December 1 coronavirus news

Wisconsin reported a daily record number of deaths on Tuesday, as the state continues to see a high rate of hospitalizations due to Covid-19, health officials said.

At least 107 deaths from Covid-19 were reported Tuesday — the second time the state has reported more than 100 new fatalities. There are now 3,420 total deaths statewide, the state's dashboard shows. 

Hospitals across the state are reporting "current and imminent critical staffing shortages," Department of Health Secretary-designee Andrea Palm said during a news conference today. The state dashboard currently shows that 15% of the state's staffed hospital beds are available.  

As CNN reported on Monday, nearly one in four people hospitalized in Wisconsin due to Covid-19 are in the intensive care. Gov. Tony Evers said today that more than 1,800 people are currently hospitalized due to the virus. 

Wisconsin reported 4,078 new cases Tuesday, bringing the state's total to 391,313.  

"As we continue to move through the holiday season and winter months, we must be as vigilant as ever," Evers said as he encouraged Wisconsinites to continue to wear masks and practice social distancing.

Note: These numbers were released by the state's public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Although federal officials expect to have 40 million doses of coronavirus vaccine available by the end of December, those doses will not all be available at once, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers were told Tuesday.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting to vote on who should be the first to get any vaccines that win emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration. ACIP is expected to designate health care workers in the first group.

One consideration: All 40 million doses would not be available right away, the CDC’s Dr. Sara Oliver told the meeting.

Oliver said the CDC expects between 5 million and 10 million doses will become available each week for the first few months as vaccine makers ramp up manufacturing.

That means ACIP may need to designate sub-groups to receive priority for vaccination, she said. 

Two companies – Pfizer and Moderna – have applied for EUA from the FDA for coronavirus vaccines.

Sen. John Cornyn, a member of GOP leadership, tells reporters that he met last night with the bipartisan Covid-19 relief group.

The group remains at an impasse over how to structure liability protections and Cornyn went over to help them talk through some ideas last night. Cornyn said he wasn’t ready to sign off on their proposal so far, but “I think it has some merit.”

Asked if this sent a message to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Democrats are willing to go much smaller than $2 trillion, Cornyn said, “I think it helps to show where some of the votes are.” 

He also added that Pelosi has a narrow path to victory as speaker.

Close to 2,000 people are now dying every day from Covid-19 in the United States – more than one every minute, federal vaccine advisers were reminded as they started a meeting Tuesday to discuss how to allocate coronavirus vaccines. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will vote later in this meeting on who should be among the very first people to receive any coronavirus vaccines that win authorization.

ACIP is expected to recommend that health care workers, including not only doctors and nurses, but also staff such as technicians and room cleaners, should be in the first group to get any vaccines that get emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration.

ACIP chair Dr. Jose Romero also said he expects the committee to recommend that residents of long-term care facilities get vaccinated as part of the first group.

Once a vaccine is approved, there will not be enough vaccines for everyone at first, so choices have to be made.

The CDC estimates there are 21 million healthcare personnel, 87 million essential workers, 100 million adults with high-risk medical conditions and 53 million others 65 and older.

The federal government has said 40 million coronavirus vaccine doses could be available by the end of December.

Florida became the third state to surpass 1 million cumulative Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to the Florida State Department of Health. 

The state department said there have been at least 1,008,166 total cases of Covid-19 across the state and 18,679 resident deaths since the pandemic began. 

On Nov. 8, Texas became the first state in the nation to surpass the 1 million milestone. California followed shortly after on Nov. 12, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.  

Note: These numbers were released by the state's public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his members in a conference call that he’s working with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on a revised stimulus proposal with the President’s blessing, three sources tell CNN.

He has previously put forward a $500 billion plan that has been blocked by Democrats as insufficient.

McConnell is not embracing the new bipartisan proposal unveiled today, worth $908 billion, according to these sources. 

The bill will be slightly revised from the previous $500 billion proposal, but the new price tag and what exactly will be different is unclear. One source familiar tells CNN there will be similar elements with some additions.

McConnell is about to hold his weekly presser. 

Advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have called an emergency meeting to vote on who they recommend should be the first to get a coronavirus vaccine once one is authorized.

The meeting kicked off at 2 p.m. ET. Officials said they expect the meeting to last until 5 p.m. ET.

What officials have said so far: The CDC has already recommended that the first group — designated as 1a — should include frontline health providers and support personnel. 

The 1a group likely should also include residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, who have been badly hit by the pandemic, the CDC has said.

There are not going to be enough vaccines for everyone at first, so choices have to be made.

The CDC estimates there are 21 million healthcare personnel, 87 million essential workers, 100 million adults with high-risk medical conditions and 53 million others 65 and older.

The federal government has said 40 million coronavirus vaccine doses could be available by the end of December.

Remember: No Covid-19 vaccine has been approved yet. The US Food and Drug Administration has a meeting scheduled for Dec. 10 to discuss Pfizer’s application for emergency use authorization for it's Covid-19 candidate. The agency has a second meeting on Dec. 17 to consider Moderna's application.

FDA officials say their decisions on the vaccines could come days to weeks after the meetings — it depends on what questions come up.

Pfizer has shipped an undisclosed amount of coronavirus vaccines from its manufacturing facility in Belgium to its US manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in preparation for expected mass shipments later this month.

A Pfizer spokesperson told CNN the shipments from Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium in Puurs were designed to ensure the US would have the appropriate number of doses.

The shipment traveled via Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Nov. 28.

The company declined to elaborate on the details of the shipment.

Before distributing any vaccine, Pfizer must first receive an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration. A decision on that is expected after an FDA committee meeting on Dec. 10.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said today that hospitalizations throughout the state due to Covid-19 have declined after seeing a peak on November 17.

"Even though the progress we are making is reassuring, we're not out of the woods," Reynolds said. 

She said that the first week of November, Iowa had 28,000 new Covid-19 cases and a positivity rate of 32%. The second week saw a positivity rate at 29% with new cases at 30,000 but hospitalizations were climbing at that point. 

Mitigation measures were put in place on both Nov. 10 and Nov. 16, and Reynolds said that cases decreased starting the week of Nov. 15 to 24,210 and a 21% positivity rate.

Hospitalizations peaked on Nov. 17, according to Reynolds, but are starting to go down. She said case numbers and positivity rate were down last week as well, with 14,200 new cases reported at a 15% positivity rate for the week.

Iowa is reporting 1,171 new cases today, bringing the state's total to 230,897. The 14-day positivity rate is at 17.1%, according to the state's dashboard. 

Note: These numbers were released by the state's governor and public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.