October 27 coronavirus news

Hawaii will soon allow travelers from Japan to enter without undergoing quarantine, as long as they present a negative Covid-19 test before flying.

This is the first time Hawaii has allowed travelers from outside of the United States to do so since the pandemic began.

The program follows the same guidelines as flights coming from the US mainland, with travelers required to get a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of travel from a group of pre-approved testing providers.

The first flight from Hawaii to Japan is expected to arrive on November 6, with only 10 such flights scheduled for the entire month. If there are no unexpected problems, Hawaii Airlines, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways intend to significantly increase the number of flights from Japan to Hawaii in December.

“Welcoming visitors from a country that's so dear to us is important,” Hawaii Lt. Gov. Josh Green said.

Discussions are already underway with the governments of Canada, South Korea, Thailand and New Zealand about expanding the program to those countries.

Switzerland runs the risk of lacking hospital beds and intensive care units in the coming weeks as the number of coronavirus infections soar in the country, a Swiss health official said on Tuesday.

Andreas Stettbacher, a delegate for the Coordinated Medical Service, the government’s scientific advisory group, warned in a news conference that if the surge in cases continued, hospitals would be “fully occupied” in 15 days and intensive care units in 11 days.

In the same conference, the head of the Swiss National Covid-19 task force Martin Ackermann said that “we don’t have time to lose,” warning that hospitals have already reached their limit. Ackermann also said that there is no indication for the task force that the pandemic is decreasing in Switzerland.

Stricter measures: Ackermann also indicated that a full lockdown must also be an option for Switzerland to curb the virus’ spread, saying there were no alternatives to drastic measures.

On Monday, Health Minister Alain Berset announced that the Swiss government plans to announce stricter coronavirus measures on Wednesday to control the spread of the virus.

The country recorded 5,949 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 127,042 since the start of the pandemic.

The death toll in Switzerland stands at 1,930.

The White House included ending the coronavirus pandemic on a list of the Trump administration's science and technology accomplishments, even though nearly half a million Americans tested positive for Covid-19 in just the last week.

A White House Office of Science and Technology Policy news release made the claim in announcing a document highlighting the administration's science and technology achievements over the past four years.

The news release comes as the country reports the largest number of daily cases seen to date. The seven-day average of daily new cases reached an all-time high of 68,767 on Sunday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The previous record of 67,293 was set July 22.

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The United States is on track to hit 100,000 new daily Covid-19 cases, if the current trend continues, Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University School of Public Health, said Tuesday. 

Jha believes that staggering number could be averted, but he said, “there’s just not enough policy impetus to act as we need to, and I’m worried we’re going to hit 100,000 in a day at some point in the coming weeks.”

Jha is more hopeful the daily death toll won’t spike along with the current Covid-19 cases. 

“We have gotten so much better with treatments,” he said.

“But still, 1,000 Americans are dying, close to 1,000 (a day are) dying now and I would not be surprised if that number goes higher yet.” 

If a Covid-19 vaccine is proven safe and effective, the federal government will distribute it to “all of America simultaneously,” and states will own the final distribution, Army Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of the federal government’s coronavirus response, said Tuesday. 

“We’ll distribute vaccines, accordingly, to all of America simultaneously,” Perna said at an online event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank.

“We will make sure that there is equitable distribution in accordance with that priority, and then the states will, you know, they own the actual final distribution and administration down to individual arms,” he added.

Perna said he expects the availability of vaccine doses to increase in 2021.

Perna said there are plans to carefully track exactly where the vaccine is being distributed.

“It'll be a hot commodity, of course, and we need it to get to the places where it will be distributed based on state priorities and requirements, in accordance with the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine,” he said.

Perna said Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s vaccine response effort, plans to cover all parts of the United States and its territories.

“We want to be able to make sure we can get to those American citizens who are overseas, you know, serving in Department of Defense, or State Department, et cetera,” he added.

Almost 3 million cases of coronavirus have been reported worldwide in the past seven days, a global record, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday.

It’s the shortest exponential increase in case numbers since the start of the pandemic, WHO officials said in a news release, but the number of new deaths is comparable to previous weeks.

More than 42 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported globally as of Oct. 25 and 1.1 million deaths, the health agency said, with 2.8 million new cases and 40,000 new deaths in the past week. 

Europe is reporting the highest number of new cases for the second week in a row at more than 1.3 million – an increase of 33% compared to the previous week, WHO said, and contributing to 46%, or nearly half, of all new cases globally this week.

“Similarly, the number of deaths continues to increase in the region with a 35% increase from last week and accounting for nearly one third of all new deaths globally,” the agency reported.

Cases are also increasing in the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean and African regions.

The US, Brazil and Argentina are still reporting the highest number of new regional cases of Covid-19 and new deaths at 78% and 67%, respectively.

In the US, the numbers are spiking since Sept. 7 when the country had recorded 240,000 new cases that week to more than 400,000 new cases in the past week.

“Cases are now approaching the previous epidemic peak in July,” WHO said.

The US is also seeing 1,318 new cases per million population, but that’s lower than several European countries such as the United Kingdom with 2,200 cases per million and France with 3,300 per million. 

The death toll in the US has surpassed 225,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

French President Emmanuel Macron will announce new measures on Wednesday to fight the spread of coronavirus in the country, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said.

On Tuesday, France saw its highest death toll since April with 523 deaths, according to numbers released by the national health agency. 

“We need to take measures given the severity of the crisis,” he said following a meeting between French Prime Minister Jean Castex and political representatives about the pandemic.

France recorded at least 33,417 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to numbers released by the health agency.

An outbreak of Covid-19 among men's and women's soccer teams at one university in Chicago can be traced back to birthday parties and other social gatherings, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although the players had been drilled about using masks and keeping their distance at practice, they appeared to forget everything when they got together with friends, researchers reported on Tuesday. The students made minimal use of masks and social distancing at a birthday party, dorm or apartment visit and casual co-ed soccer match – and that most likely contributed to transmission of the coronavirus.

The report includes the results of an investigation into that cluster of Covid-19 cases among the soccer teams, which was reported to the Chicago Department of Public Health in August. 

That month, a member of the men's soccer team first reported Covid-19 symptoms. He said that he had attended the birthday party and soccer match in the preceding 14 days, according to the report. In the days following the start of his symptoms, 17 players total tested positive for Covid-19 among 45 across both the men's and women's teams. 

In addition to the co-ed soccer match, the report includes 18 social gatherings during the investigation period, such as the birthday party and visits to friends' dormitories or apartments.

"All 17 students with Covid-19 attended at least one gathering," wrote the research team from the CDC, the Chicago Department of Public Health and the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

Colleges and universities may need to "consider conducting periodic repeat testing of asymptomatic students" to identify Covid-19 outbreaks.

There have been at least 8,740,824 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 226,211 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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

So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported 38,074 new cases and 505 reported deaths.