NJ Tightens COVID-19 Restrictions As NYC Mayor Warns City On Cusp
Of 2nd Wave: Live Updates Tyler Durden
Mon, 11/09/2020 – 11:09
Summary:
- NJ imposes new restrictions
- NYC on verge of 2nd wave, mayor says
- Shanghai reports first case in months
- US hospitalizations back to July highs
- Ukrainian president tests positive
- Dr. Fauci hails Pfizer-BioNTech news
* * *
Monday’s torrent of optimistic vaccine-related news, sparked
early this morning by
a WSJ report previewing the first batch of results from the
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine candidate, has, predictably, been
followed by a statement from the Biden campaign (which, curiously,
got a preview of the results around the same time as Pfizer’s own
top executives, and possibly even before the sitting president
himself) warning Americans that masks remain the best tool to
prevent spread of the virus.
It began Sunday evening, when Utah Gov. Gary Herbert declared a
state of emergency and ordered a statewide mask mandate, blaming a
surge in coronavirus hospitalizations that he said was threatening
hospital capacity,
CBS News reported.
Herbert and the Utah Department of Health issued executive and
public health orders requiring residents to wear face coverings in
public, at work and when they are within 6 feet of people who don’t
live in their households. Herbert, a Republican, had resisted a
statewide mandate, even as several counties in the state went ahead
with more restrictive mask rules. But apparently the election
results, combined with the latest data, have been convincing enough
to sway them.
Across the US, hospitalizations have returned to their highs
from late July, with 56,768 patients in the hospital, 11,108 of
those in the ICU and 2,959 on ventilators.
On Monday morning, New Jersey Governor�Phil Murphy suggested
that he would revive some restrictions in the wake of the state
reporting about 5,000 new COVID-19 cases in two days.
New restrictions might impact the state’s bars, restaurants
and indoor youth sports may be reined in, Murphy said on CNBC’s
“Squawk Box.” Though notably the limits wouldn’t be extended to
include college sports as part of measures he said would likely be
announced Monday.
“If you sit at a bar there’s a much higher likelihood of a
transmission,” he said.
Across the river in NYC, Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that the
city was coming “dangerously close” to a second wave. His warning
comes as cases and hospitalizations rise, and the city health
department, which has caught a lot of flack for its dysfunctional
relationship with city hall (or rather, city hall has caught flack
for its dysfunctional relationship with the health department, and
decisions to delegate tasks like organizing the city’s contact
tracing effort to others outside the department) releases a “real
time” breakdown of zip-code by zip-code data.
While daily case numbers remain uncomfortably elevated, and
deaths and hospitalizations continue to climb, the number of
confirmed cases is currently at 50,550,062, while 1,258,321 deaths
have been recorded.
Here’s some more COVID-19 news from Monday morning
and overnight:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he tested positive
for Covid-19 and is self-isolating. Zelenskiy is feeling fine and
will continue to work remotely, according to a statement from his
office (Source:
Bloomberg).
Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease
expert, said the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer will
have a “major impact†on the battle against the coronavirus.
The efficacy of the Pfizer drug candidate being over 90% “is just
extraordinary,†Fauci said Monday on a call with reporters.
Separately, he said Moderna may have similar results to the Pfizer
vaccine because it is also based on mRNA technology (Source:
Bloomberg).
Shanghai reported a single domestic case of Covid-19 on Monday,
according to the municipal government. The confirmed case works as
a porter at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The Chinese
financial hub hasn’t reported any local cases in months, although
it has seen a steady stream of imported cases (Source:
Bloomberg).
