Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by a few items from other countries around the globe.
US totals are rising again due to sharp increases in the sunbelt. We set a record for new cases nearly every day this week. New cases have nearly tripled since the 2nd week of June. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.
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Vitamin D promoted as potential defence against coronavirus – FT – Calls are growing for people to take vitamin D supplements to reduce the risk of contracting coronavirus, as some research suggest they could be especially beneficial to those with darker skin.This week three influential organisations, including the government’s Scientific Advisory Commission on Nutrition, urged people in the UK to make sure they were consuming enough vitamin D.But even advocates of the “sunshine vitamin” – so called because the body makes it in the skin through exposure to sunlight – say more evidence is needed to prove definitively that it cuts the risk of coronavirus infection and severity of symptoms.Vitamin D, a steroid hormone, is essential for maintaining a healthy immune system. In mid-latitude countries such as the UK, people with pale skin can make enough of it during summer by exposing bare arms or legs to sunlight for a few minutes a day.The process takes longer in those with heavily pigmented skin that blocks more ultraviolet radiation from the sun. In winter all of a person’s vitamin D has to come from foods, such as oily fish, egg yolks and mushrooms, or pills. Other reports promoting vitamin D came from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the Royal Society, Britain’s senior scientific body. The latter urged the government to strengthen its public health advice for the public to take daily vitamin D supplements while more research takes place.
Airborne Coronavirus Transmission Must Be Taken Seriously, 239 Scientists Tell WHO -The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding the line on its stance that the respiratory droplets of the coronavirus fall quickly to the floor and are not infectious. Now, a group of 239 scientists is challenging that assertion, arguing that the virus is lingering in the air of indoor environments, infecting people nearby, as The New York Times reported.The idea that the virus lingers in the air may explain why the virus is finding new victims to infect in clusters as people visit bars, restaurants, gyms and casinos worldwide.In an open letter to the WHO, 239 scientists from 32 countries outlined the evidence that proves smaller particles can infect people, and are calling for the agency to revise its recommendations. The researchers plan to publish their letter, titled “It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19,” in a scientific journal this week, according to The New York Times. The paper will be published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, according to The Washington Post.”We are aware of the article and are reviewing its contents with our technical experts,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in an email reply to a Reuters request for comment.However, as recently as last Monday, the WHO published guidelines on stopping the spread of the virus in healthcare facilities that said airborne transmission of the virus is possible only after medical procedures that produce aerosols, or droplets smaller than 5 microns, or 5 millionths of a meter.The fact that scientists resorted to a paper to pressure the WHO is unusual, analysts said to The Washington Post. It is likely to renew questions about the WHO’s messaging. “WHO’s credibility is being undermined through a steady drip-drip of confusing messages, including asymptomatic spread, the use of masks, and now airborne transmission,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University who provides technical assistance to the WHO.
Researchers: COVID-19 spreads ten meters or more by breathing — A plea issued by 239 scientists from around the world to recognize and mitigate airborne transmission of COVID-19 addressed to international health authorities is to be published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The 239 signatories from 32 countries come from many different areas of science and engineering, including virology, aerosol physics, flow dynamics, exposure and epidemiology, medicine, and building engineering. Led by internationally recognized air quality and health expert QUT Professor Lidia Morawska, the appeal is to address the overwhelming research finding that an infected person exhales airborne virus droplets when breathing and talking that can travel further than the current 1.5m social distance requirement.”Studies by the signatories and other scientists have demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are exhaled in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air and pose a risk of exposure beyond 1 to 2m by an infected person,” Professor Morawska, director of the International Air Quality and Health Laboratory, said.”At typical indoor air velocities, a 5-micron droplet will travel tens of meters, much greater than the scale of a typical room while settling from a height of 1.5m above the floor.” Signatories to the appeal come from many disciplines including different areas of science and engineering, including virology, aerosol physics, flow dynamics, exposure and epidemiology, medicine, and building engineering. The measures that need to be taken to mitigate airborne transmission include:
- Provide sufficient and effective ventilation (supply clean outdoor air, minimize recirculating air) particularly in public buildings, workplace environments, schools, hospitals, and aged care homes.
- Supplement general ventilation with airborne infection controls such as local exhaust, high efficiency air filtration, and germicidal ultraviolet lights.
- Avoid overcrowding, particularly in public transport and public buildings.
“These are practical and can be easily implemented and many are not costly. For example, simple steps such as opening both doors and windows can dramatically increase air flow rates in many buildings. Numerous health authorities currently focus on hand-washing, maintaining social distancing, and droplet precautions. Hand-washing and social distancing are appropriate, but it is view, insufficient to provide protection from virus-carrying respiratory microdroplets released into the air by infected people.”
Increase in delirium, rare brain inflammation and stroke linked to COVID-19 – Neurological complications of Covid-19 can include delirium, brain inflammation, stroke and nerve damage, finds a new UCL and UCLH-led study.Published in the journal Brain, the research team identified one rare and sometimes fatal inflammatory condition, known as ADEM, which appears to be increasing in prevalence due to the pandemic.Some patients in the study did not experience severe respiratory symptoms, and the neurological disorder was the first and main presentation of Covid-19.Joint senior author Dr Michael Zandi (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) said: “We identified a higher than expected number of people with neurological conditions such as brain inflammation, which did not always correlate with the severity of respiratory symptoms.”We should be vigilant and look out for these complications in people who have had Covid-19. Whether we will see an epidemic on a large scale of brain damage linked to the pandemic – perhaps similar to the encephalitis lethargica outbreak in the 1920s and 1930s after the 1918 influenza pandemic – remains to be seen.”
Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a Rare Neurological Disorder, Linked to COVID-19 –The patient in the case report (let’s call him Tom) was 54 and in good health. For two days in May, he felt unwell and was too weak to get out of bed. When his family finally brought him to the hospital, doctors found that he had a fever and signs of a severe infection, or sepsis. He tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infection. In addition to symptoms of COVID-19, he was also too weak to move his legs.When a neurologist examined him, Tom was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes abnormal sensation and weakness due to delays in sending signals through the nerves. Usually reversible, in severe cases it can cause prolonged paralysis involving breathing muscles, require ventilator support and sometimes leave permanent neurological deficits. Early recognition by expert neurologists is key to proper treatment.We are neurologists specializing in intensive care and leading studies related to neurological complications from COVID-19. Given the occurrence of Guillain-Barre Syndrome in prior pandemics with other corona viruses like SARS and MERS, we are investigating a possible link between Guillain-Barre Syndrome and COVID-19 and tracking published reports to see if there is any link between Guillain-Barre Syndrome and COVID-19.Some patients may not seek timely medical care for neurological symptoms like prolonged headache, vision loss and new muscle weakness due to fear of getting exposed to virus in the emergency setting. People need to know that medical facilities have taken full precautions to protect patients. Seeking timely medical evaluation for neurological symptoms can help treat many of these diseases. Guillain-Barre syndrome occurs when the body’s own immune system attacks and injures the nerves outside of the spinal cord or brain – the peripheral nervous system. Most commonly, the injury involves the protective sheath, or myelin, that wraps nerves and is essential to nerve function. Without the myelin sheath, signals that go through a nerve are slowed or lost, which causes the nerve to malfunction. The majority of Guillain-Barre Syndrome patients improve within a few weeks and eventually can make a full recovery. However, some patients with Guillain-Barre Syndrome have lingering symptoms including weakness and abnormal sensations in arms and/or legs; rarely patients may be bedridden or disabled long-term.
