Covid-19 Live Updates: Trump Suggests Vaccine Approval Plans Are Driven by Politics

Trump suggests that the F.D.A.’s new vaccine approval plans may be driven by politics.

President Trump said on Wednesday that the White House “may or may not” approve new Food and Drug Administration guidelines that would toughen the process for approving a coronavirus vaccine, and suggested the plan “sounds like a political move.”

The pronouncement once again undercut government scientists who had spent the day trying to bolster public faith in the promised vaccine. Just hours earlier, four senior physicians leading the federal coronavirus response strongly endorsed the tighter safety procedures, which would involve getting outside expert approval before a vaccine could be declared safe and effective by the F.D.A.

Last week, Mr. Trump said that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had “made a mistake” when he said that most Americans would not complete the vaccination process until next summer and that masks were at least as important as a vaccine to control the virus’s spread.

The F.D.A. had planned to issue stricter guidelines for the emergency authorization of any new coronavirus vaccine, which would add a new layer of caution to the vetting process, even as the president has insisted a vaccine will be ready as early as next month. Mr. Trump, though, cast doubt on the F.D.A. plan.

“That has to be approved by the White House,” he said, adding, “We may or may not approve it.” Raising questions about why vaccine makers would want to delay the process, he said, “We are looking at that, but I think that was a political move more than anything else.”

He pointedly said he had “tremendous trust in these massive companies” that are testing the vaccines, adding, “I don’t know that a government as big as” the federal government could do as well.

At Wednesday’s Senate hearing, the doctors — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the F.D.A.; Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the C.D.C. director; and Admiral Brett P. Giroir, the coronavirus testing czar — defended their scientific integrity amid mounting evidence that Mr. Trump and his administration have interfered with their agencies’ decision-making and growing public doubts about a vaccine.

All four officials pledged to take any vaccine approved by the F.D.A. and said they would encourage their families to do the same.

Polls show a troubling drop in the number of Americans who would be willing to take a coronavirus vaccine. A survey published last week by the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of Americans would either probably or definitely take a vaccine, down from 72 percent in May.

Israel will tighten its national lockdown as infection rates soar.

The Israeli government said on Thursday that it was tightening its second national lockdown after coronavirus infection rates soared this week to about 7,000 new cases a day, among the highest in the world.

The new measures, which go into effect on Friday, will remain in place at least until the end of the Jewish High Holy Days in mid-October. Most businesses will have to close, and all gatherings, including protests and communal prayers, will be restricted to groups of up to 20 people outdoors within about 1,100 yards of home.

An exception has been made for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, which begins at sundown on Sunday. Limited numbers of worshipers will be allowed to pray inside synagogues as they did during last week’s Rosh Hashana, or New Year, holiday.

Ultra-Orthodox cabinet ministers had argued that for many Jews, praying outdoors in the heat on Monday would be unbearable, especially for those observing the 25-hour fast of the sacred day of atonement.

The government was still mulling whether to halt outbound flights allowing Israelis to travel abroad from Ben-Gurion International Airport.

The new restrictions were largely meant to address a heated dispute roiling Israel. On one side are those who say they have the right to hold mass protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which have been taking place weekly in the streets near his official residence in Jerusalem. On the other are Orthodox politicians who oppose restrictions on prayer as long as the protests are allowed to continue.

The Israeli Parliament must approve any measures limiting the freedom to protest, which is anchored in law.

The ranks of jobless workers in the U.S. seeking aid rose last week.

Applications for jobless benefits in the United States remained at staggeringly high levels last week as employers continued to lay off workers six months after the coronavirus pandemic first rocked the economy.

About 825,000 Americans filed for state unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That is up from 796,000 a week earlier, though it is far below the more than six million people a week who were filing for benefits during the peak period of layoffs in the spring. Those numbers do not reflect adjustments for seasonal fluctuations. (On an adjusted basis, last week’s total was 870,000, up from the previous week.)

In addition, 630,000 initial filings were recorded for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, an emergency federal program that covers freelancers, self-employed workers and others left out of the regular unemployment system. That program has been plagued by fraud and double-counting, and many economists say the data is unreliable.

By any measure, hundreds of thousands of Americans are losing their jobs each week, and millions more laid off earlier in the crisis are still relying on unemployed benefits to meet their basic expenses. Applications for benefits remain higher than at the peak of many past recessions, and after falling quickly in the spring, the number has declined only slowly in recent weeks.

“Compared to April, they’re trending down, but if you’re comparing to the pre-Covid era they are still so high,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist for the career site Indeed.

England finally releases a contact-tracing app.

After various fits and starts, delays and technical missteps, England on Thursday released a contact-tracing app that the government hopes will help slow the spread of the coronavirus by alerting those who have been in proximity to an infected person.

Released just as Britain is imposing new restrictions in response to a surge of cases, the app, called “NHS Covid-19,” uses technology created by Apple and Google to anonymously log when a person comes into close contact with another user of the app. If a person tests positive for the coronavirus, the app sends an alert to those they have come into contact to self-isolate and get tested.

