November 3 coronavirus news

Twenty-three passengers on an Air India flight from New Delhi to Wuhan have tested positive for Covid-19, Hubei Province's Health Commission said Tuesday.

The flight, AI1314, flew from New Delhi to Wuhan on October 30, according to Flight Radar.

Of the 23 new cases, 19 were asymptomatic, according to the health commission's statement.

The four symptomatic patients were sent to hospital and the asymptomatic group are under quarantine.

The health commission added that 254 "close contacts" of those who tested positive are also under quarantine measures.

India's Embassy in Beijing said in a statement on Monday that the Indian government would assist stranded nationals abroad, but did not specify whether its effort was linked to the AI1314 cases.

India has been hit hard by the spread of Covid-19. The country has reported more than 8.2 million cases in total -- the second highest tally worldwide, behind the US.

Lockdowns are multiplying throughout Europe as Covid-19 cases rise exponentially, threatening to push health services across the continent to breaking point.

Fearing all of its intensive care beds could be full by mid-November, France implemented nationwide restrictions at the end of October -- as did Belgium and Ireland. Germany's softer, so-called "lockdown light," restrictions began on Monday, and Austria is following suit on Tuesday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called for a second lockdown to begin in England later this week, while record daily increases of coronavirus infections in Italy appear to foreshadow another round of severe restrictions there.

As countries attempt to beat back the virus before the Christmas holiday season, experts are calling on European governments to rethink their pandemic approach, fix its blind spots, and prevent another spiraling rise in illness next year, which could further derail economies in the process.

Read more:

RELATED

What European leaders need to get right during second wave of lockdowns

Millions of Americans are heading to the polls today to exercise their right to vote -- but standing in a slow-moving queue at a polling center raises your risk of catching Covid-19, especially when there is no guarantee that the people around you will be wearing masks.

A CNN investigation found most states with mask mandates won't force voters to cover their faces while they cast their ballots.

Nor will people isolating due to a positive test for Covid-19 -- or quarantining because they have been exposed -- be precluded "from exercising their right to vote," a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesperson told CNN on Monday.

Here's your cheat sheet for a safer voting experience:

Read more:

RELATED

10 tips for voting safely in person through Election Day

Soaring coronavirus case counts around the United States are impacting children at "unprecedented levels," according to new numbers released Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children's Hospital Association, which are tracking data reported by state health departments.

There were 61,000 new cases in children during the last week of October, "which is larger than any previous week in the pandemic," the AAP said in a statement.

From the onset of the pandemic through October 29, more than 853,000 children in the US have tested positive for Covid-19, the AAP said, including nearly 200,000 new cases during the month of October.

Yet these numbers are likely an undercount, the AAP said. Because symptoms in children are often mild and can look like common colds or viruses, many children go untested.

Typical symptoms of Covid-19 in both children and adults include a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, a dry cough, difficulty breathing, headaches, digestive issues, body aches and fatigue, runny nose, sore throat and sneezing.

However, early research has suggested children may not get fever, cough or shortness of breath as often as adults.

Fever and cough were found in 56% and 54% of children in one study, compared to 71% and 80% of adults, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shortness of breath was found in only 13% of pediatric patients, compared to 43% of adults. Sore throat, headache, muscle pain, fatigue and diarrhea were also less commonly reported in children.

Read more:

RELATED

Cases of Covid-19 in children spike, with 61,000 in 1 week

The UK is to test all residents and workers in Liverpool for Covid-19.

Everyone in the city, in England's north west, will be tested from Friday -- regardless of whether they have symptoms -- the UK government said Tuesday.

Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson said the mass testing effort would "help to quickly identify people who have the virus and reduce transmission substantially."

Liverpool has some of the highest infection rates in Britain. Weekly cases currently stand at 410.4 per 100,000, as of October 25, according to government data.

The region was the first to be placed in the "very high" tier of the country's Covid-19 alert system.

Missed targets, technical glitches and unreported cases have plagued the British government's attempts to build a functional Test and Trace system. The mass testing scheme is the first of its kind in the country.

Minsters previously encouraged only those with symptoms to come forward for a test, so as not to overwhelm the system.