Data show panic and disorganization dominate the study of Covid-19 drugs – In a gigantic feat of scientific ambition, researchers have designed a staggering 1,200 clinical trials aimed at testing treatment and prevention strategies against Covid-19 since the start of January. But a new STAT analysis shows the effort has been marked by disorder and disorganization, with huge financial resources wasted. The analysis, conducted in partnership with Applied XL, a Newlab Venture Studio company, found that one in every six trials was designed to study the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, which have been shown to have no benefit in hospitalized patients. “If the goal was to optimize the likelihood of figuring out the best treatment options, the system is off course,” said Robert Califf, the head of clinical policy and strategy at Verily Life Sciences and Google Health and a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. The findings show, he said, that too often studies are too small to answer questions, lack real control groups, and put too much emphasis on a few potential treatments, as occurred with hydroxychloroquine. Indeed, the analysis found many of the studies are so small – 39% are enrolling or plan to enroll fewer than 100 patients – that they are unlikely to yield clear results. About 38% of the studies have not actually begun enrolling patients. “It’s a huge amount of wasted effort and wasted energy when actually a bit of coordination and collaboration could go a long way and answer a few questions,” said Martin Landray, a professor of medicine at Oxford University and one of the lead researchers on the RECOVERY study, a large trial of multiple treatments being run by the U.K. government.
Dr. Fauci Warns Any Protection Provided By COVID-19 Vaccine May Be “Transitory – During an NIH Q&A on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci answered questions about the current state of the US outbreak, while trying to manage the public’s expectations in a way that adequately conveys the seriousness of the viral threat we are facing. But he was once again forced to acknowledge an intractable fact: That scientists still not sure whether a COVID-19 vaccine will provide lasting projection.Dr. Fauci was joined by NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.The good doctor started out by warning that the “current state is not good,” referring to the state of the coronavirus response. The US is still “knee deep” in the first wave of the pandemic. The coronavirus cases went up, came back down, but they never went back to baseline. Now, they’re surging back.”This is a serious situation,” Dr. Fauci said.Moving to the subject of the vaccine trials, while the US government is working with several of the most promising candidates, all of whom will be starting trials involving 30,000 patients from all over the country, Dr. Fauci acknowledged that the scientific community still can’t say for certain whether a vaccine will offer lasting protection, or require annual injections, more akin to the flu vaccine.”We don’t know how long COVID-19 antibody protection lasts”…Fauci said. For all we know, any protection provided by the vaccine could be “transitory.”Still, Dr. Fauci says he’s “doubtful” about reinfection, although “I wouldn’t be surprised if, in rare cases, people went into remission and then relapsed.”In the meantime, the doctor said the NIH is doing everything it can to ensure that the patients included in the study span all age ranges and racial groups. He promised that minority groups will be “well represented” in the trial, offering the customary virtue-signaling that must be a part of every conversation about public issues, not matter how irrelevant.
Coronavirus herd immunity may be ‘unachievable’ because antibodies disappear after a few weeks in some people – Population-wide immunity to the novel coronavirus could be “unachievable” with antibodies to the virus disappearing after just a few weeks in some patients, according to a major new Spanish study. The Spanish government teamed up with some of the country’s leading epidemiologists to discover what percentage of the population had developed antibodies that could provide immunity from the coronavirus. The study found that just 5% of those tested across the country maintained antibodies to the virus, in findings published by the medical journal The Lancet.The study also found that 14% of people who had tested positive for coronavirus antibodies in the first round of testing no longer tested positive in subsequent tests carried out weeks later. “Immunity can be incomplete, it can be transitory, it can last for just a short time and then disappear,” Raquel Yotti, the director of Spain’s Carlos III Health Institute, which helped conduct the study, said.Other researchers said the study corroborated findings elsewhere that immunity to the virus might not be long-lasting in people who develop only mild or no symptoms.”No symptoms suggests a mild infection, which never really gets the immune system going well enough to generate immunological ‘memory,'” Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading, said. Jones added: “Anyone who tests positive by antibody test should not assume they are protected. They may be, but it is not clear.”
Preliminary study suggests tuberculosis vaccine may be limiting COVID-19 deaths – One of the emerging questions about the coronavirus that scientists are working to understand is why developing countries are showing markedly lower rates of mortality in COVID-19 cases than expected.Research by Assistant Professor Luis Escobar of the College of Natural Resources and Environment and two colleagues at the National Institutes of Health suggests that Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), atuberculosis vaccineroutinely given to children in countries with high rates of tuberculosis infection, might play a significant role in mitigating mortality rates from COVID-19. Their findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”In our initial research, we found that countries with high rates of BCG vaccinations had lower rates of mortality,” explained Escobar, a faculty member in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and an affiliate of the Global Change Center housed in the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. “But all countries are different: Guatemala has a younger population than, say, Italy, so we had to make adjustments to the data to accommodate those differences.”Escobar, working with NIH researchers Alvaro Molina-Cruz and Carolina Barillas-Mury, collected coronavirus mortality data from around the world. From that data, the team adjusted for variables, such as income, access to education and health services, population size and densities, and age distribution. Through all of the variables, a correlation held showing that countries with higher rates of BCG vaccinations had lower peak mortality rates from COVID-19.One sample that stood out was Germany, which had different vaccine plans prior to the country’s unification in 1990. While West Germany provided BCG vaccines to infants from 1961 to 1998, East Germany started their BCG vaccinations a decade earlier, but stopped in 1975. This means that older Germans – the population most at risk from COVID-19 – in the country’s eastern states would have more protection from the current pandemic than their peers in western German states. Recent data shows this to be the case: western German states have experienced mortality rates that are 2.9 times higher than those in eastern Germany.
WHO Says Coronavirus Is Likely Airborne – The coronavirus may linger in the air in crowded indoor spaces, spreading from one person to the next, the World Health Organization acknowledged on Thursday, as The New York Times reported. The announcement came just days after 239 scientists wrote a letter urging the WHO to consider that the novel coronavirus is lingering in indoor spaces and infecting people, as EcoWatch reported.The letter, written by two scientists from Australia and the U.S. and published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, said that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.”The WHO had previously dismissed those concerns, but that position is quickly changing.”We have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications regarding the modes of transmission, and also regarding the precautions that need to be taken,” said Benedetta Allegranzi, technical leader of the WHO task force on infection control, as Nature reported.Its new scientific report released details on how the coronavirus that leads to COVID-19 can pass from one person to the next by staying in the air during medical procedures, or, for example, in crowded restaurants, choir practices and fitness classes, as The Associated Press reported.”In these events, short-range aerosol transmission, particularly in specific indoor locations, such as crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces over a prolonged period of time with infected persons cannot be ruled out,” the United Nations health agency’s new guidance said, as CNBC reported.And yet, the WHO said more research is “urgently needed to investigate such instances and assess their significance for transmission of COVID-19.”In the updated brief, the WHO also pointed out more directly than it previously had that people who do not have symptoms may spread the virus. “Infected people can transmit the virus both when they have symptoms and when they don’t have symptoms,” the agency said, as The New York Times reported. Prior to the new brief, the WHO said asymptomatic transmission was probably “very rare.”
CDC Expands List of Those With Higher COVID-19 Risks: What to Know – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its list of underlying conditions that may lead to more severe outcomes from a COVID-19 diagnosis.The agency is warning that people with type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, whole organ transplants, and women who are pregnant could experience more severe outcomes if they contract COVID-19.The updated guidelines also remove 65 as the age when more severe outcomes may occur. Instead, it is suggesting as people age, the chance of severe outcomes increases. By removing a set age cut off, the updated guidelines give notice to people with underlying conditions of all ages that they are more likely to end up in an intensive care unit (ICU) if they contract the virus.The guidelines do not suggest that people with these underlying conditions are more susceptible to developing COVID-19. Experts say the key is to stay in the know and practice safe habits such as masking, physical distancing, and, when needed, isolation. Here’s a look at some of the underlying conditions added to the CDC list.
EPA Approves Two Lysol Products to Kill Coronavirus on Surfaces -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a list of 431 products that are effective at killing viruses when they are on surfaces. Now, a good year for Lysol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser just got better when the EPA said that two Lysol products are among the products that can kill the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.The two products are Lysol Disinfectant Spray and Lysol Disinfectant Max Cover Mist. In a press release, the agency said that the two products were both successful in laboratory testing at preventing the spread of the virus.While there are 431 products on the EPA’s list of disinfectants that are strong enough to stave off “harder-to-kill” viruses than the novel coronavirus, the two Lysol products are the first to be tested directly against the virus behind the global pandemic and be proven effective, as CNN reported.While the EPA plans to test more products against the coronavirus specifically, it has so far only approved the two Lysol products as effective at removing the virus from surfaces.That doesn’t mean you just spray the disinfectant, wipe it away, and the virus is gone. The tests showed it was effective after two minutes, which means spraying it, leaving it, and then vigorously scrubbing are important steps to ensuring the sprays remove the coronavirus.Reckitt Benckiser has already seen its profits rise more than 13 percent in the first half of the year as individuals and businesses have prioritized sanitizing surfaces, as Forbes reported. The company also made headlines in April when it had to disavow President Trump‘s claim that a disinfectant inside the body could knock out the virus in one minute.”We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the company said in statement at the time, as Forbes reported.
COVID-19 ‘Please Tell Me My Life Is Worth A LITTLE Of Your Discomfort,’ Nurse Pleads – When an employee told a group of 20-somethings they needed face masks to enter his fast-food restaurant, one woman fired off a stream of expletives. “Isn’t this Orange County?” snapped a man in the group. “We don’t have to wear masks!” The curses came as a shock, but not really a surprise, to Nilu Patel, a certified registered nurse anesthetist at nearby University of California-Irvine Medical Center, who observed the conflict while waiting for takeout. Health care workers suffer these angry encounters daily as they move between treacherous hospital settings and their communities, where mixed messaging from politicians has muddied common-sense public health precautions. “Health care workers are scared, but we show up to work every single day,” Patel said. Wearing masks, she said, “is a very small thing to ask.” Patel administers anesthesia to patients in the operating room, and her husband is also a health care worker. They’ve suffered sleepless nights worrying about how to keep their two young children safe and schooled at home. The small but vocal chorus of people who view face coverings as a violation of their rights makes it all worse, she said. That resistance to the public health advice didn’t grow in a vacuum. Health care workers blame political leadership at all levels, from President Donald Trump on down, for issuing confusing and contradictory messages. “Our leaders have not been pushing that this is something really serious,” said Jewell Harris Jordan, a 47-year-old registered nurse at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center in Oakland, California. She’s distraught that some Americans see mandates for face coverings as an infringement upon their rights instead of a show of solidarity with health care workers. (Kaiser Health News produces California Healthline, is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.) “If you come into the hospital and you’re sick, I’m going to take care of you,” Jordan said. “But damn, you would think you would want to try to protect the people that are trying to keep you safe.”
Coronavirus Surge in Tulsa ‘More Than Likely’ Linked to Trump Rally – A surge in coronavirus cases in and around Tulsa, Okla., is probably connected to the campaign rally President Trump held there last month, the city’s top health official said on Wednesday.Tulsa County reported 206 new confirmed cases on Tuesday and 261 – a record high – on Monday, and Dr. Bruce Dart, the director of the Tulsa Health Department, said at a news conference that it was reasonable to link the spike to the rally and related events. “The past two days we’ve had almost 500 cases, and we know we had several large events a little over two weeks ago, which is about right,” Dr. Dart said. “So I guess we just connect the dots.” The county has more infections right now than any other in Oklahoma, and “we’ve had some significant events in the past few weeks that more than likely contributed to that,” he added. A few days before the event, Dr. Dart urged the president to cancel, calling the rally a “perfect storm of potential over-the-top disease transmission.” When he said that, Tulsa County had just recorded 89 new cases in a day, a record high at the time. This week, the daily totals have been more than twice that.
Whatever their intent, protests aren’t exempt from the laws of nature – Conservatives are often accused of being “science-deniers.” From mask-wearing to global warming, the right is often the punching bag for those who venerate scientific evidence. Yet recently we’ve seen that the left is equally willing to buy into questionable evidence, when it supports their cause of the moment. A study released last month on the effects of social justice protests on coronavirus infection rates appears to be emblematic of this. The study has been given attention across a broad spectrum of news outlets, from The Economist to the Los Angeles Times. It purports to show that the protests in America’s streets have had no impact on infection rates across more than 300 cities. The ostensible mechanism for this lack of case growth is that the protests led other people to socially distance more. By itself, this puts an asterisk on the findings. If fear or aversion to the protests led people to stay home, this doesn’t actually mean that crowding together in demonstrations didn’t spread the virus, only that countervailing decisions mitigated the harm that might have been caused. But there are a number of far broader issues with the paper that deserve attention. First, the study attempts to compare a set of cities where protests took place to a control group of cities that experienced no protests. To the extent that cities a fair distance apart could be analyzed, this might be a valuable approach. But when one looks at the control cities, it is easy to find that some are mislabeled. For example, Irving, Texas, is mentioned as a control-group city in which protests didn’t occur – but a cursory Google search reveals protests involving hundreds of people did take place there during the time frame of the study’s analysis. If mistakes can be identified this easily, one questions the credibility of the study. But an even larger issue is that many of the cities included as controls are in the same metropolitan areas as cities that are part of the “treatment” group where protests occurred. As anyone who has visited a large American city knows, people easily and regularly cross municipal lines. Protestors were as likely to come to a demonstration from any number of surrounding locations – not just where the event took place. Because protests were widespread, and COVID-19 cases were growing fairly rapidly around the country at the time, it is simply not credible to think a viable control group could be created. To the extent that the coronavirus remains an important problem, research such as this can have negative implications for public health as well. If people hear that large-scale protests are totally safe, why wouldn’t going out to dinner, or making a trip to the local pub be safe as well? All of this is not meant as an attack on a particular movement. From the “Reopen America” protests in May to those involving police and the death of George Floyd, people of all political stripes in recent weeks have taken to the streets to let their voices be heard. But what this is meant to be is an indictment of the motivated reasoning of many Americans today.
Florida has reported more than 10,000 new cases for a fourth straight day as the country sees another surge in the illness. – Florida surpassed 200,000 coronavirus cases as the state reported another 10,059 new positives on Sunday. The state has reported more than 10,000 new cases for a fourth straight day as the country sees another surge in the pandemic. Florida is among 11 states where numbers have spiked, at least doubling over the past two weeks. On Saturday, Florida reported 11,458 new cases of the virus, which breaks its previous records and approaches New York’s highest daily tally of 11,571 from April.. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken heat for his response to the virus, including his early refusal to issue a statewide shutdown of beaches as spring breakers flocked to the state in March. The state shut down bars late last month after “widespread noncompliance” of the state’s reopening guidelines.
Dozens of Florida hospitals out of available ICU beds, state data shows (Reuters) – More than four dozen hospitals in Florida reported that their intensive care units (ICUs) have reached full capacity on Tuesday as COVID-19 cases surge in the state and throughout the country. Hospital ICUs were full at 54 hospitals across 25 of Florida’s 67 counties, according to data published on Tuesday morning by the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration. More than 300 hospitals were included in the report, but not all had adult ICUs. Thirty hospitals reported that their ICUs were more than 90% full. Statewide, only 17% of the total 6,010 adult ICU beds were available on Tuesday, down from 20% three days ago, according to the agency’s website. Florida’s coronavirus cases have soared in the last month, with the state’s daily count topping 10,000 three times in the last week. The death rate from COVID-19 rose nearly 19% in the last week from the week prior, bringing the state’s death toll to more than 3,800. All ICU beds are filled at the three hospitals in Clay County, where the population is around 220,000. Florida Governor Ron Desantis on Monday encouraged state residents to seek care at hospitals if needed, citing concerns that people with life-threatening conditions other than COVID-19 had avoided hospitals earlier in the pandemic to the detriment of their health. “Hospitals are safe and Floridians in need of treatment shouldn’t avoid seeking care,” Desantis wrote on Twitter. In Miami-Dade – the state’s most populous county – eight hospitals reported their intensive care units were filled to capacity, including North Shore Hospital with 56 ICU beds. The hospital with the most ICU capacity in the county, Jackson Memorial, reported that its ICU was 91% full.
Texas Sees Record Jump In COVID-19 Hospitalizations- Live Updates –Texas saw daily hospitalizations reach a fresh record high on Sunday as 8,181 patients with the virus were admitted to hospitals around the state, even as the number of new COVID-19 cases reported declined day-over-day.Texas reported 3,449 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Sunday, after a record high of 8,258 Saturday. State health officials also reported 29 additional deaths, bringing the totals to 2,637 deaths and 195,239 confirmed cases, per state data. Officials in cities like Austin are pushing Gov Abbott to return control to municipalities to allow some places to implement new stay-at-home orders, a measure the governor has resisted despite making mask-wearing mandatory. Mayor Steve Adler, a Democrat, said as much on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday as he warned that hospitals have been facing a crisis and ICUs could be overrun in as few as 10 days. A few counties warned that their ICUs had been overwhelmed over the last couple of days, and hospitals in Houston have already needed to transport some patients 50 miles away. In the Houston area, Democratic Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo claimed a stay-at-home order is needed.
Coronavirus on track to overwhelm Houston hospitals in two weeks, mayor says – Hospitals in Houston, Texas are on track to be overwhelmed in approximately two weeks as coronavirus cases mount, Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Sunday. “The number of people who are getting sick and going to the hospitals has exponentially increased. The number of people in our ICU beds has exponentially increased,” Turner said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “In fact, if we don’t get our hands around this virus quickly, in about two weeks our hospital system could be in serious, serious trouble.” Texas hit a record number of new coronavirus cases on Saturday, reporting 8,258 people infected over 24 hours. Nearly 200,000 in the state have tested positive, according to data provided state health officials, including more than 35,000 in Harris County, which contains Houston. At least 2,608 people in the state have died of the disease. In Houston, the percentage of tests for the virus coming back positive has risen to nearly 25%. Turner said that people of color were being disproportionately impacted, particularly Hispanic residents. Turner, a Democrat, said that the main problem facing Houston hospitals is staffing, not a shortage of beds. “We can always provide additional beds, but we need the people, the nurses and everybody else, the medical professionals, to staff those beds. That’s the critical point right now,” Turner said.
Coronavirus surge stressing Texas hospitals in major cities | The Texas Tribune – Local officials and experts in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth have expressed concerns in recent days that increasing coronavirus hospitalizations could overwhelm their intensive care capacities, with some saying it could happen in less than two weeks. As Texas hit another record high Sunday, reporting 8,181 people hospitalized for the new coronavirus, local officials predicted cities could soon run out of space to care for the sickest patients. The state reported that there still are 13,307 available staffed hospital beds, including 1,203 available staffed ICU beds statewide, but hospital capacity varies greatly by region. On Sunday, Austin Mayor Steve Adler told the Austin American-Statesman that hospitals there could be overwhelmed in the “next 10 days to two weeks” if the amount of people admitted because of the coronavirus continues to increase, adding that 434 out of 1,500 Austin-area hospital beds for coronavirus patients are occupied. The San Antonio Express-News also reported that the city’s hospitals could be overrun with patients in the next week or two, noting that the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in that area’s trauma service region rose by 55% in the past week. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Tuesday that Rajesh Nandy, an associate professor of biostatistics and epidemiology in the UNT Health Science Center’s School of Public Health, warned that Tarrant County hospitals could reach capacity in about three weeks. As of Saturday, 10 of 12 hospitals in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley had already reached capacity as the number of people being hospitalized for the coronavirus more than doubled over the last two weeks. Ten of Texas’ trauma service regions have more than 70% of their beds filled, with six of those regions reporting their beds are at least 80% filled, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott ordered Texans in most counties to wear masks in public. The mandate warns people living in counties with more than 20 active coronavirus cases that first-time violators will face a warning while repeat offenders could face a $250 fine.
Texas Doctor Warns Patients ‘Might Die’ For Lack Of Beds- Live Updates –Texas followed Florida on Monday and passed the 200k case mark, leaving Texas just shy of Florida with the 4th largest outbreak in the country, behind NY, Cali, and Fla. But the bigger news was the hospitalizations, which saw another near-record jump in newly hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Hospitalizations rose by 517 to 8,698. July 6th, 2020:
New Cases – 5,318
New Fatalities – 18
*Hospitalizations – 8,698 (+517 from prior day)
Hospital Capacity Usage – 76%
– Texas COVID-19 (@TexasCovid) July 6, 2020
The state also reported another 5k+ new cases. Doctors in Texas tell CNN that they’re starting to run out of ICU beds, and that patients who would otherwise be excellent candidates for this type of treatment might die because of it.Texas Doctor: I got 10 calls yesterday for young people who will die if they don’t get ICU support, but I only have three beds left. pic.twitter.com/qAAQSuu6bk – Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 5, 2020CNN also reported that Texas has been struggling with outbreaks in childcare centers.At least 1,335 people have tested positive from child care facilities in Texas, the state’s Department of Health and Human Services reported Monday, citing figures from Friday.Of those infected, 894 were staff members and 441 were children. The cases came from 883 child care facilities that are open in the state, DHHS said.
The US COVID-19 toll to hit 3 million cases as Texas health system nears collapse – The United States will surpass 3 million cases of COVID-19 today, with over 133,000 deaths. It was exactly one month ago when this figure passed the 2-million mark. Many states had set into motion their return-to-work policies, opening movie theaters, restaurants, night clubs, beaches, parks, pools, and salons. Yet the coronavirus, as many health officials and epidemiologists had warned, was still very much present and the necessary infrastructure to contain and isolate the virus was woefully lacking, even nonexistent, despite the assurances provided by Democratic and Republican governors that everything was under control. However, very soon in the month of June, local and state health officials began warning of a rise in new cases COVID-19 cases, predominately along the sunbelt where states like Florida, Texas, and Arizona were the first to open the doors and encourage people to return to normal routines. Besides perfunctory statements that things were under control and admonishing young people to wear their masks and maintain social distancing, no effort was made to intervene. On June 7, the United States saw its lowest daily count since the pandemic hit in force, with 18,930 new cases. Yesterday’s three-day rolling average for the number of new cases per day was 52,439, a three-fold increase, though the daily number of deaths has been slowly declining, to just over 500, a fact that the Trump administration and its right-wing media apologists have seized on to dismiss the significance of the skyrocketing number of infections.
U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Passes 130,000 Amid Surge in Cases – The official number of people in the U.S. who have lost their lives to the new coronavirus has now passed 130,000, according to tallies from The New York Times, Reuters and Johns Hopkins University. The grim news comes amidst a surge in U.S. cases. More than 50,000 new cases a day were reported several times over the past week, The New York Times pointed out. And the country still has the world’s worst outbreak with nearly three million cases, double the world’s second-highest caseload in Brazil, Reuters reported. In an interview streamed Monday with National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said the U.S. had never successfully exited the first wave of the pandemic. “I would say this would not be considered a wave,” Dr. Fauci said, as The New York Times reported. “It was a surge, or a resurgence of infections superimposed upon a baseline that really never got down to where we wanted to go.” At least 32 states are reporting higher rates of new cases this week compared to last, according to Johns Hopkins data reported by USA TODAY.The states where cases are rising are mostly in the West and South, according to Reuters, while cases continue to fall in the Northeast.Arizona surpassed 100,000 cases Monday, according to New York Times data, and cases there have doubled in the past two and a half weeks. Both Idaho and Texas broke records for the most new cases reported in a single day Monday, at more than 400 and more than 8,800 new cases respectively. Despite Monday’s grim milestone of 130,000 deaths, the rate of increase of deaths in the country has continued to decline, Reuters reported. However, a surge in deaths can come weeks or even months after a surge in cases, public health experts said. And at least five states have seen their death rates rise, including Arizona, which reported 449 deaths in the last two weeks of June compared to 259 in the first two weeks. As of July 3, intensive care units in the state were at 91 percent capacity, an all-time high, The Associated Press reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that the U.S. death toll will climb to between 140,000 and 160,000 by July 25, according to Reuters. It further projects that deaths will rise in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
Coronavirus updates: US hits daily record of 60,021 new cases; total nears 3 million; Ryder Cup postponed 1 year – Hospitalizations continued to rise and ICU beds were quickly filling as the nation surpassed 3 million coronavirus cases Wednesday. The stunning milestone hit less than six months after the first confirmed case was reported Jan. 21, in Everett, Washington. Tuesday saw a record 60,021 new cases as the nationwide surge showed no signs of ebbing. The number of new daily cases has risen exponentially since the middle of last month, reaching a record high of 57,209 on July 3. At a Senate hearing last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified that the U.S. is “going in the wrong direction” and that he “would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.” The virus has killed more than 130,000 Americans and put a strain on the health care system. In California, hospitalizations are up 50% from two weeks ago. In Arizona, more than 90% of its ICU beds were filled, and the percentage was growing. In Savannah, Georgia, hospitalizations have nearly quadrupled in a month. In Florida at least 56 hospital intensive care units have reached capacity – and some Republican senators said they won’t attend the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville next month. Still, opposition to tighter restrictions aimed at stemming the surge remained stiff. One Louisiana lawmaker compared the treatment of people who refuse to wear masks to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. And multiple movie chains have filed suit in New Jersey, demanding the right to reopen.
US coronavirus case count soars past 3 million – There have been more than 1 million new confirmed coronavirus cases in the US in the past month, bringing the total to just under 3.1 million. A further 20,000 human lives were lost during that time, bringing the official death toll to more than 133,000, more than the total number of US soldiers killed in World War I and nearly three times the number of lives lost to the flu each year. Including the fatalities in the United States, there have been 544,000 deaths worldwide and more than 11.8 million cases. Next to the US, Brazil, India and Russia have the most cases, while Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy and Mexico have the most deaths from the disease. Every day that the pandemic is not brought under control leaves at least another 4,000 people dead. “The outbreak is accelerating,” said World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at yesterday’s press briefing, “and we have clearly not reached the peak of the pandemic.” He continued, “I will say it again. National unity and global solidarity are more important than ever to defeat a common enemy, a virus that has taken the world hostage. This is our only road out of this pandemic.” The WHO leader’s remarks contrasted sharply to the nationalist action by President Donald Trump, who yesterday formally issued notice to Congress that the United States is withdrawing from the World Health Organization. According to a State Department official who spoke to CNN, the letter is addressed to António Guterres, UN secretary-general, and notes that the withdrawal will be effective on July 6, 2021. When Trump first announced this move, it was decried by Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of the Lancet medical journal, as a “crime against humanity.” Trump is also pushing for a full reopening of in-person classes this fall. The Trump administration views sending students back to school as a necessary precondition for the next stage of the back-to-work campaign. Forcing workers back on the job despite the acute risk of infection and even death is essential for the extraction of surplus value and profit from the labor of workers to back up the trillions in debt piled up to bail out Wall Street. Trump’s policy would entail all 60 million K-12 students returning to enclosed spaces for several hours each school day as the pandemic gains strength across the country – a recipe for giving the virus to every young person in the country. In that scenario, according to the existing data, some 0.06 percent of students would die – a total of 36,000 children. The rest would bring the disease back home, further spreading the contagion to untold millions of their older and more vulnerable parents and grandparents.
July 7 COVID-19 Test Results – The US is now conducting over 600,000 tests per day, and that might be enough to allow test-and-trace in some areas. Based on the experience of other countries, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% to really push down new infections, so the US still needs to increase the number of tests per day significantly. According to Dr. Jha of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, the US might need more than 900,000 tests per day. There were 653,091 test results reported over the last 24 hours. There were 51,888 positive tests. This data is from the COVID Tracking Project. The percent positive over the last 24 hours was 7.9% (red line). For the status of contact tracing by state, check out testandtrace.com.
July 8 COVID-19 Test Results, Record Positive, Highest Percent Positive since Early May –600,000 tests per day, and that might be enough to allow test-and-trace in some areas. Based on the experience of other countries, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% to really push down new infections, so the US still needs to increase the number of tests per day significantly. According to Dr. Jha of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, the US might need more than 900,000 tests per day. There were 666,196 test results reported over the last 24 hours.There were 62,197 positive tests. Most ever. This data is from the COVID Tracking Project.The percent positive over the last 24 hours was 9.3% (red line).For the status of contact tracing by state, check out testandtrace.com.
Wyoming to test all inmates, corrections officials for coronavirus – Wyoming will test all inmates and employees at its five correctional facilities next week, the state Department of Corrections announced Wednesday. On Monday Wyoming will start a one-time testing of all inmates and employees at the state’s five correctional institutions in rotation. Wyoming Department of Corrections Director Bob Lampert said in a statement that once the state’s baseline is established, the corrections department will institute “ongoing surveillance testing” in the manner as done in nursing homes to maintain “the safest possible living and work environment.” Wyoming has had no confirmed COVID-19 cases among its incarcerated population, making it and Hawaii the only two states not reporting coronavirus cases among their prison populations, according to the Wyoming Corrections Department. “We want to confirm our zero COVID-19 status,” Lampert said, according to the statement. “Due to the recent uptick in the incidence rate of COVID-19 in various communities in Wyoming, we want to be extra cautious.” The department of corrections also said that other restrictions and requirements continue to remain in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, including limiting the size of grouping and requiring face coverings when indoors or within six feet of others. Family visitation also remains suspended, but inmates have been given access to two free phone calls per week and have scheduled access to video visitation, according to the department. Wyoming’s health department has reported 1,428 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 346 probable cases and 21 COVID-19 related deaths.
Mexico Closes US Border In Arizona As COVID Cases Soar – – In the last four days, 15 states have reported record increases in new coronavirus cases, resulting in at least 40% of the U.S. pausing or reversing reopenings. Cases are particularly surging in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, as the world watches in disbelief. The international community is alarmed about the major upswing in infections, with European officials maintaining the US traveler ban and now even America’s southern neighbor is putting up walls…Officials in Sonora, Mexico moved quickly to slam the border shut before the start of the July Fourth weekend, traditionally a peak tourism time as Americans flock south to celebrate, the Arizona Daily Star reported.Officials have not announced a reopening date.Additionally, residents of Sonoyta, the Mexican border town near Lukeville, Arizona, erected a blockade of vehicles at the border this past holiday weekend to prevent Americans from entering the country, reported Newsweek.Sonoyta Mayor Jose Ramos Arzate issued a statement Saturday: “U.S. tourists not to visit Mexico.” The blockade included a line of vehicles on the Mexican side that prevented Americans from entering.
Arizona Declared World’s Biggest COVID-19 Hotspot As Deaths Top 2,000: Live Updates Arizona has released its latest number. Confirmed cases rose by 4,057 to a total of 112,671, the state Department of Health said Thursday (remember, these figures are reported with a day lag). Further details of the daily update revealed that COVID-19-related hospitalizations increased by 16 to 3,437 as of Wednesday , a 12th straight record high. 75 Arizonans died, pushing the state’s death toll above 2k. Adult intensive care unit beds in use by all patients in the state edged lower from 91% on Tuesday to 89% on Wednesday. Here’s more from the state’s dashboard: The positivity rate tumbled to 11.5% on Thursday, well below the nearly 30% rate the state reported yesterday. As states cleared a rumored weekend backlog yesterday, at least five states – Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia – set single-day records for new infections on Wednesday, per the NYT.. Additionally, the NYT this morning declared Arizona the world’s biggest “hot spot”, claiming the state has the largest infection rate (often represented by the variable “R”) in the world. The NYT ranked Arizona No. 1, with about 3,300 cases per 1 million in population, with Florida (2,700) and South Carolina (2,300) following. Bahrain (2,200) took the No. 4. spot.
Florida Sees Record Deaths; Arizona Cases Spiking: Virus Update — Florida reported records in both new hospitalizations and deaths, while Arizona added 4,057 new cases, the most in six days. In New York, there were 95% fewer outdoor diners at restaurants than a year ago and public transport has stalled at about half pre-pandemic levels. This comes as the state’s infection rate has fallen to about 1% of daily testing. Fewer Americans than forecast have applied for unemployment benefits, easing concerns of a renewed downturn as an acceleration in new cases in the U.S. and Mexico pushed the global total past 12 million. Still, Wells Fargo & Co., the largest employer among U.S. banks, is preparing to cut thousands of jobs starting this year. Hong Kong will tighten social distancing rules after reporting 42 new cases on Thursday, of which 34 were domestic. Tokyo found 224 new incidences, a record for a single day. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, started a review into its response to the outbreak that’s been criticized by the U.S. Miami-Dade County, Florida’s most populous, again reported the highest numbers of virus patients in intensive care and hospitals generally since at least early April. Miami-Dade has 1,688 people in hospitals, up 32 from a day earlier. The number of patients in intensive-care beds rose to 358 from 343. Covid-19 patients on ventilators jumped to 184 from 175 a day earlier and was at the highest since April 20, according to the county’s daily report on Wednesday, based on self-reporting by hospitals.
Florida emerges as world’s new epicenter for COVID-19 – Florida has emerged as a global epicenter of the latest coronavirus surge, raising questions about the safety of major events that relocated to the state. As coronavirus cases surged throughout much of the Northeast in April and May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) declared victory. Florida was one of the last states to impose a stay-at-home order, and one of the first to reopen. DeSantis earned praise from President Trump for his response to the pandemic and attacked the media for fearmongering after the state reopened its beaches. “When you look at some of the most draconian orders that have been issued in some of these states and compare Florida in terms of our hospitalizations … I mean, you go from D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois – you name it – Florida has done better,” DeSantis said from the Oval Office in late April. Buoyed by the low infection rates and encouraged by the White House, the state’s first phase of reopening included restaurants, gyms, barbershops and large spectator sporting events, with reduced capacity. Professional sports leagues, including the NBA and Major League Soccer, announced they would resume their seasons in Florida. The Republican National Convention was moved to Jacksonville from Charlotte, N.C., because there would be fewer restrictions. But weeks later, infections are skyrocketing. Some sports teams have already arrived in the state, and league leaders are facing questions about whether it’s safe to continue with their plans. In an interview with Fortune magazine, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged the situation in Florida was not the same as when the league made its decision to play in Disney World. But Silver said he wasn’t sure what the threshold would be to cancel the remainder of the season that’s supposed to resume July 30. On Wednesday, Florida reported nearly 10,000 new cases. There are nearly 220,500 positive cases statewide, and the test positivity rate has been above 14 percent for more than a week. Adding to the trouble, hospitals across the state are running out of beds in the intensive care units, although state officials say there is still plenty of capacity and hospitals have the ability to add surge beds. According to a state dashboard from the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), hospitals have less than 15 percent ICU capacity available. Statewide, 42 hospitals have no ICU beds available, though that number is down from the 56 hospitals reported on Tuesday. DeSantis has refused to release data on daily hospitalizations, despite pledging to do so. Florida is one of the only states that doesn’t publicly release that information.
Florida adds record 120 coronavirus deaths, 411 hospitalizations on Thursday – Florida’s surge in coronavirus cases continued on Thursday, with deaths and hospitalizations hitting record daily levels as the state’s hospitals reported their intensive care beds were filling up fast — including at Tampa General Hospital, which reported all 105 in its facility as occupied.Of the 120 deaths reported statewide Thursday, 40 were in the Tampa Bay area, including 19 in Hillsborough County. That’s the most deaths any local county has reported in one day since coronavirus deaths began being recorded in the state in March.The state deaths included an 11-year-old Broward girl, the second 11-year-old child to die from the coronavirus in the state in the last week. The girl, Yansi Ayala, had cerebral palsy and other health issues,according to South Florida news outlets.The growing numbers had health experts concerned about what’s to come, especially considering hospitalizations and deaths lag behind high case numbers by weeks.“We’re not over this at all,” said Dr. Marissa Levine, a professor of public health and family medicine at the University of South Florida. “If we’re going to really flatten this curve it’s going to require everybody doing their part.”The deaths recorded Thursday bring the total victims of the pandemic statewide to 4,111.The previous single-day high for deaths was 113 people recorded in early May, part of which resulted from the Department of Health including non-Florida residents in its count that day, including some that appeared to die within the state weeks earlier. No other day has come close to passing that May record.The weekly average deaths from coronavirus in Florida is now about 56 a day. In the past week, the state has recorded 393 deaths.The state also added 8,935 new infections, bringing the total to 232,718 people who have had coronavirus since recording began in March.The state also broke its record for hospitalizations by adding 411 over 24 hours. The previous high for new hospitalizations was an increase of 400 people, recorded in mid-May.Across the state, about 14 percent of ICU beds are available, according to the Agency for Healthcare Administration. About 17,500 people have had to seek hospitalization because of the virus.
US posts over 68K new virus cases, setting record for third straight day -The U.S. on Friday reported more than 68,000 new COVID-19 cases, breaking the country’s record for the daily number of new cases for the third consecutive day as the growing pandemic tightens its grip on the country.Friday’s total was a significant rise from Thursday’s record mark of 59,886, according to The New York Times’ tally, though it also underscores the massive jump in new cases over the past two weeks. Friday’s record of 68,100 represents an 84 percent increase over the last 16 days, the Times found.Several states set new records for the number of new cases on Friday, including Georgia, Utah, Montana, North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio. Georgia, the first state to begin reopening its economy amid the pandemic, recorded 4,904 cases on Friday, smashing its previous record of 2,886 on July 2. Atlanta officials have signaled that the city could be shifting back to “Phase 1” guidelines, which largely direct people to stay at home. The city’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms (D), tested positive for COVID-19 this week, though she says she is asymptomatic. She made wearing a masks while in public a requirement for city residents on Wednesday. Texas reported 9,923 new cases on Friday after seeing nearly 11,000 cases on Thursday, a record. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has re-shuttered bars and mandated that all Texans wear masks while out in public, but he warned Friday that more restrictions could be coming, predicting that “things will get worse.” “This was a very tough decision for me to make,” Abbott said in a TV interview, explaining the mask requirement. “I made clear that I made this tough decision for one reason: It was our last best effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. If we do not slow the spread of COVID-19 … the next step would have to be a lockdown.” Florida, which has become one of the main epicenters in the world for the pandemic, nearly broke its record for daily cases that it set on July 4, reporting 11,433 new cases on Friday. Despite the surge in cases, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has said that he will not shut the state down again. “We’re open. We know who we need to protect Most of the folks in those younger demographics, although we want them to be mindful of what’s going on, are just simply much much less at risk than the folks who are in those older age groups,” he said late last month.
Coronavirus deaths rise again amid mounting outbreaks – Coronavirus deaths are rising in hard-hit states and starting to tick back up nationally, a sign that mounting outbreaks are taking a serious toll. Arizona, California, Texas and Florida all set record numbers of daily deaths in recent days. According to an analysis from the Harvard Global Health Institute, daily deaths over the past two weeks from the coronavirus are up 79 percent in Arizona, 37 percent in Florida and 52 percent in Texas. The mounting deaths undercut President Trump’s effort to downplay the explosion of new cases by pointing to the death rate. Earlier this week, Trump had pointed to falling death counts to push back at criticism over his response to the crisis, given the rising case numbers. Nationally, the number of deaths per day from the coronavirus has been falling for months. But that drop has largely been driven by the improving situation in the Northeast, which has outweighed the worsening situation in the South and Southwest. Deaths are also a lagging indicator, meaning it takes time for people to die from the disease, so rises in cases and hospitalizations will show up first. Now, as the situation worsens in the hard-hit states, even the national number of deaths is starting to tick back up. Daily deaths hit their highest point since early June in the past three days, with 867 deaths reported Thursday, according to The COVID Tracking Project. And while the case fatality rate in the United States is lower than in some major European countries, it is not the lowest in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Experts said that despite the efforts by some to downplay the severity of the outbreaks in the U.S., it should not be surprising that deaths are rising. “It’s so crazy that we have to prove to people that sick people die,” said Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
July 11 COVID-19 Test Results; Highest Percent Positive Since Early May – The US is now conducting over 600,000 tests per day, and that might be enough to allow test-and-trace in some areas. Based on the experience of other countries, the percent positive needs to be well under 5% to really push down new infections, so the US still needs to increase the number of tests per day significantly.There were 633,974 test results reported over the last 24 hours. There were 63,007 positive tests.This data is from the COVID Tracking Project. The percent positive over the last 24 hours was 9.9% (red line).For the status of contact tracing by state, check out testandtrace.com.
Thousands of public housing tenants under hard lockdown as COVID-19 spreads Thousands of public housing residents will be locked in their homes for five days, and two more suburbs in Melbourne’s inner-north were added to the city’s list of “hotspots”, after Victoria recorded 108 new coronavirus cases on Saturday. Nine public housing estates in Flemington and North Melbourne were placed in a “hard lockdown” from 4pm on Saturday, with 500 police stationed across every floor of the towers, as more than 23 cases were identified stretching across a dozen households. The hard lockdown – the most severe restriction imposed so far, which will deprive some of Victoria’s most disadvantaged people of their freedom – will mean all occupants in the towers will be banned from leaving their apartments for at least five days. “There will be no one going in other than residents returning home, and no one will be allowed out,” Premier Daniel Andrews said. “I don’t for a moment underestimate how challenging and how traumatic in some respects that will be for those 3000 residents.” From midnight on Saturday, the suburbs of Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne were added to 36 others where stage three coronavirus restrictions have been reapplied. This means residents can only leave their home for four reasons: food or essential supplies; medical care or caregiving; exercise; or for work or study. Housing Minister Richard Wynne acknowledged how difficult the hard lockdown would be for residents in the housing commission towers. “People living in these public housing towers are some of the most vulnerable people in our community,” he said. But Mr Andrews said the step was necessary.
Catalonia locks down 200,000 over coronavirus outbreak – Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region on Saturday locked down an area with about 200,000 residents following a surge in cases of the new coronavirus. Catalonia’s regional president Quim Torra said there had been a “sharp rise” in infections in Segria, a zone that includes the city of Lleida some 150 kilometres (90 miles) west of Barcelona. “We’ve decided to confine Segria due to data that confirm too significant a growth in the number of COVID-19 infections,” Torra told a news conference. People would not be allowed to enter or leave the area, gatherings of more than 10 people would be banned and visits to retirement homes halted, officials said. The restrictions do not apply to seasonal harvest workers, and movement is not restricted within the zone, however. Regional health ministry data showed there were 3,706 cases in the Lleida region on Friday, up from 3,551 the previous day. Catalonia is one of the hardest-hit parts of Spain, with a total of 72,860 coronavirus cases, according to regional health ministry data released on Friday. The move came as the summer holiday started in Spain and the country began re-admitting visitors from 12 countries outside the European Union, two weeks after allowing people from the EU’s visa-free Schengen zone and Britain to return. “It is a surprise,” said Josep Raluy, a 63-year-old retiree who returned to the area from a second home as a precaution. “It’s another step backwards, it’s not good.” Spain has been one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic with at least 28,385 deaths, Europe’s fourth-highest toll after Britain, Italy and France.
India just surpassed Russia to become the country with the 3rd-highest number of coronavirus infections – India recorded just shy of 24,000 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising its total to 697,836, according to Worldometer data. A similar surge was reported one day earlier, as 24,015 new cases were recorded Saturday, according to Worldometer data. The new data brought country’s total case count ahead ahead of Russia’s 681,251 and placed it third in the world behind the US and Brazil for total confirmed cases. New Delhi, India’s capital, leads the country in new COVID-19 cases, according to the BBC. Last week, the outlet reported that the capital city was the country’s largest hot spot, with nearly 80,000 cases. India’s rising case counts are not for lack of trying to contain the spread, according to The Guardian, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi instituted strict lockdown measures and has expressed consistent social-distancing messages since the lockdowns began in March. The country exited a two-month lockdown at the end of May only to find that it didn’t succeed in flattening any curve, however, The Washington Post reported. Modi has already stated his opposition to another national lockdown, according to NPR, but some cities are preparing to reenter lockdown in 10-day increments. India Today reports that cities surrounding Mumbai will, once again, be forced into lockdown with exemptions only for workers deemed essential. India is the world’s most populous country, with over 1.3 billion people – more than triple the US population. As The Guardian reports, testing facilities couldn’t keep up with demand, with a single testing lab in one area meant to serve 30 million people. While attempting to fight off the coronavirus, India has also been suffering through a heat wave that has worsened the crisis as residents struggle with staying at home, according to the Associated Press. Temperatures soared to nearly 120 degrees Fahrenheit in New Delhi in late May, making mask wearing unbearable to some and social distancing harder to maintain.
Ecuador hospitals under pressure, on verge of collapse (video) Health workers in Ecuador’s capital say hospitals are on the verge of collapse, because of the number of new coronavirus cases. More than 59,000 people are infected and at least 4,600 have died. Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo reports.
Brazil’s fascistic President Bolsonaro tests positive for coronavirus –Brazil’s fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro announced yesterday morning to a group of reporters that he tested positive for the new coronavirus, after first presenting symptoms on Sunday. The COVID-19 pandemic has already reached catastrophic dimensions in Brazil, with more than 1,600,000 infected and 66,000 dead, according to the official count. This toll is surpassed internationally only by the United States. The impact of the virus continues to expand, with a weekly average of about 37,000 new cases per day. Amidst this scenario, Bolsonaro used his interview, watched by millions of Brazilians and an international audience, to reaffirm his criminal message on behalf of the entire Brazilian ruling class: “Life goes on, Brazil has to produce, we have to activate the economy.” Bolsonaro reminded everyone that, at first, he was attacked by his political rivals for his sociopathic perspective. “Some people talked in the past, criticizing me, that the economy recovers, life doesn’t,” he said in direct reference to a phrase by Wilson Witzel, governor of Rio de Janeiro. “The guns were all pointed at me, criticizing me very harshly. We suffered a lot, but now you can all see that we were right”. The positions that Bolsonaro claims have been substantiated are actually a set of unscientific assertions about the nature of the coronavirus and policies in response to the pandemic that have proven completely false and of terrible consequence. The fascistic president’s main argument is that the virus is like a “rain” that will inevitably fall on everyone. But, he claimed, the dangers of the disease, which has already killed more than half a million people worldwide, would pose no serious risk to the population.
South Africa sees surge in COVID-19 as restrictions lifted – The lifting of the lockdown and social distancing measures has caused a surge of coronavirus infections in South Africa. The total number of cases is now approaching 210,000 and the number of deaths is over 3,300. This makes South Africa the country with the second highest number of deaths, behind Egypt, and the largest number of cases on the continent. The numbers are expected to peak in July and August, particularly in Gauteng, the country’s industrial hub – where the sharp increases in cases could overwhelm the province’s health system – as well as the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces. Health experts have warned that deaths from COVID-19 could reach from 40,000 to more than 70,000 deaths before the end of the year. The surge follows the government’s reopening of the economy in May, as South Africa’s economy teeters on the brink. The pandemic has worsened the already high rate of unemployment and drastically increased hunger. Shabir Madhi, professor of vaccinology at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, speaking of the devastating impact of these numbers, said, “We’re seeing a spike in infections in Johannesburg [the country’s largest city]. The number of people that we are diagnosing on a daily basis now is absolutely frightening.” He added, “Who we are finding positive now is an indication of who will be in hospital three weeks from now.” Despite the surge in cases, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that the African National Congress (ANC) government does not intend to reinstate a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the virus. Ramaphosa told Business Insider, “Another hard lockdown is not being considered for now, the issue of jobs lost concerns us. Other countries are experiencing even bigger losses. We are developing various other ways of responding to this.” By this, he means social distancing and mask wearing.
“Don’t Let Them Vaccinate You”: Farrakhan Warns Africans That Dr. Fauci Is Trying To Kill Them – It is bad enough when you become a political rally cry for the right as a man trying to destroy our economy or instill fear into the nation. Now, Dr. Anthony Fauci is being called a mass murderer who, with the cabal of Bill and Melinda Gates, are seeking to “depopulate the Earth.” That is hardly the most deranged thing that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, 87, has uttered, but it may be the most dangerous. Farrakhan is encouraging people to refuse vaccinations, a problem that is already causing world health leaders concerns in Africa. This is viewed as the new “epicenter” for the pandemic with Africans facing a threat with the need to protect hundreds of millions of Africans. Health officials will need their cooperation but they have now heard from Farrakhan who has declared that, if they want to live, “Do not take their medication.” In this Fourth of July remarks, Farrakhan declared that“They’re making money now, plotting to give seven billion, five-hundred million people a vaccination. Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and Melinda – you want to depopulate the Earth. What the hell gave you that right? Who are you to sit down with your billion to talk about who can live, and who should die?… I say to my brothers and sisters in Africa, if they come up with a vaccine, be careful. Don’t let them vaccinate you with their history of treachery through vaccines, through medication.” He added “That’s why your world is coming to an end quickly, because you have sentenced billions to death, but God is now sentencing you to the death that you are sentencing to others.”
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