The latest news on COVID-19:
DES MOINES — Iowa reported 1,217 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours and 11 deaths.
President Donald Trump was expected to visit Des Moines on Wednesday for an airport rally held in a cargo hangar. Iowa’s positivity rate of 18.82% ranks fifth in the nation.
The number of people treated in hospitals for COVID-19 reached a new high of 473. A region of southeast Iowa had only 18% inpatient beds available, according to state data.
Iowa’s seven-day rolling average positivity rate rose in the past two weeks from 16.78% on Sept. 29 to 18.82% on Oct. 13, according information from Johns Hopkins University.
In Iowa, there’s been a total of 101,812 confirmed cases and 1,492 deaths.
PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron announced that 18 million French citizens in nine regions, including in Paris, will have a curfew starting Saturday through Dec. 1.
He also reinstated the state of health emergency for the country, which ended three months ago. The 9 p.m. curfew is aimed at limiting the resurgent coronavirus amid second wave.
Macron says: “Our goal is to curb the virus. We must reduce the number of cases per day to 3,000 or 4,000. Our goal is to reduce private contacts. What is called the curfew is a measure that is appropriate.”
The curfew will apply to the Paris region and to eight others: Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Aix-Marseille, Toulouse, Montpellier, Saint-Etienne.
“We won’t go to restaurants after 9 p.m., we won’t’ see friends, we won’t party, because that’s how to pass on the virus,” Macron says.
Patients with COVID-19 occupy a third of intensive care units nationwide. France has 798,000 confirmed cases and nearly 33,000 deaths.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The city of Beverly Hills, California, has banned trick-or-treating this Halloween to try to prevent spread of the coronavirus.
The action was approved as an urgency ordinance by the City Council on Tuesday night.
The ordinance bars trick-or-treaters from going house to house or car to car, which is described as “trunk or treating.”
People may not provide candy or Halloween treats to anyone outside their own household. The city is also banning pedestrians and vehicles from certain streets on Oct. 31, excluding residents.
California has not enacted a statewide restriction on Halloween but is strongly discouraging those activities and urging families to plan alternatives, including virtual celebrations.
MADRID — Spain has become the first European Union nation to reach 900,000 infections after adding more than 11,000 confirmed cases.
Spain’s health ministry say it has confirmed 908,056 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, which is seventh in the world.
France is next in the EU with more than 750,000 cases, although the exact number of cases in each country depends on the amount of testing.
More than 5,000 new cases were diagnosed in Spain between Tuesday and Wednesday, the ministry says.
Spanish authorities have confirmed 33,413 deaths from COVID-19, ranking eighth in the world. Health experts believe the actual number is much higher because of a lack of testing.
NEW YORK — Facing public skepticism about rushed COVID-19 vaccines, U.S. health officials are planning an extra layer of safety scrutiny for the first people vaccinated when shots become available.
A new poll shows a quarter of Americans say they wouldn’t get vaccinated, a slight increase from 1 in 5 in May. The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only 46% of Americans want the vaccine and 29% aren’t sure.
Black Americans have been especially hard-hit by COVID-19, but just 22% say they plan to get vaccinated compared with 48% of white Americans, the AP-NORC poll found.
On top of rigorous final testing in tens of thousands of people, any COVID-19 vaccines cleared for widespread use will get additional safety evaluation as they’re rolled out. Some states are planning their own safety reviews.
Among plans from the CDC: Texting early vaccine recipients to check how they’re feeling, daily for the first week and then weekly out to six weeks.
ROME — Italy has recorded 7,332 coronavirus cases, its single biggest single-day increase since the start of the outbreak.
The previous record was 6,557 cases on March 21 when Italy became the European epicenter of the pandemic. However, there is more testing, with 152,000 conducted in the last day.
Another 43 people died, bringing Italy’s confirmed toll to 36,289, the second highest in Europe after Britain.
Public health officials are warning that hospitals are filling up and Italy’s contact tracing is overwhelmed by the number of the new infections. Virologist Andrea Crisanti says the resurgence threatens to create a “vicious circle” of too many infections to trace.
Speaking to RAI TG24 on Wednesday, he suggested a Christmastime lockdown would help stop the chain of transmission and help “reset” the overwhelmed contact tracing system.
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked an order from Gov. Tony Evers’ administration limiting the number of people who can gather in bars, restaurants and other indoor places.
The order issued Wednesday comes as Wisconsin breaks records for new coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations.
Evers imposed the new capacity limits last week to help curb the spread in the state. It limits the number of customers in many indoor establishment to 25% of capacity.
The Tavern League of Wisconsin sued, arguing it amounted to “defacto closure.” Sawyer County Circuit Judge John Yackel on Wednesday blocked the order and set a court date for Monday.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court earlier this year struck down Evers’ “safer at home” order, which the governor has cited as part of the reason why coronavirus cases have spiked in Wisconsin.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s health secretary announced he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Lorenzo González says he’s quarantined himself and alerted all those he’d been in contact.
The U.S. territory of 3.2 million people has reported more than 27,600 confirmed cases and more than 740 deaths.
The island remains under certain restrictions imposed since the pandemic began, including a night curfew and restaurants, gyms and theaters operating at limited capacity.
GENEVA — The Swiss army is stopping weekend leave for some 10,000 recruits for the last two weeks of October to brace against the spread of the coronavirus.
Spokesman Daniel Reist of the Swiss army says the 24 coronavirus cases currently tallied were all contracted during previous leave at home — not among soldiers — so military chiefs opted to suspend the upcoming leave.
Seven of those cases produced mild symptoms, while the others had no symptoms at all. Switzerland has mandatory military service for all young men.
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA — Romania registered a record number of new coronavirus infections with 4,016 on Wednesday as the number of patients in intensive care also surged.
Romania, a nation of 19 million, has a total of 164,477 confirmed cases and 5,601 deaths. More than two-thirds of the confirmed cases were reported since the end of July.
The surge in new infections comes as authorities in Bucharest are considering a partial reopening of cinemas, theaters and restaurants following the recommendations of the National Center for Supervision and Control of Infectious Diseases (CNSU).
Romanian authorities ordered the shutdown of all indoor restaurants, theaters, movie cinemas, gambling and dance venues in the capital in early October. If the recommendations are approved, cinemas, theaters and restaurants will re-open on Thursday with reduced capacity, depending on the number of registered cases in their areas.
City officials have banned larger gatherings such as weddings and baptisms and may impose mandatory mask wearing outdoors.
WASHINGTON — The World Bank says it has approved $12 billion in financing to help developing countries buy and distribute coronavirus vaccines, tests and treatments.
The bank says the aim is to support the vaccination of up to 1 billion people and to signal to researchers and the pharmaceutical industry that people living in poor countries need access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
It is part of a wider World Bank Group package of up to $160 billion to help developing countries fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The bank says its pandemic response programs are reaching 111 countries.
Development and deployment of such preventive vaccines is crucial to helping stem outbreaks of the coronavirus that has killed more than 1 million people and sickened more than 38 million.
The world’s richest countries have locked up most of the potential vaccine supply through 2021, raising concerns poor and vulnerable communities won’t get the shots.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has apologized to the faithful for being unable to greet them and shake hands following a coronavirus spike in Italy and the Vatican.
Instead of wading into the crowd to embrace the sick and kiss babies during his weekly general audience Wednesday, Francis walked in through a back door directly onto the stage.
At 83 and with part of a lung missing since an illness in his 20s, the pope would be at high-risk for COVID-19 complications. Yet he has been reluctant to wear a face mask and appeared without one again Wednesday, even though many of his entourage and all the Swiss Guards wore masks.
He told the crowd: “I would like to come down as usual and get close to you to greet you, but with new prescriptions, we would better keep our distances.”
This week, four Swiss Guards tested positive for the coronavirus and were in isolation. There have been 19 total cases in the Vatican. The Vatican amended its mask mandates to conform with all of Italy, requiring them indoors and out.
While Francis was seen donning a mask a few weeks ago, the Vatican has not responded to questions about why he isn’t wearing one now. Francis often seems out of breath and speaks in a whisper because of his lung condition, suggesting that wearing a mask might be particularly uncomfortable.
GENEVA — Authorities in Switzerland are reporting a new daily record of 2,823 confirmed coronavirus cases, with young adults as the most affected demographic.
The Federal Office of Public Health says that brings the total to 68,704 confirmed cases. It recorded eight new deaths for a confirmed total of 1,816.
At a peak between late March and mid-April, Switzerland was recording more than 40 COVID-related deaths per day.
The age group 20-29 has tallied most of the new cases, while older groups were generally more affected in the early phases of the pandemic.
MOSCOW — Russian authorities have reported a record 14,000 new coronavirus cases, the latest daily spike in infections.
Russia, which has the world’s fourth-largest confirmed coronavirus caseload of more than 1.3 million, has been reporting over 10,000 new cases for 11 straight days, The 14,231 new infections on Wednesday is the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic.
Most of the virus restrictions in the county have been lifted over the summer. Despite the rapid resurgence of the outbreak, Russian authorities have dismissed suggestions of a second national lockdown.
In Moscow, which has been reporting over 4,000 new cases every day since Saturday, officials recommended that the elderly to self-isolate at home and ordered employers to have 30% of their staff work from home. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also extended school holidays by one week.
On Wednesday, Sobyanin said school students from 6th to 11th grades will shift to online studies for two weeks beginning Monday. Pupils in 1st to 5th grades will continue attending schools as usual.