October 26 coronavirus news

By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Luke McGee and Ed Upright, CNN

Updated 5:50 p.m. ET, October 27, 2020
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11:23 a.m. ET, October 26, 2020

A Texas children's hospital is now taking non-Covid-19 patients to help overwhelmed medical center

From CNN's Gregory Lemos

As the University Medical Center of El Paso continues to be overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients as local cases surge, El Paso Children's Hospital will begin taking non-Covid patients starting Monday hospital officials tell CNN.  

"It's a banana sandwich here as I'm sure you've heard," UMC Director of Public Affairs Ryan Mielke told CNN Monday.  "We are overwhelmed with patients at this point. However, we have a strong partnership with El Paso Children's hospital." 

Mielke said the ninth floor of Children's is open for non-Covid patients from UMC and the transfers have already begun.   

Mielke said the hospital has received more than 100 additional medical staff and has set up emergency isolation tents in the hospital parking lots where Covid-19 overflow patients are being sent.

Mielke confirmed hospital staff are becoming infected as well.  

“We are not immune by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. 

He said that while the hospital is adequately staffed at the moment, they have asked the governor for additional medical personnel, a service the Department of Emergency Management provides.  

"The bottom line is the coronavirus is spreading fast and it's spreading fast throughout our city," Mielke said.  

11:39 a.m. ET, October 26, 2020

Dow drops more than 600 points

Pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange on October 14.
Pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange on October 14. Frank Franklin II/AP

Stock losses accelerated on Monday with the Dow dropping more than 600 points or 2% following a record surge of new coronavirus cases and languishing stimulus talks in DC. 

11:04 a.m. ET, October 26, 2020

New York City positivity rate is at 1.74%, mayor says

From CNN's Julian Cummings

The percent of people who tested positive for Covid-19 city wide is at 1.74%, under the 5% threshold, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said. 

The seven-day rolling average is 1.73%, he said. 

With regard to new reported cases on a seven-day average, with a threshold of 550 cases, NYC is slightly above the threshold with 551 cases. 

The daily number of people admitted to hospitals for Covid-19 is at 75, under the 200 threshold. The confirmed positivity rate for Covid-19 for those patients is 28%.

The positivity rate in New York city public schools is at .15%, according to the mayor.

New York City will begin adding public school testing data on it’s Covid-19 data page.

One thing to note: These numbers were released by the citys 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

12:06 p.m. ET, October 26, 2020

The White House "surrendered to the virus" yesterday, Sen. Angus King says

CNN's Aditi Sangal

Sen. Angus King speaks with CNN on Monday, October 26.
Sen. Angus King speaks with CNN on Monday, October 26. CNN

In response to the White House chief of staff Mark Meadows saying the US is "not going to control" the coronavirus pandemic, Independent Sen. Angus King said that’s “unconditional surrender.”

“Remember, I don't know, five or six months ago, the President said, ‘this is war. I'm a wartime president?’ Yesterday was unconditional surrender,” King, who caucuses with the Democrats, said. “It was basically waving the white flag, saying, ‘we can't control it, there's nothing you can do.’ And that's nonsense. Of course, they can control it.”

He cited the US CDC guidelines on wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing for stopping the spread of the virus, and he blamed the White House for inconsistent messaging.

“If that had been the consistent message from the White House from the beginning, when we knew those were [the things] we had to do, and in the meantime, had they developed a really strong testing program, there would probably be 50 to 100,000 fewer deaths. We would be looking like other countries that are having surges but nothing like what we're having. And like I say, yesterday was the moment that the White House surrendered to the virus."

Cases are surging across the country and nearly 225,000 Americans have died from the virus.

“Maine is a good example of how it can work. Our governor, Janet Mills, was very tough, took a huge amount of flack in terms of how we dealt with the pandemic,” Sen. King added. “Here's the bottom line. And if the Trump folks had figured this out, they’d be in a lot better shape right now… We're closer [getting] back our economy to normal because we did these simple things and our governor, as I say, took a lot of heat but stood up and did it right.”

Watch more:

2:32 p.m. ET, October 26, 2020

Regional solutions can help Midwest control the coronavirus outbreak, Chicago mayor says

From CNN's Aditi Sangal

Members of the Wisconsin National Guard administer Covid-19 tests on October 9 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Members of the Wisconsin National Guard administer Covid-19 tests on October 9 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Scott Olson/Getty Images

With coronavirus cases surging across the US, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says regional agreements and solutions could help get the numbers under control.

“The Midwest has consistently been up for now for the last three weeks. So the virus obviously doesn't respect geographic boundaries. Everywhere around Chicago is going up,” she said, citing Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa as examples. “When you see the mobility of people traveling throughout the Midwest for jobs, for schools and so forth, it's not a total surprise but it is absolutely quite distressing and we're trying to do everything that we can. But we have to all be in this together. Meaning as a region, we have to come up with a region-wide agreements and solutions. Otherwise we're never going to be able to see this virus under control.”

There has been an uptick in hospitalizations but not in intensive care unit admissions, she reported.

As part of mitigation measures, businesses in Chicago will now have to shut down by 10 p.m. local time, following a new order that aims to curb the latest surge of Covid-19. However, with these measures in place as well as the winter approaching, Lightfoot says people are starting to gather indoors.

“Don't invite people in that are not part of your immediate family or otherwise essential to be there, like a home care worker or something along those lines. That's where we're really seeing the spread. The case investigations, the contact tracing is pointing to home social settings as the primary area of risk now,” she said.

At the same time, the city is not considering canceling Halloween because “people are going to trick or treat anyway,” she said. Instead, the city has put some rules in place to encourage safety, including limiting the number of children grouping together.

“We're asking no haunted houses, no house parties. We are also really encouraging people not to have hand-to-hand contact with children as they're handing out candy,” she said.

Watch:

10:04 a.m. ET, October 26, 2020

White House adviser on stimulus: "The talks have certainly slowed down. But they're not ending."

From CNN's Betsy Klein

The U.S. Capitol is shown on October 21, 2020 in Washington, DC. 
The U.S. Capitol is shown on October 21, 2020 in Washington, DC.  Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Monday that stimulus talks have slowed but haven’t ended as the negotiators have failed to reach a deal with just eight days to the election.

“The talks have certainly slowed down. But they’re not ending. One thing I will say is the committee chairmen on both sides, Senate and House, have been meeting and discussing various aspects,” he said during a remote appearance on CNBC from inside his White House office.

“We’ll get a report this morning. Sec. Mnuchin will be talking to them. I think he’s going to be talking to Speaker Pelosi,” he said.

He said the sides are “close” but “important policy issues” still separate them. “They’re still talking, but I acknowledge the clock is ticking.”

Kudlow reiterated that there is a “strong, V-shaped recovery,” and stimulus could help in certain targeted areas, going on to cast blame on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He said the recovery is “self-sustaining.”

Kudlow was also pressed on comments from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on CNN about not controlling the virus. He reiterated best practices and said, “We get these pop-ups. I’m not sure there’s anything we can do about it. We’re seeing it in Europe and all around the world, perhaps that’s what chief Meadows was referring to, but we know a lot more than we knew.”

Dr. Deborah Birx, he said, is on the road with CDC teams in a “number of hot spots,” where they are “emphasizing the need for these guidelines.”

“That’s the best we can do, and it has worked in the past and hopefully it will continue to work,” he said.

Read CNN's latest reporting on the stimulus talks here.

9:58 a.m. ET, October 26, 2020

Care rationing could be the next step for overwhelmed hospitals in Utah

From CNN's Alta Spells

A grim warning is coming from the head of the Utah Hospital Association, who tells CNN affiliate KUTV that hospital care rationing is only days away for hospitals there.

“It’s a complex way of taking account of every patient’s situation, age, health, and the ability to survive,” said Greg Bell, the president of the hospital association, who described the system to KUTV as a way "of grading patients, or triaging or rationing care.”

A group of administrators representing the state's hospitals presented the list of "criteria they propose doctors should use if they are forced to decide which patients can stay in overcrowded intensive care units," to Utah Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. 

"We told him, ‘It looks like we’re going to have to request those be activated if this trend continues,’" Bell recounted to the Salt Lake Tribune, “'and we see no reason why it won’t.'"

According to Bell, the reason for the move is the "phenomenal case growth and spread rate” of Covid-19 in the state. 

The latest numbers: The state of Utah has reported more than 1,000 new cases per day for the last 12 days and saw its highest 7-day average for new daily cases yesterday according to information from Johns Hopkins University. 

A total of at least 104,882 cases of coronavirus and approximately 572 deaths have been reported in the state to date. 

“At the end of the day, some senior person versus some healthy young person probably would not get the nod,” Bell told KUTV during an interview Sunday night.

9:57 a.m. ET, October 26, 2020

El Paso hits another record high in Covid-19 cases

From CNN's Gregory Lemos  

The Texas city of El Paso set another record on Sunday as the health department reported another 1,559 cases of Covid-19. 

The city reported a total of 40,887 cases and 576 deaths, according to the city's Covid-19 dashboard. Ninety-two percent of Covid-19 cases are among the Hispanic population, according to the dashboard.  

The city has doubled its Covid-19 cases rate since Aug. 30 when the health department reported 20,424 cases, according to the dashboard.  

 

9:52 a.m. ET, October 26, 2020

Stocks fall as Covid-19 cases surge and stimulus remains in limbo 

From CNN‘s Anneken Tappe

Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images
Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

US stocks tumbled at Monday's opening bell, as coronavirus, Washington intransigence and earnings are weighing on the market.

The election is only eight days away, there's still no new stimulus package and the first look at how the economy fared in the third quarter will be reported on Thursday. 

Here's how things opened: The Dow opened 1.1%, or just below 300 points, lower, while the S&P 500 – the broadest measure of the US stock market – fell 0.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.8%.