Good evening,
Please find today's Daily COVID-19 Update for October 14th below and attached. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions.
Thank you,
Jeff Cohen
INFORMS Members In The News
Member: Jeremie Gallien
Federal Policy Update
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spokesperson Drew Hammill announced that Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin spoke earlier this morning and had a "productive" conversation regarding the Trump administration's latest coronavirus relief proposal, which was sent to House Democrats over the past weekend. The lawmakers reportedly continue to disagree on the "need for a national strategic testing plan. Hammill added that "staff will continue to exchange paper," and Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin "will speak again tomorrow."
- After the above phone call, Secretary Mnuchin stated in an interview that "President Trump has said to [Secretary Mnuchin] to keep at this until [he] gets this done."
- The Departments of Defense and Health & Human Services announced a $31 million contract with the manufacturer Cytiva to expand the company's capacity to produce items--such as mixer bags and XDR bioreactors--that are essential to manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.
- The Environmental Protection Agency announced that it is providing an expedited pathway for companies to demonstrate that their products have long-lasting effectiveness in fighting viruses like COVID-19 on surfaces.
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases launched a study under its Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Innovations and Vaccines (ACTIV) program which will test the efficacy of different COVID-19 treatments, with the goal of quickly moving the most successful treatments into larger trials.
- Representative Bill Huizenga (R-MI) announced that he is entering a self-quarantine after testing positive for coronavirus.
- NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci stated in an interview that he predicts a coronavirus vaccine will be made more broadly available by April of next year.
State/Territory Response
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) announced that the state government is planned to withhold funds from all local governments that are not enforcing closures of their schools or places of worship.
- West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (R) stated that the rate of COVID-19 spreading in the state's school has been "very minimal," adding that "nobody wants to do anything to endanger our state's children."
- Puerto Rican Governor Wanda Vazquez Garced (R) announced that she is cancelling all her meetings, due to Puerto Rican Health Secretary Lorenzo Gonzalez Feliciano testing positive for COVID-19.
- Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) announced that he will be getting tested for coronavirus on a regular basis, as one of his security guards has tested positive.
- The Beverly Hills City Council announced that they had voted unanimously to prohibit trick-or-treating activities this year.
- Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) announced that the city would be pushing back the planned reopening of their public schools – from October 21st to at least November 6th.
Global Response
- Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that the country would implement restrictions to curb a rise in coronavirus restrictions – with a mandate on face masks indoors, a ban on private partie
- French President Emmanuel Macron announced that several cities in the country will be implementing a nighttime curfew, effective today. The cities of Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Grenoble, Montpellier, Toulouse, Saint Etienne, Lille, and Lyon will require their residents to be at home from 9 PM to 6 AM.
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that they would implement a series of measures on the hardest-hit regions, including: bars and restaurants shutting down by 11 PM, gatherings being limited to 100 people, and masks continuing to be mandatory for the foreseeable future.
- The Slovenian government announced that they would require a nationwide shutdown of all schools above the fifth grade.
- Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford announced that Wales will ban all travelers from England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland – effective this Friday.
- Chinese health authorities announced that they are continuing their mass COVID-19 testing program, with batch testing set to test 9 million people in the city of Qingdao.
- Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced that the country is entering a "state of calamity" – effective at midnight tonight.
- Catalan President Pere Aragonès announced that bars and restaurants in Catalonia will be closed for the next two weeks in an effort to contain the current rise in COVID-19 infections.
Economic Update
- U.S. stocks were on the decline today, with all three indices closing with losses. The Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.80%, the S&P 500 by 0.66%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 0.58%.
Latest Impact Data
- In the United States: Over 8,148,266 cases and 221,824 deaths in 50 states, 4 territories, and Washington, D.C.
- Worldwide: Over 38,727,888 cases and 1,096,300 deaths in at least 204 countries and territories.
In the News
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Jeffrey M. Cohen, MBA
Director, Public Affairs & Marketing
INFORMS
jeff.cohen@informs.org------------------------------