July 26 coronavirus news

Former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, highlighted the importance of trust in the vaccine process on Sunday.

First, experts have to see if vaccines work, and there is encouraging news that some might, Frieden said. Then, it’s necessary to make sure the vaccines are safe.

Thirdly, “we have to make sure we get them into people’s arms and that means ensuring that there’s trust, he said.

He said that two crucial things to watch are the US Food and Drug Administration and the CDC’s Public Advisory Committee, describing both as transparent and open to the public.

The FDA determines approval of the vaccine, and the CDC approves who should get it and when, Frieden explained.

“There are no secrets here, it’s very important that we maintain, gain, increase trust in this whole process or people are going to be confused, concerned and they’re not going to take the vaccine,” he said.

When it comes to a timeline for vaccine availability, Frieden said that there may be signals that the vaccine is protective sometime in the fall, and that there may be announcements from companies that they can make large quantities, “but between knowing it’s safe, effective and available, that’s going to be sometime next year, in all likelihood, if we are lucky.”

Pennsylvania reports 800 additional cases of Covid-19 across the state and four new deaths, a release from the state’s Department of Health said. 

State health officials warned healthcare providers, in an alert, saying there was a “significant” increase of cases among 19 to 24-year-olds, the release said.

One thing to note: The numbers listed were released by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

There is not a uniform threshold when it comes to reopening schools, Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar said on Sunday. 

“We don’t believe that there are uniform thresholds for school reopenings,” he said on CBS Sunday, when asked why there wasn’t a benchmark on when schools should shut down.. 

The 5% threshold that is laid out by the administration that defines a hotspot refers to positive testing, he said. 

Azar described communities with 5% positive testing as yellow communities and 10% positive testing as red communities. 

“That’s an epidemiological early warning sign of potential spread of disease,” he said. “That’s not been defined as a threshold for reopening of any kind.” 

Florida has reported 9,259 new cases of Covid-19 among Floridians and 77 additional deaths on Sunday, according to Florida Department of Health (DOH).   

This marks the 23rd day this month that the state has reported more than 9,000 new cases in a single day, according to CNN’s tally.    

The state’s total cases of Floridians with coronavirus is 418,844, according to DOH. The statewide resident death toll is now 5,854, DOH added.

There are currently 8,868 people hospitalized in Florida with with Covid-19, down from above 9,000 for weeks now, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

To note: These figures were released by Florida’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress should stay in session until a stimulus deal is reached. 

“We’ve been anxious to negotiate for two months and 10 days,” Pelosi said Sunday, criticizing the Republicans for taking so long to propose another stimulus package. 

Pelosi also said she would prefer to see enhanced unemployment benefits paid at a flat rate, not as a portion of a worker’s lost wages as Republicans are preparing to propose. 

“Let me just say: the reason we had $600 was its simplicity,” Pelosi said, noting that calculating 70% of someone’s lost earnings would be difficult for administrators. “Why don’t we just keep it simple? Unemployment benefits and the enhancement… is so essential right now.”

Pelosi declined to say whether Democrats would be willing to accept an unemployment insurance enhancement that is lower than the $600 number; that benefit officially expires on July 31, but Americans on unemployment insurance would have received their final check under the program this past week. 

More context: Republicans are finalizing a bill that would cap the enhanced unemployment benefit at 70% of a person’s lost wages. They do not plan to renew the existing $600-per-week enhancement.

Citations issued by Miami Dade Police (MDPD) to face mask violators and others has gone up, Det. Alvaro Zabaleta told CNN.

To date, MDPD officers have issued 150 citations to businesses and 174 citations to individuals, Zabaleta said.  

Some context: Miami Dade announced its Covid-19 mask ordinance on July 16, which included $100 fines for individuals and $500 fines for businesses, CNN reported. 

The fine is given to those who do not follow the face mask mandate in both indoor and outdoor public spaces, Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has said.

Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, said on Sunday that the US has enough tests to complete testing goals, if they are used in the right way. 

“What is true now, is that anyone who needs a test can get a test,” he said. “I feel like going somewhere, so I need a test, that is not where we are.”

Giroir said that we are in the middle of a serious pandemic, which we are trying to, and starting to control, in hotspot states. Data shows that the percent positivity is being flattened or decreased and hospitalizations are going down, he said.

“But let me be clear, we need to prioritize testing,” Giroir said. “Everyone who needs a test, we’re prioritizing that and they will get it.” 

White House officials painted a rosy picture of the nation’s economic recovery on Sunday as the administration continues to negotiate a new phase of coronavirus relief legislation with Senate Republicans and the US prepares to enter its sixth month of the pandemic. 

Kudlow mentioned a slew of indicators of recovery, including booms in the housing, retail and auto markets and a rise in new business applications.

He claimed “the jobs picture remains strong,” calling last week’s rise in unemployment claims a “seasonal adjustment problem.”

“I don’t know the July number. We’ll learn it in a week or so, but I do think that the odds favor a big increase in job creation and a big reduction in unemployment,” Kudlow said.

More context: In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said “we always said the second quarter was going to be a very bad quarter.”

However, he said he still believes the third quarter will be much better, “we expect the third quarter, the consensus is 17% GDP, so we do think you are going to see a very big rebound.”

“There are parts of the economy that are doing very well, there are parts of the economy that aren’t,” Mnuchin said.

He also noted “we got to 30” million Americans unemployed, “but we never got to 40 or 60.” He said that since then the US has created almost 10 million jobs.

Kudlow acknowledged that in hot spot states like Texas, Arizona, Florida and California there will be  “some impact” on recovery, but he said he doesn’t think it will be “huge.”

The second quarter GDP numbers will be released this Thursday.

The federal government has sent money to states to support their contact tracing plans, Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, told CNN Sunday. 

Giroir also said that he does not think that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needs to improve its guidelines on contact tracing, but that wearing masks is more important than contact tracing. 

As Republicans are gearing up to release their new coronavirus stimulus bill, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham had a stark prediction for the vote.

In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Graham said of the bill, “I think we will come together before August the 5th to get this done.” 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today that New York state reported three deaths and, of 53,568 total Covid-19 tests administered, 536 of them came back positive, marking a 1% positivity rate in testing.

The governor called the state’s progress on all statistics, “really great, great news.”

Cuomo added the state continues to record a decrease in hospitalizations, marking 637 hospitalized as of yesterday’s report – the newest low since March 18.

One thing to note: These numbers were released by the NY state public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

White House officials and Senate Republicans are finalizing a bill that would offer $1,200 checks to many Americans and that would not renew the full unemployment insurance enhancement that is set to expire officially this week as part of the proposal for the next stimulus bill set to be unveiled Monday, several top administration officials said Sunday. 

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNN that $1,200 checks to Americans will be part of the new recovery package, in addition to re-employment bonuses, retention bonuses and tax credits for small businesses and restaurants.

Kudlow said the Republican proposal will lengthen the federal eviction moratorium that is lapsing just as the additional $600 a week unemployed Americans have relied upon is also set to expire.

“The original benefits will not” be in the new bill, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on ABC. “The original unemployment benefits actually paid people to stay home.”

Meadows said the proposal will involve offering enhanced unemployment benefits that would replace a laid-off worker’s wages up to 70%, although he acknowledged challenges some states will face in administering such a complicated benefit. He said he has worked with Mnuchin and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia to ensure “antiquated computers” in some state benefit offices don’t stop people from receiving their benefits.

More details: The chief of staff also confirmed he and Mnuchin will return to Capitol Hill on Sunday to continue going over the details of the bill.

Administration officials dropped a push for the payroll tax cut that President Trump has repeatedly demanded after failing to secure support for it from enough Senate Republicans and after acknowledging it was a non-starter for Democrats.

“I would have preferred a payroll tax cut on top of that check, but be that as it may, politically it doesn’t work but the check is there,” Kudlow said.

Admiral Brett Giroir told CNN that Covid-19 testing must be brought under control as it relates to access and turnaround times.

Giroir, a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, said “we are not going to stop our efforts until testing is exactly where we want it to be with rapid turnaround times.”

Giroir said that over 54 million tests have been done, 770 thousand a day, which is a “140 fold increase in terms of turnaround.”  

Around a quarter of the tests are point of care, with a 15 minute turnaround and that another quarter are done at local hospitals and labs, with a general turnaround of 24 hours, according to Giroir.  

“The delays that most people talk about are at the large commercial labs that perform about half the testing in our country,” he said. 

The data says that the average turnaround is about 4.27 days, according to Giroir.

“I follow that morning and evening, I know exactly when it’s ordered and when it’s resulted,” he said. “We are trying to bring that down.”

This week, pool testing was authorized at Quest and LabCorp, which will improve efficiency, Giroir said.

Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the White House’s Coronavirus task force, told CNN that there is no-one-size-fits-all when it comes to reopening schools.

New US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on education and child care favor the opening schools, saying children don’t suffer much from coronavirus, are less likely than adults to spread it and suffer from being out of school.

But the new guidelines posted Thursday do recommend that local officials should consider closing schools, or keeping them closed, if there is substantial, uncontrolled transmission of the virus.

The CDC has been promising new guidelines for more than a week, after demands from President Trump that the agency alter its recommendations for opening schools.

Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat from California, says that Los Angeles County should return to a stay-at-home order as cases surge.

Bass told CNN, “yes, I would go back” to stay-at-home in LA, adding, “I would reopen very conservatively.”

Some context: California surpassed New York with the most cases in the nation this past week.

Los Angeles County alone has more than 172,000 confirmed cases — the most of any county in the nation — according to the latest count from Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County health officials announced that the virus is on track to be the second leading cause of death in the county — with at least 3,400 fatalities in the first six months of the year.

The Spanish government is focused on dialogue with Britain in order to have the Canary and Balearic Islands excluded from the UK’s new quarantine rules, according to Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya. 

Speaking to reporters in Madrid on Sunday, Gonzalez Laya said the popular holiday destinations should be excluded because the epidemiological Covid-19 data there is “extremely positive” and “well below data in the UK.”

Gonzalez Laya added that the Spanish government would not be retaliating against the UK government’s decision, saying it is “not a tit-for-tat exercise.” 

“If we think that in any country in Europe the epidemiological data requires stricter measures on our side we will do this,” Gonzalez Laya added.

Hong Kong has recorded 128 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the fifth straight day of cases surpassing the 100 mark, according to the head of the communicable disease branch of the Department of Health, Chuang Shuk-kwan, at a press conference on Sunday.

The city has been struggling to contain a third wave of the virus.

Among the new infections, 103 are local transmissions and 25 are imported cases. Among the 103 local cases, 68 are related to previous cases and the sources of 35 are still under investigation. Hong Kong’s total case tally stands at 2,634 as of Sunday.

Health officials also announced Sunday that standard crew change arrangements for passenger and goods ships without cargo would be suspended from July 29.

More details: Crew members on goods vessels entering Hong Kong for cargo operations will have to remain on board the ship and cannot enter the city. Crew members arriving at the airport have to present a negative result of a nucleic acid test before entering.

Instead of crew members entering the city in order to switch from vessel to vessel, shipping companies will be expected to arrange ship to ship transfers, according to the Hong Kong’s Department of Health.

Flight crews will also be required to present a negative test result within 48 hours before boarding a flight to Hong Kong. Otherwise, they have to take a test at the Hong Kong airport and wait for the results at the designated locations.

Even as coronavirus cases soar in Latin America, another calamity looms: Sharply contracting economies, unsustainable debt and deepening inequality could unleash social turmoil in the region.

The regional economy of Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to shrink more than any other region worldwide – a contraction of nearly 10% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund’s June forecast.

The IMF said the “pandemic’s still rapid spread indicates that social distancing measures will need to remain in place for a longer time, depressing economic activity in the second half of 2020.”

A new UN report goes further – saying Covid-19 could lead to “the worst economic and social crisis in decades, with highly damaging effects on employment, the fight against poverty and the reduction of inequality.”

Read more here.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the country’s response to the pandemic has defied global expectations.

“The way Indians came together to fight against coronavirus in the last few months, we have proved the world wrong,” he said Sunday, delivering his monthly radio address to the nation.

India has the third-highest number of virus cases worldwide, with more than 1.3 million recoded instances of Covid-19 and 32,060 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Modi claimed the coronavirus recovery rate was better in India than in other countries but warned that the threat of the disease remained.

India on Sunday recorded 48,661 new cases. Research conducted by the country’s National Center for Disease Control suggests that nearly one in four residents in New Delhi, the country’s capital, have contracted the virus.

The UK government has advised against travel to mainland Spain, in a dramatic reversal of policy.

Britain is “very clear now that we advise against travel to mainland Spain,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb said on Sunday while speaking about the sudden removal of a travel corridor between the two countries.

On Saturday Britain unexpectedly announced people returning from all parts Spain would be required to self-isolate for two weeks, reversing their previous stance with immediate effect. 

The quarantine advice applies to all parts of the country, while the travel warning applies only to mainland Spain.

The decision came after Spain announced 922 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, and 971 on Thursday – the highest increase since May 8. 

Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Raab said the government “took the decision as swiftly as we could, and we can’t apologize for doing so.”

His comments came as the Spanish government said Spain is a “safe country.”

The “outbreaks are localized, isolated and controlled,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. 

Travel operator TUI said it was “incredibly disappointed” with the lack of notice from the British government about its decision. TUI cancelled all flights from the UK to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands on Sunday, according to a statement sent to CNN.

“We also look to understand why quarantine has been issued for a whole country, including the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, when the travel advice isn’t aligned (only applying to mainland Spain.) It demonstrates why clear regional travel corridors need to be considered,” TUI’s Managing Director Andrew Flintham said in the statement.

The Government of the Balearic Islands – home to popular destinations like Mallorca and Ibiza – expressed “great concern” over the new British quarantine measures, adding it will cause “serious problems” to their tourism industry. 

“The Balearic Islands’ government has been working over the last few hours to establish the basis for a safe air corridor with the UK,” a government spokesperson tweeted from an official account, while pointing out the infection rate per 100,000 people is higher in the UK than on the islands. 

One of the British government’s ministers – Transport Secretary Grant Shapps – is currently in Spain, a spokesman told CNN on Sunday. His presence in the country has prompted criticism from British opposition figures.

“I think that tells you everything about the government’s approach to this,” Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said.

Ashworth described the communication around the U-turn as “shambolic.”

The UK has a higher number of both total confirmed cases and deaths than Spain, with the third-highest death toll globally.

The posts come every few minutes. Members from South Africa to Arizona report their coronavirus symptoms. Someone asks for vitamin suggestions. Another user asks for prayers for their mom.

This unlikely support group began as a way for 32-year-old Andrey Khudyakov, from Paris, to keep in touch with his family members during the pandemic, some of whom live in New York, others in Sweden and some in Italy. They began inviting friends to the Facebook group, who added their own friends and soon the online community grew to more than 28,000 members.

Coronavirus support groups, like Khudyakov’s, have multiplied in recent weeks. With more than 16 million global cases and the fear of infection heightened all over the world, those who catch the virus can often still be stigmatized, says New York-based psychiatrist Dr. Julia Samton. And the online groups serve as safe spaces to connect with others trekking on the same path.

Read more here.

A health worker takes a patient's temperature before sending them to a Covid-19 testing site at St. John's Well Child and Family Center on July 24 in Los Angeles, California.

The number of coronavirus cases globally surpassed 16 million on Sunday, according to John Hopkins University (JHU). 

JHU has recorded 16,048,100 cases and 644,537 deaths around the world. 

More than a quarter of cases are in the US, where there have been more than 4 million positive cases and 146,000 deaths. The nation recorded 65,490 on Saturday, according to JHU. On Friday the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus was set to become a leading cause of death in the country.

Other global hotspots include Brazil, which has more than 2.3 million cases and India, which has more than 1.3 million cases.

CNN is tracking Covid-19’s global spread here.

Dozens of nurses, staff and visiting, treat patients at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, Texas, where hospitalizations and deaths have spiked this month.

Coronavirus deaths in the US topped 1,000 four days in a row this week amid an ongoing debate on the return of school and mask mandates.

The country recorded 900 new virus-related deaths Saturday, down from the 1,130 reported Friday. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 146,460 Americans have died from the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

And models project that there will be up to 175,000 deaths linked to the virus by August 15, according to an ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects there will be around 165,000 US deaths by that time.

The grim patterns come as several states have reported record-breaking numbers of new cases and deaths in the past weeks. Some local leaders, including Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, have mentioned the possibility of a second stay-at-home order as officials warn of strained testing labs and overwhelmed hospitals.

And on Thursday, more than 150 prominent medical experts, scientists, teachers, nurses and other experts signed a letter urging leaders to shut the country down and start over to contain the rampant spread of the virus.

Read more here.

When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in the United States, the California Historical Society received call after call asking for its archive on the 1918 flu.

Researchers and journalists were looking for clues into how Americans coped in the thick of a pandemic – and what we could learn in 2020 from 1918. But the documents from the early 20th century were few and there was just one photograph in the archive to depict the entire experience.

Historians, libraries and museums are now ensuring, in that way, history does not repeat itself with the coronavirus pandemic. Putting out calls to the public for mementos of their everyday, they are documenting the emotional experience of people all over the US and shaping the lasting story of this time with voices often left out of history.

And while recording the story as it unfolds is important for how it will be remembered generations from now, they hope it will be valuable to those affected by the pandemic directly.

Read more here.

The United States reported 65,490 new cases and 900 new deaths on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

That raises the national totals to 4,178,021 coronavirus cases and 146,460 related deaths.

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

Japan reported 809 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, taking its pandemic total to 30,094 cases nationwide.

The health ministry also reported three new deaths, raising the death toll to 1,009.

Of Saturday’s new cases, 295 were in the capital Tokyo, which has now seen five consecutive days of more than 200 infections.

Case numbers have been rising in Japan in recent weeks. On Friday, the health ministry reported 981 new cases – the highest single-day toll since the pandemic began.

The virus has also spread through US military bases in Okinawa prefecture, with 229 infections linked to the bases.

##Cases##.

The Australian state of Victoria has conducted more than 1.5 million tests since the pandemic began, said its premier, Daniel Andrews, on Sunday.

Since Saturday, 42,973 tests had been conducted, he said – the most tests the state has done in one day.

Victoria recorded 459 new cases between Saturday and Sunday, raising the state total to 8,181 cases. Of these patients, 228 are in hospital including 42 people in intensive care.

Andrews also confirmed there were 10 more deaths on Sunday, the most deaths in one day so far. Seven of the victims were linked to an outbreak at an old age care facility. The state’s death toll now stands at 71.

Separately, the neighboring state of New South Wales (NSW) reported 14 new coronavirus cases. NSW conducted about 25,139 Covid-19 tests in the past 24 hours, and has run 1,353,103 tests in total.

A 9-year-old girl with no known underlying health conditions is the youngest person to die from coronavirus complications in Florida, officials said.

Kimora “Kimmie” Lynum died on July 18 in Putnam County, according to Florida Department of Health records. It confirmed her identity and said she’s the state’s youngest coronavirus fatality.

She had no pre-existing health issues and her mother took her to the hospital due to a high fever, said family spokesman Dejeon Cain. The hospital sent her home and she collapsed a short time later, Cain said.

“She was always happy and made everybody happy. She was phenomenal,” said Cain, who’s also her cousin.

The family does not know how or where she was infected. She appeared healthy and spent the summer at home, and did not attend school or camp, Cain said.

Kimmie’s mother was tested for Covid-19, but had not received her results as of Saturday, Cain said.

Read more here:

A 9-year-old girl from Putnam County, Florida who died last week from Covid-19 complications had no pre-existing conditions and had a ëvery highí fever before she died.

Related article A 9-year-old who died of coronavirus had no known underlying health issues, family says

A healthcare worker zips up a protective barrier in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas on July 2.

The Texas city of Houston saw more people die from coronavirus in July than died in the previous four months combined, said Mayor Sylvester Turner.

The number of hospital admissions appears to be going down somewhat – but there is still rapid community spread, he said.

In May, about 3,700 people tested positive for the virus. In June, that figure rose to 13,000. In July, it was more than 20,000, he said.

The Houston Department of Health reported 811 new cases Saturday, bringing the total to 40,897. Houston also reported 16 new coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total death toll to 386. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency meeting after the country’s first suspected case of Covid-19 was reported, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Sunday morning local time.

KCNA reported that the infected individual illegally entered North Korea through Kaesong City on July 19 after defecting to South Korea three years ago. The patient has received medical checkups and has been quarantined, along with everyone the individual has been in contact with recently, KCNA reported.  

Kim Jong Un put isolation measures in place for regions around Kaesong and declared a state of emergency in one “relevant area,” KCNA reported.

The country’s Central Military Commission will investigate the unit responsible for the illegal entry of the patient and “administer a severe punishment,” KCNA reported.

Medical workers wearing personal protective equipment take care of a Covid-19 patient inside the Semi-intensive Care Unit (SCU) at Hospital Sao Paulo in Sao Paulo, Brazil on July 24.

Brazil’s health ministry reported 51,147 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the nationwide total to 2.39 million.

Saturday marks the fourth day in a row that Brazil has reported more than 50,000 new Covid-19 cases and this week marks a weekly record of 321,623 new cases, according to date from the state Ministry of Health.

The ministry reported 1,211 new Covid-19 deaths, raising the national death toll to 86,449.