December 17 coronavirus news

An additional 13,148 Covid-19 cases were reported in Florida on Thursday, according to data from the Florida Department of Health.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that this is the highest daily new case count since July 16, when 13,965 cases were reported. 

There were 17,344 new cases reported on Nov. 27 but that accounted for new cases from Nov. 26, when no new cases were reported. 

There are now a total of 1,168,483 total Covid-19 cases in the state, the Florida Covid-19 data dashboard shows.

There were also 104 new coronavirus-related fatalities reported on Thursday, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 20,594, according to the state's department of health.

Note: These numbers were released by Florida’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. 

Portugal will implement an overnight curfew starting 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve to curb the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister António Costa said in a Thursday news conference.

The country will also place restrictions on people leaving their homes between 1 p.m. and 5 a.m. from Jan. 1 through Jan. 3.

Portugal has recorded 362,616 coronavirus cases and 5,902 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

Coca-Cola is planning to cut 2,200 jobs, including 1,200 in the United States, as it faces declining sales during the pandemic. 

In the US, where there were about 10,400 employees at the end of last year, the cuts represent roughly 12% of the workforce. In Atlanta, where the company is headquartered, about 500 jobs are being eliminated, the company said Thursday.

The reductions include voluntary and involuntary separations, and the severance packages are expected to cost the company between $350 million and $550 million.

The company announced plans to trim its workforce over the summer, when it said that it was offering buyouts to 4,000 workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. 

It also said then that it plans to reduce its number of operating units from 17 businesses in four regions to nine operating units in those areas. Coca-Cola did not share on Thursday which specific units would be affected. 

In the third quarter, Coke's net revenues declined 9% to $8.7 billion, as the company struggled with lost sales from restaurants — many of which have closed their doors permanently. 

As it looks ahead, the company is focusing on its most popular segments, including its namesake line of beverages like Coke and Coke Zero.  

Coca-Cola said in October that it was canceling 200 brands, or half of its portfolio. Earlier this year, it announced the discontinuation of notable, if unfashionable, brands Odwalla, Zico and Tab. 

About 86,2000 people worked for Coca-Cola worldwide at the close of last year.  

CNN's Alicia Wallace and David Goldman contributed to this report.

Retail pharmacy CVS plans to start coronavirus vaccine "test dosing" in long-term facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities Friday and continue throughout the weekend, Dr. Troyen Brennan, chief medical officer for the chain, said Thursday.

"We'll be doing some test-dosing on Friday, and through the weekend, and then we officially start with maybe a dozen states on the 21st. Another wave goes out the 28th," Brennan said Thursday during a virtual panel with the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation. 

Additionally, Brennan said teams will be visiting those facilities, "over 40,000 of them," three different times over the course the next six to nine weeks to do the second follow-up vaccination. 

Anyone visiting, moving in, or returning to San Francisco from anywhere outside the Bay Area will now be required to quarantine for 10 days under a new health order intended to slow an unprecedented spread of coronavirus that threatens to overwhelm hospitals, officials announced in a news release on Thursday.

The new health order also strongly discourages any nonessential travel within the 10-county Bay Area region.

The health order comes after officials announced Wednesday the entire San Francisco Bay Area will be under California’s stay-at-home order starting Friday after the region’s intensive care unit capacity plunged below 15%, raising the number of residents under the restrictions to more than 39 million statewide.

Limited exceptions to the quarantine order will apply to people who are traveling for certain critical activities, the release added. Some people, including medical professionals, first responders, workers for official government business, and essential infrastructure workers will be exempt from the new health order. 

The new travel restriction and 10-day mandatory quarantine is “necessary due to rapid and widespread Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations that threaten our region’s ability to provide intensive care for critically ill patients,” the release said.

The travel order will begin Friday at midnight and will remain in effect until Jan. 4. Officials said the order may be extended if the surge continues.

In a letter sent to trial participants, Moderna said if the vaccine is authorized, volunteers who got placebo will be given the option to get the vaccine.

“If you would like to know whether you have received the mRNA-1273 vaccine or placebo, then you will be offered the opportunity to be unblinded. Another option would be to stay in the study to continue to capture data in a blinded fashion,” the letter reads.

Blinding means keeping trial participants unaware of whether they have received the vaccine or the placebo. It is considered a gold standard for scientific studies. The company says it will continue to track those participants who choose to take the vaccine.

The full length of the Moderna trial is two years. Unblinding participants and giving them an option to get the vaccine early could mean opportunities to track long-term effects from the vaccine may be lost.

Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration asked about this during Thursday’s meeting.

“There’s not only one flavor of study,” said Dr. Lindsey Baden, one of the lead investigators of the Moderna trial and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“There are other formats of the study that can enable us to learn, particularly to learn about asymptomatic transmission.” Baden pointed to doing nasal swabs and antibody testing as ways to continue to track disease in participants who chose to be unblinded.

“It’s not as if this will take place over six months to a year. This is going to take place over days to week in terms of extending the vaccine supply to additional groups,” she said.

California shattered its record for the highest number of coronavirus deaths in a single day Thursday with 379 new deaths reported, according to data from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

The record surpasses the previous all-time high of 293 lives lost reported yesterday.

California also added 52,281 new cases of the virus on Thursday as it continues to see an unprecedented surge in new infections following the Thanksgiving holiday, though state health officials said the figure included an unspecified number of cases from a backlog.

The number was slightly below Wednesday's 53,711 figure, which included a more than 15,000-case backlog from previous days.

The number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus continues to quickly rise statewide, placing a strain on the state’s health care system. More than 15,000 patients are currently in the hospital, with over 3,000 patients in intensive care.

More data: The intensive care unit bed capacity in Southern California has plunged to 0.0%, and is hovering at near all-time lows in the San Joaquin Valley at 0.7%, according to CDPH.

More than 98% of the state’s nearly 40 million residents are now under a stay-at-home order that officials hope will slow the unprecedented spread of the virus.

To date, California has reported a total of 1,723,362 cases and 21,860 deaths.

Note: These numbers were released by the California Department of Public Health and may not line up exactly in real-time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project. 

An at-home Covid-19 test authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday is an exciting development in testing accessibility, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn told Sen. Tim Scott in an Instagram Live on Thursday. 

The tests, from Australian company Ellume, could be available over the counter, and uses a customer’s smartphone to send test data to doctors. 

“It should be available next month,” Hahn said.

Hahn also spoke to Scott about ensuring marginalized communities have access to and can trust a Covid-19 vaccine. 

“It's not only a medical imperative that we get to the point where we have herd immunity we have enough people vaccinated, but it's a moral one as well,” he said. 

“We do in fact need to ensure that our most vulnerable and affected communities have the protection, moving forward to prevent the serious complications of this disease," Hahn said.

Vice President Mike Pence will be vaccinated tomorrow at 8 a.m. ET, his office announced today.

The White House confirmed plans to vaccinate Pence publicly yesterday.

Here's what the White House said: