August 26 coronavirus news

In a shift that perplexed some doctors, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its Covid-19 testing guidelines to say some people without symptoms may not need to be tested, even if they’ve been in close contact with someone known to have the virus.

Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta is answering viewer questions on this latest guidance and the virus in general.

Watch here:

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp speaks at a press conference on August 10 in Atlanta.

Democratic State Legislators in Georgia issued a press release Wednesday morning to “urge Gov. Brian Kemp to issue a statewide mandate requiring masks or face coverings in public.”

State Representative Shelly Hutchinson also said in the statement, “we now know that President Donald Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force has called for our governor to show leadership and implement a statewide mask mandate. This should not be controversial.”

Participants sit near a window during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, on January 23.

The World Economic Forum in Davos will be rescheduled next year due to coronavirus. The meeting, which is normally held in January, will now be held in the summer. 

WEF will now hold a series of Davos Dialogues in the week of Jan. 25, where key global leaders can share their views on the state of the world in 2021.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday that gyms can reopen at 25% capacity on Sept. 1.

Masks will be required, the governor tweeted.

Read his tweet:

A customer enters a Bed Bath & Beyond store on July 9 in Larkspur, California.

Bed Bath & Beyond is eliminating 2,800 jobs effective immediately, as the troubled retailer tries to streamline its operations and shore up its finances amid the pandemic.

The significant reduction of corporate employees and retail workers will help Bed Bath & Beyond save $150 million in annual pretax cost savings, the company said Tuesday. As of February, the retailer had 55,000 employees, so the cuts amount to 5% of its total workforce. 

Tuesday’s “action forms part of a series of changes we are making to reduce the cost of our business, further simplify our operations and support our teams so we can emerge from the pandemic in an even stronger position,” CEO Mark Tritton said in the statement.

Some background: Last month, Bed Bath & Beyond announced it was permanently closing 200 stores starting later this year. Brick-and-mortar stores continue to struggle as people shift their shopping online.

The company — which also operates Buybuy Baby, Christmas Tree Shops and Harmon Face Values — has about 1,500 stores. Nearly 1,000 of those are Bed Bath & Beyond locations. 

Tritton was named Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO last October, joining the retailer from Target. In addition to the layoffs and store closures, Tritton is bolstering the company’s digital efforts and launching new in-house brands next year.

It’s Wednesday morning in the US, where more than 5.7 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the pandemic began, according to the latest tally from Johns Hopkins University.

If you’re just reading in this morning, here’s a look at the latest updates from across the country:

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the country’s first nationally manufactured rapid coronavirus test kit.

Delhi-based Oscar Medicare said it has developed a point-of-care rapid test kit with a sensitivity of 97.66%, higher than ICMR’s requirement of 93% sensitivity, and a specificity of 99% against ICMR’s requirement of 95% specificity, according to Oscar CEO Anand Sekhri.

“Oscar Corona Antibody Rapid Tests doesn’t require the use of PPE Kits or highly-trained healthcare staff, as it is very similar to a Diabetes check up ‘Glucometer’ being used by patients across India,” Sekhri told CNN.

The test has been approved by the ICMR for lab and hospital use and detects coronavirus antibodies through a simple prick test. It provides results in 15 minutes, according to Sekhri.

The kits are to be launched in the first week of September. Oscar Medicare also hopes to get approval to sell the kits at pharmacies so that they can be used by people at home.

India has over 3.2 million cases of coronavirus according to the Ministry of Health, and has conducted over 37 million tests as of Wednesday according to ICMR.

The Education minister, Isabel Celaá, speaks during a Government control session in the Senate on July 14 in Madrid.

The Spanish student union said Wednesday that it will call a strike over the conditions for September’s return to school.

In a Twitter post, the Sindicato de Estudiantes demanded smaller classes and for more teachers to be hired. The students are scheduled to strike on September 16, 17 and 18.

