|  | | | | | | | | | Trump and Melania test positive for coronavirus | | | | | | Pandemic risks overwhelming Wisconsin
Wisconsin registered a record increase in new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, while New York state reported an uptick of positive coronavirus tests in 20 “hot spots.” The 3,000 new infections reported in Wisconsin fanned fears that the sheer number of new patients could overwhelm hospitals. Florida, which has four times as many people as Wisconsin, reported 2,628 new cases.
Paris in danger of restaurant shutdown
Paris is set to be placed on maximum COVID alert as soon as Monday, Health Minister Olivier Veran said, a move likely to force the closure of restaurants and bars and impose further restrictions on public life. Veran said the wider Paris region had now passed all three of the government’s criteria for being put on the highest level of alert. In the past 24 hours, the coronavirus infection rate had surpassed 250 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants.
AstraZeneca’s Japanese vaccine trial back up
Clinical trials of AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine have resumed in Japan, almost a month after being put on hold due to an illness of a British volunteer. Global trials of the vaccine were halted on Sept. 6 after a study participant fell ill with what was believed to be a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis.
Australia to open up to New Zealanders
New Zealanders will soon be able to travel to Australia without having to self-quarantine as COVID-19 infections slow. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said New Zealand citizens and residents would be allowed to travel to Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales and its remote Northern Territory from Oct. 16, without having to undergo the two-week quarantine required of Australians returning from other nations, McCormack said. | | | | | | | | | | | | Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
We need your help to tell these stories. Our news organization wants to capture the full scope of what’s happening and how we got here by drawing on a wide variety of sources.
Are you a government employee or contractor involved in coronavirus testing or the wider public health response? Are you a doctor, nurse or health worker caring for patients? Have you worked on similar outbreaks in the past? Has the disease known as COVID-19 personally affected you or your family? Are you aware of new problems that are about to emerge, such as critical supply shortages?
We need your tips, firsthand accounts, relevant documents or expert knowledge. Please contact us at coronavirus@reuters.com.
We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how. | | | | | | | | | | | | | Top Stories | | The House of Representatives approved a $2.2 trillion Democratic plan to provide more economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic, as a bipartisan deal continued to elude House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the White House. | | | | The Republican governor of Texas said each county in the state will be limited to a single site for dropping off absentee ballots, drawing condemnation from Democrats and voting rights advocates. Governor Greg Abbott’s order will close more than a dozen satellite locations in at least two counties: Harris, which includes Houston, had opened 12 sites to collect early mail ballots, while Travis, which includes Austin, had four. | | | | In battleground Wisconsin, some Latinos feel ignored by Biden. As the race to the November election enters the home stretch, appeals to Latino voters have taken on new urgency for Joe Biden and incumbent President Trump. Both campaigns are pouring resources into the battleground states of Florida and Arizona, as well as increasingly competitive Nevada, whose large Latino populations could determine the outcome in those states. Even in Wisconsin, where 87% of the population is white, the state’s 230,000 eligible Latino voters could prove critical. | | | | | | | | | | | | | Business | | Amazon said more than 19,000 of its U.S. frontline workers contracted the coronavirus this year, or 1.44% of the total, a disclosure sought by labor advocates who have criticized the COVID-19 response of the world’s largest online retailer. 3 min read | | | | U.S. job growth likely slowed further in September as the recovery from the COVID-19 slump shifts into lower gear amid diminishing government money and a relentless pandemic, leaving many at the risk of being permanently unemployed. 6 min read | | | | German meatpackers and slaughterhouses need to work longer hours to compensate for reduced processing capacity after the coronavirus crisis, a farming association said. 2 min read | | | | In the middle of a coronavirus lockdown in the Philippine capital, Grace Lagaday was struggling to breastfeed her newborn without milk storage bottles and nursing pads. With shopping centres shut and public movement restricted, Lagaday turned to a centuries-old method of trade with a new tech twist: online bartering. 4 min read | | | | | | | | | | | | | Top Stories on Reuters TV | | | | | | | |
