As US grapples with virus, Florida hits record case increase

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — With the United States grappling with the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, Florida hit a grim milestone Sunday, shattering the national record for a state’s largest single-day increase in positive cases. Deaths from the virus have also been rising in the U.S., especially in the South and West, though still well below the heights hit in April, according to a recent Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, called mask-wearing in public, which has been met with resistance in some U.S. states, “absolutely essential.” Giroir, the assistant secretary at the Health and Human Services Department, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that “if we don’t have that, we will not get control of the virus.” President Donald Trump wore a mask in public for the first time Saturday, something Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday showed he has “crossed a bridge.” Pelosi told CNN’s “State of the Union” that she hopes it means the president “will change his attitude, which will be helpful in stopping the spread of the coronavirus.”

In hard-hit Houston, Texas, two top Democratic officials called for the nation’s fourth-largest city to lock back down as area hospitals strained to accommodate the onslaught of sick patients.

In Florida, where parts of Walt Disney World reopened Saturday, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded, according to state Department of Health statistics reported Sunday. California had the previous record of daily positive cases — 11,694, set on Wednesday. The numbers come at the end of a record-breaking week as Florida reported 514 fatalities — an average of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, the state was averaging 30 deaths per day. Researchers expect deaths to rise in the U.S. for at least some weeks, but some think the count probably will not go up as dramatically as it did in the spring because of several factors, including increased testing. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, reported another record increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases over a 24-hour period, at over 230,000.

The U.N. health agency said the United States again topped the list among countries, with more than 66,000 cases. The figures don’t necessarily account for delays in reporting cases, and are believed to far underestimate actual totals.

Countries in Eastern Europe were among those facing rising waves of new infections, leading to riots in Serbia, mandatory face masks in Croatia and travel bans or quarantines imposed by Hungary. “We see worrisome signs about an increase in the number of cases in the neighboring countries, Europe and the whole world,” said Gergely Gulyas, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff. “Now, we have to protect our own security and prevent the virus from being brought in from abroad.”

How many more Americans will die from COVID-19?

