October 22 coronavirus news

The antiviral remdesvir has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of patients hospitalized with Covid-19, Gilead Sciences announced Thursday.

The drug, sold under the brand name Veklury, has been used under emergency use authorization (EUA) in the US. It is the first drug to be approved in the US for treating Covid-19.

Some context: Earlier this month, a World Health Organization-sponsored global study found remdesivir did not help patients survive or even recover faster, but a US study found the infused drug shortened recovery time for some patients by about a third.

If one of the experimental coronavirus vaccines gets emergency use authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration, clinical trials examining the safety and efficacy of that vaccine will continue as planned, a senior FDA official said Thursday.

The FDA has said it would consider EUA for coronavirus vaccines in the works – a quicker route to getting one distributed than full approval would be. But that would mean beginning vaccination of the populace before clinical trials have finished. Some people have worried that would mean the clinical trials would end before all the data was collected.

Dr. Doran Fink, deputy director of the FDA’s division of vaccines and related products applications, said that won’t happen. Companies still will have to continue their formal clinical trials to get full licensing approval, Fink told a meeting of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

The FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research does not consider the authorization of a vaccine as reason to "unblind" ongoing trials and offer the vaccine to volunteers who received a placebo, Fink said.

“CBER does not consider issuance of an EUA for a Covid-19 vaccine, in and of itself, as grounds to unblind ongoing clinical trials and offer vaccine to placebo recipients,” Fink said.

Dr. Thomas Dobbs, a Mississippi state health official, said that while the state's Black communities were hit hard during the beginning of the pandemic, since the summer and fall, that trend has shifted to impact the state's White population.

"Now it's over 60% of new cases are in Caucasians and the deaths are mirroring that also," Dobbs told CNN's Brianna Keilar.

Dobbs suggested that the shift may be attributed to the African American population taking social distancing and mask measures more seriously.

"Nothing's perfect, but the message seems have hit more fertile ground, right now, in the Black community," he added.

Watch the full interview:

Coronavirus cases continue to soar in both Europe and the United States.

There are currently at least 8,354,300 cases of Covid-19 in the US and at least 222,416 people have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

Spain reported another new daily record of Covid-19 cases on Thursday, after surpassing the grim milestone of one million coronavirus cases on Wednesday. Numbers across the continent continue to rise.

Today, many states and countries around the world reported a record high in the daily number of Covid-19 cases counted. Here's a look at some of them.

Europe:

US:

More than 1,600 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Oklahoma, according to the state's Department of Health.

The department recorded 1,628 new cases — the highest daily total of new cases since the pandemic began. A total of 112,483 cases have been reported in Oklahoma so far, according to the state's dashboard.

At least 11 new deaths were reported, bringing the total to 1,221.  

Hospitalizations have steadily increased over the past seven days, according to the dashboard. The department said 991 patients with Covid-19 are currently hospitalized statewide.

Note: These numbers were released by Oklahoma'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.

Spain’s health ministry reported a record 20,986 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday evening, the highest daily increase since the pandemic started. 

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country is now 1,026,281. Spain surpassed 1 million cases on Wednesday. 

The country’s death toll now stands at 34,521, with 155 new fatalities recorded today.

During a news conference Thursday evening, Fernando Simón, the director of the Spanish Center for Health Emergencies, admitted the evolution of the pandemic is not favorable. 

“We don’t know what will happen in the next few days, but yes we are going upwards,” Simón said. 

Spain's Health Minister Salvador Illa told reporters his country is facing difficult weeks ahead. 

“There is a lot of concern, we have very tough weeks ahead,” he warned.

Illa also announced that Spain’s central government and the 17 regional governments have agreed on a document containing the main criteria for a joint response to a second wave of the pandemic. 

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said hospitals are "starting to fill up" in the state as Covid-19 cases continue to spread.

He said 20% of the patients currently in intensive care units are Covid-19 patients. Herbert warned that ICUs are becoming crowded.

"I would hope that people will take this seriously and do the best they can," the governor said. 

Dr. Angela Dunn, state epidemiologist, said the state's health care system "is at capacity."

"I don't know what to do anymore," Dunn said during the briefing.

"I'm really not trying to scare anyone, I'm just trying to inform you of what's going on and give you the facts," she said.

Watch:

Ohio's University of Toledo announced they are pausing the men’s basketball activities for two weeks after head coach Tod Kowalczyk and six players on the team tested positive for Covid-19. 

The Rockets head coach, Tod Kowalczyk, confirmed he tested positive for the virus on Sunday. On Tuesday, the school revealed six players tested positive for Covid-19 during regular weekly surveillance testing, in compliance with NCAA Covid-19 protocols. 

According to the school, the men’s basketball program is following all university Covid-19 protocols, including isolating those who tested positive, partnering with the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department to conduct contact tracing and arranging for additional Covid-19 testing of all close contacts.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced new restrictions Thursday to curb the spread of coronavirus. They include a nighttime curfew in high-risk areas and a mask mandate.

The nighttime curfew will be imposed in high-risk areas in an effort to limit outdoor parties and gatherings. The cities of Athens and Thessaloniki are considered high-risk areas in the country’s four tier-system along with more than a dozen other regions, including Zante and Heraklion.

Officials are seeing a significant rise in cases among young people, Mitsotakis said.

Along with the curfew, masks will now be mandatory outdoors.

The new measures will take effect at 6 a.m. local Saturday.

Mitsotakis went on to say Greece is in better shape than most European countries but warned of tough months ahead. 

Greece recorded 882 new coronavirus cases and 15 deaths on Thursday.

The country has recorded 28,216 cases and 549 deaths in total since the pandemic started, according to Greece’s National Public Health Organization.