March 12 coronavirus news

Miguel Cardona's top priority as President Biden's secretary of education is to open schools safely and quickly to provide relief to millions of families struggling under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic.

More on Cardona: Cardona, whose family is from Puerto Rico, enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top of Connecticut's public education system. He began his career as fourth-grade teacher in Meriden, in the same district where he attended school. Cardona soon became a principal and then assistant superintendent of the district before being named state commissioner in 2019.

His predecessor, Betsy DeVos, was a controversial nominee from the start when former Vice President Mike Pence had to make a tie-breaking vote to confirm her to the role. DeVos, a staunch school choice and private school advocate, had almost no experience in public education and was often at odds with the teachers' unions.

Indoor dining at restaurants in Los Angeles County will be allowed to reopen Monday up to 25% capacity after being closed countywide for nearly nine months, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health (LAPDH) announced at a news conference Friday.

Movie theaters will also be permitted to reopen with up to 25% maximum capacity.

The announcement comes amid declining case levels and after California health officials said two million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to people in the most under-resourced communities across the state, allowing L.A. County to move from the purple tier, the most restrictive in the state's coronavirus reporting system, to the red tier. 

Restaurants in L.A. County that plan on reopening for indoor dining Monday must follow certain protocols to maintain proper safety and social distancing rules, the department said.

There must be eight feet of distancing between indoor dining tables, air conditioning systems must be evaluated and are in good working order, and ventilation must be increased to the greatest extent possible. The maximum number of guests at each table at indoor and outdoor tables will be six people.

On Monday, L.A. County will also permit museums, zoos and aquariums to reopen indoors with up to 25% maximum occupancy while gyms, fitness centers, yoga studios, and dance studios can reopen indoors with up to 10% maximum occupancy, all with masking required. 

By the numbers: Los Angeles County has administered more than 2.7 million doses of the vaccine since receiving their first doses, officials said. Next week, the county expects to receive an additional 260,000 doses. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Axios that, given what he knows now about the pandemic, he would have recommended shutting the country down much earlier.

Fauci told Dan Primack on an Axios Re:Cap podcast episode released Friday, reflecting on decisions made in the first months of the pandemic. 

Fauci said such a recommendation would have been poorly received at the time.

“You know what would have happened, people would have looked at me like I was crazy. ‘What are you talking about, shut the country down? We’ve only had a few cases.’ But if we knew then that we had clear and efficient spread predominantly by people who were not symptomatic, if we knew that as fact," he said.

But there wasn’t enough evidence early on to justify such a measure, Fauci said.  

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed language from its guidance this week referencing a three-month limit to fully vaccinated people being able to skip quarantine after a coronavirus exposure.

Previously, the agency said on its website that fully vaccinated people could skip quarantine after a Covid-19 exposure if they were within three months of their final vaccine dose. They must also remain asymptomatic.

Fully vaccinated means at least two weeks have passed since receiving a final dose of Covid-19 vaccine, whether that is two shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

CNN has reached out to the agency for comment.

CDC announced its first iteration of these guidelines a month ago. At the time, a spokesperson told CNN that the guidance mirrored what the agency had recommended last year for people who had become infected with Covid-19 in the last 90 days. She noted the agency wasn't suggesting vaccines were expected to wear off after 90 days, and that the CDC was continuing to evaluate that timeline as it got more information.

On its website, CDC notes that guidance for fully vaccinated people "will be updated and expanded based on the level of community spread of SARS-CoV-2, the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated, and the rapidly evolving science on COVID-19 vaccines.”

The quarantine exemption does not apply to people who live in "non-healthcare congregate settings” such as prisons or group homes, even if they are vaccinated.

The Treasury Department confirmed the first batch of payments under the American Rescue Plan are being processed today and that some could be delivered this weekend.

CNN has previously reported that $1,400 stimulus checks will start going out this weekend. 

The Treasury Department said further payments to millions of Americans will go out in the coming weeks.

AstraZeneca expects to ask the US Food and Drug Administration to authorize its Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in March or early April, sources with knowledge of the company's ongoing clinical trial told Reuters.

The company's phase 3 clinical trial completed enrollment in January and includes more than 32,000 volunteers, the sources said. They said at least 150 people in the trial have had Covid-19, and that the data will be used to determine the vaccine's efficacy.

AstraZeneca declined to confirm the dates, telling CNN in a statement: "The US phase III study results are necessary for the FDA’s evaluation of an EUA request for our vaccine. We expect data from our US Phase III trial to be available soon, in the coming weeks, and we plan to file for emergency use authorization shortly thereafter."

In February: Ruud Dobber, an AstraZeneca executive vice president and president of the company’s biopharmaceuticals business unit, told congressional lawmakers the company would have 30 million doses of its two-shot vaccine available in the beginning of April, which could be released "instantly" if the vaccine is authorized.

He said 50 million doses would be available to the US at the end of April – a figure AstraZeneca reaffirmed to CNN on Friday.

Biden administration Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday that the US has a “small inventory” of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, in the event it is authorized.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has announced that he is ordering school districts in his state to provide an in-person instruction option by April 5.  

"By April 5, all students in grades kindergarten through [6th grade] must have the opportunity to engage in an on-site hybrid model of instruction, and by April 19, all other K through [12th grade] students must be provided a hybrid model of instruction," Inslee said on Friday during a news conference. 

“More than half of our schools have returned to some form of in-person instruction, but there are still hundreds of thousands of students who have not had access to in-person learning,” the governor tweeted on Friday.

Citing concerns over the rise in mental health issues with children, he tweeted, “Now is the time for all schools to return to in-person learning.”

However, Inslee said that he will still require all schools to offer both in-person "and a remote learning option for those who prefer to remain in remote learning mode.”

More than 101 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The tally includes doses administered since the first shot on December 14, 2020.

More than 2.9 million more doses were reported administered since yesterday, marking a new daily record. The seven-day average of reported doses administered is about 2.3 million.

Overall, the CDC reports that 101,128,005 doses have been administered – about 76% of the 133,337,525 doses delivered.

More than 1 in 10 people in the US – about 35 million people – are now fully vaccinated, and about 1 in 5 people – nearly 66 million people – have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

Note: Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.

President Biden touted his $1.9 trillion Covid-19 stimulus bill, saying it “changes the paradigm” for workers in the United States. 

“For the first time in a long time, this bill puts working people in this nation first,” Biden said in remarks during a Rose Garden speech today.

The President said that “we’ve seen time and time again” that trickle-down economics does not work.

The American Rescue Plan represents a rebuilding of the working class, “the backbone of this country,” he added.

Biden added that he views the legislation as “only the beginning” of his administration’s efforts, and there is more work to be done. 

“We're not finished yet. Conditions can change. The scientists have warned us about new variants of this virus, and the devil is in the details of implementing this legislation,” he said.

Watch his speech: