November 22 coronavirus news

The expedited timeline of Operation Warp Speed has had nothing to do with political pressure, its chief scientific officer, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union on Sunday. 

He continued to tell Tapper it’s been “an incredible visionary approach to put together science and the Department of Defense and industry in incredible partnership, frankly it’s been, it’s been exceptional.” 

Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, more than 1 million passengers traveled through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at US airports on Friday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

This is only the second time during the pandemic that the US saw that high passenger volume. The TSA topped 1 million passenger screenings at the end of the long Columbus Day weekend.

Here's a look at the numbers this weekend:

March 16 was the last day going into the pandemic that the US routinely had 1 million passenger days, according to the TSA. On March 16, 1,257,823 passengers traveled through TSA checkpoints. The following day, March 17, that number dropped below a million passengers with 953,699 passengers.

Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the head of the White House's coronavirus vaccine effort, said he hopes that the high efficacy rates of the vaccine candidates will encourage those who may we have concerns about vaccines to get one.

"I think people have misunderstood the level of efficacy that the FDA aimed for, which was to say, at least 50% efficacy. Maybe people thought that was the efficacy of the vaccine," he told CNN this morning. "It's 95%. It's almost a full insurance against this pandemic. I think and I hope that's gonna change people's perception."

He added that it's "very unfortunate" that the vaccine development process has become political.

"I really think it's very unfortunate that the whole process has been politicized and, therefore, the context has created conditions whereby people's perception has been exacerbated and we are where we are today," he said.

He added that the vaccines are safe for Americans.

Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the White House vaccine czar, told CNN's Jake Tapper today that he expects children will be able to receive the coronavirus vaccine some time in the middle of next year.

Slaoui, who is the head of the US government's efforts to develop a vaccine, said at this point the lowest age that children have received a vaccine during the trials has been 12- to 14-year-olds in the Pfizer trials.

"I don't know whether the FDA will approve the vaccine for use down to that age. Maybe they will stop at 18 years of age and above," he said.

Slaoui said that the government is planning to run clinical trials into younger adolescents, and then toddlers and infants on "an expedited basis" in the coming months.

He said that he expects by May 2021 that " toddlers, 4, 5 years old and down to 12 months old" could receive a vaccines, adding that first, "we need to run those clinical trials on an expedited basis." 

Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the head of the government's effort to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, said the first Americans to receive a coronavirus vaccine could get it as soon as Dec. 11.

On Friday, Pfizer submitted an application to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for their Covid-19 vaccine candidate, and an FDA vaccine advisory committee is slated to meet December 10.

Slaoui said that means, if approved, the vaccine could be rolled out the next day.

Remember: Experts have said that initially there won't be enough vaccine for everyone. The highest-priority groups, which include health care workers, the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions, will get the vaccine first.

Vice President Mike Pence is waiting for Sen. Kelly Loeffler's "confirmatory test” whether it is confirmed the Georgia Republican is positive for Covid-19,  according to Pence’s spokesperson. 

“As he awaits a confirmatory test from Senator Loeffler, Vice President Pence is in regular consultation with the White House Medical Unit and will be following CDC guidelines as he has in other circumstances when he has been a close contact," Devin O'Malley told CNN in a statement.

Pence campaigned alongside Loeffler Friday in Georgia in her runoff campaign to keep her Senate seat. Neither were wearing masks.

The Republican senator tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday, but a subsequent test came back as inconclusive on Saturday evening, according to campaign spokesperson Stephen Lawson. 

Pence is tested every day for coronavirus.

Following a coronavirus outbreak among his staff ahead of the election, Pence continued to travel and campaign, citing US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for "essential workers” which his staff said he was.

We're just four days away from Thanksgiving, and coronavirus cases are rising across the country.

The US surpassed 12 million cases of the virus yesterday — and nearly a quarter of those cases were recorded in November.

As Americans begin to prepare for the holiday, here's the latest on the pandemic:

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will on Monday set out the government’s plan for England to exit its second national lockdown on December 2, outlining what is expected to be a “strengthened” tier system for the country, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said Sunday.  

“The Prime Minister will be setting out more details tomorrow about the next steps and our fight against coronavirus,” Sunak told Sky News. 

“The good news is, we will be exiting national restrictions on the 2nd of December, as the Prime Minister said at the beginning of the month-long restrictions,” he added. 

According to the Chancellor, the Prime Minister is expected to chair a cabinet meeting on Sunday afternoon to “discuss the details for re-entering the tier system” in England.  

While the Chancellor declined to comment on whether a 10 p.m. curfew on the hospitality sector would be extended, a government source said Sunday that the curfew would be extended by one hour to 11 p.m. as part of the government’s plan to exit the nationwide lockdown. 

On Monday, the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is also expected to publish documents showing that previous tier restrictions were ineffective, the source added.

It comes just a week after Public Health England’s Dr. Susan Hopkins said the government would need to consider “strengthening” the tier system until an effective vaccine becomes widely available in the UK. 

“We have recognized that the tiering of the country has had a different effect in each area,” the UK medical adviser said Monday. 

“We see very little effect from Tier 1 and I think when we look at what tiers may be there in the future, we will have to think about strengthening them in order to get us through the winter months,” she added. 

Hong Kong reported 68 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, marking the highest single-day increase in cases since August 16. 

Of the 68 new cases, seven were imported while 61 were locally transmitted, according to Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Center for Health Protection. Among the 61 local cases, 49 are connected to previously confirmed cases, and the source of infection for the remaining 12 cases could not be traced. 

“The situation is very difficult to control,” said Dr. Chuang, who cited asymptomatic cases who continued their daily routine without knowing they had the virus.

Earlier on Sunday, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said that “we are now facing a very severe situation in Hong Kong, the number of unlinked cases has been increasing in the past few days.” Chan added that health officials are now testing more people to deal with the recent outbreak.

On Saturday, a much-anticipated quarantine free travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong was postponed for two weeks due to the recent spike in coronavirus cases in Hong Kong.

The 71 new cases bring the city-wide number of cases to 5,629, while the number of deaths remains at 108.