The Latest: Italy sees 13K increase in COVID-19 cases

MILAN — The number of new COVID-19 cases in Italy rose by 13,318 on Tuesday, with 201 requiring intensive care treatment, as Italy heads toward a nationwide partial lockdown for the Christmas holidays.

The Health Ministry said the daily death toll remained at 601, bringing Italy’s known pandemic total to 69,842.

Hospitalizations dropped below 25,000, with 2,687 people in intensive care — 43 fewer than a day earlier.

Italians are easing into a holiday season full of restrictions, and already are barred from traveling to other regions except for valid reasons like work or health.

Starting Christmas eve, travel beyond city or town borders also will be blocked, with some allowance for very limited personal visits in the same region.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

Congress has easily passed a $900 billion pandemic relief package. It would deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and resources to vaccinate a nation confronting a frightening surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths. The bill has been sent to President Donald Trump for his signature, expected in the coming days. The effort comes at the end of a year that’s become the deadliest in U.S. history. Preliminary data on U.S. deaths show the coronavirus pandemic contributing to a 15% or more increase in deaths over last year. U.S. deaths topped 3 million for the first time, and the percentage increase was the largest in a single year since 1918.

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

PHOENIX — The Arizona Senate has announced a new set of COVID-19 safety guidelines for the upcoming legislative session in January, including requiring masks.

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann told the senators and staff on Monday that anyone who enters the Senate building must have their temperature checked and be wearing masks at all times.

The guidelines also require 6 feet (1.83 meters) of social distancing when possible and prohibits handshakes or any physical contact during committee hearings and gatherings.

Fann warned that failing to comply with the rules could result in an early end of the session. Lawmakers shut down their buildings last month and cut the 2020 session short because of the pandemic.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Deaths in Florida’s nursing homes doubled during the Thanksgiving holiday, according to statistics gathered by the AARP. But Florida’s rate was dramatically lower than the national average, as COVID-19 infections across the country surged.

In the three weeks straddling the Thanksgiving holiday, the rate of deaths in Florida nursing homes was 4.7 for every 1,000 residents — more than double the 2.3-death average recorded in the four weeks leading into the holiday. The data was partly culled from statistics generated by the Centers for Disease Control. Nationally, the death rate over the holiday period was 15.3 deaths per 1,000.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has made it a priority to protect the state’s elderly, and patients and staff at nursing homes statewide began injecting vaccines last week.

Nationally, the rate of deaths among nursing home residents, as well infections to not only residents but the staff who care for them, has more than tripled over the past seven weeks. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 106,000 residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

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BISMARCK, N.D. — The governor of North Dakota is allowing bars and restaurants to return to regular hours of operation on Tuesday, as the active number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have declined.

The food service establishments had been closed to in-person service between 10 a.m. and 4 a.m. since Nov. 16. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed an amended executive order on Monday that allows them to return to normal hours, consistent with any local requirements.

But to keep the virus in check, the bars and restaurants must follow other state and local rules, including limiting capacity to 50% and allowing no more than 150 people inside until Jan. 8. Social distancing, mask wearing and other precautions also remain in place.

A state order requiring masks to be worn in indoor businesses, indoor public settings and outdoor public settings where physical distancing isn’t possible remains in effect until Jan. 18. Banquet, ballroom and event venues also remain limited to 25% percent of maximum occupancy until Jan. 8.

The Department of Health has said hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in North Dakota have decreased to 158 from a peak of 341 on Nov. 11, while active cases have decreased to 2,655 since peaking at 10,293 on Nov. 13.

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WASHINGTON — The nation’s top infectious disease expert has received the initial dose of the newest COVID-19 vaccine alongside other federal health leaders who helped oversee its development.

Dr. Anthony Fauci received his first shot of the two-dose regimen alongside National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Each received the vaccine co-developed by NIH and Massachusetts drugmaker Moderna.

The vaccinations Tuesday at the NIH campus outside Washington are part of a broader government effort to bolster public confidence in the safety of two COVID-19 vaccines recently cleared by U.S. regulators.

Six health care workers from NIH’s research hospital also received vaccination shots at the event.

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WASHINGTON — The nation’s top infectious disease expert estimates that most Americans will have access to the new COVID-19 vaccines by mid-summer.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Good Morning America on Tuesday that he expects to start vaccinating the general population “somewhere in the end of March, the beginning of April.”

He said the process could take up to four months to reach all Americans who want to receive the vaccine.

The first doses started rolling out last week, with health care workers, first responders and the elderly on the priority list. Fauci planned to receive his own shot of the vaccine created by Moderna on Tuesday.

Fauci also said it was “certainly possible” that the new COVID-19 strain discovered in the U.K. had reached America as well. He said travel bans were unnecessary and “rather draconian,” but that pre-travel testing requirements for visitors from the U.K. might be preferable.

Fauci reiterated his longstanding plea for Americans to curb their normal Christmas and holiday plans this year as the virus continues to surge all around the country.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus says it will receive the first batch of the coronavirus vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer on Dec. 26 and will begin administering it the following day.

Cyprus’ Health Ministry said on Tuesday that Cyprus will receive a little over a quarter of the total amount of the vaccine apportioned under the European Union’s timetable to it within the first three months of next year.

The ministry estimates that 8,000 people — including residents and staff at nursing homes and health professionals working at hospitals treating COVID-19 patients — will be first to be vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Costantinos Ioannou said on Tuesday that high rate of coronavirus infections and hospitalizations across the island nation of 900,000 people doesn’t warrant a substantial relaxation of restrictions that include a night-time curfew extending to Jan 10.

But citing the public’s psychological fatigue with restrictions, Ioannou said the government would push back curfews on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve by a couple of hours. He also said a ban on worshippers at churches would be partially lifted only on Christmas Day and for the Jan. 6 Epiphany Day.

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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan authorities have decided to suspend passenger arrivals from Britain after reports on a new strain of the coronavirus spreading in that country.

Sri Lanka also announced Tuesday that Sri Lankans living overseas should continue to obtain approval of the foreign ministry or the civil aviation authority to travel home.

The government had earlier decided to allow Sri Lankans to return home without seeking approval starting next Sunday.

Sri Lanka is planning to open the country for tourists also from week.

There are 37,891 confirmed cases in Sri Lanka including 181 deaths.

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LONDON — Ireland’s prime minister says coronavirus restrictions will be tightened in the country amid concerns that the new variant of the virus identified in southeast England has spread across the Irish Sea.

In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the government was acting “quickly and aggressively” in response to rising infection rates and that it was proceeding on the assumption that the new variant, which is said to be more virulent than existing strains, was already in Ireland.

He said that in the last week, the country had seen “extraordinary growth in the spread of the virus.” Figures, he said, suggest the virus is growing by around 10% a day.

Among the new restrictions to be imposed over the coming days and to last until Jan. 12, Martin said restaurants and pubs selling food will have to close at 3 p.m. on Dec. 24. So-called “wet pubs” — those that don’t sell food — are already closed.

Shops and schools can stay open, he added.

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PRAGUE — The lower house of the Czech Parliament has approved a government plan to cut income taxes in an effort to help revive an economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawmakers have reduced the main tax rate from 20.1% to 15% while the top earners will pay 23%.

The annual cost of the cuts will reach some 100 billion Czech crowns ($4.6 billion).

As part of the measure, the lower house agreed to increase the flat write-off on personal income tax by 3,000 crowns annually for the next two years.

The cuts split the ruling coalition. It was pushed through by the centrist ANO (YES) movement by Prime Minister Andrej Babis with help from the right-wing opposition.

The other coalition party, the leftist Social Democrats, was against it, arguing it is unjust for low-income employees.

The tax reform had already been approved by the upper house, the Senate. President Milos Zeman said he would not veto it, meaning it will become effective in January.

The Czech central bank expects the economy to contract by 7.2% this year before bouncing back with 1.7% growth next year.

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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — The Serb chairman of Bosnia’s rotating three-member presidency, Milorad Dodik, has tested positive for the coronavirus, doctors say.

The 61-year-old leader of Bosnian Serbs was hospitalized on Saturday with stomach pains and nausea after first self-isolating following a meeting with a person infected with COVID-19.

Doctors said Tuesday that Dodik was confirmed positive with the coronavirus after a third test. They said he has pneumonia but is stable and feeling fine.

Bosnia’s health authorities reported 674 new cases and 85 deaths on Tuesday. The death toll is one of the highest in Bosnia since the start of the pandemic.

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BERLIN — The head of Germany’s disease control center says it will probably be several weeks before infections in the country, which is nearly a week into a toughened lockdown, start to decline.

Germany has seen new coronavirus cases and deaths related to COVID-19 hit record highs over recent weeks, despite a partial shutdown in place since early November. Last Wednesday, nonessential shops and schools were closed in a bid to reverse the trend.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute disease control center, said Tuesday that he fears the Christmas period is making the situation worse, despite restrictions on the number of people allowed to gather.

He appealed to people not to travel, to minimize contacts beyond their closest family and where possible meet others outdoors.

On Tuesday, Wieler’s institute reported 19,528 new cases over the past 24 hours, up from 14,432 a week earlier and bringing Germany’s total to 1.53 million. It recorded 731 more deaths, bringing the total to 27,006.

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BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia has received the first batch of 4,800 vaccines against the new coronavirus.

The vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer arrived Tuesday by cargo plane at Belgrade airport. Video footage shows workers unloading special containers with the vaccines and transferring them into a truck.

Authorities have said that vaccination will start in the Balkan country’s nursing homes for the elderly in the coming days. They say more vaccines will arrive in the weeks and months ahead.

Serbia is also testing the Russian vaccine. Officials have said the citizens will be able to choose which vaccine they want to take.

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PARIS — France’s Health Minister Olivier Veran says that authorities are expected to approve a coronavirus vaccine by Saturday.

Tuesday’s televised remark follows a tweet in which Veran said the first vaccines in the country would be administered from Sunday, the day after.

The European Medicines Agency had earlier approved the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

Veran said there is no indication that the new strain of COVID-19 detected in southern England has reached in France. France’s freight and travel connections with the U.K. are suspended until midnight.

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