Category: Corona Virus

Virginia Tech's season opener against Virginia on Sept. 19 has been postponed because of "COVID-19 issues" at Virginia Tech, the school announced Saturday.

"After consultation with Atlantic Coast Conference officials, our counterparts at the University of Virginia, campus leadership at Virginia Tech and Dr. Mark Rogers, Chief Medical Officer for Virginia Tech Athletics, the mutual decision has been made to move the football game between Virginia Tech and Virginia at Lane Stadium to a later date stemming from COVID-19 issues at Virginia Tech," Virginia Tech said in a statement.

Virginia Tech also said that it would pause football activities for four days.

The Hokies are now scheduled to play their first game Sept. 26 against NC State; that game was previously postponed from Sept. 12 because of an increase in coronavirus cases in the Wolfpack athletic department.

The Cavaliers' first game will be Sept. 26 against Duke, the ACC announced. The date had been open for both teams. The schools were originally scheduled to play on Nov. 14.

The ACC also announced that Miami's game at Louisville on Sept. 19 will be played at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC, while Georgia Tech's home game against UCF remains at 3:30 p.m. and will air on ABC.

"The safety, as well as the physical and mental well-being of these young men and women entrusted to our care by their families remains our top priority," Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock said in a statement. "While we share the disappointment of everyone who hoped to begin the football season against our in-state rival, we remain optimistic that a full ACC football schedule can be played thanks to the flexibility the present format permits."

Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente had alluded to issues during a Zoom call with reporters Wednesday, saying he didn't think the Hokies would be able to play this weekend if they had to.

"I don't know if we could, to be honest with you," Fuente said. "I don't know if we'd have made it. I figured someone would ask me if we could play today in this deal, and I'm going to tell you I don't know the answer to that."

On its web page, Virginia Tech reported Friday that it had 219 positive tests for the coronavirus in the previous seven days, putting its total infections at 633 since testing began Aug. 3. The numbers have risen steadily since students returned Aug. 24.

The school has not been releasing athlete-specific results.

Virginia released its latest numbers for athletes and athletic staff on Saturday, saying it has had five positive tests since the last update on Sept. 4. The school said four of the five positives were from students who recently returned to campus and that the football program has not had any positive results since the first report on July 24.

On Twitter, some of Virginia's coaches offered praise for their players.

"It is really this simple... you either are committed to your team or you are not," offensive line coach Garett Tujague tweeted. "There are those that can sacrifice for each other and then there are those that CAN NOT. The greatest thing is... You get to make that choice."

Running backs coach Mark Atuaia noted the "grave sacrifices" by his players.

"My heart goes out to them because no one is giving merit to the [discipline] my young brothers have displayed since the pandemic hit," he tweeted. "My UVA young brothers are AMAZING!!!"

Andrea Adelson contributed to this report.

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Virginia Tech's football game with Virginia on Sept. 19 postponed because of coronavirus - ESPN

Find developments on the coronavirus pandemic and the plan for recovery in the U.S. and Washington state.

Where cases stand in Washington

Dr. Anthony Fauci says while he remains confident aCOVID-19vaccine will come this year, it may be late 2021 before life returns to normal in the U.S.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that the issue is how long it will take to get the vaccine out to enough people.

The United States plans to end enhanced health screening of travelers from certain countries next week, and those visitors will no longer be funneled through 15 large U.S. airports.

Those requirements were imposed in January to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the government will remove those edicts beginning Monday.

About 25,000 of the 55,000 students registered with Seattle Public Schools have logged onto the district's online systems since the soft start of fall classes.

The district isn't sure exactly what the issue is. A district spokesperson said they are trying to figure out if the low attendance during the "Strong Start" days has to do with connectivity issues or if there are other problems.

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What you need to know about coronavirus Friday, Sept. 11 - KING5.com

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Coronavirus in Tennessee: Inactive cases rise to 229 as Knox County reports 189 new cases & 3 new deaths - WATE 6 On Your Side

President Trump acknowledged to the journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly played down the coronavirus earlier this year even though he was aware it was life-threatening and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu.

This is deadly stuff, Mr. Trump said on Feb. 7 in one of 18 interviews with Mr. Woodward for his coming book, Rage.

You just breathe the air and thats how its passed, the president told Mr. Woodward in audio recordings made available on The Washington Post website. And so thats a very tricky one. Thats a very delicate one. Its also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.

But three days after those remarks, Mr. Trump told the Fox Business anchor Trish Regan: Were in very good shape. We have 11 cases. And most of them are getting better very rapidly. I think they will all be better. A little less than two weeks later, he told reporters on the South Lawn that we have it very much under control in this country.

By Feb. 26, the president was publicly dismissing concerns about the lethality of the virus. Its a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for, he said at a White House news conference. And well essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.

And by Feb. 28, at a rally in South Carolina, Mr. Trump denounced Democrats for their concerns about the virus as their new hoax, after the Russia investigation and his impeachment.

The audio recordings show that as Mr. Trump was absorbing in real time the information he was given by health and national security experts, he made a conscious choice not only to mislead the public but also to actively pressure governors to reopen states before his own government guidelines said they were ready.

By March, Mr. Trump was straightforward with Mr. Woodward about his tactics. I wanted to always play it down, the president said in an audio recording of an interview on March 19. I still like playing it down, because I dont want to create a panic.

This is deadly stuff, the president repeated for emphasis.

Despite the presidents own words in the recordings, the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, told reporters on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had never publicly played down the virus.

The Post and CNN were given advance copies of the book and published details on Wednesday. The New York Times obtained its own copy.

As part of the White Houses effort at damage control, Mr. Trump told reporters that his recorded remarks to Mr. Woodward were vastly different from what he was telling the public because he was worried about frightening people.

We dont want to instill panic, the president said on Wednesday. We dont want to jump up and down and start shouting that we have a problem that is a tremendous problem and scare everybody.

But his acknowledgment that he was fully aware by early February of the perils of the virus only intensified questions about why he was so slow to respond, and why he did not tell Americans the truth to better prepare them for the worst public health crisis in the United States in more than a century.

Mr. Woodwards book also illustrated that as much as Mr. Trump tries to change the subject before the November election to law and order and a call for a crackdown on nationwide protests against police brutality, he is unable to escape scrutiny for his response to a virus that has killed nearly 190,000 people in the United States and upended the lives of millions more.

The president also told Mr. Woodward on March 19 of the virus: Part of it is the mystery. Part it is the viciousness. You know when it attacks it attacks the lungs. And I dont know when people get hit, when they get hit, and now its turning out its not just old people, Bob. He went on: Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. Its not just old, older. Young people too plenty of young people.

And yet in an interview broadcast by Fox and Friends on Aug. 5, Mr. Trump asserted: If you look at children, children are almost, and I would say almost definitely, but almost immune from this disease. I dont know how you feel about it, but theyve got stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this.

Two days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that children are at risk for severe Covid-19.

One question swirling in Washington on Wednesday was why Mr. Trump had given Mr. Woodward such extensive access. Mr. Woodward, a longtime editor and reporter at The Washington Post who with Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon, has written books on most of Mr. Nixons successors, many of them critical. Karl Rove, President George W. Bushs former top political adviser, noted on Fox News on Wednesday that nearly every president who has cooperated with Mr. Woodward regretted it.

Current White House officials said that Mr. Trump opened his door to Mr. Woodward in the hope that the eventual book would be positive. Mr. Trump did not speak to Mr. Woodward for his first book on the Trump presidency, Fear, and the president has maintained that it would have turned out better had he participated. Officials also said that Mr. Trump, who has great faith in his ability to sell people on his version of events, was eager to have Mr. Woodwards seal on his time in office.

Although Mr. Trump and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, spoke extensively to Mr. Woodward, White House officials were pointing fingers at one another on Wednesday about who was responsible for giving the journalist such access.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump repeatedly bragged about his limited ban on travel into the United States from China at the end of January, and falsely claimed that almost everyone disagreed with him at the time. Mr. Woodwards book documents that the majority of the presidents advisers urged him to go ahead with the ban during a meeting in the Oval Office before he ultimately did.

When pressed on why he did not do more in February and March, knowing what he knew, Mr. Trump maintained that he had not expected the virus to spread as far and as fast as it did.

You didnt really think it was going to be to the point that it was, he said. All of a sudden the world was infected. The entire world was infected. Everyone was scrambling around looking where to buy face masks and all of the other things.

On Capitol Hill, several Republicans defended the president.

I dont think he needs to go on TV and scream that were all going to die, said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and an ally of the president who White House aides said encouraged the president to participate in the book. But his actions of shutting the economy down were the right actions. I think the tone during that time sort of spoke for itself. People knew it was serious.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he had not seen the book and directed questions to the White House.

Democrats were quick to slam Mr. Trump for his comments. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said that the book offered damning proof that Donald Trump lied and people died.

Emily Cochrane contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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Trump Admits Minimizing the Coronavirus, Woodward Reports in New Book - The New York Times

A relative prays at the Mrtires 19 de Julio Cemetery on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, on Aug. 20. Peru has one of the world's highest per capita coronavirus-related death tolls, according to Johns Hopkins University. Raul Sifuentes/Getty Images hide caption

A relative prays at the Mrtires 19 de Julio Cemetery on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, on Aug. 20. Peru has one of the world's highest per capita coronavirus-related death tolls, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Updated at 6:10 p.m. ET

Peru's government has launched a campaign of emotional shock tactics to persuade its citizens to help stop the coronavirus from causing more death and misery in a country with one of Latin America's biggest outbreaks.

Peruvian President Martn Vizcarra acknowledges the campaign "may seem too harsh." Yet he says: "We are in a war. ... You have to call things as they are."

The "war" that Vizcarra says they are waging is a result of the virus's painful and unexpectedly widespread impact on his country of more than 30 million people. Peru has now registered almost 30,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the largest toll in Latin America after Brazil and Mexico. That is despite the Peruvian government's imposing a nationwide quarantine less than two weeks after detecting the country's first case on March 6.

Peru's per capita COVID-19 mortality rate of 93.28 per 100,000 is higher than that of any other nation except the tiny European republic of San Marino (population: 34,000), according to an analysis by Johns Hopkins University.

The awareness campaign has the slogan "COVID does not kill by itself. Let's not be accomplices." Half-a-minute, heart-wrenching videos are being broadcast on Peruvian TV and shared online in an effort to drive home the case for masks and social distancing.

They show scenes from everyday life people happily cracking open beers on a street corner, men playing a soccer game and a family visiting a grandmother.

After a few seconds, the scene abruptly cuts to the consequences: an elderly relative on a ventilator in a hospital, gasping for breath.

The need for such hard-hitting messages was underscored on Aug. 22 by a tragedy at the Thomas Restobar nightclub in Lima, the capital. The club held an illegal Saturday night party that was raided by the police. There was panic. Thirteen people died in the ensuing stampede. Officials later revealed that 11 of the dead tested positive for the coronavirus.

The scale of the pandemic has left Peruvians feeling "sad and angry," says veteran Lima-based journalist Jacqueline Fowks. It has also ignited debate about what has gone wrong and why.

Fowks cites the fact that 7 out of 10 Peruvian workers are in the informal sector and often "couldn't afford to isolate" because they're dependent on daily earnings.

But she also lays much of the blame on the country's "very poor" health system, which failed to conduct effective testing and contact tracing and, in some areas, collapsed.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Peru had one of the region's strongest economies, thanks to a commodities boom. Yet while average health spending per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean was $1,026 in 2017, Peru spent only $680, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The Peruvian government had plans to increase the health budget but failed to carry these out, says Dr. Godofredo Talavera, president of the Peruvian Medical Federation.

"The government doesn't fulfill its promises," he told NPR, as he stood within a throng of angry doctors and nurses at a recent protest rally outside the Health Ministry. "We don't have oxygen! We don't have ventilators!" he said.

No one disputes that Peru is being hit hard by the pandemic, yet some believe the official numbers for coronavirus infections and deaths are inflated. Peru has mostly relied on rapid testing that measures only antibodies, says Dr. Rubn Mayorga, the World Health Organization's representative in Peru.

Mayorga says these show if someone had the virus at some point: "You can have somebody who has [died of] ... something else, but since you have a COVID-19 antibody test, you will be declared as having died of COVID."

What is not in doubt, however, is the devastating economic impact of the virus on Peru. Its gross domestic product in April was about 40% lower than it was the same month last year, a record decline. The speed with which the economy is shrinking has since slowed, but the country's Economy Ministry estimates output to be down 12% in 2020 overall.

Miguel Jaramillo, an economics expert with the Lima-based think tank Grade, expects parts of the economy to rebound quickly. But he says he is concerned about "the long-term consequences of the loss of human capital a generation that is going to have a very hard time finding a job."

Jaramillo says that four years ago, he was a member of a presidential commission into the reform of social protection. Its findings came to nothing. He hopes the pandemic will now prompt Peru to learn from past mistakes.

"I hope we don't waste this opportunity to ... create a real system of social protection and make a serious effort to formalize the economy," he says.

Ricardo Ramos, a computer shop owner and software developer in Lima, is feeling this breathtakingly steep downward spiral firsthand.

In the last few months, Ramos has lost more than two-thirds of his income. He has already laid off five of his seven employees. He says he loses sleep every night, lying awake and "trying to dream up ways of reinventing the business."

Others are still less fortunate. To see that, you only need visit the poorer parts of Lima, says journalist Fowks: "You will see a lot of people in the streets, walking around asking for money, asking for food, asking for any kind of help."

Link:

Peru Locked Down Early. Now It Battles One Of The Worst Coronavirus Outbreaks - NPR

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health suggest the case tally in the US does not "capture the total burden of the pandemic because testing has been primarily restricted to individuals with moderate to severe symptoms due to limited test availability."

"We know that in the US, earlier on in the epidemic, the people who were getting tested had moderate to severe symptoms," said Jade Benjamin-Chung, one of the study's co-authors and a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Berkeley Public Health. "And we know that since then, we have a larger number of asymptomatic people who are affecting the total number of infections but may not be included in confirmed case counts."

The findings supports previous statements by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that indicate the number of cases in the country is far greater than thought. In June, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said testing likely missed 90% or so of cases.

Vaccine will be effective or 'it won't get moved along,' surgeon general says

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Jerome Adams, US Surgeon General, pledged in a Senate hearing Wednesday they would get the Covid-19 vaccine if and when one is deemed safe.

"I am ready to roll up my sleeve as soon as they say it's effective," Collins said, when asked if he would get the vaccine in public view.

The two took questions from senators during the Senate Health Committee hearing on vaccines. Adams and Collins assured the senators and the American public that the vaccine process was being led by science, not partisan politics.

"I want the American people to hear me say this: There will be no shortcuts. This vaccine will be safe. It will be effective. Or it won't get moved along," Adams said. "And when a vaccine is either approved or authorized by the FDA, I and my family will be in line to get it."

More tests needed, report says

The US should be performing as many as 200 million Covid-19 tests every month well into next year to have any chance of controlling the pandemic, experts say in a new report.

That number is far beyond the country's current capacity, according to the report released Wednesday by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.

"The U.S. will likely need very large numbers of all types of Covid-19 tests well into 2021 to contain outbreaks while returning toward normal activity, with a particular need for more screening tests that have very fast turnaround times," the report reads.

Public health experts across the country have for months said testing will play a critical role in helping to reel in the pandemic. Getting enough people tested -- and getting their results back quickly -- will aid contact tracers in tracking down Americans exposed to the virus and help control outbreaks.

Fewer than 30 million tests are currently reported monthly in the country, the report says. As the virus ran unabated across American communities over the summer, some officials said contact tracing was nearly impossible with the lack of testing capacity and the uncontrolled spread.

Adm. Brett Giroir, the testing lead for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has said repeatedly the US cannot test its way out of the pandemic.

Echoing other officials' claims, the report from the team of experts says more testing is vital.

"At present infection rates, a basic screening strategy will require approximately 200 million tests each month for students and staff at the nation's primary and secondary schools and residents and staff at nursing homes for them to open safely and in stages," the team wrote.

But things could turn around. Testing capacity is improving and companies are working to develop fast and cheap on-the-spot tests that -- if distributed widely enough --- could make a difference, the report says.

"By October 2020, based on recent and announced expected market entry, point-of-care tests will rise to at least 70 million tests per month," the team wrote.

By January, the US could reach nearly 200 million tests monthly. And more growth is possible, the experts said.

One major coronavirus vaccine trial hits pause

The stop may be temporary and the illness may not have been caused by the vaccine. The company is making sure before it goes ahead with more testing. The company didn't give details on the illness.

"This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials," the company said in a statement.

"In large trials, illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully," the company said.

Collins, the NIH director, said the AstraZeneca hold is due to "spinal cord problem." Collins said the pause is "not at all unprecedented."

Indeed, pausing in vaccine trials is very common, according to Farrar, of the Wellcome Trust, and Dr. Melanie Saville, Director of Vaccine Research and Development at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

"In many ways, I think it shows that the oversight of the trial is working well," Farrar said.

Two other Phase 3 vaccine trials

There are two other vaccine candidates in Phase 3 trials, one developed by Moderna, another by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech. All three have US government funding and backing.

"It has an excellent profile and I consider this vaccine ... near perfect, and which has a near perfect profile," Sahin said.

Pfizer and BioNTech say they plan to provide 100 million doses of their vaccine candidate, BNT162, by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.

AstraZeneca's pause on trials could give the public more confidence that companies are sticking to the safety first rule, despite the push from President Trump to get a vaccine out more quickly.

CNN's Eric Levenson, Allison Main, Lauren Mascarenhas and Amanda Watts contributed to this report.

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Confirmed coronavirus cases in the US don't show the 'total burden of the pandemic,' study says - CNN

President Donald Trump admitted to publicly downplaying the real threat of Covid-19 for weeks, even as cities and states shut down and more Americans fell sick, according to excerpts and audio recordings from reporter Bob Woodwards forthcoming book Rage.

I wanted to always play it down, Trump said on March 19. I still like playing it down, because I dont want to create a panic.

In several interviews with Woodward, Trump said he was aware of the threat of the novel coronavirus as early as January, and continued downplaying the true risk the disease presented well into March, when the USs epidemic took off. (CNN published audio clips from the interviews.)

On February 7, Trump told Woodward, This is deadly stuff. He told Woodward that it was five times as deadly as the flu. He acknowledged that the virus goes through air, adding, Thats always tougher than the touch. You know, the touch, you dont have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air, and thats how its passed.

Later that month, Trump claimed in public that the virus would disappear like a miracle. He also said that you have 15 people [with the coronavirus], and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero. In early March, he also publicly compared the coronavirus to the flu, arguing that Covid-19 hadnt killed as many people in the US as the common flu does.

On March 19, Trump acknowledged to Woodward that Covid-19 could hit young people as well as old people. That conversation is when he said he still wanted to downplay the threat.

By then, it was perfectly clear that the virus was a real threat in the US. Cases and deaths were starting to rise in the New York City region in particular. San Francisco was already under lockdown. Trump was holding daily press briefings about the virus. On the same day he told Woodward he downplayed the crisis, he boasted about his administration having everything under control.

Later in March, Trump insisted in public that the US would be able to go back to normal and reopen by Easter Sunday in April. Youll have packed churches all over our country, Trump said on March 24. I think itll be a beautiful time.

Trump told Woodward that his intent was to avoid a panic. But experts say that Trumps response to the virus particularly the magical thinking that colored his public comments fueled the outbreak in America. That fostered a sense of complacency among the public and other leaders, building resistance to necessary public health measures against Covid-19 like social distancing, testing, and masking.

Once states began locking down, Trump pushed them to reopen too early and too quickly to LIBERATE themselves from economic calamity. After his administration suggested people wear masks in public, Trump claimed it was a personal choice, refused to wear a mask himself, and said people wear masks to spite him. He also hyped up unproven and even dangerous treatments, at one point musing about people injecting bleach to treat Covid-19. And he was slow to expand US testing capacity, arguing that more testing made the US look bad by revealing more cases; he instead punted the issue to local, state, and private actors unequipped for the full job.

It begins in many ways, and you could argue it ends in many ways, with the Trump administration, Ashish Jha, the faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, previously told me. If George W. Bush had been president, if John McCain had been president, if Mitt Romney had been president, this would have looked very different.

This continued, based on Woodwards reporting and the presidents admission in audio recordings, well after the threat of Covid-19 was clear even to Trump.

The result: The US is doing about seven times worse than the median developed country, ranking in the bottom 20 percent for Covid-19 deaths among wealthy nations. If America had the same death rate as Canada, 100,000 more Americans would likely be alive today.

Trump, however, has admitted no responsibility for all of this. In his last interview with Woodward in July, Trump said, The virus has nothing to do with me. Its not my fault. China let the damn virus out.

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Trump in Woodwards new book: I wanted to always play [Covid-19] down - Vox.com

Another 23 coronavirus cases have been reported in Maine, health officials said Wednesday.

Wednesdays report brings the cumulative total of coronavirus cases across the state to 4,734. Of those, 4,258 have been confirmed positive, while 476 were classified as probable cases, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

New cases were reported in Androscoggin (2), Cumberland (1), Kennebec (1), Somerset (2) and York (14) counties, state data show. Information about where additional cases were reported wasnt immediately available.

No new deaths were reported Wednesday, leaving the statewide death toll at 134. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

Heres the latest on the coronavirus and its impact in Maine:

State health investigators have identified three cases of COVID-19 in people associated with Hartt Transportation Systems, a Bangor-based trucking company. Charles Eichacker, BDN

A Bangor hotel will serve as shelter space for the citys homeless population for the rest of the year under an arrangement that will reserve half of the hotel for those suffering from COVID-19 and the other half for clients without the disease. Nick Sambides Jr., BDN

Maines budget commissioner is recommending $256 million in cost-savings measures as part of a plan to close a massive coronavirus-induced budget gap that will use federal funds and money from higher-than-expected liquor sales to prevent deeper cuts. Caitlin Andrews, BDN

Public health officials in Maine are continuing to monitor the spread of coronavirus in other states, and they are no closer to easing travel restrictions put in place because of the virus. The Associated Press

Amy Albert opened Replay Sports two years ago with a dream of a local shop where families could buy used gear for their kids at affordable prices. Now, the consignment store is about to close for good and in doing so, it joins a growing list of Maines small businesses that have collapsed under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic this year. Nina Mahaleris, The Penobscot Times

As of Wednesday evening, the coronavirus had sickened 6,354,869 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 190,589 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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Sept. 9 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine - Bangor Daily News

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the 33rd straight day that New York State's COVID-19 infection rate has been below 1 percent. Yesterday, 0.91 percent of tests reported to the state were positive. The number of new cases, percentage of tests that were positive and many other helpful data points are always available at forward.ny.gov.

"New York State's infection rate has been under 1 percent for 33 straight days, which is great news and a credit to New Yorkers and what they're doing," Governor Cuomo said. "And that is with more testing than any other state. If you want to see something interesting, look at how many tests different states are taking. If you don't do many tests, you won't find many cases and the number of cases will drop. But that is false comfort. When we say this is how many cases we have, that's accurate because we're testing more than anyone else."

The governor also announced the New York State Department of Financial Services has taken action to extend emergency regulations requiring New York health insurers to waive cost-sharing associated with emergency room visits, in-network telehealth visits, in-network outpatient provider office visits, in-network urgent care center visits, and in-network laboratory tests when the purpose of the visit or test is to diagnose COVID-19, and waiving cost-sharing for in-network telehealth services for any healthcare service covered under a policy, including mental health and substance use disorder treatment until November 9, 2020. The extension of these emergency regulations ensures that cost-sharing is not a barrier to COVID-19 testing and in-network telehealth services for New Yorkers. Governor Cuomo first announced the State's directive requiring New York insurers to waive cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing and telehealth services in March.

Yesterday, the State Liquor Authority and State Police Task Force visited 969 establishments in New York City and Long Island and observed 5 establishments that were not in compliance with state requirements. A county breakdown of yesterday's observed violations is below:

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

Of the 63,230 test results reported to New York State yesterday, 576, or 0.91 percent, were positive. Each region's percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows:

REGION

SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Capital Region

0.5%

1.3%

0.7%

CentralNew York

1.1%

0.6%

0.8%

Finger Lakes

0.7%

0.9%

0.6%

Long Island

1.0%

1.5%

1.8%

Mid-Hudson

1.2%

1.5%

1.3%

Mohawk Valley

1.1%

0.5%

0.5%

New York City

0.8%

0.9%

0.7%

North Country

0.3%

0.0%

0.8%

Southern Tier

0.4%

0.5%

0.3%

WesternNew York

1.9%

1.0%

1.5%

The Governor also confirmed 576 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 441,154 confirmed cases in New York State. Of the 441,154 total individuals who tested positive for the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:

County

Total Positive

New Positive

Albany

2,846

6

Allegany

92

0

Broome

1,378

4

Cattaraugus

234

1

Cayuga

185

1

Chautauqua

478

1

Chemung

214

3

Chenango

240

1

Clinton

152

0

Columbia

576

0

Cortland

103

0

Delaware

125

0

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Governor Cuomo Announces 33rd Straight Day with COVID-19 Infection Rate Below 1 Percent - ny.gov

TheWest Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of 10:00 a.m., on September 9,2020, there have been 463,686 total confirmatorylaboratory results received for COVID-19, with 11,808 totalcases and 254 deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 59-yearold female from Harrison County, a 69-yearold female from Harrison County, a 62-year old female from Jackson County, andan 87-year old female from Monroe County. As families mourn the loss of theirloved ones, we remind all West Virginians to do their part to prevent the spreadof this virus, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary.

CASESPER COUNTY: Barbour(35), Berkeley (840), Boone (162), Braxton (9), Brooke (105), Cabell (601),Calhoun (20), Clay (30), Doddridge (13), Fayette (421), Gilmer (20), Grant(144), Greenbrier (108), Hampshire (93), Hancock (128), Hardy (75), Harrison(306), Jackson (219), Jefferson (396), Kanawha (1,753), Lewis (36), Lincoln(126), Logan (529), Marion (233), Marshall (136), Mason (122), McDowell (74),Mercer (350), Mineral (148), Mingo (289), Monongalia (1,504), Monroe (138),Morgan (41), Nicholas (58), Ohio (301), Pendleton (45), Pleasants (15),Pocahontas (55), Preston (142), Putnam (353), Raleigh (397), Randolph (228),Ritchie (6), Roane (37), Summers (22), Taylor (110), Tucker (13), Tyler (15),Upshur (50), Wayne (300), Webster (7), Wetzel (45), Wirt (8), Wood (324),Wyoming (73).

Pleasenote that delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from thelocal health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the localhealth department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain countymay not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual inquestion may have crossed the state border to be tested.Such is the case of Hancock,Hardy, and Mason counties in this report.

Pleasevisit the dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more information.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 9-9-2020 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources