They raced to shut down their economies in March, and many opened them just as quickly in May. Now, governors across the country are facing growing pressure from public health experts and local leaders to reimpose stay-at-home orders as the only way to regain control of coronavirus outbreaks that threaten to overwhelm hospitals and send the death count spiraling. The push appeared to receive a boost from Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease official, who suggested in comments released late Wednesday that struggling states “should seriously look at shutting down.” He took a more measured approach on Thursday, emphasizing that stay-at-home orders should remain a last resort and suggesting a pause in reopening plans instead. So far, that has been the preferred method for governors seeking to arrest climbing caseloads while not alienating a virus-weary public. Yet, with scant evidence of progress in states across the Sun Belt – and beyond – experts are increasingly concluding that more drastic measures are necessary. “Stay-at-home is a blunt instrument,” said Farshad Fani Marvasti, director of public health at Arizona State University. “But when you’re leading the world in new cases and things don’t seem to be getting better, you may have to use that blunt instrument.”

Studies have found that orders that closed nonessential businesses and forbid nonessential travel or gatherings prevented millions of coronavirus cases nationwide when they were imposed this spring. Researchers have also found such orders could have saved tens of thousands of lives had they been implemented earlier.

But with the economy reeling from a prolonged shutdown, and President Donald Trump agitating for a quick reopening, governors across the country lifted restrictions in May. That was despite the fact that most had not met the White House’s own criteria for determining when it was safe to ease up. Now, with caseloads hitting new peaks, the process for some states has been thrown in reverse. Nationwide, more than a dozen states have paused their reopenings this summer as case numbers have climbed. Another half-dozen have rolled back previously announced reopenings. Several have reimposed bans on bars, which have been particularly hospitable spots for the virus to circulate.

Yet the majority of states have pressed ahead with reopenings.

Continue reading “Growing chorus pushes for renewed shutdown orders”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, continues to contradict President Trump on coronavirus, including sharing differing descriptions about the seriousness of the pandemic in the US. While President Trump has pushed to reopen schools and downplay the surge of cases, Fauci warned in a Wall Street Journal podcast yesterday that states with resurging coronavirus cases “should seriously look at shutting down.” Fauci later noted that states with spiking coronavirus cases still can contain them by pausing their reopening processes, rather than shutting down a second time. In an interview published earlier today, Fauci said he’s “trying to figure out” where President Trump got the number behind his claim that 99% of coronavirus cases were “harmless.” On July 4, Trump sought to downplay the surge in Covid-19 cases by falsely claiming that testing in the US shows 99% of cases “are totally harmless.”

Fauci told FT that he last saw Trump on June 2 at the White House, and hasn’t personally briefed him in at least two months.

Trump ‘absolutely disinclined’ to shut down economy if there is a second coronavirus outbreak, Kudlow says

July 9 (Reuters) – As the number of new coronavirus cases in the United States rose to a single-day record, fresh government data on Thursday showed another 1.3 million Americans filed for jobless benefits, highlighting the pandemic’s devastating impact on the economy. More than 60,000 new COVID-19 infections were reported on Wednesday and U.S. deaths rose by more than 900 for the second straight day, the highest since early June. Florida on Thursday announced nearly 9,000 new cases and 120 new coronavirus deaths, a record daily increase in lives lost. Positive test rates reached a new daily high of 18%, up from 12%-13% two weeks ago. California and Texas, the most populous states, announced record increases in COVID deaths on Wednesday. The grim U.S. numbers come on top of extraordinarily high jobless figures, although they came in lower than economists had forecast. Initial unemployment claims hit a historic peak of nearly 6.9 million in late March. Although they have gradually fallen, claims remain roughly double their highest point during the 2007-09 Great Recession. With coronavirus cases rising in 41 of the 50 U.S. states over the past two weeks, according to a Reuters analysis, many states have had to halt and roll back plans to reopen businesses and lift restrictions. From California to Florida, beaches and bars have been ordered to close. Restaurants in Texas have been told they can have fewer diners. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump criticized his health agency’s recommendations for reopening schools in the fall as too expensive and impractical, insisting that all schools must open for classroom instruction. Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would issue a “new set of tools” next week. Many Americans cannot return to work if schools do not open for in-person learning, as they are a major source of childcare in the country. The CDC’s director, Robert Redfield, on Thursday defended the guidelines but gave no details on what the CDC was changing. “It’s not a revision of the guidelines. It’s just to provide additional information to help the schools be able to use the guidance that we put forward,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” program. “Our guidelines are our guidelines.” Officials in New Jersey and New York, the hardest-hit states at the outset of the U.S. outbreak, are trying to preserve the progress they made in curtailing the spread of the virus in the face of the resurgence elsewhere, especially the South and West. New Jersey adopted a stringent coronavirus face-mask order on Wednesday, and New York City unveiled a plan to allow public school students back into classrooms for just two or three days a week.

Los Angeles City Coronavirus Update: Mayor Eric Garcetti “All Options” On Table

• Los Angeles County Coronavirus Update: New Cases, Hospitalizations Now Regularly Averaging Close To All-Time Record As Test Positivity Rate Soars Again
• UK’s Largest Cinema Chain Odeon Slows Reopening Amid Moving Film Slate
• Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Warns Of “National Testing Emergency” Across The U.S.

Noting that Los Angeles is currently seeing the highest level of hospitalizations since the pandemic began, Garcetti warned, “These [next two] weeks are absolutely critical. Critical to whether our schools open, whether our economy thrives.” He reminded residents that “All options remain on the table. We will do whatever we need to.” If things get worse, said Garcetti, “We’d likely return to a mandated stay-at-home order,” in one or two weeks. “There are still too many social gatherings. Way too many pool parties,” he said. “Parents, I need your help,” enjoined the mayor. “I need you to keep your children away from their friends.” As a general guideline, Garcetti advised, “You should assume that everyone around you is infected.” “Testing remains a critical tool,” he said. “We hear very single day that there are not enough tests,” said the mayor, before announcing that the city and county had performed a record 20,000 tests on Wednesday. But in a city of 4 million people, however, that’s still not enough. “We need more help with testing,” he said.

“Without a major boost in testing,” continued the mayor, “there’s no way we can safely reopen our economy or to safely reopen schools.”

He then called for federal help: “Congress and the president need to step up and pass another aid bill.”For those concerned that the city and county are only doing 20,000 tests a day, “Don’t be that scared by those numbers,” said Garcetti, “and I’ll tell you why: We saw two weeks ago that we had capacity, but no demand.” Now, Garcetti says, with increased demand, “I’m confident that within the next week we’ll get back to whatever path we need to [be on].” But there is an even larger crisis looming, according to the mayor. “We’re going to see across this nation a testing emergency,” said Garcetti in response to a question from Deadline. He predicted a national squeeze on lab personnel, testing materials and contact tracing. He called on Congress to approve another round of economic support for Americans. “We need national leadership, so this isn’t a dog-eat-dog [process],” said Garcetti. If states are pitted against each other again, as they were in the scramble for PPE then, said Garcetti, it becomes a zero-sum equation: “If Florida does well, California suffers,” and so on. Earlier in the day, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Tuesday confirmed 4,015 new cases of COVID-19, the region’s highest number of new cases reported since the pandemic began. The high number of cases is due, in part, to a backlog of about 2,000 test results received from one lab that just submitted lab results from July 2-5 today. Testing results are available for more than 1.2 million individuals with 9% of those people testing positive. The daily positivity rate of all tests — a composite of a seven-day rolling average — has risen to 11.6%. On Monday, that seven-day average was pegged at 10%. A back of the envelope calculation shows L.A.’s one-day test positivity rate is 16 percent. Also on Wednesday, California Hospital Association President and CEO Carmela Coyle offered a grim update from the medical community. “We’re preparing to surge,” she said. And with good reason. California Gov. Gavin Newsom then announced a mind-boggling number of new coronavirus cases in the state. Over the previous 24 hours, California saw 11,694 new cases, which includes a backlog of cases from Los Angeles County. Testing backlogs have spiked the state’s daily new-case numbers before, but Wednesday’s number so far exceeds the state’s previous all-time high of 7,149 reported on June 24 that it cannot be ignored

The United States, the country hardest hit by the coronavirus, on Tuesday posted 60,209 new cases, a record for a 24-hour period, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. The country was just shy of three million cases, at 2,991,351, the Baltimore-based university said in its latest data as of 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Wednesday). While a Reuters tally had the U.S. passing 3 million, Johns Hopkins University put the U.S. case total at 2,996,098 on Tuesday evening with 60,209 new cases – a new record for a 24-hour period. The U.S. coronavirus outbreak crossed a grim milestone of over 3 million confirmed cases on Tuesday as more states reported record numbers of new infections, and Florida faced an impending shortage of intensive care unit hospital beds. Authorities have reported alarming upswings of daily caseloads in roughly two dozen states over the past two weeks, a sign that efforts to control transmission of the novel coronavirus have failed in large swaths of the country. California, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and Texas on Tuesday shattered their previous daily record highs for new cases. The biggest jumps occurred in Texas and California, the two largest U.S. states, with more than 10,000 each. About 24 states have reported disturbingly high infection rates as a percentage of diagnostic tests conducted over the past week. In Texas alone, the number of hospitalized patients more than doubled in just two weeks. The trend has driven many more Americans to seek out COVID-19 screenings. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday it was adding short-term “surge” testing sites in three metropolitan areas in Florida, Louisiana and Texas. In Houston, a line of more than 200 cars snaked around the United Memorial Medical Center as people waited hours in sweltering heat to get tested. Some had arrived the night before to secure a place in line at the drive-through site. In Florida, more than four dozen hospitals across 25 of 67 counties reported their intensive care units had reached full capacity, according to the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration. Only 17% of the total 6,010 adult ICU beds statewide were available on Tuesday, down from 20% three days earlier. Additional hospitalizations could strain healthcare systems in many areas, leading to an uptick in lives lost from the respiratory illness that has killed more than 131,000 Americans to date. At least 923 of those deaths were reported Tuesday, the biggest single-day toll since June 10 but still far fewer than the record 2,806 tallied back in April. A widely cited mortality model from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projected on Tuesday that U.S. deaths would reach 208,000 by Nov. 1, with the outbreak expected to gain new momentum heading into the fall. A hoped-for summertime decline in transmission of the virus never materialized, the IHME said. “The U.S. didn’t experience a true end of the first wave of the pandemic,” the IHME’s director, Dr. Christopher Murray, said in a statement. “This will not spare us from a second surge in the fall, which will hit particularly hard in states currently seeing high levels of infections.” President Donald Trump, who has pushed for restarting the U.S. economy and urged Americans to return to their normal routines, said on Tuesday he would lean on state governors to open schools in the fall.

New COVID-19 infections are rising in 42 states, based on a Reuters analysis of the past two weeks. By Tuesday afternoon, the number of confirmed U.S. cases had surpassed 3 million, affecting nearly one of every 100 Americans and a population roughly equal to Nevada’s. In Arizona, another hot spot, the rate of coronavirus tests coming back positive rose to 26% for the week ended July 5, leading two dozen states with positivity rates exceeding 5%. The World Heath Organization considers a rate over 5% to be troubling. The surge has forced authorities to backpedal on moves to reopen businesses, such as restaurants and bars, after mandatory lockdowns in March and April reduced economic activity to a virtual standstill and put millions of Americans out of work. The Texas state fair, which had been scheduled to open on Sept. 25, has been canceled for the first time since World War Two, organizers announced on Tuesday. In Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine said the state was ordering people in seven counties to wear face coverings in public starting Wednesday evening.

The Coronavirus Is Coming To Get You

The plague doesn’t give a shit about the Center for Disease Control. It doesn’t care about some bullshit spin about a vaccine. It laughs at paper masks. It loves church gatherings, disco techs, concerts, weddings and family picnics. People baking in the sun is party time for the virus. And don’t get me started on its love for restaurants, shopping centers and big box stores. It’s coming to kill you and your best friend, significant others and your neighbors have been signed up to help it. It’s time for a serious wake up call my friends.