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According to the latest United States Department of Agriculture’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payment report released Monday, $1.4 billion has been awarded across more than 80,000 applicants since the program was announced in mid-May.
USDA Commissioner Sonny Perdue said in a May 19 release the CFAP assistance program would provide up to $16 billion “in direct payments to deliver relief to America’s farmers and ranchers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.”
The payment report cites that 49 states and two territories had applicants for the aid; Rhode Island is the only state without any applications in the CFAP program, up to this week.
Applicants from states in the upper Midwest had the largest awards with crop farming in the “specialty” and “non-specialty” categories, including Illinois ($60.6 million), Iowa ($52.5 million), Nebraska ($45.2 million), Minnesota ($28.4 million) and Kansas ($20.5 million).
The livestock/cattle industries received the largest amounts of money, with more than $676.2 million, while crop farmers were awarded $392.9 million and dairy farmers collected just over $337 million.
One surprise in the June report is that two states and one territory have not received any money, despite multiple applicants listed in those locations.
Delaware had 73 applicants, the US Virgin Islands had seven applications, Alaska had three applications. The amount listed on the CFAP payment plan on June 8 is “$0.00” for each of these states and territory.
When asked about the lack of money going to these states and territory, a USDA spokesperson told CNN: “The number of CFAP applications shown on our weekly data reports include both approved applications as well as those that have been signed by producers but not yet approved by locally elected farmers who sit on the FSA county committee.”
The Farm Service Agency is the department within the USDA that handles the application process.
CNN has reached out to the Delaware Farm Bureau, the Alaska Farm Bureau and the Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture for comment, but has not heard back from any of these organizations at this time.
Brazil recorded 32,091 more coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases to 739,503, according to the Brazilian Health Ministry.
This is the fourth day Brazil’s Health Ministry has recorded more than 30,000 new cases in a 24-hour period since the outbreak started.
The ministry also reported 1,272 new Covid-19 deaths Tuesday, bringing the country’s death toll from the virus to 38,406.
Brazil’s new totals come after the Pan American Health Organization said Covid-19 “continues to spread aggressively” in Brazil, Peru and Chile in a news briefing Tuesday.
The Americas have reported more than 3.3 million cases of Covid-19 as of June 8 — more than any other region in the world, according to Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will present a second stimulus package of $51 billion (45 billion euros) for the French economy amid pandemic on Wednesday, he said in an interview French radio RTL on Tuesday.
“Hundreds of thousands” of people will be unemployed due to the economic fallout from the pandemic, Le Maire said, adding he predicts a “wave of bankruptcies” and unemployment and that the economic fallout could last well into 2021.
“We have everything we need to recover,” Le Maire said, adding that he trusts France’s resources in terms of manpower and technology to find new economic growth with help from the stimulus package.
“Forty-five billion euros is the sum that we will be putting on the table tomorrow … this second stage consists in coming to the rescue of the sectors most at risk: hotels, restaurants, the automobile and aeronautics industries,” he said.
In total, France will be spending close to $521 billion (460 billion euros) in recovery measures, which represents 21% of the French national wealth, the finance minister said, adding, “To put it in perspective, it is the equivalent of Austria’s GDP.”
The minister said the national debt would reach 121% of the French GDP in 2021 and that there will be no tax increase during French President Emmanuel Macron’s current term in order to encourage spending.
Le Maire and Public Account Minister Gerald Darmanin will present the recovery plan after the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Orange County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick resigned from her position amid threats to her personal safety after she issued an order requiring face coverings in the county.
After the order, Quick was threatened during a county board meeting and received threats on social media, according to County Executive Frank Kim.
Quick was not alone. A number of personal threats were made to county staff since the beginning of the pandemic, Kim said, but he would not go so far as to say threats were the sole reason for Quick’s departure.
Kim said he was caught off guard by Quick’s resignation.
“It was a surprise to me,” he said. “I am very disappointed that she left. There was no encouragement from myself or any other board members for her to resign.”
He said he understood that the title of health officer “is a very stressful position.”
Everyone in the health department has been working massive overtime, upwards of 80-hour weeks since February, he said.
Quick is the third high profile member to leave the department since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The US federal government said Tuesday it was awarding drug giant AstraZeneca $23.6 million to help the company develop an antibody treatment for the new coronavirus.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said they were helping AstraZeneca to get to a phase one clinical trial of its monoclonal antibody combination. The trial would test the antibody cocktail for safety in people.
“Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory synthesized therapies that can be used to neutralize viruses. A combination of monoclonal antibodies that neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be used as both a prophylaxis to prevent infection and as a treatment for COVID-19 infections,” it added.
“Therapeutic and prophylactic antibody therapies are urgently needed to combat COVID-19, particularly in the absence of vaccines.”
There’s currently no approved treatment for Covid-19, although the antiviral drug remdesivir has received an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Peru surpassed 200,000 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus Tuesday, according to numbers released by the country’s Health Ministry.
The country reported 4,040 new cases Tuesday, bringing its total to 203,736. Peru also recorded 167 new Covid-19 deaths, bringing the country’s total to 5,738.
Latin America has become the hotspot for the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 3.3 million cases in the Americas, “more than any other region around the world,” Pan American Health Organization’s Director Carissa Etienne said during a virtual news conference on Tuesday.
Coronavirus is “my worst nightmare,” worse in ways than Ebola or HIV, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday.
“Ebola was scary, but Ebola would never be easily transmitted,” Fauci said speaking at the BIO International Convention.
“HIV, as important as it is, was drawn out and over an extended period of time,” added Fauci, who is also a top member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Many never felt threatened by the disease because it was always a threat “depending upon who you are, where you are, where you live.”
In the past, when people would ask Fauci to describe a disease that would be his worst nightmare, he said he would often describe it as something that was a brand new respiratory infection that likely jumped from an animal, and had a very high degree of transmissibility. The world has seen outbreaks that have at least some of those characteristics, he said, but Covid-19 had all of those characteristics combined.
Condensed into a short amount of time, the pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands in the US alone, and there are many millions of infections worldwide.
It was “unexpected how rapidly,” it would spread,” he said.
“It just took over the planet,” Fauci said. “And it isn’t over yet.”
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Developing a safe and effective vaccine for the deadly coronavirus is going to take a global collaboration, said Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Centers for Biologics Evaluation & Research.
Marks told panelists during a vaccine discussion at the BIO International Convention Tuesday that the FDA is committed to expediting the development of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine and working with international colleagues to share information and discoveries.
Marks said he’s looking forward to collaborating with international partners, including other regulators.
“This is one of those where everyone will need to work together because this is really a global issue where we’re all connected and until this particular virus is wiped out across the globe, we’re all going to have issues with it,” he said.
NASCAR announced on Tuesday its plan to “reintroduce guests” to select Cup Series races beginning on June 14 with the Dixie Vodka 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on June 21.
All guests in attendance will be screened before entering and required to wear face coverings while maintaining social distance at 6 feet.
Guest access to the infield will also be prohibited. Talladega Speedway in Alabama will allow up to 5,000 guests in the grandstands for the GEICO 500 while limiting motorhome/camper spots outside the track.
Homestead-Miami Speedway will welcome up to 1,000 service members as honorary guests for Dixie Vodka 400. Both races will offer military members to be first to enter said events.
Sao Paulo state on Tuesday reported 334 new deaths from Covid-19, a new daily record, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 9,522.
During a news conference, officials said the number of confirmed cases was up 5,545 raising the total number of cases to 150,138.
The data was released as Sao Paulo city, the capital of the state and the largest city in South America, prepares to reopen retail stores on Wednesday and shopping malls on Thursday.
Establishments will have reduced hours and authorities have justified the move, arguing that the curve is flattening and they have added new beds in intensive care units.
Other cities in Sao Paulo state started relaxing restrictions at the beginning of the month.
The Sao Paulo metropolitan area now has 74.1% of ICU occupation, while the state has 68.6%. There are 4,481 ICU patients being treated and 8,073 in less complex beds.
Nonetheless, Sao Paulo city has long been considered the epicenter of the outbreak in Brazil, with the highest absolute numbers of cases and deaths.
Greece will gradually begin allowing tourists from Italy to visit the country starting June 15, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday.
He said this gradual easing of restrictions should be completed by the end of June and expressed hope that Italians would choose Greece as their holiday destination.
Italy was not originally included in list of 29 countries Greece said it would open its borders to as of June 15, when international flights to the country’s two main cities Athens and Thessaloniki resume.
Tourists from the approved countries may be subjected to random coronavirus tests on arrival. If their departure airport is on the European Union Safety Aviation Agency (EASA) list, they will have to undergo compulsory testing and quarantine. Currently, some Italian airports are on the EASA list, the Greek Foreign Ministry website says.
There’s still a lot to learn about the long-term negative effects of the Covid-19 infection on patients, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
Fauci explained that because there still is not enough experience with the virus, scientists don’t know what patients who have recovered will be like six months from now.
“We don’t know the extent of full recovery or partial recovery, so there’s a lot we need to learn,” he said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday there will be “more than one winner” in the Covid-19 vaccine field.
Fauci praised the “unprecedented” rapid response of pharmaceutical companies in working toward a vaccine and therapeutics for coronavirus, saying it “even outpaced the public health response in some respect, which you usually see it opposite.”
The nation’s top infectious disease expert said he hopes the work that is being done to fight Covid-19 will bring “a degree of capability and preparedness to respond even better than we’ve responded right now” in the future.
Chicago announced Tuesday all large outdoor events across the city are canceled through Labor Day, including Lollapalooza music festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, most programs at the Chicago Riverwalk and others, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“We must provide ways for people to enjoy the spirit of a Chicago summer while prioritizing health and safety,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement. “As difficult as it is to remove these in-person events from our calendar, we are pulling out all the stops for an inventive, engaging and fun festival season this summer.”
The city previously canceled its annual Memorial Day Parade, and house music, gospel and blues festivals.
Lollapalooza said in a statement on its webpage it would host virtual events on the days they had planned to have the festival.
The city also said many of the canceled events would be “reimagined” and “at-home dance parties, drive-in movies, virtual concerts and community meals for frontline workers — in lieu of summer festivals.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is signing an executive order today that will increase the number of people permitted to gather outdoors to 100, and will permit the number of people to gather indoors to 25% of the building’s capacity or 50 people – whichever number is lower, he said in a news conference and on Twitter.
All outdoor recreational and entertainment businesses in New Jersey — except for amusement parks, water parks, and arcades — will be permitted to open on June 22, Murphy said.
The governor said he anticipates being able to raise the limit on “non-protest” and “non-religious” activities to 250 people on June 22 and 500 people on July 3.
“School districts planning graduations should prepare for a 500-person limit to be in place by the time graduations can resume on July 6,” he said.
People who have attended a protest should self-quarantine and monitor for coronavirus symptoms, according to a tweet from Los Angeles County Tuesday morning.
The tweet reiterated L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer’s advice to self-quarantine for two weeks. She said those who found themselves in a very crowded situation for more than 15 minutes and who were near others without face coverings should isolate for the full incubation period.
As of Monday, L.A. County has 64,644 cases, including 2,655 deaths.
Retail outlets can reopen starting June 15 as long as they comply with government coronavirus-secure guidelines, UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma said Tuesday.
Shops for essential items, such as food and medicines, were allowed to remain open during the lockdown but this announcement means outlets selling nonessential items can now reopen.
Sharma said that stores should display in their shop window or outside their door a sign to show their customers that they have read and taken steps to follow the government guidance on reopening.
“If a shop reopens without putting in place responsible steps to reduce transmission of the virus, we can take a range of actions including issuing enforcement notices. Local authorities and the health and safety executive regularly carry out checks and respond to requests from the public regarding risks in the workplace,” Sharma said.
Restaurants, pubs and bars, as well as hairdressers, barbers, nail bars and related services will remain closed. Sharma said the government’s goal is to reopen these business sectors starting July 4 at the earliest.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that it is taking additional steps to provide federal coronavirus relief funding to health care providers and hospitals that care for the poor and uninsured.
The agency, which has come under fire in recent weeks for delays in distributing the $175 billion in federal support that Congress authorized in late March and April, expects to dole out about $15 billion to providers that participate in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program but have not yet received payments from the relief fund that Congress authorized. The money is intended to compensate those that lost revenue or had increased expenses because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The additional funding is expected to support several hundred thousand more providers, including pediatricians, obstetrician-gynecologists, dentists, opioid treatment and mental health specialists, assisted living facilities and other home and community providers.
Also, safety net hospitals that serve a large share of low-income Americans and the uninsured will receive $10 billion this week.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the NYC Care program will expand to Queens and Manhattan four months ahead of schedule in order to help fight health care disparities exposed by Covid-19.
De Blasio said the virus taught “painful lessons” on disparity and lack of equality in the city, adding that Covid-19 did “horrific” damage in communities of color.
The approximately $37.5 million expansion is expected to reach 54,000 residents – with 44,000 in Queens and 10,000 in Manhattan.
The program provides access to low-cost and no-cost primary care for those who are ineligible or can’t afford insurance.
It currently is serving the Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
The program is part of the ongoing city’s initiative to guarantee health care for everyone regardless of immigration status, according to previous CNN reporting on the health care initiative.
The city will hire 26 providers to ensure a new primary care appointment in two weeks.
There is a strong focus on mental health as well, De Blasio said.
His wife, first lady Chirlane McCray, said NYC will reach 10,000 residents in the hardest hit neighborhoods from July to December working with 270 frontline community and faith-based organizations.
The city will deliver one-hour virtual trainings on mental health and disaster response and coping mechanisms.