The app, now available in Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store, also has a way for people to “check in” at restaurants, bars and other locations they visit by scanning a bar code, another measure to help track down individuals who have been exposed to the virus.

Release of the app follows various delays and challenges. The government had initially vowed to build an app without help from Apple or Google, saying it would offer more flexibility to track the spread of the disease. But after confronting technical challenges, the government reversed course. The switch delayed the release of the app, which at one point had been slated to be introduced in May. The app was released in England and Wales; similar technology had already been released in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Some older phones are not able to handle the new app, which requires version iOS 13.5 or later for an iPhone and version 6 or later for Android. That means Apple handsets that are an iPhone 6 or older will not be compatible.

The effectiveness of the app will in part depend on how many people use it. Without wide adoption, its usefulness is more limited. The technology could also test the government’s overall track-and-trace system, which has been riddled with problems.

“Everybody who downloads the app will be helping to protect themselves, helping to protect their loved ones, helping to protect their community because the more people who download it, the more effective it will be,” Matt Hancock, the country’s health secretary, told the BBC.

Also on Thursday, Britain’s top financial official, Rishi Sunak, announced a range of new and extended measures to protect jobs and help businesses, including another government wage-paying program, just days after the prime minister, Boris Johnson, set new social restrictions that he warned could last for months.

Fears of the virus appear to fuel a killing in North Korea.

A South Korean government official apparently trying to defect to North Korea was shot and killed by troops in the North who set his body on fire for fear he might be carrying the coronavirus, South Korean officials said on Thursday.

The violent episode threatens to further derail diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The official who was killed was a first mate on a government ship​ monitoring fishing boats ​near a disputed sea border ​with North Korea early Monday. After he went missing, South Korean ships and planes conducted an extensive search but could not find him before he drifted into North Korean waters.

A North Korean fishing patrol boat found the man wearing a life jacket and clinging to a floatable device on Tuesday afternoon, South Korean officials said. Hours later, they said, a North Korean Navy ship approached the man and opened fire under orders from higher-ups, although it was clear he was trying to defect.

North Korean soldiers wearing gas masks and other protective gear then poured oil on his body and set it on fire, they said.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry called the killing a stunning and “atrocious” act and demanded that the North punish those responsible.

North Korea has yet to comment on the shooting. If confirmed by the North, it would be the first time ​that the country’s government has killed a South Korean citizen in its territory since 2008.

In July, North Korea locked down a city near its border with South Korea after a ​​North Korean man who had defected to the South three years ago ​swam across the western border to return to the city. The North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, declared a “maximum” national emergency for fear the man may “have been infected with the vicious virus​.”​

But South Korean officials have said there is no proof the man carried the coronavirus. Experts are also skeptical of North Korea’s persistent claim that it has no confirmed Covid-19 cases.

global roundup

Indonesia surpasses 10,000 deaths as its caseload surges.

Indonesia’s coronavirus death toll soared past 10,000 on Thursday, as new cases continued to surge across the nation and within the president’s cabinet.

The world’s fourth-most-populous country already has the second-highest death toll from the coronavirus in the Asia-Pacific region, after India. Experts believe that many more deaths have gone unreported in Indonesia because many patients suspected of having the disease died before their test results were returned.

Cases are still climbing, too: Indonesia, which until last week had never reached 4,000 new cases in a single day, has now passed that mark five times in the past six days. Over the past week it has reported nearly 30,000 new cases, on par with Britain, Israel and Mexico.

On Thursday afternoon, Indonesia reported 4,634 new cases, a daily record, and 128 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 10,105.

The minister of religious affairs, Fachrul Razi, 73, became the third member of President Joko Widodo’s cabinet to test positive, his office said Monday. The ministers of transportation and fisheries have both recovered, but a top Jakarta government official died last week.

Indonesia was slow to adopt coronavirus restrictions earlier this year, then quick to lift them in the hope of reviving the economy. Jakarta, the capital, recently imposed a partial shutdown for the second time. But the government’s overall approach appears to have backfired as cases keep rising and the economy sputters.

The country’s economy is expected to contract this year for the first time since the Asian economic crisis of 1998, the finance minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, said Tuesday. She forecast a decline in the gross domestic product of as much as 1.7 percent this year.

The government is urging members of the public to wear masks and is imposing fines of up to $ 16.75 for those not wearing one. A few people have been told to lie in a coffin as punishment. Others have chosen to dig graves for Covid-19 victims rather than pay a fine.

Health experts are concerned that campaign events for regional elections planned for December could cause new incidents of superspreading. And they worry that seasonal flooding could soon displace thousands from their homes and cause more contagion as people crowd into shelters.

They also fear that the country’s beleaguered medical system could be overwhelmed by a surge of patients. Some hospitals are nearing capacity and more than 4,300 patients with moderate or no symptoms are being housed at an athletic village in Jakarta.

