July 1, 2020

• Some high-end Manhattan hotels aren’t thoroughly cleaning rooms between guests amid the coronavirus pandemic, a new report found. Three different Midtown hotels didn’t even bother to change pillowcases or wipe down commonly used surfaces, according to an investigation by Inside Edition set to air Monday night.
• It doesn’t matter if you feel sick or you feel like a million bucks. Even asymptomatic COVID-19 patients can not only infect others directly, but also contaminate the surrounding environment. That’s the conclusion drawn from a new study using Chinese data. The study’s authors say their findings emphasize the importance of hospitals properly cleaning all areas touched or inhabited by all COVID-19 patients. “Placement of COVID-19 patients in rooms with negative pressure may bring a false feeling of safety and rigorous environment cleaning should be emphasized,” writes lead study author Zhiyong Zong, from the Department of Infection Control at West China Hospital.
• Only a few weeks ago, thousands of Southern Californians were flocking to beaches, Disneyland was announcing it would soon reopen and Whoopi Goldberg was lauding Gov. Gavin Newsom on “The View” for the state’s progress in combating the coronavirus. The worst, many in California thought, was behind them. In fact, an alarming surge in cases up and down the state was only just beginning. Over the past week California’s case count has exploded, surpassing 200,000 known infections, and forcing Mr. Newsom to roll back the state’s reopening in some counties. On Monday, he said the number of people hospitalized in California had risen 43 percent over the past two weeks.

June 30, 2020

• The COVID-19 pandemic is not even close to being over, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing on Monday. Tedros noted that, six months after China first alerted the WHO to a novel respiratory infection, the grim milestones of 10 million confirmed infections and 500,000 deaths had been reached. "Most people remain susceptible, the virus still has a lot of room to move," he said. "We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over. Although many countries have made some progress globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up."
• At least 16 states have paused or rolled back their reopening plans as the United States sees a surge in coronavirus cases across the country. With July 4 celebrations approaching, officials are trying not to repeat scenes from Memorial Day, when thousands flocked to beaches, bars and parties while experts cautioned that crowds could lead to spikes in cases down the road. In Texas and parts of California, bars were directed to close back down, while beaches in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach were ordered off-limits to the public during the upcoming holiday weekend. In Florida, on-premises alcohol consumption was suspended in bars statewide. The risk of keeping bars and restaurants open is exemplified by a bar in East Lansing, Michigan, where 85 people contracted Covid-19 after visiting early this month.

June 29, 2020

• Only two US states are reporting a decline in new coronavirus cases compared to last week: Connecticut and Rhode Island. A rise was reported in a staggering 36 states, including Florida, which some experts have cautioned could be the next epicenter for infections. Officials there and across the US are also warning of an increase in cases among younger people.
• Gilead Sciences Inc. detailed its pricing plans for Covid-19 drug remdesivir, saying it will charge U.S. hospitals $3,120 for a typical patient. The drugmaker on Monday disclosed its pricing plans as it prepares to begin charging for the drug in July. The U.S. has been distributing remdesivir donated by Gilead since the drug was authorized for emergency use in May.
• New York malls will need high quality air systems that can filter out the coronavirus before they will be allowed to reopen, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday. High efficiency particle air filters, or HEPA filters, have been shown to help reduce the presence of Covid-19 in the air, according to a presentation from Cuomo. He said the state recommends all businesses and offices “explore the potential for their air conditioning air filtration system.”
• The Business Roundtable, a trade group representing the CEOs of the country’s biggest companies, released its second-quarter report on Monday. Most of the CEOs said they expect the business impact from the coronavirus lingering until at least the end of 2021. But nearly a third expect the recovery to stretch beyond 2021.

June 27, 2020

• 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.
• Congestion or runny nose, nausea and diarrhea were added to the wide range of possible COVID-19 symptoms listed on the federal agency's website. The added symptoms come as almost 125,000 Americans have died of coronavirus, the highest known death toll from the highly infectious disease in the world. It appears the official change to the list of symptoms were secretly added to the CDC website on May 13, according to OurCommunityNow.
• Florida’s Department of Health on Saturday confirmed 9,585 new cases of COVID-19, surpassing Friday’s record-breaking 8,942 cases. The new cases brings the state total of confirmed cases to 132, 545. There were also 24 new deaths announced Saturday, bringing the statewide death toll to 3,390. In just over a week, Florida has reported nearly 40,000 new cases, which accounts for about a third of all the confirmed cases in the state since the pandemic began.
• Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced late Friday night he plans to shut down Miami-area beaches during the upcoming July 4 holiday weekend and possibly longer in response to the recent surge in coronavirus cases. "After consulting with our county's public health experts, I will be signing an emergency order on Saturday to close all beaches in Miami-Dade County starting Friday, July 3, and ending Tuesday, July 7," the mayor said in a statement released Friday night. Florida state officials have ordered all consumption of on-premises alcohol suspended at bars statewide.

June 26, 2020

• Around 80 percent of people who contract coronavirus are asymptomatic, according to the World Health Organization. And while showing no symptoms is a better outcome than having severe symptoms that require hospitalization, there is a downside to being an asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier as well. According to new research, it may actually mean that you're more likely to get the coronavirus again.
• Texas pauses reopening plan and elective surgeries as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rise. Businesses that were permitted to open under the previous phases can continue to operate at the designated occupancy outlined by the Texas Department of State Health Services, according to statement from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office. Earlier Thursday, Abbott ordered all licensed hospitals in hard-hit Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis counties to postpone elective procedures in order to protect hospital capacity for Covid-19 patients. Those counties include the state’s largest cities — Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin.
• 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.

June 25, 2020

• New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will impose a quarantine on travelers from any state where infections pass a certain level. The order currently applies to eight states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas. The 14-day self-quarantine order mirrors similar orders other states imposed on New Yorkers earlier in the crisis. The order, which went into effect at 11:59 p.m. ET Wednesday, does not block people from traveling. But it does make clear that if you've been in a state that meets the guidelines -- like taking a vacation to Florida and then coming home, or visiting New York from Texas on business -- you will have to quarantine for 14 days on arriving. Airports and highways will have reminder signs, and hotels will be asked to inform guests as well.
• The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday painted a bleak portrait of the global economy, saying the coronavirus pandemic has caused more widespread damage than expected and will be followed by a sluggish recovery. The global economy will shrink this year by 4.9 percent, worse than the 3 percent decline predicted in April, the IMF said. No major economy is escaping the pandemic. The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, is expected to shrink this year by 8 percent. Countries that use the single European currency are headed for a decline of more than 10 percent while Japanese output will fall by 5.8 percent, the IMF said.
• The U.S. saw a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with 45,557 diagnoses reported Wednesday, according to a tally by NBC News.
  Wednesday’s cases top the previous highest daily count from April 26 — during the first peak of the pandemic in the U.S. — by more than 9,000 cases, according to NBC News’ tracking data. The World Health Organization reported its single-day record on Sunday, with more than 183,000 new cases worldwide. Health experts said Monday that the resurgence in cases in Southern and Western states can be traced to Memorial Day, when many officials began loosening lockdowns and reopening businesses.

June 24, 2020

• As several states start to see a surge in COVID-19 cases since reopening, Ohio has not. Ohio has gradually lifted its stay-at-home order over the past six weeks. The result: a plateau in newly reported cases and a decline in hospitalizations, both reported and estimates of people currently hospitalized.
• Employers cannot require coronavirus antibody testing for employees returning to work, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in guidance issued Wednesday. Employers can test workers for COVID-19 under the Americans With Disabilities Act. They can require workers to wear masks and have their temperatures checked without violating federal law, according to the EEOC, which polices workplace discrimination.
• Are you worried about getting coronavirus if you dine out or order in? Here’s some good news: The risk of getting the disease from consuming food is “thought to be very low,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Coronaviruses, like the one that causes COVID-19, are thought to spread mostly person-to-person through respiratory droplets when someone coughs, sneezes, or talks,” the CDC said Monday. That news comes as more than 3,000 New York City restaurants reopened for outdoor dining on Monday as part of the state’s Phase 2 reopening policy.

June 23, 2020

• The U.S reported more than 30,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday and Saturday, the highest daily totals since May 1, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. New cases across the country are surging faster than ever, especially in states in the South, West and Midwest. Seven states hit record cases on Saturday, including Florida and South Carolina, which had their third consecutive day breaking single-day records. Missouri, Nevada, Montana, Utah and Arizona also hit records.
• China suspends imports of poultry from Tyson plant over coronavirus concerns. The General Administration of Customs said on its website it had decided on the suspension after the company confirmed a cluster of coronavirus cases at the plant, which is located in Springdale, Arkansas. China has stepped up its oversight of imported foods after a new cluster of coronavirus cases were linked to a sprawling wholesale food market in the capital just over a week ago. On Friday, customs asked food exporters to sign a declaration that their produce is not contaminated by the novel coronavirus.

June 22, 2020

• The news in the US has been dominated by anti-racism protests for the past couple of weeks, but coronavirus is now back in the headlines. Several states have seen a record number of cases in recent days, leading to fears that the country is experiencing a second wave of infections. But Vice-President Mike Pence said those fears were "overblown" and accused the media of using "grim predictions" to scare the American people. So what is going on in the US?
• Officials in states across the South are warning that more young people are testing positive for coronavirus. The shifts in demographics have been recorded in parts of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and other states -- many of which were some of the first to reopen. And while some officials have pointed to more widespread testing being done, others say the new cases stem from Americans failing to social distance.
• The World Health Organization on Sunday reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases by its count, at more than 183,000 new cases in the latest 24 hours. The UN health agency said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the U.S. next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came in in India. Experts said rising case counts can reflect multiple factors including more widespread testing as well as broader infection. Overall in the pandemic, WHO reported 8,708,008 cases — 183,020 in the last 24 hours — with 461,715 deaths worldwide, with a daily increase of 4,743.

June 19, 2020

• China has found the trading sections for meat and seafood in Beijing’s wholesale food market to be severely contaminated with the new coronavirus and suspects the area’s low temperature and high humidity may have been contributing factors, officials said on Thursday. Their preliminary report comes as the country’s capital tackles a resurgence of COVID-19 cases over the past week linked to the massive Xinfadi food center, which houses warehouses and trading halls in an area the size of nearly 160 soccer pitches.
• California on Thursday started requiring people throughout the state to wear masks in most indoor settings and outdoors when distancing isn't possible. The order came as California broadly reopens its economy. In most counties, people can now shop, dine in at restaurants, get their hair done and go to church, among other things.
• The coronavirus was present in Milan and Turin’s sewage systems as early as December, two months before the first Covid-19 cases were detected in Italy, a new study shows. “Traces of SARS-Cov-2 have been found in samples of waste water taken in Milan and Turin on Dec. 18 and in Bologna on Jan. 29,” said Giuseppina La Rosa, who led the research for a coming study from the country’s ISS National Health Institute. “More traces were detected in other test samples through January and February.”

June 18, 2020

• Scientists hail dexamethasone as ‘major breakthrough’ in treating coronavirus. Dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, has become the first drug shown to be able to save lives among Covid-19 patients in what scientists hailed as a “major breakthrough”. Results of trials announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill Covid-19 patients admitted to hospital.
• Bank of England adds another £100 billion to bond-buying program to combat coronavirus slowdown. The Bank resisted taking interest rates into negative territory, a decision being closely watched by investors, instead opting to hold its main lending rate steady at 0.1%. Rates have been reduced twice from 0.75% since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
• As of 2 a.m. Thursday, Gila River Hotels & Casinos shuttered all three of its properties for two weeks amid a recent rise in COVID-19 cases in Arizona. Leaders at Gila River Hotels & Casinos declined The Arizona Republic's repeated requests to confirm the number of employees who have tested positive for COVID-19, saying that they will not disclose the information to "protect the privacy" of their workers. The announcement comes a week after a security guard at Lone Butte Casino died of complications related to COVID-19, according to his family. This is the second closure for the casinos. Like other tribal casinos across Arizona, Gila River's three casinos shut down because of COVID-19 in mid-March. The Gila River casinos initially reopened May 15, the same day Gov. Doug Ducey lifted Arizona’s stay-at-home order.
• Early coronavirus testing data from a handful of U.S. cities and states suggest that recent protests against racial injustices haven't yet led to a marked uptick in new cases. Public-health officials warn that the data is still preliminary, however, and protest-related cases could still rise.

June 17, 2020

• Brazil ignored the warnings. Now, while other countries fret over a second coronavirus wave, it can’t get past its first.
• As the coronavirus pandemic continues, it has become clear that asymptomatic COVID-19 cases are cause for concern. A study published in the journal Nature Medicine found that almost half of the cases studied were infected by someone who did not show symptoms. Asymptomatic cases are especially dangerous because the coronavirus carrier does not know they have the virus, which means they are still living life normally, which can potentially contribute to more transmissions. That's why identifying asymptomatic individuals and ensuring they self-isolate could be integral to mitigating the spread of COVID-19. As it turns out, one age group in particular has an overwhelmingly high number of asymptomatic cases.
• A coronavirus model once used by the White House now projects more than 200,000 Americans could die of COVID-19 by October 1. The prediction went up by more than 30,000 since last week. As of Tuesday, more than 116,000 people in the U.S. have died of the coronavirus, and the death toll is still growing by hundreds per day. Infection rates and hospitalizations are rising in numerous states as businesses open up and people drop precautions.
• African-Americans and Latinos are vastly overrepresented when it comes to coronavirus infections, according to an analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday morning. The findings provide additional confirmation that, as the CDC’s own report says, black and brown communities have been “disproportionately affected” by the pandemic. The new data, the first from the federal government to fully describe the pandemic’s racial impact, comes amid continuing protests against police killings of black men. Those protests have highlighted broader inequalities in American society, including those pertaining to how widely different communities can access proper health care.
• A woman in Dallas is fighting her second battle against the coronavirus. Meredith McKee first tested positive for the potentially deadly virus in February, diagnosed after feeling "clear and obvious" symptoms, she told NBC 5. "I had a dry cough like you would not believe. It would not stop,” McKee recalled, explaining that she managed to fight off the first bout of the virus from home. She even donated some of her plasma after testing positive for antibodies. However, last week, McKee shared a tearful photo of herself from a hospital bed at Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas. After admitting herself with high blood pressure and a headache on Friday, she found out she was one again positive for COVID-19 four months after her initial diagnosis.

June 16, 2020

• Coronavirus may sway regulators to allow casinos to say good-bye to cash. No states currently allow cashless payments on casino floors. The CDC recommends mobile payments to limit the handling of cash, and therefore, risk of Covid-19 exposure. More than half of casino customers say they are less likely to use cash in their everyday lives because of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Gaming Association.
• Authorities in Beijing have described the city’s coronavirus outbreak as “extremely severe” as dozens more cases emerged and travel from the city was curtailed.
  Additional neighborhoods were fenced off on Tuesday, with security checkpoints set up at residential compounds, and high-risk people – such as close contacts of people who test positive – prevented from leaving the city. The outbreak is the most significant in China since February, prompting fears of a second wave and questions over how the virus was able to spread given severe quarantine measures taken by authorities. The outbreak is potentially embarrassing for Beijing, which had declared victory over the virus and ordered citizens back to work.
• Researchers on Tuesday announced the first drug shown to save lives among severely ill coronavirus patients, offering hope even as infection rates rose in Africa and Asia, and there were worrisome upticks of contagion in countries that had largely contained the virus. The cheap, widely available steroid, called dexamethasone, reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20% in those only needing supplemental oxygen, the researches said in England. It did not appear to help less ill patients.
• Coronavirus infections continued to rise in many parts of a divided nation on Monday, with public health recommendations under attack from communities tired of staying home and officials eager to restart local economies. Even as the number of infections rose and hospital beds filled in some places, voices clamored for an end to mandatory mask-wearing. And relaxation of restrictions designed to curb the novel coronavirus continued.
• One in five people worldwide is at risk of developing ‘severe’ cases of Covid-19, scientists claim. Since the beginning of the outbreak, health authorities around the world have agreed that people with chronic illnesses are most prone to developing severe or fatal symptoms of the coronavirus. In a study published on Monday in the Lancet medical journal, researchers from the U.K., China and the U.S. calculated how many people worldwide had pre-existing health conditions that increased their risk of being severely impacted by the virus. According to the paper, 1.7 billion people around the world — or 22% of the global population — are at “increased risk” of developing severe symptoms if infected with Covid-19.

June 15, 2020

• We classify coronavirus cases as one of three categories—mild, moderate, or severe—and at face value, these designations may seem simple enough. Yet according to a new study out of Emory University School of Medicine, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, many patients with milder cases of coronavirus have experienced enduring symptoms. Though these patients were able to avoid the hospital and other serious medical intervention, over 40 percent reported one lingering problem three weeks after their symptoms first appeared: they still had a persistent cough.
• Italy, the first major European country to roll out a smartphone app to trace COVID-19 infections that does not rely on a centralised database, has already seen 2.2 million downloads in 10 days, a sign Italians are setting aside privacy concerns. The government, like those of other European countries hit by the virus, is touting the software as a vital tool to help avoid a second wave of infections. Germany launches its own version next week.
• It's an outcome no one wants, but could become a "harsh reality": a second wave of shutdowns. Weeks after lifting stay-at-home orders, some states are seeing record numbers of hospitalizations from Covid-19 as thousands more Americans get infected every day. "We're going to have to face the harsh reality in some states that we may need to shut down again," said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor at George Washington University School of Medicine. And the second wave of state shutdowns could be more damaging than the first.
• If Covid-19 cases keep rising in the weeks to come, city and state leaders might reimpose a strict lockdown. They should bear in mind who’d be harmed most by the ensuing economic destruction. From February to April, the number of active black business owners fell 41%, according to an analysis last week from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

June 12, 2020

• How New York’s Coronavirus Response Made the Pandemic Worse: New York leaders faced an unanticipated crisis as the new coronavirus overwhelmed the nation’s largest city. Their response was marred by missed warning signs and policies that many health-care workers say put residents at greater risk and led to unnecessary deaths. In the first few days of March, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio assured New Yorkers things were under control. On March 2, Mr. de Blasio tweeted that people should go see a movie.
• A second wave of coronavirus cases is emerging in the U.S., raising alarms as new infections push the overall count past 2 million Americans. Texas on Wednesday reported 2,504 new coronavirus cases, the highest one-day total since the pandemic emerged. A month into its reopening, Florida this week reported 8,553 new cases -- the most of any seven-day period. California’s hospitalizations are at their highest since May 13 and have risen in nine of the past 10 days.

June 11, 2020

• Coronavirus cases across the US are spiking up again after states eagerly reopened and as protesters demonstrated George Floyd’s death in large gatherings throughout the country. In 21 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, and Utah, cases are rising again after the states reopened local businesses amid the outbreak.
• As Ohio struggles to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying bad economic times, new projections of the tax collections underlying the 2020-21 state budget are downright grim. State tax collections are expected to fall $2.292 billion, or 9.4%, amid the fiscal fallout from the virus crisis, the Office of Budget and Management announced Wednesday. Sales-tax revenue is forecast to drop 13%, accompanied by a 7.2% decrease in income-tax take and a 9.9% reduction in the commercial activity taxes paid by businesses in the budget year beginning July 1. After accounting for losses in investment earnings and other funds, the state projects there will be a $2.43 billion hole in what’s needed to fully fund the $35 billion general revenue fund. To put that number in context, it’s only $374 million less than annual state spending on higher education.
• The WHO’s remark that transmission of the coronavirus by people who never developed symptoms was rare “was not correct,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said. The organization “walked that back because there’s no evidence to indicate that’s the case,” he said. The WHO said its comment was a “misunderstanding” and “we don’t actually have that answer yet.”
• The federal government plans to fund and conduct the decisive studies of three experimental coronavirus vaccines starting this summer, according to a lead government vaccine researcher. These phase 3 trials are expected to involve tens of thousands of subjects at dozens of sites around the U.S., John Mascola, director of the vaccine research center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. Meant to determine a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, they would mark the final stage of testing.

June 10, 2020

• As the number of new coronavirus cases continues to increase worldwide, and more than a dozen states and Puerto Rico are recording their highest averages of new cases since the pandemic began, hospitalizations in at least nine states have been on the rise since Memorial Day. In Texas, North and South Carolina, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Arizona, there are an increasing number of patients under supervised care since the holiday weekend because of covid-19 infections. The spikes generally began in the past couple weeks and in most states, are trending higher.
• Texas has reported two consecutive days of record-breaking Covid-19 hospitalizations as the state continues to open businesses and resume activities that were temporarily shuttered due to the coronavirus. There are currently 2,056 patients sickened with Covid-19 in hospitals across the state as of early Tuesday afternoon, up from a record 1,935 patients Monday, according to updated data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas was among the first states to relax its statewide stay-at-home order, allowing it to expire April 30 and some businesses to resume operations May 1.
• Cases and hospitalizations are going up again in parts of California, causing the state to place nine counties on a watchlist, according to Reuters. Entertainment venues, including movie theaters, can reopen on Friday in California, according to guidance released by Gov. Gavin Newsom. California is currently in the second stage of its four-phase reopening plan, which focuses on reopening lower-risk workplaces. However, entertainment venues are classified as higher-risk businesses, which weren’t set to open until the third stage of the state’s reopening.

June 9, 2020

• There are currently 1,935 Covid-19 patients in hospitals across the state of Texas, topping the previous hospitalization record of 1,888 patients on May 5, according to new data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Texas was among the first states to relax its statewide stay-at-home order, allowing it to expire April 30 and some businesses to resume operations May 1. The coronavirus has infected more than 75,400 people in Texas, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
• Government responses should focus on detecting and isolating infected people with symptoms, the World Health Organization said. Preliminary evidence from the earliest outbreaks indicated the virus could spread even if people didn’t have symptoms. But the WHO says that while asymptomatic spread can occur, it is “very rare.”
• Santa Clara County health officer Dr. Sara Cody said in a Board of Supervisors meeting Monday that a small rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations is "likely" related to the county's reopening measures in May.
• On Monday, the former epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States began the first phase of its reopening. With New York City finally beginning to ease out of lockdown, it’s tempting to think that the virus is behind us. Indeed, millions of Americans seem to be behaving as if it is. But in some states, the data is discouraging. It’s not just that the number of positive cases is continuing to rise; that was expected with the availability of widespread testing. In some places, hospitalizations are increasing. This is all taking place amid the backdrop of civil unrest in some American cities, which is bringing people into uncomfortably close contact with one another, and the loosening of restrictions meant to slow the virus’s spread. More than 100 days after the first coronavirus case in the U.S., here are the states where things are still getting worse.

June 8, 2020

• Brazil faces criticism over coronavirus data. Over the weekend, the country’s health ministry took down months of coronavirus data from its website and stopped releasing total numbers for reported infections and deaths, according to the news agency. The health ministry explained the move on Monday, saying it had to correct mistakes in the data from two states, the report said. It also said that cumulative infections in Brazil reached 707,412 in the last day, while the death toll rose to 37,134, Reuters said. The Brazilian government has faced mounting criticism over the transparency and credibility of its data. 
  Exports out of Germany plunged by 31.1% in April compared to the same month a year ago — the steepest decline since the data was first published in 1950, according to the country’s statistics office. 
• Coronavirus outbreaks at U.S. meatpacking plants continue to soar as the beleaguered industry ramps up production, scales back plant closures and tries to return to normal in the weeks after President Donald Trump declared it an essential operation.
• Understandably, people are nervous about leaving their homes for groceries or for a stroll, let alone traveling and staying in a hotel. But as confinement restrictions ease, many are itching to have a getaway. And, after the unprecedented global spring shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic left millions of hotel rooms empty, the hotel industry is making all efforts to gain public trust and rebuild business. Certainly, hotel cleaning protocols top that list and will be highly visible. Hoteliers want guests to see their efforts and feel confident and are promising deep cleaning,  enhanced cleaning, and retraining staff on proper cleaning techniques – even down to disinfecting key cards.
• Memory loss, gnarled fingers, panic attacks: COVID-19 didn't kill these Americans, but many might never be the same. Many of the 1.7 million Americans who've contracted coronavirus deal with lingering symptoms and a life unrecognizable from the one they had before.

June 4, 2020

• 'Best day ever': Gamblers flock to downtown Las Vegas on first night of casino reopenings.
• The large crowds of people at the Lake of the Ozarks over Memorial Day weekend have not led to any more reported cases of COVID-19, Missouri’s top health official health department said Wednesday. “The answer, to our knowledge, is no,” Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, said when asked whether more cases have come from the gatherings, photos of which showed throngs of people close together without wearing masks.

June 3, 2020

• Could you have had COVID-19 and not even realized it? Possibly. "The majority of people who contract the coronavirus will experience mild symptoms, the most common being a high temperature and a new, dry and continuous cough. A smaller percentage of people will experience more severe symptoms," explains Dr. Daniel Atkinson, GP Clinical Lead at Treated.com. However, because the coronavirus actually has a spectrum of symptoms—some so mild they are barely noticeable or easily confused with something else—it can go unnoticed or undiagnosed. Read on to discover the 17 subtle signs you've already had coronavirus.
• Retirees across the United States were already overwhelmed and underprepared for their futures before the coronavirus, but uncertainties about the health-care system and economy are making it harder to plan ahead. There may be some relief in sight. The good news: COVID-19 could spark numerous outcomes that improve retirement security, according to a paper distributed by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Health insurance and pensions may be disassociated from employers, so that people aren’t at risk of losing their insurance or cutting their retirement savings in the event of a job loss, said Olivia Mitchell the researcher behind the paper and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

May 28, 2020

• Global ad spend is set to fall by almost $50 billion this year as businesses in all sectors cancel or postpone media buys. The ad market will reduce by 8.1%, or $49.6 billion, according to data from the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) published Thursday, compared to a previously forecast growth of 7.1%. This means that overall global ad spend is forecast to reach $563 billion this year, down from a previously projected $612.6 billion.

May 27, 2020

• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, exercise regimen, and diet is difficult in the best of times, and it’s become that much harder in the wake of COVID-19. With gyms shut down, many Americans have turned to junk food and late night snacks to calm their viral nerves over the past few months. While college students have long fought to keep off the infamous “freshman 15,” adults of all ages are now swearing off the newly-dubbed “COVID-15.” In fact, according to a new survey of 2,000 U.S. citizens, one in two (49%) are afraid they’ll never get their pre-quarantine body back.
• Ford is ready to bring the heat to the coronavirus fight. The automaker has developed a software update for some of its Explorer-based Police Interceptor Utility patrol vehicles that allows them to use the climate control system to raise the cabin temperature to 133 degrees for 15 minutes to help kill any coronavirus inside. Research conducted in conjunction with The Ohio State University found that the cycle could reduce concentrations of the virus present by up to 99 percent.
• As the U.S. continues to battle the novel coronavirus outbreak, fears over a second wave of cases have been looming over the country. While there is no doubt that more cases will continue to emerge in the months ahead, it's not too late for America to prevent a second wave of COVID-19, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and member of the White House COVID-19 task force.

May 26, 2020

• As more places across the US offer people a chance to shop or dine inside, the issue of whether to wear a mask has again become a flashpoint. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing a cloth face covering in public when it is hard to stay socially distant. But some Americans have resisted wearing a face covering, arguing that adhering to mask wearing rules feels like a forfeiture of their freedoms.
•  “No mask, No service” signs are popping up at all kinds of businesses as the country begins to slowly reopen after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown that began in March. Some retail chains, like Costco Wholesale, have already started to require masks for all customers and employees. The move follows a flood of videos on social media showing shoppers who refuse to wear face masks being confronted by store employees (and other shoppers, in some cases) who explain that customers are required to wear masks. But can store owners legally enforce that policy? The short answer is yes, as long as they don’t discriminate against anyone on the basis of “protected classes” such as gender, race, age, disability, national origin and religion.
• There have been over 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 94,000 deaths as of May 21, but the rate of spread of the coronavirus appears to be slowing in some parts of the country. The U.S. has not had a day with over 30,000 new infections since May 2. While infections are trending down nationwide, not every state has seen the worst of the pandemic yet. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed projections from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation which provides estimated peak COVID-19 dates in every state, both in terms of the total number of estimated active infections and the total number of hospital beds needed to treat COVID-19 patients. Unlike frequently cited confirmed infections data, the IMHE active infection estimate takes into account people who are asymptomatic or untested.

May 25, 2020

• Countries where coronavirus infections are declining could still face an “immediate second peak” if they let up too soon on measures to halt the outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Monday. The world is still in the middle of the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak, WHO emergencies head Dr Mike Ryan told an online briefing, noting that while cases are declining in many countries they are still increasing in Central and South America, South Asia and Africa. Ryan said epidemics often come in waves, which means that outbreaks could come back later this year in places where the first wave has subsided. There was also a chance that infection rates could rise again more quickly if measures to halt the first wave were lifted too soon.
• The Memorial Day weekend marking the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. meant big crowds at beaches and warnings from authorities Sunday about people disregarding the coronavirus social-distancing rules and risking a resurgence of the scourge that has killed nearly 100,000 Americans. Sheriff’s deputies and beach patrols tried to make sure people kept their distance from others as they soaked up the rays on the sand and at parks and other recreation sites around the country. On the Sunday talk shows, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said she was “very concerned” about scenes of people crowding together over the weekend.

May 24, 2020

• The U.S. COVID-19 death toll has nearly surpassed 100,000, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The total number of confirmed cases in the country stands at just over 1.6 million with more than 361,200 of those being patients that have recovered. The worst-hit state is New York with more than 29,000 fatalities, followed by New Jersey and Massachusetts with over 11,000 and 6,300 COVID-19 deaths respectively.
• President Donald Trump said he completed his course of treatment with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug he’s promoted as a therapy for coronavirus despite an outcry from medical professionals about its unproven efficacy and potential side effects.

May 22, 2020

• In new guidance for mathematical modelers and public health officials, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is estimating that about a third of coronavirus infections are asymptomatic. The CDC also says its "best estimate" is that 0.4% of people who show symptoms and have Covid-19 will die, and the agency estimates that 40% of coronavirus transmission is occurring before people feel sick. The agency cautions that those numbers are subject to change as more is learned about Covid-19, and it warns that the information is intended for planning purposes. Still, the agency says its estimates are based on real data collected by the agency before April 29.

May 20, 2020

• Chinese doctors are seeing the coronavirus manifest differently among patients in its new cluster of cases in the northeast region compared to the original outbreak in Wuhan, suggesting that the pathogen may be changing in unknown ways and complicating efforts to stamp it out.

May 19, 2020

• The US government on Tuesday extended for another month restrictions on non-essential travel across the borders with Canada and Mexico to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. The US Department of Homeland Security said the closure, first ordered on March 20 and due to expire Wednesday, will be extended until June 22 and reviewed every 30 days.
• Passengers boarding a United Airlines flight will receive a packet containing a face mask and hand sanitizer wipes, the airline said. United now joins a list of other U.S. carriers ramping up sanitization habits to show potential customers that it's safe to fly again.
• Under coronavirus lockdowns, countries around the world have restricted travel and closed businesses. Flights were grounded and highways deserted. The major slowdown of movement has led to an "extreme" decline in carbon dioxide emissions — with daily levels 17% lower compared to averages from last year.  According to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Climate Change, daily emissions in early April, when most of the world was under strict lockdown measures, fell to levels last seen in 2006. Lockdowns could lead to an annual carbon emissions decline of up to 7% — the biggest drop since World War II, the researchers say.

May 18, 2020

• Fewer Americans are calling their mortgage servicers to ask for relief from mortgage payments, but the housing industry isn’t out of the woods yet. More than 4.1 million homeowners are in forbearance plans now, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. While mortgage servicers are still facing stress because of the record deluge of requests for payment relief, signs suggest that homeowners’ prospects have improved as parts of the country have begun to emerge from coronavirus stay-at-home orders.
• Some 108 million people in China’s northeast region are being plunged back under lockdown conditions as a new and growing cluster of infections causes a backslide in the nation’s return to normal. In an abrupt reversal of the re-opening taking place across the nation, cities in Jilin province have cut off trains and buses, shut schools and quarantined tens of thousands of people. The strict measures have dismayed many residents who had thought the worst of the nation’s epidemic was over. While the cluster of 34 infections isn’t growing as quickly the outbreak in Wuhan which started the global pandemic last December, China’s swift and powerful reaction reflects its fear of a second wave after it curbed the virus’s spread at great economic and social cost. It’s also a sign of how fragile the re-opening process will be in China and elsewhere as even the slightest hint of a resurgence of infections could prompt a return to strict lockdown.

May 17, 2020

• If Oxford's coronavirus vaccine works, officials say UK will get it first. The U.K. government made a deal to get 30 million doses by September.
• Where coronavirus isn't: What's kept cases officially at zero in these 200 counties? Limited testing may create undercounts, but isolation also seems to play a role in keeping the dwindling list of American places virus-free.
• Four months into the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, tests for the virus finally are becoming widely available, a crucial step toward lifting stay-at-home orders and safely returning to normal life. But while many states no longer report crippling supply shortages, a new problem has emerged: too few people lining up to get tested.

May 15, 2020

• U.S. officials are preparing to begin checking passengers’ temperatures at roughly a dozen airports as soon as next week, as the coronavirus pandemic has heightened travel anxieties, according to people familiar with the matter.

May 13, 2020

• A viral video from Japan aims to show how easily germs and viruses can spread in restaurants when just one person is infected. The experiment simulates the atmosphere at a buffet restaurant or on a cruise ship. It was conducted by the public broadcasting organization NHK in conjunction with health experts. The video shows 10 people coming into the restaurant, with one singled out as the "infected" person. Each participant goes about the buffet as they normally would, not considering a potential contamination. At the end of the video, the participants are cast under black lights illuminating where the "infection" has spread. The substance, used to signify the germs, can be seen on food, serving utensils and platters, and even on the faces of some of the participants.
• The FBI said it had seen hacking attempts on US groups researching vaccines, treatments and testing. The US has long accused the Chinese government of cyber-espionage, something Beijing denies. The pandemic has worsened tensions between the two countries, which have both accused each other of failing to contain the outbreak.
• Scientists race to find a cure or vaccine for the coronavirus. There are no proven, knockout treatments and U.S. health officials say a vaccine could take at least a year to 18 months.
• The novel coronavirus has brought the shared scooter and bike business to the brink of financial collapse. Demand has evaporated — an analysis of credit card data by The New York Times found that spending on scooter rentals had fallen the most of all transportation modes, by nearly 100 percent — companies are laying off employees en masse, and their previously sky-high valuations have been almost wiped out. Rather than basking in the sun and delighting in the reduced car traffic, the scooter industry is looking at end times.

May 12, 2020

• There’s one big reason the U.S. economy can’t reopen. The country faces the same problem today that it did two months ago: there are not enough tests to contain the virus.
• A high-profile infectious disease researcher warns COVID-19 is in the early stages of attacking the world, which makes it difficult to relax stay-at-home orders without putting most Americans at risk. Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said the initial wave of outbreaks in cities such as New York City, where one in five people have been infected, represent a fraction of the illness and death yet to come.
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that the number of new daily Covid-19 hospitalizations had returned to the level it was at when he issued a statewide closure of nonessential businesses nearly two months ago. Cuomo said that 521 people were hospitalized with the disease on Saturday and 207 died of it. The hospitalization figure, he said, “takes us right back to where we started this hellish journey.” “Where we are today is basically, with the number of new cases, is basically right where we were when we started. It has been a painful period of time between March 20 to May 9,” Cuomo said.
• U.S. grocery costs jump the most in 46 years, led by rising prices for meat and eggs.

May 11, 2020

• Abbott plans to ship nearly 30 million tests this month and will have the capacity to ship 60 million tests in June. The tests can indicate whether a person has had Covid-19 and was either asymptomatic or recovered.
• Many consumers are going to think twice about venturing to the mall to try on clothes in a fitting room because of the coronavirus pandemic. Retailers are scrambling to figure out how to work around this. Solutions range from reserving sanitized fitting rooms to window shopping.
• You get what you pay for — usually. But as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, many parents find themselves at home with their kids 24/7, while still paying child-care bills.
• Several vaccines will likely be needed to combat the coronavirus and immunize groups of people in America and abroad, U.S. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said in an interview. Collins, 70, is a physician and geneticist who leads the agency overseeing the U.S. research response to the pandemic. He discussed efforts to develop and manufacture a vaccine, potential mutations and what they mean for immunity, and how inoculations would be tested.
• One idea for speeding a Coronavirus vaccine: deliberately infecting people. Debate is rising among scientists about whether a so-called human challenge trial is worth the risk.

May 10, 2020

• China on Sunday reported the first case of coronavirus in over a month in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak first started in December last year.
• Men's blood has higher levels than women's of a key enzyme used by the new coronavirus to infect cells, the results of a big European study showed on Monday -- a finding which may help explain why men are more vulnerable to infection with COVID-19. The study, published in the European Heart Journal, also found that widely-prescribed drugs called ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) did not lead to higher ACE2 concentrations and should therefore not increase the COVID-19 risk for people taking them.
• It’s no surprise that news outlets are in demand with a story that directly affects so many people, whether they’ve gotten sick, lost jobs or are locked down at home. A Pew Research Center survey taken the third week of April found that 88 percent of Americans said they were following coronavirus news either very or fairly closely. Yet that takes a toll. Pew also found that 71 percent of Americans said that they need to take breaks from the news. To watch something else. To do something else. To breathe a little.
• The real unemployment rate, which includes people who are not looking for work or are underemployed, already stands at 22.8%. Mnuchin acknowledged that the jobless rate may be even higher and stand at 25%. “The reported numbers are probably going to get worse before they get better,” he said.
• In places like China, robots and drones are being used to spray disinfectant in public spaces. Airlines and companies like Amazon have been using disinfectant fogging as a sanitation technique to keep their facilities clean. But there is another solution. Ultraviolet light is an effective tool that has been in use for decades in hospitals and operating rooms. The global UV disinfection equipment market was valued at $1.1 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach $3.4 billion by 2026, according to Allied Market Research. Technological breakthroughs in UV light could become a key piece in returning to normal in a world with the looming threat of Covid-19.

May 9, 2020

• The debt of the federal government topped $25 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, when it climbed from $24,948,983,700,916.84 to $25,057,924,023,406.80, according to data released by the Treasury Department. On Wednesday, it continued to climb, reaching $25,058,528,802,142.42 by the close of business that day. The federal debt had topped $24 trillion for the first time on April 7, when it rose from $23,917,212,663,857.59 to $24,011,523,316,653.36. Thus, the federal debt increased by more than $1 trillion in just 28 days.

May 7, 2020

• Early look at data from 100 New York hospitals shows that 66% of new admissions related to the virus are people who were at home, Cuomo said. He also said a majority of the cases in New York City are minorities, with nearly half being African American or Hispanic.
• The White House is seeking revisions to a document drafted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that offers detailed advice to local leaders on how to reopen public places after determining that it was “overly specific,” according to a coronavirus task force official. The official responded to an Associated Press report that the 17-page document had been shelved by the administration. Meanwhile, a U.S. military member who works on the White House campus has tested positive for the coronavirus, though both President Trump and Vice President Pence have since tested negative.

May 6, 2020

• The coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, has mutated and the new, dominant strain spreading across the U.S. appears to be even more contagious, according to a new study. The new strain began spreading in Europe in early February before migrating to other parts of the world, including the U.S., becoming the dominant form of the virus across the globe by the end of March, researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory wrote. If the coronavirus doesn’t subside in the summer like the seasonal flu, it could mutate further and potentially limit the effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccines being developed by scientists, the researchers warned.

May 5, 2020

• While cities like New York have seen a hopeful drop in cases, upticks in other major cities and smaller communities have offset those decreases.
• More than half of workers at some American meat plants tested positive for coronavirus. Employees are still out sick, keeping production slow even as some facilities reopen, and grocers from Kroger Co. to Costco Wholesale Corp. are rationing supplies. Even Wendy’s Co. dropped burgers from some menus. Prices for wholesale beef and pork have jumped more than 20% since President Donald Trump’s historic executive order to keep plants running during the pandemic. The supply shortfalls and soaring prices underscore the challenges of quickly fixing America’s broken meat supply chain.
• States facing sudden drops in tax revenue amid the pandemic are announcing deep cuts to their Medicaid programs just as millions of newly jobless Americans are surging onto the rolls. And state officials are worried that they’ll have to slash benefits for patients and payments to health providers in the safety net insurance program for the poor unless they get more federal aid.

May 4, 2020

• A Trump administration projection and a public model predict rising death tolls. More states are allowing certain businesses to open, even as cases grow. The White House will restrict coronavirus officials from testifying before Congress. The Supreme Court heard the first arguments via phone. California readies plans for some stores to reopen on Friday. World leaders pledge $8 billion for a vaccine, but the U.S. declines to participate. As daily deaths fall in New York, Cuomo outlines criteria for reopening.
• They politely took turns speaking. Not a child, spouse or dog could be heard in the background. The conference call went long, but not by that much. And with that, the Supreme Court made history Monday, hearing arguments by telephone and allowing the world to listen in live, both for the first time. The arguments were essentially a high-profile phone discussion with the nine justices and two arguing lawyers. The session went remarkably smoothly, notable for a high court that prizes tradition and only reluctantly changes the way it operates.
• Another threat from the lung virus that causes Covid-19 has emerged that may cause swift, sometimes fatal damage: blood clots. Doctors around the world are noting a raft of clotting-related disorders -- from benign skin lesions on the feet sometimes called “Covid toe” to life-threatening strokes and blood-vessel blockages. Ominously, if dangerous clots go untreated, they may manifest days to months after respiratory symptoms have resolved.

May 3, 2020

• The US just reported its deadliest day for coronavirus patients as states reopen, according to WHO. The U.S. saw 2,909 people die of Covid-19 in 24 hours, according to the data, which was collected as of 4 a.m. ET on Friday. That’s the highest daily death toll in the U.S. yet based on a CNBC analysis of the WHO’s daily Covid-19 situation reports. The country’s deadliest day comes as state officials weigh reopening parts of the economy and easing stay-at-home orders.
• U.S. officials believe China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak — and how contagious the disease is — to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, intelligence documents show. Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January, according to a four-page Department of Homeland Security report dated May 1 and obtained by The Associated Press. The revelation comes as the Trump administration has intensified its criticism of China, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying Sunday that China was responsible for the spread of disease and must be held accountable.
• COVID-19 meat shortages could last for months. Experts warn that shoppers should prepare for meat to be more expensive, less varied and harder to find over the coming weeks and even months. Here's what you need to know before your next grocery shopping trip.

April 30, 2020

• President Donald Trump has speculated that China could have unleashed the coronavirus on the world due to some kind of horrible “mistake,” and his intelligence agencies said they are still examining a notion put forward by the president and aides that the pandemic may have resulted from an accident at a Chinese lab. Trump even suggested Thursday that the release could have been intentional. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the clearinghouse for the web of U.S. spy agencies, said it had ruled out the virus being man-made but was still investigating the precise source of the global pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 people worldwide.
• With coronavirus cases beginning to level off, states are looking to jump-start economies hard hit by the virus. And with jobless claims totaling 30.3 million in six weeks, Americans are clamoring to get back to work. Governors have taken vastly different tactics in developing plans to reopen business in their states and remove social-distancing restrictions. Here’s a complete, state-by-state listing, which will be periodically updated.
• America’s meat processing-plants are hard-hit by COVID-19. Speculation runs that the immigrant laborers are less aware of health precautions given in English and that their living situations and the “elbow-to-elbow” nature of work at these industrial butchers and packers make them especially vulnerable. Tyson’s CEO warned that closure of plants mean that “millions of pounds of meat will disappear from the supply chain.” Millions of animals that are raised for slaughter may simply be plowed under and buried alive.

April 28, 2020

• The U.S. National Archives says that 58,220 American soldiers died in the Vietnam conflict, which began in 1955 and ended in 1975. Covid-19 has now claimed more lives in the U.S. since it officially arrived in the country in January, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly half of the country’s deaths are concentrated in New York state, which is home to the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, New York City.
• The coronavirus has now infected more than 1 million people in the United States as the nation grapples with roughly a third of all global cases — making it the worst outbreak in the world, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. A large portion of U.S. Covid-19 cases remain in New York state, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo is currently testing about 20,000 people a day for the virus and is working with President Donald Trump to double that number.
• As New York prepares to let businesses reopen with the easing of the coronavirus pandemic, the state will have measures in place that will signal another outbreak of the disease and the need to curb activity once again, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. In particular, Mr. Cuomo said that if either the hospital system in an area of the state hits 70% of capacity or if the rate of transmission reaches 1.1—meaning for every person who has the virus, another 1.1 are infected—that would constitute what he called a “circuit breaker.”

April 27, 2020

• America's food supply chain is in trouble because of coronavirus outbreaks in rural meatpacking plant communities. For consumers, this means less meat at the grocery store. For many farmers, this means the prospect of financial ruin. For many animals, this means euthanasia instead of slaughter. Plants in more than a dozen states have closed in recent weeks, spanning beef, pork, poultry and fish.
• JetBlue was one of the first U.S. airlines to mandate crew to wear masks while working. And now, it’s the first to require the same from passengers. This new policy, which goes into effect on May 4, 2020, will be applied throughout all steps of the passenger journey — from check-in all the way through deplaning. JetBlue plans to remind passengers of this policy both before their flight and in the airport terminals.
• In the last week alone, there has been a 43% jump in the number of reported COVID-19 cases in Africa, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the continent of 1.3 billion people is poised to potentially become the next epicenter of the highly infectious and deadly disease.
• UPS plans to use drones for deliveries of prescription medicines from a CVS pharmacy to The Villages retirement community in Florida. The Sandy Springs-based shipping giant said the service by its drone-subsidiary UPS Flight Forward will support social-distancing efforts and allow faster same-day delivery of medicines as an alternative to visiting a pharmacy.

April 26, 2020

• The World Health Organization is warning that people who have had Covid-19 are not necessarily immune by the presence of antibodies from getting the virus again. It cautions against governments that are considering issuing so-called "immunity passports" to people who have had Covid-19, assuming they are safe to resume normal life.
• As the United States struggles to track coronavirus fatalities amid spotty testing, delayed lab results and inconsistent reporting standards, a more insidious problem could thwart the country's quest for an accurate death toll. Between 20 and 30 percent of death certificates nationwide were wrong before COVID-19, Bob Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, said in an interview with the USA TODAY Network.

April 24, 2020

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tripled the number of coronavirus symptoms it lists on its website. The federal organization previously listed fever, cough and shortness of breath as symptoms of COVID-19. The CDC has added six additional symptoms as people “have had a wide range of symptoms reported,” it says on its website.
• The economy will shrink at an annualized rate of 39.6 percent in the second quarter, according to the latest projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), its first to take into account the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The CBO projects that things will rebound somewhat in the third quarter, with 23.5 percent annualized growth, followed by a projection of 10.5 percent growth in the final quarter of the year.
• The millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in recent weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic will have a devastating effects on the economy going forward as workers are left without pay. Losses in April alone could push the unemployment rate to 16%, according to James Knightley, chief international economist at ING. If another 10 million Americans file jobless claims in May, that would push the unemployment rate to 22%, he said.

April 23, 2020

• The US economy has wiped out all the job gains since the Great Recession. The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans applying for state unemployment benefits totaled 4.427 million last week. Combined with the prior four jobless claims reports, the number of Americans who have filed for unemployment over the last five weeks is 26.45 million. That number far exceeds the 22.442 million jobs added to payrolls since November 2009, when the U.S. economy began to add jobs back after the recession.
• The U.S. agency that enforces civil rights laws against disability discrimination said on Thursday that companies can test employees for COVID-19 before permitting them to enter the workplace as long as the tests are accurate and reliable. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last month said employers may take workers’ temperatures without violating the the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but Thursday’s guidance appears to authorize a broader array of testing options.
• More evidence is emerging that far more New Yorkers have had the coronavirus than the number confirmed by lab tests, officials said Thursday, offering insight that could help authorities decide how and how quickly to let people stop isolating from friends and return to work. Blood samples collected from about 3,000 people indicated that nearly 14% had developed antibodies to fight a coronavirus infection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his daily news briefing. In New York City, the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., 21% of the people tested had antibodies.

April 22, 2020

• State and local governments are warning of a wave of layoffs and pay cuts after getting left out of the federal coronavirus relief package expected to pass Congress this week. In many places, such as Detroit and Los Angeles, those painful reductions are already taking shape. State and local governments received aid under the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed late last month, but they are pleading for new relief as Congress prepares to pass a bill to help small businesses and hospitals.
• Governors in 17 states have committed to regional coordination to reopen their economies during the coronavirus outbreak — but none are in the South, where leaders are going it alone, just as they did in imposing restrictions. As questions about when and how to ease virus-control measures becomes increasingly politically charged, governors in the Deep South have resisted any appearance of synchronization, instead driving home their message that each state must make its own decision.
• A second wave of the coronavirus is expected to hit the United States next winter and could strike much harder than the first because it would likely arrive at the start of influenza season, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday. As the current outbreak continues to taper off, as shown by a recent decline in hospitalization rates and other indicators, authorities need to prepare for a probable resurgence in the months ahead.

April 21, 2020

• Reopening the U.S. economy is complicated by some troubling scientific questions about the new coronavirus that go beyond the logistics of whether enough tests are available.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that all available evidence suggests that the novel coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and it was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory. "All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else," WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a Geneva news briefing. "It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin." It was not clear how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans but there had "certainly" been an intermediate animal host, she added.
• Can colleges survive coronavirus? The math is not pretty. Most campuses in the United States are sitting empty. Courses are online, students are at home. And administrators are trying to figure out how to make the finances of that work.

April 20, 2020

• After weeks of sheltering in place, Americans are asking how soon we can return to a more normal life outside our homes. Much of the answer might be in a test. The first phase of testing has been about determining who has COVID-19. The next phase will be about who had it – or may still be fighting it. Instead of looking in our throats for the coronavirus itself, health care workers will look for signs in our blood that we developed antibodies to fight the virus.
• Not since the Great Depression have so many in this country faced the prospect of being unable to put food on their table. And it's not just families trying to feed themselves, farmers, processing plants and supermarkets have all experienced disruptions. Late Friday, President Trump directed $19 billion in relief for farmers and ranchers to maintain the integrity of our food supply chain and to aid local food banks.
• A flood of new research suggests that far more people have had the coronavirus without any symptoms, fueling hope that it will turn out to be much less lethal than originally feared. While that’s clearly good news, it also means it’s impossible to know who around you may be contagious. That complicates decisions about returning to work, school and normal life.

April 17, 2020

• The Chinese city at the origin of the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan, revised up its death toll by 50 percent on Friday, as global criticism mounted over China's handling of the deadly pandemic and as the U.S. plots re-opening.
• Some of America’s largest food companies are finally feeling the pinch with restaurants across the U.S. remaining closed for weeks as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. After weeks of consumer hoarding, panic buying is abating and the lack of demand from shuttered restaurants, schools and coffee shops is starting to set in.
• China acknowledged Friday that the coronavirus death toll in the one-time epicenter city of Wuhan was nearly 50% higher than reported, underscoring just how seriously the official numbers of infections and deaths around the world may be understating the dimensions of the disaster. In Italy, Spain, Britain, the United States and elsewhere, similar doubts emerged as governments revised their death tolls or openly questioned the accuracy of them.
• A Chicago hospital treating severe Covid-19 patients with Gilead Sciences’ antiviral medicine remdesivir in a closely watched clinical trial is seeing rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms, with nearly all patients discharged in less than a week.

April 16, 2020

• A dozen Ford Motor Co. workers are experimenting with wearable social-distancing devices that could be deployed more widely once the carmaker reopens idled manufacturing plants.
• Thanks to COVID-19, Social Security's day of reckoning may be even closer than we thought. A lot less money is coming in, and pretty soon, more will be going out.
• 5 million more people filed jobless claims last week, bringing total to almost 22 million in one month. "The labor market is showing us what I think we all know, that the economy is falling off a cliff at an unprecedented rate," said one economist.
   

   

   

April 15, 2020

• Hydroxychloroquine, the 65-year-old malaria drug that President Donald Trump has praised, appeared not to help patients get rid of the pathogen in a small study.
• Coronavirus is making touch-free shopping a necessity. Amazon Go stores, delivery drones and contactless terminals will play a big role for consumers.
• A team of government officials - led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - has created a public health strategy to combat the coronavirus and reopen parts of the country.
• U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his government is trying to determine whether the coronavirus emanated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said Beijing “needs to come clean” on what they know.

April 14, 2020

• Those $1,200 federal payments to help Americans through the coronavirus crisis have started arriving in some people's bank accounts via direct deposit. But many people will have to wait longer — and there could be pitfalls, such as debt collectors grabbing the money before you do.
• The U.S. Treasury Department is holding firm on the terms of a $25 billion offer for government aid to airlines to help them meet payroll during the coronavirus downturn, officials said on Monday. Under Treasury’s terms, Reuters calculates that the government could end up with about 3% of American, which has the most employees of the U.S. carriers and has said it was seeking about $6 billion in payroll support.

April 13, 2020

• More than 41,000 people in America have recovered from the coronavirus that has prompted states nationwide to close businesses and restrict social gatherings. As the United States looks toward the end of President Donald Trump's 30-day plan to slow the spread of the outbreak, recovered patients could be key to reopening the country. Based on how previous viruses have behaved, officials believe those who have recovered will have at least some immunity, meaning their return to daily life may be less likely to fuel an outbreak.
• South Korea plans to send 600,000 coronavirus testing kits to the United States on Tuesday in the first such shipment following a request from U.S. President Donald Trump, a Seoul official told Reuters on Monday.

April 12, 2020

• Americans spent a glum Easter Sunday largely confined to their homes by the still-raging coronavirus pandemic as the U.S. death toll neared 22,000, with more than half a million confirmed cases nationwide.

April 8, 2020

• The researchers behind the new study tested the virus' life span in a 71-degree-Fahrenheit room at 65% relative humidity. After three hours, the virus had disappeared from printing and tissue paper. It took two days for it to leave wood and cloth fabric. After four days, it was no longer detectable on glass or paper money. It lasted the longest, seven days, on stainless steel and plastic.  Strikingly, the authors wrote, the coronavirus was still present on the outward-facing side of a surgical mask on day seven of the investigation. That's the longest duration of all the materials they tested.

• France has recorded the world's highest daily coronavirus death toll after 1,417 victims died in the past 24 hours. The leap makes the country the fourth in the world to surpass 10,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

• Survivors of Coronavirus Face an Uncertain Road Back to Normal.  Guidelines vary widely for when recovered Covid-19 patients can safely return to their pre-coronavirus lives.

April 6, 2020

• Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the current unemployment rate could be 13% while economic growth is down 30% or more. Yellen expressed some doubt as to whether the U.S. recovery will signal a quick recovery shaped like a “V′ and told CNBC the current situation is a “huge, unprecedented, devastating hit” though it is not in the same category as the Great Depression.

• U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned Sunday amid the coronavirus pandemic that the week ahead would be the “hardest and the saddest” of “most Americans’ lives.” He added, however, that there "is a light at the end of the tunnel if everyone does their part for the next 30 days."

• WHO says the coronavirus can spread one to three days before symptoms start. Whether the person is symptomatic or presymptomatic, the disease is still spread in the same way — through droplets from the nose and mouth, said the official, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s team lead on the coronavirus.

• What happens if you’re seriously ill and it’s not from Covid-19? At a world-renowned cancer center in Houston, a woman was told her lung-cancer surgery, booked weeks ago, could be canceled last-minute. In New York City, none of the doctors’ offices at a major hospital system are doing procedures. In Toronto, operating rooms sat empty at a hospital specializing in organ transplants and cardiac care, and surgeons rested at home as wards were cleared in preparation for what’s to come.

April 2, 2020

• US weekly jobless claims double to 6.6 million. Initial jobless claims surged to more 6.6 million last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That brings the two-week total to about 10 million due to the coronavirus-induced economic shutdown.

• Antibody tests key to ending COVID-19 lockdowns. It's the key that opens to door from total lockdown: serologic testing, which will show definitively who has contracted COVID-19 and is in theory safe to return to work.

• What to watch: Key data points as US nears 1 in 1,000 infected. Even with a lack of available testing and delays in getting test results back, about 1 in every 1,500 people in the U.S. have a confirmed case of coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Census Bureau. The daily case count has been rising, but even if it levels off, the U.S. may still get to a point where 1 in 1,000 nationally have it in the next week or so.

• Disaster in motion: 3.4 million travelers poured into US as coronavirus pandemic erupted. With the advent of COVID-19, the world has officially entered a dangerous new phase where a surge in international travel in recent decades served as the springboard -- jet fuel, really -- for an infectious disease potentially to kill hundreds of thousands in the U.S. and infect the global economy at breathtaking speed.

March 31, 2020

• Cuomo says coronavirus is ‘more dangerous’ than expected as New York cases jump 14% overnight to 75,795.

• Study shows middle-age COVID-19 mortality risk. They found that age was a key determining factor in serious infections, with nearly one in five over-80s requiring hospitalization, compared to around 1 percent among people under 30.

March 26, 2020

• Jobless claims soar past 3 million to record high. Claims had been expected to hit a record 1.5 million for the week, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones.

• U.S. to Take Stakes in Airlines in Exchange for Grants, Mnuchin Says. Plan emerged during last-minute negotiations over $2 trillion economic rescue package to address coronavirus crisis. 

• One map shows how many coronavirus tests each US state has done so far.

March 24, 2020

• Traces of new coronavirus were found on surfaces in cruise-ship cabins for as many as 17 days after passengers left, researchers said, though it wasn’t possible to determine whether they caused any infections.

• A key modelling study from Singapore has found that putting multiple social lockdowns in place - including school closures - will have the biggest impact on curbing COVID-19.

• A California police department is planning on using drones equipped with cameras and loudspeakers to monitor a coronavirus shutdown.

March 23, 2020

• This was the fastest 30% sell-off ever, exceeding the pace of declines during the Great Depression.

• Why this Nobel laureate predicts a quicker coronavirus recovery: 'We're going to be fine'. Michael Levitt, a Nobel laureate and Stanford biophysicist, began analyzing the number of COVID-19 cases worldwide in January and correctly calculated that China would get through the worst of its coronavirus outbreak long before many health experts had predicted. Now he foresees a similar outcome in the United States and the rest of the world.

• U.S. Jobless Rate May Soar to 30%, Fed’s Bullard Says.  Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard predicted the U.S. unemployment rate may hit 30% in the second quarter because of shutdowns to combat the coronavirus, with an unprecedented 50% drop in gross domestic product.

• Lost sense of smell could be a peculiar clue to coronavirus infection. Several patients who have had symptoms consistent with coronavirus, but who have not been tested or are still awaiting results, described losing senses of smell and taste, even though their noses were clear and not congested. The loss occurred regardless of how sick they got, or whether they were congested. Using nasal drops or sprays did not help.

March 19, 2020

• On March 17, 2020, the Federal Reserve announced that it is establishing a Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF) to provide liquidity to credit markets. Many of the largest corporations in the world, including Apple, Caterpillar, and JP Morgan, use commercial paper to fund their daily operations. By supporting the commercial paper market, the Federal Reserve is assuring that high-quality corporations do not run into funding issues because of the coronavirus and its impact on financial markets.

•  White House officials are working with congressional Republicans on an emergency stimulus package that could send two $1,000 checks to many Americans and also devote $300 billion towards helping small businesses avoid mass layoffs, according to two senior administration officials. The current $1 trillion Trump plan would seek to spend $500 billion towards the cash payments to individual Americans, though some people wouldn't qualify if their income is over a certain level.

• The UCLA Anderson School of Business predicted Monday that the economic recession caused by the tightening government restrictions would cost 2 million jobs and raise the national unemployment rate to 5% over the next few months — up from 3.5% in February. Administration officials have warned Congress the unemployment rate could quickly soar into double digits.