California reported a record number of COVID-19 infections in a single day Monday, with 11,554 new cases, according to the Los Angeles Times’s roundup of all 58 counties in the state. The report entered on Monday surpasses the single-day record broken just last week, when the state saw 11,142 COVID-19 cases, according to The Los Angeles Times. California has also reported increased death tolls ranging between 91 and 99 fatalities each day since July 10, which ranks as the worst seven-day average since the pandemic started earlier this year. The weeklong period that ended Monday marked the highest weekly total to date, with 674 deaths in the state. The new record indicates a 5 percent increase in fatalities since the previous seven-day period, which saw 640 deaths. For the past three weeks, government-mandated shutdowns of businesses and services, including bars and restaurants, have been underway and could contribute to lowering hospitalization rates across the state.
California, Florida report record numbers of daily deaths
Overnight Health Care: US passes 4 million COVID infections |…
Hospitalizations grew by 7 percent Sunday, but were lower than the previous weekend of July 12, when admissions increased by 12 percent. Gov. Gavin Newso (D) announced Monday the positivity rate from coronavirus tests had dropped from 7.7 percent to 7.2 percent compared to the previous seven-day rate. However, it is likely too early to know whether the trend will continue to fall, according to Mark Ghaly, secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency. “As soon as we feel confident in that trend and we see other numbers start to stabilize, we’ll credit some of the moves we made over the last few weeks,” Ghaly said. “It’s been about three, four weeks since we … first started to make moves … so we’re right in that time period where we may see some of the … benefits of those [policy changes].”
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – New cases of the coronavirus are surfacing every day South Florida and the rest of the state. Here are the latest numbers and information you need to know at-a-glance as of 11 a.m. on July 24, 2020.
FLORIDA: 402,312 confirmed cases
One-Day increase: 12,444 cases
Total Florida Deaths: 5,768
New Deaths: 136 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Resident Hospitalizations: 23,225
Total Tests: 3,281,087
Negative Test Results: 2,874,324
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 13.31%
MIAMI-DADE: 98,430 confirmed cases (largest number in the state)
One-Day Increase: 3,362
Total Deaths: 1,370
New Deaths: 16 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Hospitalizations: 5,080
Total Tests: 547,830
Negative: 448,175
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 19.7%
BROWARD: 45,576 confirmed cases
One-Day Increase: 1,566
Total Deaths: 546
New Deaths: 10 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Hospitalizations: 3,024
Total Tests: 350,194
Negative: 303,176
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 15.7%
MONROE: 1,082 confirmed cases
One-Day Increase: 84
Total Deaths: 6
New Deaths: 0 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Hospitalizations: 66
Total Tests: 10,701
Negative: 9,609
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 16.8%
UNITED STATES: 4,054,407 confirmed cases
Deaths: 144,469 (all states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico)
More than 150 health professionals and medical experts are urging politicians to shut down the country again in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “The best thing for the nation is not to reopen as quickly as possible, it’s to save as many lives as possible,” they said in a letter sent to the Trump administration, members of Congress and state governors this week.
The letter criticized the officials for reopening too soon and not doing enough during the shutdown to prepare. It calls for increased testing capacity and additional production of personal protective equipment.
