December 23 coronavirus news

Another 803,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

That was a drop off from the week before but still a high number and yet another sign that the US job recovery has run into serious trouble.

On top of that, 397,511 workers filed for benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides aid to groups that aren't usually eligible for jobless benefits, such as the self-employed. That number is not adjusted for seasonal swings.

Added together, 1.3 million Americans filed initial jobless claims last week on an unadjusted basis.

Continued claims, which count workers who have applied for benefits for at least two weeks in a row, stood at 5.3 million, up from the prior week.

Congress agreed on a new round of stimulus to combat the fallout from the pandemic over the weekend. It would include an extension of the unemployment benefits that millions of Americans need to make ends meet.

However, President Trump's complaints about the bill, delivered on video via Twitter on Tuesday, raised the risk of more economic turmoil, not to mention a government shutdown. Trump asked Congress to amend the bill and up the amounts paid in stimulus checks.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, incoming director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that communication is key and she is “very much” planning to go back to having regular CDC briefings. 

During past major health events, CDC has typically provided regular updates to the media. During the coronavirus pandemic, briefings from experts at the United States’ major public health agency have been rare.

Walensky also told CNN that said she hasn't had much contact with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since being nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to be the agency’s next director.

 "I had a very pleasant conversation with the current CDC director the night I was named, and I've had no, no yet conversations with anybody in the CDC, so far. Our transition team has been working toward that and has been updating me and briefing me on a regular basis as to what they have learned," Walensky told CNN Wednesday. 

Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CNN’s John Berman Wednesday there have already been "numerous meetings" around a new coronavirus variant identified in the UK.

If Walensky, the incoming director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were advising the President today, she said the conversation would involve limiting mobility.

The real question now, she said, if there is concern about a specific strain, is what is the best way to control it so that it doesn’t explode in other places?

One way “might be to ban travel,” Walensky said, but there are other strategies as well, including quarantines upon arrival, testing around arrival or some combination.

I think it’s really important to understand which of those strategies or combinations of those strategies is going to limit the spread,” she said. “It’s not clear yet that banning travel is going to be the one, especially since we’ve been saying limit your mobility already.” 

Watch the interview:

The Trump administration will purchase an additional 100 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced Wednesday.

Pfizer will deliver at least 70 million doses by June 30, and the rest will be delivered no later than July 31, according to a news release.

With this agreement, the total doses of Pfizer vaccine purchased by the federal government is 200 million for $4 billion. 

The agreement includes an option for an additional 400 million doses of the vaccine, the release said. 

“As part of ongoing coordination, the government and Pfizer are also continuing to discuss potential approaches to further strengthen our partnership and safely expand output and accelerate production,” the release said.

America has gone from having the strongest job market in decades to the very opposite during the pandemic. For older workers who have lost their jobs this year, the state of the labor market makes it harder to get rehired as the economy recovers, forcing many Americans to retire early.

The US economy shed more than 22 million jobs in the spring but recovered more than half of them in the following months. But just like the economic recovery, the job market's bounce-back has been uneven.

"Young workers' participation in the labor force has nearly fully recovered -- likely reflecting both lower health risks from the virus and a decline in college enrollment -- while the participation of older workers and women has recovered more slowly," wrote Joseph Briggs, economist at Goldman Sachs (GS), in a note to clients earlier this month.

Briggs estimates that there were some 830,000 "excess retirees" in October, representing about a quarter of the difference between the pre-pandemic workforce and the current workforce.

"We are not ready, financially or mentally, to retire," said Rachel E. from Virginia, who asked that her last name be omitted to protect her's and her husband's privacy.

The 66-year-old former government contractor was furloughed in April.

"Six figures a year to instant poverty with two words.... 'you're furloughed.' It's more like forced early retirement," Rachel told CNN Business in an email.

Returning to work is a daunting prospect because of the health risks for workers of advanced ages. Employers are also hesitant to hire older workers who could be more susceptible to getting the virus, Rachel added.

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British military personnel will be supporting efforts to carry out coronavirus tests, beginning Wednesday, for hauliers currently stranded in Kent, near the Port of Dover, the UK Ministry of Defense said Wednesday.

