November 29 coronavirus news

Adm. Brett Giroir, the White House's coronavirus testing czar, said today if you’ve done any traveling over the holidays, you should get tested.

“Just remember you've had an increased risk of being exposed, so you should decrease unnecessary activities for about a week, and if you can get tested in three or five days that's also a very good idea,” Giroir told CNN on Sunday.

Giroir said he is concerned about a possible surge in cases and hospitalizations as travel increases.

“Our hospitalizations are peaking right now at about 95,000,” he said. “About 20% of all people in the hospital have Covid, so this is a really dangerous time.” 

Unless you’ve come into contact with someone for longer than 15 minutes who has tested positive for Covid-19, it is not recommended that you quarantine after gathering for Thanksgiving, according to Giroir.

“That's not recommended to have a quarantine after travel unless you've had a direct exposure to a person with Covid for 15 minutes in close contact,” he said.

“Make really sure you adhere 100% to mask wearing to avoid crowds because you could inadvertently have gotten Covid and spread it, so just be careful during the week after your travel because you are at increased risk,” Giroir said. 

Adm. Brett Giroir, the White House’s coronavirus testing czar, told CNN that he wanted to make sure that all Americans knew that Covid-19 vaccines had been tested in tens of thousands of individuals and that there is going to be independent and transparent review of them. 

He also said that he, the surgeon general and the rest of the team “are really out there trying to educate the public.” 

While they have to wait and see what the data show, Giroir said that “all indications are this is an extremely safe vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine and Moderna, and very, very effective, over 95% effective.” 

Giroir also spoke about immunizing for impact, or immunizing the groups that are at the highest risk, for example long term care facilities, the elderly and minorities. 

If this happens, “we can absolutely get 80% of the benefit of the vaccine by only immunizing a few percent of the population,” he said, “and that’s what we really need to do this month.” 

Giroir added that by the end of the year there should be enough vaccine available to immunize 20 million Americans, “and we have to immunize for impact.

The rest of America will get in the second quarter, third quarter of 2021, but we can maximize our impact right now.” 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, shared concerns he had about US health systems as the coronavirus pandemic persists in the country.

Fauci told NBC that he had a couple of calls from colleagues and associates who are involved in different states throughout the country, just last night, who saying that they were at a point where if things don’t turn around quickly they would have a situation with both hospital capacity and staff.

He said they were asking what they should do and “almost pleading for advice about what can we do, we don’t want to lock down completely, but we might have to.”

Fauci said this was local, not national. 

There was a concern entering and coming out of the Thanksgiving holiday as people travelled and congregated, which was why experts tried to get out the message that people shouldn’t have large gatherings but to keep it confined to their immediate households, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told NBC on Sunday.

Fauci said that he didn’t want to frighten people by giving this message, “except to say it is not too late at all for us to do something about this, because as we travel back to be careful when we go back to where we are, to just continue to do the things that we’ve been talking about.”  

He said that it is known that something can be done about the infection curve particularly going in to the colder season, by doing things like mitigating with masks, distance and not having crowds or congregate settings. 

When asked whether there would be more dire warnings about travel preparing for Christmas and New Year’s, Fauci said “I think we’re going to be faced with another situation, we’re going to have to make decisions as a nation, state, city and family, that we’re in a very difficult time and we’re going to have to do the kinds of restrictions of things we would like to have done, particularly in this holiday season.” 

This is because, Fauci said, “we’re entering into what really is a precarious situation because we’re in the middle of a steep slope.” 

There is light at the end of the tunnel, though, he said, because vaccines will be seen soon, “we likely, almost certainly, are going to be vaccinating a portion of the individuals in the first priority before the end of December.” Going in to January, February and March, more and more people will be being vaccinated. 

Following a month of skyrocketing Covid-19 cases, the US has reached its highest number yet of hospitalizations due to the virus.

The US surpassed 80,000 daily hospitalizations on November 19 and set new records steadily for 17 days straight until Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Then on Saturday, the number reached 91,635.

The spread of coronavirus has been climbing at concerning rates leading up to and just following the Thanksgiving holiday and could soon be getting worse due to holiday travel, experts say. As of Saturday, more than 13.2 million people have been infected by the virus and at least 266,047 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

More than 4 million of the total cases of the pandemic have been reported in the month of November (about 30%), and more than 100,000 cases have been recorded every day for the last 26 consecutive days, JHU said.

Despite calls from officials and health experts to stay home, there was still an uptick in travel during the week of Thanksgiving. With weather getting colder and more people gathering indoors, experts have cautioned that the already climbing number of cases could get worse in the coming weeks.

