Read Time: 5 Minutes
Coronavirus/COVID-19
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday pubs, restaurants and hotels could reopen in England early next month, easing the coronavirus lockdown that has all but shut the economy.
- A Brazilian federal judge ordered President Jair Bolsonaro to comply with local rules to wear a face mask whenever he is outdoors in the capital of Brasilia.
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he is “seriously considering” implementing a quarantine for out-state-visitors to New York as the number of cases in The Empire State drop while elsewhere cases are spiking.
- Dr. Anthony Fauci said he’s “cautiously optimistic” a COVD-19 vaccine could be ready by the end of this year.
- Fauci: “Everyone agrees, in the public health sector, that wearing of masks is beneficial…It is always better to have a mask on than to not have a mask on”
- Fauci says he hasn’t “directly recommended” that President Trump wear a mask in public, and he won’t comment on the “multiple factors” that go into the president’s refusal to do so.
- The Trump administration will stop providing money and support for 13 sites for local COVID-19 testing sites around the country this month, as cases and hospitalizations are skyrocketing in many states.
Texas will be particularly hard hit by the decision. The federal government gives much-needed testing kits and laboratory access to seven testing sites around Texas. But in the state, which is seeing new peaks in cases, people still face long lines for testing that continues to fail to meet overwhelming demand.
In addition to Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, Colorado and Pennsylvania will be affected.
- The president Tweeted: “We did a great job on CoronaVirus, including the very early ban on China, Ventilator production, and Testing, which is by far the most, and best, in the World. We saved millions of U.S. lives.! Yet the Fake News refuses to acknowledge this in a positive way. But they do give….Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is with us in all ways, a very high 72% Approval Rating. So, if he is in charge along with V.P. etc., and with us doing all of these really good things, why doesn’t the Lamestream Media treat us as they should? Answer: Because they are Fake News!”
- European countries are prepared to block Americans from entering because the United States has failed to control the pandemic, according to draft lists of acceptable travelers seen by The New York Times.
- World number one Novak Djokovic is the latest professional tennis player to test positive for COVID-19. Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki also tested positive after recently playing at Djokovic’s Adria Tour. Djokovic’s wife Jelena is also confirmed to have the virus.
- China National Biotec Group has won approval to run a large-scale “Phase 3” clinical trial of its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate in the United Arab Emirates.
- The Oklahoma State Department of Health says there are now 1,653 confirmed coronavirus cases in Tulsa County since the pandemic began.
There were 89 new cases reported in the county since Sunday. This is the largest single-day increase since the state’s first positive case was reported on March 6.
- In Missouri, two hair stylists who tested positive for COVID-19 after working in close contact with 140 clients and six coworkers. Local health officials feared it would be the start of a major outbreak.
But it wasn’t. The reason? Employees and patrons at the Great Clips salon were required to wear masks, health officials said.
The result appears to be one of the clearest real-world examples of the ability of masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
- The state of Utah faces a “complete shutdown” as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise, the state epidemiologist warned in a memo shared with FOX 13.
“We are in the acceleration phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in Utah,” Dr. Angela Dunn said in the memo.
- Nevada reported the highest number of new coronavirus in a single day on Tuesday, breaking a record the state had set just a few days earlier.
- The COVID-19 spike in California’s agricultural breadbasket is so steep that a hospital in Lodi is not accepting some patients who have other illnesses, as infections mount at nearly four times the rate called for in state guidelines for reopening the economy.
- More than a dozen Ohio teens tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from a trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, according to a report.
Fourteen students from Belmont County schools tested positive after coming home June 14 from the beach spot, The Sun News reported.
- A new study suggests the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. in March could have been 80 times greater and doubled nearly twice as fast than originally reported, amounting to more than 8.7 million coronavirus cases that went undiagnosed.
The report, led by researchers from Penn State University, analyzed surveillance data on influenza-like illnesses from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that were never diagnosed as coronavirus, influenza or any other viruses over a three-week period in March, according to the study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
“The findings support a scenario where more than 8.7 million new SARS-CoV-2 infections appeared in the U.S. during March and estimate that more than 80% of these cases remained unidentified as the outbreak rapidly spread,” Justin Silverman of Penn State, Alex Washburne of Montana State University and colleagues at Cornell University and elsewhere wrote, CNN reported.
Only about 100,000 coronavirus cases were reported during that period in March, as there was a shortage of testing kits at the time.
- Missouri’s Republican Sen. Roy Blunt blocked an attempt by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar to push legislation through the Senate that would promote mail-in voting and expand early voting during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I just don’t think this is the time to make this kind of fundamental change,” Blunt said.
- Five graduating seniors at a Virginia high school who attended a modified commencement ceremony at the school have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Fredericksburg City Schools Superintendent Marceline Catlett said Friday that the five students at James Monroe High School tested positive for COVID-19, and all five attended graduation ceremonies at the school on Monday.
- Senate Republicans and President Trump are facing off over a new round of COVID-19 stimulus checks, with GOP senators warning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday to mind the mounting federal deficit.
Trump views the $1,200 “economic impact payment” checks that featured his name prominently as a political and economic winner. Many GOP senators, on the other hand, think a second round would be a huge waste of money.
Sources: ABC News, Axios, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, ESPN, Financial Times, Fox News,The Hill, KTUL, NBC News, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Slate, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
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