“In March, people went home and stayed there for weeks, to keep themselves and their neighbors safe. You didn’t use the time to set us up to defeat the virus. And then you started to reopen anyway, and too quickly,” the letter said. “Right now we are on a path to lose more than 200,000 American lives by November 1st. Yet, in many states people can drink in bars, get a haircut, eat inside a restaurant, get a tattoo, get a massage, and do myriad other normal, pleasant, but non-essential activities.” The letter is a stark contrast to messaging from President Donald Trump, who has been encouraging states and schools to reopen and stay open. On Thursday, he again said that schools need to bring students back for in-person learning so that parents can get back to work. “The Council of Economic Advisers estimates that 5.6 million parents will be unable to return to work if schools do not reopen this year. That’s a tremendous problem,” he said at the White House. “It’s a tremendous problem. Schools have to open safely, but they have to open.” The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control released new school guidelines Thursday night after promising the documents for more than a week. The guidance places a heavy emphasis on children returning to school, but it does recommend that local officials consider closing schools if there is substantial, uncontrolled spread of the virus in the area. While some of the nation’s largest school districts have moved to start the school year online, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that students be “physically present in school” as much as safely possible. The president has consistently downplayed the resurgence of the virus in the U.S. in recent weeks. He only on Tuesday acknowledged that the situation will “get worse before it gets better.” Officials on Thursday reported the country has surpassed 4 million cases of the virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, warned Wednesday that COVID-19 may never be eradicated. “I think with a combination of good public health measures, a degree of global herd immunity and a good vaccine, which I do hope and feel cautiously optimistic that we will get, I think when we put all three of those together, we will get control of this, whether it’s this year or next year. I’m not certain,” Fauci told the TB Alliance, an organization dedicated to the development of medication for tuberculosis. At the same time, Fauci said “I don’t really see us eradicating it.” He claimed that the virus is different from SARS, a virus that was contained after it emerged in the early 2000s. “I have never seen infection in which you have such a broad range literally no symptoms at all in a substantial proportion of the population to some who get ill with minor symptoms to some who get ill enough to be in bed for weeks,” Fauci said. “Others get hospitalized, require oxygen, intensive care, ventilation and death. The involvement with the same pathogen is very unique.” Fauci’s comments contradict public remarks by President Trump, who has frequently downplayed the virus and claimed that it would disappear. “It’s going to leave. it’s going to be gone. It’s going to be eradicated,” Trump said in April. During a press briefing on Monday, Trump admitted that the current outbreak is likely “to get worse before it gets better.”
Spain has recorded its highest daily rise in new coronavirus cases since the beginning of the deescalation process, with 971 infections detected in 24 hours on Thursday, compared to Wednesday’s figure of 730. According to the latest figures from the Spanish Health Ministry, which now only offers disaggregated data from Monday to Friday, the daily rise of 241 new cases is the largest increase recorded since May 8, when the government began to roll back its coronavirus lockdown rules.
Replying to media questions at a government press conference on Thursday, María José Sierra, from the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts, said: “This may already be a second wave.”
France on Friday recommended not traveling to Catalonia due to the surge in cases there. “We strongly urge French citizens to avoid traveling to that territory until the health situation there improves,” said Prime Minister Jean Castex on Friday. And Norway will impose a 10-day quarantine on travelers from Spain starting on Saturday due to the spike in cases, the Norwegian government said on Friday. The Spanish Foreign Ministry has published a list of countries currently applying restrictions on travelers from Spain (updated before Norway made its announcement).
✈🚫 Restricciones a los viajes de ciudadanos provenientes de #España ⤵️
ℹ️ Consulta en nuestra web la lista actualizada a las 14:45 horas de hoy:
Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Friday that “in theory” there are no plans to decree a new national state of alarm like the one that kept people mostly confined to their homes for three months between March and June. Instead, Robles said that the government wants to “support the work” of regional authorities in their own fight against the spread and effects of Covid-19. In an interview on the private television network Antena 3, the minister also asked authorities in regions experiencing significant transmission spikes to “reflect” on their own management of the crisis. Without mentioning the Catalan government specifically, Robles recalled that some regional authorities harshly criticized the central executive for its handling of the crisis earlier this year, claiming that things would be different when they got their powers back. But “we are now seeing that it’s not that easy or simple,” she said. The rise in coronavirus cases is being felt across Spain, with the cumulative incidence of the virus tripling in the past two weeks. According to Thursday’s report, the Spanish regions of Aragón and Catalonia recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 infections, with 415 and 182, respectively. Both regions have recorded community transmission of the virus: in Lleida province and Barcelona city in Catalonia, and in Zaragoza province in Aragón. Sierra described the situation in these two areas as “the most delicate,” although in Lleida the number of new cases has begun to stabilize. Madrid also saw a rise in daily coronavirus infections, with the figure jumping from 70 on Wednesday to 102. Meanwhile in Navarre, where regional authorities have introduced new lockdown rules in a neighborhood of Pamplona due to a large Covid-19 outbreak, the number of new cases was half – 66 on Thursday, compared to 132 the day before.