"If anything, we are rounding the corner into a calamity," said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency medicine physician and a visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. "We're soon going to exceed well more than 2,000 deaths, maybe 3,000, 4,000 deaths every single day here in the US."

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Guadalupe Lopez, known as Lupe (or Lou, in emergencies) died earlier this month of Covid-19. He was a 58-year-old dispatcher and among the essential workers who must show up to work, and one of the more than 9,100 people who have died from the disease in the Chicago area.

"His pride was going to work," said Erica Lopez, his daughter. "He loved his job. He loved making sure police officers made it home at night."

A wake for Lopez is scheduled for this weekend, with a funeral planned for Monday. His wife of more than 30 years is also sick with Covid-19 and will be unable to attend the services. She was transferred from the hospital where her husband died to a different one, says Andy Lopez, 21, the couple's youngest child. She was on a ventilator in the intensive care unit as of Friday.

Doctors are reducing her amount of assistance from the ventilator every day, Andy says. "Every little improvement is good to hear," Andy said. "We just hope to hear that every day. We're not settling until she's out."

Lopez worked as a dispatcher more than 30 years and grew up in the Little Village neighborhood. As a dispatcher, he handled police emergencies in an area that included where he grew up.

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The Czech government will allow restaurants and non-essential shops to reopen from this Thursday, December 3, as the current wave of the coronavirus pandemic eases, Health Minister Jan Blatny said on Sunday.

The Czech government agreed unanimously that the country is ready to move from Level 4 risk to Level 3, based on the country’s Covid-19 risk assessment system, Blatny said.

This means all shops and restaurants can open, with the caveat of limiting customer numbers to allow for social distancing.

A night-time curfew will be lifted and limited sports activities can resume, the Health Minister announced.

The country's Prime Minister, Andrej Babis, is overseeing one of the worst coronavirus epidemics in the world. In October he stood in front of reporters during a live news conference and apologized to his people five times when announcing restrictions.

The Czech Republic was praised for the way it handled the first wave of the pandemic in the spring when the government imposed an early lockdown and made masks compulsory at a time when most of the Western world barely considered that move.

Hong Kong has reported 115 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, marking the largest single-day increase in cases since August 2, when the city also recorded 115 cases, according to health officials in the city.

Of the 115 new cases, 109 were locally transmitted while the remaining six cases were imported from overseas, according to Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Center for Health Protection. Among the 109 locally transmitted cases, 62 cases were linked to the night club cluster, bringing the total number of cases in the cluster to 479. The origins of 24 cases could not be traced.

“The epidemic is taking a turn for the worst,” said Dr. Chuang as she urged people to minimize social gatherings and limit the spread of the virus. Dr. Chuang added that the rising number of cases is “very alarming” and according to the trend the current situation is “more severe than the last wave.”

The new cases bring the total number of infections in the city to 6,239, while the number of deaths remained at 109 according to Dr. Chuang.

The city will suspend all face-to-face classes at kindergartens, primary and secondary schools from Wednesday onwards.

“This Wednesday (December 2) face-to-face classes and school activities all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools will be suspended until after the Christmas holiday,” the government said in a statement released on Sunday.

Hong Kong was a city lauded for its quick and effective response to the coronavirus pandemic, but in July health authorities warned of potential "exponential growth" in new cases of Covid-19.

The Denver Broncos have lost all of their quarterbacks for Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints, after they were declared ineligible for play due to NFL Covid-19 protocols.

In a statement on Saturday, the Broncos said Drew Lock, Brett Rypien and Blake Bortles were identified as "high-risk Covid-19 close contacts" and must complete a five-day quarantine.

"The three quarterbacks, who are not experiencing any symptoms, immediately left the practice field and departed UCHealth Training Center. All three have consistently tested negative for Covid-19 via both daily PCR testing and additional POC testing administered as a precaution," the team statement said.

Quarterback Jeff Driskel and wide receiver Diontae Spencer were placed on the Reserve/Covid-19 list earlier this week.

Several Broncos players, including tight end Noah Fant, reacted to the NFL decision on social media.

Denver, currently at 4-6 for the season, are scheduled to play the 8-2 Saints, who have won seven straight games, Sunday afternoon.

Three players from the Broncos practice squad were elevated to the game-day roster on Saturday, according to the team's website: tight end Troy Fumagalli, linebacker Josh Watson and safety Alijah Holder.

The team has not announced a replacement quarterback.

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