Covid-19 News: Live Updates – The New York Times

The US hits seven million cases, with California leading the way.

According to a New York Times database, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US exceeded seven million on Thursday, despite the country seeing fewer new daily cases than it did during the pandemic's midsummer peak.

The nation has recorded an average of at least 41,000 new cases per day for the past week, compared to a daily average of about 65,000 cases in July.

In California, officials recorded their 800,000th case since the pandemic began on Thursday. This is more than any other state, but the number is cumulative and does not reflect the state's current state.

With California health officials testing enough of the population to contain the spread of the virus, the state is reporting a relatively small number of new cases each day, according to the Times database.

In a broader sense, California, the largest state in the country, has significantly fewer virus cases per capita than other states like Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. California currently ranks 36th among states and territories in known new cases per capita for the past seven days and 26th in total known cases per capita since the pandemic began.

Less than a month ago, the United States hit six million cases on August 30. It had taken the country more than three months to register its first million.

The story of how California led the country in the total number of cases dates back to the spring and summer months when new cases emerged in the Sun Belt states. New cases in California peaked in late July when the seven-day average doubled from the previous month.

It was a far cry from the beginning of the pandemic when most of the virus cases occurred in the northeast and Washington state, and California emerged as a national role model when it became the first state to issue a stay at home.

But the number of cases there began to rise when that order was lifted.

Like health officials in many Sun Belt states, California authorities attributed the surge to premature relaxation of restrictions. In early July, when the number of virus-related hospitalizations in California rose more than 50 percent in two weeks, Governor Gavin Newsom halted reopening plans and ordered bars and restaurants to close to most residents.

Californian spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi and top Democrats on Thursday pushed ahead with the development of a roughly $ 2.4 trillion stimulus package, which was before American families, restaurants and airlines under growing pressure from moderates calling for additional measures Legislature is leaving Washington next week to provide pandemic aid to fight for re-election.

The move to unveil a new package was the first sign of movement in the negotiations between the Democrats and the White House, which have stalled since early August, and it came when Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, said he and wife Pelosi would have agreed to revive those talks. However, it was far from clear that the move the Democrats had in mind, costing about $ 1 trillion more than the Trump administration signaled it could accept, would result in a deal.

Ms. Pelosi privately told top Democrats that the House could vote anyway, which would allow fearful Democrats, who had been quietly looking for further stimulus measures, to at least register their support for additional relief. Earlier in the week she directed lawmakers to start work, a move Politico had previously reported on.

"We're still looking for an agreement," Ms. Pelosi told top Democrats, a person familiar with the remarks they disclosed on condition of anonymity, in a private meeting Thursday. "If necessary, we can formalize the application by voting on it on the floor of the house."

The proposed measure is much smaller than the US $ 3.4 trillion package approved by the House in May. However, it is expected to contain some of the same items as well as additional funding for needs that Ms. Pelosi says have arisen in recent months.

The annual Carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro will be delayed for the first time in more than a century next year due to coronavirus concerns, the Brazilian news media reported Thursday.

During a typical carnival, which takes place in the height of summer in the southern hemisphere, wild street parties and performances paralyze the city of six million people.

But that could now be an epidemiologist's nightmare in a country where more than 4.5 million cases and nearly 140,000 deaths have been reported, and whose president Jair Bolsonaro announced in July that he had tested positive.

According to a New York Times database, Rio de Janeiro alone has reported more than 250,000 cases, including more than 11,000 in the past week.

The event's main organizer, Rio's League of Samba Schools, said Thursday that due to the February pandemic, the parade could not take place safely as planned, O Globo newspaper reported. The league said it is reviewing other data.

"We'll have to wait the next few months to define whether or not there will be a vaccine and when there will be a vaccination," League president Jorge Castanheira told reporters Thursday, according to The Associated Press. "We don't have the security to set an appointment."

It was unclear whether the street parties that normally take place alongside the official parade would still take place.

The carnival was last postponed in 1912 after the death of the Brazilian Foreign Minister, The A.P. reported, but the revelers were still partying on the streets.

In other international news:

• The Hong Kong Police on Friday banned a pro-democracy march scheduled for Thursday, China's national holiday, an annual event, and spearheaded the pandemic and disruption to previous protests. The civil human rights front, the organizer of the march, said it would appeal the decision. In a letter shared by the organizers, police cited the government's ban on public gatherings of more than four people, a rule that was extended through Thursday, as one of the reasons for banning the protest.

• South Korea announced new social distancing guidelines on Friday as millions of people prepared to travel to their hometown during one of the country's biggest holidays. Chuseok Holiday runs from Wednesday through October 4, and presents a new challenge for health officials struggling to contain infection. From Monday onwards, no community celebrations with more than 50 people indoors and more than 100 people outdoors can be held in the villages. Facilities for entertainment, including drinking, will be closed in provincial cities.

