Americans to control their blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure and weight.

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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said "my advice is not to travel frankly" when asked about the state's seven-day average of Covid-19 infections.

New Jersey's average infection rate now qualifies for the state's own quarantine list it has with New York and Connecticut, Murphy said.

The state of New Jersey has already been on quarantine lists for Vermont and Massachusetts, according to Murphy. 

Murphy said he has not spoken to the governors of New York and Connecticut directly about the quarantine list but remains in active contact with them regarding “a number of things.”

Murphy followed up on his comments advising NJ residents not to travel and said that it is ok for New Jersey residents to commute to work in other states and that traveling into New York and back is not a “quarantine event.”

“I would prefer they don’t travel and I don’t mean commuting into work and back although there is a lot less of that than there was 8 months ago, but I mean just as a general matter.” Murphy said. 

Murphy again said that he would take a scalpel with regard to new closings in the state and that “everything remains on the table."

Pennsylvania is experiencing a resurgence of Covid-19, but numbers are still much lower than the initial wave in the spring, state officials said Monday.

The statewide positivity rate is 4.3%, and 21 counties have a positivity rate greater than 5%.  

Pennsylvania reported at least 1,103 new cases Monday– the 14th consecutive day in which the state has recorded over 1,000 new cases in a single day.  

At least 841 individuals are hospitalized with the virus and Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine says she expects that number to continue to rise.  

Data compiled from voluntarily responses submitted to the state Covid-19 contact tracing app showed 50% of people who tested positive for Covid-19 were at a restaurant 14 days prior to experiencing symptoms. 

French first lady Brigitte Macron is self-isolating after a potential coronavirus exposure, the Elysée told CNN on Monday.

On Thursday, the first lady met with someone who later tested positive for coronavirus on Monday, the Elysée said. 

She is not showing any symptoms, but is self-isolating for seven days, starting today.

This does not change President Emmanuel Macron’s schedule, the Elysée added. He was not in close contact with the person who later tested positive.

Organizers of the South Carolina State Fair will host its first ever drive-thru state fair this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The drive-thru fair is expected to start on Tuesday and will go through Wednesday, according to the organizer's website. 

Guests will enjoy free admission to drive-thru the fairgrounds and experience unique, car-friendly attractions that highlight the state's agriculture, history, arts, and culture, all from the comfort and safety of their cars, the organizer said. 

In the midst of the worst global crisis of our lifetime, we wanted to give the community something positive to look forward to," said General Manager Nancy Smith. 

Once a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine becomes available in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci predicts it may be a challenge to get people to take the vaccine. 

"It would be a terrible shame if we have — and I think we will have — a safe and effective vaccine but we're not able to widely distribute it to those who need it," Fauci said. 

"We will have a safe and effective vaccine, and maybe more than one, by the end of this year, the beginning of next year," Fauci said. "Hopefully we will be able to distribute vaccine doses to those who are most vulnerable."

The city of Chicago, Illinois, is now in the second surge of Covid-19, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said today during a press conference.

"This is the second surge that Dr. Fauci and Dr. Arwady has been warning us about since March," Lightfoot said. "We are now in it." 

Contact tracing revealed two out of three Chicagoans who tested positive for Covid-19 contracted the virus from someone they know, according to Dr. Allison Arwady, the Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner.

Over the past two weeks, the city is averaging about 500 new cases each day, Lightfoot said, adding that rising numbers is coinciding with "worrying increase of hospitalizations."

Additionally, the positivity rate over the past seven days stands at 5.4%, with at least 88,412 total cases reported in the city since the pandemic began, according the Department of Public Health's dashboard. 

The mayor said that if there isn't a "dramatic turnaround," the city will have to revert to phase three restrictions, which allows gatherings of 10 people or fewer and for bars and restaurants to be open only for delivery, pickup and drive through.

Note: These numbers were released by the city’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.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported 14 new deaths from Covid-19, with a statewide positivity rate of 1.2% and a “red zone” positivity rate of 3.3%.

There have been 934 hospitalizations with 198 patients in intensive care reported in the state, Cuomo said on a teleconference call Monday.

Cuomo went on to say, “You look at the big states, the positivity rates are much higher, and some of the states the positivity rate is much, much higher.”

The governor contributed the success in the state's positivity rate to how aggressive he says New York has been on spotting “flare ups,” saying “we are doing well because we are very aggressive about it, when we say a flare up or hot spot, we jump all over it.”

One thing to note: These numbers were released by New York State Department of Health, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.