England looks set to enter a new national lockdown on Thursday, as cases across the country surge.

As Americans head to the voting booths Tuesday, the devastating Covid-19 pandemic looms large. It is surging across the US yet again, setting grim records and forecast to take tens of thousands more lives across the country in the coming months.

Experts have warned this bout of the virus will be the worst one yet -- and alarming trends are already pointing in that direction.

In just one month, the country's seven-day case average jumped by more than 97%. Last week, the US reported 99,321 new cases -- the highest single day number of infections recorded for any country. And at least 31 states set daily infection records last month.

Hospitalizations are also surging, with the number of patients nationwide rising by more than 10,000 in just two weeks, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. Hospitals in some parts of the country have hit their "breaking point."

Hospital officials in El Paso, Texas, are preparing to open the city's civic center as an overflow medical facility and add a fourth mobile morgue.

And when hospitalizations climb, deaths are likely to follow, doctors have warned.

More than 231,500 people have died in the US and researchers from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation project that a total of about 399,163 American lives could be lost by February 1, 2021.

The numbers will likely get worse before they get better and officials worry the upcoming holidays -- and the gatherings that will come with them -- will further fuel an already rampant spread into the winter months.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Public health measures touted by experts for months -- including face masks, social distancing and regular hand washing -- can help hold the virus down.

Read more:

RELATED

Americans head to polls amid harrowing Covid-19 surge that has nearly doubled the US 7-day case average in a month

Police in the Australian state of Victoria arrested 404 people who participated in a protest against lockdowns in Melbourne on Tuesday -- more than a week after the state began lifting stringent anti-epidemic measures that had been in place for months.

Protesters occupied the state capital's central business district and called the virus, which has killed 907 Australians and more than 1.2 million people worldwide, a hoax.

In footage tweeted by CNN affiliate 9 News Melbourne, some shouted: "Shame on you, fake news!" at journalists and called for state Premier Daniel Andrews to step down.

The video also showed police deploying what appeared to be pepper spray at the crowd.

Melbourne was the epicenter of Australia's coronavirus epidemic this summer, with Andrews declaring a "state of disaster" at one stage to stem an outbreak that saw as many as 725 people in Victoria test positive for the virus in a single day.

As cases began skyrocketing, Andrews enacted the type of strict anti-epidemic measures that critics worry could damage the economy and trample on civil liberties.

But from a public health standpoint, Andrews' decision appeared to have worked. While cases in Europe and the United States are surging, on Sunday Australia didn't register a single new Covid-19 infection for the first time since June.

Tuesday saw Victoria report no new cases for the fourth day in a row.

A new normal: Andrews' government began relaxing anti-epidemic measures last week. Melbourne residents can now leave their homes, and most businesses in the state can reopen.

Some restrictions remain in place, however, including a 25-kilometer (15-mile) limit on travel and an internal border between Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne. Public gatherings are limited to 10 people.

A church in Northern California has been ordered by a court to stop holding large indoor gatherings in violation of public health orders created to stop the spread of Covid-19.

The Santa Clara County Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order Monday prohibiting the Calvary Chapel in San Jose from holding large indoor gatherings after the church was repeatedly cited by county officials for violating Covid-19 restrictions and accruing more than $350,000 in fines.

Calvary Chapel hosted indoor gatherings with as many as 600 people, posing the threat of a superspreader event, the court said.

Despite repeated warnings and fines, Calvary Chapel has been holding in-person services since May without the use of masks or social distancing, county officials said.

Under the county health orders, indoor gatherings are limited to 100 people and masks and social distancing must be followed.

California has the second highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases out of any state in the country, with more than 940,000 cases confirmed as of Monday night, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 data. In Santa Clara County, where San Jose is located, JHU data shows 25,277 confirmed cases.

Read more:

RELATED

A court has ordered a Northern California church to stop holding large indoor services in defiance of Covid-19 restrictions

There were another 84,089 Covid-19 cases in the United States on Monday, according to numbers compiled by Johns Hopkins University, as well as at least 557 related deaths.

Since the pandemic began, 9,291,064 patients have been identified in the US. At least 231,552 people have died in the country after contracting the virus.

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

Track US cases here:

RELATED

Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US