“We really need the public’s assistance to carry out health protocols, because if we continue like this, all our existing systems will collapse,” the national medical volunteer coordinator, Jossep William, told reporters on Monday.

In other developments around the world:

• China National Biotec Group, a front-runner in developing a coronavirus vaccine, will donate 200,000 doses of its vaccine to health care workers in the city of Wuhan, where the pandemic first emerged nine months ago, the chairman of the company said on Thursday. The vaccine, which is developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, has only cleared two phases of clinical trials but has been approved for emergency use. It is currently in the final stage of trials in more than 10 countries.

• Germany on Thursday added the cities of Copenhagen, Dublin and Lisbon to a list of high-risk areas in the European Union that travelers are being encouraged to avoid. Germany has a seven-day average of about 1,700 new cases a day. The country’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, has also gone into quarantine after a person on his staff tested positive for the virus.

• Hong Kong has added the United Kingdom to its list of high-risk countries, meaning that, starting Oct. 1, arriving visitors must show proof of a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of boarding their flight. Travelers must also have a confirmed hotel reservation for a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

• A prestigious hospitality management school in Switzerland sent 2,500 of its students into a 10-day quarantine after an outbreak that was thought to have stemmed from a party. The École Hôtelière de Lausanne was scheduled to reopen next week.

• About 600 students at the University of Glasgow in Scotland are self-isolating after an outbreak of at least 124 cases of the virus across two residence halls. The university attributed the outbreak to students socializing during the first week of the semester and said the affected students would be required to remain in their accommodation for 14 days. Outbreaks at other universities in Scotland have prompted a voluntary lockdown at St. Andrews last weekend and 500 students to quarantine in Dundee. Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, told students on Wednesday, “Please know that we appreciate the sacrifices you are making at this very important stage of your lives.”

• Breaking with a lucrative winter tradition, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria announced on Thursday that, while resorts would be allowed to open for skiing, après-ski, or after-ski, gatherings would not be allowed this coming season. At many European resorts, après ski is characterized by copious amounts of alcohol, live music and exuberant celebration. Last winter, health officials traced hundreds of virus cases to the après ski in the Austrian village of Ischgl.

• Attendance at a soccer game on Thursday between two of Europe’s top teams, Bayern Munich and Sevilla, will be limited to a third of the stadium’s capacity as part of virus-prevention measures. A maximum of 20,000 fans will be admitted to the game in Hungary, to be played at a stadium in Budapest.

Virus cases are reported in 100 New York City school buildings.

At least one coronavirus case had been reported in more than 100 school buildings and early childhood centers in the New York City school system by the first day of in-person instruction on Monday, according to the Department of Education.

Nearly all the buildings remained open, though six were closed temporarily, in accordance with city guidelines that only those schools that report at least two cases in different classrooms will be shut.

The cases occurred between Sept. 8, when teachers and staff members reported to schools, and Monday, when the first students entered classrooms.

In dozens of cases, the infected individuals got the positive test results and did not report to work, the department said. Others did report to school, and their close contacts in the buildings were told to quarantine for two weeks.

Avery Cohen, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said that the cases included a “handful” of students, but that “the vast majority were among staff before schools reopened for students.”

Some public health experts said the statistics reflect a new reality.

With in-person learning taking place in a system with 1.1 million schoolchildren, 75,000 teachers, and 2,500 school buildings and early childhood centers, new cases will most likely be a daily occurrence, they said. Individual building closings will also be common, they said.

Dr. Michael Mina, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said New York City families should be prepared for a constant game of Whac-a-Mole. The virus is likely to re-emerge repeatedly in school buildings until there is either a vaccine or very frequent testing, he said.

Ideally, Dr. Mina said, 50 percent of all students and staff members should be tested three times a week.

A high-ranking Indian official has died from the virus.

A minister in the Indian government became the first high-ranking official to die from the coronavirus as the country struggles to contain a rapidly increasing caseload.

Suresh Angadi, 65, who died on Wednesday, was a junior minister for the Indian Railways. He is the fourth Indian lawmaker to die from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Mr. Angadi was a powerful politician from the southern state of Karnataka, where he worked to strengthen the base of Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindu nationalist party that rules India.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said Mr. Angadi was an effective minister, who worked hard in his state to make his political party strong, and was admired across the political spectrum.

“His demise is saddening,” Mr. Modi wrote on Twitter.

With 5.7 million confirmed cases, India has the world’s second-highest caseload after the United States and is inching toward the top spot. At least 91,000 Indians have been killed by the virus, and the country recorded 1,129 deaths in the past 24 hours.

At least 17 Indian lawmakers have tested positive for Covid-19, a majority of them from the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to officials.

Reporting was contributed by Ben Casselman, Choe Sang-Hun, Mike Ives, Isabel Kershner, Eshe Nelson, Benjamin Novak, Richard C. Paddock, Elian Peltier, Adam Satariano, Anna Schaverien, Christopher F. Schuetze, Dera Menra Sijabat, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Sui-Lee Wee, Sameer Yasir and Elaine Yu.