The Spanish education ministry has yet to issue its final recommendations for the start of classes. The education minister, Isabel Celaá, will meet representatives from the regional governments on Thursday to agree the final safety measures and procedures to be put in place. 

In an interview with a Spanish radio on Wednesday, Celaá suggested that children from 6 years of age will have to wear masks while at school, that a “bubble system” will be put in place and that classes will have to be ventilated and disinfected regularly. 

A worker at a Covid-19 testing station at Cologne Bonn Airport in Germany on August 8.

European authorities are battling against further waves of the coronavirus pandemic. These are the latest developments from the continent:

Germany: More than 40% of people who recently tested positive for coronavirus in Germany were very likely infected abroad, data from the country’s infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), indicated Tuesday night.

According to the latest figures, the proportion of new cases with links to international travel has risen dramatically since borders began to reopen and now sits at 42%. At the same time, the RKI pointed out the limited validity of the data given that people who have been abroad will be tested more frequently than the rest of the population.

On Wednesday, Germany reported 1,576 new cases of Covid-19 infections according to the RKI, bringing the total tally to 236,429 cases and 9,280 deaths. 

As numbers in Germany continue to rise, the city of Munich warned it will limit alcohol sales if coronavirus cases reach a certain threshold, authorities announced Tuesday night.

France: French health authorities reported a “strong rise” in virus transmission on Tuesday, adding that the situation in the country “remains worrying.”

A further 3,304 new cases were reported on Tuesday. By comparison, last Tuesday saw a rise of 2,238 cases, while the Tuesday before saw 1,397 new cases reported.

Face masks will be mandatory in the southern French city of Marseille, and bars and restaurants must close at 11 p.m. local time in the wider Bouches-du-Rhône region, local authorities announced Tuesday.

These measures, which will come into effect on Wednesday night, were decided following a sharp acceleration of coronavirus cases in Marseille, which has an incidence rate of 177 per 100,000 compared to about 33 per 100,000 at the end of July, according to figures given by the regional prefecture Tuesday.

Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced new measures on Tuesday to stop the spread of Covid-19, as he admitted “the situation is worrying”. 

Spain will deploy 2,000 military personnel to aid with contact tracing in Spanish regions where it is needed. Sánchez also called on the different regional governments to use the Radar contact tracing app as “if just 20% of people download the application, we can bring down thee contagion levels by 30%.” Only seven of the 17 Spanish regions are now using the app.

Meanwhile, the President of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, announced the circumstances under which the education centers will open in the capital. 

Díaz Ayuso said on Tuesday masks will be mandatory for children aged six and above at all times while in education centers. Catalonia’s President, Quim Torra, announced similar measures on Monday, saying children in Catalonia will have to wear masks at school from 12 years of age, and from the age of six in territories with “higher risk of contagion.”

In Spain, where regional governments retain responsibility and decision power on education and health, each of the regions will have to decide on measures for schools and other educational centers to reopen. 

People visit a beach in Porto Cervo, Italy, on August 18.

Italy: Italy has seen a steady increase in coronavirus cases in the past week, according to the country’s health ministry. Authorities said approximately 50% of new infections have been contracted during summer vacations, around the country and abroad, primarily among young adults who have not been cautious with social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines.

Italy registered 519 new cases in the past day, bringing the total number of active cases to 19,714, according to Italian Ministry of Health data released Tuesday. Four people have died in the past 24 hours, bringing Italy’s death toll to 35,445, according to the ministry. 

United Kingdom: The UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said secondary school children in local lockdown regions in England will now be required to wear face masks, after the government revised its previous guidance.

In other areas of England – not covered by local lockdown restrictions – it will be at the headteacher’s discretion whether face masks should be worn.

The Scottish government has already announced that students over the age of 12 should wear masks in communal areas and while moving around schools. The Welsh government is considering its advice to students.

Ukraine: Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former Prime Minister, remains in serious condition, two days after contracting Covid-19, according to her party’s regional spokesperson. Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Natalia Kovalenko said several members of Tymoshenko’s close family are also ill with the virus. 

This post has been corrected to reflect that Marseille – not the Bouches-du-Rhône region – has an incidence rate of 177 cases per 100,000 residents.

Pope Francis waves from the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square on August 15 at the Vatican.

Pope Francis will resume his regular Wednesday public appearances next week (from September 2), the Vatican has announced – the first since coronavirus lockdown started there in March.

The audiences will not be held at St Peter’s Square, but rather in the San Damaso courtyard inside the Apostolic Palace.

It is unclear how many people will be allowed to attend the audience.

Authorities in Berlin have banned this weekend’s planned protests against the German government’s coronavirus restrictions, citing concerns about violations of hygiene regulations.

In a statement, Berlin’s Senate announced: “Today, the assembly authority banned several demonstrations that were to take place next weekend in Berlin,” adding that “the expected circle of participants will be in violation of the current infection protection ordinance.”

The Senate said that protests on August 1 had shown “that the participants had deliberately ignored existing hygiene rules and corresponding requirements.”

Andreas Geisel, a senior official in the state of Berlin said: “This is not a decision against freedom of assembly, but a decision for infection protection. We are still in the middle of a pandemic with increasing numbers of infections. This cannot be denied. We must therefore weigh up the fundamental right to freedom of assembly against the right to the integrity of life. We have chosen life.”

Organizers of the protest had planned to march through the center of the German capital on Saturday. Police told CNN as many as 17,000 participants were expected to march, with thousands more expected at a rally afterwards.

“I am not prepared to accept a second time that Berlin is misused as a stage for Corona [virus] deniers … and right-wing extremists,” Geisel went on to say, adding that: “The state will not be fooled.”

Here’s some background: Thousands of protesters rallied in Berlin on August 1 to demonstrate against measures imposed in Germany to stem the coronavirus pandemic. Police broke up the demonstration, which was attended by some 20,000 people, on the basis that organizers failed to ensure health and safety regulations were followed. Most protesters did not wear face masks or adhere to physical distancing rules, police said. 

German chancellor Angela Merkel is set to meet with the country’s 16 state premiers on Thursday to discuss the country’s coronavirus response amid rising numbers of infections.

Overall crime levels in England and Wales fell during the coronavirus lockdown, driven by a significant reduction in burglary and theft offences, according to new figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Crime levels were 25% lower in April and 20% lower in May than their respective months in 2019, the ONS said.

Theft offences were about half what they were for the same time last year, it added.

By contrast, there was a jump in drug offences during these two months, compared with the same time last year. The ONS said this was because of “proactive police activity in pursuing these crimes during lockdown.”

The UK’s National Police Chiefs Council has previously reported an increase in domestic abuse incidents during the lockdown. However, the ONS says this was not included in the latest report because some police forces only return such data on a quarterly basis.

The Czech government has announced new rules on face masks starting September 1, to coincide with the day Czech schools are set to reopen for the new academic year.

In the announcement on Monday, the country’s health ministry said the new rules – which make face masks mandatory in health and social care facilities, public transport, public offices, such as town halls, and polling stations – are directly related to the reopening of the schools.

The Czech Republic was one of the first in the world to make face masks compulsory when the pandemic started earlier this year. 

As the virus got under control, it started relaxing the rules and allowing people to go without face coverings in more places. However, the start of the new school year makes the return of face masks a prudent decision, the government said.

Authorities said it was desirable to reduce the number of these common infections during the coronavirus pandemic because of the danger of possible co-morbidities, co-infections and super-infections. The government added that face covering will work as a double protection against both the common respiratory infections and the novel coronavirus.

Face masks will now also be mandatory for all indoor events attended by over 100 people.

Those exempt from the new rules include children under two years old, people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities, some public transport workers, and members of wedding parties during ceremonies.

Masks will not be mandatory in schools. The government was originally planning to make face masks compulsory in some school facilities, however, after consultations with the educational sector and teachers’ associations, it decided it will only impose mandatory face masks in schools if the epidemiological situation deteriorates. Opposition parties criticized the U-turn as chaotic.

Arizona State University (ASU) has sued Facebook in a US federal court over the company’s lack of cooperation in providing details and taking down an Instagram account that was advertising “Covid parties” and spreading misinformation about the school’s response to the disease, court records show.

Instagram is owned by Facebook.

The backstory: In July, ASU became aware of an Instagram account that promoted Covid-19 parties, the school said in a statement. The account urged followers to avoid social distancing, and not to wear face coverings for the upcoming fall semester.

What ASU did: Lawyers for the school reached out to Instagram in early August in an effort to take the account down, arguing that it was using the university’s logo and trademarks without permission, court records show.

However, Instagram told the school that “it is not clear that the content you’ve reported infringes your trademark rights,” according to an email exchange in the suit. An Instagram employee told ASU’s attorney that it did not appear that the content was likely to confuse people about the source, sponsorship or affiliation.

Russia connection: In addition to the misinformation, the school’s initial investigation indicated that the people behind the account could be in Russia, according to the lawsuit. The university felt that someone was using the account to “sow confusion and conflict and to interfere with the health of the Arizona State University community by trying to worsen the pandemic here.”

The school filed a lawsuit, alleging trademark infringement, on August 20. 

When asked about the lawsuit, a Facebook company spokesperson said that they “have removed the account in question for violating our policies.” Facebook disagreed that the account infringed on any ASU trademark rights, and would not comment on the account’s origin, citing user privacy reasons.

Despite the account going down, ASU said that it would press on with the litigation.

Travelers arriving from abroad wait to be tested at a Covid-19 testing station set up at Cologne-Bonn Airport in Germany, on August 8.

More than 40% of people who recently tested positive for coronavirus in Germany were likely infected abroad, data from the country’s infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), indicated Tuesday night.

According to the latest figures, the proportion of new cases with links to international travel has risen dramatically since borders began to reopen and now sits at 42%. 

Many of the cases have been linked to Kosovo, Croatia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, according to the RKI.

But RKI also pointed out that people who have been abroad will be tested more frequently than the rest of the population.

What’s happening in Germany: On Wednesday, Germany reported 1,576 new Covid-19 infections, according to the RKI, bringing the total tally to 236,429 cases and 9,280 deaths. 

Munich’s mayor Dieter Reiter said that if the number of confirmed infections per 100,000 residents rises above 35 over a seven-day period, authorities will prohibit the sale of alcohol after 9 p.m. – and after 11 p.m., alcohol consumption in public will be banned.

Britain's Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson poses for a photo in his office at the Department of Education in London on August 17.

The United Kingdom’s Education Secretary Gavin Williamson says secondary school children in regions of England that are under local lockdowns will now be required to wear face masks.

The move is a U-turn on the government’s previous guidance.

In other areas of England – which are not covered by local lockdown restrictions – it will be at the headteacher’s discretion whether face masks should be worn.

The government has been under pressure to change its advice on face masks in schools after the opposition Labour Party and some headteachers spoke out in favor of their use. As recently as Tuesday, government figures were insisting there was no reason to introduce face mask rules for schools.

The Scottish government has already announced that students over the age of 12 should wear masks in communal areas and while moving around schools.

The Welsh government is considering its advice to students.

Urgent care workers wearing personal protective equipment perform drive-up Covid-19 testing for students and faculty on the first day of school at Woodbury University in Burbank, California on August 24.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its Covid-19 testing guidelines and now no longer recommends testing for most people without symptoms, even if they’ve been in close contact with someone known to have the virus.

Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.

Here’s what the CDC website said previously: “Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of the potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested.”

Those who don’t have Covid-19 symptoms and haven’t been in close contact with someone with a known infection do not need a test, the updated guidelines say.

“Not everyone needs to be tested,” the agency’s website says. “If you do get tested, you should self-quarantine/isolate at home pending test results and follow the advice of your health care provider or a public health professional.”

