October 27 coronavirus news

By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Ivana Kottasová, Ed Upright, Melissa Macaya and Meg Wagner, CNN

Updated 2:23 a.m. ET, October 28, 2020
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7:12 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020

Record number of Covid-19 cases reported worldwide in past week at 2.8 million, WHO says

From CNN's Shelby Lin Erdman

Health ministry staff collect sample for coronavirus testing from a resident at an urban area in Bandar Utama, outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, October 22.
Health ministry staff collect sample for coronavirus testing from a resident at an urban area in Bandar Utama, outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, October 22. Vincent Thian/AP

Almost 3 million cases of coronavirus have been reported worldwide in the past seven days, a global record, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday.

It’s the shortest exponential increase in case numbers since the start of the pandemic, WHO officials said in a news release, but the number of new deaths is comparable to previous weeks.

More than 42 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported globally as of Oct. 25 and 1.1 million deaths, the health agency said, with 2.8 million new cases and 40,000 new deaths in the past week. 

Europe is reporting the highest number of new cases for the second week in a row at more than 1.3 million – an increase of 33% compared to the previous week, WHO said, and contributing to 46%, or nearly half, of all new cases globally this week.

“Similarly, the number of deaths continues to increase in the region with a 35% increase from last week and accounting for nearly one third of all new deaths globally,” the agency reported.

Cases are also increasing in the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean and African regions.

“Despite regional variations, the countries reporting the highest number of cases in the past week remain the same as the previous three weeks: India, the United States of America, France, Brazil and the United Kingdom,” WHO officials said.

The US, Brazil and Argentina are still reporting the highest number of new regional cases of Covid-19 and new deaths at 78% and 67%, respectively.

In the US, the numbers are spiking since Sept. 7 when the country had recorded 240,000 new cases that week to more than 400,000 new cases in the past week.

“Cases are now approaching the previous epidemic peak in July,” WHO said.

The US is also seeing 1,318 new cases per million population, but that’s lower than several European countries such as the United Kingdom with 2,200 cases per million and France with 3,300 per million. 

The death toll in the US has surpassed 225,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

5:20 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020

Macron will announce new Covid-19 restrictions tomorrow

From Barbara Wojazer in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron on October 20, 2020. 
French President Emmanuel Macron on October 20, 2020.  Ludovic Marin/POOL/AFP/Getty Images

French President Emmanuel Macron will announce new measures on Wednesday to fight the spread of coronavirus in the country, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said.

On Tuesday, France saw its highest death toll since April with 523 deaths, according to numbers released by the national health agency. 

“We need to take measures given the severity of the crisis,” he said following a meeting between French Prime Minister Jean Castex and political representatives about the pandemic.

France recorded at least 33,417 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, according to numbers released by the health agency.

4:43 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020

Covid-19 outbreak among university soccer players tied to social gatherings, CDC says

From CNN's Jacqueline Howard

An outbreak of Covid-19 among men's and women's soccer teams at one university in Chicago can be traced back to birthday parties and other social gatherings, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Although the players had been drilled about using masks and keeping their distance at practice, they appeared to forget everything when they got together with friends, researchers reported on Tuesday. The students made minimal use of masks and social distancing at a birthday party, dorm or apartment visit and casual co-ed soccer match – and that most likely contributed to transmission of the coronavirus.

The report includes the results of an investigation into that cluster of Covid-19 cases among the soccer teams, which was reported to the Chicago Department of Public Health in August. 

That month, a member of the men's soccer team first reported Covid-19 symptoms. He said that he had attended the birthday party and soccer match in the preceding 14 days, according to the report. In the days following the start of his symptoms, 17 players total tested positive for Covid-19 among 45 across both the men's and women's teams. 

In addition to the co-ed soccer match, the report includes 18 social gatherings during the investigation period, such as the birthday party and visits to friends' dormitories or apartments.

