December 8 coronavirus news

Effective on Friday, North Carolina is entering into a modified stay-at-home order, Gov. Roy Cooper announced today during a news conference.

The modified order will be from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time. All residents must stay at home. 

Cooper said that all businesses and most retail stores must also be closed by 10 p.m. local time.

“Our new modified stay at home order aims to limit gatherings and get people home where they are safer, especially during the holidays. It’s also a reminder that we must be vigilant the rest of the day,” Cooper said. 

The state's latest numbers: North Carolina has reported 404,032 cases and 5,605 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The state is also seeing the highest number of hospitalizations since the pandemic began.

Note: These numbers were released by the state’s 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.

Switzerland plans to ban nearly all public events and place further restrictions on private gatherings starting Saturday, as coronavirus infections rise, the Swiss government announced Tuesday.

The new measures follow the Swiss government's announcement last week that ski resorts can remain open for domestic tourism but stricter Covid-19 restrictions would be imposed. 

Starting Dec. 12 to Jan. 20, the government plans to halt all public events, except church services and legislative meetings, and will order restaurants, shops, markets, and sports facilities to close at 7 p.m. local time.

The government also plans to restrict private household meetings to five people from two households, apart from on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Eve, when a maximum of 10 people can meet for the holidays. 

Meanwhile, each local cantonal authority can authorize ski resorts to open, according to the Federal Department of Home Affairs last Friday. 

Switzerland's 26 cantons will now consult with the federal government on the proposed measures, with the final decision to implement them taking place on Friday.

The new restrictions come as the Federal Office of Public Health recorded 92 more deaths in Switzerland and neighboring country Liechtenstein Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 5,116. Health authorities also recorded 4,262 new Covid-19 infections Tuesday, bringing the total cases to 358,568 since the pandemic began.  

"If the situation worsens next week, the Federal Council plans to take additional measures on December 18, such as the closure of restaurants and shops," said Simonazzi. "Compensation measures for businesses that are most affected by the restrictions are under consideration."

Swiss Confederation President Simonetta Sommaruga added, "With this package, we want to create clarity and planning security. And we want to provide security in these uncertain times."

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday a three-week extension of the state's current restrictions, which include bans on indoor dining and social gatherings.

The restrictions were originally imposed by Inslee on Nov. 15 and were set to last until Dec. 14. This new extension means Washington will be under tightened restriction through the holiday season and New Year's Eve celebrations. 

"This is because we remain concerned about Covid activity and we still do not have a clear picture of the situation following the Thanksgiving weekend," Inslee said at a news conference.

Inslee also announced an additional $50 million in economic support for businesses and more safeguards for workers impacted by the pandemic.

More than two thirds of California residents will soon receive emergency text alerts from the state’s Emergency Operations Services asking them to stay at home and abide by the newly enacted health orders, according to a tweet from CalOES.

Those living in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley – about 27 million people – will be asked to stay home with the exception of seeking essential services.

The alerts will be sent starting today at noon local time.

Both regions found themselves under the new health order Sunday night as intensive care unit capacity in each fell under the 15% threshold set by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council summit on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said that uniform wearing of masks, physical distancing and avoiding crowds and congregate settings can prevent or turn around surges in Covid-19 cases – and people need to pull together to implement those measures.

The fact that they aren’t being done uniformly is “really extraordinarily frustrating, because we feel strongly that we will be able to have a significant impact,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

With the country coming out of Thanksgiving and entering Christmas season, “we’re in for a very challenging period,” he said. 

“The only way we’re going to counter that is by a consistent, uniform implementation and adherence to public health measures.”

However, “trouble is, you go to different parts of the country, and even when the outbreak is clear and hospitals are on the verge of being overrun, there are a substantial proportion of the people who still think that this is not real, that it’s fake news or that it’s a hoax.” 

Fauci said that this was extraordinary, and he had never really seen anything like it. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed dropping two of the issues that have been the hardest for Democrats and Republicans to agree upon in a new Covid relief deal – state and local money and liability protections – to pass a deal now that both sides can agree on.

The remarks from McConnell create a new opening to potentially pass relief during the lame duck session and come after the Senate majority leader has previously made clear how much of a priority liability protections are for him and Senate Republicans.

He went on to say, “What’s the way forward? We know the new administration is going to be asking for another package. What I recommend is we set aside liability and set aside state and local and pass those things that we can agree on knowing full well we’ll be back at this after the first of the year.”  

It's notable that McConnell referenced a new administration given that he has not yet referred to Joe Biden as President-elect.

Mexican officials announced Tuesday that health care workers will receive top priority when the country’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign begins this month, with other vulnerable populations following in the coming months.  

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters the country will receive 250,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in December, the majority of which will be given to health care workers in Mexico City, the center of the country’s outbreak. 

In January, February, and March an additional 1 million doses of that same vaccine will arrive each month. Ebrard added an additional 12 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in April. That will be enough to vaccinate roughly 7.6 million Mexicans, given the Pfizer vaccine’s two-dose requirement.

In the first phase of the program, from December through February, health care workers will exclusively receive vaccinations. In the second phase, from February through April, remaining health care workers and adults aged 60 and over will receive priority.

The next phases will see those 50-59 years of age vaccinated, followed by those 40-49 years of age, with the rest of the country getting vaccinated after that. The country hopes to vaccinate 75% of citizens over age 16 by the first quarter of 2022. The main goal of the campaign is to reduce Covid-19 deaths, officials said at Tuesday’s briefing. 

Mexico says it has purchases agreements for tens of millions more doses from other vaccine suppliers and hopes to finalize those agreements in the coming weeks and months. Health officials added that Mexico’s military will assist the country’s health ministry with the logistics of vaccine distribution.

Mexico has the fourth highest number of Covid-19 deaths worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday afternoon that the state’s percent positivity rate has reached 8.6%, which is “by far the highest number that we have had since we’ve done broad-based testing.”

“This is the holiday season, and Thanksgiving, and Hanukkah, and Christmas, and Kwanzaa, and the times we get together as a family should be a source of joy. It’s also a time when people get together, sometimes without a mask,” Lamont said at a behavioral health roundtable Tuesday.

Lamont said 40 more Connecticut residents are hospitalized and 18 more people died from coronavirus-related illness since Monday.

The state’s full daily Covid-19 metrics report is slated to be released by 4 p.m. ET later Tuesday, according to the state’s data tracker site. 

There have been at least 15,019,092 coronavirus cases confirmed in the United States and at least 284,887 people have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Johns Hopkins recorded the first case of coronavirus in the United States on Jan. 21.  

Thirteen other countries in the world have reported more than 1 million total Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins: