November 17 coronavirus news

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced a statewide curfew today to help combat the spread of Covid-19 in the state.  

Starting Thursday, the curfew will be in effect from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and will last for 21 days. It includes closing all retail establishments and asking everyone to be home by 10 p.m.

Hospitalizations throughout the state have increased over the past month.

The governor went on to describe the increase, saying that 1,000 people were hospitalized with the virus on Oct. 13. That number increased to 3,000 by Nov. 12. He said the number of hospitalizations now stands at 3,648. 

The number of patients in intensive care units also increased in the past month from 280 to 900, DeWine said. 

The Ohio Department of Health has reported a total of 312,443 coronavirus cases since March.  

Note: These numbers were released by the state’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.

Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer defended North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and said he doesn't have any regrets about his home state not acting sooner to institute mask mandates, adding that "North Dakotans are free people who love freedom."

North Dakota remains the state with the most cases per 100,000 population, followed by South Dakota, according to recent state reports from the White House coronavirus task force. 

On Friday, Burgum announced a new measure requiring face coverings in indoor businesses and indoor public settings as well as outdoor public settings where physical distancing isn't possible.

Asked Tuesday if he has regrets this wasn't done earlier, Cramer said, "No, no."

He stressed that his concern lies mostly with the economy and the effect that new restrictions might have on North Dakotans' livelihoods.  

"I am hearing from dozens and dozens of restaurant owners, motel, hotel owners that are very concerned about their survival. So, that's as big, if not a bigger concern for me, is the loss of jobs, the loss of businesses and small businesses and loss of an economy that's going to be hard to rebuild if we don't reopen it in an appropriate manner," Cramer said.

Phoenix, Arizona, Mayor Kate Gallego has asked Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to issue a statewide mask mandate, she tweeted today. 

Arizona is one of an ever-shrinking number of states without a statewide mask mandate. Ducey, however, has allowed individual communities to mandate mask wear. Scottsdale was the first to make masks mandatory starting on June 19. Other major municipalities with requirements include Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff.

Arizona, like almost every other state in the country, has seen a rise in Covid-19 cases in the last few weeks. The state has reported more than 2,000 new Covid-19 cases on seven different days in the last two weeks, the state’s Covid-19 dashboard showed.

The last time Arizona reported more than 3,000 new Covid-19 cases was July 31 and the highest ever daily new case count was 4,877 set on July 1.

Arizona has reported at least 279,896 cases of Covid-19 and 6,312 deaths since the pandemic began.

Vaccines do not work unless enough people get them, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday. 

Vaccine uptake will determine whether the country is free of the pandemic by next fall. 

“Whenever you talk about vaccines, there are two elements of it,” Fauci said during a New York Times DealBook virtual seminar.  

There is a challenge ahead, he said, due to hesitancy around getting vaccinated. Outreach needs to be done to make sure that the overwhelming majority of Americans get vaccinated, Fauci said, “because if we have an effective vaccine and 50% of the people don’t take it, you still have a considerable public health challenge.” 

It takes “a blanket of protection” to stop an outbreak, Fauci said. “So, you’re asking me what things are going to be like in the fall, I can tell you, that really depends on whether or not we get the majority of the people, the overwhelming majority of the people, vaccinated.” 

And a vaccine won’t mean an end to other measures, such as hand-washing, mask use and social distancing. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell doubled down on his remarks that the economy as we know it is over during a virtual appearance at the At the Bay Area Council Business Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony.

He also reiterated that people in lower-income jobs, and specific industries hadn’t recovered as much as others and that workers in the services industry might need more help going forward.

"The recovery is incomplete,” he said, warning of near-term risks surrounding the resurgence of Covid-19 infections. “We have a long way to go.”

Meanwhile, Powell said it wasn’t the right time to worry about the fiscal health of the United States. Rather, that should be an issue to address when unemployment is low and taxes are rolling in. “That’s the time to really focus,” he said.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday that hospitalizations have more than doubled since Nov. 1.

There are 1,510 people in the hospital with Covid-19, she said during a news conference. At the start of the month 14% of patients had Covid-19. Today, that number is 28%.  

Reynolds said hospitalizations have been climbing over the past two weeks "and in some cases have been significant." 

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 2,003 new cases of Covid-19 and a 17.1% positivity rate Tuesday, according to the Covid-19 dashboard. At least 2,025 people have died from the virus since the state began its reporting.  

An aide to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley won’t say who the person is that exposed the senator to Covid-19.  

The aide also said people who have been in contact with the senator have been “appropriately notified” about the potential exposure. 

Here's a statement from Grassley aide Michael Zona:

Earlier today, the Iowa GOP senator announced in a statement that he had been exposed to Covid-19 and was quarantining.

The White House coronavirus task force has again ramped up its warnings to states in a weekly report as the pandemic continues to aggressively worsen, raising alarms on the potential impact of rising cases on hospitals. 

The language in the weekly reports, which offer the administration’s most unvarnished picture of the pandemic, has become progressively more dire in recent weeks, matching the severity of the current situation as the President himself remains silent on rising cases, focusing instead on positive vaccine developments in his only public event on the matter in a month last Friday. 

North Dakota remains the state with the most cases per 100,000 population, followed by South Dakota, then Iowa, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, and Montana. Hawaii is the state with the fewest cases per 100,000 population. 

This week’s reports also included a comparison to Europe, which is experiencing, per the task force, “a fall surge similar to the USA.” Europe, however, is “showing early signs of improvement,” the reports said, citing mask requirements in public settings, with most European countries imposing fines for non-compliance, as well as “significant restrictions on gathering size.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR’s Rachel Martin on Morning Edition Tuesday that his Thanksgiving is going to change significantly this year.

His three adult daughters, who live in separate parts of the country, got together and said that they did not want to put him, as an elderly person, at risk. Fauci is 79 years old. 

He and his wife will have a meal and Zoom with his daughters to spend time with them.

“I don’t like it that way, but I think they’re making a prudent decision in trying to protect their father and I’m proud of them for that,” he said.