• The regional government in Spain's capital Madrid, added eight areas to the partial lock that went into effect this week. Spain has fought a virus resurgence, and Friday's addition will extend restrictions to approximately one million of the 850,000 people who live in the 37 originally designated areas.

• Ireland Prime Minister announced new restrictions in County Donegal, a region where virus cases have increased "worryingly". As of Friday, residents will be encouraged not to travel outside the area. Eating indoors is prohibited in restaurants and bars.

• London will be made a "problem area" and will be added to the UK Government's watchlist for hotspots that may soon be subject to local lockdown. In response to the news, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement that the city was at a "very worrying turning point", urging residents to follow health guidelines and urging the government to reduce testing capacity to increase.

• Japan will reopen its borders to foreign visitors with new long-term visas, including students but not tourists, from next month, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Friday. In a major relaxation of border restrictions introduced in April, the country will allow up to 1,000 visitors a day, according to local news reports.

• Traces of the virus were found on products and environmental samples from an importer of frozen seafood in the city of Qingdao in the east ChinaHealth officials said after it was discovered Thursday that two dock workers were infected.

• North KoreaThe leader, Kim Jong-un, rarely apologized on Friday for the murder of a South Korean fisheries officer who, according to South Korean officials, was shot dead by soldiers from the north at sea. Officials said the soldiers poured oil on the man's body and set him on fire for fear he might carry the coronavirus – a claim North Korea denied.

• Participation in the French Open The tennis tournament, which starts on Sunday, will be limited to 1,000 spectators per day as part of tightened restrictions in France, where an average of almost 12,000 new virus cases per day were recorded over the past week.

• A legislator in Argentina has resigned after being seen stroking his wife's chest during a virtual session of the lower house of the country's Congress, causing a frenzy on social media. In an interview on Thursday, lawmaker Juan Emilio Ameri said his internet connection was cut prior to the incident and that he didn't notice when it was resumed.

A federal judge bans an early end to the U.S. census, which has been delayed by months by the pandemic.

A federal judge on Friday banned the Trump administration from ending the 2020 census a month early. This was the latest turn in years of political and legal warfare over a controversial population that was delayed by months due to the pandemic.

At the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Lucy H. Koh issued an injunction preventing the government from resolving the census until September 30, one month prior to the scheduled October 31 completion date, on the transmission of the full population data to the White House on December 31st instead of the previously scheduled delivery date of April 2021.

The verdict came after evidence filed this week showed that high-level officials at the Census Bureau believed that ending staff numbers prematurely would seriously jeopardize accuracy.

In a July email, Census Director Timothy P. Olson Jr. called it "ridiculous" to believe that a restricted population would succeed. A second internal document, drafted in late July, stated that an abbreviated census would have "fatal data deficiencies that are unacceptable for a constitutionally mandated national activity".

The Trump administration had argued that it had to end the census early in order to begin processing population data from state to state, otherwise the legal deadline for submitting population figures to President Trump on December 31 would be missed.

In a 78-page statement, Judge Koh said documents from the internal trade division and the Census Bureau showed that both agencies knew the earlier deadlines could not be met without a high risk of population erroneous. They also knew the pandemic legally justified them missing the December deadline for submitting data to the president, she wrote.

The commercial division that oversees the Census Bureau did not immediately respond to the ruling.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin urged elderly people to stay home and businesses to remotely switch to remote working, as the remotest sign that the authorities are cautious given the rising number of cases in the city.

The mayor also noted doctors' concerns that the flu could coincide with the pandemic and risk more lives, warning that a full lockdown could follow if people don't take orders seriously.

"We all really don't want to go back to the harsh pressures of this spring," said Sobyanin.

The order for a partial lockdown was in contradiction to the proposals made by President Vladimir V. Putin that Russia has the virus largely under control and a vaccine is available. However, Mr Putin warned of rising cases on Thursday.

Reported cases in the Russian capital have increased after peaking at a few hundred a day in the summer. Moscow reported 1,560 new cases on Friday. Last week, Moscow hospitals reported a 30 percent increase in virus patients, Sobyanin said.

The surge in Russian cases has been seen despite the country becoming the first country to register an emergency vaccine last month. High-risk people, like doctors and teachers, can legally take the vaccine outside of a clinical trial, but few have. As of Friday, 126 health care workers in Moscow had taken the vaccine, which is not enough to slow the spread of the virus in a city of 13 million people.

Russia has recorded at least 1.1 million cases of the virus, the fourth highest number in the world after the US, India and Brazil.

Can New York Schools Implement Their Ambitious Hybrid Lesson Plan?

Over the summer, the Mayor of New York City and his staff decided on a logical solution to the mystery of how to reopen schools with less crowded buildings during the pandemic. They decided that students would cycle in and out of the classrooms and study remotely the rest of the time.

However, the implementation of this so-called hybrid system has proven to be a logistical morass.

The city is still having to hire thousands of teachers to receive online and one-to-one tuition and the staffing crisis forced Mayor Bill de Blasio to postpone the start of one-to-one tuition for a second time last week.

A web of restrictions, partly enforced by the teachers' union, has essentially forced school leaders to create two school versions: one in-person and one online. This has led to short-term planning changes that have frustrated the parents.

Now the city's 1,700 school principals are trying to create their limited staffing levels for children in elementary, middle and high school. Previously, only pre-K students and children with advanced disabilities were allowed to return to the classroom.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, a national teachers union, said the assignment was "the toughest logistical challenge in most administrators' careers."

With coronavirus cases skyrocketing in Myanmar and most of the largest city under lockdown, uncertainty rises about the potential impact on both the country's urban food supplies and a national election just six weeks away.

By mid-August, the nation had reported just a few hundred cases of 54 million people. But since then, the national case number has rapidly multiplied, reaching 8,515 on Friday. More than 1,000 infections were reported on Thursday alone.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has one of the lowest testing rates in the world, suggesting the virus has been spreading undetected for weeks.

"I think the government didn't anticipate the scenario of rapidly rising cases," said U Aung Thu Nyein, an independent political analyst. “You were complacent. They should have been running random tests since the end of April to find the undetected cases. "

All domestic flights have been suspended and around 50,000 people are in preventive quarantine. However, the country's health system is by no means prepared for the pandemic.

The largest city, Yangon, has reported about 90 percent of the country's new cases. Approximately 400 patients were instructed to stay in tents at a local football stadium.

Officials are also wrestling over how to provide the residents of Yangon, also known as Rangoon, with food so they can stay at home – a major challenge in a country with limited resources.

"The government wants to support all seven million people in Yangon," said U Khin Maung Lwin, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce. "But it will take time, and it will be difficult in this time of increasing positive cases."

Another question is how to manage the campaign ahead of the November 8th parliamentary elections.

The country's civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose political party, the National League for Democracy, won in a landslide five years ago, is hoping to stay in power.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi suspended public appearances earlier this month as the official campaign season began. However, it may be to their advantage that campaigns are banned in Yangon and in Rakhine state, the site of the first major outbreak.

Democracy activists and the main opposition party have called for the vote to be delayed to allow candidates to campaign and ensure that voters can safely cast their ballots.

"Despite the pandemic, the minimum standards of the democratic electoral process must be guaranteed," said U Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint, the executive director of the People's Alliance for Credible Elections, an independent election observation group. "It is necessary to guarantee the right of political parties and candidates to campaign freely and collect support."

Hair loss can be another consequence of the pandemic.

Annrene Rowe was preparing to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary this summer when she noticed a bald spot on her scalp. In the days that followed, her thick, shoulder-length hair fell out in clumps and gathered in the shower drain.

"I cried hysterically," said Ms. Rowe, 67, of Anna Maria, Fla.

Ms. Rowe, who was hospitalized for 12 days in April with symptoms of the coronavirus, soon found strikingly similar stories in online groups of Covid-19 survivors. Many have said that a few months after contracting the virus, they started shedding staggering amounts of hair.

Doctors say they too are seeing a lot more patients with hair loss, a phenomenon they believe is related to the coronavirus pandemic, which affects both people who have had the virus and those who have never gotten sick.

During normal times, some people lose noticeable amounts of hair after a deeply stressful experience such as illness, major surgery, or emotional trauma.

Now, doctors say, many patients who recover from Covid-19 suffer from hair loss – not because of the virus itself, but because of the physiological stress of fighting it off. Many people who have never contracted the virus also lose hair due to emotional stress from job loss, financial stress, death of family members, or other devastating developments as a result of the pandemic.

"There are many, many stresses in many ways related to this pandemic and we are still seeing hair loss because much of the stresses have not gone away," said Dr. Shilpi Khetarpal, Associate Professor of Dermatology at the Cleveland Clinic.

Coverage was by Pam Belluck, Choe Sang-Hun, Emily Cochrane, Antonella Francini, Mike Ives, Isabel Kershner, Andrew E. Kramer, Raphael Minder, Saw Nang, Richard C. Paddock, Azi Paybarah, Daniel Politi, Alan Rappeport and Anna writes Schaverien, Eliza Shapiro, Jeanna Smialek, Mitch Smith, Eileen Sullivan, Michael Wines and Elaine Yu.