These are among the darkest days of President Donald Trump’s presidency. Coronavirus infections are exploding, the economic recovery is in jeopardy and Trump may have undermined his own “law and order” message by commuting the prison sentence of his friend and political adviser. Emboldened Democrats are trying to guard against overconfidence, even as they see real opportunities to expand Joe Biden’s path to the White House in states like Georgia, Iowa and Ohio. And Biden’s slow-and-steady approach is winning praise from Democrats everywhere as Trump’s string of unforced errors and divisive rhetoric continues. There’s less time for Republicans to turn things around than they’d like. Early voting across several swing states is set to begin in little more than two months. The number of Americans dying from COVID-19 is surging again. The daily death toll began falling in mid-April, and it continued to fall — until about a week ago. Daily reported deaths in the U.S. have increased from 578 two weeks ago to 664 on July 10, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University’s seven-day rolling average. That’s still well below the heights hit in April, but researchers are expecting deaths to rise for at least some weeks still as infections soar. Overall, more than 135,000 people in America have died as a result of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins. As a reminder, Trump in April predicted a death toll of “substantially below 100,000.” In May, he predicted deaths could reach 100,000. And now, the CDC’s latest model forecasts as many as 160,000 deaths by the end of August. The Trump administration has yet to offer any kind of comprehensive, coordinated federal response. There was one noteworthy change over the weekend, however: The president wore a face mask in public for the first time. Trump went where Richard Nixon would not when he commuted the sentence of longtime friend and political adviser Roger Stone, who had been convicted of multiple felony charges for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation involving Trump himself. Legal experts were aghast, and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney called it an act of “unprecedented historic corruption.”The decision came as the president touts “law and order” as a central message in his reelection campaign. Another Republican, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, called the Stone commutation “a mistake.” Will the criticism from his own party grow? It will be especially difficult for Senate Republicans in tough reelection campaigns to stand by the president on this one. They won’t want to address it, but Democrats will make it difficult for incumbents like Sens. Martha McSally, Cory Gardner, Susan Collins and Tom Tillis to stay silent. Democrats have already embraced a dramatically scaled-down national convention in Milwaukee next month. Even a series of smaller Democratic watch parties across the country is in jeopardy as coronavirus infections surge. Yet Trump’s desire to project stability has fueled intense pressure on Republicans to host a large-scale convention of some sort in Florida, which has suddenly emerged as the unofficial epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. Florida officials on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic. According to state Department of Health statistics, 15,299 Floridians tested positive. That’s significantly higher than the previous records in California and New York, which didn’t crack 12,000. How much time does Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis have to get things under control? The Republican National Convention is officially scheduled to begin in Florida in 42 days. Besides public health concerns, we’re also hearing that convention officials are struggling to raise funding for the high-profile event. While Trump could certainly benefit from a post-convention bump, the potential costs may be beginning to outweigh the benefits. Biden offered new details for his long-awaited jobs plan last week that he hopes will shift the balance of the high-stakes economic debate. Trump’s numbers have been weak on most issues, yet voters have not been willing to give the presumptive Democratic nominee a clear advantage on the economy. Biden released a New Deal-like economic agenda that he touted as the most aggressive government investment in the U.S. economy since World War II. He plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars to reinvigorate the U.S. manufacturing and technology sectors while tightening current “Buy American” laws intended to benefit U.S. firms. He also emphasized previous pledges to establish a $15-per-hour minimum wage, strengthen workers’ collective bargaining rights and repeal Republican-backed tax breaks for U.S. corporations that move jobs overseas. Trump’s inability to contain the pandemic will make it harder and harder to maintain any kind of advantage on the economy. The question is whether Biden can convince voters his brand of progressive populism is better. It’s later than you think. Nov. 3 may feel like a lifetime away, but early voting in a series of battleground states is little more than two months away. Mid-September will feature the first votes cast in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia. Two weeks later come Iowa, Maine, Ohio and New Mexico. There’s a lot of money left to be spent, we don’t know who Biden’s running mate will be and we haven’t seen any debates, but the window to change the direction of the presidential contest is shrinking quickly.

Trump on pandemic: We will be in good shape soon

Washington — As coronavirus infections continue to spike in more than half of the states, President Trump said he believes the country is “in a good place” and will be in “very good shape” in the next few weeks, despite a warning from the nation’s top infectious disease expert that the U.S. must confront the continuing pandemic immediately. In an interview with Greta Van Susteren, chief national political analyst for Gray Television, set to air Sunday, Mr. Trump said he disagrees with an assessment from Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that the U.S. is still “knee deep” in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic and must confront the “serious situation” immediately. “I think we are in a good place,” Mr. Trump told Van Susteren. “I disagree with him. You know, Dr. Fauci said ‘don’t wear masks,’ and now he says ‘wear them.’ And you know, he’s said numerous things, ‘don’t close off China. Don’t ban China.’ And I did it anyway. I sort of didn’t listen to my experts and I banned China.” The president predicted that in the next two to four weeks, “I think we’re going to be in very good shape.” The surge of coronavirus cases comes after many states began to lift restrictions on businesses and allowed stay-at-home orders to expire, with those that were among the first to reopen their economies, such as Texas and Florida, experiencing a spike in hospitalizations and people testing positive. The White House Coronavirus Task Force met Wednesday at the Department of Education, but Fauci told CBS News’s Paula Reid he was told to attend virtually from the White House. He was not present at a press briefing following the meeting. Mr. Trump has attributed the rise in infections on increased testing, despite an increasing positivity rate in many states. He has shifted his focus to the economic recovery and a return to normalcy, including schools reopening in the fall. While his public appearances were severely scaled back in the spring, the president has resumed meetings with world leaders at the White House and returned to the campaign trail for events in Oklahoma and Arizona. Mr. Trump is set to accept the Republican presidential nomination in Jacksonville, Florida, in late August, after initial plans for the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, were upended by the coronavirus. But as Florida has become an epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in the U.S., Mr. Trump told Van Susteren that the convention in its current form is not concrete. “It really depends on the timing,” he said. “Look, we’re very flexible. We can do a lot of things, but we’re flexible.” In addition to addressing the coronavirus pandemic that continues to wreak havoc on the country, Mr. Trump also addressed an operation involving a Russian military spy unit that allegedly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Reports about the Russian bounty intelligence, which the White House has insisted the president was not briefed on in-person due to questions about its veracity, has sparked criticism from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill who are pressing the Trump administration for more information. Mr. Trump slammed unidentified officials for leaking the intelligence, saying they are “not patriotic people” and “not good for our country.” The president also told Van Susteren that the Justice Department is “looking into” the leak and called the Russian bounties a “hoax.” “I think it’s a Democrat hoax because intelligence, good people in intelligence, said they did not think it rose to the level of bringing it to the president,” he said. “Nobody brought it to me, but they said it didn’t rise to that level and that’s OK with me.”

