October 20 coronavirus news

New York state has added Arizona and Maryland to the Covid-19 travel advisory list that it shares with New Jersey and Connecticut bringing the total number to 40 states and territories, according to a release by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. 

Cuomo said that while both New Jersey and Connecticut along with neighboring Pennsylvania qualify to be placed on the list, they will not be due to the difficulty in enforcing travel between the states. 

The advisory requires people who have traveled to New York from areas with significant community spread to quarantine for 14 days. The quarantine applies to any person arriving from an area with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a 7-day rolling average or an area with a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a 7-day rolling average.

Here's the full, updated travel advisory list is available below: 

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced the state reported 827 new cases of Covid-19 Monday as the state health department reported 15 new deaths on its Covid-19 dashboard.

Baker told reporters during a news conference Tuesday that "while there has been an increase in cases, our hospitals have the capacity to manage Covid-19 patients."  

Baker said 17,654 residents were tested Monday, bringing the total number of people tested to over 2.5 million. 

Baker noted that the state is testing around 60,000 people a day and set a record earlier this month at 91,300 tests in one day. The governor said he expects his state will soon be able to test 100,000 people a day. 

One thing to note: These numbers were released by Massachusetts'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.

Coronavirus patients are more likely to suffer complications and to die in the hospital than flu patients are, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.

Covid-19 patients were almost 19 times more likely to experience acute respiratory distress syndrome, twice as likely to need intensive care and five times more likely to die than flu patients, according to national Veterans Health Administration data from more than 9,000 patients with either Covid-19 or influenza.

Hospital stays were almost three times longer for coronavirus patients, and nearly a quarter of these patients had complications involving three or more organ systems. The CDC-led research team found they were at increased risk for 17 health complications.

Coronavirus patients had twice the risk of pneumonia, a type of heart inflammation called myocarditis; blood clots known as deep vein thrombosis as well as pulmonary embolism; brain hemorrhage and liver failure. Flu patients were more likely to experience worsened asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. 

While coronavirus patients were slightly older, on average, flu patients had more underlying health conditions.

About 48% of coronavirus patients and 25% of flu patients were Black. The researchers found that coronavirus patients who were not White were at greater risk for respiratory, neurologic, and kidney complications and sepsis, even after adjusting for outside factors.  

They say this underscores a disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on racial and ethnic minority groups – one that cannot be explained just by age or underlying medical conditions. 

The patients included in the study tested positive for coronavirus between March 1 and May 31, or for flu between Oct. 1 and Feb. 1. The researchers set those time frames to avoid including patients who were infected with both coronavirus and flu.

The National Football League confirmed today eight players tested positive for Covid-19 and 11 staffers also tested positive during the latest round of testing, according to a league statement.

The NFL and NFL Players Association said the testing results were for the week of Oct. 11 to Oct. 17. About 7,799 people were tested. 

That brings the NFL’s total number of positive cases to 47 players and 71 other personnel since Covid-19 monitoring testing began Aug. 1.

The United States has seen nearly 300,000 excess deaths so far since late January – and the groups with the biggest jumps in excess deaths, percentage-wise, have been adults ages 25 to 44 and Hispanic people, according to a report published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The report included mortality data from Jan. 26 through Oct. 3, to help researchers measure how many more people died this year during the coronavirus pandemic than otherwise would have been expected.

"Although more excess deaths have occurred among older age groups, relative to past years, adults aged 25-44 years have experienced the largest average percentage increase in the number of deaths from all causes from late January through October 3," the researchers wrote. "Among racial and ethnic groups, the smallest average percentage increase in numbers of deaths compared with previous years occurred among White persons (11.9%) and the largest for Hispanic persons (53.6%)."

The report has some limitations, including that mortality data can lag, and estimates of how many deaths would otherwise be expected are based on models.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday she is optimistic that Democrats can strike a deal with the Trump administration for another coronavirus stimulus package.

“We all want to get an agreement because people need it. It’s urgent, and our economy needs it,” Pelosi said. “Hopefully by the end of the day today, we’ll know where we all are.”

Pelosi also downplayed her previous deadline for a deal prior to the election — which she said Sunday would be the end of the day Tuesday.

“Let me just say, it isn’t that this day was the day that we would have a deal. It was the day where we would have our terms on the table to be able to go to the next step. And again, legislation takes a long time,” she said.

Pelosi said she hopes to have the potential legislation finalized this week with passage by next Friday.

There are at least 8,228,870 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 220,417 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

So far today, Johns Hopkins has recorded 15,889 new cases and 298 reported deaths.

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

The Pennsylvania department of health reported 1,557 new cases of Covid-19, the 15th consecutive day the state has reported over 1,000 new infections of coronavirus. 

The statewide number of total cases now stands at 184,872. 

Additionally, Pennsylvania reported 33 new deaths related to Covid-19, bringing the statewide death total to 8,533. 

The Pennsylvania department of health says that they are “seeing significant increases in the number of COVID-19 cases among younger age groups, particularly 19 to 24-year-olds.”

Ventilation and student placement can affect how coronavirus particles move around a classroom, according to a study published on Tuesday in the journal Physics of Fluids. The study also found that removing some seats, opening windows, placing glass barriers on desks and focusing on hand hygiene may help to reduce spread of the virus.

The authors conducted 20 computer simulations of how particles could spread based on a classroom including nine students and an instructor and desks with and without glass screens on the front.

Each student’s placement went beyond the typical recommendation of 6 feet of separation – instead there was 7 feet and 10 inches between each person. The model’s floor plan consisted of three rows of three desks with an instructor at the front corner. 

Based on the simulation, the authors suggest removing the middle seat to reduce potential spread. Students in the back corners received two to three times fewer particles on average than other students, so those may be better positions for students at risk for Covid-19 complications, the study said.

The authors said opening windows while the air conditioning was on increased the particles exiting the room and decreased particles deposited on those in the room. 

The study emphasizes the need for “efficient filtering in the air conditioning systems.”

Ventilation from air conditioning systems reduces the number of particles in the air. However, since air flow is often recycled, the authors said particles exiting the classroom “may pose greater risk to individuals in other rooms.” 

Even with only nine students and distance between them, aerosol “is transmitted in significant quantities between students and from one student other students’ desks,” the study said, highlighting the need for hand sanitization.

In the simulations, glass screens on desks reduced the spread of small particles from one student to another, and the authors said they should be used. But effectiveness will vary depending on air conditioning and the source of the aerosol.