"All 17 students with Covid-19 attended at least one gathering," wrote the research team from the CDC, the Chicago Department of Public Health and the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

"University protocols mandated mask use during training sessions, and coaching staff members reported universal compliance," the researchers wrote. "However, multiple students reported inconsistent mask use and social distancing at social gatherings, which quickly negated the benefits of pretraining testing, on-campus mask use, and social distancing prevention measures."

Colleges and universities may need to "consider conducting periodic repeat testing of asymptomatic students" to identify Covid-19 outbreaks.

2:54 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020

More than 226,000 people have died from coronavirus in the US

There have been at least 8,740,824 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 226,211 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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

So far today, Johns Hopkins has reported 38,074 new cases and 505 reported deaths. 

2:09 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020

Catch up: Here are the latest coronavirus updates from the Northeast

Coronavirus cases are surging around the US, including in parts of the Northeast.

Here are some of the top headlines from the region so far today:

  • Increases across Vermont: Vermont health officials said last week the state had a Covid-19 case in “every single one of Vermont’s 14 counties.” Officials also reported a growing number of schools being impacted, including a recent outbreak at Saint Michael’s College with 26 active positive cases and 137 students who have been identified as contacts and are now in quarantine.
  • Spiking cases in young people in Massachusetts: Gov. Charlie Baker told reporters Tuesday that the Department of Health reported 1,216 new cases of Covid-19 and 550 hospitalizations from Monday. The state is seeing a decrease in the number of cases of individuals above 60 — "the most vulnerable," he said — and a spike in cases among people under 30. Baker said around 300 people per day in the younger age group are testing positive for Covid-19. 
  • A warning from NYC's mayor: In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio asked residents to remain in the city for the upcoming holidays and refrain from traveling. He said this is a recommendation based on health care leadership. “Do not travel out of state for the holidays. Do not travel to a state with a high infection rate. Do not travel to a country with a high infection rate,” the mayor said Tuesday.
  • No new restrictions in Philadelphia — yet: Philadelphia will not be imposing new restrictions amid the pandemic Tuesday, but officials are considering a “range of options.” Dr. Thomas Farley, the city's health commissioner, said the city is entering a “difficult and dangerous” period of the pandemic. “With the rising case rates, we are looking at a variety of restrictions,” he later said. No decisions have been made, he said.

Here's a look at where coronavirus cases are rising across the US:

1:59 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020

Coronavirus cases are truly up and it's not just because of more testing, Trump's testing czar says

From CNN's Naomi Thomas

Assistant HHS Secretary for Health Brett Giroir testifying during a US Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on September 23, 2020. 
Assistant HHS Secretary for Health Brett Giroir testifying during a US Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on September 23, 2020.  Graeme Jennings/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Coronavirus cases are truly up across the US and it’s not just because of more testing Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Tuesday – directly contradicting President Trump.

“Testing may be identifying some more cases, I think that’s clearly true, but what we’re seeing is a real increase in the numbers,” Giroir said during a Washington Post live event on Tuesday.

In March and April, probably only one out of 10 or 15 cases were being detected, he said. Today can’t really be compared to that time period, “but compared to the post Memorial Day surge, even though testing is up, this is a real increase in cases,” he said.

Giroir said case numbers are up and also hospitalizations are also going up.

He said hospitals are filling up and coming under stress in some parts of the country, but the number of people in the hospital with coronavirus is still lower than it was in July.

“We really have a mixed picture, but we are tenuous now. We really have to re-engage the public health measures that we know work, or those hospitalizations can go up substantially,” Giroir said. 

One good thing is that a lot more young people are getting the virus compared to older people, which is one reason why hospitalizations are shorter, Giroir said. Also, there are some effective therapies.

12:27 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020

This teen contracted Covid-19 in March and is yet to fully recover

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

Thirteen-year-old Maggie Flannery contracted Covid-19 in March but she still hasn’t recovered.

“At the beginning of the quarantine, I was sick for a little while. And then I got better for about five days and then I went down again,” she told CNN. “It was a lot worse the second time. The second time I had a lot of chest pain, it felt like it was hard to breathe. I had a lot of back pain and I was extremely tired all the time and I was very light headed. I was really nauseous and didn't want to eat.”

Flannery is a "long-hauler." These are Covid-19 patients who experience symptoms of the virus for weeks or months despite having virologically recovered. They have fatigue, myalgia, fever and cognitive abnormalities such as the inability to concentrate, the nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told a Senate committee in September.

More than 657,000 children and teens across the United States have tested positive for the virus as of October 1, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association. And this figure is likely underreported because it relied on state data that is inconsistently collected.

Despite her symptoms, doctors kept telling Flannery she was healthy, her mother Amy Wilson said.

“I had to be okay with the fact that this was a novel coronavirus,” she told CNN. “It was frustrating but at the same time, I knew there was no way for these specialists to understand what long Covid was when we were all figuring it out at the same time.”

To others who may be battling the virus, Flannery advised:

“At a certain point, it feels like you aren't going to get better. I kind of lost hope that I was going to get better. But I've gotten better and I'm almost completely done with it. So just keep pushing through it.”

Watch:

10:57 a.m. ET, October 27, 2020

NYC mayor asks people not to travel during the holidays

From CNN's Melanie Schuman

A man looks out at the Manhattan skyline in a Brooklyn neighborhood on September 29, 2020 in New York City. 
A man looks out at the Manhattan skyline in a Brooklyn neighborhood on September 29, 2020 in New York City.  Spencer Platt/Getty Images

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is asking residents to refrain from traveling during the upcoming holiday season, saying "it's not business as usual."

He said this is a recommendations based on health care leadership.

“Do not travel out of state for the holidays. Do not travel to a state with a high infection rate. Do not travel to a country with a high infection rate,” the mayor said Tuesday.

For those who do travel, the mayor encouraged people get tested and follow the 14-day quarantine required upon return.

Mayor de Blasio also asked the federal government to mandate anyone getting on an airplane for an international or domestic flight receive a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours prior.

The latest numbers: The mayor said there were 60 patients admitted to hospitals with suspected cases of Covid-19 which is under the threshold of 200. However, the percentage of those confirmed positive is 21.6% which means nearly a quarter of those admitted were positive for the virus.

The number of new cases reported on a seven-day average is 528 which is only slightly under the 550 threshold.

While hospitalizations and deaths remain low, de Blasio asked everyone to remain vigilant as the holidays approach.

Note: These numbers were released by the city’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

10:28 a.m. ET, October 27, 2020

Is it safe to fly this holiday season? Here's what some scientists are saying.

From Pete Muntean and Gregory Wallace

A sign reminds travelers to wear face coverings displayed at an American Airlines Group Inc. boarding gate at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. 
A sign reminds travelers to wear face coverings displayed at an American Airlines Group Inc. boarding gate at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020.  Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Experts are giving mixed messages about the Covid-19 risks of air travel as Americans consider their Thanksgiving holiday plans.  

A Harvard University study released Tuesday modeled the airflow in airliners and say the specialized onboard ventilation systems filter out 99% of airborne viruses. 

The team of scientists concluded that a “layered approach, with ventilation gate-to-gate, reduces the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission onboard aircraft below that of other routine activities during the pandemic, such as grocery shopping or eating out.”  

A contract tracing study released by Irish researchers linked 13 cases to a single passenger on a seven-hour international flight this summer where fewer than one in five seats were filled. Some passengers may not have been wearing masks.

The researchers conclude that some of the spread must have occurred on the plane because some of the passengers “had no social or airport lounge link with Groups 1 or 2 pre-flight and were not seated within two rows of them.” 

The Harvard researchers described wearing masks as a critical part of keeping travelers safe in aircraft cabins, but stopped short of calling for a government mask mandate onboard flights. But with people bunching up in jetways, aisles, and airports – where ventilation systems may not be as efficient as those on aircraft, they say more research needs to be done.

The Harvard findings mirror those from recent studies from The Department of Defense, Boeing, and Airbus as airlines are struggle to bring domestic passenger traffic above 40 percent of last year's levels.

Last week, Southwest Airlines cited the earlier studies as the reason to resume the sale of every seat on its flights starting December 1.