October 29 coronavirus news

Ohio recorded at least 3,590 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, the highest daily count in the state since the pandemic began. 

Gov. Mike DeWine also announced 192 new hospitalizations and 19 new deaths due to the virus.

Eighty three of 88 counties in Ohio are now considered "high incident counties," DeWine said. 

Righty now, 78% of state residents are living in a county labeled "red" for "very high exposure and spread." 

DeWine announced that he's asked leaders of every community to create a "Covid Defense team" that should include county commissioners, mayors, local hospital leaders, business leaders and religious leaders. The teams should assess and understand the situation and focus on what steps to take to turn the situation in their community around.

"We're simply letting our guard down," chief executive officer of University of Cincinnati Health and Covid-19 adviser to DeWine, Dr. Richard Lofgren, said at the news conference. 

While businesses and establishments are following restrictions, the virus is spreading in private social events, Lofgren said. 

To note: These numbers were released by the state’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.

Greece announced today it will impose further regional lockdowns to curb the coronavirus resurgence.

The country’s second largest city of Thessaloniki along with the city of Larissa and the Rhodope region will enter lockdown starting Friday at 6 a.m. local time. These brings the total regional lockdowns to seven.

More context: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is expected to announce stricter measures Friday that would last one month.

He said his aim remains to avoid a national lockdown and instead will focus on the intensification of the containment measures. Greek media outlets have reported that a stricter curfew could be announced.  

According to Greece’s National Public Health Organization, Greece has recorded 35,510 coronavirus cases and 615 deaths from the disease in total. 

An ensemble forecast published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects there will be 243,000 to 256,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Nov. 21. 

Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections a few weeks into the future. The previous ensemble forecast, published Oct. 21, projected up to 247,000 coronavirus deaths by Nov. 14.

At least 228,143 people have already died from Covid-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Moderna and Pfizer appear to be "neck and neck" in the race for a Covid-19 vaccine — so much so that the United States could see critical safety and efficacy data for both companies' vaccine candidates around the same time, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Facebook Live session on Thursday. 

Currently, there are six Covid-19 vaccine candidates in the United States — four of which are in Phase 3 trials, Fauci said, adding that Moderna and Pfizer are "neck and neck." 

"Pfizer and Moderna, both went into Phase 3 on July 27," Fauci told Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, during the Facebook Live session. 

"Close behind them is the AstraZeneca, and the Johnson or J & J or the Janssen trial — and then we have the trial of Novavax and then ultimately we have Sanofi," Fauci said. "So we would likely, Francis, start seeing results from Moderna and Pfizer at approximately the same time."

The Czech Republic has a field hospital set up in Prague and a second one is under construction in Brno at a convention center.

There are temporary bathrooms and a row of cubicles set up to accommodate beds, complete with dividers, curtains, cabinets and electrical and plumbing set up.

With 1,448.7 cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days, the Czech Republic now has the highest rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths per capita in the European Union, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The Czech Republic is also leading the EU on deaths per capita over the past 14 days, with 13.5 Covid-19 fatalities per 100,000 people. 

This comes as the health care system in the Czech Republic is reeling under the strain of a surge in coronavirus cases. Hospitals have started to burst at the seams, stretching intensive care units to their limits, while also lacking staff. 

“About 1,000 health care workers are testing positive for the virus every single day. So while PPE, bed space is relatively easy to come by, it's not so easy to order doctors and nurses in bulk,” McLean added.

Read more on how the Czech Republic is trying to tackle the shortage of health workers here.

CNN's Scott McLean reports:

The Czech Republic now has the highest rate of new coronavirus infections and deaths per capita in the European Union. Part of this case count are health care workers who are also testing positive for the virus, creating a shortage of staff at hospitals that are already bursting at the seams.

The Czech Medical Chamber and the health minister have called on Czech doctors living abroad to return home to help fight the virus. Medical students and people with medical training have also been encouraged to come forward. More than 1,000 qualified nurses who've left the profession have offered to come back to help.

“The health care system in the Czech Republic has already collapsed because hospitals, with a few exceptions, are not able to provide long-term care for non-Covid patients,” says Jiri Vyhnal, head ER doctor at the Kyjov hospital says.

Kubek is also hoping for help from abroad. But there’s a problem: When Italy appealed for help from abroad at the peak of its coronavirus outbreak, military doctors and nurse around the world answered the call. The Czech Republic did not.

The military doctors were needed in the country at the time, Czech deputy defense minister Jan Havranek claimed. But he admitted that the first wave in the Czech Republic was “rather milld.”

The next time, he said, the Czech Republic will think harder when another country asks for help.

Meanwhile, foreign help is on the way with dozens of medical workers from the US National Guard and hundreds from Europe. But that is not nearly enough. The hospital that’s supposed to be staffing the second Czech field hospital in Brno said it is stretched so thin that it's currently negotiating with Germany, Poland and the Red Cross to try to get staff in place.

WATCH:

The biotechnology company Moderna expects to have its first interim analysis of its Covid-19 vaccine trial data in November and critical safety data in the second half of November, CEO Stéphane Bancel said during an investor call on Thursday morning. 

Bancel said that two-month safety data on 15,000 trial participants who had received two doses of the vaccine will be ready later next month.

In October, the US Food and Drug Administration made clear that it wants to see two months of follow-up data after volunteers get their second vaccine doses in clinical trials before considering any Covid-19 vaccine candidate for possible emergency use authorization.

Moderna said it plans to file for an EUA after it has positive efficacy data and two-months of safety data for the median number of participants, about 15,000.

On Thursday's call, Bancel also said that Moderna has "received $1.1 billion cash payments from governments around the world." And the company noted in a news release on Thursday that it is "actively preparing for the launch of mRNA-1273," its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

"We have signed a number of supply agreements with governments around the world. Moderna is committed to the highest data quality standards and rigorous scientific research as we continue to work with regulators to advance mRNA-1273," Bancel said in part in the news release. "I believe that if we launch our COVID-19 vaccine, 2021 could be the most important inflection year in Moderna’s history."

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said he believes the United States will cross the 100,000 cases per day threshold sometime in the next couple of weeks – or maybe even this week.

Gottlieb added that this is due to the public's behavior and lack of caution. 

"The reality is that I think we're not going to start to see a slowdown in the pandemic until you see consumer behavior change, and until you see mobility data start to decline. That's been the lesson of the past surges in the virus," Gottlieb said. 

Professional sport in France will continue despite the country entering a new national coronavirus lockdown, sports minister Roxana Maracineanu told the country's National Assembly on Thursday.

The news comes after President Emmanuel Macron announced in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday that a second national lockdown will begin on Friday and last until at least Dec 1.

The French Men’s National Rugby team is set to host Ireland in Paris on Saturday in a crunch Six Nations finale. The game was already slated to be played without fans at the Stade de France.

Meanwhile, the Paris Masters tennis tournament is due to begin on Monday with 20-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal slated to take part.

In a statement from the ATP Player Relations, which Slovakian player Lukas Lacko posted on his Twitter feed on Thursday, it was confirmed that the French Tennis Federation (FFT) will stage the event behind closed doors at the Bercy Arena.