Nightclubs and nighttime venues have become a new hotspot for Covid-19 outbreaks.Joan Mateu / AP
The age of new coronavirus cases continues to fall as outbreaks at parties and nighttime venues lead to more infections among young people. A few days ago, the average age was 48, and by Tuesday it had dropped to 45. Sierra, however, warned on Thursday that a “certain upwards trend” in cases has been detected among people over the age of 60. This trend is of concern to the Health Ministry, given patients in this age group are at greater risk of experiencing complications. “We are worried because age is the factor most closely associated with the severity [of the disease],” said Sierra.
Dr Deborah Birx issued the grave warning Wednesday during a call with hundreds of state and city leaders
The 11 cities include: Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St Louis
Dr Birx warned that the outbreak currently plaguing cities in Sunbelt states, like Phoenix and San Antonio, was now moving north
She warned leaders of the 11 cities that they should take ‘aggressive’ steps to stem their current outbreaks
Her warning came as the number of cases reported in the United States passed 4 million on Thursday
The head of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr Deborah Birx, has warned that 11 major cities – including Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Baltimore – need to take ‘aggressive’ steps to mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks. Dr Birx issued the grave warning on Wednesday during a phone call with hundreds of state and city leaders. The 11 cities she mentioned include: Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St Louis.
Dr Birx warned that the outbreak currently plaguing cities in Sunbelt states, like Phoenix and San Antonio, was now moving north, according to audio of the call obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.
Dr Deborah Birx, who leads the White House task force, issued the grave warning on Wednesday during a phone call with hundreds of state and city leaders ‘What started out very much as a southern and western epidemic is starting to move up the East Coast into Tennessee, Arkansas, up into Missouri, up across Colorado, and obviously we’re talking about increases now in Baltimore,’ she said. ‘So this is really critical that everybody is following this and making sure they’re being aggressive about mitigation efforts.’ She warned leaders of the 11 cities that they should take ‘aggressive’ steps in order to stem their current outbreaks. Dr Birx said it was vital for health officials to contract trace patients testing positive in areas where test positivity was increasing. ‘When you first see that increase in test positivity, that is when to start the mitigation efforts,’ she said. ‘I know it may look small and you may say, ‘That only went from 5 to 5-and-a-half [percent], and we’re gonna wait and see what happens’. If you wait another three or four or even five days, you’ll start to see a dramatic increase in cases.’
Indiana: Cases in the state of Indiana have been increasing since mid-June. The city of Indianapolis is on the list of 11 cities that Dr Birx has warned of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh currently has 6,817 confirmed COVID-19 cases
Baltimore, Maryland: There are currently 9,841 infections in Baltimore with cases trending upwards since late June
Columbus, Ohio: Columbus currently has 11,877 coronavirus infections Her warning came as the total number of coronavirus cases reported in the United States passed 4 million on Thursday, reflecting a rapid acceleration of infections in the country since the first case was recorded on January 21. It took the country 98 days to reach 1 million cases but just 16 days to go from 3 million to 4 million. The case total indicates that at least one in 82 people in the United States have been infected. As the pandemic has spread from the early epicenter of New York to the South and West, federal, state and local officials have clashed over how to ease lockdowns imposed to curb the infection rate, including in some states whether to rollback reopenings. The ordering of face coverings, a common practice around the world and recommended by the federal government’s own health experts, has also become highly politicized, with some Republican governors particularly resistant. Hostility to the idea appeared to be dwindling this week, including from the Republican administration of President Donald Trump, who once dismissed mask-wearing as an effort to be politically correct. Trump, who faces falling poll numbers over his handling of the health crisis ahead of the November election, has long refused to wear a mask in public but this week encouraged Americans to do so. While Trump did not issue a national mandate, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir on Thursday cited the importance of masks to bring the virus under control. ‘We have to do our mitigation steps: wear a mask, avoid the crowds. We won’t see hospitalizations and deaths go down for a couple of weeks because (they are) lagging indicators, but we are turning that tide,’ Giroir told Fox News Network. He also said the time it currently takes to get coronavirus test results back needs to be reduced.
BILL Gates has warned that multiple doses of any coronavirus vaccine could be necessary as he slammed Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
Microsoft billionaire Gates said “serious mistakes” have been made by the White House as he predicted schools could be closed until fall 2021.
Speaking during an interview with Norah O’Donnell on CBS News, Gates said he had faith in the development of a coronavirus vaccine. However, he warned it could take an “unbelievably big number” of doses to beat the virus. He said: “None of the vaccines at this point appear like they’ll work with a single dose. “That was the hope at the very beginning.” The philanthropist – who is worth $98 billion, the second-richest man in the world – has offered £300million to help fund research into the vaccine. Gates also described the closures of schools as the “biggest cost” of the pandemic after deaths as he said classes likely won’t be all back until fall 2021. He said: “This next academic year does hang in the balance. It is extremely important.” More should be done to help schools take learning online to ensure kids get their educations, he said. The 64-year-old tech boss now spends most of his times working with the Global Health division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He had been warning of the threat posed to humanity by pandemics since 2015 before the coronavirus outbreak.
During the interview, Gates was also heavily critical of the Trump administration – with the US having the highest death and case count in the world with 146,192 and 4.1million.
Gates said: “Some of the policies were a mistake. Opening up bars – the economic benefit versus the infection risk – a lot of policies like that made it a mistake.” The Microsoft mogul emphasized that social distancing, wearing masks and developing a vaccine are now key in beating Covid-19. He conceded however some of the “serious mistakes” were made because of a lacking of understanding of the virus. Gates said Europe responded better to the pandemic than the US – with its leaders “communicating with a clear voice”. And he also condemned reports that Trump is silencing experts like Dr Anthony Fauci. He said gagging experts was “holding us back” and said you could “never have predicted” the butting of heads between scientists and the White House. Dr Fauci has been feuding with Trump, with anonymous officials even briefing against him by releasing a list of his mistakes over Covid-19. President Trump insisted that the US has the best mortality rate in the world during a briefing at the White House this week. Gates however said Trump’s claim was “not even close” – adding “by almost every measure, the US is one of the worst”. He added: “We actually had criteria for opening up with cases declining, and we opened up with cases increasing.”
(Bloomberg) — Recovering from Covid-19 may not offer much lasting protection from future infections for those with only mild cases, according to a report that suggests caution regarding so-called herd immunity as well as the durability of vaccines. The correspondence in the New England Journal of Medicine outlined research on antibodies taken from the blood of 34 patients who had recovered after symptoms began, with a second after about 86 days, or less than three months. The researchers found that antibody levels fell quickly, with a half-life of about 73 days between the two time frames. The loss of antibodies occurred more quickly than with SARS, an earlier type of coronavirus infection. The antibody response is being closely studied by scientists worldwide for indications of how long-lasting immunity may be. While there’s little evidence to suggest reinfections are broadly occurring, health experts have yet to pin down specifics. The latest findings raise concern that protection from reinfection may not last long in those with mild symptoms, which accounts for the majority of cases. Further studies will be needed “to define a quantitative protection threshold and rate of decline of antiviral antibodies beyond 90 days,” according to the researchers led by F. Javier Ibarrondo, from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. While the protective role of antibodies against infection isn’t fully understood, they are generally considered a good representation of some protection against infection in general, according to the report. A recent study from King’s College London showed that the level of antibodies may drop to a degree that makes them undetectable as soon as three months after infection.
