CORONA Main Coronavirus thread

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Most US travelers will be barred from EU when bloc reopens
Matina Stevis-Gridneff
8 hrs ago

BRUSSELS — The European Union will bar most travelers from the United States, Russia and dozens of other countries considered too risky because they have not controlled the coronavirus outbreak, EU officials said Friday.

By contrast, travelers from more than a dozen countries that are not overwhelmed by the coronavirus will be welcomed when the bloc reopens after months of lockdown Wednesday. The acceptable countries also include China — but only if China allows EU travelers to visit as well, the officials said.

The list of safe countries was completed by EU senior diplomats in Brussels after tortuous negotiations on how to reopen the 27-member bloc to commerce and tourism under a common set of standards after months of lockdown.

The list was backed in principle by most EU ambassadors and does not require unanimous support, but still needs to be formalized in member states’ capitals as well as in the central EU bureaucracy before taking effect Wednesday. Diplomats did not expect the list to change.

EU officials first disclosed Tuesday that the United States, which has reported more coronavirus deaths and infections than any other country, was highly unlikely to make the final list.

The exclusion of the United States, an important source of tourism to the European Union, represented a stinging rebuke to the Trump administration’s management of the coronavirus scourge.

Countries that made the safe list, which include Canada and Australia, were judged on a mix of scientific criteria that included their infection rates and the credibility of their public health reporting data. The list will be updated every two weeks, raising the possibility that excluded countries will be added.

The officials who revealed the contents of the final list spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of its official release next week.

Deciding how to carefully open up travel to outsiders and restart the economy without worsening an already precarious health situation in Europe has been contentious, with senior officials meeting for hours at least six times in the past few weeks.

EU officials tried to base their decision on scientific criteria, in part to depoliticize the process and shield themselves from diplomatic pressures. But it’s proven to be difficult, and officials said the United States and other nations had been lobbying intensely to get on the safe list.

The United States, which banned most EU travelers in March when the virus was raging in Europe, has not eased its own restrictions since then, even though European infections and deaths have dropped.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, asked Thursday about the prospect of a prolonged ban on American travel to Europe, struck a conciliatory tone but said that many European countries were eager to admit American visitors.

“We’ll work closely with our European friends, broadly, because I know there’s different views,” Pompeo said during a virtual conference organized by the German Marshall Fund.

“We’ve heard from a dozen or more countries that have very different views about their willingness to open up their borders to anyone, not only folks from the United States of America,” he said.

Although travel between the United States and Europe has been severely limited by lockdown restrictions, exceptions have been made. A regular flight between Newark, New Jersey, and Amsterdam, for example, is limited to essential travelers such as diplomats and health care professionals, and for repatriating Europeans from the United States.

Creation of a common list of outsiders who can enter the European Union is part of an effort by the bloc to fully reopen internal borders among its 27 member states. Free travel and trade among members — a core principle akin to the freedom of movement within the United States — has been badly disrupted.

Since the outbreak, the bloc has succumbed to piecemeal national policies that have produced an incoherent patchwork of open and closed borders.

While the new list is not legally binding, member states that open up to excluded countries face the risk that their EU partners will close their borders to them — reinforcing the disjointed response to the pandemic that the bloc has been striving to overcome.

Several EU countries, particularly those in the south that benefit from U.S. tourism, had pushed to make the common list dependent on both scientific and economic criteria. Seven million Americans visited Europe between June and August last year, according to U.S. government data.

Greece, for example, depends on tourism for one-fifth of its economy. In the scramble to salvage part of the summer tourism season, Greece has ignored the European Union’s current recommended ban, permitting visitors and committing resources to testing and quarantining them upon arrival.

The complexity of this approach became clear in early June, when a flight from Doha, Qatar, to Athens with 91 passengers aboard included 12 who tested positive for the virus. All were quarantined, and all flights from Doha were suspended.

Like Greece, countries such as Spain, Cyprus, Italy and Portugal see a broad list of acceptable visitors as critical for tourist income. They have prepared health screenings of arriving foreigners in order to accept the risk of infection more confidently. Both Spain and Greece currently allow a small number of visitors from outside the European Union.

For other EU countries, the risks of that approach outweigh the benefits.

The Netherlands, a key transfer point for goods from the rest of the world to Europe, sees open internal EU borders as essential to its economy and so has been reluctant to encourage a liberal reopening to outsiders if the price is shuttered internal borders because of health concerns.

The conundrum is in some ways similar to a decision this week by New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to impose mandatory quarantines on travelers from other states where the virus is flaring, like Florida and Texas.

The competing demands within the European Union have highlighted the difficulties in restoring the global network of leisure and business travel that was virtually shut down by the pandemic

The criteria for the list, which will be revisited every two weeks to add countries that are doing much better or remove those that have worsened, has been a major challenge for EU diplomats.

The full list finalized Friday includes Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco and the Vatican. China will be included if it also opens its borders to EU travelers, as reciprocal reopening is one of the criteria used to make the final selection for the safe list.

Britain, despite having left the EU, is still being considered part of the bloc until year’s end, and so was not part of the discussion over outside visitors.

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Coronavirus Surge in South and West Looks Different From North's
Elizabeth Findell, Brianna Abbott, Eliza Collins
8 hrs ago

PHOENIX—The virus that ravaged Northeastern U.S. cities is surging through Southern and Western states. It’s different this time.

Younger people are getting sick with Covid-19. States that had brief coronavirus lockdowns are struggling to encourage social distancing and mask-wearing. Many people appear to have embraced their usual summer rituals. Health officials are sounding alarms about a surge in cases racing not through nursing homes, but bars and house parties. Hospitals are filling with medically-vulnerable elderly—but also 20-somethings and patients in their 30s and 40s.

Some took the end of stay-home orders as permission to live their lives again, unimpeded. Phoenix entrepreneur Jimmy Flores, 30, spent the night of June 6 at a nightclub with friends, sharing drinks. Two days later, he felt sick. The next week, he was on a hospital oxygen tube after testing positive for Covid-19.

“I’m a young, active, healthy person with no previous conditions,” he said. “I didn’t take it seriously for myself. I was not practicing the social-distancing guidelines. I didn’t wear a mask. I thought I was invincible.” Mr. Flores said he went from not knowing anyone with Covid-19 to knowing 15 victims. After eight days’ hospitalization, he is recovering at home.

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The U.S. has confirmed more than 2.4 million Covid-19 cases, and more than 124,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University data as of Friday morning. New cases have climbed to more than 30,000 a day—back to their April peak—after dropping to around 20,000 a day in May. Nearly 40,000 new cases were reported on Thursday, a record; Florida, Texas, California and Arizona accounted for nearly half of the new cases.

Early hot spots such as New York, New Jersey and Illinois are seeing steady declines in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. New daily Covid-19 cases in states such as Arizona and Texas are reaching records, and hospitalizations are increasing. Texas rolled back its reopening Friday.

“We’re still in the first wave, and that first wave is taking different shapes,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said in a Thursday briefing. The U.S. has improved its testing ability and is seeing more cases in young people, who typically have better outcomes, he said.

But younger people in Texas and Arizona are taking hospital beds and straining the health-care system, he said. “These hot spots that we see, I don’t minimize them. They’re significant,” he said.

Arizona’s Covid-19 hospitalizations since it reopened May 15 have grown from 789 to 2,110, according to state data Thursday. Nine of 10 hospital ICU beds were full this week, state data show.In Texas, nearly 6,000 tested positive for Covid-19 Thursday, versus just over 600 new diagnoses on Memorial Day, state data show; hospitalizations rose to more than 4,700 from just over 1,500 in that period.

Patrick Ptak, a spokesman for Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, said the state is making efforts to target young people and encourage mitigation techniques, such as mask wearing.

Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the virus “is now spreading at an unacceptable rate in Texas.” Friday, he said all bars must close again immediately, recreational tubing operations must halt, and restaurants must reduce capacity from 75% to 50%. Outdoor gatherings of 100 or more must be approved.

Gov. Abbott’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The steady and broad increase, said Dr. James McDeavitt, dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, indicates it can’t be tied to any one thing, whether Memorial Day, protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd or other particular events. In general, public-health experts attribute the rise in cases to people becoming more mobile, congregating in groups and dropping safety measures.

Increased testing is likely responsible for part of the data shift toward younger people, epidemiologists said. Health officials and doctors are testing more mild and asymptomatic patients nationwide than in March and April, as the availability of tests has grown, they said.

Another possible factor: The virus is spreading in some of the hottest states. People might be staying in the air-conditioned indoors “where you can’t physically distance” said Dr. Joe K. Gerald, associate professor of public-health policy and management at University of Arizona. Phoenix temperatures hit 108 Thursday.

Skeptics about that explanation include Dr. McDeavitt, who said he believed Houstonians are outdoors more now than they were in February and March.

The percentage of tests coming back positive is rising around America, which epidemiologists said indicates the disease is spreading. And the percentage of positive tests is now higher in the 18-to-49 age group than among older brackets, CDC data show—a departure from earlier patterns.

Of Arizona’s more than 66,000 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, nearly 60% had been younger than 45 as of Friday. The Louisiana Department of Health last week announced an outbreak of more than 100 cases linked to a cluster of bars near Louisiana State University. The state is seeing a rise in cases among the 18-to-29 age group but not among those 65 and older, even as it is doing more testing in settings such as nursing homes, said Alex Billioux, assistant secretary of the state health department’s office of public health.

In California, more than 60% of the nearly 196,000 cases were under age 49, state data as of June 24 show. California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week required residents to wear masks in public. Florida reported new daily cases rose from 1,222 on May 27 to 8,933 on Thursday with a median age of 34.

Health experts said they had expected cases to increase as lockdowns ended. In addition to increased testing, the numbers are likely due to changing behaviors, said Nadia Abuelezam, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at Boston College. Young people are likely being less cautious about social distancing or returning to work, she said, while more-vulnerable people—and hard-hit places such as nursing homes—might be taking more precautions.

“Things open up and people immediately think it’s time for the barbecues and pachangas,” said Dr. Ivan Melendez, public-health authority of South Texas’s Hidalgo County. The average age, he said, is 35 among people testing positive in the county, where hospitalizations increased fivefold and deaths have doubled in the last two weeks.

Because younger people are more likely to have better Covid-19 outcomes, the new surge in cases might not result in as many deaths as before. Still, “there’s a bit of a false narrative out there that because you’re young, you’re OK if you get infected,” Dr. McDeavitt said. “We see people in their 20s and 30s in our ICUs gasping for air because they have Covid-19.”

The more the virus spreads, he said, the harder it is to keep from vulnerable populations.

The average age of people in Arizona who were infected fell from 48 in March to 39 in June, according to analysis of state data by the University of Arizona’s Dr. Gerald. The average age of Covid-19 deaths rose from 62 to 69.

“I know many young people out there feel invincible,” Gov. Ducey said Thursday, urging citizens to stay home and practice social distancing when out, “but your parents and grandparents are not invincible.”

In Texas, largely spared in the coronavirus’s earliest spikes, people often say they don’t know anyone with Covid-19, said Dr. Marc Boom, chief executive of Houston Methodist hospital system. He tells them: “The way things are going, everyone’s going to know someone.”

“We’re sort of loudly banging on the bell and saying: We are going to start looking like New York City,” he said.

Dr. Boom and Houston-area hospitals have warned they are within a couple of weeks of exceeding their ICU capacity. Thursday, Gov. Abbott issued an order suspending elective surgeries in four of the state’s largest counties.

Texas’ surge comes after a phased state reopening beginning May 1. Many bar owners, angry they weren’t allowed to open immediately, as restaurants were, lobbied hard and staged a “soft opening” May 15. Three days later, Gov. Abbott said bars could open that week.

On the weekend of June 13, bars were bumping on Austin’s Sixth Street nightclub strip. People without masks crowded counters and bounced to DJs. Crowds spread across the street.

In recent weeks, the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission began suspending liquor licenses of bars not following rules. One belonged to Bob Woody, once dubbed the Mayor of Sixth Street for his ownership in some 20 bars, who in May hung white sheets with messages such as “Gov Abbott Let Us OPEN.” He said he had followed the rules, turning dance floors into seating areas, having staff wear masks and requiring patrons to use hand sanitizer.

Tussles between local jurisdictions and the states have complicated the virus response. The Texas and Arizona governors initially barred local officials from requiring masks, then let them make their own rules within the last two weeks.

Michal Kaerner, a 21-year-old student in Tempe, Ariz., on Wednesday said nightlife near Arizona State University seemed to have returned to a pre-coronavirus status: “Nobody really seems to care.”

Houston resident Debbie Loux, 62, made masks for her adult children in March but worries her 31-year-old son and his friends became complacent when the lockdown dragged on.

“They all went to the lake,” she said, “and I was just ready to kill him.”
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Coronavirus cases in India cross 500,000 as big cities reel from surge
By Devjyot Ghoshal
2 hrs ago

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India reported over 17,000 new coronavirus cases over the last 24 hours, pushing the country's total above 500,000, federal health ministry data showed on Saturday, with infections surging in major cities including the capital New Delhi.

India has the world's fourth-biggest outbreak of the virus that causes COVID-19, below only the United States, Brazil and Russia in confirmed infections, according to a Reuters tally.

Infections are expected to continue rising steadily in India. Experts advising the federal government say the authorities should now prioritise reducing mortality over containing the spread of the virus.

"Our focus should be on preventing deaths and not really getting bogged down because of the numbers. Numbers are going to increase," said Dr Manoj Murhekar, a member of India's main coronavirus task force and director of the National Institute of Epidemiology.

The COV-IND-19 study group, led by Bhramar Mukherjee, a biostatistics professor from the University of Michigan, forecasts that India could see between 770,000 and 925,000 cases by July 15.

As infections mount swiftly and hospitals become stretched, some cities like New Delhi are scrambling to build temporary facilities with thousands of beds to quarantine and treat COVID-19 patients.

The city of around 20 million people only has around 13,200 beds for COVID-19 patients and will add at least 20,000 in coming weeks, with some facilities manned by army and paramilitary doctors.

Staff shortages are likely to be a concern as hospitals are swamped and more temporary facilities open, experts warn, although health authorities in some Indian cities are pushing for improved risk-based categorisation of patients.

"We have to ensure those who really require treatment aren't denied services," said Dr Giridhar R. Babu, an epidemiologist at the Public Health Foundation of India who is advising the southern state of Karnataka.

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A coronavirus vaccine is still months away, but an antibody treatment could be closer
By Jen Christensen, CNN
Updated 5:22 PM ET, Fri June 26, 2020

Vaccines have gotten all the attention in the race to fight Covid-19, but there is a major push in the United States to develop antibody therapies to treat coronavirus. There's so much of a push that some scientists think these treatments may be available this year, even before a vaccine.

Antibodies are the proteins the body makes to fight infection.

Since the Victorian era, scientists have harnessed this natural protection for treatments.

During the 1918 flu pandemic, doctors proved convalescent plasma -- antibody-filled blood plasma from patients who recovered from the disease -- could fight flu. Convalescent plasma has been used to treat severe flu, MERS and SARS and now some US doctors are starting to see some success treating Covid-19, too.

Since there isn't enough donated plasma to treat all patients, modern medicine can fill in the gaps and maybe even improve the process. Scientists can create what are called monoclonal antibodies: lab-made antibodies created specifically to target an infection.

Vaccines have the advantage of working longer than an antibody treatment. Antibody therapies potentially last a month or two and then wear off, but they can be used to temporarily protect vulnerable populations such as nursing home residents or healthcare workers or people with chronic conditions. The therapies could also treat people who are already sick with Covid-19.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said these therapies will be essential in the fight against Covid-19.

"Right now we have a major push on a program to develop monoclonal antibodies, convalescent plasma, and hyperimmune globulin, all of which are founded on the same principle of using an antibody that is directed against the virus for either prophylaxis or treatment," Fauci said in an interview with JAMA on June 8. "I think you're going to see it's going to be for both. We'd like to have available for those who are at risk—the elderly and those with underlying conditions—either monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma. That's a very, very high priority."

Currently there are at least 102 Covid-19 antibody treatments in various stages of development, according to David Thomas, vice president of Industry Research at BIO, the trade association representing the biotechnology industry. Thomas does the research that goes into his organization's Covid-19 therapeutic development tracker. He said there are so many treatments under development, it's hard to keep up.

"I never looked at it to grow this big, this fast, and I've worked on all different therapeutic areas from Alzheimer's to cancer, and to see a pipeline of this size and this breadth is amazing," Thomas said.

Thomas said some therapies are designed to treat the secondary effects of Covid-19 such as inflammation. Others are being designed to kill the coronavirus itself.

Compared to other diseases, the research and development of Covid-19 treatments are moving at "light speed," Thomas said.

Four monoclonal antibody treatments made to treat and possibly even prevent Covid-19 infection already went into human trials in June.

Indianapolis-based pharma giant Eli Lilly has two. One was developed in collaboration with AbCellera, a biotechnology company based in Canada. Another was developed with Junshi Biosciences.

The antibody Lilly developed with AbCellera called LY-CoV555 is now in a Phase 2 clinical trial of non-hospitalized patients. That study is currently enrolling patients. Lilly said in the future it will also test additional antibodies and experiment with different combinations to see which work best.

Regeneron is testing its antibody cocktail in patients in the US. The New York-based biotech company is enrolling hospitalized and ambulatory patients with Covid-19 in the initial safety/virology phase of the trial, spokesperson Alexandra Bowie said this week. The company hopes to have preliminary data in the next one to two months. They are scaling up manufacturing to create hundreds of thousands of doses by August 2020, dedicating their entire manufacturing plant in upstate New York to the effort.

There is also another effort from Tychan, a biotech company based in Singapore, that has launched a Phase 1 clinical trial in hospitalized patients there. The company said this part of the trial will take about six weeks.

It's likely, if all goes well in the first phrases of the trials, therapies could advance to the next phases sometime this summer, the companies said, and treatments could potentially be available by the fall.

Although, some scientists say, not everything works as planned in real life.

"Sometimes antibodies that work in the lab and neutralized really well aren't as effective when they are used in animal models or humans, so it's always a little bit tricky," said Phyllis Kanki, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Sometimes it can take time to get the antibody cocktail right, Kanki said.

However, Thomas of BIO,said the industry has built up a lot of antibody therapy development expertise over the years in creating treatments to fight cancer and autoimmune disease.

In addition to therapies specifically designed to fight the novel coronavirus, companies are also looking to repurpose some of their existing monoclonal antibody treatments as potential Covid-19 treatments.

Novartis, for example, is in a phase 3 trial of the drug canakinumab against coronavirus. This interleukin-1beta blocker is FDA-approved to treat certain rare types of periodic fever syndromes, also called auto-inflammatory syndromes.

The company hopes canakinumab can be used to treat patients whose Covid-19 infection has caused a condition called cytokine release syndrome, or cytokine storm. where the body's immune system overreacts to the infection and harms the body. That trial is currently enrolling patients in the US.

China-based biotech company I-Mab said it also hopes to have the results by August from its trial of an antibody therapy, which it is currently testing on cytokine storm patients, so it could potentially offer a treatment by early fall.

Humanigen's lenzilumab also seems to be working against cytokine storms, according to a small study from scientists at the Mayo Clinic. That Phase 3 trial is ongoing.

Several other therapies are still being tested in the lab. A South Dakota company, SAB Biotherapeutics, said it plans to start human trials with its antibody treatment derived from the plasma of cattle in July.

Most experts think that the world could have an antibody treatment sooner than a vaccine, although vaccine development is moving along at a record pace, too.

"There's a lot of excitement around what these antibody therapies can do, at the animal level anyway," Thomas said. "They were showing neutralizing activity and we're seeing a lot of positive data."

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Florida’s coronavirus spike: 5 things to know
Wondering how much to worry? The data has good news and bad news about the state’s outbreak.
By Ian Hodgson
Published Yesterday | Updated 4 hours ago

The past three weeks have set consecutive records for the number of new coronavirus infections in Florida, stirring fears that the tsunami of cases that the state had previously avoided has finally arrived.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the spike can be explained by the recent increase in testing, especially among younger adults and high-risk populations. But a number of cases tied to bars and restaurants has led to questions about whether Floridians have let their guard down and whether the state’s reopening is partially responsible for the increase.

On Friday, after the state recorded 25,000 infections in five days, it announced it had suspended the consumption of alcohol at bars.

How worried should you be? The Tampa Bay Times examined the data tracking coronavirus’ spread and asked eight public health experts.

The analysis revealed key differences between infections being discovered now and those from a few months ago, including some positive changes that DeSantis has touted in press conferences. Even as cases have gone up, deaths so far have barely budged, increasing from an average of 35 deaths per day earlier this month to 38 per day in the past week.

There are other signals in the data that experts find alarming — indicators that they said leave little doubt that Florida’s outbreak is now growing extremely quickly.

Here’s what we found.

• • •

The spike in cases far exceeds the increase in testing.



Since June 1, the average number of tests per day has increased by less than 25 percent. During that same time, the average number of infections per day has nearly quadrupled — from fewer than 1,000 cases per day at the start of this month to more than 4,000 cases every day in the past week.

On Wednesday and Thursday, Florida added more than 5,000 cases. On Friday, the state added nearly 9,000 cases — approaching some of the peak days in New York, the state with the worst outbreak.

“We’re finding more cases because there’s more testing, that’s true,” said Mary Jo Trepka, a professor of epidemiology at Florida International University. “But that’s not the only explanation because we’re also seeing that the portion of positive tests is increasing.”

Over the prior month, fewer than 5 percent of test results returned positive, on average. As of June 17, that number jumped to more than 10 percent.

DeSantis has been slow to link the higher positive test rates to increased community transmission. Until this week, DeSantis has said that increased contact tracing explains the uptick.

In a June 16 press conference, DeSantis pointed to the state’s efforts to trace contacts among farmworkers and migrant workers, among whom the percentage of positive tests can be upward of 40 percent.

By tracing contacts from a single infection, testers found “90 positive cases, in one round of testing,” DeSantis said. “In our drive thru sites, it would take you several days to get 90 positive cases with all the people going through.”

But experts warn that it will take little for those infections to become a substantial risk to the surrounding population.

Even outbreaks inside prisons have spread to the community, said Gregg Gonsalves, a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine.

“These are literally locked down facilities, but it’s no problem for COVID-19,” Gonsalves said. “So if you have a community of migrant workers in Florida somewhere, that potential of community spread is there.”

• • •

Social distancing has been on the decline for weeks.



Cell phone tracking data indicates that social distancing across Florida declined dramatically weeks before the current outbreak.

In May, an analysis by the Times found that Florida residents were staying home long before state officials ordered them to. By the time the statewide stay-at-home order came into effect, over half of the phones tracked by one firm, Descartes Labs, had not traveled more than a mile, a reduction of nearly 90 percent relative to movement earlier in the year.

Updated releases of that same data show that residents’ willingness to stay close to home did not last long.

The Times reviewed cell phone location data from three companies. Each company’s data showed the same thing: Within a week of the statewide shutdown order, people started venturing outside again.

By the time the first counties began the first phase of reopening on May 18, residents across the state had already resumed 50 percent of their normal movement, according to data collected by Descartes Labs. By June 16, that number exceeded 70 percent.

In 31 counties, including Leon and Alachua, residents have resumed more than 80 percent of normal movement, based on median distance traveled each day. Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties remain at 69 percent to 73 percent of normal.

Those changes have come quicker in Florida compared to states with larger outbreaks, data from Unacast and Descartes Labs shows.



When social distancing hit its peak in April, more than half the residents in New York and New Jersey traveled just 250 feet or less from home each day. Social mobility in these two states only returned to 40 percent of normal last week.

In contrast, social mobility in Florida rebounded much faster, returning to one-quarter of normal movement within three weeks of the statewide order. More than half of Florida’s residents traveled two miles or further during that time period.

Not only has mobility increased, said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metric science at the University of Washington, but people have become more lax in their precautions. At first, people remained vigilant, Mokdad said. “They were wearing their masks and staying away from one another.”

Within a month, Mokdad said, the thinking shifted to: “I can be less careful and lose my mask and my safe distancing from others.”

“And now we’re paying for it.”

• • •

Protests may have contributed to the increase, but less than you’d think.

The spike in infections comes just weeks after the first protests over the killing of George Floyd drew crowds across Florida. The correlation between the two has not gone unnoticed, but experts say it’s unlikely that the protests had much effect.

“We think about person-hours: the number of people and the amount of time that they’ve been interacting,” said Thomas Hladish, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Florida.

By this measure, Hladish said, the recently reopened bars and restaurants “really probably will dwarf the contribution to transmission due to the protests.”

By mid-June, visits to non-essential businesses had doubled across the state, compared to when the stay-at-home order took effect, according to cell phone data from Unacast.

Across the country, the data that’s currently available shows protests have not been correlated with spikes. A June 22 working paper studying more than 300 cities found that, following protests, social distancing usually increased and the number of infections stayed the same. The study has not been peer reviewed, and author Andrew Friedson warned that detailed data is not available. But he said it likely meant that when protesters took to the streets, other people stayed home to avoid the disruption.

What makes Florida different, said Derek Cummings, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Florida, is that the protests here coincided with policy changes that allowed for more person-to-person contact.

“The clearest evidence that the protests don’t explain this,” Cummings said, “is the fact that there are places that had much bigger protests that are not experiencing the increases in cases that Florida is.”

• • •

Fewer of the people getting infected are getting seriously sick.

Even as the number of infections has increased, however, the number of hospitalizations has slowed. At the start of the month, the state announced one hospitalization for every 10 infections. That number has since fallen to one in 20.

That’s probably because the people getting infected are younger. The median age of new cases dropped from a high of 65 in early March to 35 as of Thursday. It has continued to drop in recent days, as more cases have been discovered.



The increase in widespread testing has also identified more cases with mild symptoms or no symptoms, especially among younger adults, DeSantis said.

DeSantis has assured the public that the increase in cases among younger adults should not be cause for concern.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control shows that the coronavirus does not affect younger people the way it does the elderly or other vulnerable populations. During the initial wave of cases in March and April, when the majority of identified infections were among older adults, hospitalizations increased in step with new cases.

The lack of growth in hospitalizations could be due to a number of factors, said Robyn Gershon from New York University, but one stands out: “The young people who are out there spreading it, they are getting infected but they’re not getting really sick.”

• • •

But it could still be a problem.

Nonetheless, eight public health researchers from across the country interviewed by the Times all agreed that the uptick in infection, combined with the decrease in social distancing, is troubling.

Younger adults may not be as susceptible, but they are not immune to the virus, experts say. CDC data shows that those with pre-existing conditions are the most at-risk for serious complications, regardless of age. In the past week, two 17-year-olds have died of COVID-19, the state’s youngest deaths to date.

“Young people are not getting hospitalized by huge numbers,” said José Szapocznik, a professor of public health at the University of Miami. Still, he said, “there are more younger people being hospitalized because more younger people are getting the virus because they’re not used to wearing masks.”

Even if those contracting the coronavirus are less susceptible to the worst symptoms, the widening outbreak makes it harder to protect those who are vulnerable. Older adults continue to shelter in place and avoid risky behavior, but experts say, their risk of exposure increases as the virus spreads.

“You’re playing with fire a little bit, because it just takes somebody who works in a long-term care facility or nursing home to bring it,” said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of health sciences at Columbia University. “You can then have a real problem.”

The data indicates that might already be happening. Even as the number of infections among the young has skyrocketed, cases among those 65 and older has also been going up.

At the beginning of the month, on average, about 150 cases among seniors were identified every day. Two weeks ago, roughly 250 infected seniors were being identified daily. Over the last week, the average jumped to 400.

On June 23, Pinellas County hit a new peak of 13 deaths, all between the age of 67 and 93.

“Unfortunately, it stands to reason that with more cases, even if the preponderance is among the young, there will be more opportunities to infect the elderly,” Shaman said. “The concern is that cases among the elderly will grow and that deaths will follow.”

As the virus spreads, social distancing will be more important than ever, Szapocznik said.

“We are more isolated than we were on March 1 when all this started,” he said. “Yet, the number of cases is much greater because there are more people to spread. So even less mobility than we have before is causing a much greater number of cases.”

While there is a way to reopen safely, “we are not taking this as seriously as it is,” Szapocznik continued. “Even with a few people who are moving around, you’ll get more transmission. That’s seriously scary.”

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(fair use applies)


Florida’s runaway covid spike hits record high. Governor refuses to mandate masks.
By Daniel Chang and Ben Conarck
June 26, 2020 09:10 PM , Updated 5 hours 40 minutes ago

The runaway surge of COVID-19 infections engulfing Florida reached unnerving heights on Friday as the state and nation reported the highest single day of new cases for the second time in a record week. With more than half of all states reporting increases in new cases, the White House Coronavirus Task Force, delivering its first briefing in months, renewed calls for Americans to be vigilant.

In Miami-Dade, the county with the most COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state, record numbers of patients with the disease continued to strain local hospitals. The mayor ordered beaches closed for the Fourth of July in response to the crisis, and local health officials warned of yet another contagion re-emerging in the region: West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaking at a press conference in Fort Myers, appeared fatigued and combative as he explained why he will not order Floridians to wear face coverings in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 as public health experts have urged..

The Florida Department of Health and DeSantis have advised Floridians to wear face coverings when they cannot maintain a six-foot distance from others, but the governor has refused to make them mandatory as the City of Miami did this week, and other cities across the state have already done, from Central Florida to the Panhandle.

“We’ve advised that’s something that could make an impact,” DeSantis said. “At the same time, to do police and put criminal penalties on that is something that probably would backfire.”

And though DeSantis’ administration rolled back the state’s phased reopening by suspending alcohol sales at bars statewide on Friday, the governor never mentioned the change until asked by a reporter why the state wasn’t doing more to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Instead, the governor repeated the same message that he and hospital administrators have been hammering since last week: that the average age of Floridians infected with COVID-19 in recent weeks is younger than the mostly elderly population affected in March and April.

The state’s COVID-19 cases began to rise sharply in mid-June after Florida launched the second phase of reopening on June 5, allowing bars, movie theaters and gyms to open at 50 percent capacity. But DeSantis attributed the rise in infections among youth to the anti-police brutality street protests and to young people’s willingness to socialize without the recommended distancing.

“The younger people, you know, if they’re partying at somebody’s house or something, they’re probably not wearing masks,” he said. “I mean, let’s just be honest with that.”

But focusing on the younger age of new COVID-19 cases while Florida sees an explosive growth of infections cannot mask the seriousness of the crisis, public health experts said. The state health department on Friday confirmed 8,942 new cases, nearly doubling the previous record of cases reported in a single day, two days earlier.

“A 9,000 jump in cases is worrisome no matter how you look at it,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and public health expert with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Florida now has confirmed nearly 123,000 COVID-19 cases since March, with nearly a quarter, or more than 29,000, reported in the last seven days. And though the state has expanded the number of testing sites, the rise in new COVID-19 cases has outpaced those efforts.
Miami-Dade feels impact

Alarmed by the rapid rise in cases, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced late Friday that he will be signing an emergency order on Saturday closing all county beaches for the Fourth of July weekend.

Gimenez said in a press release that beaches will close beginning July 3 and ending July 8. The mayor warned that he would extend the beach closure “if conditions do not improve and people do not follow New Normal rules requiring masks to be worn always inside commercial establishments and outdoors when social distancing of at least 6 feet is not possible.”

“If people are not going to be responsible and protect themselves and others from this pandemic, then the government is forced to step in and restore common sense to save lives,” he said.

Gimenez has frequently said that the metric he focuses on the most to gauge the severity of the pandemic is hospitalizations. On Friday morning, there were nearly 1,000 COVID patients in county hospitals. More than 100 patients have been added to the tally each day this week for the first time in the course of the pandemic.

About 200 of the patients are in ICUs, and 85 are on ventilators. Admissions, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue calls are all trending up. Hospital leaders have said recently that more effective treatment and a younger wave of patients being admitted has made the average length of stay much shorter.

But the most vulnerable COVID patients require lots of attention from nurses who are already exhausted from the months-long pandemic, warned Martha Baker, head of the union representing nurses and doctors at Miami’s public hospitals, Jackson Health System, in an interview with WFOR-Channel 4.

“They’re tired. They need time off,” Baker said. “They need more nurses. And now we have more COVIDs than ever.”

County officials, alarmed by the rise in cases, renewed a requirement Friday for hospitals to report twice daily the number of inpatients with COVID-19, ICU capacity, ventilator inventory and other information. Hospitals had been reporting the data once a day.