The CDC guidelines still say people should get tested if they have symptoms and that someone’s health care provider “may advise a COVID-19 test.”

“It is important to realize that you can be infected and spread the virus but feel well and have no symptoms,” the updated CDC site says, noting that local public health officials might request asymptomatic “healthy people” be tested, depending on cases and spread in an area.

Read more:

Related article Updated CDC guidelines now say people exposed to coronavirus may not need to be tested

A nurse checks on people as they arrive at a Covid-19 community testing center in Auckland, New Zealand, on August 26.

New Zealand recorded five new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the country’s health officials announced on Wednesday. 

Among the new infections, three were locally transmitted and two were imported cases detected in isolation facilities, Director General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said at a news conference. 

Health Minister Chris Hipkins said authorities would start testing asymptomatic patients over the next week. He said the step was being taken “to help ensure we have identified the full extent of the current outbreak”. 

From August 30, masks will be mandatory on all public transport, including buses.  

Hipkins said that 3 million masks have been dispatched to communities that are not in a position to buy them. 

New Zealand has registered a total of 1,344 Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began. Of those, 134 are active cases, according to Bloomfield. 

What’s happening in New Zealand? The country is currently experiencing a fresh outbreak after marking more than 100 days without any community transmitted cases.

The new outbreak is centered in Auckland, New Zealand’s most populous city. Within 24 hours of announcing the new community transmission cases, Auckland went back under a two-week lockdown. This week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland’s lockdown – which was due to end on Wednesday – had been extended and will now lift on Sunday.

New Zealand’s fresh outbreak – which came despite tough border controls banning almost all foreigners from entering the country – also prompted the island nation to postpone its election.

Read more about New Zealand’s pandemic response:

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND - AUGUST 17: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament on August 17, 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand's General Election will be delayed until 17 October due to disruptions caused by COVID-19 restrictions. Restrictions are in place across the country following the discovery of a coronavirus cluster in Auckland. Auckland is at Level 3 lockdown restrictions, while the rest of New Zealand is operating under Level 2. The restrictions will be in place until 11:59pm Wednesday 26 August, with Cabinet to review those settings on 21 August. COVID-19 restrictions were reintroduced across New Zealand on Wednesday 12 August in response to the discovery of a COVID-19 cluster in Auckland. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Related article New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern wants to eliminate coronavirus. Is she setting herself up to fail?

A health worker wearing personal protective equipment collects a swab sample of a woman at a free Covid-19 testing site in Hyderabad, India, on August 25.

India has registered more than 1.5 million new coronavirus cases in the month of August so far, according to a CNN tally of data from the Indian Health Ministry. 

The country recorded 67,151 new Covid-19 cases and 1,059 deaths on Tuesday, the Health Ministry announced on Wednesday.

That brings the total number of cases registered since the pandemic began to over 3.2 million, including 59,449 deaths, and means nearly half of India’s coronavirus cases have been reported in August alone.

The South Asian nation has reported over 60,000 new daily cases and more than 800 coronavirus-related daily deaths for eight consecutive days. 

India has ramped up its coronavirus testing lately, with over 18 million tests carried out so far in August, according to a CNN tally of data provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research. 

Recovered patients: More than 2.4 million people have recovered from the virus in India, the Health Ministry said. 

In India, not all patients require a test to be considered recovered. Patients with mild and moderate symptoms are considered no longer active after 10 days of symptom onset if they meet certain conditions, and a test to confirm that they no longer have the virus is not required. However, severe cases can only be discharged after one negative coronavirus test.

A gravedigger works during a funeral at the San Isidro cemetery in Azcapotzalco, in Mexico City, on August 6.

More than 1,300 healthcare workers have died from coronavirus in Mexico since the start of the pandemic, the country’s Health Ministry reported on Tuesday.

The ministry also reported 4,916 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the total number confirmed in the country to 568,621. 

A further 650 fatalities were also confirmed, taking the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the country to 61,450, including 1,320 healthcare workers. 

Mexico is braced for an uptick in cases: On Monday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said the country should expect to see a marked increase in new daily cases after widening the criteria for detecting Covid-19 from suspected cases. 

Starting Tuesday, patients will only have to report one Covid-19 symptom in order to be identified as a suspected case, López-Gatell said. New symptoms added to the criteria include loss of smell, loss of taste and diarrhea. 

CNN is tracking worldwide Covid-19 cases here:

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary Rajesh Bhushan speaks during the weekly health news conference in New Delhi, India on July 14.

India and Russia have been in touch over Sputnik-V, the Russian vaccine against coronavirus, a senior Indian Health Ministry official said Tuesday. 

He did not provide any further details. 

Last Thursday, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that is funding the vaccine research, said that India could be one of the countries to participate in post-registration clinical trials for the vaccine. 

Unproven vaccine: Russia raised eyebrows earlier this month when it announced the world’s first approved coronavirus vaccine for public use.

Developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute, the vaccine was approved by the Russian government before beginning crucial Phase 3 trials, during which it will be administered to thousands of people. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his own daughter has already received it, but testing is yet to be completed and experts are skeptical about how quickly the vaccine has been registered.

Read more about the Sputnik V vaccine:

A handout photo released by Russian Healthcare ministry (Minzdrav) shows containers with a newly registered vaccine against coronavirus in Moscow, Russia on 11 August

Related article What we know -- and don't know -- about Russia's 'Sputnik V' vaccine

The United States reported 38,148 new cases of Covid-19 and 1,232 virus-related deaths on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

That brings the country’s total to at least 5,777,684 cases and 178,477 related deaths.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

Follow CNN’s live tracker of US cases here:

Dr. Stephen Hahn addresses the media during a news conference at the White House in Washington, DC on August 23.

The head of the US Food and Drug Administration says he should have been more careful when explaining the benefits of convalescent plasma.

“I was trying to do what I do with patients, because patients often understand things in absolute terms versus relative terms,” Dr. Stephen Hahn told Bloomberg News in an interview Tuesday.

In a series of tweets Monday, Hahn admitted he had mischaracterized the benefits of convalescent plasma at a White House event announcing the emergency use authorization (EUA). He had said studies showed plasma could prevent 35 deaths out of 100 – something that studies did not show.

A titer refers to the concentration of something – in this case a specific antibody in a dose of convalescent plasma. The plasma is made using the blood of people who have recovered from coronavirus infections.

The misleading comments have caused concerns about how honest the FDA will be about any eventual authorization or approval of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Hahn admitted to Bloomberg he’s worried that it could hurt the FDA’s reputation with the American public.

Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Tom Frieden speaks during a hearing on May 6 in Washington.

The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said he believes the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization (EUA) for the use of convalescent plasma in coronavirus patients “was politically driven.”

FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn admitted Monday to having mischaracterized the benefits of the plasma when he said plasma treatment had saved the lives of 35 out of 100 coronavirus patients.

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Dr. Thomas Frieden called Hahn’s comments and subsequent apology “a substantial concern.”

Convalescent plasma has promise, said Frieden, who is now president of the global health initiative Resolve to Save Lives.

“It may help some people if given at some dose, at a certain time in infection,” he said. “We don’t know the answers to those questions, and just saying ‘use it’ means we may never learn the answers, or it’ll take longer to learn the answers to those questions, so that’s a big concern.”

Coronavirus vaccines: Frieden called the plasma EUA announcement a “huge concern” because it’s a “dry run” for the FDA and the Trump administration in how they’re going to inform Americans about a coronavirus vaccine.

Public health experts already worry that a significant number of people won’t consent to any eventual coronavirus vaccine.

Different vaccines will most likely become available and different vaccines will work differently in different people, Frieden said.

“We will know something about how well they work, how safe they work, how much of them we’ll have, who should get them,” he said.

