June 26 coronavirus news

Medical personnel prepare to administer coronavirus tests at the Robertson County Fairgrounds in Springfield, Tennessee, on April 18.

Tennessee has reported its highest number of new cases of coronavirus today since the start of the pandemic.

The state has reported 1,410 new cases of coronavirus, which is the highest daily number of new cases reported to date.

The previous highest day was June 19, which is when 1,188 new cases were reported.

The state is reporting 39,444 total cases and 577 total deaths.

According to statistics on the state’s coronavirus dashboard, 16,513 of the cases are people between the ages of 21 and 40.

One thing to note: This data was released by the state of Tennessee and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Brazil began human trials this week to test an experimental vaccine for Covid-19 developed by the University of Oxford.

Volunteers in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are being given 3,000 shots of the vaccine.

Doctors, nurses and ambulance drivers are among those recruited for the trial due to their increased risk of exposure to the virus. Volunteers are between 18 and 55 years old and must have tested negative for Covid-19.

Brazil’s Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) gave pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca permission earlier this month to begin the trial. The studies of the vaccine could take up to a year, according to the Federal University of Sao Paulo.

Why this matters: Brazil was selected because it’s one of the countries hardest-hit by the virus. Second only to the United States, the country has recorded more than 1.2 million cases and at least 55,000 deaths, according to Brazil’s health ministry.

The country has not yet signed a deal to produce the vaccine.

Human trials of the vaccine are also underway in the United Kingdom, where researchers announced last month that they had moved into the second phase, involving 10,260 participants.

Houston M

There are at least 18,056 cases of coronavirus in Houston and at least 216 people have died from the virus in the city, Mayor Sylvester Turner said during a news conference on Friday.

The current surge in Covid-19 cases in Houston is real and it is serious, Turner added.

The Texas city has seen increases in hospitalizations, intensive care unit numbers and the number of young people testing positive for Covid-19, according to Turner.

“I do support the government’s decision to close bars and reduce restaurants capacity from the current closed bars completely for now,” Turner said.

Some context: The mayor’s comments comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Friday in an effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the state.

The new order places strict limitations on businesses and services. Bars that get more than 51% of their gross receipts from the sale of alcoholic beverages must close today, among other measures.?

Turner added that he’s working on a “wall of shame” for businesses that are caught not following the governor’s new order.

The “wall of shame” will include posting onto the city’s social media site and onto a huge board during news conferences, Turner said.

Leana Wen, former Health Commissioner for the City of Baltimore.

The first White House coronavirus task force briefing in months demonstrated a “stunning disconnect” between the administration and the reality of the coronavirus pandemic, a former Baltimore city health commissioner said Friday.

“We’re basically seeing the same picture that we saw back in March, in New York City, but in many places in the country and without a plan to be able to address it,” Wen added.

Wen said she agreed with Vice President Mike Pence when he said the US had flattened the curve of the disease.

“But then what happened?” Wen asked. “When we reopened without having the capability to rein in these infections, and now all the sacrifices that people have made are going to go in vain and we still don’t have a national strategy, or even recognition from the vice president that we have a problem here.”

Wen faulted Pence for not endorsing the simple act of wearing a face covering. The administration, on the other hand, has touted the drug remdesivir, which helps critically ill Covid-19 patients.

“Well, we actually have a treatment right now, if you will. If you wear a mask, that reduces your risk of getting coronavirus by up to five times,” Wen said. “Imagine that this is a medication that we can all be taking. This is a basic intervention that all that should be doing right now in order to save lives.”

Watch more:

An airline passenger wearing a face mask pushes her bags past a post box at Heathrow Terminal 5 departures on March 15, in London.

The British government will announce travel agreements with countries, such as France, Greece and Spain, next week as it reviews its policy of imposing a 14-day quarantine for travelers arriving in Britain, the UK government said in a statement on Friday.

“Countries have been classified as green, amber and red depending on their risk assessment, informed by factors including the prevalence of coronavirus within the country, our confidence in the reliability of their data, and crucially the trajectory of the disease in the country,” the statement read. “Low risk countries in the green and amber categories will be exempt from public health measures at the border.”

A full list of the low risk countries will be published next week and travel to those destinations will be able to resume the following week.

“Our new risk-assessment system will enable us to carefully open a number of safe travel routes around the world — giving people the opportunity for a summer holiday abroad and boosting the UK economy through tourism and business,” a government spokesperson said. “But we will not hesitate to put on the brakes if any risks re-emerge, and this system will enable us to take swift action to re-introduce self-isolation measures if new outbreaks occur overseas.”

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a news conference on Friday.

Vice President Mike Pence has told major airlines to move forward with an industry-led solution for the contact tracing of passengers.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Pence gave his blessing to a “compromise solution” for contact tracing during a Friday meeting with airline executives.

Airlines initially balked at the government’s demand that they collect detailed contact information on all passengers and distribute it to public health officials if requested.?

The airlines said it would be impossible to quickly overhaul the massive legacy computer systems that handle the industry’s vast booking networks

The source told CNN that Pence now supports the airlines’ proposal for a third-party app and website that would require passengers to input five points of data.

The industry group, Airlines for America, said in a statement after the meeting that it looked forward to implement some initiatives to help relaunch the airline industry.

The 45-minute, closed-door meeting also covered temperature checks and expected European Union restrictions on Americans traveling abroad, but the source underscores the most substantive talks centered on contact tracing.

People in Palm Beach, Florida, wear protective face masks as they walk along Worth Avenue on May 11.

Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner announced at a news conference that the county board approved a mask mandate by a unanimous vote of 7-0.?

The mandate went into effect Thursday night. It requires that masks be worn by “all persons when obtaining any service from any establishment and by all persons working in those establishments.”

These rules apply “to all businesses including but not limited to restaurants, retail establishments, hotels, grocery stores, gyms, pharmacies, recreational facilities and vehicles for hire” such as Uber, the mandate added.

People who are excluded from the wearing a mask include “individuals while actively engaged in exercising while maintaining social distancing in accordance to (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?) guidelines” as well as children under the age of two and children of any age “while in the custody of a licensed child care facility.”

The exclusion also applies to people with medical conditions like asthma.

People for “whom wearing a facial covering conflicts with their religious beliefs or practices” are also exempt from wearing a mask, the mandate said.

More details: With reported cases on the rise, Kerner pointed out that the “vast majority of spread is occurring” within the 25-34 age group.

To help ensure that all residents of Palm Beach County have facial coverings, Kerner said that “1.5 million reusable masks have been purchased by the county and will be distributed by direct mail to all 660,000 homes.”

A man wears a face mask while cleaning an outdoor dining table at The Hook at San Francisco's Pier 39 on June 18.

San Francisco is delaying its reopening as coronavirus cases rise, according to Mayor London Breed.

Noting that San Francisco has seen a rise in cases, from 20 on June 15 to 103 on Thursday, Breed said in a series of tweets that at the current rate cases could double rapidly.?

San Francisco had planned to continue reopening the city on Monday.

The mayor urged residents to wear face coverings, maintain social distance, and practice good hygiene. Breed also encouraged essential workers and those with symptoms to get tested.

“I know people are anxious to reopen, I am too. But we can’t jeopardize the progress we’ve made,” Breed said. “Let’s protect each other so that we can safely reopen San Francisco.”

Despite San Francisco’s stay-at-home orders and various programs to flatten the curve of Covid-19 cases, the curve in the city is getting “quite steep,”?Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said at a news conference Friday.

“We’ve talked about flattening that curve but that curve is not flat right now,” Colfax said. “In fact, that curve is getting more and more vertical.”

In the last couple of weeks, San Francisco has seen a near doubling in the rate of diagnosed infections, Colfax said.?

There have been no indications that the rise in cases are tied to a specific facility or event, but health officials say the data within the next few days in particular will be critical to see whether the pattern is sustained.?

“We’re taking a pause here, we’re not reversing, and I think we’re just going to have to watch the data,” Colfax said.

The US Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to Curativa Bay Corporation over its claims one of its products could protect against the novel coronavirus.

The FDA said Friday the Clearwater, Florida, based company advertised its Advanced Hypochlorous Skin Spray on its Facebook page as something that could “provide a good extra line of protection against many things that we all fear today… #Kill bacteria and viruses… #Coronavirus.”

The spray is a topical hypochlorous acid, an inorganic substance that can kill bacteria, but to sell a product in the US as a prevention or treatment for disease requires scientific evidence and well-controlled human clinical studies. The FDA says there is no such support.?

The FDA said the company needs to take corrective actions immediately to ensure that it is not misleadingly representing its products as safe and effective for a Covid-19 related use, or it will face legal action.

The FDA also said it was going to include the company on its list of firms that have received these warning letters for selling Covid-19-related products that are in violation of regulations. If the company takes corrective action, the FDA said it will remove it from its list.

This aerial photo shows freshly dug graves at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Sunday.

Brazil’s health ministry reported 46,860 new cases of novel coronavirus on Friday, bringing the total to at least 1,274,974.

The ministry also reported 990 people died from coronavirus, bringing the country’s death toll to 55,961.

Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state and the epicenter of its Covid-19 outbreak, has at least 258,508 confirmed coronavirus cases and at least 13,966 people have from the virus, according to the State Health Secretary.

Rio de Janeiro state has at least 108,497 cases of coronavirus and at least 9,587 people have died from the virus, according to the State Health Secretary.

Travelers from the United States are “unlikely” to be allowed into the European Union as ambassadors of the 27 members states have agreed?“in principle”?to the criteria they will apply as the bloc begins to opens up, several EU officials told CNN on Friday

The agreement is not final as the ambassadors will still need to consult with their respective governments.

Under the current criteria — which takes into account the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days — the US would likely be excluded.

An EU diplomat told CNN that it was very “unlikely” travelers from the US would be allowed in, adding that even though the list had not been finalized “the US’s chances are close to zero.” The diplomat also said, “with their infection rates… not even they can believe in that possibility.”?

Asked if the US was on a draft list of countries whose citizens would not be allowed to travel to the EU starting Wednesday, another EU diplomat would not confirm that list existed but said, “if you run the numbers you can create a list.”?

The first point on the checklist asks whether the country can “be considered as being in a comparable or better epidemiological situation as the average in the EU+ area” with regard to number of new infections, trend of new infections and response in areas such as testing, surveillance, contact tracing, containment, treatment and reporting.

Texas has reported 5,707 new coronavirus cases today, bringing the total to at least 137,624, according to data from Texas Health and Human Services (THHS).

A total of 2,324 people have died in the state, including 28 additional deaths today, THHS said.

On Thursday, Texas recorded 5,996 new coronavirus cases.

According to the state, Texas has performed more than 1.9 million coronavirus tests.

To note: The figures released by the THHS may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said coronavirus death rates in California “are lagging” and thus, do not accurately reflect the toll of the virus.

He warned that with the case count increasing, a rise in hospitalizations and death rates will soon follow. The governor implored people to wear masks and stay six feet apart.

Newsom said the country is in “the midst of the first wave of this pandemic.”

“We are not out of the first wave. This disease does not take a summer vacation,” the governor added.

A man in Buenos Aires protests against the quarantine and the government of Alberto Fernández on Saturday.

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández reimposed a lockdown on the metro area of Buenos Aires, telling Argentines that “cases have grown exponentially” in recent days.?

“Coronavirus is an invisible enemy that one never knows when they have finally defeated it. When it looks like things are calm, it starts to return,” Fernandez said on Friday as he announced that residents in the Buenos Aires metro region will be expected to stay in their homes unless they are performing essential work or purchasing necessary provisions from July 1 to July 17.?

Fernández said that “practically 97%” of new cases in Argentina were detected in the Buenos Aires metro area.?

The president himself has been in self-isolation due to the pandemic at his official residence Quinta de Olivos since June 17.?

The country has reported a total of 52,457 Covid-19 cases with 2,606 new cases, an increase of 5.2% in the last 24 hours, while the death toll reached 1,167 on Friday.?

“Quarantine is a remedy for the pandemic, the only one that we know,” Fernandez said.

He added: “The economy will deteriorate but the economy will recover. What we will unfortunately not recover are those thousand Argentines who have left us.”

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he will not lift restrictions on nightclubs, concert venues, theaters, auditoriums, spectator sports and other venues until Covid-19 is under control in the state.

He said that a majority of the new cases are among people under 40, particularly those age 30 to 35.

“They feel completely healthy yet they can be completely infected,” McMaster said.

Rates of infection for that age group are “just going up, up, up,” he said.

Despite the higher case counts, McMaster said that he will not mandate the use of masks.

The numbers: South Carolina on Friday reported the highest number of people hospitalized in the state, Director of Public Health Dr. Joan Duwve said at the news conference.

There are currently 906 people hospitalized with complications from coronavirus, the largest number the state has seen, Duwve said.

At least 1,273 new cases were reported Friday, bringing the total to at least 30,263 cases and 694 deaths statewide, Duwve said.?

Hospitals are currently at 75% capacity, South Carolina National Guard Adjutant General Major General Van McCarty said at the news conference.

He said if hospitals reach 80% capacity statewide, they will deploy the surge plan.?McCarty added that they will reduce elective surgeries if needed to help with capacity.?

“Our preference would be to keep patients in a traditional hospital. We will look to use the alternative measures we’ve talked about as only a second measure,” McCarty said.

People wait in line in front of a store in Salt Lake City on May 22.

The governor of Utah is signing off on requests from two counties to require masks in public spaces.?

Brooke Scheffler, the spokesperson for Gov. Gary Herbert, told CNN that the governor has approved the requests from Salt Lake and Summit counties, although there is still not a statewide face covering rule in effect.

Scheffler said the two county governments are expected to announce details later Friday.

Utah has at least 20,050 coronavirus cases and at least 166 people have died from the virus, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Protesters congregate in Los Angeles, at the intersection of Hollywood and Highland, on June 7.

People commingling during recent racial justice protests are believed to be a contributing factor to the rise in coronavirus cases in California, according to Dr. Sonia Angell, the state’s health director.

Angell stressed that with community spread, health officials may not be able to distinguish exactly where someone may have been exposed.

“It’s highly likely given the increased numbers that we’re seeing, that some of this is in fact people who may have been in a crowded situation at one of the protests where there was spread,” Los Angeles Health Director Barbara Ferrer said earlier this week.

Sacramento County reported at least three individual?cases?that are apparently linked to recent demonstrations, according to California Department of Public Health.

Cleveland Indians President Chris Antonetti told reporters Friday that the organization has had some “isolated ” cases of Covid-19.?

The individuals who tested positive were at their homes around the country, including a couple of cases in the Dominican Republic, and a couple more at their training facility in Goodyear, Arizona, Antonetti said.

However, all the members have either recovered or had “mild symptoms,” Antonetti said.

Some context: The Major League Baseball season is expected to resume with players reporting?to training camps starting?on July 1. Games are expected to start on July 23 or July 24.?

A pedestrian wearing scrubs and a mask crosses a street in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 28.

Face masks will be required in Jefferson County, Alabama, starting Monday.

The masks will be required at public establishments, according to a public health order declared Friday.

Jefferson County is home to Birmingham, which is the state’s most populous city, according to the state’s demographic website.

Birmingham adopted an ordinance requiring face coverings be worn in public within the city on April 28 and that order has been extended until July 3, the health order said.

About the order: Face coverings will be required for indoor spaces of business or venues open to the public, outdoor areas open to the public where 10 or more people are gathered and social distancing is not possible, and transportation service areas including mass transit, taxis, paratransit or ride-sharing services, the order said.

Exceptions to the order include children age two and under. Masks can be removed while eating or drinking, during medical examinations or procedures, and hair care services.

Masks can also be removed when there is a risk to personal safety or a need for effective communication, the order said.

Places of worship may “use their own discretion regarding face covering requirements,” but are encouraged to recommend congregants to use masks during services, especially during singing or while speaking to other people.

Texas Tech University has reported that 23 out of 197 Covid-19 tests administered to the student-athletes and staff within the football program have returned positive.

The school, which is in Lubbock, Texas, said that of the 23 positive results, 21 have reportedly recovered.

The NCAA Football season is slated to kick off on August 29.

During the first White House coronavirus task force briefing in two months, Vice President Mike Pence described an alternate reality to what is really happening in American cities across the country with respect to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a couple of health experts.

“We’re seeing a massive resurgence in our metropolitan areas across the southwestern part of the United States — here in Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and in Los Angeles,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine,?told CNN’s Brianna Keilar shortly after the briefing wrapped up.

“This is a tragedy, and what’s more, it’s not presented as a tragedy — it’s presented as, ‘We’re doing a pretty good job and now there are a couple of hotspots.’ These are not ‘hotspots’ — these are the largest metropolitan areas in the United States,” he said.

More on this: This first briefing since the end of April comes as cases are going up in more than half the states, with infections in some large states close to being out of control and filling hospital intensive care units.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta also said the vice president presented a picture that does not at all match the facts of what is happening with coronavirus infections in the country.

“Despite what you heard, we are in the middle of a public health disaster. I know that people are going to hear different things. There’s a cognitive dissonance out there, but let me just start with that,” Gupta told Keilar, stressing that this public health disaster wasn’t inevitable.?

“One of the first things that was said is all 50 states are opening safely and responsibly. That’s simply not true. I don’t think there’s a single state that actually followed the opening criteria that the task force themselves actually laid out,” said Gupta. “They say that we have greatly expanded testing. We’re still probably at a 10% of the testing that we should be doing at this point in this pandemic. They say we’ve had 45 days to stop the spread. Well, Brianna as you just mentioned, we haven’t stopped the spread.”

Gupta said that the country had the highest number of daily infections since this pandemic began in the last 24 hours. “This is a problem. We can spin it in all sorts of different ways. But the reality is that not only are things bad, they’re as bad as they’ve been right now with regard to daily new infections.”

Hotez said the briefing?missed the opportunity to present some solutions. “The terrible part for me was there were no ideas presented. They have no idea what to do,” he said. “There is no concrete federal plan for helping the metro areas; there was not a single suggestion made,” he added.

Watch more:

The El Centro Regional Medical Center is seen in El Centro, California -- the county seat of Imperial County -- on May 20.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has advised Imperial County’s health officials to reinstate its stay-at-home order, he announced in a news conference.

Imperial County has a coronavirus positivity rate of 23%, with a case rate of 680 in the past week. The population of Imperial County is approximately 181,000.

These rates are well above state thresholds, said Sonia Angell, the state’s health director. The state guidelines are a case rate of 100 and a positivity rate of 10%.

More than 500 patients have been transferred out of Imperial County in the past five weeks, the governor said, and reinforcements from the state, including 44 National Guard members, have been sent in to assist.

More details: Imperial County lies just east of San Diego along the borders of Arizona and Mexico.

Some drivers of the uptick include US citizens returning to the states to seek health care, the California Department of Public Health said earlier this week.

The governor said “it’s too early to tell” if the high number of cases in Arizona are a contributing factor to increases in Imperial County, but a “deep dive” study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is underway to look at that data.

Imperial is one of 15 counties under what Newsom calls a “watch list” as concerns mount in the state.

A sign asks people to wear a face mask in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he isn’t mandating masks statewide but will continue to provide guidance that people should social distance and use masks when that’s not possible.

The governor said to make masks a mandate punishable by law could backfire.

DeSantis said that if local governments want to create an ordinance, it’s up to them. Businesses also have the right to ask customers to wear masks

The governor said that some local sheriffs have said they won’t enforce it and there are parts of the state where a mandate wouldn’t make sense.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference in Miami on June 8.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis?said an increased positivity rate and expanded testing is creating the large new case counts that have been announced this week.

DeSantis said during a news conference Friday that the state is now seeing 45,000 new test results reported daily, up from 24,000 test results that were reported?daily the last week of May.?

He attributed the high case count of nearly 9,000 reported Friday to a “test dump.”

The majority of new cases are now people who are younger, with the median age ranging from 33 to 35 years old, DeSantis said.

He said the new cases are typically asymptomatic and primarily due to community transmission.?

DeSantis told vulnerable populations to be vigilant and continue to avoid large crowds and other situations where transmission could be possible.

New York City has 17,753 confirmed coronavirus fatalities and 4,668 probable coronavirus deaths as of June 26,?according to the most recent data on the city website.

The New York City Health Department defines probable deaths as people who did not have a positive Covid-19 laboratory test, but their death certificate lists as the cause of death “Covid-19” or an equivalent.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus deaths and probable coronavirus deaths in New York City is 22,421.

There have been 210,908 coronavirus cases in the city and 54,578 people have been hospitalized, according to the city.

The data is from the New York City Health Department and was updated on June 26 at 1 p.m., according to the website.

The numbers may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a press conference at the Texas State Capitol in Austin on May 18.

The federal government has granted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request to extend operations of community-based Covid-19 testing sites across the state today.?

According to a statement, the federal government will maintain the program’s support while surging resources to Dallas and Houston.

“These federally-supported testing sites are a vital component of this commitment,” Abbott said in the statement. “I thank our federal partners for extending these operations in Texas, and for their flexibility in allocating their resources to the communities of Dallas and Houston that are experiencing a high number of COVID-19 cases right now.”

Cases surge: Abbott ordered further restrictions on businesses today, a day after he “paused” a phased economic reopening following a surge in coronavirus cases.

The state reported a record of almost 6,000 new cases on Thursday.

Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks at the White House coronavirus task force briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC on June 26.

The US needs to start considering “flooding the system with testing” in light of new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting that for every person infected with Covid-19, 10 more people in the country go undiagnosed,?Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday.

Speaking during a pre-recorded interview with CNBC, Fauci called the CDC’s findings “sobering news.”

Fauci said contact tracing was not going well ?— with some exceptions ?— and argued for pool testing over individual identification, particularly in areas where people don’t want to cooperate with contact tracing efforts.

“Instead of I test me, and I test you… you could take 20, 30, 40 pool them, do one test. If they’re all negative, then you know that that’s negative. You now have 40 people who are negative. If you get a positive, then you backtrack and try and figure out who that positive is,” Fauci?said.

The governors of Florida and Texas pulled back some of the measures put in place to reopen those states as coronavirus infections rise.

Additionally, governors of?Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, New Mexico, and North Carolina have announced they will not move ahead to the next phase of reopening.

Florida has erupted as a hotspot in the US’s coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s a look at the rise of coronavirus cases in Florida:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, speaks at a coronavirus task force briefing in Washington, DC, on June 26.

Contrasting some of the optimistic messaging coming out of the Trump administration in recent days, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said it may be time to “drop back a few yards” to think about the original reopening guidelines.

He had a stark message for anyone comfortable with the risks of Covid-19: “A risk for you is not just isolated to you because if you get infected, you are part, innocently or inadvertently, of propagating the dynamic process of a pandemic.”

Fauci began his comments at the White House coronavirus task force briefing by admitting that some states may have opened too soon.

“So, we’re not going to say blame we’re not going to try and analyze it,” he continued, “but there is something that’s very important about it, that I’d like to get a message to the country in general.”

Fauci said it may be necessary to think about the original guidelines from the task force about reopening the country, some of which were ignored by the states.

“When the vice president went back, pulling back a couple of months ago, when we showed about the guidelines to safely reopen the country, we’ve got to make sure we drop back a few yards and think about that, that this is part of a process that we can be either part of the solution or part of the problem.”?

“We need to take that into account because we are all in it together,” he said. “And the only way we’re going to end it is by ending it together.”

Watch:

Vice President Mike Pence said Friday the Constitutional rights to speech and free assembly explained the push to hold campaign rallies even as coronavirus cases surge.

“We have an election coming up this fall. And President Trump and I believe that taking proper steps … and giving people the very best counsel that we have, we still want to give people the freedom to participate in the political process. And we respect that,” he added.

Trump held a campaign rally last weekend in Tulsa. Afterward multiple campaign staffers tested positive for coronavirus.

He later spoke to a large crowd in Arizona, one of the states where cases are rising.

Watch the moment:

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the coronavirus task force meeting in Washington, DC on June 26.

Vice President Mike Pence said it’s up to state and local governments to issue guidance and orders on face masks.

Asked if he had a message to Americans about the importance of wearing masks, Pence said “people ought?to listen to their state and?local authorities.”

While a handful of states require people to wear masks in public, many others have not issued any guidance. Some individual cities and counties have also issued orders to require facial coverings.

Pence said he’s in contact with many state and local leaders, and said he’s assured them that he will urge Americans to follow local directives.

“In some cases, there’s statewide?guidance with regard to facial?coverings and with regard to?events and gatherings.?In other cases, there’s specific?county-wide or city-wide?directives, and we just believe?that what’s most important here?is that people listen to the?leadership in their state, the?leadership in their local?community, and adhere?to that guidance,” Pence said.

Face masks — which has been proven to be an effective way to stop person-to-person spread of coronavirus — has become a contentious topic.

President Trump has been reluctant to wear a face mask in front of cameras, and the debate over their use has spilled into local communities. This week, residents of Palm Beach County in Florida erupted in anger at a commissioner’s meeting after an unanimous vote to make masks mandatory.

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Aerial view showing graves at the General Cemetery in Santiago, Chile amid the novel coronavirus pandemic on June 23.

Chile reported a total of 5,068 fatalities from Covid-19 Friday, with 165 new deaths in the last day, according to figures from the country’s health ministry.

The daily death toll decreased slightly compared to the two previous days.

The total number of Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic stands at 263,360, with 4,269 new cases, according to the statistics reported by the health ministry.

The numbers “show hopeful results,” Enrique Paris, Chile’s Minister of Health, said, pointing to lightly decreasing numbers of new daily infections in recent days.

But even with the small improvements in the statistics, Paris urged people to “continue the fight” against Covid-19.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speaks at the White House in Washington, DC on June 26.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,?said the country is “not defenseless” in its fight against Covid-19, urging the public, especially millennials and those under 40, to commit to following CDC Covid-19 guidelines.

Redfield called coronavirus precautions “powerful weapons” and said the American people have a “collective responsibility to?recommit ourselves to put them?into routine practice.”

The CDC director reiterated the importance of staying six feet apart?from each other as much as?possible, to wear face coverings?when in public, and to?practice vigorous hand hygiene.?

Watch:

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks at the coronavirus task force meeting in Washington, DC on June 26.

More than 120,000?courses of remdesivir have been distributed to all of 50 states, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said at today’s coronavirus task force briefing.

Remdesivir is the only drug known to work against Covid-19. While not a blockbuster drug, a study shows it shaves four days off a hospital stay, from 15 to 11 days.

Some background: In May, the US Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization for remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral medication studied to treat Ebola but now used on hospitalized Covid patients.

In early May, the government distributed a small amount of remdesivir directly to about two dozen hospitals nationwide without explaining why those hospitals were chosen over others.

Following an?outcry, HHS started to distribute remdesivir to state health departments, but questions still remained. For example, the week of May 4, California and Texas received the same amount of remdesivir, even though California had far more coronavirus patients.

While HHS didn’t originally disclose where remdesivir was going, the agency is now publishing on its?website?how much drug is going to each state.

Watch more:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, speaks at a coronavirus task force briefing in Washington, DC, on June 26.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Americans have “an?individual responsibility” to keep themselves safe, as well as a “societal?responsibility” to stop the spread of coronavirus to vulnerable people.

Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said more younger people are testing positive for coronavirus — and while cases many of them may have mild symptoms, they can spread the virus to vulnerable people.

“So if you get infected, you will?infect someone else, who clearly will?infect someone else,” Fauci said.?“So people are infecting other?people.?And then ultimately, you will?infect someone who’s vulnerable.?Now that may be somebody’s?grandmother, grandfather, uncle?who’s on chemotherapy, aunt?who’s on radiation or?chemotherapy or a child who has?leukemia.”

He continued:

Fauci also said that if the US doesn’t “extinguish the?outbreak,” even states that had been reporting decreased case numbers could be affected.

“If we don’t extinguish the?outbreak, sooner or later, even?ones that are doing well are?going to be vulnerable to the?spread,” he said.

WATCH:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, speaks at a coronavirus task force briefing in Washington, DC, on June 26.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top health expert, said data shows that parts of the country are “facing a serious problem in?certain areas.”

Fauci said “we’re not going to say blame,” but noted that the increase in numbers in some parts of the US could be attributed to many factors including states reopening too soon or citizenry not following the appropriate guidelines.

Fauci urged individual citizens to take responsibility in following precautions, saying each person has a “societal?responsibility” to help curb the virus.

“I just want to bring this?out without making it seem that?anybody’s at fault, you have an?individual responsibility to?yourself.?But you have a societal?responsibility because if we?want to end this outbreak,?really end it, and then hopefully?when a vaccine comes and puts?the nail in the coffin. We’ve?got to realize that we are part?of the process,” Fauci said.

“Therefore, if we are an?interconnected society we’ve got?to look at what our role is in?trying to put an end to this.?Everybody wants to end it.?Everybody wants to get back to?normal, and everybody wants the?economy to recover.?I think we all are common in?that,” he said.

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Members of the coronavirus task force hold a briefing in Washington, DC, on June 26.

A real divide has developed among the White House coronavirus task force over the issue of testing, a source close to the group told CNN.?

Several members of the task force feel that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t handled testing well from the beginning. They say it is “unbelievable” that there still isn’t a widespread testing program available, such as antigen testing, the type of technology often referred to as a rapid flu test.?

The source also mentioned the need for “pooled testing,” a method of testing that can scale up and test much larger numbers of people.

Testing has been an issue throughout the handling of the pandemic. The CDC’s initial test, given to public health labs, did not work and resulted in a lag in getting tests out to public health departments. As far back as two months ago,?Dr. Deborah?Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said that the US needed a “breakthrough” in testing to help screen large numbers of people.

Birx said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on April 26 that “we have to be able to detect?antigen, rather than constantly trying to detect the actual live virus, or the viral particles itself.”?

How pooled testing works: “Pooling refers to a?testing?technique in which?allows a lab to mix several samples together in a ‘batch’ or?pooled?sample and then test the?pooled?sample with a diagnostic test. For example, four samples may be tested together, using only the resources needed for a single test,”?Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the US Food and Drug Administration, said in a written statement last week.

“If the?pooled?sample is negative, it can be deduced that all patients were negative. If the?pooled?sample comes back positive, then each sample needs to be tested individually to find out which was positive,” Shuren said. “Because samples are?pooled?together, ultimately fewer tests are run overall, meaning fewer?testing?supplies are used, and results can be returned to patients more quickly in most cases.”

Vice President Mike?Pence asserted Friday?that “all 50 states and territories across this country are opening up safely and responsibly” even as cases surge in many states, and eight?states across the country have paused their reopening efforts.

One state, Texas, has even scaled back their reopening plan, closing bars after they had been a part of the states reopening plan.

Pence said at the White House coronavirus task force briefing Friday that the country has “made truly remarkable progress in moving our nation forward” and that “we’ve all seen the encouraging news as we open up America again.”

His remarks come as 32 states across the country have seen an increase in cases over the past week, according to data from John Hopkins University.

Pence also discussed?the return of jobs that came with reopening America, and said that some of the original coronavirus hotspots such as the New York metro area?and New Orleans have made “extraordinary progress.”

He said the task force is focusing on 16 states that have been most impacted by coronavirus in recent weeks with both rising cases and rising positivity rates.

Pence also repeated the President’s?refrain that more testing has led to more cases, however the rise in new cases has outpaced the increase in coronavirus testing.

“To one extent or another, the volume of new cases coming in is a reflection of a great success in expanding testing across the country,” Pence said.

Pence said that while the US has made progress, the country “still has work to do.”

Watch:

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a coronavirus task force briefing in Washington, DC, on June 26.

Vice President Mike Pence said that while it is “encouraging news” that new cases of coronavirus are increasingly among young Americans, young people also “have a?particular?responsibility” to ensure they’re not spreading the virus to vulnerable populations.

Pence said about half of news cases among people under the age of 35, “which is at a?certain level, very?encouraging?news, as the experts tell us.” Pence said.

Yesterday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said?the pandemic?has moved into younger populations — a change that could mean less serious illness and lower rates of death.

“As we know, so far in this?pandemic, younger Americans are?less susceptible to serious?outcomes of the coronavirus,” Pence said at an ongoing coronavirus task force briefing.

However, Pence added that young Americans must be careful to not spread the virus to older or more vulnerable people.

The risk of serious complications and death rises with age, the CDC says, although there’s no clear age cutoff for higher or lower risk. People with diabetes, kidney disease, moderate to severe asthma, and obesity are also at higher risk.

Watch:

Vice President Mike Pence acknowledged that the country is now seeing coronavirus cases “rise precipitously” across the South.

Pence added that according to data used by the task force, there are “16 states?with?rising?cases and?rising?percentages.”

“We want to move America forward,?even while we take and continue?to take the steps necessary to?protect lives and the health of?the American people,” Pence said.

According to data from John Hopkins University, at least 32 states are reporting an increase in new coronavirus cases in the past week compared to the previous week.

Of those, 11 states — including Florida, Texas and Arizona — have seen a 50% increase or more.

New cases are declining in just seven states: Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire and South Dakota.

Watch:

A health care worker organizes Covid-19 tests that were just administered at a testing site in Houston on June 25.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told reporters today that they are close to running out of capacity at hospitals in the area.??

She also said that NRG Stadium in Houston is on standby to activate as a medical shelter of last resort. Once hospitals are at the point of having to convert beds to intensive care beds, then NRG will be activated, she told reporters.?

NRG Stadium is home to the NFL’s Houston Texans.?

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a coronavirus task force briefing in Washington, DC, on June 26.

Vice President Mike Pence will travel in the coming days to three states hit hardest by a recent surge in coronavirus cases, he announced on Friday.

Pence said he would visit Texas on Sunday alongside Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. He said he would travel to Arizona on Tuesday and Florida next Thursday to “get a ground report” in places where coronavirus is rising dramatically.

Pence said he’d spoken to the governors of those three states in the last 12 hours, and announced he would also convene a call with the nation’s governors and the White House task force on Monday.

Watch:

Vice President Mike Pence said the US’s mission right now is to “partner with states to save lives and safely reopen.”

The comment comes as more that half of US are reporting?an increase in Covid-19 cases in the past week compared to the week before. Today, Florida reported its highest single day of cases since the pandemic began — nearly 9,000, up from about 5,000 the day before.

He added that while the US reopens, officials must take steps to protect Americans.

Watch:

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a coronavirus task force briefing in Washington, DC, on June 26.

In the first public coronavirus task force briefing in nearly two months, Vice President Mike Pence said?there are currently “no outstanding requests” from any state at this moment for?personal protective equipment, including the hard-hit states in the South.

Pence said the administration is ready “at a moment’s notice” to provide supplies as needed.

Watch:

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, is attending today’s White House coronavirus task force briefing.

White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar?are also on stage at the briefing.

Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the task force, kicked off the briefing by announcing he will travel to Texas, Arizona and Florida next week.

Everyone is wearing masks including Secret Service, except for Pence and his staff.?The vice president did have a mask on when he first took the stage, but removed it to speak.

Oklahoma has recorded 395 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the state’s Department of Health said Friday.

There is now a total of at least 12,343 cases, including 377 deaths, in the state, according to the agency.

Vice President Mike Pence is holding a public coronavirus task force?briefing soon, the first formal public meeting since April 27.

The briefing comes a day after the US saw a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day with 37,077 reported Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Thursday’s total eclipsed the previous high on April 24, when 36,291 new coronavirus cases were reported across the country.

At least 32 states are seeing an increase in cases of Covid-19, and California, Oklahoma and Texas are seeing fresh high peaks.

The briefing will not take place at the White House, but at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a schedule released by the White House.

Since Pence was tapped to lead the coronavirus task force on February 27, there have been a total of 47 briefings at the White House, most led by President Trump, and a few led by the vice president.

In recent days, Trump has tried to declare the pandemic “over”?despite the rising numbers, and has instead?focused his administration’s energy on reopening the economy.

According to White House schedule update, Trump is no longer traveling to Bedminster,?New?Jersey?this weekend.

CNN’s John King explains where US Covid-19 figures stand now in comparison to the last public task force briefing on April 27:

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey speaks at a news conference in Phoenix on June 25.

As Arizona deals with a surge in Covid-19 cases, Tucson has only 10 beds in intensive care units available with a population of about 560,000 people, Mayor Regina Romero said.

Gov. Doug Ducey has put a pause on further reopening the state as the cases spike but Romero criticized his decision through this pandemic, starting with lifting the stay-at-home orders “way too early.”

Romero added that experts say people from the ages of 20 to 44 are most being affected by Covid-19 in Arizona and Pima county, where Tucson is located.

“Those are the people that are?actually out, working. Opening back up the state has?really affected those workers?that have a need to go back to?work.?And those are, you know,?bartenders, waitresses, the?people that have to work at?their places of business,” she said.

Romero added that the longer it takes to flatten the curve, the lesser consumer confidence they have.

“It was a big?mistake by Gov. Ducey to?open up the state too soon,?because it’s still affecting our?economy and consumer confidence?is down and it’s very?unfortunate for our economy.?It’s very unfortunate for the?lives of Arizonans,” she said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards speaks during a news conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on June 8.

As the state of Louisiana continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases, Gov. John Bel Edwards said, “We’ve got some work to do”.??

During a Resilient Louisiana Commission meeting on Friday, Edwards said people became complacent because the state was reporting better numbers. The fact is the number of coronavirus cases “aren’t getting better, they are getting worse,” he said.

The Resilient Louisiana Commission is the group leading coronavirus pandemic strategy.

Edwards said the number of hospitalizations are also rising due to more Covid-19 infections. He said the state isn’t anywhere close to not being able to deliver health care, but as cases climb they are heading in that direction.

“What we can not have happen in Louisiana is we threaten our ability to deliver health care,” Edwards said.?

Edwards announced this week that the state of Louisiana would remain in phase two of the reopening guidelines due to the spike in cases across the state.

Edwards said there are businesses who he refers to as “bad actors” that are not in compliance with mitigation efforts.

Edwards added that well over 90% of positive cases in the state are coming from community spread especially among people between the age of 18 and 29. Edwards said within this group, those between the age of 18 and 21 are the largest concern because they don’t appear to be following any social distancing guidelines.?

Bartenders prepare a drink for a customer at Juana's Latin Sports Bar & Grill in Miramar, Florida, on May 18.

On-premise alcohol?consumption has been suspended in bars in Florida, according to a tweet from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.?

The announcement came the same day the state announced the highest single-day coronavirus case increase of nearly 9,000.?

At least 64 counties in Florida were in phase two of reopening, which allowed restaurants, bars, and other vendors licensed to sell alcoholic beverages, with the exception of nightclubs, to operated bars.

Read the tweet:

A teacher collects supplies at the Yung Wing School in New York on May 14.

New York City is currently retrofitting public school classrooms to accommodate as many students as possible for the new school year starting on September 10, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.?

The city will also keep distance learning going for parents who are not ready to send their children back to school this fall.

“Plan A is the maximum number of kids in schools,” de Blasio said. “And if the disease situation gets better, there are more and more kids in schools, if it gets worse god forbid there will be more there more kids on distanced learning.”

Wilbur Ross, United States commerce secretary, testifies in Washington, DC, on March 10.

Discussing Texas rolling back its reopening plan and the impact of stalled reopening plans will have on the economy, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said today that while there will be interruptions in reopenings, consumer spending will still lead the way to an economic recovery.?

He outlined the strong consumer spending numbers in May, and said it’s a matter of when, not if the full potential of consumer spending will be unleashed.

#Economy##

The National Basketball Association and the players union have jointly announced that 16 NBA players have tested positive for coronavirus.

The news comes as the NBA prepares to restart the season on July 30 at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida.

Here’s what a statement released Friday said:

The United States need to flatten its curve to avoid potential shortages of drugs that have shown potential as treatments for Covid-19, according to experts at the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

Some of the drugs that there are concerns about include dexamethasone and remdesivir.

With dexamethasone, Gandhi said that he has seen an increase in demand for the drug, in part because of this promising data, but he hopes it can be manufactured rapidly since it is a drug that has been around for a long time.

When it comes to remdesivir, Gandhi said this was obtained directly from the manufacturer, which is ramping up production of the drug. Though there is a concern that “the supply room doesn’t keep up with the demand.”

Some hospitals, such as Massachusetts General where Gandhi works, have an adequate supply, as the number of hospitalized patients is decreasing. However, that is not the case everywhere.

“We know how to prevent those cases,” he said. “If we do testing and contact tracing and social distancing, we can bring down those cases so that supply of remdesivir is not outstripped by the demand.”

More than a dozen people who attended a large family party in Northern California later tested positive for the coronavirus, a private gathering that state officials say is just one of many contributing to the record surge in new Covid-19 infections.

The party, which took place earlier this month in Shasta County, near the Oregon border, resulted in 13 family members becoming infected with the virus.

In the days following the party, a man in his 20s tested positive on June 14, followed by 11 more people on June 19 and one more on June 21, according to the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency. Health officials had advised 20 people to self-quarantine after the party.

A majority of the 13 family members who tested positive for the virus were experiencing symptoms, the health agency said, and ranged in age from a teenage girl to a woman in her 60s.

The party is just one of several that has resulted in attendees later testing positive for the virus. At another recent gathering in the county, a graduation party, at least four of the 11 people who attended later tested positive for Covid-19, said Shasta County Health Officer Dr. Karen Ramstrom.

The spread of the illness among family members and friends comes as California sees an increase in the percentage of people testing positive for the coronavirus, and a record number of patients being treated in hospitals and intensive care units.?

Mexico’s GDP plummeted during April by 19.9% compared to the same month in 2019, according to data released by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) on Friday.

The reduction of activity in the industrial and service sectors due to the Covid-19 pandemic highly impacted the country’s GDP in April when compared to 2019, says the report released by Mexico’s INEGI.??

The main economic sectors affected are:

Mexico reported 6,104 new coronavirus cases on Thursday,?the second-highest daily case rise reported in the country, bringing the total number of cases to at least 202,951.

Mexico’s Health Ministry also reported 736 new deaths, bringing the country’s death toll due to coronavirus to more than 25,000.

New York City is facing a $9 billion dollar revenue shortfall and is asking the state legislature for $5 billion dollars in state loans — $3 billion for this year and $2 billion for the next, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news conference.

The mayor said that the city cut $2.7 billion dollars in April and then another $1 billion this month, but that is still not enough to make up for the shortfalls.

If the budget needs are not met, de Blasio reiterated that 22,000 city workers will face layoffs by October.

“If we can’t find the resources those layoffs have to be in by October 1,” de Blasio added.

The mayor said he hoped state funds could be avoided “if we got the federal stimulus funds we deserve.”

The city will not be raising property taxes to reduce revenue shortfalls, according to de Blasio.

The Florida Department of Health is reporting at least 8,942 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the state total to 122,960, according to data released by the state on Friday.?

Friday’s data is the highest single day reporting of coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

Yesterday, Florida reported 5,004 new cases of coronavirus.

Members of the Texas congressional delegation on both sides of the aisle are asking the Trump administration to reconsider its decision to halt direct funding to several?coronavirus testing sites?in the Lone Star State, where there has been a surge of Covid-19 cases.

Lawmakers from the state, including Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, say they do not understand why the federal assistance is being pulled as their state sees more and more coronavirus cases.

In a joint letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor on Thursday, Cornyn and Cruz urged the administration “to grant an extension of the program for the testing sites in Texas,” which they said are “critical to Texas’ testing capacity.”

A transition away from these federally funded sites began in April, but the latest debate over federal funding comes after?President Trump?on Saturday lamented the rise in coronavirus cases in the US, blaming increased testing.

The federally funded testing program was intended to jump-start initial capabilities in critical areas across the US, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But given Food and Drug Administration approval for individuals to self-administer nasal swab tests at sites, the demand for personal protective equipment and trained health care providers will be reduced, a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement in April,?when the administration began its transition away from the program.

A Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the 13 Community-Based Testing Sites, seven of which are in Texas, would no longer receive direct funding.

What other Texan lawmakers are saying: Speaking to CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat from Texas, said that given the spike in Covid-19 cases, the state “clearly opened too fast and too soon.”

Gonzalez noted that Texas reported nearly 6,000 cases yesterday and said his district in the Rio Grande Valley had a 700% increase just in the last 30 days.

Gonzalez decried reductions of federal funding for testing.

“That would be reprehensible to imagine that we would be cutting tests at a time when our pandemic is increasing in leaps and bounds,” Gonzalez said. “I hope that the President follows CDC recommendations, listens to Senator Cruz and Senator Cornyn and the rest of us, assuring that testing is robust, that it is widespread, that it is available. It is the only way we are going to get this under control.”

WATCH:

As a part of phase three of reopening in New York City, personal care business and indoor dining at 50% capacity can begin on July 6, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio.?

Personal care businesses include nail salons, massage parlors, spas, tanning, tattoo and piercing and waxing.?

As restaurants resume indoor dining at 50% capacity in phase three, NYC small business commissioner Jonnel Doris said the city will distribute 2.5 million face coverings and connect businesses to purchase items such as sneeze guards and personal protective equipment.

The city will also expand outdoor dining to take place on closed city streets starting July 4.

A number of states are putting their reopening plans on hold as new coronavirus cases continue to rise.

At least 32 states are reporting increases in new cases, and the US is currently averaging more new coronavirus cases per day than at any point in the pandemic, according to a CNN analysis of numbers provided by Johns Hopkins University.

Here’s a look at how some states are slowing down their plans to reopen:

Harris County, Texas, Judge Lina Hidalgo?will?increase the county’s warning system to its highest level of?“severe” today, a county official tells CNN.?Houston, Texas’ most populous city, is in this county.

This level threat system recommends residents to “Stay Home.”?

What this alert level means: Harris County defines?the?updated alert level as one that signifies a severe and uncontrolled level of Covid-19 in Harris County, meaning?outbreaks are present and worsening?and that testing and contact tracing capacity is strained or exceeded.

At this level, the county urges residents to take action to?“minimize contacts with others wherever possible and avoid leaving home except for the most essential needs?like going to the grocery store for food and medicine.“

Some background: The three most populous US states are setting records for?new coronavirus cases?daily — and an expert fears major Texas cities could see “apocalyptic” numbers?if the trend continues.

In Texas, if the current case trajectory continues, Houston could be the hardest-hit city in the US with numbers rivaling those in Brazil.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order today that limits certain businesses and services as part of the state’s effort to “contain the spread of Covid-19.”

Texas is among at least 11 states seeing a 50% increase or more in cases compared to the previous week.

Here is what the order includes:

“As I said from the start, if the positivity rate rose above 10%, the State of Texas would take further action to mitigate the spread of Covid-19,” Abbott said in a statement. “At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars. The actions in this executive order are essential to our mission to swiftly contain this virus and protect public health.”

Multiple health experts are discussing the possibility of “pool testing” — a method of coronavirus testing that mixes several samples together into a “batch,” or pool.

Dr. Deborah?Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator,?said the new approach could drastically expand the nation’s knowledge of how and where the virus is spreading,

Birx added that there could be opportunities to do five-people pools or greater, which would allow for people to return to schools sand workplaces with the ability to test on a frequent basis.?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Friday that the White House coronavirus task force?is “seriously considering” pool testing for Covid-19.?

“Something’s not working,” Fauci said of the nation’s current approach in an interview with The?Washington Post? “I mean, you can do all the diagramming you want, but something is not working.”

Here’s how Pooling works: “Pooling refers to a testing technique in which?allows a lab to mix several samples together in a ‘batch’ or pooled sample and then test the pooled sample with a diagnostic test. For example, four samples may be tested together, using only the resources needed for a single test,”?Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the US Food and Drug Administration, said in a written statement last week.

“If the pooled sample is negative, it can be deduced that all patients were negative. If the pooled sample comes back positive, then each sample needs to be tested individually to find out which was positive,” Shuren said. “Because samples are pooled together, ultimately fewer tests are run overall, meaning fewer testing supplies are used, and results can be returned to patients more quickly in most cases.”

The US is currently averaging more new coronavirus cases per day than at any point in the pandemic, according to a CNN analysis of numbers provided by Johns Hopkins University.

The seven-day moving average of new cases stood at 33,035 Thursday. The previous peak was 31,630, reached?on April 10.

Thursday marked a record for the most new cases reported in a single day in America — at least 39,972.

US stocks kicked the session off lower on Friday. Worries about the state of the economy, as well as a resurgence in Covid-19 cases, remains on investors’ minds following Thursday’s stress test results from the Federal Reserve.

While the results gave banks a clean bill of health, it highlighted the fragility of the economy once more. America’s big banks, which were among the top gainers Thursday, dropped at the opening bell.

Here is where things stood at opening: ?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Friday that the White House coronavirus task force?is “seriously considering” pool testing for Covid-19.?

The?proposal is still in the discussion stage, and is not expected to be announced at the task force briefing later today,?Fauci told CNN. Dr. Fauci first mentioned the discussions in an interview with The?Washington Post?published on Friday morning.

Here’s what “pool testing” means: The strategy works by mixing several samples together into a “batch,” or pool, and then testing the pooled sample with one diagnostic test.

This way you can test a group of, for example, 25 people with one test rather than 25 separate diagnostic tests.

If the test comes back negative, then you have?eliminated?25 people with one test.??If you get a positive result you go back and test people individually.?

Fauci’s comments come after the US?Food and Drug Administration recommended such a strategy earlier this month?on to companies seeking to make tests for mass screening of people for coronavirus. And last month, local health authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan said they managed to test more than 9 million people using 6.6 million tests. Chinese media reported that Wuhan used a pooled testing approach.

“What you need to do is find the penetration of infected people in your society,” Fauci told The?Washington Post. “And the only way you know that is by casting a broad net.”

Fauci also told The Post that the high levels of asymptomatic spread of the Coronavirus are forcing health experts to rethink how to approach mitigating the spread of Covid-19.?

“We now know the level of virus in an asymptomatic person is about the same as the level of virus in somebody who has symptoms,” Fauci said. “So it’s like, oh my goodness, how do you address that?”

Fauci stressed to CNN that this is not a new policy, but it is under consideration.?

An American Airlines flight on May 15, 2020.

American Airlines plans to begin selling every seat on its aircraft, something it has not done since the pandemic struck this spring – leading to the prospect of more full flights.?

The move comes ahead of the?July 4?travel weekend.?An American spokesperson said the holiday could be its busiest period since March.???

Air travel overall is down about 80% from where it stood last year, according to Transportation Security Administration data.?But it is steadily increasing:?The 623,000 people it screened yesterday were 23% of the 2.7 million the agency saw a year before, and the agency’s busiest day since air travel cratered in mid-April.??

Airlines for America — which represents major US air carriers, including American — told CNN this week that the average flight is about half full at 54.7%.?But the group declined to say how many flights are full.??

American has been limiting capacity on its flights since April.?

The airline said it will begin notifying all customers that their flights may be full and will continue to waive change fees through September 30.

What other airlines are doing: United said it has been notifying customers whose flights may be more than 70% full, but an American spokesperson said putting a specific number to their notifications is not practical because flights could fill up after the notification window has passed.?

Delta and Southwest have said they are capping capacity in an attempt to keep middle seats open and promote social distancing.?

A medical worker injects a vaccine trialist with the clinical trial for a potential vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa, on June 24 ,2020.?

By the end of 2021, the World Health Organization plans to deliver about 2 billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine to people across the globe,?WHO officials announced during a virtual media briefing on Friday.

One billion of those doses will be purchased for low- and middle-income countries, according to WHO.

This new goal is part of WHO’s?Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator program,?which launched in April to bring together governments, health groups, scientists, businesses and philanthropists to support efforts to end the coronavirus pandemic.

The program has four pillars focused on Covid-19 tests, treatments, vaccines and health systems.

WHO chief scientist?Dr.?Soumya?Swaminathan said during Friday’s briefing that “the?only way to prevent further spread and transmission” of the coronavirus would be to have an effective and safe vaccine.

“The principle of equitable access is a simple thing to say, but a complicated thing to implement. It requires active collaboration between governments, industry, health organizations, civil society organizations and communities,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during Friday’s briefing. “Vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics are vital tools — but to be truly effective, they must be administered with another essential ingredient, which is solidarity.”

According to WHO, the ACT-Accelerator initiative’s plans to deliver tests, therapeutics and a vaccine all over the world are estimated to cost about $31.3 billion in funding, of which $3.4 billion has so far been pledged.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said “all options have to be on the table” when asked if he would consider implementing another stay-at-home order for the Florida city as Covid-19 cases rise.?

As of last night, the city of Miami is now mandating the wearing of face masks in public. Suarez said that he would recommend a mask mandate across the entire state.

“Frankly, we?really don’t want to have to go?backwards and undo some of the?openings and potentially?reimpose a stay-at-home order,” Suarez said.?

Florida has seen a sharp rise in coronavirus cases over the past week, particularly among younger people.

“The state is four times?greater than the high-water mark?in March.?… In Miami-Dade County, we’re twice?as intense as we were in March,” Suarez said.

The mayor, who tested positive for Covid-19 back in March, attributes the increase to complacency of some residents after the city reopened in late May.?

“People believed this thing was over,” he said.?

Watch more:

Vice President Mike Pence at Lordstown Motors Corporation, Thursday, June 25, 2020, in Lordstown, Ohio.?

The White House announced that Vice President Mike Pence?would lead a public coronavirus task force?briefing today at 12:30 p.m. ET,?the first public meeting in almost two months. The last formal briefing was held on April 27.

Today’s briefing comes as at least 32 states are seeing an increase in cases of Covid-19, and California, Oklahoma and Texas are seeing fresh high peaks.

The briefing will not take place at the White House, but at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a schedule released by the White House.

In recent days, President Trump has tried to declare the pandemic “over”?despite the rising numbers, and has instead?focused his administration’s energy on reopening the economy.

Since Pence was tapped to lead the coronavirus task force on February 27, there have been a total of 47 briefings at the White House, most led by President Trump, and a few led by the vice president.

Note: This briefing count does not include a Rose Garden event in which President Trump touted the administration’s testing efforts on May 11, since it was not an official coronavirus task force briefing.?

At least 32 states are reporting an increase in new coronavirus cases in the past week compared to the previous week.

Of those, 11 states — included as Florida, Texas and Arizona — have seen a 50% increase or more.

New cases are declining in just seven states: Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire and South Dakota.

Here’s a look at where things stand:

Aerial view showing the burial of a victim of COVID-19 at the General Cemetery in Santiago, Chile on June 23, 2020

The number of Covid-19 cases in Latin America reached a total of more than 2 million infections this week, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).?

Cases of Covid-19 in Latin America tripled from almost 690,000 on May 23 to more than 2 million as of yesterday, PAHO’s director Dr. Carissa Etienne said Wednesday.

This week, Brazil has surpassed 1 million Covid-19 cases, joining the United States as the only other country in the world with cases in the seven digits, PAHO said. Mexico also rose to the fourth country with most cases in the continent.?On Thursday, Colombia reported a new record high number of daily Covid-19 deaths.

There is now widespread transmission in most of Central America, while the Caribbean has hotspots on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as?in northern South America, according to Etienne.

The 10 countries with the highest number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in Latin America are:

Those figures current as of 6:00 a.m. ET today.

Nearly 400,000 people will die from Covid-19?in Latin America and the Caribbean by October, according to a new study released Thursday from The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects.

Following Texas’ announcement that it will pause any further phases to reopen the state as Covid-19 cases increase, Austin Mayor Steve Adler says that “pausing will not make things?better.”

In Austin, the hospitalization count is more than 200% higher than what it was two weeks ago, the mayor said.?

Adler said the state opened up before it had sufficient testing and tracing in place — but the key issue is that wearing masks is not mandatory in the state.?

“When you open up?an economy, [you have] to couple that?with religiously wearing face?masks and religiously maintaining?social distancing.?That has to be part of opening?up the economy, and that’s?something that did not happen?here,” he said.?

President Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott undercut the message to wear masks, Adler said, and that people in the state need to change their behavior now. ?

“Our governor wears face masks.?The problem is that by not?making it mandatory, even he?sends a conflicting message.?We have to make it mandatory,” Adler said.?

WATCH the interview:

Crowds on the beach in Bournemouth, southern England, on June 25, 2020.

Millions of people could die if the coronavirus pandemic sees a second wave of infections, a World Health Organization official warned Friday, adding that the deadly outbreak has so far unfolded much like officials at WHO?had anticipated.

“The comparison is with the Spanish Flu, which behaved exactly like Covid: it went down in the summer and fiercely resumed in September and October, creating 50 million deaths during the second wave,” Dr Ranieri Guerra, WHO assistant director-general for strategic initiatives told Italy’s Rai TV.?

Guerra’s remarks come as several countries in Europe – and across the globe – begin to relax national confinement measures, originally introduced to limit the spread of coronavirus.?

EU officials today are set to decide which countries will be subject to travel restrictions after countries reopen their borders to international travel. With high rates of infection and mortality still being recorded in the US and parts of South America, it is expected that visitors from the region may still be subjected to travel restrictions in Europe.?

German Health Minister Jens Spahn looks on during a press conference at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 25, following a meeting about the COVID-19 outbreak.

Germany and France have pledged hundreds of millions in extra funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) just weeks after Donald Trump announced the US would terminate its relationship with the body.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn announced at a press conference in Geneva on Thursday that his government was set to provide an extra €266 million ($298 million) in funding to the WHO.

“We… are supporting WHO with an additional €41 million for its core mandate until 2023,” Spahn said Thursday.

“Additional to this we are providing [an] additional €25 million for the implementation for the strategic preparedness response plan.”

“And due to the still remaining major funding gap to implement the strategic preparedness response plan until the end of this year, the German government has decided to provide [an] additional €200 million to the WHO on top of the €110 million … which we have already pledged.”

Spahn said the funding had not been approved by the German parliament but added that the government was “very confident” it would be approved.

Germany will also provide medical masks and equipment, including ventilators, for countries in need.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter that the organization was “very grateful” for the country’s pledge.

“All this with the previous pledge of €110M brings [Germany’s] contribution to €500 million in 2020, its highest ever in a year,” he said.

France will give €90 million to a WHO center, a further €50 million towards the WHO’s coronavirus response effort and €100 million worth of masks.

The funding effort comes after President Trump said he would end the US’ relationship with the international health organization on May 29.

The US was previously by far the agency’s largest donor; in the two-year funding cycle of 2018 to 2019,?it gave $893 million to WHO.

A University of South Florida Health administrator talks to a driver at a coronavirus testing site in Tampa, Florida, on June 25.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 9.6 million people worldwide and killed more than 489,000. Here’s what you need to know about coronavirus today.

Commuters wearing protective masks on a New York subway station platform on June 22.

Scientific?evidence?suggests?that wearing a face mask can help stop the spread of Covid-19. New polling confirms that some regions of the US are taking that message to heart more than others.

Specifically, residents of the Northeast (led by New York) said they’re wearing masks at a significantly greater rate than the majority of the country.

That’s the finding of an aggregation of more than 6,000 respondents from Ipsos Knowledge Panel polling done for Axios (Axios/Ipsos poll). Over the last month and a half (May 8 to June 22), a fairly stable 48% to 51% of Americans told the pollster that they wore masks at all times when leaving home. Other pollsters, who have asked analogous questions during the same period, have shown?similar?numbers?overall.

In the Axios/Ipsos polling, you can clearly see how much ahead of the curve New York (among the 28 states for which we had at least 75 respondents) and the Mid-Atlantic (see here?for all Census division subsets) portion of the Northeast are when it comes to mask wearing.

Of the over 750 Mid-Atlantic respondents, 64% say they are always wearing masks when they go out. As Ipsos did in?a recent poll with the Washington Post, they were able to drill down to the state level in some instances too.

In New York, 67% say they’re wearing a mask at all times when they leave their house. That’s the highest percentage for any state for which there were at least 75 respondents polled.

Read more here.

An arial view shows the Holyoke Soldier's Home in Holyoke, Massachusetts, on April 30.

While serving in the Navy during the?Korean War, Robert Blais once jumped overboard to rescue a fellow sailor.

“He gave his life jacket to save a man,” his daughter Cheryl Blais said, recounting a favorite story of the man she so?admired. Her father didn’t drown that day in the Pacific. But he would drown by Covid-19 many decades later on the morning of March 30, when the disease flooded his lungs with fluid.

Blais, who was 90, spent his final months of life at the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, 90 miles west of Boston. As the virus ravaged the facility, no fewer than 94 veterans lost their lives, at least 76 of those lost testing positive with Covid-19.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker commissioned an independent investigation, with the final?174-page report?released Wednesday.

Read more here.

A third of British people have enjoyed?coronavirus lockdown, according to a massive study that tracked the emotions of more than 70,000 people in the last 14 weeks.

One in three respondents told researchers at University College London (UCL) that, on balance, they had enjoyed the period of restrictions.

But the survey highlighted the social inequalities that impacted people’s experience during the lockdown, with those who earned more and those who did not have underlying mental health conditions more likely to enjoy it.

Read more here.

Former professional boxer Roberto Duran attends the New York Premiere Of "Hands Of Stone" in August 2016.

Former world boxing champion Roberto Durán?has been hospitalized with Covid-19 in Panama City, his son said in an Instagram post on Friday.

“My father’s exams just came back positive for Covid-19. Thank God he only has no more symptoms than that of a cold,” Robin Durán wrote.

Durán’s?son said his 69-year-old father was not in intensive care or using a ventilator, but is under observation. “We just talked to the doctor and he told us his lungs are ok and there are no signs of anything serious,” he said.

Widely known as “Hands of Stone,” Durán, born in Panama in 1951, is considered of one boxing’s greatest fighters.?At one point Durán’s?record stood at 71 wins and one loss. He retired from the sport in 2001.

Panama has had 29,037 cases of Covid-19 and 564 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.?The country has implemented some of the toughest lockdown restrictions in its region.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, center, gestures as he speaks to medical professionals at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, June 25.

Plasma therapy has?reduced?the number of deaths in one Delhi hospital by half since medical trials began, Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal said in a press briefing on Friday.

The experimental treatment uses antibodies from the blood plasma of patients recovered from coronavirus to help strengthen the immune response of others still battling Covid-19.

Kejriwal also said that Delhi had provided?oximeters?for people being treated at home.?Oximeters are devices that measure the saturation of oxygen carried in your red blood cells.

Nearly all patients being treated at home have been provided an oximeter by the Delhi state government, he added.

Delhi became India’s worst hit city on Wednesday, as cases surged in the capital territory. Hospitals in the city are scrambling for beds and suffering from a shortage of health care workers.

India’s Supreme Court has criticized Delhi over its handling of Covid-19 patients and the treatment of the dead. The court issued a notice earlier in June to a hospital in the city, the Delhi government, and four other states on the proper treatment of?Covid-19?patients.

Following the Supreme Court notice, Home Minister Amit Shah met with Delhi state authorities at a meeting where officials decided to increase testing in the area to 18,000 tests a day.

Kejriwal admitted Friday that there was a shortage of hospital beds at the beginning of June but said the situation was now under control.

Delhi officials have increased the number of ICU beds available for patients and are also using banquet halls and hotels to supplement hospital beds, the chief minister added.

As of Friday,?Delhi?has 73,780 confirmed cases of coronavirus including 2,429 deaths and 44,765 recoveries according to the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

With infection numbers rising in more than 30 states, the US has set a daily record for new coronavirus cases. And federal health officials warn that the number of people who’ve been infected is vastly undercounted.

At least 37,077 coronavirus cases were reported Thursday, surpassing a previous one-day high on April 24, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The sudden spike in confirmed cases in recent days comes as no surprise, a health expert said.

“Every epidemiologist was telling, screaming as loud as we could that three weeks after Memorial Day, we’d have a peak in the cases and five weeks after Memorial Day we’d begin to see a peak in deaths, hospitalizations and deaths,” epidemiologist Larry Brilliant told CNN’s Don Lemon Thursday night.

“If you let everybody out without face masks and without social distancing in the middle of a pandemic, this is what was predicted.”

Read more here.

The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expanded its list of those most at risk of becoming severely ill from coronavirus, warning that a substantial number of people are vulnerable.

The agency previously said that people aged over 65 years and older were at high risk of severe illness.

On Thursday the CDC removed the age classification, saying that risk increased as people aged.

“[The] CDC now warns that among adults, risk increases steadily as you age, and it’s not just those over the age of 65 who are at increased risk for severe illness,” the agency said in a statement.

The agency added that while age remained an independent risk factor for severe illness, the threat faced by older adults was also due to the group being more likely than younger people to have underlying heatlh conditions.

“Understanding who is most at risk for severe illness helps people make the best decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities,” said CDC Director Robert Redfield.

“While we are all at risk for Covid-19, we need to be aware of who is susceptible to severe complications so that we take appropriate measures to protect their health and well-being.”

The CDC also updated its list of underlying conditions which increase the risk of severe illness. The conditions are:

The expanded list and the change to the age classification increases the number of people in high risk groups.

“As more information becomes available, it is clear that a substantial number of Americans are at increased risk of severe illness – highlighting the importance of continuing to follow preventive measures,” the CDC said.

Planes are pictured at their gates prior to the first flight departure from Paris' Orly airport, as it reopened on June 26.

France’s second largest airport reopened on Friday, for the first time since closing on April 1.

The first post-lockdown flight?from Orly airport departed at 6 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) for Porto, in Portugal, the airport said in a statement.

Fights from Orly, located south of Paris, had been diverted to Charles de Gaulle airport in the French capital since April.

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen takes part in a video meeting with EU colleagues at Marienborg, north of Copenhagen, on Friday, June 19.

Danish?Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has postponed her wedding to attend the?European?Council meeting next month, she said in an Instagram post on Thursday.

EU leaders are scheduled to meet face-to-face on July 17 for the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic to discuss the European?budget?and the plans for recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

“I’m looking forward to saying yes to Bo (who is fortunately very patient),” she added.

Denmark has recorded 12,836 coronavirus cases and 603 deaths,?according to figures?from Johns Hopkins University.

A drive through Covid-19 testing site is seen at the Melbourne Show Grounds on June 25, in Melbourne, Australia.?

The Australian state of Victoria recorded 30 new coronavirus cases within the past day, marking the 10th consecutive day of double-digit case growth in the state.?

The state government announced a new testing program today in an attempt to contain the outbreak: For the next 10 days, residents in 10 suburbs will receive free testing, regardless of whether they display symptoms or not.??

Speaking at a news conference Friday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison insisted that “the curve remains flat,” despite the local outbreaks in Victoria.?

Australian military troops will assist with testing in Victoria, but troops won’t enforce quarantine as initially requested by the state government,?Morrison said.?

On Monday, Victoria extended its state of emergency to July 19.?

At least 1,947 coronavirus cases and 20 related deaths have now been reported in Victoria. Of the total cases, 1,742 patients have recovered from the virus.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen cases spike dramatically this week in the United States, even as other countries like Japan appear to have brought their outbreaks under control and make steps to reopen some air travel.

If you’re just joining us now, here are the latest developments:

Daiki Murakami hugs his daughter Yurina as he is seen off by his wife Akina (L) at Narita airport near Tokyo on June 25, 2020, before boarding a chartered flight to Vietnam for business.

A planeful of Japanese business travelers landed in?Vietnam?on Thursday, marking the first flight between the two countries since they imposed border restrictions in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Vietnam?almost completely sealed off its borders?to foreign nationals in March, while Japan currently bans residents of?more than 100 countries and regions?– including Vietnam.

But the two countries are now easing their restrictions, allowing a chartered flight arranged by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam from Tokyo’s Narita airport to northern Vietnam on Thursday.

The 150-odd passengers had their temperatures checked before flying, were tested for coronavirus on arrival and will be quarantined for two weeks in a hotel. Two other chartered flights are scheduled to run on Friday and Saturday, transporting a total of 440 people from?Japan?to Vietnam.

It’s the first step toward opening borders between the two countries, with Japan’s Foreign Ministry saying?earlier this month?it is working to relax rules on travel with Vietnam. The two countries are the latest to start slowly reopening borders as countries all over the world balance the need to keep their citizens safe – and kick start their economies.

Read the full story:

ANA (All Nippon Airways) and Japan Airlines airplanes sit idle at Haneda Airport on April 30, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.

Related article Coronavirus made Vietnam shut its borders. Now it's allowing flights from Japan for the first time

Coronavirus patients in Chinese hospitals who were taking statin drugs fared better than patients who were not taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs, researchers reported Thursday.

Patients taking statins were less likely to die and less likely to need ventilators to help them breathe, the researchers reported in the journal Cell Metabolism. Hospitalized patients taking statins had a 5.5% mortality rate, compared to 6.8% mortality in patients not taking statins.

It’s a reassuring report for some people who are worried that use of the drugs might worsen outcomes.

The large study looking back at the records of nearly 14,000 patients in China’s Hubei province also showed people didn’t have any higher risk of dying or having severe illness if they were taking blood pressure-lowering drugs called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) along with statins.

There had been some concerns about patients taking the drugs because the virus acts on a receptor – a kind of?molecular doorway into cells – called ACE2, and these drugs indirectly affect ACE2.

What the study doesn’t show is that taking statins protected the patients. It also couldn’t show if patients with milder cases of coronavirus infection do better or worse if they take statins.

The United States reported 39,972?new coronavirus cases and?2,425?deaths on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University – the largest one-day jump in cases during the pandemic.

The country’s totals now stand at 2,422,299?cases and 124,410 deaths, according to data from JHU.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.?

New Jersey added a large number of probable coronavirus-related deaths to its tally on Thursday, making it one of the hardest-hit states, after New York and California.

Update: Johns Hopkins has published updated numbers for Thursday; some of the earlier cases and deaths were assigned to previous days, which contributed to the fluctuation.

CNN is tracking US coronavirus cases here:

Microsoft founder Bill Gates said on Thursday that the current coronavirus picture, both globally and in the US, is “more bleak” than he would have expected.

During CNN’s town hall on the coronavirus, Gates said the fact that people are still dying in the US today shows that the country is “not even close” to doing enough to fight the pandemic.

“It’s possible to ramp up testing for a new pathogen very, very fast,” he said.

“Some people almost feel like it’s a political thing which is unfortunate,” he added, something he says he didn’t expect in America.

Eight weeks ago, when?Gates was last a guest on CNN’s Town Hall, the death toll in America stood at 63,000 with more than one million cases recorded.

Today, those figures have doubled: At least 2.4 million cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the US, and more than 124,000 people have died,?according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Read the full story:

Bill Gates

Related article Bill Gates: US 'not even close' to doing enough to fight pandemic

Earlier tonight, CNN hosted a town hall on the facts and fears surrounding coronavirus.

Guests and speakers included Microsoft founder Bill Gates and emergency room physician Leana Wen. They addressed the need for urgent action in the United States, answered questions from viewers, and weighed in on the situation globally.

Watch the highlights here:

Related article Watch the entire CNN coronavirus town hall

People wearing protective masks prepare their mobile phone for Safe Entry check-in as they queue to enter a shopping mall in Singapore, on Saturday, June 20

Seven foreign nationals in Singapore were fined, six of whom had their work passes revoked, after being found guilty of breaking the country’s coronavirus restrictions.

All seven were convicted on Thursday?for gathering when social gatherings were banned. Of the seven, four are British citizens, two American, and one Australian.

The six who had their work passes revoked by the Ministry of Manpower are also permanently banned from working in Singapore.?The Ministry said they were among 140 work pass holders who faced similar consequences between May 1?and June 25?for breaching coronavirus restrictions, stay-at-home notices and quarantine orders.

“MOM will continue to take enforcement actions against work pass holders who do not comply with the requirements, including the revocation of work passes,” warned the ministry in a statement on Thursday.

White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow speaks with reporters at the White House, on Thursday, June 25, in Washington, DC.

On Monday, White House economic adviser?Larry?Kudlow warned that the country would have to learn to live with “hotspots” popping up around the country in places like Texas, which saw a record number of cases today.

But Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, argued the idea didn’t portray just how widespread the virus’ spikes are.

He added that parts of states like Texas will have to shut down, since there is a risk that hospitals will be overrun.

“That would be the responsible thing to do and I’m hoping the leadership in those states has the political courage to do that,” he said. “It has to come from the statehouses and we have to have the courage to shut down places where the virus is out of control. There’s no other way to do it.”??

Gov. Steve Sisolak exits a news conference at the Nevada State Legislature in Carson City, Nevada on Wednesday, June 24.

Nevada reported 507 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, its highest one-day increase since the pandemic began.

The figure marks a 9% jump from the previous highest jump, recorded on Tuesday.

This brings the state’s total to 14,859 infections, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Yesterday, Gov. Steve Sisolak issued a mandatory order for people to wear face masks in public, starting Friday, and cited the spike in positive cases signaling a need for greater caution.

The state is now indefinitely postponing plans to enter the next stage in its reopening plan.

Dr. Larry Brilliant.

The United States is facing some “rough sledding” as Covid-19 cases continue to spike around the country, warned epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant.

“If you let everybody out without face masks and without social distancing in the middle of a pandemic, this is what was predicted.” he said. “This is a consequence of our actions and a consequence of not having guidance from the federal government and states that follow and counties that follow.”

The US saw its highest daily jump in new cases on Thursday, with more than 37,000 cases reported.

Brilliant added the country needed to take “urgent” action and increase testing, contact tracing, and quarantine and treat people who are sick.

Reopening plans also need to be reevaluated, since indoor spaces like restaurants and beauty salons place people at higher risk.

“It’s not enough to just say, ‘I won’t open up anything else,’” Brilliant said. “You have to peel back some of the things that you’ve done, because you can’t fight against a pandemic this way.”

US President Donald Trump walks to the White House residence after exiting Marine One on the South Lawn on June 25, in Washington, DC.

America’s single worst day of new coronavirus cases obliterated US President Donald Trump’s fantasyland vision of a post-Covid America – even as he sowed new diversions in an effort to hide the reality of his leadership void in a deepening national crisis.

More than 40,500 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The numbers superseded the previous darkest day of the pandemic, on April 24.

The new data suggests that the aggressive state reopenings championed by Trump, who wants a quick economic reboot to boost his reelection hopes, exacerbated a situation that now seems close to tipping out of control across a swathe of southern states.

And while the President lives in a bubble of his own obsessive political feuds and the embrace of conservative media that rarely dwells on the virus, the reality of a pandemic that may still be in its early changes is beginning to squeeze in on his world.

Task force briefing returns: In a sign that the White House needs to get control of the worsening situation, Vice President Mike Pence will chair the first public briefing of the White House coronavirus task force on Friday in two months.

Senior government public health officials have faded from the scene in recent weeks as Trump has tried to send a message that the US has “prevailed” over the virus and is reopening.

States in crisis: On Thursday alone, Texas – the poster child for Trump’s reopening strategy – paused its transition to restoring normal life, alarmed by rising hospital admissions and a surge in new infections. Apple closed stores across Texas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina to protect customers and workers from virus spikes.

Dozens of Secret Service agents are now self-isolating after several of their colleagues were found to have the virus after traveling to the President’s rally in Oklahoma over the weekend.

Multiple Trump campaign staffers have taken the same step, after eight of their co-workers tested positive in the latest sign that Trump’s plans for a full resumption of campaign rallies are not only reckless but may prove logistically impossible.

Read the full analysis:

US President Donald Trump gestures following a tour of Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin, June 25, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Trump's post-Covid bubble is popping

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the Comando de Opera??es Aeroespaciais on June 23 in Brasilia, Brazil.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has called Covid-19 a “little flu” and resisted economic shutdowns to combat the virus, paid a rare tribute to the victims of the novel coronavirus in a Facebook Live on Thursday.

Sitting near the head of the Brazilian tourism agency, Gilson Machado Neto, Bolsonaro mentions that a popular Catholic festival will not be held in Brazil’s northeast this year due to “health issues” and referred to the custom of Brazilian radio stations, particularly in the countryside, playing “Hail Mary” on their evening broadcasts.

After Neto concluded singing, Bolsonaro then turned his attention to a few sheets of paper on the desk in front of him and said: “Let’s talk about the economy here.”

CNN's Erin Burnett and Dr. Richard Besser.

Texas reported its highest daily jump in coronavirus cases on Thursday, with just under 6,000 new infections.

The spike could be a precursor of things to come, warned Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).??

“The situation in Texas is a warning shot for the situation that could occur in any state where this isn’t being taken seriously enough,” Besser told CNN.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he is pausing the state’s reopening plans, and asked people to stay at home.

“What we’re seeing in Texas is a healthcare system that is in many places on the verge of getting overwhelmed, and we know what that looks like from what happened in New York City. Hopefully the actions that are being taken now, aren’t too little too late,” Besser said.

A “super spreader event”: A surprise birthday party in northern Texas late last month is now being linked to at least 18 cases of coronavirus.

Besser said it’s another warning that people need to maintain social distancing and wear masks in public.

“These kind of events are what are called super spreader events where, for some reasons that are unknown, a lot of cases occur from the exposure to one or two people. But it’s a sign that we have to take this seriously,” he said.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco.

In the midst of a global pandemic with the presidential election just months away, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care law that enabled millions of Americans to get insurance coverage and that remains in effect despite the pending legal challenge.

In a late-night filing, Solicitor General Noel Francisco said that once the law’s individual coverage mandate and two key provisions are invalidated, “the remainder of the ACA should not be allowed to remain in effect.”

The justices?will hear arguments in the case sometime next term, although it is unclear if they will occur before the November election.

A partisan conflict: The dispute ensures another major shift in the political landscape during the election season on an issue that has dominated American politics for the last decade. It will be the third time the court has heard a significant challenge to the law. The case pits a coalition of Democratic attorneys general led by California and the House of Representatives, which are defending the law, against the Trump administration and a group of red state attorneys general led by Texas.

What it’s all about: At issue is whether the law’s individual mandate was rendered unconstitutional because Congress reduced the penalty for remaining uninsured to zero and, if so, whether that would bring down the entire law.

A federal appeals court in December ruled that the mandate was unconstitutional but punted the decision on which, if any, of the law’s provisions could be retained back to the district court – which had previously found the entire law to be invalidated.

Read the full story:

A woman walks down the steps of the US Supreme Court that released a decision that says federal law protects LGBTQ workers from discrimination on June 15, 2020 in Washington,DC.

Related article Trump administration asks Supreme Court to invalidate Obamacare

US Vice President Mike Pence arrives for the Senate Republicans' lunch in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington DC, on Wednesday, June 24.

The White House announced Thursday that US Vice President Mike Pence would lead a public coronavirus task force briefing Friday morning, the first public meeting in almost two months.

The announcement comes as many states are seeing a resurgence in cases of Covid 19, as others like Oklahoma and Texas are seeing fresh spikes.?

The briefing will take place at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the schedule released by the White House.

US President Donald Trump has tried to declare that the pandemic is “over,” despite the rising numbers and has instead focused his administration’s energy on reopening the economy.?

He has also resumed campaign rallies, despite warnings by health experts on his own task force that the events could be super spreaders of the virus.?

At his Tulsa, Oklahoma rally Saturday, eight members of Trump’s advance staff tested positive for the virus, and since then the Secret Service has announced that agents who attended the rally will be quarantining for the next two weeks. Campaign staffers who attended the rally are also quarantining.?

The United States saw its biggest single-day spike in new coronavirus cases on Thursday, with 37,077 new infections reported, according to Johns Hopkins University.

According to JHU’s tally, at least?2,421,134?cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the US, including 124,410 fatalities.

Thursday’s total eclipses the previous high of new US cases reached on April 24, when 36,291 new coronavirus cases were reported across the country, according to Johns Hopkins data.

CNN is tracking US coronavirus cases here:

China recorded 13 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, including 11 in Beijing and two in Shanghai.

The eleven new cases reported Friday morning in Beijing brings the city’s tally to 280 since the onset of a cluster at the Xinfadi wholesale food market.

The Beijing Health Commission has said it will continue to carry out coronavirus tests on its residents, with one official on Monday saying the city can test nearly 1 million people a day using a pool testing method.

A Beijing official on Wednesday said the outbreak at the wholesale food market has “basically been contained.”

A medical worker administers a nasopharyngeal swab to a woman at the CORE Covid-19 testing site in Queens, New York, on Thursday, June 25.

US states need to do more to drive coronavirus infection rates back down, but they’ve got fewer tools to work with now, Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Thursday on The Situation Room.

Unfortunately, aggressive action has become politicized, said Jha. “Here we are in the greatest pandemic in a century – 120,000 Americans dead – and what we need to do to prevent this from really getting out of control is wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing and washing our hands,” he said. “Instead of politicizing them, I’d like to see our leaders, really double down on those scientific areas of advice, so that we can keep Americans safe.”

Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, has characterized the models for certain metro areas, such as Houston, as “on the verge of being apocalyptic.”

CNN’s Chris Cuomo and Dr. William Schaffner.

Dr. William Schaffner, professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University, is concerned that Covid-19 could be much worse in the fall.

Schaffner said testing has to expand even further, with particular focus on nursing homes, prisons, businesses where there are outbreaks, agricultural workers, and high-risk populations to find out the true extent of the infection in the US.

“It’s spreading much more widely than even the statistics show,” Schaffner said.

Visitors take photos at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, on Friday, March 13.

Disneyland employee unions are planning a protest on Saturday against the reopening of the Southern California theme park, which announced its decision to postpone the July 17 reopening date.

The Coalition of Resort Labor Unions (CRLU), which represents approximately 17,000 service workers from dozens of unions of the Disneyland resort, is hosting an event called “Disney Caravan For Safety!” on Saturday in front of the park in Anaheim, California.

Last week, CRLU sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom asking to delay the reopening of the park due to safety concerns.

On Wednesday, Disney said they are delaying the phased reopening of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure but did not announce a new reopening date.

In addition to routine testing, CRLU is also demanding higher staffing levels to accommodate deep cleaning requirements.?

Mexico’s health ministry reported 6,104 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Thursday, the second-highest daily case rise reported in the country, bringing the nationwide case total to 202,951.

The health ministry also reported 736 new Covid-19 deaths, taking the country’s death toll to 25,060.

CNN is tracking worldwide coronavirus cases here:

President Donald Trump walks to the White House residence after exiting Marine One on June 25, in Washington, DC.

America’s?single worst day of new coronavirus cases?obliterated?President Donald Trump’s?fantasyland?vision?of a post-Covid America – even as he sowed new diversions in an effort to hide the reality of his leadership void in a deepening national crisis.

More than 37,000 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The numbers superseded the previous darkest day of the pandemic, on April 24.

The new data suggests that the sacrifices made by tens of millions of Americans who stayed at home, that cost many of them their jobs, might have been in vain. It also suggests that the aggressive state re-openings championed by Trump, who wants a quick economic reboot to boost his reelection hopes, exacerbated a situation that now seems close to tipping out of control across a swathe of southern states.

A total of 30 states are now reporting a rise in new daily cases of the novel coronavirus while others keep setting new records in each 24-hour period. And while the President lives in a bubble of his own obsessive political feuds and the embrace of conservative media that rarely dwells on the virus, the reality of a pandemic that may still be in its early stages is beginning to squeeze in on his world.

Read more here.