"Starting today, 170 personnel will support COVID-19 testing for hauliers travelling to France from Kent," the MOD said in a tweet. "The support from our Armed Forces personnel will help to get hauliers moving again."

Police at the port told a CNN team there that some form of mobile coronavirus testing is also expected to arrive at the port in the next few hours, however they could not confirm where the testing would take place. 

The announcement comes hours after the UK and France agreed to allow truck drivers to travel across the English Channel from the Port of Dover -- the UK’s main gateway to France and the Continent for freight transportation -- providing they have proof of a negative coronavirus test result.

Despite trucks now being allowed to cross, UK business groups are warning that there could still be shortages of fresh food in supermarkets.  

"It is good news for consumers as the French borders have now reopened, however it is essential that lorries get moving across the border as quickly as possible," said Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium. "Until the backlog is cleared and supply chains return to normal, we anticipate issues with the availability of some fresh goods."

The Chief Executive of the Food and Drink Federation, Ian Wright, said: “Even working extremely quickly and with Calais possibly shut for Christmas Day, it is clear it could take until the New Year to return to normal operations.”

Earlier on Wednesday, UK Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said the government is hopeful that the situation will begin to ease, but cautioned that it could take some time.

“There's going to be quite a lot of work to do in the next few days and this isn't going to be an issue which will be resolved immediately,” he told Sky News.

The Serum Institute of India (SII) has submitted additional data to Indian regulators for the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and is waiting for the government to make a decision, a source has told CNN.

India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had requested more data from SII earlier this month as it continues to analyze applications submitted for emergency use authorization for a Covid-19 vaccine.

The source says SII has submitted all the data required for the authorization for the emergency approval to the Indian regulators.

“We have submitted everything they have asked for… The announcement of rollout of the vaccine will be the government’s call,” said the source, who is not permitted to speak on ongoing approvals and was granted anonymity by CNN.

At the weekly press briefing Tuesday, officials announced that three applications from Pfizer, Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech are pending before the Drugs Controller General of India -- the main regulatory body.

“Pfizer has not yet submitted data. The other two companies have presented the data and the regulator sought additional data. This is a normal process."

A 90-year-old woman has become the first Swiss citizen to get vaccinated.

The unnamed nonagenarian was vaccinated Wednesday morning in a care home in the canton of Lucerne. In the coming days, more elderly people living in care homes will be vaccinated.

"I am very satisfied that we have now been able to start vaccinations in the canton of Lucerne," said government councilor Guido Graf, Health and Social Affairs Director of the canton (or state). "These vaccinations are an important element in the fight against the coronavirus."

"Thanks to the great commitment of all those involved, it was possible to start this vaccination before Christmas."

The wider population will be able to get vaccinated by late spring 2021, according to the canton's Twitter account.

Switzerland authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Saturday, a day after announcing new coronavirus measures that closed restaurants as well as cultural, sports and recreation centers from December 22.

Germany's Lufthansa is operating a special cargo flight to airlift fruit and vegetables to England on Wednesday as shortages of food and other vital supplies loom because of continuing chaos at the UK-French border.

A Lufthansa (DLAKY) spokesperson told CNN Business that a Boeing 777 freighter carrying 80 tons of perishable goods would depart Frankfurt at 6:30 a.m. ET and arrive at Doncaster-Sheffield airport about 90 minutes later. The airline is working with freight forwarders to supply produce from Egypt, Spain and other countries.

The move comes as UK supermarkets and other businesses struggle to cope with the impact of Sunday's closure of vital freight arteries between southern England and France, triggered by the British government's warning that a new, more infectious variant of Covid-19 was out of control in London and the surrounding areas.

France and the UK agreed late Tuesday to reopen ferry ports and the Eurotunnel rail link, but at least 3,000 trucks remained stranded Wednesday morning with their drivers waiting for the negative Covid-19 tests they need to travel. Just two trucks had arrived in Calais from the English port of Dover, a spokesperson for the Calais Port told CNN.

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