INFORMS Open Forum

Good evening,

Please find today's Daily COVID-19 Update for September 28th below and attached. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.

Thank you,

Jeff Cohen

INFORMS Members In The News

• How the airline industry recovers from COVID-19 could determine who gets organ transplants (The Conversation)

Member: Tinglong Dai

• Jeff Angelo Podcast Episode (iHeart Radio)

Member: Anna Nagurney

• Six lessons colleges are teaching us about COVID-19 (The Hill)

Member: Sheldon Jacobson

• Vaccine Chaos Is Looming (The Atlantic)

Member: Julie Swann

• If approved by the government, should NC schools mandate a COVID-19 vaccine for students? (Citizen Times)

Member: Julie Swann

Federal Policy Update 

• House Democrats released an updated $2.2 trillion version of the Heroes Act – offering $436 billion for state and local governments, another round of $1,200 direct checks, funding for $600 unemployment benefits, $75 billion for contact tracing and testing, and more. They also published a one-pager highlighting the top-line provisions of the bill.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) spokesperson Drew Hamill announced that Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin "spoke at 6:30 p.m. tonight via phone after House Democrats introduced the updated version of the Heroes Act," adding that "the two agreed to speak again tomorrow morning."
• President Trump announced that the White House would disseminate 150 million rapid coronavirus tests to states across the U.S., specifically for the purpose of efforts to reopen schools. He stated that this plan is to "allow every state – on a very regular basis – to test every teacher who needs it."
• The State Department announced that health agencies from the U.S., Great Britain, and Ireland met today to discuss furthering their research collaboration on infectious diseases, specifically including COVID-19.
• Assistant Treasury Secretary Monica Crowley published a statement on the six-month anniversary of the CARES Act – stating that the bill "prepared America's small businesses to reopen, employees to return to work, and the economy to grow once again."
• The Department of Defense awarded a $20 million contract to On Demand Pharmaceuticals to "develop a domestic production capability for critical active pharmaceutical ingredients and final formulated medicines." The contract will use funding from the HHS CARES Act allocation.

State Update 

• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) officially extended eviction protections through January 1^st. Furthermore, he also announced that the state is sending 200 rapid testing machines to the zip codes in the state with the highest positivity rates for coronavirus. Governor Cuomo urged "local government to focus on those cluster zip codes in terms of mask enforcement and compliance enforcement in addition to testing."
• Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) announced that due to the city's "sufficient progress in the fight against COVID-19," they will be expanding restaurant capacities up to 40% and allow bars to reopen their indoor services.

 

Global Response 

• World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced a new agreement for COVID-19 tests to be provided around the world, stating that "a substantial proportion of these rapid tests – 120 million – will be made available to low and middle income countries."
• Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced that this year's G20 Leaders' Summit will be held via virtual teleconference on November 21^st – 22^nd, which will be focused on "protecting  lives and restoring growth, by addressing vulnerabilities uncovered during the pandemic and by laying down the foundations for a better future."
• The Kenyan government announced that they would extend their COVID-19 curfew for an additional 60 days – to be implemented from 11 PM to 4 AM.
• The city of Melbourne, Australia lifted their curfew – effective today.

Economic Update

• U.S. stocks were on the rise today, with all three indices closing with gains. The Nasdaq Composite rose by 1.90%, the S&P 500 by 1.60%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 1.50%. 

  

Latest Impact Data 

• In the United States: Over 7,361,186 cases and 209,774 deaths in 50 states, 4 territories, and Washington, D.C.
• Worldwide: Over 33,541,703 and 1,006,072 deaths in at least 204 countries and territories.

 

In the News                

• Economic relief talks between White House and Pelosi resume as House Democrats make new offer (Washington Post)
• Trump announces plan to distribute 100M rapid COVID-19 tests to states (The Hill)
• U.S. FDA pauses Inovio's coronavirus vaccine trial plan (Reuters)
• Global Coronavirus Death Toll on Cusp of One Million (The Wall Street Journal)

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Jeffrey M. Cohen, MBA
Director, Public Affairs & Marketing
INFORMS
jeff.cohen@informs.org
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