December 3 coronavirus news

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN chief medical correspondent, on December 3.

The United States health care system is quickly heading toward a “breaking point” as the country reported its highest one-day death toll since the coronavirus pandemic began, CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta said.

Gupta said he fears hospitals and health workers will be overwhelmed and Americans will not be able to get the level of care they are used to. 

Gupta also said that the US is “tracking just as badly” as it was during the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Gupta said that there were more alternatives as Covid-19 emerged in the spring, when patients were mainly concentrated in the Northeast — such as sending patients elsewhere or bringing in health care workers from less-affected areas.

An ensemble forecast released Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects there will be 303,000 to 329,000 coronavirus deaths in the US by December 26.

“I don’t know where this peaks at this point. I mean, this is starting to defy the models — even the aggressive ones — in terms of how bad things could get,” he said. 

He said “circuit breaker” lockdowns in hotspots would help ease the spread of the virus. 

Watch:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, left, and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.

On a caucus call this morning, two top Democratic leaders — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn — tell their members the US House of Representatives won’t adjourn for the year until a Covid-19 relief bill is passed, a source on the call tells CNN. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t give much of a readout on the state of talks, this source said. 

Remember: There are three separate attempts happening right now on Covid relief and all of them — at least at this point — are a long shot.

A Delta Air Lines plane lands at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, on October 19.

Delta Air Lines said it will begin asking international travelers coming into the United States for coronavirus contact tracing information.

In a new memo released Thursday, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said passengers can voluntarily submit their name, address, email and two phone numbers to “provide essential tracing information directly to the Centers for Disease Control, if needed.” 

No major coronavirus outbreaks have been traced to a commercial airline flight in the United States — but there have not been any widespread tracing efforts.

Delta’s move is a first by a US carrier after the White House coronavirus task force asked airlines to administer contact tracing programs themselves rather than having the government handle.

In June, Vice President Mike Pence told major airlines to move forward with an industry-led solution for contact tracing of passengers.

The total number of coronavirus deaths reported in a day set a new record yesterday and hospitalizations also reached an all-time high. Doctors and nurses across the US are trying to find creative ways to handle the surging number of patients.

The numbers are grim and those totals have never been higher.

Here’s a look at the latest figures:

Deaths:

Hospitalizations:

Here’s a look at how new daily Covid-19 deaths have progressed over time:

Here’s a look at how Covid-19 hospitalizations have progressed over time:

A health worker is pictured in a lab during clinical trials for a Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in Hollywood, Florida, on September 9.

The UK became the first Western country to authorize a Covid-19 vaccine yesterday, marking a pivotal moment in the global fight against coronavirus.

As coronavirus cases rise across the US and the world, here’s a look at the latest on the race to approve and distribute a vaccine

Dr. Sanjay Gupta talks with Moderna Covid-19 vaccine trial participant:  

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A Christmas tree illuminates Piazza San Carlo in Turin, Italy, on December 2.

Italy has banned movement between regions during the Christmas holidays to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Here are some key things to know about the restrictions:

Another new decree is currently being discussed by the government and regional administrations and is expected to go into effect on Friday. The decree will introduce further restrictions regarding the Christmas holidays.

Among the measures being discussed are: a national curfew starting at 10 p.m. local time and restaurants being required to close at 6 p.m. local time in “yellow” regions.

The Christmas Eve mass must end by around 8:30 p.m. local time “so that worshippers can return home before the 10 p.m. curfew,” undersecretary at the Ministry of Health Sandra Zampa said Wednesday evening during an interview with Italian channel La7.

A Department of Health and Human Services employee holds a Covid-19 vaccine record card on November 13 in Washington, DC.

The Department of Defense released the first images of a Covid-19 vaccination record card and vaccination kits Wednesday.

Vaccination cards will be used as the “simplest” way to keep track of Covid-19 shots, said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which is supporting frontline workers who will administer Covid-19 vaccinations.

“Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due,” Moore said. “Let’s do the simple, easy thing first. Everyone’s going to get that.”

A display shows items that will be provided with Covid-19 vaccines at Operation Warp Speed headquarters in Washington, DC, on November 13.

Remember: No vaccine has been approved in the US yet, but Pfizer and Moderna are awaiting emergency use authorizations for their vaccine candidates. A panel with the US Food and Drug Administration is expected to discuss whether to authorize the EUAs on Dec. 10 and 17.

Should Pfizer and Moderna get the authorization, the vaccines’ first shipments could happen Dec. 15 and 22, respectively, according to a document from the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed.

Dr. Henry Walke, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 incident manager, said that as Americans continue through the holiday season, they should avoid travel and stay home.

“We’re happy we’re coming out with this guidance now before the holiday season to provide additional consideration for the American public and health care providers, public health administrators to think through in terms of preventing infection,” Walke said Wednesday.

The reason for the recommendation to avoid travel is that cases are rising and hospitalizations and deaths are both increasing, Walke said. 

“We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase and so we’re really asking the American public to prevent these infections and avoid travel and wash their hands, wear a mask and maintain distance,” Walke said. 

Doctor: Holiday travel like pouring gasoline on surging cases

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Tables are empty at a diner in West Hollywood, California, on November 30.

Another 712,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Labor Department, as the job market recovery continues to slow. That was a bit lower in the previous week, which was revised higher.

Meanwhile, 288,701 workers filed for benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides aid for workers like the self-employed and contractors. This number is not adjusted for seasonality.

Added together, 1 million Americans filed initial benefit claims on an unadjusted basis last week. Continued jobless claims stood at 5.5 million.

Thursday’s report comes just days after the US Government Accountability Office said that the Labor Department hadn’t provided an accurate estimate of the number of Americans claiming benefits. States’ backlogs are overloaded with the historically high number of applications, which is contributing to this issue.

On top of that, millions of people may not be receiving the full unemployment payments they are owed, GAO said.

Economists and lawmakers have relied on jobless claims data throughout the pandemic because its weekly release schedule is the closest to real-time economic data.

‘This should be a flashing red light’: Romans on unemployment

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A health worker in Hollywood, Florida, injects a person during clinical trials for a Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on September 9.

Global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines would generate estimated economic benefits of at least $153 billion in 2020-21 and $466 billion by 2025 in 10 major economies, a report by the Eurasia Group has found. 

The political risk consultancy analyzed 10 major economies – Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and the United States – to assess the economic benefits of contributing to the work of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

The ACT Accelerator, led by the World Health Organization, in partnership with other international health organizations, is a global collaboration which supports the development and equitable distribution of the tests, treatments and vaccines. 

The study determined that the ACT Accelerator program is “the only ‘end-to-end’ complete global solution – across tests, treatments, and vaccines – for tackling the pandemic.”

It examined the expected negative effects of sustained coronavirus outbreaks in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs), based on the downside and baseline scenarios of the IMF’s  October 2020 World Economic Outlook forecasts.

“Rapid, widespread, and equitable vaccination, tests, and treatments will save countless lives in LLMICs, allowing policymakers’ focus to return to the core development goals of raising living standards, empowering women, and marginalized communities, and strengthening institutions,” it said.

The Eurasia Group report was commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a partner in the ACT Accelerator program alongside WHO, European Commission and France. 

To date, the 10 countries featured in the report have contributed $2.4 billion to the ACT Accelerator, with the UK committing just over $ 1 billion, and Germany, Canada, Japan and France committing $618 million, $290 million, $229 million and $147 million respectively. The program needs $38 billion in funding, of which $28.2 billion is still currently outstanding. 

Prince Harry attends an event in Silverstone, England, on March 6.

Prince Harry has said the Covid-19 pandemic is like a punishment from nature. 

“Somebody said to me at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s almost as though Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms for bad behavior, to really take a moment and think about what we’ve done,” Prince Harry said during an interview released Tuesday on video-on-demand platform WaterBear. 

“It certainly reminded me, as it has probably reminded all of us, how interconnected we all are, not just as people but through nature. We take so much from her and we rarely give a lot back,” he said talking to WaterBear’s CEO Ellen Windemuth and Head of Strategy Sam Sutaria on behalf of NGO African Parks – of which Prince Harry has been president since December 2017.

When asked how storytelling could help to drive action, he said: “Every single raindrop that falls from the sky relieves the parched ground. What if every single one of us was a raindrop and if every single one of us cared, which we do, because we have to care because at the end of the day, nature is our life source, but we’ve got to be clever and find a way to be able to uplift and inspire in that education and awareness.”

San Francisco: The congregation of the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption praying on the steps, where they gathered to hear mass and pray during the influenza pandemic of 1918.

To gather or not to gather has been the question at the forefront of the minds of today’s religious leaders and their church members.

During the 1918 influenza pandemic that ultimately killed 50 million to 100 million people, different answers to that same question resulted in either collective well-being or widespread, devastating loss.

The US Supreme Court recently decided 5-4 to grant religious organizations in New York state relief from restrictions on the number of people attending religious services. In light of this development, looking back a century can offer guidance for religious institutions deciding to stay shuttered or reopen.

In 1918, many churches around the world closed their doors to save lives. Without financial support, some churches eventually closed permanently, while others survived with dropped-off donations and serving as hospitals instead of sanctuaries. For some families, the home became the altar.

Those who refused to adapt to the pandemic reaped the consequences.

Read the full story here:

Related article For churchgoers during the Covid-19 pandemic, a deadly lesson from the 1918 flu

An ensemble forecast published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now projects there will be 303,000 to 329,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by December 26.

Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections a few weeks into the future. The previous ensemble forecast, published November 25, projected up to 321,000 coronavirus deaths by December 19. 

At least 273,847 people have already died from Covid-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

A medical worker prepares to administer Russia's Sputnik V vaccine at a hospital in the Moscow region on November 28.

Moscow will open mass Covid-19 vaccination centers on Saturday offering shots of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, according to the city’s mayor.

“Moscow has set up a full technological and organizational chain for the vaccination [process],” Sergey Sobyanin said in a blog post. “Specialized storage facilities have been selected, refrigerators and containers for vaccine delivery have been prepared.”

Priority will go to the most at-risk groups such as teachers, health professionals and city workers, who can sign up online from Friday. The centers will then be used to vaccinate other groups depending on the amount of supplied doses, Sobyanin said.

The announcement comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to start large-scale vaccinations against the coronavirus from next week. 

Russia registered its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in August ahead of large-scale Phase 3 trials which are currently underway. In November it said an early analysis of data from its the vaccine suggested it is 92% effective. However, some scientists are urging caution, noting that the data is far from conclusive.

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Wednesday that to date more than 100,000 Russian citizens have had a Sputnik V shot, but did not specify who has been vaccinated.

Lothar Wieler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, speaks at a news conference in Berlin on December 3.

Germany’s coronavirus situation remains ”tense,” the head of the country’s infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), warned Thursday.

Lothar Wieler said despite Germany’s ”success in the last few weeks to stabilize infection numbers,” cases in the country “remain too high.” 

Wieler went on to say that Germany’s ”death toll is rising from week to week” and ”in some regions, hospitals are on the brink.”

Particularly worrying is the spread of coronavirus infections in care homes where, according to Wieler, many elderly patients over 80 are at risk. ”We must protect the elderly,” he said, pointing to statistics that show ”every fifth person with Covid-19 in care homes is at risk of dying.” 

The head of RKI’s surveillance unit, Ute Rexroth, warned that the virus is circulating at particularly high levels between the age group of 15 to 29, and is being spread to the elderly generation. “The incident rate must be brought down,” he said.

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said that ”the goal continues to be to get the incidence numbers below 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants for seven days.” 

“We have a very high daily number of fatalities and this shows us once again just how big a responsibility we have to get the incidence rate below 50 again,” Merkel said.

On Thursday, Germany recorded 22,046 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total tally to 1,106,789, according to RKI data. The reported death toll rose by 479 to 17,602.

Iran surpassed 1 million total coronavirus cases on Thursday after reporting 13,922 infections in 24 hours, the health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on state-media. 

The country has been battling a third wave of Covid-19 infections since the beginning of October with daily record-breaking increases reported across the nation. 

Iran is the worst-hit country in its region in both case and death numbers. On Thursday, 358 deaths were also reported bringing the total to 49,348 deaths. 

Living under tough economic US sanctions, the country has avoided a complete lockdown but opted to impose tougher restrictions on government institutions and non-essential businesses. 

Iran’s Minister of Health Saeed Namaki said on Wednesday that the country has put in a pre-purchase vaccine order with the World Health Organization through the COVAX program, which they intend to receive as soon as global distribution starts. 

“We have pre-purchased 16.8 million coronavirus vaccines from the World Health Organization’s COVAX and we have joint production with other countries,” Namaki said according to state-news agency IRNA. 

Austin Mayor Steve Adler has said that he “regrets” traveling to Mexico in early November as he was urging people to be cautious about the spread of Covid-19.

In a video posted on YouTube, Adler says a “small, mostly family” group made the trip after his daughter’s “small” wedding.

“I want you to know that I regret that travel. I wouldn’t travel now. I didn’t over Thanksgiving, and I won’t over Christmas, and no one should. Everyone should be avoiding non-essential travel now because we are in the orange area,” he says.

According to the City of Austin website, orange is demarcated as Stage 4 on the Austin Public Health (APH) color-coded chart. The risk-based guidelines set out five stages of risk, from the lowest threat, Stage 1, through the most serious, Stage 5.

In the video message, Adler continued: “Now, I fear that the travel that I did, which took place during a safer period, followed the color-coded rules, could lead to some taking riskier behavior now.” At the time, Austin was under Stage 3 health recommendations, which meant people were advised to avoid social gatherings greater than 10 people, but there were no restrictions or recommendations made on avoiding non-essential travel, according to APH.

“I know that others have chosen not to travel under the same circumstances, and I know that in my position, I need to send a clearer message. I’m sorry I took that trip. It was a lapse in judgment, and I want you to know that I apologize.”

Adler’s travels came to light in an article in the Austin American-Statesman on Wednesday. It pointed out that a video Adler posted to Facebook on November 9 was taken during his stay in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

In that video, he talked about Covid-19 trends in Austin, saying: “The thrust of the most important message is trying to get out to the community right now is that our numbers are increasing, and everybody has to be aware of that, and we need to stay home if you can. Do everything you can to try to keep the numbers down. This is not the time to relax.”

A health worker in Hollywood, Florida, injects a person during clinical trials for a Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on September 9.

The UK is set to receive its first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the coming hours, England’s deputy chief medical officer said Thursday.

“We expect to receive [the Pfizer vaccine] very shortly in the UK, and I do mean hours, not days,” Jonathan Van-Tam told the BBC’s Five Live radio show.

On Wednesday, the UK Department of Health said up to 800,000 doses of the vaccine – enough to inoculate 400,000 people – are being made available next week. 

Van-Tam also said he believes US and European regulators will approve the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in the coming “days or weeks,” during a separate interview with BBC Breakfast.

His comments come after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, claimed British health regulators who authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday did not scrutinize the trial data as carefully as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is doing in its review.

“The way the FDA is, our FDA is doing it, is the correct way,” Fauci said in an interview on Fox News. “We really scrutinize the data very carefully to guarantee to the American public that this is a safe and efficacious vaccine,” he said.

Van-Tam explained the UK’s vaccination program will prioritize older people in care homes and its workers, and then “everybody aged 80 and over” and “those with risk conditions.”  

“There are more vaccines coming, we’ve invested in seven others and they should start coming in by spring,” Van-Tam added.

The lead epidemiologist also told the BBC that pregnant women should not get vaccinated at this point: “We don’t have the data at this point. There may be no problem at all, but safety first.”

As for children, Van-Tam added that they are not a priority at the moment, but that manufacturers are “now thinking of doing trials in children.”

The deputy chief medical officer also urged those in the priority groups to accept the call for vaccination, saying the success of the immunization program and subsequent lifting of restrictions depends on the public’s adherence to the plan.

As for the duration of the immunity provided by the Pfizer vaccine, Van-Tam said there are still no certainties for “how long it is going to last.”

“We have some data that these vaccines are going to stimulate T cell and antibodies which could be long lasting. But we don’t know how long it will last. I’m confident it will be quite a few months as an absolute minimum,” he added.

Van-Tam said there are still some “challenges in terms of storage conditions” regarding the Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at minus 70 degrees, but there’s also a limited number of times the vaccine can “transit through ambient air temperature.”

He added he is hopeful that the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, which “should be a whole lot easier and more deployable in multiple NHS [National Health Service] settings,” could be “as easy as the flu vaccine” to handle.

Van-Tam also added he is “hopeful” the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine might be ready by Christmas. 

A survey by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) found 31 EU/EEA countries and the United Kingdom are considering prioritizing “older age groups, healthcare workers and persons with underlying conditions” to receive Covid-19 vaccines first.

Of those countries, nine: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK have already published more detailed plans of which groups of citizens will be prioritized.

