November 24 coronavirus news

The majority of coronavirus spread in the US is being driven by people without symptoms in household gatherings, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday.

He added that transmission is occurring when people take off their masks and gather in homes, where they feel safe. He noted that transmission patterns are now very different from those seen in the spring in major metropolitan areas.

“Who would ever think rural North Dakota would be in the red zone?” Redfield said. “It's all in the red zone. It's really being driven by household gatherings.”

It is important to gather safety data on coronavirus vaccines in pregnant women and children, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday.

“I think you're going to see that happen fairly rapidly, just like we're going to see studies begin to look at the safety and immunogenicity in children too,” he added.

Redfield said he is hopeful a coronavirus vaccine will be available for the general public by March.

“It just reinforces why I want people to be vigilant, because we're turning the corner now,” he said. “You don't want to be the last group to end up getting Covid.”

One America News Network, one of President Trump’s favorite media outlets, has been banned from posting new videos to YouTube as a result of spreading Covid-19 misinformation. The ban will be for one week YouTube said Tuesday.

News of the temporary ban was first reported by Axios.

In a statement to CNN, YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi said:

OANN, which has become a hub of conspiracy theories undermining the integrity of the election, is also carried by major cable operators, including DirecTV, which is owned by CNN’s parent company AT&T. 

CNN has reached out to OANN for comment.

Wisconsin reported more than 100 deaths on Tuesday, the largest number of deaths reported in a single day across the state. 

The 104 new deaths reported brings the state's total to 3,115. It is also the only day since the start of the pandemic the state has reported more than 100 deaths, according to the state's dashboard. 

The state also reported 363,973 total Covid-19 cases, up 6,202 from Monday's report. 

Note: These numbers were released by the state's public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.   

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed course on his Thanksgiving plans after facing criticism for initially including his elderly mother.

Cuomo told WAMC's radio host Alan Chartock on Monday that his mother, Matilda Cuomo, 89, was planning on traveling to join him in Albany, along with two of his daughters.

"My mom is gonna come up and two of my girls, is the current plan," Cuomo said. 

However, the governor cautioned, "But the plans change ... I have a lot of work to do between now and Thanksgiving."

Later in the interview and during his news conference earlier in the day, Cuomo warned New Yorkers who plan on holding Thanksgiving celebrations as usual that it was dangerous.

"This is not a normal Thanksgiving, despite the commercialization," Cuomo said during his Monday news conference, and told New Yorkers not to buy into advertisements that hyped images of large, familiar gatherings. 

The apparent dissonance caught the ire of some on Twitter, with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, calling the governor "hypocritical."

"Do as I say, not as I do," Stefanik, a Republican, tweeted. "Family for me, but none for you."

On Tuesday, senior adviser Rich Azzopardi told CNN that the governor's plans had indeed changed.

"Given the current circumstances with Covid, he will have to work through Thanksgiving and will not be seeing them," Azzopardi said.

Cuomo spent a good amount of time addressing his own family's sadness and frustration over Thanksgiving during his Tuesday conference, say that he had explained to his mother multiple times why is was not safe to travel for the holiday.  

“I didn’t want to disappoint my mother,” Cuomo said. “Eight-nine years old, she’s thinking, ‘How many Thanksgivings do it get?'”

One of his daughters, who lives in Chicago, also had planned to visit for Thanksgiving, resulting in a tearful phone call where they debated how to travel safely during the pandemic but ultimately decided she should stay home.

"It's hard, but sometimes hard is smart," Cuomo said.

Pennsylvania added 6,669 new cases of Covid-19 as of midnight Tuesday morning, according to the state's Department of Health.

This brings the state's total case count to 321,070.

The state reported 81 new deaths.

There are 3,459 Pennsylvanians hospitalized with Covid-19, and of those, 767 are in ICUs, according to the department.

Most of those hospitalized are aged 65 or older, they said in a release. 

Health officials said the "trend in the 14-day moving average of number of hospitalized patients per day has increased by nearly 2,200 since the end of September."

Note: These numbers were released by the a local public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The White House coronavirus task force continues to sound the alarm on the spread of the pandemic across the country in weekly reports to states, focusing this week on mitigation efforts and calling for “significant behavior change of all Americans.”

The reports compared mitigation strategies such as mask usage, social distancing, and dining restrictions, working in some parts of the country to Europe, but warned that efforts in some parts of the US are not having an impact.

“In states with aggressive mitigation, we are beginning to see the impact of that mitigation despite the cooling weather. We are also seeing stabilization in many European countries that implemented strong public and private mitigation, but preserved schooling. However, in many areas of the country, mitigation efforts are inadequate or too recently implemented to see a significant impact,” the reports said. 

Those mitigation strategies, the task force said, will require “significant behavior change of all Americans,” including the wearing of masks. 

More aggressive testing efforts, the task force said, “must be combined with significant behavior change of all Americans. Ensure masks at all times in public, increase physical distancing through significant reduction in capacity in public and private indoor spaces, and ensure every American understands the clear risks of ANY family or friend interactions outside of their immediate household indoors without masks.” 

The reports also offered this bleak assessment: “All states and all counties must flatten the curve to sustain the health system for both COVID and non-COVID emergencies.” 

North Dakota is yet again the state with the highest number of new cases per 100,000 population since at least mid-October, followed by Wyoming, then South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana, Wisconsin, Utah, and New Mexico in the top 10. 

Days before the Thanksgiving holiday, the task force urged this messaging: “We need to protect those we are thankful for in our families and communities. Ensure indoor masking around vulnerable family members during any gatherings.” 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a stark warning on the coronavirus pandemic.

During a news briefing Tuesday, Cuomo said, "by our current rate of increase, current, we’re going to see a major spike" in Covid-19 cases. 

"Over the past three weeks the statewide hospitalization rate has increased 128%," he added.

The state has gone from 1,200 people statewide to 2,800 people per day in three weeks and "that is a dramatic increase."

New York City saw "nearly a 100% increase in three weeks," Cuomo said.

He attributed the increase to the onset of the fall season.

Cuomo said if you add a second factor, the holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s with increased social activity, it will increase the spread. 

Today’s overall statewide positivity rate is 2.9%, Cuomo reported.

Note: These numbers were released by New York's public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

In an easing of Covid-19 restrictions, Britain will allow for up to three households to gather indoors in the days around Christmas, the UK government said Tuesday. 

Up to three households will be allowed to form a "Christmas bubble" and mix indoors, outdoors and in places of worship from Dec. 23-28. This will apply to all four nations of the UK – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

There will be no restrictions on travel across the country for that time period even if some areas are under tighter measures than others under a tiered system.

"This cannot be a ‘normal’ Christmas. But as we approach the festive period, we have been working closely together to find a way for family and friends to see each other, even if it is for a short time, and recognising that it must be both limited and cautious," a government news release reads. 

"The UK-wide agreement reached today will offer hope for families and friends who have made many sacrifices over this difficult year."