November 10 coronavirus news

New Jersey is facing a “grave situation” along with most US states, said Governor Philip Murphy on Tuesday as the state introduced new restrictions aimed at reducing the spread of the virus.

The state reported 3,877 new Covid-19 cases and 21 additional deaths, according to its data dashboard. 

The new policies, which go into effect Thursday, include:

Murphy said the tendency of restaurants to turn into de facto clubs at night was thought to be fueling the state's Covid-19 resurgence. 

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka signed an executive order on Tuesday enacting additional measures, including a curfew in “hot zones,” to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the city, according to a news release. 

The new measures, effective immediately, include:

Two weeks ago, the city imposed restrictions such as requiring non-essential businesses to close at 8 p.m. and salons to be open by appointment only as cases continued to climb.

As of November 9, the city has reported a total of 12,779 positive cases and 677 deaths.

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acting director Dr. Richard Besser said Tuesday that he was optimistic that the pandemic response will soon be under new federal leadership, noting that in the meantime, states need to step up.

President-elect Joe Biden has named a new coronavirus advisory board to help with the pandemic response as he transitions into the presidency.

Besser said he was optimistic knowing “that politics will follow public health, instead of public health being told to change their recommendations to suit politics.” 

Besser, who heads the health-focused Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said he was glad to see that those appointed to the advisory board are prioritizing equity.

“To hear the Vice President-elect talking about the importance of equity, not being something on the side, but being central to how you think about this response -- to me, that's huge,” he said.

Besser said that the challenge will be getting through a difficult winter with the coronavirus response still led by the Trump administration.

“I hope that governors now of both red and blue states step up, mandate masks, look to see what they can do within their own states, recognizing that the federal response and unified federal response is still several months away,” he said. “There are tens of thousands of lives that could be saved if states drive this forward and do the right thing.”

Read more about Biden's advisory board here:

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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that more than 70% of the state's outbreaks between June and November were linked to weddings, private social gatherings, and late nights at bars and restaurants. 

His comments came as he announced new restrictions across the state in a news conference Tuesday to help fight "a significant surge of coronavirus cases."

The new restrictions include:

Walz said three of the most significant sources of Minnesota's Covid outbreaks were:

Walz said that there would be no change to religious services, saying that data has not shown a connection between services and the increased outbreaks. 

Minnesota reported 4,904 new cases Tuesday and 23 new deaths. It has a positivity rate above 10% and 2,698 people have died in total, with more than half of those deaths being in long-term care facilities.  

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has predicted average Americans will be able to get vaccinated by April.

He told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that ordinary families could have access to a vaccine within the first quarter next year.

He said that many may be persuaded by Pfizer's announcement on Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective, according to early data.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in an interview on NBC’s Today earlier Tuesday that he anticipated being able to vaccinate most vulnerable Americans by the end of December and all Americans by the end of March to early April. 

“The timeline is Pfizer will be producing and delivering to us approximately 20 million doses of vaccine each month, starting at the end of this month in November,” he said, adding that Moderna is also already producing its vaccine candidate. 

Utah, Illinois and Montana all broke records on Tuesday as cases in the United States top 10.2 million and deaths exceed 239,000.

Illinois reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases with 12,623 infections, plus 79 more deaths, its Department of Public Health said in a statement on Tuesday. 

It is the fifth state in the US to surpass 500,000 cumulative Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 511,183 confirmed.

Utah hit record highs for its seven-day case average and test positivity percentage, according to its data dashboard. 

The state's new case average, which has been climbing since the start of October, hit 2,554. The percentage of positive tests hit 21.86% after climbing since October 11, where it had been holding steady at approximately 14%.

This weekend, Utah Governor Gary Herbert issued a declaration of a state of emergency and statewide mask mandate. Utah has reported 137,385 Covid-19 cases in total.

Montana announced 1,101 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday -- a record high for the state since the pandemic began, its data dashboard shows.

The state’s previous record daily record of 1,013 new cases was set on November 5, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

The Montana Department of Health said the state has had 41,151 Covid-19 cases and 462 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said he was concerned over the rise in Covid-19 cases heading into the holiday season, particularly in the southwest of the state.

Northam said the state positivity rate was 6.2%, with 1,435 new cases, while southwest Virginia was seeing 9% of tests coming back positive.

Northam said the state's Department of Health was focusing a communications campaign in that region to emphasize the importance of avoiding indoor gatherings, washing hands and adhering to Virginia’s face covering mandate.

He announced that Virginia has signed contracts with three labs to participate in the state’s new One Lab network -- a system that will allow the state to increase testing capacity by an extra 7,000 tests per day by the end of the year.

Northam said the Pfizer vaccine was good news but “not a magic bullet." 

Humans carried coronavirus onto mink farms in the Netherlands, starting a viral back and forth that ended up with 68% of fur farm workers and their associates infected, researchers reported Tuesday.

They said it was “imperative” that the fur trade should not fuel further spread of the virus into the human population, noting that densely packed conditions on such farms are ripe for amplifying the virus in ways that could help it mutate.

A team in the Netherlands ran whole genome analyses of virus samples taken from animals and people on 16 mink farms in the country -- looking at the full genetic sequence of the virus for clues about where it may have come from, how it spread and whether it was mutating.

“Despite enhanced biosecurity, early warning surveillance and immediate culling of infected farms, transmission occurred between mink farms in three big transmission clusters with unknown modes of transmission. Sixty-eight percent of the tested mink farm residents, employees and/or contacts had evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” they added.

People infected the animals, and the animals infected people, they found. The virus has not yet spread from the farms into the wider community and no troubling mutations have turned up so far, they added.

Danish authorities have seen spread on mink farms and mutations that are not necessarily harmful, but whose significance is not yet fully understood.

“It is imperative that fur production and trading sector should not become a reservoir for future spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to humans,” the Dutch researchers wrote.

Italy recorded its highest number of daily coronavirus deaths since April 14, with 580 fatalities reported Tuesday, according to the latest Italian Health Ministry data. That brings the country's death toll to 43,233.

It also recorded a further 35,098 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to nearly one million cases, with 995,463 positive infections since the pandemic began. 

The country has 2,971 coronavirus patients in intensive care -- an increase of 122 compared to the previous day. 

Hospitals at risk: Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is one of the parameters the Italian Health Ministry considers when declaring regions "red zones" or "orange zones" -- meaning they face tighter restrictions. Hospitals should not exceed 30% of their ICU capacity.

President of the National Health Council Franco Locatelli said during a weekly Covid-19 update that two regions -- Lombardy and Umbria -- have surpassed the 30% threshold of ICU capacity and the regions of Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta are at 29% capacity.

Virologist Giorgio Palù of Padua University said in a TV interview on Tuesday that, as Europe's second wave continues and ICUs are pushed to their limits, anesthetists are required to make difficult choices.

The head of Italy's National Institute of Health Silvio Brusaferro, said on Tuesday that the transmission rate was "stable." Brusaferro said the epidemic curve was still growing but at a slower rate, as a result of the government's successful restrictive measures.

A federal appeals court on Monday denied Catholic and Jewish houses of worship’s request to halt the enforcement of New York State restrictions on gatherings due to the Covid-19 pandemic while it considered appeals cases related to the matter.  

Eight separate appeals were filed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who issued an executive order to limit the spread of the coronavirus, which has caused more than 25,000 deaths in the state. 

The Jewish and Catholic institutions challenged the order that limits non-essential gatherings based on the severity of the outbreak in each area.

“Red zone” rules:

The executive order allows houses of worship to hold services but only at 25% capacity, for a maximum of 10 people. The plaintiffs claim the executive order violates the “Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” the appeals court decision states. CNN has reached out to both sets of plaintiffs for comment.

The panel of judges denied the motion for an injunction while an appeal is pending in the case filed by Agudath Israel. The panel also denied the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s request for an injunction.

The ruling acknowledged that the executive order “burdens” the plaintiffs’ religious practices, but that the order has “greater or equal impact on schools, restaurants, and comparable secular public gatherings.” The panel said that the order treats the religious institutions “on par with or more favorably” than the secular gatherings.

The decision does not address the plaintiffs’ overall appeals cases -- only their requests to halt the restrictions while the appeals cases are considered. Arguments in the cases may be heard as early as the week of December 14, according to the ruling.