This could however be modified as more evidence becomes available about the virus “epidemiology and characteristics of vaccines, including information on vaccine safety and efficacy by age and target group,” the report found.

It also noted that with a limited supply of vaccines in the first round of inoculations, “it is expected that most countries will refine their priority groups as Austria, France and Spain have done.”

Due to the challenge of delivering a large-scale vaccination program the EU health authority found, “some countries mentioned the need for a bigger pool of skilled workforce to administer the vaccines as more doses will become available.”

Twelve countries surveyed by the ECDC said they were planning to mobilize and train other medical staff such as: nurses, midwives, medical students, general practitioners, other medical staff, “in order to ensure sufficient capacity of vaccination services to deliver Covid-19 vaccines.”

Most countries reported that Covid-19 vaccines will be provided free of charge to their citizens.

The EU regulator, the European Medicines Agency has begun the process of approving vaccines by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna and aims to provide a decision by December 29 on BioNTech/Pfizer and January 12 next year for Moderna.

Once approved the European Commission will work with EU countries to formally sign off in a process that they expect to take a couple of days.

Thailand has contact traced 700 people after 10 Thai nationals illegally crossed into the country from Myanmar, according to Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health.

Opas Karnkawinpong, Director-General of Thailand’s Disease Control Department, said during a news conference that the 10 Thai citizens tested positive for Covid-19 after they went to hospitals and clinics in Thailand following their return.

The 10 individuals entered Thailand between Nov. 24 and 28 through a natural border in Mae Sai district, in the northern Chiang Rai province.

Nearly 700 people have been exposed to these infected cases at various degrees.

Among them, 175 are considered high-risk as they spent time in close proximity, and in some cases, were not wearing masks. Everyone in the high-risk group has tested negative so far.

“We have tracked 175 people in high-risk groups, after tests were done, the results were negative. However, all of them have to undergo more tests until the incubation period is over,” Opas added.

Thailand’s last locally transmitted coronavirus case was reported in September.

Lilly’s coronavirus treatment won emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in November.

The US federal government has bought 650,000 additional doses of Eli Lilly and Co’s monoclonal antibody treatment for coronavirus, bringing the total US purchase to 950,000 treatment courses. 

Lilly’s treatment, an engineered version of a human immune system protein, won emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration last month after clinical trials showed it could help prevent severe disease. 

The HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority said that each treatment course was a single dose.

“Under the agreement announced October 28 and to meet Operation Warp Speed goals, the company is in the process of delivering the first 300,000 doses, and on November 10, HHS began allocating these doses to state and territorial health departments which, in turn, are determining which healthcare facilities receive the infusion drug,” the authority said.

In a separate statement, Lilly said that the purchase agreement was for $812.5 million worth of doses which would be delivered “through January 31, 2021, with at least 350,000 of the additional doses delivered in December 2020.”

Russia reported 28,145 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, the highest number in a single day, according to data from the country’s coronavirus response center.

The total number of infections confirmed in Russia is now at least 2,375,546, with an overall death toll of 41,607.

A CNN investigation previously revealed that official Russian coronavirus death figures may grossly understate the real toll by excluding people who are presumed to have Covid-19 post mortem and even those with pre-existing conditions that proved fatal due to the infection.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on April 5, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

When states begin receiving their share of the limited Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines, perhaps as soon as this month, they’re going to make some decisions about vaccinations based on their own circumstances, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the US Food and Drug Administration, said Wednesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted Tuesday to recommend giving the limited number of initial vaccines to healthcare workers and residents in long-term care facilities, but Gottlieb said states still have some leeway.

When it comes to distributions to healthcare workers, Gottlieb said the majority will be sent to hospitals, which will have to decide which staff get vaccinated first, “based on their exposure to Covid, their proximity to the virus.”

He said he expects the 3 million residents of long-term care facilities and staff there to get the vaccine quickly, given the high risk that they face.

At least 200,070 new coronavirus cases were reported in the United States on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

An additional 3,157 virus-related fatalities – the highest number in a single day since the pandemic began – were also reported Wednesday.

A total of 13,924,956 Covid-19 infections, including 273,835 deaths, have now been confirmed nationwide, according to JHU’s tally.

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

See CNN’s tracker:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to the media following her virtual meeting with the leaders of Germany's 16 states in Berlin, on Dec. 2.

Germany has extended restrictive measures designed to curb the spread of coronavirus until Jan. 10, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced late Wednesday following a meeting with the country’s state leaders.  

“The states will extend their measures from Dec. 20 until Jan. 10,” Merkel told reporters at a news conference, adding that another round of consultations would be held on Jan. 4.  

Merkel said that infection rates throughout the country remain too high to allow reopening of restaurants, bars and leisure facilities. The nationwide partial lockdown also includes private gatherings to be kept to a minimum of only five people from two households. 

Last week Merkel announced that restrictions will be eased over the Christmas period in most parts of Germany to allow for people to meet in groups of up to 10 people, not counting children. 

Germany is struggling to contain an ongoing surge in Covid-19 infections. On Wednesday, the country’s infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), reported 487 deaths due to the virus — the highest daily death toll since the beginning of the pandemic. 

According to data published by the RKI Thursday morning, 22,046 new coronavirus infections were recorded in the past 24 hours. A total of 479 coronavirus fatalities also occurred in the past day – the second-highest count since the pandemic began, bringing the total number of deaths to 17,602.

Japan recorded 41 new coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, its highest daily increase of new deaths since May 8, the country’s Health Ministry announced today.

The country’s death toll now stands at 2,226. 

The Health Ministry also reported 2,434 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing Japan’s nationwide total to 153,539.

Japan reported there were 488 people in intensive care and on respirators on Wednesday, down five from the previous day when it had the highest such number since the pandemic began. 

Tokyo reported 500 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the capital’s total number of infections to 41,811. 

Last Thursday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga described the next three weeks as an extremely crucial period and asked the public to cooperate with anti-virus measures.  

The United States reported 3,157 new coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, the highest number in a single day since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

The days with the highest number of new deaths according to JHU data are: 

Wesley Moribe (left) and Courtney Peterson (right).

A couple returning home to Hawaii was arrested over the weekend after they allegedly flew on a commercial plane with a child despite testing positive for Covid-19.

According to the Kauai Police Department, Wesley Moribe, 41, and Courtney Peterson, 46, of Wailua were charged with second-degree reckless endangering.

Police spokesperson Coco Zickos said Moribe and Peterson boarded a United Airlines flight out of San Francisco on Sunday despite knowing they both had tested positive for the coronavirus.

A 4-year-old child traveled with them. Zickos said the child was released to the care of a family member following the adults’ arrests. The police department is not saying how the child is related to the suspects.

Following their arrests at the Lihue Airport, Moribe and Peterson were each released on $1,000 bail, said Zickos. 

CNN was not able to find contact information nor an attorney listed for the couple Wednesday evening.

From left to right, former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton attend the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, on April 25, 2013.

Three former United States presidents – Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – are volunteering to receive their Covid-19 vaccines on camera in order to promote public confidence in the medication’s safety.

The three former presidents hope an awareness campaign to promote confidence in the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness would be a powerful message as American public health officials try to convince the public to get vaccinated once the US Food and Drug Administration authorizes one. 

Freddy Ford, Bush’s chief of staff, told CNN that the 43rd president had reached out to Dr. Anthony Fauci – the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, to see how he could help promote the vaccine.

Clinton’s press secretary told CNN on Wednesday that he too would be willing to take the vaccine in a public setting in order to promote it.

It has been previously reported that Obama said in an interview with SiriusXM host Joe Madison, scheduled to air Thursday, that if Fauci said a coronavirus vaccine is safe, he believes him.

Half a million students will sit South Korea’s notoriously difficult National College Entrance Exam on Thursday, a marathon day of tests that is the country’s answer to the SATs and can determine a teenager’s future.

The tests are so significant that, in normal years, the country rolls out extreme measures to support students – office hours are changed to clear roads to avoid students getting stuck in traffic and flights are rescheduled to prevent the sound of plane engines disrupting the English listening test.

But this year, even greater planning has been required, as South Korea attempts to hold the exams while keeping teenagers safe from coronavirus. Students will have their temperature checked before entering the testing facilities and will need to wear masks throughout the exam.

Arrangements were even made for 3,775 students to take the tests from quarantine, and for the 35 students who tested positive for Covid-19 as of Tuesday to sit the exam from a hospital bed.

The exams help decide whether students will make it into the most prestigious colleges and what career path they can take – some options, such as medicine, will be shut off to students who don’t get a high-enough score.

Read the full story:

South Korean students take their college entrance exam at a school amid the coronavirus pandemic on December 3, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea.

Related article Half a million South Korean students sit a college entrance exam despite rising Covid cases

A nurse looks at his computer while working in a Covid-19 unit at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles on Thursday, Nov. 19.

Los Angeles will run out of hospital beds by Christmas if the coronavirus continues to spread at its current, unprecedented rate, Mayor Eric Garcetti warned in a news conference Wednesday, calling on residents to “hunker down” and “cancel everything” to help stop the spread of the virus.

The number of daily coronavirus infections in Los Angeles have tripled since early November. Hospitalizations have more than tripled as well and are at a new peak, according to Garcetti.

On Tuesday, the county reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic. The average daily cases have increased by 225% since early November, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. 

Garcetti urged residents to stay home as much as possible as the “choices between us are stark, between health and sickness, care and apathy, life and death.”

To date, Los Angeles County has confirmed a total of 414,185 coronavirus cases and 7,740 deaths. 

British health regulators who authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday did not scrutinize the trial data as carefully as the US Food and Drug Administration is doing in its review, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, claimed.

Fauci said it’s important that Americans feel good about a potential Covid-19 vaccine.

“So, it’s almost a damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t, because if you go quickly and you do it superficially, people are not going to want to get vaccinated,” he said. 

“We have the gold standard of a regulatory approach with the FDA. The UK did not do it as carefully and they got a couple of days ahead,” he said. “I don’t think that makes much difference. We’ll be there. We’ll be there very soon.”

The United States has reported a record-high number of new Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

So far on Wednesday, 2,658 Covid-19 deaths have been reported, according to JHU. The US is currently averaging 1,531 new deaths per day, the university’s data shows.

According to JHU data, the days with the highest number of new deaths are: 

Note: This is an ongoing tally and today’s final numbers will not be available until overnight tonight.

While Americans are eagerly awaiting coronavirus vaccines to be authorized, doctors and nurses across the US are facing a difficult truth as hospitals try to find creative ways to handle the surging number of patients that exceeds 100,000 nationwide.

One county official in Wisconsin told CNN, “Our hospital ICUs and emergency rooms remain stretched beyond any reasonable limit and our healthcare workers as well as our patients need our help.”

More than 100,200 patients were in US hospitals Wednesday – the most counted during the pandemic, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

And there was more sad news as more than 2,650 deaths were reported Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University, another national high during the health crisis.

After they are authorized by the federal government, coronavirus vaccines should help blunt the pandemic, but experts think it won’t be until spring before a lot of Americans can get them.

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FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, EMT Giselle Dorgalli, second from right, looks at a monitor while performing chest compression on a patient who tested positive for coronavirus in the emergency room at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles. Amid the coronavirus resurgence, states have begun reopening field hospitals to handle an influx of sick patients that is pushing health care systems — and their workers — to the breaking point. Hospitals are bringing in mobile morgues. And funerals are once again being livestreamed or performed as drive-by affairs. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Related article US hits nearly 2,600 Covid-19 deaths in one day -- the highest since April

The United States has surpassed 100,000 current Covid-19 hospitalizations, setting a new record high since the pandemic began, according to the Covid Tracking Project (CTP). 

On Wednesday, at least 100,226 people were hospitalized with Covid-19, according to CTP. 

The UK became the first Western country to authorize a Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, marking a pivotal moment in the global fight against coronavirus.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been granted emergency authorization by British regulators, and the first doses are expected to be rolled out from early next week.

Britain has been one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with the highest death toll in Europe, and its government has been heavily criticized for its handling of the crisis.

But it has now leapfrogged both the European Union and the United States with this announcement.

Why was the UK first? The vaccine was granted emergency authorization in the UK by its independent regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which has played a crucial part in the process.

The MHRA began a rolling review of Pfizer and BioNTech data from October, with each “package” of data reviewed as soon as it became available. This allowed regulators to examine the data in detail before a final authorization application was submitted.

This approach helped accelerate the authorization process and a formal review of all the necessary information began in the UK on November 23, leading to Wednesday’s announcement.

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BioNTech/Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine vials. The vaccine has been authorized in the UK.

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