November 10 coronavirus news

Utah, Illinois and Montana all broke records on Tuesday as cases in the United States top 10.2 million and deaths exceed 239,000.

Illinois reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases with 12,623 infections, plus 79 more deaths, its Department of Public Health said in a statement on Tuesday. 

It is the fifth state in the US to surpass 500,000 cumulative Covid-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 511,183 confirmed.

Utah hit record highs for its seven-day case average and test positivity percentage, according to its data dashboard. 

The state's new case average, which has been climbing since the start of October, hit 2,554. The percentage of positive tests hit 21.86% after climbing since October 11, where it had been holding steady at approximately 14%.

This weekend, Utah Governor Gary Herbert issued a declaration of a state of emergency and statewide mask mandate. Utah has reported 137,385 Covid-19 cases in total.

Montana announced 1,101 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday -- a record high for the state since the pandemic began, its data dashboard shows.

The state’s previous record daily record of 1,013 new cases was set on November 5, according to data from Johns Hopkins.

The Montana Department of Health said the state has had 41,151 Covid-19 cases and 462 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said he was concerned over the rise in Covid-19 cases heading into the holiday season, particularly in the southwest of the state.

Northam said the state positivity rate was 6.2%, with 1,435 new cases, while southwest Virginia was seeing 9% of tests coming back positive.

Northam said the state's Department of Health was focusing a communications campaign in that region to emphasize the importance of avoiding indoor gatherings, washing hands and adhering to Virginia’s face covering mandate.

He announced that Virginia has signed contracts with three labs to participate in the state’s new One Lab network -- a system that will allow the state to increase testing capacity by an extra 7,000 tests per day by the end of the year.

Northam said the Pfizer vaccine was good news but “not a magic bullet." 

Humans carried coronavirus onto mink farms in the Netherlands, starting a viral back and forth that ended up with 68% of fur farm workers and their associates infected, researchers reported Tuesday.

They said it was “imperative” that the fur trade should not fuel further spread of the virus into the human population, noting that densely packed conditions on such farms are ripe for amplifying the virus in ways that could help it mutate.

A team in the Netherlands ran whole genome analyses of virus samples taken from animals and people on 16 mink farms in the country -- looking at the full genetic sequence of the virus for clues about where it may have come from, how it spread and whether it was mutating.

“Despite enhanced biosecurity, early warning surveillance and immediate culling of infected farms, transmission occurred between mink farms in three big transmission clusters with unknown modes of transmission. Sixty-eight percent of the tested mink farm residents, employees and/or contacts had evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” they added.

People infected the animals, and the animals infected people, they found. The virus has not yet spread from the farms into the wider community and no troubling mutations have turned up so far, they added.

Danish authorities have seen spread on mink farms and mutations that are not necessarily harmful, but whose significance is not yet fully understood.

“It is imperative that fur production and trading sector should not become a reservoir for future spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to humans,” the Dutch researchers wrote.

Italy recorded its highest number of daily coronavirus deaths since April 14, with 580 fatalities reported Tuesday, according to the latest Italian Health Ministry data. That brings the country's death toll to 43,233.

It also recorded a further 35,098 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to nearly one million cases, with 995,463 positive infections since the pandemic began. 

The country has 2,971 coronavirus patients in intensive care -- an increase of 122 compared to the previous day. 

Hospitals at risk: Intensive care unit (ICU) capacity is one of the parameters the Italian Health Ministry considers when declaring regions "red zones" or "orange zones" -- meaning they face tighter restrictions. Hospitals should not exceed 30% of their ICU capacity.

President of the National Health Council Franco Locatelli said during a weekly Covid-19 update that two regions -- Lombardy and Umbria -- have surpassed the 30% threshold of ICU capacity and the regions of Tuscany and Valle d’Aosta are at 29% capacity.

Virologist Giorgio Palù of Padua University said in a TV interview on Tuesday that, as Europe's second wave continues and ICUs are pushed to their limits, anesthetists are required to make difficult choices.

The head of Italy's National Institute of Health Silvio Brusaferro, said on Tuesday that the transmission rate was "stable." Brusaferro said the epidemic curve was still growing but at a slower rate, as a result of the government's successful restrictive measures.