However, the number of patients in Miami-Dade hospitals spiked on Friday in part because of a reporting error. County officials said they updated the data to include 113 patients in hospitals that had not been reported before.
More people seek testing

Hospital admissions can take place five to 10 days after an infected person has begun to feel symptoms, public health experts say. In the past week, as new cases skyrocket, more Floridians have sought COVID-19 testing.

Some people waited hours in line at state-run drive-thru sites for nasal swab and blood antibody tests. Sites in Orange and Miami-Dade counties reached capacity before their scheduled 5 p.m. closings. The testing site at the Jacksonville Jaguars football stadium also reported it had reached capacity. Each site can perform about 1,000 swab tests a day, though the Orlando site recently boosted its capacity to about 1,600.

As the COVID-19 case count rose in Florida, Texas, Arizona and elsewhere, some federal health officials urged the nation to take precautions such as social distancing, frequent hand washing and wearing a face covering in public.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans, particularly young people, to remember they have an important role in slowing the disease’s spread.

“If you get infected, you are part — innocently or inadvertently — of propagating a dynamic process of the pandemic,” Fauci said. “If we want to end this outbreak — really end it, and then hopefully when a vaccine comes and puts a nail in the coffin — we’ve got to realize that we are part of the process.”
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(fair use applies)

Miss Florida tests positive for coronavirus
Michaela McLean shared her story on Instagram
Jon Jankowski
Published: June 26, 2020, 10:05 pm

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Miss Florida said she tested positive for coronavirus.

Michaela McLean posted the news on Instagram on Friday.

She said two weeks ago she started to feel super fatigued.

Other symptoms she had were shortness of breath, lack of taste and smell.

McLean said she went and took a test and it came back positive.

More than 114,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the state.

“We are going to get through this together and this is a real virus and we should take it seriously,” she said.

McLean reminded everyone to continue to practice social distancing and to wear a mask in public.

“I hope all of you all can stay safe and healthy,” she said.

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(fair use applies)

Big data behind rapid response to Beijing market coronavirus cluster
Jane Cai
Published: 12:00pm, 27 Jun, 2020

• Concerns raised about the use of surveillance technology in the fight against Covid-19 and how it will be used in future
• Chinese social media users share their experiences of being contacted about the need to get tested because of the digital tools

“Have you taken the nucleic acid test?” has become a popular greeting in Beijing, where a Covid-19 outbreak linked to a wholesale food market has been brought under rapid control through widespread testing.

More than 3 million people – about 15 per cent of the Chinese capital’s population – have been tested for the disease since the first cases in the new outbreak emerged on June 11, according to the municipal government. Just eight days after the first infection was identified, Beijing declared the transmission had been controlled.

“We will continue to see more infected people in the near future but the disease is under control,” Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said on June 18, while also paying tribute to the city’s response. “Beijing’s prompt handling and effective control made a remarkable contribution,” he said.

As of Saturday, the number of patients in Beijing had climbed to 297, most of them related to the Xinfadi market in the city’s southwest district of Fengtai. But, while mass tracing and testing quickly brought the cluster under control, the role of “big data” has raised concerns, along with questions over whether the surveillance measures will be rescinded once the pandemic has passed.

The city urged people who worked at the sprawling market, and those who had visited it, since May 30, to get tested – as well as nearby residents and employees of restaurants, grocery stores, wholesale markets and food delivery companies.

While many people were registered for testing by their employers or residential communities because of known links to the market, Fu Juan, 38, said she was spotted by big data. The process was quick but unnerving, she said, and began with a “suspicious” phone call from someone claiming to work for a disease control unit of the Beijing municipal government.

“I was told that big data showed that I had been to Xinfadi recently, hence I should register with my neighbourhood to get a nucleic acid test as soon as possible. My first impression is that it must be a fraud. I’ve never shopped at Xinfadi,” she said.

“Then my husband reminded me. I had picked him up somewhere 3km (1.8 miles) away from Xinfadi several days before. But I was in the car all the time.”

Before she had an opportunity to check whether the call was genuine, community cadres had knocked on her door to obtain her identity information and persuaded her to get tested. The next day, it was arranged for her to attend a testing site at a stadium and, one day later, Fu received the result, which was negative.

“The whole process was impressively fast,” Fu said. “When I was lining up for the test with thousands of people in the stadium, I was shocked by the capability, that China can identify so many people so quickly and get them tested.”

In the neighbouring municipality of Tianjin, Wu Zhengyu, a 51-year-old teacher at a chess training centre, was also required last week to test for Covid-19 after returning from Beijing in early June. “I was in Beijing before the first case was reported. I probably passed by the Xinfadi area in the subway, but I’ve never been to the market,” Wu said.

“However, I was told big data had spotted me and unless I was tested, my daughter could not go to school.” Wu said the test had cost him 200 yuan (US$28) and he was unable to continue teaching while under home quarantine. “I feel helpless. But who can I complain to? I was lectured by community cadres that all was for the sake of coronavirus control.”

Similar experiences have been shared on social media, with many members of China’s online community posting mobile phone messages from the government notifying them of the need to get tested because their visits to Xinfadi market had been detected by big data.

China has a vast surveillance system comprised of state-owned telecommunication networks, a digitised public transport system, and millions of cameras – powered by facial recognition software – perched on lamp posts and outside buildings and streets.

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said he was not surprised that the system had been used to trace potential coronavirus cases, as the Chinese government had been building up capacity to combine digital technologies with its long-established mechanisms of social and political control, regardless of concerns over privacy or individual rights.

“They are merely applying this openly to contain Covid-19. It shows how far and how mature this process has progressed,” Tsang said.

Since February, China’s local governments have used a colour-based “health code” system to monitor and control people’s movements, relying on mobile technology and big data to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Users can obtain their codes by entering their name, national identity number and registering with facial recognition.

The system automatically generates three coloured QR codes – green, yellow and red – to indicate the user’s health status and determine whether they can be allowed access to public venues. According to the Shanghai municipal government, the QR code – akin to a health ID – is based on data from the local health commission, police, transport departments as well as telecom, airlines and railway companies.

The Beijing municipal government said it “compares and analyses” data from road checkpoints, airlines and railways for its health code system, did not collect people’s real-time locations to protect privacy.

Most countries, as they emerge from the worst of the pandemic, have turned to a combination of surveillance and testing as a less extreme measure than lockdown, in terms of the impact on the economy and on the individual liberties of free movement and association, according to Kevin Macnish, assistant professor in ethics and IT at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

“I don’t think that the concept of large-scale surveillance in the light of the ongoing virus is disproportionate. It is less harmful than the obvious and tried alternative,” Macnish said. “However, this does not mean that governments should have carte blanche to carry out mass surveillance of citizens without checks or balances.”

“When the threat of the virus recedes or we have a vaccine or antidote, the obvious response should be that the temporary surveillance measure, justified by the virus, should be rescinded. However, this rarely happens with acts or methods of surveillance. It can be very hard for those in power to let go of the ability to monitor those over whom they have power,” he said.

The Cyberspace Administration of China issued a notice in February to make clear that personal information collected for the use of disease control should not be used for other purposes. But, said Macnish, there had already been indications that apps created to help fight the virus were now being used more broadly in China.

While the government’s virus-tracking software has been collecting information on people in hundreds of cities across China, it is unknown whether the authorities have set limits on how that data can be used. And now, some local governments are loading their apps with new features, hoping the software will live on as more than just an emergency measure.

Zhou Jiangyong, the Communist Party secretary of Hangzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, said last month that the city’s app would “operate for a long term” and “under a normal state” and should be an “intimate health guardian” for residents, according to an official announcement.

Adam Henschke, an applied ethicist with Australian National University, said: “We need to worry about ‘function creep’. Surveillance technologies originally used for one purpose can be used for other purposes; what was used for pandemic surveillance can easily be used for more general surveillance.”

Henschke said the remote nature of digital surveillance also allowed for “user creep”, pointing out that it was not only the function of surveillance technologies that could shifted, the range of users could also change. “As such, any surveillance permitted during the emergency needs to be scaled back,” he said.

“While we find justifications and acceptance for these surveillance policies and technologies in the pandemic, as soon as the threat is properly dealt with, these policies and technologies lose their justifications and need to be reconsidered and potentially reversed.”

Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, said: “It is not hard to imagine that such an approach that combines traditional tools of party-state control with hi-tech, and big data means of information control could be applied to other policy areas, and become the main mode of governance in China.

“Not surprisingly, this approach is pursued to the detriment of privacy and civil rights. In the US and other liberal democracies, the expansion of public space and intensified state control would encounter fierce resistance from the society.

“In China, however, people appear to have managed to adapt to this new pattern of state-society dynamics, at least for now. The Covid-19 outbreak has taught them that life is more important than liberty, and you cannot have the latter without the former.”

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(fair use applies)

Mexico reports 5,441 new coronavirus cases, 719 more deaths
Sat Jun 27, 2020 / 1:21 AM BST

Mexico's health ministry reported on Friday 5,441 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 719 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths.

The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

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(fair use applies)

Arizona reports 3,428 new coronavirus cases, 45 more deaths
By KTAR.com | June 26, 2020 at 8:22 am
UPDATED: June 26, 2020 at 2:39 pm

PHOENIX – The Arizona health department reported 3,428 new coronavirus cases and 45 additional deaths Friday morning.

That brought the state’s documented totals to 66,458 COVID-19 cases and 1,535 deaths.

It was the fifth daily report of more than 3,000 new cases in the past eight days and the second-most ever behind the 3,591 reported Tuesday.

Friday’s death report was the highest for any day that did not include extra incidents found via death certificate research.

The Arizona Department of Health Services has been providing case and testing updates on its website each morning. The dashboard includes, among other information, testing trends, updated hospital capacity and a ZIP Code map of cases.

The daily reports present data after the state receives statistics and compiles them, which can lag by several days. They aren’t meant to represent the actual activity over the past 24 hours.

Arizona’s reported cases have been rising at a faster rate than testing has increased in recent weeks, prompting officials to implement new policies regarding face masks and restaurant operations.

State leaders have said hospitals have the capacity to handle the rising number of COVID-19 patients. The capacity data on the health department’s website doesn’t include surge beds that can be activated if needed.

Gov. Doug Ducey on Thursday sounded a warning, urging Arizonans to take more steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including staying home except when necessary and wearing face masks in public.

“The rate of the spread of this virus is unacceptable and it is time for us to step up our actions and our personal responsibilities regarding this virus,” he said.

For the more than 479,000 PCR tests given for active infections in Arizona since the start of the pandemic, including 15,530 reported Friday, the positive rate rose to 11.1%, continuing an upward surge since the start of the month. It was 10.9% on Thursday and had been 6.7% on May 31.

Of the 18,953 PCR tests collected since Sunday that have been processed, 20% have come back positive. If that rate holds up, it would pass last week’s pandemic high of 18%.

The weekly PCR positive rate has risen every week since the week starting May 10, when it was 5%.

The state also is on pace for its highest weekly positive rate for serology tests, which detect antibodies indicating recovery from an earlier coronavirus infection. Of the 5,123 serology tests processed since Sunday, 4.7% were positive. The serology positive rate had never been higher than 3.6% in any week where more than 100 tests were done.

Overall inpatient bed usage was at 86% on Thursday, and ICU bed usage was at 88%, both matching the pandemic-high marks first reported Tuesday.

However, a week after Ducey gave cities the authority to mandate mask usage, the COVID-19 caseload in Arizona’s hospitals lightened Thursday for the first time in over a week.

After rising for 10 days, the number of confirmed or suspected COVID-19 inpatients fell overnight by 14% to 2,110, although that’s still the fourth-highest daily total reported.

ICU bed and ventilator use for COVID-19 patients also saw declines Thursday. ICU bed use decreased by 5% overnight to 581, and ventilator use plummeted by 25% to 312.

Another 250 COVID-19 patients were discharged from Arizona hospitals Thursday, the most in a single day and 47 more than a day earlier. It marked the first time since April that more than 200 COVID-19 patients per day were discharged for two consecutive days.

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(fair use applies)


NC Reports 1,635 New Coronavirus Cases, 13 Deaths
Jodie Valade
June 26, 2020 Last updated 12:14 pm

North Carolina health officials on Friday reported 1,635 new coronavirus cases identified by testing and 13 new deaths were attributed to symptoms caused by COVID-19 as hospitalizations for the disease remained steady.

According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, 21,147 tests were performed and the test-positivity rate was 10% — about in line with recent results.

Three days after the state recorded a new high in people hospitalized for COVID-19, the number currently hospitalized remained steady at 892. According to health officials, 23% of the state’s inpatient hospital beds are still available, along with 23% of ICU beds — with 90% of hospitals reporting data.

In all, 58,818 cases of the virus have been confirmed in the state since March 3 and at least 1,303 deaths have been attributed to complications of COVID-19, according to the state. At least 61% of the total deaths in the state have been among people living in congregate living facilities.

To date, 836,725 tests have been completed by state and private labs.

It has taken 25 days for the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus to double, a slight increase from previous weeks. That “doubling” rate is something experts say indicates social distancing measures helped slow the spread of the virus.

The Charlotte area has more confirmed cases than any other region in the Carolinas, with Mecklenburg County reporting 9,320 cases and 147 related deaths as of Friday morning.

You can read more here from North Carolina Health and Human Services.

(fair use applies)

Alabama adds over 950 new coronavirus cases for third consecutive day, hospitalizations reach all-time high
By Ramsey Archibald
Updated Jun 26, 2020; Posted Jun 26, 2020

The Alabama Department of Public Health reported 964 new coronavirus cases in Alabama on Friday, one day after it shattered the daily record with more than 1,100 cases. Friday’s new case load is the third highest since the start of the pandemic, and brings the running 7-day average for new cases in the state to 733.4.



There have now been 33,717 confirmed coronavirus cases in Alabama since the start of the pandemic, with 18,888 of those presumed to have recovered.

The state also reported seven new coronavirus deaths Friday, bringing the 7-day average for deaths to 10.7 per day. 887 people in Alabama have died of the coronavirus since March 25.

Jefferson County, home of Birmingham, added by far the most new cases on Friday at 149. It’s the most by any one Alabama county in a day since the start of the pandemic. Jefferson’s new case rate has been accelerating over recent days, and it’s 7-day average is approaching 100 - it’s the highest it’s ever been. The county now has 3,481 total cases, and could pass Montgomery for the most cases in the state as soon as this weekend.



Marshall County, where cases have gotten ‘out of control’ this week, added the second most new cases on Friday with 61. It now has 1,326 total cases, the most of any Alabama county with fewer than 100,000 people. Tuscaloosa county added 56 new cases, and now has 1,795 total.


For now, Montgomery County still has the state’s highest case tally at 3,521. It added 54 new cases on Friday. Mobile, which at one time had the state’s worst outbreak, added 52 new cases, rounding out the top five.


Hospitalizations are also up in Alabama, as the state reported 693 current coronavirus hospitalizations on Thursday - the last day for which data was available. That’s the most ever in a day, and brings the 7-day average for current hospitalizations to an all-time high of 659.

Testing in Alabama has been up slightly over the last two days. ADPH reported nearly 9,000 new tests Friday, after reporting more than 10,000 on Thursday. The 7-day average for new tests is 6,707.3. The percent of tests that have come back positive stands at 10.9 percent - higher than it’s been in a week.

Here’s where Alabama’s new cases are:



Total cases (and new cases) by county:

1. Jefferson 3481 (149)
2. Marshall 1326 (61)
3. Tuscaloosa 1795 (56)
4. Montgomery 3521 (54)
5. Mobile 3271 (52)
6. Madison 864 (46)
7. Baldwin 500 (38)
8. Shelby 914 (37)
9. Etowah 521 (36)
10. Morgan 886 (27)
11. Lee 1026 (25)
12. Houston 396 (23)
13. DeKalb 506 (22)
14. Lauderdale 352 (20)
15. Escambia 208 (18)
16. Jackson 196 (18)
17. Cullman 365 (17)
18. Dallas 728 (17)
19. Limestone 334 (16)
20. Elmore 744 (14)
21. Franklin 826 (14)
22. Walker 763 (12)
23. Chilton 189 (11)
24. Chambers 545 (10)
25. Colbert 333 (10)
26. Covington 280 (10)
27. Pickens 188 (10)
28. Autauga 482 (9)
29. Clarke 252 (9)
30. St. Clair 237 (9)
31. Blount 181 (8)
32. Coffee 334 (8)
33. Barbour 309 (6)
34. Butler 592 (6)
35. Conecuh 159 (6)
36. Macon 159 (6)
37. Talladega 206 (6)
38. Wilcox 267 (6)
39. Winston 214 (6)
40. Dale 221 (5)
41. Marengo 260 (5)
42. Bibb 150 (4)
43. Geneva 59 (4)
44. Monroe 178 (4)
45. Pike 382 (4)
46. Calhoun 228 (3)
47. Cherokee 65 (3)
48. Hale 270 (3)
49. Sumter 274 (3)
50. Washington 97 (3)
51. Fayette 64 (2)
52. Henry 130 (2)
53. Perry 104 (2)
54. Russell 409 (2)
55. Choctaw 188 (1)
56. Cleburne 24 (1)
57. Crenshaw 120 (1)
58. Lamar 63 (1)
59. Lawrence 85 (1)
60. Lowndes 432 (1)
61. Marion 184 (1)
62. Bullock 347 (0)
63. Clay 35 (0)
64. Coosa 54 (0)
65. Greene 160 (0)
66. Randolph 150 (0)
67. Tallapoosa 534 (0)

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Florida's new cases over the last 30 days:

Heliobas Disciple said:

Mexico reports 5,441 new coronavirus cases, 719 more deaths

Mexico's health ministry reported on Friday 5,441 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 719 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths.

uk.mobile.reuters.com

(fair use applies)

Mexico reports 5,441 new coronavirus cases, 719 more deaths
Sat Jun 27, 2020 / 1:21 AM BST

Mexico's health ministry reported on Friday 5,441 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 719 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths.

The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

.

Click to expand...

That's 12% fatality.

Somebody check my math.

helen said:

That's 12% fatality.

Somebody check my math.

Click to expand...

Math looks right at first glance (percentage 719 is of 5,441) but the equation is wrong. The 719 deaths weren't from the 5,441 new cases, but the overall 208,392 cases, so the percentage is much lower. It's still a lot of people dying though, even if the percentage isn't as high.

HD
.

Heliobas Disciple said:

Math looks right at first glance (percentage 719 is of 5,441) but the equation is wrong. The 719 deaths weren't from the 5,441 new cases, but the overall 208,392 cases, so the percentage is much lower. It's still a lot of people dying though, even if the percentage isn't as high.

HD
.

Click to expand...

bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths.

That math. Check that math.

Echo 5 said:

Watch how fast the lockdowns disappear after the election. Suddenly the media will develope amnesia over covid. Unless Trump wins.

Click to expand...

This isn't directed at you Echo 5 it's directed more at the general idea that the virus is somehow political. YES, there are certain people in power who are using the virus to push whatever their political agenda may be - and that's on BOTH sides of the aisle - but this honey badger couldn't care less how humans with power issues are using it to further their aims. It's chugging along, growing exponentially, taking more people in its path. I wouldn't be spending what amounts to a few hours every day gathering articles and posting them to this thread if I didn't take this BIO WEAPON seriously and didn't continue feel an urge to warn as many people as possible to also take it seriously and cut out the bravado that it can't effect them or someone they love. I'll leave it at that and close out my posting for tonight with a song:

BTO - YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99lyU5N--f8

helen said:

bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths.

That math. Check that math.

Click to expand...

Oh! I see now what you were doing.

Yes, looks like it. Or close to it at least. Certainly not the flu. And people need to start paying attention to this. The sense of complacency everyone got when we locked down and very few got sick is like telling a person to come in from the rain or they'll get wet, and them telling you (from inside) that we were wrong because they are perfectly dry (inside) and that proves if you go back out in the rain you won't get wet. Except in that analogy, getting wet isn't going to potentially kill them or someone they love.

HD

Heliobas Disciple said:

Oh! I see now what you were doing.

Yes, looks like it. Or close to it at least. Certainly not the flu. And people need to start paying attention to this. The sense of complacency everyone got when we locked down and very few got sick is like telling a person to come in from the rain or they'll get wet, and them telling you (from inside) that we were wrong because they are perfectly dry (inside) and that proves if you go back out in the rain you won't get wet. Except in that analogy, getting wet isn't going to potentially kill them or someone they love.

HD

Click to expand...

I wonder why their death percentage is so high? Right over the border too.

helen said:

I wonder why their death percentage is so high? Right over the border too.

Click to expand...

Good question. The quality of the health care? Close living quarters? It's more deadly for hispanics genetically? I don't know, but if it's happening there it has the potential to happen here. The media made this virus political, the politicians made this virus political (including our beloved president I'm sorry to say - still voting for him - every red blooded american who loves this country needs to vote for him), but that doesn't negate that the virus spreads easily and it kills people. That's a constant. No matter if you vote republican or democrat, whether you love this country and our freedoms or are a communist/socialist. He virus couldn't care less. If you are behaving stupidly and acting like it's not out there, it may find you. (that "you" is obviously not addressed to you! - "you" as in the general population who think the whole thing is a hoax or that they're somehow magically immune because they don't believe in it)

HD

Heliobas Disciple said:

Good question. The quality of the health care? Close living quarters? It's more deadly for hispanics genetically? I don't know, but if it's happening there it has the potential to happen here. The media made this virus political, the politicians made this virus political (including our beloved president I'm sorry to say - still voting for him - every red blooded american who loves this country needs to vote for him), but that doesn't negate that the virus spreads easily and it kills people. That's a constant. No matter if you vote republican or democrat, whether you love this country and our freedoms or are a communist/socialist. He virus couldn't care less. If you are behaving stupidly and acting like it's not out there, it may find you. (that "you" is obviously not addressed to you! - "you" as in the general population who think the whole thing is a hoax or that they're somehow magically immune because they don't believe in it)

HD

Click to expand...

Other countries aren't all lying about their numbers. Something is very wrong with this bug.

Fauci says COVID-19 contact tracing is not working well because many Americans, particularly in black and brown communities, do not want to pick up phone calls from government representatives CBSN

video 1:10 min
View: https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1276576403929157632

View: https://mobile.twitter.com/AmericaRising7/status/1275996601912352769

The cons of wearing a mask.... RT 1:34

helen said:

That's 12% fatality.

Somebody check my math.

Click to expand...

You're calculator is working properly. The world is on fire. I'm beginning to think this may be an ELE. Wait til fall when it all starts back up for real.

helen said:

bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths.

That math. Check that math.

Click to expand...

12.37043649% -- math checked

I don't think it is so much that lots of countries are "lying" about their results (some are, most probably are not) but the problem is the number of tests that a country can afford to do or manage on a practical basis to do.

If a country/health system has a limited supply of tests and/or labs to read them; they are going to focus only on testing people who are sick and not worry about finding "asymptomatic carriers."

So a country with a lot of sick people, testing a lot of sick people, is going to show a higher portion of those tested who are sick with XYZ disease; rather than a country with resources and a better health system that can afford to start testing the "worried well" or even "the worried kinda sick" as opposed to people already presenting in the ER with dangerous conditions.

That's the kind of nuance my best friend in college had to look at getting her degree in epidemiology and there is a lot more and complex stuff that goes into real disease tracing the more you look into it.

A lot of what is reported is pretty much "apples and oranges" because the testing in each country or area isn't done the same way and really can't be, given the modern world and the different economies involved.

PanBear said:

Fauci says COVID-19 contact tracing is not working well because many Americans, particularly in black and brown communities, do not want to pick up phone calls from government representatives CBSN

video 1:10 min

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1276576403929157632

View: https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1276576403929157632

Click to expand...

Heck, my phone is set up to only let known contacts thru.....gonna stay that way

helen said:

bringing the total in the country to 208,392 cases and 25,779 deaths.

That math. Check that math.

Click to expand...

12.37%

PanBear said:

Fauci says COVID-19 contact tracing is not working well because many Americans, particularly in black and brown communities, do not want to pick up phone calls from government representatives CBSN

video 1:10 min

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1276576403929157632

View: https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1276576403929157632

Click to expand...

Another stupid patronizing statement from Fauci that is full of discrepancies and wild ass assumptions. Yet it still gets a very subversive message across and fans the media.

it still looks really really bad.

If, as some postulated early on ,that 60-80% of everyone is going to catch it eventually, even if it's 50%, that means 10-12% of 7.7 billion people will check out over the next year or two...

that 7,700,000,000 * .5 * .10 = 385,000,000.


whoa! we haven't seen anything yet in terms of social disorder, political crap, etc.

Please be aware that there are ways that elected officials can get the percentage of positive lowered. For example in my states that shit hole that is known as oregonistan. Oregon State veterinary lab has the ability to do several thousand covid test a week. when I found out about it I was happy because that means that people who are symptomatic will be able to get test. But no, we or still running at no test no tell. In fact healthcare workers who are showing symptoms are still being denied if they aren't symptomatic enough.

Our governor is using those several thousand test a week, on totally symptom-free people in rural counties. Which dropped or symptomatic rate from 5% to 3%. She's calling it a survey.

She also shipped several of the rapid test to the state hotspot. This was after it was proven that the rapid test had a 48% false negative rate. Overnight the testing positive numbers in my area dropped.

Here's the current "Daily Cases Reported" graph from the Johns Hopkins CV Dashboard:



I know the thinking on the reported numbers runs from "It's the best data we've got" to "It's all Bullsh*t", so I'm not going to argue that here.

However, it's apparent that something is happening - and this is going to have ramifications both economically and Politically. I'm concerned that this may be troublesome at best for DJT's campaign, as he championed re-opening the economy (necessary, without a doubt) and the Media are, have been and will be totally against his Presidency and are doing everything in it's power to assure he doesn't have a chance at retaining the position.

I post this chart to highlight two things: if you believe that you may be susceptible to this bug, be sure to keep your shields up; and take into consideration how this may impact your planning for the mid term, say Nov. through the next Administration.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8-6ql1iTsY
29:12 min

Dr. John Campbell

Pandemic Report Canada 1,600 troops deployed to long-term care facilities in Quebec and Ontario https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/coro... 40% contracted virus in their billets Sharing hotel space with other emergency workers Military itself had been testing only symptomatics 55 soldiers who contracted the virus from care homes Four remain ill None were hospitalized. Military now being tested before and after care home deployment UK Liverpool, 2 nights of parties

New daily cases UK = 2,341 The latest COVID Symptom Study app data suggests that the number of daily new cases of COVID-19 over the past two weeks has begun to stabilise. https://covid19.joinzoe.com/post/covi... For the past month the number of daily new cases has been falling week on week This is the first time the data has stopped falling The R number and growth rate in the UK https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-num... Latest R number range for the UK 0.7-0.9 -4% to -2% per day Region R Growth rate % per day England 0.7-0.9 -4 to -1 East of England 0.7-0.9 -6 to -1 London 0.7-0.9 -6 to 0 Midlands 0.7-0.9 -4 to 0 North East and Yorkshire 0.7-0.9 -5 to -2 North West 0.7-1.0 -4 to 0 South East 0.7-0.9 -5 to -1 South West 0.6-0.9 -6 to 0

US https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-... https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-... New CDC data https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-... Transmission occurring prior to symptom onset = 40% Time from exposure to symptom onset, mean 6 days Mean number of days from symptom onset to hospitalisation 0-49 years 6.9 days 50-64 years 7.2 days 65 + years 6.2 days % admitted to ITU of those hospitalized 0-49 years: 21.9% 50-64 years: 29.2% ≥65 years: 26.8% Mean number of days from symptom onset to death 0-49 years: 14.9 days 50-64 years: 15.3 days ≥65 years: 12.9 days New cases over past 24 hours Texas, 17,036 California, 14,717 Florida, 13,801 Arizona, 8,444 Georgia, 5,167 Texas Cases, 137,130 Deaths, 2,323 Recoveries, 74,496 Testing rate 5.72% 15th day of record hospitalizations Surveys, 12% of population testing positive Bars identified as transmission drivers Bars being ordered to close Restaurants 50% capacity, down from 75% Outdoor gatherings limited to 100 people Mask orders in many places Houston, ITUs at 100% capacity Field hospital option Linda Hidalgo, stay at home Dr. Doug Lawson (Houston) Poor mask discipline Poor hand hygiene Poor physical distancing Staff being brought in from other states

_________________________
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k40AeKK5Lk
24:00 min
Statins and other probable treatments

•Jun 26, 2020


Dr. John Campbell
Therapeutics Use of statins is associated with a reduced risk of mortality among individuals with COVID-19 (Cell metabolism, 24 June) https://www.cell.com/COVID-19 https://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/... Statins are lipid-lowering therapeutics Anti-inflammatory effects

Proposed as an adjunct therapy for COVID-19 Retrospective study N = 13,981 patients with COVID-19 1,219 received statins 28-day all-cause mortality Statins group = 5.2% Non-statin group = 9.4% Hazard ratio 0.58 Imply potential benefits of statin therapy in hospitalized subjects with COVID-19 No indications of increased risk using statins Many potential confounding factors Need prospective studies Need randomized controlled trials

Dexamethasone https://www.recoverytrial.net/files/r... Reduced deaths by one third in ventilated patients Rate ratio 0.65 (p=0.0003) Reduced deaths by one fifth in patients receiving oxygen only Rate ratio 0.80 (p=0.0021) No benefit in patients who did not require respiratory support Remdesivir Reduces symptomatic phase from 15 down to 11 days https://www.thelancet.com/journals/la...

RECOVERY trial https://www.recoverytrial.net Large, randomised controlled trial of possible treatments for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 11,500 patients have been randomised, 175 NHS hospitals Lopinavir-Ritonavir (commonly used to treat HIV) Low dose Dexamethasone (a type of steroid, which is typically used to reduce inflammation) Hydroxychloroquine (which has now been stopped due to lack of efficacy) Azithromycin (a commonly used antibiotic) Tocilizumab (an anti-inflammatory treatment given by injection)

Convalescent plasma (collected from donors who have recovered from COVID-19 and contains antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus)

India drug Favipiravir (oral) https://www.news18.com/news/india/fav... Inhibits RNA synthesis Mumbai, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Approvals from Drug Controller General of India What is Favipiravir? Approved in Japan for treating influenza Being tested in 18 clinical trials for Covid-19 Based on Phase-3 data, 2 positive outcomes For emergency restricted use only for treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 Every patient must have signed informed consent before treatment initiation Effects Clinical improvements of up to 88 % in Covid-19 Rapid reduction in viral load by four days 15 days BD

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8EF29QkPU
59:38 min
War Room Pandemic Ep 253 - Rape of Hong Kong: Crimes of the CCP (w/ Elmer Yuen and Miles Guo)
•Streamed live 5 hours ago


Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republic
Jack Maxey and Greg Manz are joined by Steve Bannon and Miles Guo come together for a special episode to discuss the obscene actions taken by the CCP in Hong Kong and the criminality of their existence. Calling in is The Godfather of Hong Kong Elmer Yuen to share his heartfelt thoughts on the freedom fighters in Hong Kong. Keep on top of developments:

_____________________________________________________

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfUPQQIuzWA
58:29 min
War Room Pandemic Ep 254 - The CCP's Crimes Against the Chinese People (w/ Miles Guo)
•Streamed live 4 hours ago


Bannon WarRoom - Citizens of the American Republic
Jack Maxey and Greg Manz are joined by Steve Bannon and Miles Guo to talk about the criminality of the Chinese Communist Party and the heinous nature of their treatment of the Chinese People.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPfplQQWz8w
5:58 min
Indians Boycott Billions in Chinese Goods
•Jun 27, 2020


China Uncensored
People across India and the government are boycotting products made in China. It comes after a clash at the disputed border, where Chinese troops killed 20 Indian soldiers. How successful will this boycott be? And how will China react?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImZb3pywITc
4:41 min
More stimulus payments? Scalia weighs in as coronavirus cases surge
•Jun 27, 2020


Fox News
Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia on 'America's News HQ' discusses the economic impact of the coronavirus as more states see spikes.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQfv3y5CgI
2:22 min
Texas, Florida Reverse Reopenings As Coronavirus Cases Surge | TODAY
•Jun 27, 2020

TODAY

After the United States hit a new single-day record of more than 45,000 new coronavirus cases, Texas and Florida have begun reversing their reopenings. “There was widespread noncompliance, and that led to issues,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. NBC’s Sam Brock reports for Weekend TODAY from Miami. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kFf3EAh1Cw