US warned coronavirus will last 2 more years and force ‘American way of life to change’

Covid-19 has transformed the way Americans go about their day-to-day lives, but experts believe they will have to continue to endure the pandemic and dramatically change their working habits. The US is now the hardest-hit nation on Earth, with the number of confirmed cases now exceeding 3million and its coronavirus death toll standing at more than 133,000. It is estimated to have roughly one-fifth of all Covid-related deaths in the entire world – followed by Brazil with nearly 70,000 fatalities. Record-breaking numbers of cases have been recorded over the past few weeks after the US failed to stop the spread of the deadly virus. American’s will have to change their habits for years if the coronavirus remains Footage of packed beaches and parks in the country over the Fourth of July weekend has also sent shivers down the spines of health officials. US chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci described it as a “serious situation that we need to address immediately”. The recent surge in cases within the US appears to have been spread by younger people, with the average age of the infected coming down 15 years. Only four states managed to record a decline in the number of new cases – those being Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The report, named Covid-19: The CIDRAP Viewpoint, led by Dr Kristine Moore said the pandemic would likely remain in the US for between 18 to 24 months when compared to previous flu pandemics. “Risk communication messaging from government officials should incorporate the concept that this pandemic will not be over soon and that people need to be prepared for possible periodic resurgences of disease over the next two years.” While the coronavirus is likely to linger in the US, and the world, for years – there is some hope its severity will wane. US President Donald Trump has been blasted over his handling of the crisis. The study continued: “We must be prepared for at least another 18 to 24 months of significant Covid-19 activity, with hot spots popping periodically in diverse geographic areas. “As the pandemic wanes, it is likely that coronavirus will circulate in the human population and will synchronise to a seasonal pattern with diminished severity over time, as with other less pathogenic coronaviruses, such as betacoronavirus.” Another report, did however, highlight a “blind spot” was poor ventilation in indoor spaces. While it admitted that regular handwashing and social distancing were effective behaviours to provide protection, it was “not enough”. “They also advise avoiding crowding, especially on public transportation and in buildings.”

The impact could dramatically change the American way of life, with hundreds of thousands of workplaces, schools, hospitals and homes having to renovate their buildings entirely.

IT’S YOUR LIFE AND DEATH DECISION

Doc warns US will suffer ‘tremendous deaths if lockdowns aren’t put back on’ as county sees another record spike

A LEADING doctor has warned the United States will see “tremendous deaths” if coronavirus lockdowns are not imposed. Physician and Rutgers medical professor Dr Bob Lahita was making the ominous prediction after more than 69,000 new Covid-19 cases were reported — an all-time, single-day high. The surge in coronavirus cases has been driven by states that have fast-tracked the reopening of their economies, such as California, Texas and Florida.

Dr Bob Lahita said there will be “tremendous deaths” in those areas and said it was a “very good idea” to imposed new lockdowns.

He said: “I’m hoping that the governors use some common sense and close up again.”It comes close to irresponsible, reopening, until we have absolute proof that the disease is under control.” The rampaging virus that has killed more than 136,000 Americans and in excess of 3.2 million have been infected.

It comes close to irresponsible, reopening, until we have absolute proof that the disease is under control

Professor Dr Bob Lahita

Dr Bob Lahita believes even though pandemic is still ravaging the country, doctors and experts have been “pushed to the side” and reopenings have become an “economic issue”. He said: “I understand that some of these meetings at the governors’ mansions have included eight businesspeople versus one epidemiologist or one doctor. “Prioritization for a lot of the governors are to get the economy rolling again.” Meanwhile a single record was chalked up yesterday with more than 69,000 new Covid-19 cases nationwide. At least 33 US states experienced increases compared to last week. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says things will get worse in the state as more than 10,000 patients are now hospitalized with the coronavirus. The state is now one of coronavirus hotspots, with new confirmed cases surging to around 14 per cent of the country’s total. On the Texas-Mexico border, Starr County Judge Eloy Vera says his rural community is trying to get a refrigerated trailer because the local funeral home can’t keep up with more than two bodies a day. Texas members of Congress are also asking the Trump administration for a field hospital in the Rio Grande Valley. Meanwhile California has experienced one of its toughest weeks yet in the battle against coronavirus, with the state recording its two deadliest days since the start of the pandemic as cases numbers continue to explode. Florida is also facing an alarming surge in Covid-19, two months after businesses began reopening. Hospitals in June and July have seen their numbers of coronavirus patients triple.

Special Report

Trump Said He Was Disinclined To Lock Down The Country Again

The President and his minions have announced as the death toll hits a record everyday and new infections are out of control that they won’t use the only tool that works. And that is total lockdown. These are the kind of mistakes that can bring down an empire. There is no leadership and the infection rate can get high enough that there is no stopping it.

Gov. Greg Abbott warns if spread of COVID-19 doesn’t slow, “the next step would have to be a lockdown”

With Texas continuing to break records for new coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations this week, Gov. Greg Abbott reiterated Friday afternoon that things will continue to get worse. And if people keep flouting his new statewide mask mandate, he said, the next step could be another economic lockdown. “Things will get worse, and let me explain why,” he told KLBK TV in Lubbock. “The deaths that we’re seeing announced today and yesterday — which are now over 100 — those are people who likely contracted COVID-19 in late May.

“The worst is yet to come as we work our way through that massive increase in people testing positive.”

Texans will also likely see an increase in cases next week, Abbott said, and people abiding by his face mask requirement might be the only thing standing between businesses remaining open and another shutdown. “The public needs to understand this was a very tough decision for me to make,” Abbott told KLBK of his face mask mandate. “I made clear that I made this tough decision for one reason: It was our last best effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. If we do not slow the spread of COVID-19 … the next step would have to be a lockdown.” Abbott has pushed that message repeatedly in television interviews this week. But he emphasized Friday that another shutdown was not imminent and he pointed to steps he has taken so far to scale back reopening in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including the mask order and a requirement that bars, once again, close their doors. He has also tightened restaurant capacity limits. Texas reported 100 more coronavirus deaths on Thursday, another record. In three live television appearances Friday afternoon, Abbott acknowledged that his mask order — that Texans in counties with more than 20 cases wear masks in public — was neither popular nor convenient, but said it was important for everyone to join in the effort. His plea to Texans comes as nearly 80 Texas counties have opted out of the order order, while others are refusing to enforce it. “It’s disappointing,” Abbott told CBS Tyler of government entities who defy his mandate. “I realize that a murderer or rapist or robber is far more serious to concentrate on. However, I know this also: If we do not all join together and unite in this one cause for a short period of time of adopting the masks, it will lead to the necessity of having to close Texas back down,” he said. “That should be the last thing that any government wants.”

As of Thursday afternoon, 2,918 Texas had died of COVID-19. The state also reported nearly another 10,000 new cases of the disease.

Nearly 9,700 people were in Texas hospitals on Thursday, too, the highest number since the pandemic began. With cases of the virus and related hospitalizations rising at alarming rates, Abbott expanded his ban on elective medical procedures Thursday to cover more than 100 counties across much of the state. On Friday afternoon, he also extended his disaster declaration for all Texas counties in response to COVID-19. “If we can get people across the state … to wear face masks, we will be able to keep the state open,” Abbott said in an interview with KSAT. “We will be able to reduce hospitalizations. But if this is not encouraged, if people do not adopt the best practice of wearing a face covering, it will lead to an increase in this rapid spread of COVID-19.”

WHO: Very unlikely world can eradicate virus now

“In our current situation, it is very unlikely that we can eradicate or eliminate this virus. There are very particular environments in which that can occur — island states and other places — but even they risk re-importation,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, said during a briefing in Geneva.

“We’ve seen countries who’ve managed to get to zero or almost zero re-import virus from outside. So there’s always a risk — either from within or from bringing disease back in — and therefore, it is a given that there is always a risk of further cases,” Ryan said. “The transmission that occurs in that situation can be single, sporadic cases, which can be relatively easily isolated and quarantined. A more worrying pattern is large clusters of cases that could occur in association with super spreading events — events in which large crowds gather.”

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for coronavirus response and head of its emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, also said in Friday’s briefing that “this is something we all need to anticipate — that there’s the possibility that there could be a resurgence, there could be these small outbreaks.” The American Apparel & Footwear Association sent a letter to President Trump requesting that the administration institute federal face mask guidelines to assist retail stores as the country continues efforts to safely reopen.

“Simply put, a national face mask usage standard would protect retail employees and customers across the country, as well as remove any confusion amongst U.S. consumers regarding their local face mask requirements,” Steve Lamar, president and CEO of American Apparel & Footwear Association, said in a statement.

The organization, which represents hundreds of clothing and footwear companies and their suppliers, added that “with differing standards throughout the country, out members are facing situations where their employees need to educate customers on what is required to enter their stores, or even turn customers away. One simple, consistent standard at the federal level, mandated and enforced at the state and local level, would go a long way in addressing this confusion and keeping the economy open.” Versions of the letter were also sent to the heads of the National Governors Association, National Association of Counties, and the US Conference of Mayors.

I do not want to tell you! BUT I told you so. Lockdowns are starting AGAIN!

Atlanta mayor orders city to return to Phase 1 Lockdown as Georgia breaks record for new daily coronavirus cases

Georgia set a new single-day record for new coronavirus cases on Friday, reporting more than 4,400 new infections. The skyrocketing case numbers prompted Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to order the city to reverse its reopening plan and return to Phase 1. Georgia reported 4,484 cases on Friday, bringing the state’s total to 111,211, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. The state’s total deaths increased to 2,965. Georgia is far from the only state facing an uptick in cases. The United States reported 63,200 coronavirus cases on Thursday – another all-time, single-day high for new confirmed infections. Bottoms issued an order on Friday evening that says Atlanta will return to Phase 1, effective immediately, “in response to the alarming increase” in cases. The city was previously in Phase 2. “Based upon the surge of COVID-19 cases and other data trends, pursuant to the recommendations of our Reopening Advisory Committee, Atlanta will return to Phase I of our reopening plan,” the mayor said in a press release. “Georgia reopened in a reckless manner and the people of our city and state are suffering the consequences.”

As part of Phase 1, individuals are required to stay home except for essential trips and wear a face mask in public. The order also prohibits gatherings of any kind on city property.

Businesses must continue teleworking, and restaurants and retail stores can only remain open for to-go and curbside pickups. All non-essential city facilities will remain closed. Following the announcement, Governor Brian Kemp criticized Bottoms’ decision and said it was “legally unenforceable.” “Atlanta Mayor @KeishaBottoms’ action today is merely guidance – both non-binding and legally unenforceable,” Kemp tweeted. “As clearly stated in my executive orders, no local action can be more or less restrictive, and that rule applies statewide.” “If the Mayor actually wants to flatten the curve in Atlanta, she should start enforcing state restrictions, which she has failed to do,” he continued.

The Coronavirus Effects the Entire Body

(CNN)Coronavirus damages not only the lungs, but the kidneys, liver, heart, brain and nervous system, skin and gastrointestinal tract, doctors said Friday in a review of reports about Covid-19 patients. The team at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City — one of the hospitals flooded with patients in the spring — went through their own experiences and collected reports from other medical teams around the world.

Pathologist found blood clots in ‘almost every organ’ during autopsies on Covid-19 patients. Their comprehensive picture shows the coronavirus attacks virtually every major system in the human body, directly damaging organs and causing the blood to clot, the heart to lose its healthy rhythm, the kidneys to shed blood and protein and the skin to erupt in rashes. It causes headaches, dizziness, muscle aches, stomach pain and other symptoms along with classic respiratory symptoms like coughing and fever.
“Physicians need to think of COVID-19 as a multisystem disease,” said Dr. Aakriti Gupta, a cardiology fellow at Columbia who worked on the review, in a statement. “There’s a lot of news about clotting but it’s also important to understand that a substantial proportion of these patients suffer kidney, heart, and brain damage, and physicians need to treat those conditions along with the respiratory disease. Much of the damage wrought by the virus appears to come because of its affinity for a receptor — a kind of molecular doorway into cells — called ACE2. Cells lining the blood vessels, in the kidneys, the liver ducts, the pancreas, in the intestinal tract and lining the respiratory tract all are covered with ACE2 receptors, which the virus can use to grapple and infect cells, the Columbia team wrote in their review, published in the journal Nature Medicine. “These findings suggest that multiple-organ injury may occur at least in part due to direct viral tissue damage,” the team wrote.
Coronavirus infection also activates the immune system. Part of that response includes the production of inflammatory proteins called cytokines. This inflammation can damage cells and organs and the so-called cytokine storm is one of the causes of severe symptoms. “This virus is unusual and it’s hard not to take a step back and not be impressed by how many manifestations it has on the human body,” Dr. Mahesh Madhavan, another cardiology fellow who worked on the review, said in a statement, Blood clotting effects appear to be caused by several different mechanisms: direct damage of the cells lining the blood vessels and interference with the various clotting mechanisms in the blood itself. Low blood oxygen caused by pneumonia can make the blood more likely to clot, the researchers said.
These clots can cause strokes and heart attacks or can lodge in the lungs or legs. They clog the kidneys and interfere with dialysis treatments needed for the sickest patients. Doctors try to untangle why they’re seeing ‘unprecedented’ blood clotting among Covid-19 patients Damage to the pancreas can worsen diabetes, and patients with diabetes have been shown to be at the highest risk of severe illness and death from coronavirus.
The virus can directly damage the brain, but some of the neurological effects likely come from the treatment. “COVID-19 patients can be intubated for two to three weeks; a quarter require ventilators for 30 or more days,” Gupta said. “These are very prolonged intubations, and patients need a lot of sedation. ‘ICU delirium’ was a well-known condition before COVID, and the hallucinations may be less an effect of the virus and more an effect of the prolonged sedation.” The virus affects the immune system, depleting the T-cells the body usually deploys to fight off viral infections. “Lymphopenia, a marker of impaired cellular immunity, is a cardinal laboratory finding reported in 67-90% of patients with COVID-19,” the researchers wrote. Doctors need to treat all of these effects when coronavirus patients show up in the hospital, the Columbia team said.