Live updates: Three-quarters of Americans worry over vaccine haste, as global coronavirus cases top 30 million

The Trump administration convened a panel of nursing home operators and administrators, academics and state health officials to recommend ways to step up protections for nursing home residents amid the covid-19 pandemic, and this week it received the advice: More money for testing, for personal protective equipment, for registered nurses, for infection control training and staff salary increases.

The report, commissioned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, noted that nursing homes have borne the brunt of the pandemic — with more than 50,000 residents and staff dead so far — and argued that public resources to deal with the disease have been lacking.

Nonetheless, Seema Verma, head of CMS, called the report “a resounding vindication of our overall approach to date.”

However one member of the panel differed with Verma’s assessment in a Tweet.

LONDON — The cost of a puppy in Britain more than doubled to almost $2,500 during the nationwide lockdown as people rushed to buy pets, with some paying more than 3,000 pounds (about $4,000) for a new dog, the BBC reported Friday.

The most popular breeds include cocker spaniels, Jack Russells and Cockapoos — a cavalier spaniel and poodle crossbreed.

The Dogs Trust, an animal welfare charity, said on its website that the stay-at-home order sparked a huge increase in people searching for a furry companion. It noted, however, that high demand was also providing a sinister opportunity for “cruel” illegal puppy farms and smugglers to make money. Such facilities are known for poor breeding practices and substandard living conditions.

“Through the crisis we’ve continued to see puppies being illegally imported into the U.K. and being sold via online adverts. These little puppies are often very poorly treated,” the charity’s covid-19 appeal states, calling the global health crisis a “booming business for smugglers.”

The trust estimates that the total street value of smuggled puppies saved since lockdown is almost $104,000, and that up to 40,000 dogs in the country may need help.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals warned that staff were being “stretched to their limit” amid the pandemic and expressed concern that with so many people now spending more time at home, dogs are likely to face behavioral issues such as separation anxiety when owners eventually return to work.

A survey conducted by the Dogs Trust found that 41 percent of owners reported their dog had displayed increased clingy behavior or following people around the house during lockdown, while more than 80 percent said their animals were whining or barking when someone was busy.

Several states that moved quickly to lift lockdown restrictions this summer — only to slam the brakes as coronavirus infections began surging — are once again moving ahead with reopening.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Thursday that restaurants, retail stores and gyms in most parts of the state could resume operating at 75 percent occupancy, the limit that was in place in June before Abbott reversed course and imposed new restrictions. Bars, however, will remain closed. The state is also resuming elective surgeries in most hospital districts, with exceptions for parts of the Rio Grande Valley that are still seeing high numbers of hospitalizations.

In Nevada, a state coronavirus task force authorized reopening bars in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, for the first time since July. Shutdowns were also lifted for Elko County, which had been the only other county where bars remained closed because of a failure to meet key testing metrics.

Florida also plowed ahead with reopening this week, allowing bars statewide to welcome back patrons at 50 percent capacity. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) initially closed bars when outbreaks began appearing in March, but allowed them to reopen in early June, a move that was followed by a steep uptick in cases. Later that month, state liquor regulators intervened and shut down bars for a second time.

According to Politico Florida, contact tracing teams determined that many of the summer outbreaks were spawned by a handful of bars that flouted social distancing and capacity regulations. Halsey Beshears, the secretary of the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation, said in a statement last week that he believed bars and breweries would do better the second time around.

“It’s vital that we start moving forward with this sector of our hospitality industry who have endured one of the toughest paths for sustaining a business during this pandemic,” he said.

DeSantis also said last week that he expects to soon lift a restriction limiting indoor dining to 50 percent capacity, according to Politico.

LONDON — Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Friday that the coronavirus was once again “accelerating” in Britain and did not rule out the possibility of another nationwide lockdown if cases continue to climb.

In an interview with Sky News, Hancock said hospitalization rates were increasing along with confirmed cases of the virus, and called for unity to keep the risk of transmission down.

Asked repeatedly about how close the country was to another full-scale lockdown, Hancock said that a “national lockdown is the last line of defense,” but one that he could not rule out despite a desire to avoid draconian measures.

“We’ll do what is necessary to keep people safe,” he said.

Britain has imposed restrictions in high-risk areas in recent weeks, taking a targeted approach to slowing the spread of the virus where new outbreaks appear. More than 30 areas are under local restrictions, according to British media reports, with an estimated 10 million people already under lockdown and unable to see family or friends.

Nationally, gatherings of more than six people have been banned as of this week in an effort to contain the virus’s resurgence.

Britain has the highest covid-19 death toll in Europe with more than 41,000 lives lost to the virus, despite a nationwide lockdown that started at the end of March and began easing in May. Critics have faulted the government, however, for moving too slowly to implement restrictions and for other deficiencies in the pandemic response.

Coronavirus testing remains plagued by problems, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s promise to offer a “world beating” service.

A recent investigation by national radio station LBC revealed that there were no tests available in any of England’s top 10 virus hot spots, while many reported that they needed to drive long distances to be tested.

President Trump stood before a televised audience Wednesday and proclaimed that “results are very good” for vaccines targeting the novel coronavirus. A day later, Moderna and Pfizer, two front-runner drug companies developing a shot, released the full rule books for their studies, revealing that no one yet knows conclusively whether a vaccine is safe and effective — not even company executives.

Trump’s imprecise, extemporaneous comments about vaccines have frequently clashed with messages from government officials, outside scientists and companies. That discord has intensified concerns that political pressure will force a vaccine to be prematurely approved but also has sown public confusion as important public health messages have become entangled with politicians’ appeals to voters and companies’ communications to shareholders.

“We need trust as much as we need efficacy,” said Andrew Pavia, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Utah School of Medicine. “We can’t afford to do anything that reduces the trust. It’s not just the trust of the public. Experts in the field have to see enough of the data to feel comfortable to recommend it.”

Developed by the British company DnaNudge, the test was approved in April and has been in use in some British hospitals since May. The kit uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which is believed to be more accurate than rapid response tests but “usually requires a centralized laboratory and significant infrastructure,” the study notes. Allowing time for handling and processing can mean that PCR test results take a day to complete, though the testing procedure itself only takes four to six hours.

DnaNudge circumvents that problem by allowing health workers to insert swabs from PCR tests in a single-use cartridge, which is then plugged into a shoebox-sized, WiFi enabled device that processes the results. The method of quickly extracting ribonucleic acid from the sample is based on similar technology used by DnaNudge’s main product, a wearable bracelet that offers health advice customized to an individual’s DNA.

Health officials in Britain have already ordered 5.8 million of the tests for use in National Health Service hospitals and nursing homes.

The study’s release comes amid mounting anger over apparent failures in the country’s test-and-trace infrastructure. Officials revealed on Thursday that almost 90 percent of covid-19 tests took more than 24 hours to deliver results, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson promising months earlier that they would be ready within a day. Meanwhile, Britain is potentially facing a second lockdown amid a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

Johnson believes that a “moonshot” plan to drastically increase testing capacity to 10 million tests a day is the only way to avoid another lockdown before a vaccine is developed, according to leaked government documents obtained by the Guardian.

CNN made television history on Thursday night with a voter forum that perfectly illustrated the logistical creativity that has been necessary when holding a presidential election during a global pandemic.

The network hosted the first drive-in town hall event, with registered Pennsylvania voters posing questions to Joe Biden in a stadium parking lot, only a few feet away from parked vehicles.

“Have you ever been to an event like this?” moderator Anderson Cooper asked the former vice president at the beginning of the event, held at a minor league baseball field in Pennsylvania.

NEW YORK — Four days before students were set to arrive at school buildings, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he would again delay face-to-face instruction for nearly all students as the school system, which educates more than 1 million youths, scrambled to assuage growing fears among educators and parents.

Under the latest plan, in-person learning would begin for preschoolers and special-education students Monday, with other students joining over the next two weeks.

De Blasio (D) had pledged to provide parents the option to send their children back to school for at least part of the week, allowing for social distancing, and provide virtual instruction the rest of the time. School buildings were set to reopen Monday.

If the year’s first yellowing leaves and sudden chilly days have you craving a pumpkin spice latte and apple cider doughnuts, you’re probably ready to map out your fall fun calendar. Fortunately, many of your favorite autumnal activities are finding ways to continue during the pandemic.

“I just went raspberry picking the other day, and I was surprised to see all the covid protocols in place,” says Alvin Tran, an assistant professor of public health in the University of New Haven School of Health Sciences in Connecticut. “From what I’ve seen, there are a lot berry-picking farms and apple-picking farms that do have covid protocols in place. And that is promising.”

We’ll take promising. Here are things to keep in mind as you go about your fall frolicking.

That number is widely considered an understatement, given that many nations have not performed enough testing to have an accurate picture of the virus’s spread. The number of fatalities worldwide, also understood to be an undercount, was approaching 945,000 by Friday.

The United States still has the largest share of infections — over 6.6 million, representing more than a fifth of all confirmed cases worldwide. But the most dramatic increases in recent weeks have occurred in India, which has repeatedly logged more than 90,000 infections a day and overtaken Brazil as the nation with the second-highest total of coronavirus cases. This week, India became the only country besides the United States that has reported more than 5 million cases.

Brazil has reported nearly 4.5 million infections, including roughly 217,000 in the past week, an increase roughly on par with the United States.

A lack of information from some D.C. residents who test positive for the novel coronavirus is hurting the city’s efforts to corral the virus’s spread, officials said Thursday.

Six months after the first confirmed case in the nation’s capital, the city released new statistics demonstrating challenges in contact tracing and containing the coronavirus. While infections in D.C. are far below their peak, officials say those who become infected are sometimes hesitant to provide details that could prevent future transmissions.

Figures released Thursday indicate the city has reached three-quarters of newly infectious people for interviews about their activities and social exposures, but 58 percent were interviewed within three days of a positive test. Speedy interviews are essential to identify people exposed to the virus before they could spread it, experts say.

President Trump’s public rebuke of a top federal health official who did not parrot White House talking points about a fast-track coronavirus vaccine is the latest example of the president’s effort to enforce an upbeat narrative about the pandemic, even if that does not square with the facts.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the most recent government physician or scientist to run afoul of Trump’s coronavirus message machine. He did so in congressional testimony Wednesday, saying a vaccine greenlighted later this year would probably not be available to most Americans until sometime in 2021 because those most in need would get the first doses. Redfield also rankled Trump by saying masks are “more guaranteed to protect me against covid than when I take a covid vaccine.”

Trump said Redfield “made a mistake” on both counts, although the CDC director’s projection about the timetable for vaccine approval and distribution mirrored those of other top officials, including Operation Warp Speed chief scientist Moncef Slaoui and Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.