The latest on the coronavirus pandemic

Lebanese security force officers man a checkpoint to verify the compliance with restrictions on the first day of a reinstated lockdown to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases on August 21 in Beirut, Lebanon.

As Lebanon’s latest curfew went into effect Friday evening, the country reported 628 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

This is a new daily high for the number of infections recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, the country’s Ministry of Public Health said.

The latest recorded cases brings the country’s total case count to 11,580. There were also three new fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours, raising the national death toll to 117, the ministry said.

A new daily countrywide curfew went into effect on Friday starting from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time. This daily curfew is part of the latest lockdown restrictions. All but essential businesses must remain closed during the curfew.

Lebanon has seen the number of new Covid-19 cases more than double since the Beirut port blast on Aug. 4 which killed at least 180 people, wounded around 6,000 people and displaced approximately 300,000 people.

An empty classroom is seen inside the Mildred Avenue K-8 School building on July 9 in Boston.

Public schools in Boston will start the year remotely on Sept. 21 with a phased in approach to returning students to the classroom, Mayor Marty Walsh said Friday. 

The mayor also explained why the city made the decision to start the school year remotely.

“We feel this is the best approach to educate our children. It created a staggered approach for students to return to the classroom in a safe and careful way. It’s the best way to tackle the opportunity gaps in our city,” Walsh said.

As of yesterday, Boston had 31 new cases of Covid-19 for a total of 15,018 cases.

World Health Organization officials meet on August 21 in Geneva, Switzerland.

It’s both easier and more difficult the fight the coronavirus pandemic than it was to battle the 1918 influenza pandemic, World Health Organization officials said Friday.

“We have a disadvantage — globalization, closeness, connectedness — but an advantage of better technology.” 

The 1918 flu pandemic took just under two years to pass, Tedros said. He said he hopes to finish this pandemic in “less than two years.”

After that, the H1N1 strain that killed tens of millions of people joined the regular, seasonal mix of influenza viruses. 

“It took three waves to infect most of the susceptible individuals, then settled down probably into a seasonal pattern,” Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO executive director of Health Emergencies Program. “Very often” a pandemic virus will settle into a seasonal pattern over time, he said. 

“But this virus is not displaying a similar wave-like pattern,” Ryan said

Instead of passing in waves that offer respites, coronavirus can be suppressed with strict measures but rebounds quickly, Ryan said. “Clearly, when the disease is not under control, it jumps straight back up,” he said. 

But the 1918 flu passed and so will this pandemic, he said.

“Human beings are resilient. We are a resilient species and we will get through this,” Ryan said.

Students wear face masks while attending school on August 12 in Dortmund, Germany.

The World Health Organization and UNICEF will be issuing guidance on the use of masks in children, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO infectious disease epidemiologist, said during a Friday briefing. 

Van Kerkhove said the guidance will be broken up by age range. The guidance will be for decision makers and educators “about when and where masks can be used.” 

Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO executive director of Health Emergencies Program, said “masks are a great tool” especially in the context of schools. But he warns they should not take the place of other public health measures.  

Ryan said getting kids back to school is a “complex equation,” and wearing masks is just one part of it. 

“In fact it would decrease the benefits of masks if people closed physical distance, don’t wash their hands,” Ryan added.

Van Kerkhove said the guidance should be issued in the coming days, if not sooner.

Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey attends a press conference in Nashville on March 12.

The Southeastern Conference has announced expanded Covid-19 protocols for fall athletics, adding new cardiac evaluations and a third weekly test during weeks of competition. 

Initially, the SEC had mandated a cardiac evaluation following isolation for those athletes who tested positive. Now, the conference’s task force is expanding cardiac evaluation by requiring a troponin level, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram and a medical evaluation by a physician before an athlete can return to activity.

In addition, the SEC – at the recommendation of its medical guidance task force – will implement a third weekly rapid diagnostic test for athletes competing in sports with a high risk of close contact. 

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey release a statement:

The 14 members of the SEC have committed to honoring the scholarship of any student-athlete who opts out of playing in the fall of 2020 due to Covid-19 concerns.

A New York Mets batting helmet is seen in the dugout on March 8 before a spring training game in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Major League Baseball has announced two additional New York Mets games have been postponed due to Covid-19 concerns.

The team’s weekend home set versus the New York Yankees is off — which means four Mets games in total have now been postponed.

With two members of the Mets organization testing positive for coronavirus, the league says it wants to allow more time for additional testing and contact tracing before the team takes the field again. 

Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has released its latest Covid-19 testing figures from the past week, revealing 0.05% samples are new positives — an increase of .02% from the previous week.

The report, announced in conjunction with the players union, does not indicate which players tested positive.

Seven of the 12,485 samples were new positives: three players and four staff members.  

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, attends a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 3.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, World Health Organization (WHO) director-general, said Friday that “no country can just ride” out the coronavirus pandemic without a vaccine.

Tedros said he hopes a Covid-19 vaccine is available as soon as possible, adding it will be a “vital tool,” but there is no guarantee there will even be one. 

“And even if we do have a vaccine, it won’t end the pandemic on its own. We must all learn to control and manage this virus using the tools we have now,” he said. 

Tedros said daily routines must be adjusted to keep everyone safe. This includes wearing masks and practicing good hand hygiene.  

Several countries are seeing an uptick in cases, Tedros said. 

“These countries are a cautionary tale for those that are now seeing a downward trend in cases. Progress does not mean victory,” he said.

A mortician assistant prepares a funeral service for someone said to have died from Covid-19 at Ray Williams Funeral Home in Tampa, Florida, on August 12.

An ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects nearly 195,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Sept. 12.

The new projections, published Friday, forecast 194,778 deaths by Sept. 12, with a possible range of 187,373 to 204,684 deaths.

“State- and territory-level ensemble forecasts predict that the number of reported new deaths per week will likely increase over the next four weeks in Minnesota and may decrease in 13 jurisdictions. Those with the greatest likelihood of a decrease over the next four weeks include Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina,” the CDC says on its forecasting website.

Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections about a month into the future. The previous ensemble forecast, published Aug. 13, projected roughly 189,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by Sept. 5.

At least 174,255 people have already died from Covid-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

A student and parent wear backpacks carrying a Google Chromebook laptop and an Apple iPad for remote learning during a technology deployment event at Mockingbird Elementary School in Dallas on August 19.

The Dallas Independent School District will start the academic year with full remote learning when students return to school on Sept. 8, Superintendent Michael Hinojosa announced.

Public schools in Dallas will be remote through at least Oct. 6.

“All of the medical professionals were unanimous in their recommendation that there should be no in-person learning on Sept. 8,” Hinojosa said, referring to the recommendation he received from county health officials that led him to make his decision.

With the decision from Dallas public schools announced, 64 of the 101 largest school districts in the US will be starting the school year remotely.

Boston Public Schools is the only school district of the 101 largest school districts that still has not made a final decision about its reopening. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said the reopening of school is postponed until Sept. 21 and the options on the table are all remote or hybrid.

You can watch the announcement in the video below:

Vice President Mike Pence on CNN's "New Day" on August 21.

As the US surpasses 174,000 deaths due to coronavirus, Vice President Mike Pence said, “We mourn with those who mourn.”

The US is now averaging 1,000 coronavirus deaths a day. When CNN’s John Berman asked Pence about the death toll, he said:

Despite seeing significant surges in cases and deaths all across the country through the year so far, the Vice President emphasized that President Trump’s decision in January to suspend all travel from China has bought time for the US to work on a vaccine.

Since January, the US has recorded over 5 million cases.

Pence went on to criticize the Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for his critique of President Trump.

“While we grieve with those who lost loved one, had we not stood up the response as Joe Biden wanted us to do, we would have lost hundreds of thousands of more Americans.”

Watch:

Vice President Mike Pence said this morning that he believes the US will have a coronavirus vaccine before the end of 2020.

Pence added: “But we’re also not waiting on that. We’re actually manufacturing millions of doses of a vaccine so the moment the FDA says it’s safe and effective, we’ll be able to distribute it to the American people.”

Some background: President Trump has suggested that a vaccine for the coronavirus could be ready before Election Day this year. And while It’s possible that a vaccine could be approved by the Food and Drug Administration at some point in November, there is obviously no firm timeline or guarantee that one will be.

And even when one is approved, it will likely still be many months before it’s widely available across the US. In interviews last month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infections disease expert, made clear that while a vaccine could be approved by or possibly before November, it would likely not be available widely until “several months” into 2021.

Watch:

Alyannah Buhman says living with diabetes during a pandemic presents major challenges.

As 19-year-old Alyannah Buhman begins her junior year of pre-law studies at Iowa State University, she has ambitions of a career in civil rights law.

She is inspired by her grandfather, a police officer, and by growing up biracial in a small town in which there were only a few Black people.

But living with diabetes during a pandemic presents major challenges to those dreams, most of which aren’t immediately obvious.

“If you look at me you’d think I was perfectly normal, until you saw a little device sticking out,” she said.

That device checks her blood sugar every few minutes, buzzing if it’s too high or too low, and houses a pump that can kick in to deliver insulin. Infections can easily disrupt that delicate balance, throwing her glucose into wild fluctuations.

The threat of coronavirus has left her “very on edge,” she said.

As college students move into dorms, apartments and fraternity or sorority houses for the fall semester, Buhman is one of countless young Americans with chronic conditions now shouldering the risk of campus life in order to pursue their dreams.

These young people are funny, energetic, ambitious and generous, with illness giving them more wisdom than their years merit.

With weakened immune systems, they want people to know that Covid-19 won’t just simply pass through them, presenting with only mild symptoms. It could severely hobble or kill them.

These high-risk individuals are taking precautions, and they hope you will, too.

Because their lives depend on it.

Read the full story here.

Dara Calleary, Ireland's Minister for Agriculture, is pictured arriving at Dublin Castle for a cabinet meeting on July 21.

Dara Calleary, Ireland’s Minister for agriculture, food and the marine, resigned on Friday amid a breach of Covid-19 restrictions, after he attended a golf dinner with 80 other people on Wednesday.

“His attendance at this event was wrong and an error of judgement on his part,” Irish leader Micheál Martin said in a statement. “People all over the country have made very difficult, personal sacrifices in their family lives and in their businesses to comply with Covid regulations.”

Ireland has significantly tightened key restrictions this week after a spike in cases.

Calleary apologized in a series of tweets on Thursday, expressing “sincere regret” to his government colleagues.

In an interview with Newstalk radio station earlier that day, Calleary had urged Irish people to reduce their social contacts, insisting on the fact that “everyone had a role to play in this.”

Several other Irish politicians who attended the dinner were facing mounting pressure to resign amid public uproar on Friday. 

Healthcare professionals work to test travelers for Covid-19 at Malpensa Airport in Somma Lombardo, Italy, on August 20.

More than 794,000 people have died from coronavirus and there have been 22.7 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide.

In Europe – where Italy was the first Covid-19 epicenter outside China – authorities are battling to keep further waves of the pandemic at bay, but the case numbers are ticking up across the continent.

Here’s the latest:

Spain: The novel coronavirus epidemic is “out of control” in parts of Spain, according to the director of the country’s Center for Health Emergencies. “Currently the epidemic is not out of control at a national level, but it is in some concrete places,” Fernando Simon said Thursday. Simon’s remarks came after Spain reported 7,039 new cases, 3,349 in the previous 24 hours. Madrid and Catalonia account for the majority of new infections, but Andalucía, Castilla y Leon and Aragon have also seen sharp increases.

Ireland: Dara Calleary, Ireland’s Minister for agriculture, food and the marine, resigned on Friday amid a breach of Covid-19 restrictions, after he attended a golf dinner with 80 other people on Wednesday. In a radio interview this week, Calleary had urged Irish people to reduce their social contacts, insisting on the fact that “everyone had a role to play in this.” Ireland significantly tightened key restrictions this week after a spike in cases.

France: French authorities reported 4,711 new cases on Thursday, the highest daily increase since April 15. The country has seen a consistent increase in the number of new cases as restrictions were lifted and is currently reporting 46.3 new cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days.

Italy: The country has reported a sharp rise in infections, reporting 845 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, 203 more than Wednesday, according to the latest health report. This is the highest daily increase since May 16. Despite the sharp increase, Italy’s numbers remain low compared to other European countries. According to the European Center for Disease Control, Italy has only seen 10.7 cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days.

Croatia: A recent spike in cases has seen Croatia removed from the UK’s quarantine exemption’s list on Thursday. The country reported 255 new cases in the past 24 hours, health authorities in Croatia announced Thursday. According to the European Center for Disease Control that accounts for 41.7 cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days. Earlier this week Croatia was week red-listed, by Slovenia, its second largest tourist nationality, and Austria.

Poland: The country has recorded 903 new cases, its highest daily increase since the beginning of the outbreak according to a Polish Ministry for Health communications officer. 168 cases came from the Silesia mining region whereas 156 cases and 146 were respectively recorded in the Malopolska and Mazovia regions. The numbers in Poland have been rising since August 4 when the country recorded 680 cases.

Europe’s travel windows are slamming shut: Just weeks after many countries opened their borders to travelers within the continent, some are closing again, seemingly undermining efforts to salvage the continent’s vital summer tourism economy.

El Viejo Buzón" (The Old Mailbox) café is pictured in downtown Buenos Aires.

It’s a rather unusual sight. Felipe Evangelista is sitting down at the café he has owned for nearly four decades and all he can see are upside-down chairs stored atop empty tables.

“El Viejo Buzón” (The Old Mailbox) had been a very popular café in downtown Buenos Aires and a hanging spot for generations of Argentinians, common folk and celebrities alike, since it was founded 37 years ago. It’s the kind of old-style, corner café that is never empty. That was the case until March 20 when the coronavirus pandemic hit Argentina and the country shut down.

“It’s an unusual situation because the blinds are closed and the tables empty when the main thing about a place like this is people,” Evangelista said.

A normally boisterous establishment, the Old Mailbox is now mostly quiet – hanging on, hoping against hope it can survive. When CNN visited, the only sound to be heard was a coffee machine for the meager takeout business operated by the only employee around, one of eight in total. Evangelista says he has managed to avoid layoffs thanks to a government credit program that’s set to expire on September 20.

For Santiago Olivera, it’s already too late. The restaurateur had to shut down three establishments – two bars, “Bad Toro” and “Sheldon,” and “Clara,” a cafeteria – in the upscale Palermo district of the capital, laying off more than 60 people.

“We started accumulating debt since March that resulted from paying salaries and rents without generating any revenue. I had to take loans from banks. We accumulated more debt month after month from taxes, utilities and rents,” Olivera told CNN.

They are among the hundreds of cafés, bars and restaurants in Buenos Aires that have been forced to close due to the coronavirus pandemic. Their demise is a troubling new chapter for Argentina’s battered economy, which was roiled by runaway inflation and stagnant growth even before Covid-19 slammed the door on businesses.

Read the full story.

Fernando Simon holds a press conference about the pandemic at the Ministry of Health in Madrid, Spain, on August 20.

The novel coronavirus epidemic is “out of control” in parts of Spain, according to the director of the country’s Center for Health Emergencies.

“Currently the epidemic is not out of control at a national level, but it is in some concrete places.”

Simon’s remarks came after Spain reported 7,039 new cases, 3,349 in the previous 24 hours. Madrid and Catalonia account for the majority of new infections, but Andalucía, Castilla y Leon and Aragon have also seen sharp increases.

“It’s true that the characteristics of the cases are different, it’s true that hospitalizations and the data from the pressure on the [health] system are different, but we are having an important transmission,” Simon added.

Spain currently has the highest infection rate of any country in Europe according to the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC).

According to the ECDC, Spain has a 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 cases of 138.7 per 100,000 people.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other government officials arrive for a press conference at government HQ on August 21, to provide details on the citywide testing initiative.

Voluntary mass testing of citizens for coronavirus will begin in Hong Kong on September 1, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Friday. Tests will be free of charge.

Any Hong Kong citizens with no symptoms – except children under the age of six and people with bad throat or nasal conditions – can join the testing program, secretary for the civil service Patrick Nip said. The testing will last for seven days, and the government will review and announce whether to extend for another seven days.

Community testing centers will be set up across 18 districts to collect samples, Nip explained. Citizens will have to register online before getting tested.

Lam added that China’s central government helped in launching the mass testing program. “Without the help from the Central government for the extra laboratory and assistants, HK gov may not launch this mass testing program,” she said.

Hong Kong confirmed 27 new cases of Covid-19 in the city on Friday, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 4,631.

Brazil’s congress voted for mandatory mask wearing in closed spaces, such as commercial establishments, offices, schools and places of worship, overturning President Jair Bolsonaro’s previous veto.

WATCH:

People are seen at Split International Airport after the United Kingdom removed Croatia from a list of "safe countries" to travel on August 20, due to the rising number of cases throughout the country.

The vacation lights are going out all over Europe.

Just weeks after many countries opened their borders to travelers within the continent, some are closing again, often at such short notice that people are left scrambling to get home before quarantine orders are put in place.

Such confusion, often coupled with acrimony and threats of reprisals from countries who feel unfairly added to so-called “red lists” of Covid-19 unsafe destinations, looks set to undermine efforts to salvage Europe’s vital summer tourism economy well before the warm sunshine months have cooled into winter.

The latest casualty is Croatia, which on Thursday was removed from the UK’s safe list, meaning that anyone arriving in the UK from that country will be subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine from Saturday.

The move, a response to resurgence of Covid-19 cases now affecting many European countries, will potentially block tens of thousands of British tourists from enjoying the sparkling blue waters and pretty islands of the Dalmatian coast, and deprive Croatia of what is usually its sixth highest source of visitors.

Earlier this week Croatia was red-listed by Slovenia, its second largest tourist nationality, and Austria. This comes as Belgium adds Malta to its higher risk list, along with Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Bulgaria and the UK. Norway has added a number of destinations including Greece, Ireland, and Austria.

France was last week added to the UK’s unsafe list, prompting yowls of protest both from the legions of British vacationers who see sojourning in their neighbor as an annual rite of summer, but also from French authorities who threatened reciprocal quarantine measure on arrivals from the UK.

As a result, many holidaymakers traveling between Europe’s once wide-open internal borders must now decide whether to postpone, cancel, or go ahead with their trips and resign themselves to two weeks of self-isolating on their return.

Meanwhile destinations buoyed by a resurgence of tourists now find themselves back at square one.

Read the full story here.

Students walk through the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on August 18, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

It took just one week into the fall semester for multiple Covid-19 clusters to emerge at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – prompting the school to send students packing and make classes remote.

UNC-Chapel Hill is not alone. Across the nation, many colleges and universities that have reopened amid a global pandemic have experienced a similar fate: They opted for in-person learning, with safety precautions in place, but were still hit by Covid.

Some colleges and universities have opted to stick to virtual learning. Yet, others have said they still plan on going forward with their plans for in-person learning, or do a hybrid model that consists of a mixture of in-person and remote classes.

And students – some who are enthusiastic about being back, others who are worried about the safety risks – are still showing up.

Although states across the US are now seeing a decline in coronavirus cases, health officials have warned that “could turn around very quickly.” Those outside these colleges and universities have wondered: Why are they taking the risk?

The answer, according to education experts, is simple: their options are limited. They can reopen, and impose safety measures to try and curb the spread of the virus, or they can continue to conduct remote learning only, and risk financial devastation.

Read the full story here.

More than 794,000 people have died from coronavirus and there have been 22.6 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. 

New Zealand PM schools Trump on his “big outbreak” claims: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a pointed comparison between New Zealand’s coronavirus situation and the epidemic in the United States today, two days after US President Donald Trump said the island nation had a “big outbreak.” There were 11 new coronavirus cases reported in New Zealand on Friday, Ardern said, adding that the country has “one of the lowest death rates,” from the virus, especially compared to the US. 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to media during a press conference at Parliament on August 21, in Wellington, New Zealand.

South Korea reports more than 300 daily cases for first time in months: South Korea recorded 315 new local virus cases in the past 24 hours, marking the first time the country has identified more than 300 new daily cases since March 8. The country has now seen new infections in the triple digits for eight consecutive days, with infections reported in every province except for Jeju island, according to the Health Ministry.

Japan battles second wave of infections: There have now been more than 60,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Japan, according to the country’s Health Ministry. The country has recorded at least 23,600 Covid-19 cases since August 1, more than a third of its nationwide total since the pandemic began. Earlier this week, the president of the Japan Infectious Diseases Association, Kazuhiro Tateda, said Japan is in the midst of a second wave and warned that the strain on the healthcare system needed to be minimized.

Cubicles are pictured at the Nippon Foundation's temporary treatment facility for Covid-19 coronavirus patients on August 21, in Tokyo, Japan.

Australian minister says “No Jab, No Play” vaccine policy is on the table: Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt said Thursday that a “No Jab, No Play” coronavirus vaccine policy – which would mean that people would be excluded from certain public events or services unless they had received a vaccination – is being discussed. When asked whether a refusal to take a coronavirus vaccine would impact a citizen’s welfare payments, school attendance or travel, Hunt said it was possible.

Citizens in China’s capital don’t have to wear masks outside anymore: Beijing residents going out in public won’t have to wear a mask from Thursday, according to new government guidelines, as long as they aren’t in close contact with other people.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during a House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on July 31.

Covid-19 deaths in the US should start dropping around parts of the country by next week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director said, as Americans stick to mitigation efforts that help curb the spread of the virus.

So far, more than 5.5 million Americans have been infected and at least 174,255 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The country’s seven-day average for daily deaths has topped 1,000 for at least 24 days in a row.

Mitigation measures like controlling crowds and shutting down bars work, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said Thursday, but it takes time until they’re reflected in the numbers.

“It is important to understand these interventions are going to have a lag, that lag is going to be three to four weeks,” Redfield said in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Hopefully this week and next week you’re going to start seeing the death rate really start to drop.”

New cases on the decline: The daily average of new cases in the US has been on the decline for weeks. Redfield’s message comes as one Trump administration official said Covid-19 case trends are now “going in the right direction.”

But Redfield warned that while officials have observed cases fall across red zones in the country, cases in yellow zones across the heart of the US aren’t falling.

“Middle America right now is getting stuck,” he said. “That is why it’s so important for Middle America to recognize the mitigation that we talked about … it’s for Middle America too, the Nebraskas, the Oklahomas.”

Superspreading events help drive pandemic: In rural areas, superspreading events have been especially important in helping drive the pandemic, researchers in Georgia said this week.

Superspreading events like parties, conferences and large gatherings have been cautioned against by leaders throughout the country. Earlier this month, experts raised concern about a motorcycle rally in a small South Dakota town which was expected to bring tens of thousands of visitors.

Up to 60 million Americans likely infected: Experts have for long said the true number of infections throughout the country is likely many times higher than the cases reported.

On Thursday, Redfield said as many as 60 million Americans could have contracted the virus – more than 10 times the number of cases recorded.

“I think if you’re going to do a crude estimate, somewhere between 30 and 60 million people – but let’s let the data come out and see what the data shows,” he said.

Read the full story here.

Medical professionals perform coronavirus testing at a drive-through clinic on August 21, in Ballarat in Victoria, Australia.

An inquiry in Australia into Victoria state’s hotel quarantine system following a fresh coronavirus outbreak that’s infected thousands of people heard today that security guards at the hotels were given little to no training.

Firefighter Luke Ashford said that he signed up as an an authorized officer after he received an email from the government requesting help with monitoring the quarantine hotels.

But apart from some brief online training on how to use the government’s Covid-19 app, Ashford said he received no major help preparing for his job as an authorized officer.

Ashford told the inquiry he received no training in infection control, in how to properly apply protective gear, or even what his job would be.

The inquiry is ongoing.

Fresh outbreak: Victoria and its state capital Melbourne are now on lockdown amid a major second wave of Covid-19. To date, 17,852 people have been infected across the state.

Sitting squeezed between a number of strangers on board an aircraft might feel like a risky position during these uncertain times.

But according to some experts who point to the very few documented cases of in-flight transmission, the chances of catching Covid-19 while on board a flight are actually relatively slim.

Fear of flying during the pandemic has drastically reduced global air traffic, which has also been restricted due to border closures. If new scientific claims are borne out, the perceived heightened risk of boarding an airplane could be unfounded.

In one case, about 328 passengers and crew members were tested for coronavirus after it was learned that a March 31 flight from the US to Taiwan had been carrying 12 passengers who were symptomatic at the time. However, all the other passengers tested negative, as did the crew members.

And while there have certainly been cases of infected passengers passing the virus on to an airplane’s crew or fellow travelers in recent months, the transmission rates are low.

Read more:

Related article The odds of catching Covid-19 on an airplane are slimmer than you think, scientists say

Australia’s Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Thursday that a “No Jab, No Play” coronavirus vaccine policy is being discussed, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that every Australian would be able to receive a potential Covid-19 vaccine for free.

Hunt said in a radio interview on Thursday that Australia had one of the highest childhood immunization rates in the world and that he would like to see 95% of the population receive a coronavirus vaccine once it becomes available.

A “No Jab, No Play” policy would mean that people would be excluded from certain public events or services unless they had received a vaccination. 

When asked whether a refusal to take a coronavirus vaccine would impact a citizen’s welfare payments, school attendance or travel, Hunt said it was possible.

Hunt said he would “certainly be taking the vaccine” once it becomes available.

Vaccine controversy: Australia has secured a deal with the drugmaker AstraZeneca to supply a potential Covid-19 vaccine to its entire population free of charge, the government announced Tuesday.

Speaking about the plan, Prime Minister Morrison sparked controversy when he said he would “expect it to be as mandatory as you could possibly make it,” with some exemptions on medical grounds.

He later clarified his comments after a backlash from anti-vaccination groups in Australia and around the world, saying: “No one is going to force anybody to do anything as a compulsory measure, but we certainly will encourage people to take this up.”

Read more about the reaction to Morrison’s comments:

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 19: Prime Minister Scott Morrison takes a tour at the AstraZeneca laboratories in Macquarie Park, on August 19, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. The Australian government has announced an agreement with the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca to secure at least 25 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine if it passes clinical trials. The University of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine is currently in phase-three testing. If the vaccine proves to be successful, Australia will manufacture and supply vaccines and will be made available for free. The project could deliver the first vaccines by the end of this year or by early 2021. (Photo by Nick Moir - Pool/Getty Images)

Related article Controversy over Australian PM's vaccine comments points to the next coronavirus nightmare

A woman wearing a mask walks a dog in the West Village on August 19, in New York.

A mandatory mask-use policy not only gets people to put on face coverings, but also leads them to undertake other protective behavior such as physical distancing, hand washing and avoiding handshakes, researchers reported Thursday.

The researchers surveyed a group of almost 7,000 Germans between mid-April to late May– about 1,000 per week.

When mask use became compulsory in public on April 27 in Germany, the number of people wearing face masks went up sharply and stayed up – even among participants who thought the mandate was exaggerated.

Before the mandates, about 20% of the survey participants wore masks. By late May, after the mandate had been in place, 80% did, according to the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Mask wearers also did better with other protective behaviors. They were:

A subgroup of more than 900 volunteers were asked to imagine a scenario in which they were in the fruit department of their local grocery store with one other person.

Some participants were told there was a mandatory mask policy in place, while others were told it was voluntary; some participants were told the other person was wearing a face mask, while others were told the other person wasn’t. 

Regardless of whether the theoretical mandatory mask policy was in place, the researchers found that others who were wearing masks were perceived as more pro-social.

Food And Drug Administration headquarters on July 20, in White Oak, Maryland.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued more warning letters to three companies selling products claiming to prevent, treat or cure the deadly coronavirus.

Along with the Federal Trade Commission, the FDA warned the company Living Senior, LLC that cannabidiol products that it is selling on its website violate the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. 

The FDA said the products are misbranded drugs that can’t be sold in the US.

Some of the claims Living Senior made about its CBD products include that they “fight viral infections like the coronavirus” and that high doses “can have extremely beneficial effects on a population of people suffering influenza infection.”

“You should take immediate action to correct the violations cited in this letter,” the FDA said.

The agency also sent a warning letter to Predictive Biotech, Inc. for selling a product called CoreCyte, a substance derived from umbilical cords, that promises to prevent, treat or cure Covid-19.

The agency and the FTC also sent a warning letter to PA Green Wellness, LLC for selling CoreCyte as a prevention for Covid-19. 

There are no FDA-approved products to prevent, treat or cure Covid-19.

The United States reported 44,023 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University, bringing the country’s total confirmed infections to 5,573,847.

To date, at least 174,255 people have died in the US from coronavirus, with 1,078 new deaths reported on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins.

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

CNN’s map is tracking US cases:

A medical worker take samples from a police officer during the Covid-19 testing at a temporary test facility on August 19, in Seoul, South Korea.

South Korea recorded 315 new local cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, Vice Health Minister Kim Ganglip said today, marking the first time the country has identified more than 300 new daily cases since March 8.

The country has now seen new infections in the triple digits for eight consecutive days, with infections reported in every province except for Jeju island, according to the Health Ministry.

To date, 739 people related to the Sarang-jeil Church have tested positive as of Thursday evening, Kim said. The church has been at the center of the new outbreak in South Korea.

Using cellular network logs, the government said it had tracked down and instructed 15,000 people who visited a massive weekend rally against the government in Seoul on August 15 to get tested immediately.

Read more about the church cluster:

A health official wearing protective gear sprays disinfectant on the street near the Sarang Jeil Church, a new coronavirus infection cluster, in Seoul on August 18, 2020. - South Korea on August 18 ordered nightclubs, museums and buffet restaurants closed and banned large-scale gatherings in and around the capital as a burst of new coronavirus cases sparked fears of a major second wave. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP) (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article South Korea's latest church-linked coronavirus outbreak is turning into a battle over religious freedom

A medical worker in protective gear collects a nasal swab from an arrival passenger to test for Covid-19 at a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing site inside Narita Airport in Narita, Japan, on Sunday, July 19.

There have now been more than 60,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Japan, according to the country’s Health Ministry, after 1,190 new infections were recorded on Thursday.

Japan has recorded at least 23,600 Covid-19 cases since August 1, more than a third of its nationwide total since the pandemic began.

However, Shigeru Omi, chairman of a government advisory panel on Covid-19, said at a symposium on Thursday that the local epidemic was increasingly being brought under control.

But his remarks contrasted with those made by the president of the Japan Infectious Diseases Association, Kazuhiro Tateda, who said earlier this week that Japan is in the midst of a second wave and warned that the strain on the healthcare system needed to be minimized.

The national death toll currently stands at 1,168, after 11 more deaths from the virus were recorded Thursday, the Health Ministry said.

Medical personnel use a proning method on a Covid-19 patient in a serious infection disease unit created at DHR Health, in McAllen,Texas on July 29.

Early coronavirus models run by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed as many as 2.4 million Americans could be dead from the virus by October, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told the Journal of the American Medical Association Thursday.

So far, more than 174,000 people have died and more than 5.5 million have been infected in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Redfield, who estimated testing may have missed up to 90% of cases, said early models of the pandemic forecast millions of deaths.

Now, however, the CDC estimates that about 200,000 people will die by the end of the year, Redfield said – significantly fewer than the early models projected.

But this is a big loss of life, the CDC head said. “And this is why, you know, if there’s a message from us from a public health point of view, the most important thing we can do is do everything we can do to protect the vulnerable around us.”

While he’s sad about the thousands of Americans who have died, Redfield said he thinks the nation’s response to the pandemic has saved a lot of lives. “Every loss of life is tragic,” he said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looks on during a news conference at Parliament on August 21, in Wellington, New Zealand.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made a pointed comparison between New Zealand’s coronavirus situation and the epidemic in the United States today, two days after US President Donald Trump said the island nation had a “big outbreak.”

There were 11 new coronavirus cases reported in New Zealand on Friday, Ardern said, adding that the country has “one of the lowest death rates,” from the virus, especially compared to the US.

New Zealand is currently grappling with a reemergence of cases, which came shortly after the country went more than 100 days with no local transmissions.

Ardern’s comparison comes after Trump made comments disparaging New Zealand at a White House news conference on Wednesday.

Tracing an outbreak: Of the 11 new cases reported on Friday, nine were locally transmitted and two were imported from overseas, New Zealand’s Director-General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said.

He added that five of the local cases are linked to churches in South Auckland, and four are related to household contacts of previous cases. The new infections bring New Zealand’s total number of recorded cases to 1,315.

As of Friday, 88 of 89 active community cases have been traced back to a cluster identified in Auckland last week, while one case remains under investigation, Bloomfield said.

“We may not find all the answers for this cluster,” Ardern warned, adding that the origins of the outbreak were still under investigation by health officials. 

Some 15,714 coronavirus tests were conducted on Thursday, bringing the total number of tests taken in the country to 673,220, Bloomfield said.

Delivery drivers wearing face masks to protect against the coronavirus wait to cross an intersection in Beijing, on Wednesday, August 19.

Beijing residents going out in public won’t have to wear a mask from Thursday, according to new government guidelines, as long as they aren’t in close contact with other people.

The Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control released the new rules on Thursday, the latest sign that China’s coronavirus epidemic is under control.

China reported just 22 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours on Friday, with no new infections reported in Beijing.

Under the new rules, residents in the Chinese capital only have to wear masks if they are going to have “close contact with other people.”

