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COVID-19 widespread testing is crucial to fighting the pandemic, but is there enough testing? The answer is in the positivity rates.
USA TODAY
After U.S. health officials warned Americans to continue social distancing and wearing masks on Labor Day weekend, the United States may report its 190,000th death from the new coronavirus on Tuesday or Wednesday.
In sports news, the American men are out at the U.S. Open after Frances Tiafoe, who had tested positive for COVID-19 in July, lost Monday to No. 4 Daniil Medvedev of Russia. The next Grand Slam event, the French Open, which begins later this month, will allow spectators, organizers announced Monday.
Meanwhile, we don’t know when a COVID-19 vaccine will arrive, but we’re starting to know how it will be distributed.
The swift —and so far positive — effort to create vaccines to fight COVID-19 has been remarkable, but it’s only half of the work, said Tinglong Dai, a professor of operations management who studies health care analytics at the Johns Hopkins University. Dai expects the vaccine supply chain to be “mind-bogglingly complex.”
Mapping coronavirus: Tracking the U.S. outbreak, state by state
Some significant developments:
- Nine companies developing COVID-19 vaccines issued a letter Tuesday pledging to fully vet their candidate vaccines before asking for FDA approval to market them. Industry officials are worried that the political climate is tarnishing the process and will make people more hesitant to get a vaccine when there is one.
- Senate Republicans plan to introduce a new coronavirus relief bill Tuesday and a procedural vote could come as early as this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
- A USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Monday shows two states set records for new cases in a week: North Dakota and West Virginia.
- President Trump asked a Reuters journalist to remove his face mask while asking a question during a news conference Monday at the White House.
- Spectators will be allowed at the French Open this month despite the growing number of coronavirus cases in the country, organizers said on Monday.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has 6.3 million confirmed cases and more than 189,200 deaths. Globally, there are more than 27.3 million cases and more than 893,000 fatalities.
📰 What we’re reading: As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, there have been many questions about what – or even where – the workplace will be in the future. For the next year or so, however, it seems likely that work is going to be pretty similar to what we’ve been experiencing.
This file will be updated throughout the day. For updates in your inbox, subscribe to The Daily Briefing newsletter.
part the CARES Act, passed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there were issues with the roll out as many families reported they never received a check and more than a million dead people did.
fraternity member at West Virginia University went to a party while knowingly infected with COVID-19, the university has suspended in-person classes for two weeks as positive cases among students continue to climb.
The university said its in-person classes will be held online through Sept. 25 “in direct response to a recent increase in positive COVID-19 cases in students on the Morgantown campus, as well as concern for the probability of increased cases that may arise following several reports of parties held this holiday weekend where groups should have been in quarantine.”
The university said in a news release that a member of the Theta Chi fraternity tested positive and was notified to isolate but attended a party at the fraternity house on Friday. The entire fraternity house had also been told to quarantine or isolate.
“We know that these parties act as super spreaders,” Dean of Students Corey Farris said in announcing the suspensions of 29 fraternity members. Almost 150 students on campus tested positive for the virus last week.
More news on COVID-19 at colleges and universities:
- Salisbury University in Maryland has temporarily suspended 21 students for possible violations of COVID-19 policies.
pledging to fully vet their COVID-19 candidate vaccines before asking for federal approval to market them.
The statement comes amid increasing concern among public health officials, scientists and doctors that the White House might bring significant political pressure to bear on the Food and Drug Administration to get a vaccine before the Nov. 3 presidential election.
All nine companies are individually or jointly developing a candidate COVID-19 vaccine supported at least in part with federal dollars, which so far amounts to more than $10 billion. They are: AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna Inc., Novavax Inc., Merck, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer Inc, which is developing a vaccine with BioNTech, another signatory.
– Karen Weintraub and Elizabeth Weise
Emergency actions against doctors’ licenses dropped 59% from April through June of this year compared with the same period last year. In April alone, emergency license suspensions and restrictions dropped 85%, according to federal data.
The drop in emergency license suspensions worries patient safety advocates because many hospitals still have compromised and vulnerable patients. That makes errors and complications more likely and dangerous.
“It’s a perfect storm: A doctor shortage, doctors are strained by the stress of the pandemic, and sicker patients,” said Dr. David Sherer, a retired anesthesiologist and author of the book “Hospital Survival Guide.” Read more here.
– Jayne O’Donnell
asked a Reuters journalist to remove his face mask while asking a question during a news conference Monday at the White House. Trump told Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason “you’re going to have to take that off,” after he asked a question the president couldn’t hear clearly.
“If you don’t take it off, you are very muffled,” Trump said. “So, if you would take it off, it would be a lot easier.”
Mason said he would speak louder instead of removing the mask, and after Trump said he sounded better, he repeated his question.
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President Trump asked a Reuters journalist to remove his face mask while asking a question during a news conference at the White House.
USA TODAY
are reopening their doors this fall, but the first day of class looks a little different this year, leaving some kids and guardians feeling anxious.
Minors account for about 8% of all cases in the U.S., and most have mild symptoms and fully recover within one to two weeks – quicker than most adults. However, a small percentage of children have been reported to have more severe illness, and researchers are still learning more about the role children play in asymptomatic spread of the disease.
To keep kids, families and staff safe, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that child care programs implement an array of new safety measures amid the pandemic, such as reducing class sizes, intensifying cleaning protocols, taking children’s temperatures each morning, requiring kids and staff to wear face masks, staggering drop-off and pick-up times, spreading nap mats out six feet apart, ending family-style mealtimes and more. Many states and counties have additional guidance.
– Grace Hauck
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Coronavirus Watch, to receive daily updates in your feed and chat with others in the community about COVID-19.
Contributing: The Associated Press.
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