BEIJING - China has reported new coronavirus cases in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin as it seeks to prevent small outbreaks from becoming larger ones.
The National Health Commission said Tuesday that there were two new locally spread cases in the previous 24-hour period, one in each city. It also reported 20 cases among people who had arrived from overseas.
In Shanghai, the mass testing of 17,719 workers at the city’s Pudong aiport found one infection, a Fedex employee. Everyone else tested negative.
Three UPS workers at the airport have also tested positive in recent days, along with the wife of one of them. In all, Shanghai has reported eight non-imported cases since Friday.
In Tianjin, where 2.3 million people had been tested as of Monday, the city reported one case in a person who developed symptoms after testing positive earlier. China does not include people without symptoms in its confirmed case count.
To date, the health commission has recorded 86,464 confirmed cases and 4,634 deaths.
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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
- AstraZeneca says late-stage trials show it s vaccine with Oxford University is “highly effective,’’ does not need the deep cold storage that rival vaccines do
- Cut off: School closings leave rural students isolated
- Jury duty? No thanks, say many, forcing trials to be delayed
- Inequality ‘baked into’ virus testing access as cases surge
- New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern offers virus know-how to Joe Biden
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Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
LOS ANGELES - Restaurant owners in Los Angeles County were trying to pivot Monday to a model that would keep them afloat when an order goes into effect Wednesday closing all dining for three weeks.
Owners said they were upset that the county had taken the action, claiming infections are more likely coming from private gatherings where rules aren’t enforced.
“The same people desperate to go to bars are going to party in their houses,” said Brittney Valles, owner of Guerrilla Tacos in downtown Los Angeles.
County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said restaurants are part of the problem.
Outbreaks in the first two weeks of the month doubled at food facilities, including restaurants, processing plants, bottlers, grocery stores and related businesses, Ferrer said.
Valles was working Monday to develop a plan to keep as many of her workers employed as possible.
Greg Morena, who had to close one restaurant earlier in the year and has two at the Santa Monica Pier, said he was trying to figure out his next step but was mainly dreading having to notify employees.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner said Monday that he won’t defend his title at next year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race because of restrictions and uncertainty over travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I cannot find a way to get the dogs to Alaska,” Waerner said in an email to The Associated Press.
As he learned earlier this year, getting to Alaska is only half the battle: Waerner wasn’t able to return to his wife and five children in Torpa, Norway, for months after winning the world’s most famous sled dog race because travel was restricted as the pandemic took hold. The Iditarod was one of the few professional sports that wasn’t canceled last March.
While the defending champion says he won’t participate in the 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) race across the rugged Alaska terrain, the Iditarod is still scheduled to start March 7.
That includes a fan-friendly ceremonial start a day earlier that usually attracts thousands of people in Anchorage.
Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said organizers are planning normal events for the ceremonial and official starts but have considered restricting attendance.
Organizers have developed a robust testing program with help from Dr. Jodie Guest, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Emory University in Atlanta who has been an Iditarod race volunteer for years.
Urbach said Waerner hopes to return to the race in 2022.
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LOS ANGELES - The largest county in the United States is on the brink of a stay-home order after a coronavirus surge surpassed a level set by Los Angeles County public health officials to trigger such an action.
A swell of new cases Monday put the county over an average of 4,500 cases per day.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said no action would be taken until county supervisors meet Tuesday.
A stay-home order would be the first such action since mid-March, when Gov. Gavin Newsom followed several counties and issued a statewide order that closed schools and most shops.
Cases and hospitalizations have been rapidly rising across California in November. The state recorded its highest day of positive test results Saturday with more than 15,000. It had more than 14,000 cases Sunday. Hospitalizations have increased 77% over the past two weeks.
In Los Angeles, the county of 10 million residents has had a disproportionately large share of the state’s cases and deaths. Although it accounts for a quarter of the state’s 40 million residents, it has about a third of the cases and more than a third of the deaths.
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RENO, Nevada - The head of the Nevada agency promoting business growth has urged companies to embrace new restrictions as coronavirus cases soar.
Department of Business and Industry Director Terry Reynolds said Monday that the new rules are the best way to avoid future shutdowns.
The percentage of Nevadans testing positive for COVID-19 has doubled since mid-October.
Gov. Steve Sisolak has announced the state’s most expansive mask mandate to date and reduced the capacity at casinos, restaurants, bars and many other businesses from 50% to 25% effective Tuesday. Under Sisolak’s latest directive, masks will be required anytime a person is around someone not in their immediate household, including both indoor and outdoor private gatherings.
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SEATTTLE - A four-week shutdown on indoor service at restaurants and bars in Washington state prompted by an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases is expected to cost the industry some $800 million.
Anthony Anton, chief executive of the Washington Hospitality Association, urged lawmakers from both parties Monday to begin figuring out ways to support restaurants as well as hotels and other hospitality businesses so they have a plan ready to go when the Legislature next meets.
Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday an additional $70 million in grants for businesses, as well as $65 million for loans and other assistance.
Anton said that while anything helps, that would only cover about two days of losses.
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HELENA, Mont. - The Montana governor’s office says more than 100 contracted medical staff have arrived in the state to assist hospitals in responding to the spike in COVID-19 cases.
The 110 health care workers are part of an anticipated total of 200 to be deployed in the state before Thanksgiving and who will remain until the end of the year.
The workers, including registered nurses and respiratory therapists, will aid hospitals that are at or near capacity as part of a contract between the state and NuWest, which provides traveling health care workers.
State health officials reported 677 new cases of COVID-19 Monday, bringing total confirmed cases to more than 56,000.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear warned Monday that the state’s health care system could be at risk - and lives at stake - from rising pressures of new coronavirus hospitalizations if conditions do not improve.
He made the remarks while defending the new mandates he issued last week to fight the pandemic.
The Democratic governor’s new restrictions on in-person gatherings at restaurants, schools and event venues have drawn criticism from GOP lawmakers, local business owners and private schools throughout the state. Kentucky’s Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, joined a Christian school on Nov. 20 in filing a federal lawsuit that seeks a statewide temporary restraining order against a new rule that suspends in-person classes in private and public schools.
Under the new restrictions, middle and high schools are required to continue with remote instruction until January. Elementary schools may reopen on Dec. 7 if the county they are located in is not in the “red zone,” the highest category for COVID-19 incidence rates.
Kentucky continued setting records with 2,135 new confirmed coronavirus cases reported, the state’s highest daily number on a Monday since the pandemic again. The state also reported five virus-related deaths, raising the death toll to 1,792.
The state’s test positivity rate is 8.97%, down slightly from last Friday.
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Maryland will expand its pandemic-related compliance efforts ahead of Thanksgiving by sending additional state troopers to every county and Baltimore, Gov. Larry Hogan said Monday.
Hogan said state troopers will work with liquor boards, local law enforcement agencies and others starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday to ensure that businesses and residents follow directives meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus, including the mask-wearing mandate.
He said the Maryland State Police is also ramping up the hotline that the public can dial to report violations and is now operating a new phone line to assist local compliance officers.
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SAN DIEGO - A California judge on Monday denied a request to temporarily restore indoor service at restaurants and gyms in San Diego County that were forced to move operations outside earlier this month to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel said in his ruling that there is scientific evidence to support Gov. Gavin Newsom’s sweeping public health orders to restrict business activity during the pandemic. Business owners in California’s second most populous county sought to restore indoor operations at 25% capacity for restaurants and 10% for gyms, which were the rules before a surge in infections earlier this month.
Two San Diego restaurants and two gyms sued on behalf of their industries, asking that California’s four-tier system of pandemic restrictions be declared illegal. San Diego, like nearly all of the state’s counties, was moved into the most restrictive tier and forced to move many business operations and religious services outside.
The judge scheduled another hearing next month.
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SALT LAKE CITY_- Utah Gov. Gary Herbert on Monday relaxed restrictions on social gatherings ahead of Thanksgiving weekend as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to surge.
State data shows there were 545 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Utah on Monday, and referral center ICU beds reached 91.9% occupancy statewide. The increased number of hospitalizations has prompted doctors and public health officials to advise against attending large Thanksgiving gatherings.
Herbert, a Republican, said he will not extend his previous two-week order that required people to limit social gatherings to people in their immediate household but urged caution. He recommended masks, social distancing and smaller gatherings for the holiday.
Rich Saunders, the interim director of the state health department, recommended that people in high transmission areas, which include 26 of the state’s 29 counties, limit social gatherings to 10 or fewer.
The state’s mask mandate will remain in place.
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TOPEKA, Kan. - Surging pandemic numbers are straining hospitals across Kansas just days before Thanksgiving gatherings that public health officials fear could worsen the outbreak.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported on Monday 95 new hospitalizations, bringing the total of hospitalizations to 4,777 since the start of the pandemic. The state’s COVID-19 dashboard showed 240 coronavirus patients were in ICU units, with 36% of ICU capacity remaining in Kansas.
State health officials added 7,526 cases to the state’s pandemic tally since Friday, bringing the total to 142,059. The data showed that Kansas averaged 2,760 new confirmed and probable coronavirus a day for the seven days ending Monday. That is just slightly below the record average of 2,766 cases.
The number of COVID-19 related deaths also rose by 46 to 1,456.
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DENVER - As Colorado experiences its highest hospitalization rate of COVID-19 patients, Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order authorizing the state health department to order hospitals and emergency departments to transfer and cease admitting new patients in order to deal with the influx of coronavirus cases.
According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, as of Sunday the state had over 1,500 confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations. On Friday, Polis said full hospital capacity was reached in Mesa County on the state’s western slope and nearing the same fate in Weld County in northeast Colorado with only three intensive care beds available.
The order allows for those hospitals which have reached capacity to transfer patients to another facility without obtaining their consent. It also states that health care providers who comply with the order and transfer patients are “immune from civil or criminal liability for any action taken.”
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MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials urged residents Monday to download a free app for their smartphones that will notify them if someone who’s been near them later tests positive for the coronavirus and will allow them to warn others anonymously if they test positive themselves.
Tarek Tomes, the state’s information technology commissioner, stressed that using the COVIDaware MN app is voluntary, and that the system contains ample privacy safeguards for those who opt in.
It uses exposure notification technology developed by Google and Apple that is already being used under different names in around 20 other states and 35 countries around the world to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. government on Tuesday will start distributing 30,000 doses of an experimental antibody drug to fight COVID-19, the one President Donald Trump received last month.
Over the weekend, the Food and Drug Administration agreed to allow emergency use of the drug, made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., for people with mild to moderate symptoms who are at high risk of developing serious illness because of their age or other medical conditions. It’s not authorized for use in sicker, hospitalized patients or those who need extra oxygen.
The emergency authorization allows limited use of a drug while studies continue to test its safety and effectiveness. Early results suggest it may reduce COVID-19-related hospitalization or emergency room visits.
The drugs are given as a one-time treatment through an IV. Under federal contracts, the drugs for now will be supplied for free, although patients may have to pay part of the cost of the IV treatment.
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MESA, Ariz. - An Arizona woman who drew widespread attention after opening her Thanksgiving table to a stranger she accidentally texted has kept the tradition going, despite losing her husband Lonnie to COVID-19.
Wanda Dench and 21-year-old Jamal Hinton met in 2016 after the grandmother from the Phoenix suburb of Mesa mistakenly texted her grandson about coming for Thanksgiving to Hinton’s number. Hinton jokingly replied he would like to come as well. Dench told him he was welcome.
Last week, they celebrated a mini Thanksgiving dinner with a photo of Lonnie Dench and an empty chair for him. The couple was infected in March and Lonnie Dench died the next month.
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MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church announced the cancellation Monday of what’s considered the world’s largest Catholic pilgrimage, for the Virgin of Guadalupe, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mexico’s Episcopal Conference said in a statement that the basilica will be closed from December 10-13. The Virgin is celebrated on Dec. 12 and for weeks in advance, pilgrims travel from across Mexico to gather by the millions in Mexico City.
The church recommended that “the Guadalupe celebrations be held in churches or at home, avoiding gatherings and with the appropriate health measures.”
Bishop Salvador Martínez, rector at the basilica, said recently in a video circulated on social media that as many as 15 million pilgrims visit during the first two weeks of December.
The church recognized that 2020 has been a trying year and that many of the faithful want to seek consolation at basilica, but said that conditions don’t permit a pilgrimage that brings so many into close contact.
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MADRID - Spanish King Felipe VI is self-isolating after being with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
The royal household said Monday the 52-year-old monarch was “in close contact” the previous day with someone infected by the new coronavirus.
Felipe will self-isolate for the mandatory 10 days and has canceled his official duties for that period.
The royal household gave no information about the state of his health.
Also on Monday, Spain’s 14-day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population - a key metric in measuring the pandemic’s spread - has continued to fall.
The Health Ministry said that number has fallen to 374 cases per 100,000. That’s down from 470 cases a week earlier and from the Nov. 9 peak of 529.
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GENEVA - The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization says it’s “extremely important” for its international team to visit China to look into the origins of the coronavirus, saying the U.N. health agency has been reassured such a trip will happen “as soon as possible.”
Dr. Michael Ryan said such a visit is needed so that “the international community can be reassured of the quality of the science” that he lamented has been increasingly questioned for political ends - including pressure and threatening e-mails against scientists.
“We all need to understand where it has come from, not least to understand where it may re-emerge in the future,” Ryan told a news conference from Geneva. “I believe our Chinese colleagues are just as anxious to find those answers as we are.”
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