California reported 4,317 new coronavirus cases Friday, the most cases recorded in a single day in the state since the start of the pandemic, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.
This comes just one day after the state previously reported an all-time daily record-high of 4,084 cases.?
To date, California has 165,416 confirmed cases after conducting a total of?3,155,702 tests, according to state data.?
There were also 70 new deaths reported in California Friday, bringing the total fatalities in the state to 5,360.
The New Orleans Health Department is investigating two clusters of Covid-19 cases after a high school graduation party and a large gathering at a bar outside the parish, the agency said.?
Both clusters appear to be impacting young people who live in Orleans Parish.?
The health department warned residents, especially young people, to take immediate precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19, including wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
The health department has urged anyone who has taken part in a non-physically distant gathering without masks or proper precautions to quarantine for 14 days.
The chief of the Houston Police Department, Art Acevedo, told CNN that the police department has recorded a huge spike in Covid-19 cases due to protests.?
Acevedo said that in less than two weeks, the cases in the department have doubled due to “close proximity.”?
“Take the lesson from us, please wear your mask. It is the right thing to do. It is not about politics, it’s about common courtesy and personal responsibility,” he added.?
Intensifying anti-science sentiments that have led people to ignore public health guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic are “disturbing” and “disappointing,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CBS Radio Friday.
CBS’s Steven Portnoy had asked the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases?and a prominent member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force specifically about his level of concern for the people who will be attending President Trump’s rally in Tulsa on Saturday.
Fauci thinks some members of the public harbor an anti-science mentality that has intensified in the current situation and stems from a mistrust of authority. He sees the anti-vaccination movement in this vein. “It’s all part of that trend, which is very disturbing,” Fauci said.
Fauci said he gets concerned about the increased risk of spreading infection when he sees crowds or sees people not wearing masks.?
“If in fact, for one reason or other, you feel compelled to do that, which we don’t recommend, then wear a mask at all times,” Fauci said.
Pressed again on the risk of the virus widely spreading at a mass gathering,??Fauci said he couldn’t put a number on it.?“But it’s very clear that the risk exists,” Fauci said.?
The Small Business Administration and Treasury Department, under withering criticism for lack of transparency, shifted course Friday and announced they would disclose details of borrowers in the Paycheck Protection Program.
The SBA, which manages the $660 billion emergency lending program, will disclose business names, addresses, loan amount ranges and demographic data, among other things, as part of an agreement with bipartisan lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the SBA and Treasury announced in a joint statement.
Fatal cardiac arrests soared in the streets and homes of New York at the peak of the coronavirus epidemic there in March and April, researchers reported Friday.
While coronavirus likely caused many of these deaths, others were probably a consequence of an overwhelmed medical system, the researchers reported in the journal JAMA Cardiology.
They found a three-fold increase in the number of people needing emergency resuscitation in 2020 as compared to the same time period last year. And 90% of these people died, the team at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Health System found.
“Three-fold is actually a conservative number because on April 6 it was a 10-fold increase,” Prezant told CNN. On that day in 2019, EMTs responded to 30 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. On April 6, 2020, there were 305.
For the whole time period of March and April, there were 3,989 cardiac arrests outside of the hospital in 2020, compared to 1,336 in 2019. That’s 2,653 more deaths in 2020 compared to 2019.
Prezant and colleagues analyzed the available information on these victims. They were mostly older, Black or Hispanic, and more likely to have diabetes or high blood pressure. Many were also physically frail, Prezant said.
Plus, when EMTs arrived, they found that the patients had what are called non-shockable arrhythmias. They could not be rescued by CPR or defibrillation.
“The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic is not just the number of patients infected, but the large increase in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and deaths,” Prezant and colleagues concluded.
“This catastrophe transpired despite similar rates of bystander CPR, similar EMS response times, and similar durations of resuscitation efforts, compared with 2019.”
Brazil’s health ministry has reported 54,771 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday, a record daily spike that brought the nationwide total to 1,032,913.
The newly reported cases make Brazil the second country worldwide to record more than a million virus cases, following the United States, which passed that mark on April 28.
Brazil also reported 1,206 new deaths from the virus, bringing the country’s total to 48,954.
More on this: The South American?nation’s death toll is ahead of one of the official tallies in the United Kingdom, where the Department of Health and Social Care has reported 42,461 virus deaths. However, the?UK Office of National Statistics?on June 16 reported a Covid-19 death toll of 51,804, a number that remains above the corresponding tally in Brazil.
The United Kingdom and Brazil are behind only the United States in reported virus deaths.
Brazil medical expert makes dire prediction as coronavirus top 1 million:?
Arizona Department of Health reported 3,246 Covid-19 cases?on Friday, the state’s highest total reported in a single day.?
“IMPORTANT: 3,246 cases of COVID-19 reported in Arizona?on Friday. Please keep yourself and your family safe. Always wear a mask in public even if you do not feel sick. Maintain physical distancing. Let’s work together to slow the spread of COVID-19.?#MaskUpAZ,” Arizona Department of Health tweeted Friday.?
There have been at least 46,689 Covid-19 cases in the state and at least 1,312 people have died from the virus.?
There are at least?2,213,000?cases of coronavirus in the US and?at least?118,967?people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases.
So far on Friday, Johns Hopkins reported?23,944?new cases and?546 deaths.?
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.?
Arkansas has reported 415 new Covid-19 cases, according to officials in a news conference.
Of the 415 new cases, 35 were in correctional facilities, meaning that 380 cases were from community spread, the officials said.
Gov. Asa Hutchison said that this is the largest increase of community spread cases the state has seen since it began reporting Covid-19 cases.
The state has reported 14,631 total cases and 214 deaths.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed a bill that would have allowed indoor and outdoor fitness facilities to reopen in the state.
In his reasoning for the veto, Cooper said, “Tying the hands of public health officials in times of pandemic is dangerous, especially when case counts and hospitalizations are rising.”
He continued: “State and local officials must be able to take swift action during the Covid-19 emergency to prevent a surge of patients from overwhelming hospitals and endangering the lives of North Carolinians.?The bill could restrict leaders who need to respond quickly to outbreaks and protect public health and safety.”’?
The bill will be sent back to the House. To override the veto, it must pass with a three-fifths majority of those present.?
An employee at DeKalb County Elections in Georgia has tested positive for Covid-19, according to a release from the county.
The County Board of Elections is seeking permission from the Georgia secretary of state to postpone the certification of the election results from June 9, which were scheduled to be certified Friday.
The offices of the DeKalb County Voter Registration were closed Friday after the employee tested positive Thursday.
The temporary employee began working on June 11, the statement said.
All employees who work in the office and who may have come in contact with the employee have been recommended to self-quarantine for 14 days.
CNN has reached out to the Georgia secretary of state’s office to see if the extension will be granted.
The National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning closed their training facilities Thursday after three of the team’s players and additional staff members tested positive for Covid-19, according to a statement from the team’s general manager Julien BriseBois.?
The team did not provide the names of any individuals who tested positive for Covid-19.
The infected players have been placed in self-isolation, and those who came in contact with the infected individuals have been notified.?
Team facilities will remain closed until the team can ensure a safe environment.
Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Committee that hydroxychloroquine “turned out to be a black eye” for the US Food and Drug Administration.
Lurie called the FDA’s handling of hydroxychloroquine a “disappointment” and an “embarrassment.”
Lurie, who used to work at the FDA, said drug trials are conducted by the drug manufacturer themselves.
“Quite frankly, the process is infected with conflict of interest, and there’s not very much that can be done about it.”
“It’s a given that there will be that kind of conflict of interest, in that the companies will come in with an interest in depicting the data in the way that best suits them. That’s where the FDA comes in,” Lurie added.
The FDA will review the data itself, Lurie said. “That kind of insulating of the reviewers from the manufacturer is so important.”
Hydroxychloroquine has been used for many years to treat diseases such as malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. President Trump touted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.
Phoenix City Council has enacted a mandatory mask order requiring everyone over the age of six to wear a face covering when leaving their home.
According to the mandate, people in the city are required to wear a face mask whenever they are within six feet of another person who is not a member of their family or household.
Unions representing Disneyland employees are calling for a delay in reopening the Southern California theme park, which is scheduled to open on July 17 with approval from the state and local government.
In a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom dated Wednesday, the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions (CRLU) expressed their concerns over the reopening of the park.
The CRLU is a group of dozens of unions of the Disneyland resort, representing approximately 17,000 service workers.?
Some context: In a post last week, Disneyland announced a phased plan to being reopening parts of the resort as early as July 9.
On Thursday, Disney Parks Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pamela Hymel shared updates on health and safety guidelines.
Parks will be reducing capacity, checking temperature for guests, increasing cleaning and disinfecting, making changes to accommodate physical distancing and requiring face coverings for guests two and older, Hymel said.
CRLU is still waiting for a response from Disney on safety proposals made by the coalition, according to the letter.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said that the state has 352 new positive Covid-19 cases today, just one day ahead of President Trump’s rally in Tulsa.
The state has 9,706 total cases, up 3.8% since Thursday’s report, Stitt said during a news conference today. He also said that 211 people have been hospitalized with symptoms.
Speaking about Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, Stitt said there will be temperature checks for the attendees and he also expects most people to wear a mask.
Californians who don’t wear face masks in public settings can be fined after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order Thursday requiring residents wear the coverings when outside of home.
Newsom’s office today told CNN that the mask order is enforceable if necessary, as a misdemeanor carrying a potential financial penalty and other penalties. State agencies like the Division of Occupational Safety and Health could also take action over violations of the face mask order.
The governor’s?order?requires face coverings in “high risk” settings, including inside any indoor public space, taking public transportation, or seeking medical care.
The US is “in process of notifying the WHO that we are withdrawing,” Jim Richardson, the director of the Office of Foreign Assistance at the State Department, told reporters Friday.
Some background: President Trump announced last month his decision to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization.
Richardson said the State Department and United States Agency for International Development have “alternative implementers” in the countries where Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly encouraged the administration to continue funding WHO operations because there weren’t other options. Those countries are Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria and Turkey.
“We still have a hard time finding implementing partners for polio, for instance, and so we’re still working through an interagency process to come to a resolution on that issue, and see how we want to proceed as the government in those unique cases,” Richardson said.
Dr. Rick Stevens,?associate laboratory director for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences at the Argonne National Laboratory, told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Friday that the best drug to fight coronavirus may end up being a combination of them.
“You would probably end up, at the end of the day, with a mixture of compounds in a future drug treatment,” he added.
Stevens said it’s important to remember “to develop the kind of drugs that we are imaging will take a long time.”
“It took many, many years before there were effective HIV therapies — over a decade. And while we’re moving faster, and we have better tools, this is a very hard problem,” he added.
Indoor dining and drinking can resume June 26 in Chicago with 25% capacity, a press release from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office said Friday.
Restaurants, bars, breweries and other businesses will be able to open indoor service under limited capacity and with safety restrictions in place, according to the release.
Businesses will need to operate indoor service at 25% capacity with a maximum capacity of 50 people per room or floor, the release said.
Patrons must be seated at tables that are six feet apart with 10 or fewer people per table, according to the release.?
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced Friday that West Virginia State Fair organizers opted to cancel this year’s event due to concerns about spreading Covid-19.
Justice had signed off on the fair happening, but organizers still decided to cancel, partially due to recent spread of the virus at churches in the state, as well as the possibility of Myrtle Beach-goers bringing back the virus from South Carolina.
By the numbers: The state has not had a Covid-related death since June 12 and infection rate stands at 1.67%, the governor said.
Starting Monday, spectators will be allowed at outside events and youth sports teams will reconvene.
Justice was asked a question on whether this should or will be reconsidered in light of outbreaks at churches and places of congregation, to which Justice said that they’re constantly rethinking everything and will make decisions accordingly.
In a major reversal, the Navy has decided to fire the captain of the aircraft carrier who warned about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic aboard his ship, reversing the findings of a preliminary investigation that initially recommended the captain of the ship be reinstated, according to a US Navy official and?a?congressional aide familiar briefed on the investigation.???
While fired from the position as commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier is expected to remain in the Navy.
The details: The investigation found that he made other poor decisions in response to the outbreak,?the sources said.?
Additionally,?the Strike Group Commander Rear Admiral Stuart Baker will also be held accountable for poor decision making and his promotion is being put on hold, both sources said.
The Navy has not yet made public the findings of the report.
The ship’s former commanding officer, Capt. Brett Crozier, was initially fired in April for what the acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, who subsequently resigned, said was poor judgment for too widely disseminating a warning about the spread of virus aboard his vessel, a warning that eventually made its way into the press.
The Philadelphia Phillies announced Friday that the team is closing its facilities in Clearwater, Florida, indefinitely following eight positive Covid-19 tests.
Five players and three staff members have tested positive for the virus, the team announced.?The team did not provide the names of any individuals who tested positive for Covid-19.
Eight other staff members have returned negative test results and another 32 individuals, including 20 players and 12 staff members, are still awaiting test results.??
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo announced that phase three of reopening will begin around July 1 and said she hopes phase four can begin in August.
The state’s phase three plan raises the limits for indoor social gatherings from 50 to 75 people and outdoor social gatherings from 75 to 150 people, Raimondo said at a news briefing Friday.
Movie theaters, arcades and bowling alleys can reopen at 66% capacity or 100 square feet per person,?the governor said.
Phase four would allow indoor gatherings like weddings up to 100 people and 250 for outdoor gatherings,?she said.
Raimondo said the?goal to open schools is for August 31. The plan for elementary and middle schools includes keeping students in stable groups of up to 30.
Children should remain in their respective groups at all times and should stay 14 feet apart from other groups.?High school students and teachers would have to wear masks if they can’t keep six feet apart,?Raimondo said.?
“Transportation will be hard to figure out,” Raimondo said.
Innovative solutions are being explored for how to transport children safely, the governor added.
More context: There were 68 Covid-19 cases reported Friday, numbers and hospitalizations remain steady in the state, Rhode Island health officials said.??
Massachusetts will allow indoor dining and close-contact services, such as nail salon, to reopen on Monday, as it enters the second half of its phase two reopening, Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Friday.
Offices may also increase office capacity from 25% to 50% capacity, the governor said.
The announcement comes after Covid-19 hospitalizations dropped below 1,000, the lowest since at least mid-April, according to the governor.
The state will wait for at least two weeks of data from indoor dining before considering moving into phase three of its four-stage reopening plan, pinning that start date to the beginning of July at the earliest, the governor indicated.
In phase three, fitness centers, museums, theaters overnight camps and other businesses would be allowed to reopen, according to the state’s website. Large out door gathering would also be allowed to convene.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she would not wear a mask to President Trump’s campaign rally tomorrow in Tulsa.
She said the decision by aides to wear masks or not is “personal.”
“It’s a personal decision,” she said. “I’m tested regularly. I feel that it’s safe for me not to be wearing a mask.”
Asked earlier in the briefing whether anyone in the White House had any reservations about proceeding with the rally despite a recent spike in coronavirus cases in Oklahoma, McEnany said no one was concerned.
“We are all on board for going to Oklahoma,” she said.
Masks will be provided for attendees at the rally, but people will not be required to wear them.
Oklahoma is seeing a steady increase in its average of new confirmed cases per day.
According to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data,?Oklahoma?averaged about 247 new cases per day over the week ending June 18, which is approximately 140% higher than the previous seven-day period.
Watch here:?
The White House said the demise of public coronavirus task force briefings is due to establishing a “regular routine” after the height of the pandemic.
Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Friday the task force still “meets regularly” and is “constantly reviewing data.”
She said the public briefings only came during the “very early days of Covid and the pandemic,” though those briefings transpired daily for more than a month.
She said that “now we’re in a more regular routine,” the briefings are no longer necessary.
“We don’t have regular updates for you other than for the updates I give you as news merits and I’m regularly in consultation with Dr. (Deborah) Birx and the others,” McEnany said.
Watch here:?
Texas public schools can return this fall,?according to the Texas Education Commissioner,?but families with health concerns will have some flexibility for remote education.?
The state will not impose a statewide mask requirement and will allow districts to create their own rules on facial coverings.
Frank Ward, a spokesperson for the Texas Education Agency, said districts will have latitude on mask requirements. “We want to emphasize local control.”
The agency?will?issue more specific guidance for reopening schools on Tuesday.?
There are no specific definitions for classifying a second wave or a second peak of coronavirus, Dr. Mike Ryan,?executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, said during a briefing on Friday.
Ryan did explain some differences between both:
A second wave, Ryan said, is when “a number of cases rises and it falls down to a very low or detectable level.”
A second peak is a different concept — one that “many countries are facing now,” Ryan said.
“When they’ve come off the peak of the first wave, but they haven’t reduced the disease down and they’re in a steady state where they’re struggling to reduce the incidence of the disease, and then they get a second peak,” Ryan said. During a second peak, community transmission is still occurring, he added.
“You may have a second peak within your first wave. And then you may have a second wave. It’s not either or,” Ryan warned.
“The second peak depends on how good, how strong and how effective the control you have over the disease at this present moment. If you start to experience a second peak, then the chances are that the disease is spreading in a way that you have not got full control over that,” Ryan said.
The impact of testing: Ryan added that sometimes when countries get better at testing, their number of cases often goes up.
To gauge if this is part of a second wave or peak, Ryan said look for these markers: “It’s very important at that time to look at things like hospitalizations and deaths. If you start to see hospitalizations going up, that’s not because of testing.”
Equally important, Ryan said countries should be watching for clusters in places where transmission is very low.
“When you’re down to a very low level of disease, and you see a cluster, you have to jump on the cluster. You have to take the cluster seriously, because you want to avoid that second peak, you want to avoid going back into community transmission.”
Apple announced on Friday that it will temporarily close some stores in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Arizona due to current Covid-19 conditions.
The announcement comes as all four of those states are seeing record-high seven-day averages of new coronavirus cases per day, according to a CNN analysis of?data from Johns Hopkins University.
Florida?Gov. Ron DeSantis?said in a news conference that the state is starting to see an increase in Covid-19 cases in?asymptomatic and younger cohort across the state.?
DeSantis blames the uptick in part to “an erosion in social distancing from some of the younger people.”?
DeSantis also said the seniors in?Florida?have done a really good job with social distancing and looking out?for themselves.?
DeSantis also said 80% of the states 4,000 long term care facilities have never had a single Covid-19 positive case.?
“We are seeing a decline in these facilities which is a good thing” DeSantis said.?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains why Florida’s numbers are concerning?
Ahead of President Trump’s rally in Tulsa tomorrow, here is a look at Oklahoma’s coronavirus trends:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the median age range for coronavirus cases in the past few weeks is 37.?
DeSantis said they expect the median age to continue to plunge as they continue to test: Most of the younger cases are not symptomatic, DeSantis said.?
The governor gave a breakdown of median age?in some of the states larger counties, based on the numbers released by the state health department on Friday.?
Respect, understanding and a lot of handwashing will go a long way to fighting the spread of coronavirus, the World Health Organization director-general said.?
“We can actually keep away this virus by doing the basics,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a Friday briefing.
Tedros said respect and understanding go a long way in fighting coronavirus.
Tedros said the basics are a strong comprehensive public health system, testing and contact tracing and keeping physical distances, wearing masks and good hand hygiene.?
President Trump has tweeted that Dr. Anthony Fauci “has nothing to do with NFL Football” one day after Fauci told CNN he would be very surprised to see football played this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic.?
Trump said the NFL is “planning a very safe and controlled opening.”?
What this is about: Fauci, the nation’s?top?infectious disease expert, told Dr. Sanjay Gupta that “football may not happen this year.”
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, responded Thursday in a statement, “Dr. Fauci has identified the important health and safety issues we and the NFL Players Association, together with our joint medical advisors, are addressing to mitigate the health risk to players, coaches and other essential personnel.”
Dallas County will mandate that businesses require customers and employees to wear masks or face a fine of up to $500, starting Friday at 11:59 p.m. CT.?
County commissioners court approved the decision Friday, a spokesperson for the Dallas County judge confirmed.
The fine would be imposed on businesses.
This comes after Gov. Greg Abbott supported a similar move by Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, earlier this week.?
Texas is among other states reporting its highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases per day since the coronavirus crisis began, ?according to a CNN analysis of?data from Johns Hopkins University.?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered an address today, marking the 111th day of the coronavirus pandemic in New York.
Earlier this week, Cuomo announced today would be his final daily coronavirus briefing.
Cuomo thanked New Yorkers for following restrictions and social distancing measures, which helped flatten the curve of the spread. He said there has been a “180 degree turn” and the state showed what’s possible when they work together.
The state has been gradually reopening, and New York City is expected to begin phase two — which allows restaurants to open for outdoor service and lets other businesses reopen — on Monday.
More than 150,000 new coronavirus cases were reported to WHO yesterday — “the most in a single day so far,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a Friday briefing.
Tedros warned, “The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home.?Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies. But the virus is spreading fast, it is still deadly,?and most people are still susceptible.”
WHO urges people to continue to maintain distance from others, stay home if you feel sick, wear a mask when appropriate, and washing your hands frequently.
The Florida Department of Health is reporting an additional 3,822 cases of coronavirus on Friday, bringing the state total to at least 89,748 according to data released by the state.?
Friday’s numbers mark the highest number of?reported?cases in a single day the state has seen, according to to the Florida Department of Health.?
The previous record was set just yesterday: Florida reported 3,207 additional coronavirus cases on Thursday.
On Thursday, the state of Florida had reported a total of 85,926 cases.?
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced in a statement today that the nation’s capital will is set to enter phase two of reopening on Monday.
In phase 2 of reopening:
According to the mayor’s news release, the District’s reported data for June 18 includes 49 new positive coronavirus cases, bringing the District’s overall positive case total to at least 9,952.
The District reported three additional Covid-19 related deaths.
Despite rising coronavirus cases in Oklahoma, President?Trump?is forging ahead to host a rally in Tulsa tomorrow that is expected to be attended by thousands.
Trump said in a Wall Street Journal interview that some people at the rally this Saturday may catch coronavirus, but added “it’s a very small percentage.”
Oklahoma is seeing a steady increase in its average of new confirmed cases per day. According to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data, Oklahoma averaged about 203 new cases per day over the week ending June 17, which is up approximately 110% from the previous seven-day period.
As of Thursday morning, Tulsa County currently has the most cases — 1,825 total — of any county in the state, according to the?Oklahoma State Department of Health. New cases in Tulsa County have also been climbing, and the county is now seeing its highest seven-day average for new cases at 73.9, according to the?Tulsa Health Department.
Dart noted Wednesday he recommended that the Trump rally be postponed “until it’s safer, until the data tells us that it’s not as large a concern,” to have people in enclosed spaces.
The Tulsa rally is the President’s first since coronavirus shut down the country and halted all in-person campaigning.
Local and campaign officials tell CNN that more than a million people have RSVP’d to the rally. A local official involved in planning said they expected 100,000 to show up at the Bank of Oklahoma Center on Saturday. The venue can hold just under 20,000.
Attendees will not be required to maintain social distance or wear masks, despite the Trump administration’s top public health officials stressing the importance of both measures in preventing the spread of coronavirus.
Two days before the rally is set to take place, a spokesperson for the BOK Center?said it had asked the Trump campaign to provide a written plan for safety measures for the event.
Kevin Hassett, a senior adviser to President Trump, said he would “definitely” wear a mask if he were attending the President’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.?
Hassett, who advises the President on economic issues, said he receives data about the coronavirus every day for each state in the US. He says that data shows an increase in Covid-19 cases in about 18 states right now, but that the increase in cases is higher than hospitalizations.?
“The spikes aren’t necessarily?correlated where we’re seeing?less social distancing and more?economic activity,” Hassett claimed.?
Oklahoma’s cases per day over the week ending June 17 is up approximately 110% from the previous seven-day period, according to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.
A local official involved in planning the Tulsa rally said they expected 100,000 to show up at the campaign venue, which can hold about 20,000 people.
Watch:
Ohio?Gov. Mike DeWine said he has not ruled out another shutdown in the state, telling CNN’s Poppy Harlow that officials have “some tools that we need to use first.”
The governor noted that despite overall cases going down and hospitalizations hitting a plateau, the state saw a spike yesterday in Southwest?Ohio?– near the Dayton and Cincinnati areas.
De Wine said they are watching those spikes “over the next few days.”
WATCH:
Eight US states?are currently seeing their highest seven-day averages of new coronavirus cases per day since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
The eight states are:?Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
Below is information about each of those states. This data includes new cases reported by JHU through June 18:
Arizona
California
Florida
Nevada
Oklahoma
South Carolina
Texas
?Utah
Vice President Mike Pence will lead a closed-door meeting of the coronavirus task force today, the second meeting of the task force this week. They also met on Wednesday.
The meeting comes one day before President Trump’s first campaign rally since the coronavirus pandemic ground American life to a halt, and as state are seeing spikes in cases.
CNN’s?Sanjay Gupta has noted that health experts worry the Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma could become a “super-spreader” type of event.?Oklahoma is seeing a steady increase in its average of new confirmed cases per day. According to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.
Trump?said in Wall Street Journal interview that he would not seek to replicate widespread Covid-19 testing if there was a similar reemergence of the virus in the US.
Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said Friday she doesn’t think her county will shut down ad Covid-19 cases increase in Florida, but hopes they will put more precautions in place as they continue to reopen.
Palm Beach County commissioners will discuss making masks mandatory for the public on Tuesday, according to McKinlay. “I’m hoping my colleagues will agree with some of us who’ve made that ask,” she said.
McKinlay said the public’s resistance to wearing masks in public may come down to virus fatigue. “Florida opened up very quickly,” she told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. “I think people thought that that was a return to normal.”
Other counties in the state have moved to make masks a requirement. Orange County, Florida, Mayor Jerry Demings signed an executive order on Thursday mandating face coverings in the county, according to a statement from Demings.?
Health experts are concerned Florida shows signs of becoming the next coronavirus epicenter. Florida reported 3,207 additional coronavirus cases on Thursday — the largest single-day count in the state since the pandemic, according to the state health department.
As the number of coronavirus deaths in the US approaches 120,000, former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney says the “raw number of cases” is not the right metric to use.?
Information about Covid-19 changes every day, and as testing increases, there are more cases, he said.
“I’m not trying to minimize what the disease is; I’m trying to put it in perspective,” he said.?
In early March, President Trump announced he was replacing Mulvaney as his acting chief of staff. He now serves as US special envoy for Northern Ireland.
At the CPAC conference in February, Mulvaney said Trump’s opponents were capitalizing on growing coronavirus concerns. “They think this is what’s going to be what brings down the President. That’s what this is all about,” he said during the conference.?
When asked by Sciutto if he was wrong, Mulvaney said that the information that the administration was receiving from the CDC did not indicate the widespread growth of coronavirus. ?
Back then, he said they were comparing the novel coronavirus to other coronaviruses — SARS and MERS — which largely did not affect the US.
Orange County, Florida, Mayor Jerry Demings signed an executive order on Thursday mandating face coverings in the county, according to a statement from Demings.?Orange County includes Orlando.
The mayor cited an increase in the number of positive cases as the reason for the order.
Florida is among other states that is currently reporting its highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases per day since the crisis began, according to a CNN analysis of?data from Johns Hopkins University.??
Under the mandate every?person working, living, visiting, or doing business in Orange County is required to wear a face covering consistent with the current CDC guidelines while in any public place.?
The order is set to go into effect at midnight on Saturday.?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?brushed away questions about his culpability in aggressively reopening his state during a press conference this week.?He blamed the surge in cases, in part, on crowded living conditions in migrant families.
Portugal seemed set up to be devastated by Covid-19, as a country with among the fewest intensive care beds per capita in the European Union.?
But with 38,089 confirmed cases and only 1,524 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally, so far the opposite is true.?
One of the reasons behind Portugal’s relative success could be the use of steroids to treat patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).
A new study by Oxford University has found this method to reduce inflammation in the lungs could reduce the risk of death for hospitalized patients.
The World Health Organization has also called it a potential breakthrough, but doctors at Lisbon Central University Hospital Center have already been treating patients with corticosteroids (known as corticotherapy) for months, ICU head Dr. Nuno Germano said.
“What we’ve seen with corticotherapy is that we are able to reduce the inflammation and greatly improve the respiratory function of the patients,” he said. “I think that early ventilation, along with corticotherapy to treat inflammation in these patients has allowed us to have a ventilation duration that does not surpass 10-11 days.”
Germano said around 60% of ventilated patients at his hospital have been treated with steroids, explaining that it is one of several tools that have helped staff keep the death toll for ICU patients at around 16%.
“We [also] have a team that does outreach, that goes out of the ICU and observes patients and what we do is … early intubation and ventilation to the patients,” he added.
In addition to the techniques used in ICUs, Portugal has benefitted from mass testing and the government’s swift response to the coronavirus threat, according to the head of infectious diseases at the same hospital, Dr. Fernando Maltez.?
Maltez and Germano both said the easing of anti-coronavirus measures has caused the number of confirmed cases to increase in the past few weeks, especially in and around Lisbon. Yet they added that so far they haven’t seen a surge that would overwhelm health services.
WATCH:
There are public health measures officials in Florida can implement to reduce risk of transmission of Covid-19 and avoid a shutdown, said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
A “shutdown is the most extreme version of what you need to do,” Jha said Friday on CNN’s New Day. “What many of us in the public health community have been advocating is that let’s do everything to prevent the shutdown.”
A mask mandate, no large gatherings, and ramping up testing, tracing and isolation, are efforts that can curtail the virus, according to Jha.
Florida is among other states that is currently reporting its highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases per day since the crisis began, according to a CNN analysis of?data from Johns Hopkins University.?
Florida reported 3,207 additional coronavirus cases on Thursday — the largest single-day count in the state since the pandemic, according to the state health department. Florida’s total reported cases climbed to nearly 86,000, according to data.
A Covid-19 care center, described as a “mega-hospital,” is being built in the Indian capital New Delhi and is due to be completed by the end of the month. The facility is set to have the capacity to treat 10,000 patients.
Around 10% of the beds would also have oxygen support, according to BN Mishra, the south Delhi district magistrate who is overseeing the operation.
“I have requested that the preparations are completed latest by July 30 and we can start taking patients by the first week of July,” Mishra told CNN.?
“We are trying to ensure that doctors of various specialties are available at the facility and that they have all the equipment necessary which is currently being arranged for, including air conditioners,” Mishra added.
New Delhi has seen a recent surge in coronavirus cases. The capital currently has 49,979 infections, including 1,969 deaths.?
Apart from the new hospital, the city is planning to supplement its bed capacity by using train cars.?
Some 50 train cars with 800 beds each are stationed in the city and have been converted into isolation centers.
More than 8.5 million cases of?novel coronavirus?have been?confirmed worldwide, including at least 454,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
If you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments.
US warned over reopening: More than 90% of Americans are still susceptible to Covid-19, said Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her warning comes as ten states?saw their highest daily number?of cases this week and nearly two dozen states saw spikes in cases compared to last week.
Coronavirus apps:?The UK government is abandoning its attempt to develop a?coronavirus?tracing app from scratch and will instead build one based on a system created by?Google and Apple after repeated delays. Germany’s government said its coronavirus smartphone app has been downloaded 9.6 million times since it was launched on Tuesday.
Beijing outbreak “under control”:?Chief epidemiologist at China’s CDC Wu Zunyou declared the virus flare-up in the Chinese capital is already “under control.” But the current outbreak in Beijing is the worst resurgence of the coronavirus yet, and authorities are still trying to track down its source.?The cluster has infected more than 180 people as of Friday.?
Cases surge in Indian capital:?New Delhi is looking into increasing hospital beds and is ramping up testing as coronavirus cases in the city near 50,000. It comes as India reported 13,586 coronavirus cases nationwide in the past 24 hours, the biggest single-day jump in infections to date.
Yemen faces “nightmare”: Millions of Yemenis could be infected with coronavirus and up to 85,000 people could die as the country’s health system has effectively collapsed, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a report today.?
Brazil nears 1 million cases:?It comes after another daily spike on Thursday. The health ministry?reported another?22,765 new cases, bringing its total number of cases to 978,142.
Fraternity parties in Mississippi have continued this summer, and as a result?Covid-19 cases have too, the state’s health officer said Thursday.
Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs announced 381 new cases and five additional deaths in a press conference on Thursday. Quite a few patients have been linked to fraternity rush parties, said Dobbs, also an associate professor at the University of Mississippi medical school in Oxford.
Adherence to social distancing over the summer break has been “overwhelmingly disappointing” and has made him extremely concerned about what the fall may have in store.
Dobbs added that there are efforts to try to prepare for a surge of cases in the fall which he said “seems quite likely.”
That resurgence is made even more worrisome by the fact that the state’s healthcare system is already under stress, Dobbs said. There are 465 hospitalized patients, 159 people in intensive care units?and 100 on ventilators in the state, he said.
Read the full story here:
More than 90% of Americans are still susceptible to Covid-19, said Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.?
When asked about the uptick in new coronavirus cases in states like Florida and Texas, Khan said the US will continue to see increases if states don’t open safely.
“We’re in the midst of the greatest public health failure in American history, and if we’re going to continue to open up and not open up safely, we’re going to continue to see increased cases,” Khan told CNN.
A vaccine to prevent coronavirus may be months or even years away, but a team of researchers in the US say an everyday vaccine that is available now might be used to help prevent the worst effects of coronavirus infection.
They’re proposing giving a booster dose of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to people to see if it ramps up immunity in general, perhaps helping prevent some of the most severe effects of Covid-19.
Their thinking: The MMR vaccine is known to protect kids against infections that go far beyond the three viruses targeted by the vaccine. The theory is that the vaccine boosts general immunity, in addition to training the body to recognize specific viruses.
The MMR vaccine is what’s known as a live vaccine. It uses highly weakened, or attenuated, versions of the measles, mumps and rubella viruses to produce immune protection without making people sick. Because it uses whole viruses, it stimulates an immune response that is broad and goes beyond the production of antibodies.
“A clinical trial with MMR in high-risk populations may provide a ‘low-risk–high-reward’ preventive measure in saving lives during this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic,” they wrote. There’s no serious risk to giving the vaccine to most people and the approach might be especially effective for protecting health care workers, they said.
“If we’re wrong, well, at least people will have new antibodies to measles, mumps and rubella. So there’s no harm, no foul,” Fidel told CNN.
“We emphasize this is strictly a preventive measure against the worst in?ammatory sequelae of COVID-19 for those exposed/infected and does not represent an antiviral therapy or vaccine against COVID-19 in any manner,” Fidel and Noverr added in their letter.
Venezuela’s embattled ruler President Nicolas Maduro has made the most of the coronavirus lockdown to stamp his authority over the country’s key political institutions, all in the matter of a week.
On Tuesday, the Venezuelan Supreme Court suspended the leadership of the main opposition party Primero Justicia and ruled that a pro-government lawmaker should be in charge. On Monday, the same happened to the second-largest opposition party, Acción Democrática. Both decisions were based on complaints from expelled party members.
A week earlier, the nation’s highest court appointed the new members of the Electoral Council, a body of five officials tasked with organizing elections. Of the new magistrates, two previously served as judges in the same Supreme Court, and one is a former Socialist lawmaker who’s been under US sanctions since 2017.
The court, which has traditionally supported the president, made the decision even though the Venezuelan constitution states the National Assembly – which is controlled by the opposition – should elect the members of the Electoral Council. The ruling was part of a pattern whereby the top court has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the assembly.
To date, Venezuela has registered less than 3,500 coronavirus cases and only 28 deaths, although experts doubt the reliability of those figures as the country’s health system is in disarray and has limited capacity to perform Covid-19 tests.
Read the full story here:
Early on Sunday morning, the mutilated body of a 42-year-old woman was found in Eersterust, a middle-class township in Pretoria, South Africa.?
Two days earlier, residents in the Soweto township of Johannesburg discovered the body of another young woman under a tree. And just over a week ago, a heavily pregnant 28-year-old was?found hanging from a tree?on the outskirts of Johannesburg.?
The three women were among the latest victims in a surge of violence against women in South Africa which the country’s president has described as a?“pandemic.”
More than 20 women and children have been murdered in South Africa in recent weeks, he added. “These women are not just statistics, they have names, they have families and friends,” he said as he read out the names of the victims.?
In an earlier statement on Saturday, he said the killings?show that perpetrators have “descended to even greater depths of cruelty and callousness.”
Read the full story here:
Germany’s new coronavirus smartphone app has been downloaded 9.6 million times since it was launched on Tuesday, according to government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer.
That’s the equivalent of about 12% of the country’s population, although it’s unknown whether some people have downloaded it on multiple phones.
The new tracing app is designed to speedily track down new clusters of coronavirus infections.
Software maker SAP and telecommunications?company Deutsche Telekom helped develop the service on behalf?of the German government.
In countries around the world, many of these apps have been delayed as governments struggle to roll out complex new systems in record time, and some of those that have been launched are not being downloaded by enough people to have a major effect.
The UK yesterday ditched its own virus app for a version based on a system created by?Google and Apple.
It’s breakfast time, which means I need to get my temperature checked, put on my face mask, smother my hands in alcohol disinfectant and wear a pair of plastic gloves.?
That’s all before I have coffee.?
Welcome to the Riu Concordia – part of a hotel chain headquartered in the Spanish holiday island of Mallorca.?
It’s been specially chosen to greet some of the nearly 11,000 German visitors heading here as part of a pilot program to test coronavirus precautions and reopen Spain’s tourism economy.
RIU Hotels has invested in a slew of new protocols.?
In our lobby, a thermal camera scans guests when they walk in through the sliding doors: Keep it cool and you get the green light to enter.?
But if your temperature gets too high, reception gets a discreet red alert.?
“We feel very brave to show the world our product. And people are doing a fantastic effort so far, guests are responding so well.”
Read the full story here:
The UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been lowered from level four to level three, according to a joint statement issued by the Chief Medical Officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Level three means that Covid-19 remains in general circulation, whereas level four indicates that the level of transmission is high or rising.
“We have made progress against the virus thanks to the efforts of the public and we need the public to continue to follow the guidelines carefully to ensure this progress continues,” it added.
Nicaragua has seen its fair share of unrest, fear and struggles throughout its troubled history. Now,?faced with the deadly coronavirus, the government is coming under fire for?its casual approach?to containing the pandemic.?
In the past three months, at least six politicians have died, although the details are vague on some of the causes. “Express burials” are happening at night, witnesses told CNN, and doctors have been allegedly fired for raising alarm about the virus’ spread.
Medical experts have also questioned government-released details about the country’s coronavirus infection rate.
The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has described these allegations and reports of “express burials” as “false news.”?
Six months into a crisis that has shaken the world, the 74-year-old president has refused to impose strict, preventive quarantine measures seen in neighboring countries. Public schools remain open, businesses continue to operate, festivals and cultural events are happening on an almost-weekly basis.
Read the full story:
The pressure is on for local US leaders to respond to regional?Covid-19?spikes and records, and some are turning to mask mandates.?
Statewide, Californians will be required to wear face coverings in indoor public places, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday. To the north, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced a similar mandate for seven counties beginning June 24.
Similar measures are being considered in North Carolina and Arizona, where Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane is developing an ordinance with a legal team.
Each of those four states, along with six?others, is currently reporting its highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases per day since the crisis began, according to a CNN analysis of?data from Johns Hopkins University. The others are Alabama, Florida, Nevada,Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.
Florida?could be the next epicenter,?experts say.?And Oklahoma, where cases are up 110% from last week, is preparing to welcome large crowds in Tulsa on Saturday for a rally for President Donald Trump.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that social distancing will be near impossible there and county health officials should shut it down.
Read the full story:
Millions of Yemenis could be infected with coronavirus and up to 85,000 people could die as the country’s health system has effectively collapsed, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a report today.
IRC’s estimated numbers?are?based on modeling and data produced by Imperial College London and the World Health Organization.
Yemen has been mired in political unrest and armed conflict, which intensified in early 2015. Houthi rebels – a minority Shia group from the north of the country – drove out the US-backed government and took over the capital, Sanaa.?The crisis quickly escalated into a multi-sided war, with neighboring Saudi Arabia leading a coalition of Gulf states against the Houthi rebels.
The UK government has announced a?￡1 billion (more than $1 billion) plan to help the “impact of lost teaching time” during the Covid-19 pandemic as it prepares to return students to school in September, a government press release said.
“As plans continue for a full return to education from September, the government has announced ￡650 million will be shared across state primary and secondary schools over the 2020/21 academic year,” the press release from the Department of Education read.
School principals will decide where the money is spent, but it is expected it will go toward “small group tuition,” the government said.
The other portion of the package will be?￡350 million?for a tutoring program that “will increase access to high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people over the 2020/21 academic year.”?
“This ￡1 billion catch-up package will help head teachers to provide extra support to children who have fallen behind while out of school,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the press release.
The British government is abandoning its attempt to develop a?coronavirus?tracing app from scratch and will instead build a new one based on a system created by?Google and Apple.
The new smartphone app will incorporate some of lessons the UK government has learned from working on its own app, such as how to better estimate the distance between users. The government did not give a roll out date.?
“This is an important step allowing us to develop an app that will bring together the functionality required to carry out contact tracing, but also making it easy to order tests, and access proactive advice and guidance to aid self-isolation,” the government said in a statement on Thursday.
The about-face comes after the roll out of the UK app, which was being developed by the country’s National Health Service and two outside firms, was repeatedly delayed. Government ministers initially lauded the NHS app as key to helping the country out of lockdown, in addition to deploying thousands of people to track and trace the infection.
Read the full story:
The United States reported 25,766?new coronavirus cases and 704 deaths on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
That brings the nationwide confirmed total to 2,189,056?cases and at least?118,421?deaths.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.?
CNN’s interactive map is tracking the US cases:
More than 8.4 million cases of?novel coronavirus?have been?confirmed worldwide, including at least 453,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
If you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments.
UK coronavirus app: The British government is abandoning its attempt to develop a?coronavirus?tracing app from scratch and will instead build a new one based on a system created by?Google and Apple. The about-face comes after the roll out of the UK app – developed by the National Health Service and two outside firms – was repeatedly delayed.
Cases surge in Indian capital: New Delhi is looking into increasing hospital beds and is ramping up testing as coronavirus cases in the city near 50,000. It comes as India reported 13,586 coronavirus cases nationwide in the past 24 hours, the biggest single-day jump in infections to date. Meanwhile, India lifted a ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine – the anti-malaria drug that was being studied as a possible coronavirus therapy.
US warned of rising cases: Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, says that unless there are policy changes, the growing numbers of new Covid-19 cases in the US could get much bigger.?Ten states have seen their highest daily number of cases this week and nearly two dozen states have seen spikes in cases compared to last week.
Beijing outbreak “under control”: Chief epidemiologist at China’s CDC Wu Zunyou declared the outbreak already “under control.” But the current outbreak in Beijing is the worst resurgence of the coronavirus yet, and authorities are still trying to track down its source.?The cluster has infected more than 180 people as of Friday.
Brazil nears 1 million cases: It comes after another daily spike on Thursday. The health ministry?reported another?22,765 new cases, bringing its total number of cases to 978,142.
India reported 13,586 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the biggest single-day jump in infections to date.
There were 336 deaths reported in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The total confirmed cases in the country now stands at 380,532, and 12,573 people have died, ministry figures show.
Until last week,?Beijing seemed?to have all but moved on from the coronavirus pandemic.
For 55 days, the Chinese capital had not reported any locally transmitted infections and life had been returning to normal.
But that facade of normality was shattered when?a fresh cluster of coronavirus cases?emerged from a sprawling wholesale food market in the city, infecting more than 180 people as of Friday.
Within a matter of days, the metropolis of more than 20 million people was placed under a?partial lockdown. Authorities reintroduced restrictive measures used earlier to fight the initial wave of infections, sealing off residential neighborhoods, closing schools and barring hundreds of thousands of people deemed at risk of contracting the virus from leaving the city.
The flare-up of infections in Beijing, the seat of Communist Party power and previously considered among the country’s safest cities, is a stark reminder of how easily the virus can come back to haunt places where it was thought to have been tamed.
The current outbreak in Beijing is the worst resurgence of the coronavirus yet, and authorities are still trying to track down its source.
Previously,?reports had linked the outbreak?to seafood or meat, after traces of the virus were reportedly detected on a chopping board used by a seller of imported salmon at the market. However, there are now concerns that the virus had been quietly spreading for weeks before it was first detected.
Read more about the new outbreak and Beijing’s race to contain it:
China reported 28 new cases of Covid-19 aon Thursday, Beijing health officials announced today.
Twenty-five of the new cases are in Beijing, two in Hebei and one in Liaoning.
Beijing has reported 183 new cases in the last eight days since the Xinfadi market outbreak.?
Around 356,000 people linked to the market have been tested as of Wednesday, according to Beijing health officials. The city’s testing capacity stands at around 400,000 tests a day but will continue to increase, the official said.
On Thursday, China’s chief epidemiologist, Wu Zunyou, said the patients in most of the new cases were people who worked at seafood and meat stands in the market.?
“Patients from the seafood market showed symptoms earlier than others. Preliminary assessment showed that low temperatures and high humidity may be favorable to the survival of the coronavirus,” Wu said.?
The Indian capital New Delhi has reported 49,979 cases of coronavirus, making it the second Indian city after Mumbai due to hit the 50,000 mark.?
New Delhi Chief Minister Arwind Kejriwal said that more intensive care units (ICUs) may be needed to address the increasing number of cases.
“We may need more ICUs in the coming days,” Kejriwal?tweeted?on Wednesday, adding that he is in discussion with doctors at government hospitals on how best to increase the number of ICUs.
Following a meeting with the union home minister on Thursday, the New Delhi government reduced the cost of testing for coronavirus and adopted a new “Rapid Antigen” methodology that has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research.
The method provides results in 15 minutes.?
The outbreak in Beijing, which has infected more than 100 people, will be the latest test of China’s coronavirus containment strategy.?
On Thursday, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at China’s Center for Disease Control, struck a victorious tone, declaring that the outbreak in Beijing is already “under control.”
Wu said that it is still likely that there will be newly confirmed cases linked to the market emerging in the coming days – but it is not likely due to fresh transmission.?
The chief epidemiologist said that it was not unexpected to see a new outbreak in Beijing, given the large number of new global cases.
“As long as there are risks of imported cases, imported infections and small-scale clusters caused by imported infections might occur anywhere in China. From this point of view, (the Beijing outbreak) is normal,” he said.
Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, says he is worried that, unless there are policy changes, the growing numbers of new Covid-19 cases in the United States could get much bigger.?
Ten states have seen their highest daily number of cases this week. Nearly two dozen states have seen spikes in cases compared to last week.
“Look, there are a few things we know that really do work, and I think unfortunately, in many parts of the country we’re not really implementing them, and that worries me.”
Jha said he is also worried for the people who will attend the rally President Donald Trump will hold in Tulsa on Saturday.
Cases in Oklahoma are up 110% from this time last week.
Holding an event indoors, not requiring masks, and having people close together for long periods of time could spread the infection to many.??
“This is pretty much the least safe way to get people together and I’m really worried about what’s going to happen with this rally,” Jha said. “There are lots of ways of making it safer it doesn’t sound like the campaign is really going to work on doing that.”
Jha said it is possible that the country could see big spikes in the number of Covid-19 cases out of a rally like this, even if only a few people are infected.?
“Things could get pretty bad, pretty quickly,” Jha said.
Convalescent plasma – blood from recovered patients who had Covid-19 – that has been transfused to hospitalized patients is considered safe, according to a new study.
The study published Thursday in Mayo Clinic Proceedings looked at results from 20,000 patients.
Researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration’s Expanded Access Program for Covid-19 looked at the results from patients who doctors thought might progress to a severe or life-threatening stage of the illness. They were transfused between April 3 and June 11.
Less than 1% of patients experienced serious adverse events. The number of people who died declined to 8.6% at the 7th?day of the trial, compared to the 12% who died in a previous part of the safety study of 5,000 patients.?
The authors caution that just because the treatment is safe, doesn’t mean that it is effective in treating Covid-19.
The study has limitations and more research will need to be done to determine if this works with this disease. There are several studies underway.
Eleven children have tested positive for Covid-19 at a foster care facility in Florida, Citrus Health Network Communications Director Leslie M. Veiga said Thursday.
His House Children’s Home is a residential program and child placement agency in Miami Gardens.
The facility currently houses 54 children but has the capacity for 232.
Children at the home are tested if they are exposed to a person who has tested positive, if they become symptomatic, or if they are taken to the hospital, according to Veiga.
All of those who have tested positive are asymptomatic and none are hospitalized,?His House Children’s Home Executive Director Silvia Smith-Torres said in a statement.
Those children are being quarantined in Covid homes on the His House campus, according to Smith-Torres.
Smith-Torres said that the facility is taking precautions including daily temperature checks of the children, and staff before they come into contact with the children. All staff are equipped with PPE and wear full protective gear when they work in homes where children have tested positive, according to Smith-Torres.
Japan reported 68 new coronavirus cases and no new deaths on Thursday, according to the health ministry.
The capital Tokyo saw a rise of new infections with the government announcing 41 new cases.
The day before, Tokyo reported 16 new cases – the first time the number had dropped below 20 for the first time in a week.?
The total confirmed cases in Tokyo is 5,633, with 316 deaths.
Nationwide, the number of reported coronavirus cases stands at 18,452, with 712 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
India has lifted a ban on the export of hydroxychloroquine – the anti-malaria drug that was being studied as possible therapy for coronavirus, according to India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry.?
“(The earlier order) has been amended to change the export policy of hydroxychloroquine API and its formulations?from “Prohibited” to “Free” with immediate effect,” the notification said.?
In March India had banned the export of the drug with some exceptions, followed by a blanket ban in April.?
The announcement comes after the US Food and Drug Administration revoked its emergency use authorization for use of the drug to treat Covid-19 patients this week, saying there was no reason to believe the drug is effective against the virus, and that it “increased the risk of side effects, including heart problems.”??
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said the hydroxychloroquine arm of the agency’s Covid-19 Solidarity Trial will end because the drug did not help coronavirus patients.
County health commissioners in Tulsa, Oklahoma, should shut down President Donald Trump’s planned rally in the city Saturday, a leading health expert warned.
“The risk is real,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at George Washington University, told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
“Tulsa just had a record number of cases. In the last week the number of Covid-19 cases in Tulsa is up 111%,” Reiner said, drawing a comparison to other events that might pose a danger to the public.
The Trump campaign said masks will be available for those attending the event, but people won’t be required to wear them. Also, social distancing will be next to impossible in a packed arena. Both measures are recommended by health experts as a means of controlling the spread of the deadly virus.
Florida is set to become a new center of coronavirus spread and that’s a tragedy, an infectious disease specialist from Florida International University said Thursday.?
“We have just spent so much time and effort and suffering hammering down the original outbreak that it’s really a tragedy to see the numbers start to go back up,” Dr. Aileen Marty told CNN’s Erin Burnett.
“We have public health measures that can be used to get it back down without having a lockdown if the?community cooperates,”?Marty said.
Those measures include wearing a mask in public and maintaining social distancing.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, though, has said the spike in cases in Florida is a result of increased testing and clusters of the illness in places such as prisons and long-term care facilities.
Marty said those communities are a very small part of the overall picture of the disease in the state.
“If it’s any reflection of what’s going on it’s a very small part of the picture and the reality remains that there are more hospitalizations happening here right now so we know this is a real increase in cases,” she said.
Mexico has it’s highest single-day increase in confirmed coronavirus cases after reporting more than 5,000 new infections on Thursday, according to the Mexican Health Ministry.
The ministry recorded 5,662 new cases, bringing the country’s total to 165,455.
Mexico also reported 667 new deaths from the virus, bringing its total to 19,747.?