A federal appeals court on Monday denied Catholic and Jewish houses of worship’s request to halt the enforcement of New York State restrictions on gatherings due to the Covid-19 pandemic while it considered appeals cases related to the matter.  

Eight separate appeals were filed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who issued an executive order to limit the spread of the coronavirus, which has caused more than 25,000 deaths in the state. 

The Jewish and Catholic institutions challenged the order that limits non-essential gatherings based on the severity of the outbreak in each area.

“Red zone” rules:

The executive order allows houses of worship to hold services but only at 25% capacity, for a maximum of 10 people. The plaintiffs claim the executive order violates the “Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment,” the appeals court decision states. CNN has reached out to both sets of plaintiffs for comment.

The panel of judges denied the motion for an injunction while an appeal is pending in the case filed by Agudath Israel. The panel also denied the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn’s request for an injunction.

The ruling acknowledged that the executive order “burdens” the plaintiffs’ religious practices, but that the order has “greater or equal impact on schools, restaurants, and comparable secular public gatherings.” The panel said that the order treats the religious institutions “on par with or more favorably” than the secular gatherings.

The decision does not address the plaintiffs’ overall appeals cases -- only their requests to halt the restrictions while the appeals cases are considered. Arguments in the cases may be heard as early as the week of December 14, according to the ruling. 

The National Football League and NFL Players Association report 15 players have tested positive for Covid-19 during the latest round of league-wide testing.

The previous testing window reported just eight players testing positive for the virus. There was also a significant increase in coronavirus cases among team staff members with 41 positive tests -- up from 17 during the previous monitoring period. 

The background: The NFL’s latest monitoring window ran from November 1-7 with 42,978 tests administered to 7,922 players and personnel. Since testing began on August 1, a total of 78 players and 140 personnel have tested positive for the virus. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that the government is providing $61 million to support First Nations' efforts to fight Covid-19 in Manitoba as the country faces “a resurgence” of infection.

The Manitoba First Nations funding “will support public health measures, food security, and other surge-capacity needs,” Trudeau said.

He called on provincial and territorial governments to take steps to limit the spread, including shutdowns of businesses. 

Trudeau added that he had spoken by phone with US President-Elect Joe Biden on Monday, and that the two had talked primarily about Covid-19.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds told reporters Tuesday that capacity was "at risk" in the state's healthcare system following a surge in Covid-19 cases. 

Reynolds said there have been more than 21,000 new cases in the past week and the percentage of people testing positive is more than 19%, with 1,131 patients in hospital. 

While there are surge plans in place and there are still beds available, the governor said staffing had become "increasingly challenging." 

She said 42% of new cases were among 14 to 18-year-olds.  

Reynolds said she had signed a proclamation, which goes into effect Tuesday at midnight, extending the public health emergency for 30 days and imposing new restrictions.

The restrictions:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that he hopes US President Trump is not planning to fire him.

Trump recently suggested that he might fire Fauci after the election. Asked by MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell whether he is concerned that the President may pressure the National Institutes of Health director to fire him, Fauci said, “I hope not.”

He said that would not help with the common goal: “No matter who you are, regardless of what administration, we all want this pandemic to end.”

He said he attended a “good meeting” of the White House coronavirus task force on Monday and was now “focusing like a laser beam on the job I have of ending this epidemic and really preserving the health and the welfare of the American public.”

He said the Pfizer vaccine, along with continued public health measures, has the potential to end the pandemic.

If the vaccine is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, Fauci said he believes doses will be available for “highest priority” people by December. 

He said he hoped that a vaccine will be given to everyone who wants and needs it “after a reasonable period of time.”

Fauci said that “a vaccine that has this potential, this together with the continuation of the public health measures, really should get us out of this very difficult situation we're into.”

He said he trusted Pfizer and the FDA to make the right decision.

Fauci said Eli Lilly's antibody treatment was an “important first step in the development and distribution of interventions that are given early in the course of disease.”

“We need more of those interventions that prevent people from going in the hospital,” Fauci added.