Children should be accompanied by adults and encouraged to use proper hygiene, while spitting is not allowed.

EMS medics from the Houston Fire Department try to save the life of a nursing home resident in cardiac arrest on August 12, 2020 in Houston, Texas. Heart failure, especially in seniors, is a common result of Covid-19 and medics treat most such cases as if they are Covid-positive.

Coronavirus deaths should start dropping around parts of the United States by next week, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said Thursday, because people are doing more to control the virus by social distancing, staying out of crowds, wearing masks and washing hands.

But Redfield said not every region is improving. “There’s a warning sign … Middle America right now is getting stuck,” he said. “We don’t need to have a third wave in the heartland.”

States have to stick with the interventions meant to slow the spread of the virus, Redfield said. 

According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 5.5 million people in the US have been diagnosed with coronavirus and more than 174,000 have died, although Redfield has said testing has likely caught only about one in 10 cases.

Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), testifies during a US Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on July 2, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

As many as 60 million Americans could have been infected with coronavirus, Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield told the Journal of the American Medical Association Thursday.

The CDC released a report in June, published in JAMA, showing an infection rate in the United States of about 10%. Redfield said at the time he believed testing had missed 90% or more of cases. 

Redfield said Thursday an infection rate of between 10-20% translates into as many as 60 million people who may have already been infected, but there’s not really any good data on the numbers yet.

“We’re in the process of obviously following up with the report that we did in JAMA that kind of let us understand that maybe for the 2 million cases we diagnosed, we had an estimated 20 million people infected,” Redfield said in the video interview.

“We’ve now expanded that throughout the country, so very large surveillance work in progress,” he said.

Redfield said he didn’t want to speculate on the number of Americans who may actually be infected with the virus, but he did offer an estimate.

“I really want to be data driven but there is enormous geographic variation. I can tell you that we have some areas that we’re looking at less than 1% and we have other areas we’re looking at 20%,” he said.

Confirmed cases: As of Thursday night, at least 5,573,501 coronavirus cases have been recorded across the US, according to Johns Hopkins University. The total includes at least 174,248 deaths.

In mid-March, as the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold in Europe and the United States, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern presented her country with a choice.

They could let coronavirus creep into the community and brace for an onslaught, as other countries around the world had done. Or they could “go hard” by closing the border – even if that initially hurt the island nation’s hugely tourism-dependant economy.

Ardern opted for the second path. When New Zealand had only reported 28 cases, Ardern closed borders to foreigners, and when there were 102 cases, she announced a nationwide lockdown.

In effect, Ardern offered New Zealanders a deal: put up with some of the toughest rules in the world, and in return, be kept safe – first from the deadly coronavirus, and later, from potential economic devastation.

For a while, it seemed that deal had paid off. New Zealand spent seven weeks under lockdown, five of them under strict rules that meant even takeaway food and traveling outside of their immediate neighborhood were off limits. But by June, life was basically back to normal – and in August, New Zealand marked 100 days without any community transmission.

Then, last week, that changed.

Read the full analysis:

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?

US Vice President Mike Pence listens during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Iraq's prime minister, not pictured, at the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday, August 20.

The White House has formally declared that teachers are essential workers as part of its effort to encourage schools around the United States to reopen for in-person learning.

The move is just the latest in the administration’s campaign to pressure districts into bringing back students this fall. The essential worker designation provides guidance for educators that is only voluntary; it calls on teachers to return to the classroom even after potential exposure. 

Some context: US Vice President Mike Pence announced the decision to governors on a call earlier this week, a person familiar with the decision said.

Under Department of Homeland Security guidance issued this week, teachers are now considered “critical infrastructure workers,” and are subject to the same kinds of advisories as other workers who have born that label – such as doctors and law enforcement officers.

The guidance for essential workers states that they can continue to work even after exposure to a confirmed case of Covid-19, provided they remain asymptomatic. Schools’ contribution to community spread has already been a top concern for districts making the decision to open or close, so pushing teachers to continue working after potential exposure could prove controversial.

White House officials made the move in part to convey how seriously it believes the schools question should be taken, the person said, but also to try to stabilize the teaching workforce and streamline guidance at a time of confusion about the future of classrooms.

Another 1.1 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits on a seasonally adjusted basis last week, dashing economists’ hopes for a second-straight week with fewer than 1 million claims.

Economists were optimistic that the US jobs market would be on a steady trajectory toward recovery. But last week’s claims returned above 1 million after the previous week’s report was the first below 1 million since March, the Department of Labor reported Thursday 

Continued jobless claims, counting people who have filed claims for at least two weeks in a row, remain very high at 14.8 million.

Some context: After months of shocking economic data, these eye-watering big numbers might not seem as shocking anymore as they really are. But the road to recovery remains long and arduous. The Federal Reserve said in its July meeting minutes Wednesday that any rebound of the jobs market depends on a reopening and businesses, which in turn depends on the path of the virus and what we do to contain it.