“Fundamentally, people have to trust them (the FDA) or the best vaccine in the world won’t be able to end the pandemic.”

Watch:

Almost 443,000 children tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the United States between the start of the pandemic to August 20, according to an updated joint report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.

Since August 6, when the last report came out, there have been 74,160 new cases in children in the US, bumping the total from 358,469 to 432,629, an increase of roughly 21% in only 14 days.

The number of cases per 100,000 children has also been steadily rising, from 13 cases per 100,000 children in mid-April to 583.2 per 100,000 in the August 20 report.

And the percentage of child patients out of total coronavirus cases has also grown, from 2% to 9.3% in the same time period.

In New York City and the 21 states that reported on hospitalizations, children made up between 0.4% and 4.6% of total hospitalizations. That means between 0.2% and 8.6% of all pediatric Covid-19 cases resulted in hospitalization.

In New York City and the 45 states that reported on mortality, children represented between 0% and 0.3% of all Covid-19 deaths; 21 states reported zero child deaths. Overall, between 0% and 0.7% of all children diagnosed with Covid-19 died.

The report summarizes publicly reported data from 49 states, New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. The report does not include data from Alabama.

Soldiers from the 4th Military Region of the Brazilian Armed Forces take part in the cleaning and disinfection of the Municipal Market in the Belo Horizonte, Brazil on August 18.

Brazil’s Health Ministry reported at least 47,134 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, bringing the country’s total to 3,669,995.

The ministry also reported 1,271 new coronavirus fatalities, raising the country’s death toll to 116,580.

This comes as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Flávio Bolsonaro, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, according to his press officer. Bolsonaro’s son, who is a senator, has not reported symptoms and is currently working from his home in Brasilia. 

Brazil continues to be second only to the United States in the highest total number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on July 31 in Washington.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said because Covid-19 is such a new disease, we “certainly don’t know the whole story.” 

“I think we learned the lesson that I think we should have known from our experience with other outbreaks – is that when you’re dealing with a work in progress, things change,” Fauci said during an interview with the Infectious Diseases Society of America released Tuesday.

The interview was recorded last week, before Fauci’s vocal cord surgery. 

We are still “learning things in real time,” Fauci said.

Even today, we’re learning about Covid-19’s transmissibility, asymptomatic transmissibility and the long-range, chronic residual effects, Fauci said.

“As scientists and public health officials, we need to be humbled to realize that any given moment, there may be a lot that we still do not know,” he said.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica celebrates during a lap of honour following finishing in third place in the mens 100m final during day two of the 16th IAAF World Athletics Championships London 2017 at The London Stadium on August 5, 2017.

Usain Bolt has tested positive for the coronavirus, and the government in his native Jamaica says the fastest man on the planet won’t be spared punishment if he broke the rules stemming from a party held for his 34th birthday on Friday, according to Jamaica’s Health minister.

“It is now public knowledge that Mr. Bolt has been tested positive,” Dr. Christopher Tufton, the Jamaican Minister of Health and Wellness, said in a virtual news conference on Monday.

“He has been formally notified – I’m told – by the authorities and in keeping with standard protocols once there is a positive case, irrespective of the individual, it triggers an approach to questioning, interrogation if you will, which would then follow through with contact tracing.” Tufton said.

Ricky Simms, Bolt’s agent, confirmed his positive test to CNN.

Bolt, the world-record holder in the 100m and 200m and an eight-time Olympic gold medalist, had posted a video on social media earlier Monday prior to the test results.

He had been given the test on Saturday, he said, and wasn’t showing any symptoms. He intended to quarantine and urged those who had been around him to also isolate.

“I did a test on Saturday because I have work,” Bolt said. “I’m trying to be responsible so I’m going to stay in and stay in for my friends. Also, I’m having no symptoms.”

“I’m going to quarantine myself and wait to see what the protocol is … Until then … I’m quarantined by myself and just taking it easy. Be safe out there.”