November 25 coronavirus news

Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, said he's "extremely concerned" about holiday gatherings because "the rapid increase in [Covid-19] cases across the country has led to a rapid increase of cases in nursing homes."

The American Health Care Association represents more than 14,000 long-term health care facilities across the country. Parkinson told CNN's Kate Bolduan that last week 12,500 people in nursing homes were diagnosed with coronavirus "and the tragedy of that is that we know that 20% of them will die."

Parkinson urged the general public to consider the lives impacted by the pandemic when making plans for Thanksgiving weekend.

"The decisions that we all collectively make over the next four days will determine whether thousands of more people die or whether we will make the small sacrifices we need to make to keep them alive. And as Dr. [Anthony] Fauci has said, in just a few more months, once we have the vaccine, to get together and celebrate then. It's really up to us," Parkinson explained.

He added that the virus "is so contagious that even under the best of infection control, we’re not able to keep it out. The answer is socially distancing in the general public. Celebrate Thanksgiving, but celebrate it at home with people that you live with."

The US Food and Drug Administration has posted to Twitter more details about an upcoming meeting of its outside advisory committee to discuss Pfizer and BioNTech's emergency use authorization application for a coronavirus vaccine candidate.

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet on Dec. 10. 

"Starting Friday, the public will be able to submit comments to the public docket for this meeting, and those comments will be reviewed by the FDA," the agency tweeted on Wednesday. "Although the VRBPAC members provide advice to the agency, which may include advice on the safety and effectiveness data submitted in the EUA request, final decisions on whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use are made by the FDA."

In a series of tweets, the FDA also noted that the committee is made up of scientific and public health experts and the committee meeting will be live-streamed on the agency's YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels and from the FDA website.

The holidays are upon us and one tech company is already in the giving spirit.

Zoom announced earlier this month it will lift its timed meeting limit on Thanksgiving so "your family gatherings don't get cut short."

The video communications company announced in a tweet that the 40-minute time limit it usually has on its free meetings will be lifted globally on Nov. 26 (Thanksgiving Day).

If you're hosting a Zoom Thanksgiving this year, read up here on how to make it a holiday to remember.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, after his repeated call for families to celebrate their Thanksgiving safely, said he was excited for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which he said would be, like many other things, much different this year during the pandemic.

“It will be different, it will be smaller, it will be made for TV it is not a spectator event in person," he said at a briefing today. "We’re letting people know it’s going to be a very limited area and we’re not asking people to show up, of course there will be plenty of measures to make sure there are no crowds but you will be able to see it on television, it’s going to be exciting. There will be floats, there will be balloons.” 

And for children, “there will also be a very important visitor from the North Pole at the end of the parade.”

The parade will also honor elements from parades that were cancelled throughout the city earlier this year.

“It’s going to be great also because Macys went to the extent of making sure that some of the other parades that we didn’t get to have this year got some representation so they’ll have some wonderful performances from the west Indian day parade, from the Puerto Rican parade – things we normally look forward to all year – and from the cast of Hamilton. It's going to be something very special," the mayor said.

He thanked Macys for coming up with a safe plan.

Later he thanked those in the education community for their work during the pandemic, as well as food service workers, those in pantry’s and soup kitchens, for their extraordinary help to provide meals to those in need.

The daily number of people across New York City admitted to hospitals for Covid-19 jumped, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, though he added that overall hospitals are doing “very, very well.”

The daily number of people admitted to hospitals for Covid-19 is at 141, under the 200 threshold, but still higher than in recent days which de Blasio said is a “concern.”

The confirmed positivity rate for Covid-19 for those patients is 45%.

“Overall our hospitals are doing very, very well but that jump is a concern,” he said. 

The percent of people who tested positive for Covid-19 city wide is 2.74%. The seven-day rolling average is 3.05%, he said. 

There have been at least 12,613,248 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 260,190 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 22,085 new cases and 265 reported deaths.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he's in contact with CVS and Walgreens leadership, and is told once a Covid-19 vaccine is available "they are ready to deploy to Florida's over 4,000 long-term care facilities."  

In a short pre-taped video update, DeSantis said more than 3,000 long-term care facilities have already signed up to receive vaccines.  

"As more vaccine becomes available, we of course are going to want to get that into the broader senior community first, and then into the broader community at large," said DeSantis.  

DeSantis has said there will be no vaccine mandate in Florida, CNN has reported.  

DeSantis did not address the rise in Covid-19 cases and deaths in his state nor did he provide an update on daily cases. 

DeSantis hasn’t hosted a Covid-19 press conference in three weeks. Since November 4, DeSantis hasn’t held a single live news conference. 

The CEO of a Chicago food bank that is seeing a 200% increase in demand ahead of Thanksgiving says many people are coming to them for the first time ever. 

“Especially hospitality workers or hard-hit industries, so many people are coming to us for the first time that never have had to before,” she added. 

O’Connell said that the pantry is also seeing larger families with children seeking out meals. 

Watch:

Click here to find out how you can get help if you are facing food insecurity today.  

It's the morning before Thanksgiving in the United States and the coronavirus pandemic is raging across the country.

If you're just reading in now, here are the latest Covid-19 trends and headlines for the US:

Here's where new Covid-19 cases are increasing compared to the previous week: