Coronavirus USA news summary: cases and deaths - 26 July
Coronavirus live US: latest news - 26/27 July
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Senate live: new stimulus legislation being proposed
Follow the proposals being brought in the Senate live.
The Republicans are outlining their HEALS legislation. $1,200 stimulus checks are included.
HEALS stands for Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection and Schools Act.
NHL reveals no new positive COVID-19 tests
The NHL announced there were no positive tests returned for coronavirus in its latest round of testing.
Hockey is planning to return on August 1 with the expanded 24-team Stanley Cup playoffs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
All 24 teams are now in the 'bubble' city hubs of Edmonton and Toronto, where players and staff will be tested on a daily basis.
And there was positive news from the league on Monday as the results of tests between July 18 and 25 were revealed.
There were no positive tests among the 4,256 administered to more than 800 players, the NHL said.
This came after the previous week's testing saw two cases of coronavirus.
California hospitals overwhelmed as COVID-19 infections soar
Nearly 200 federal healthcare workers have been deployed to California's Central Valley agricultural breadbasket, where hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases as new infection rates soar, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
The arrival over the past several days of Department of Defense personnel will help hospitals in the stricken region, where some hospitals and intensive care units are two-thirds full of COVID-19 patients. That has left little room for people who are ill from other conditions and is putting immense pressure on doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers trained in providing care to the sickest patients.
To combat the virus' spread, the state is committing $52 million to the eight counties that make up the San Joaquin Valley, Newsom told a news conference in Stockton, near the state capital of Sacramento.
Second Stimulus check: How much will it be and what is the income limit?
Second Stimulus check: How much will it be and what is the income limit?
The fourth and final stimulus relief package is expected to be announced this week and it should include a second round of stimulus checks amid the pandemic.
Ravaged by COVID-19, California's Central Valley gets 190 federal healthcare workers
Nearly 200 federal healthcare workers have been deployed to California's Central Valley agricultural breadbasket, where hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases and new infection rates are soaring, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
U.S. CDC reports 4,225,687 coronavirus cases
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 4,225,687 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 61,795 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 564 to 146,546.
The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. ET on Sunday versus its previous report a day earlier.
Google extends work from home through June next year
Alphabet Inc's Google said on Monday it would allow employees, who do not need to be in the office, to work from home until the end of June 2021.
Google had said in May it would begin reopening more offices globally as early as June this year, but most Google employees would likely work from home until the end of this year.
Several other companies have also allowed most of their employees to work from home until the end of 2020 in a bid to safeguard them against the COVID-19 pandemic, with Twitter Inc proposing remote work for some of its employees indefinitely
Over 650,000 dead worldwide as a result of Covid-19
The global Covid-19 death toll has reached 650,029, with over 16 million cases now confirmed worldwide.
The disease has surged back at hotspots in Asia, Europe and the Americas, prompting renewed restrictions, targeted lockdowns and compulsory mask-wearing orders.
Australia has been rocked by its deadliest surge since the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong is experiencing record daily numbers and Spain’s caseload has tripled in the last fortnight.
The US still leads the way in cases and deaths, with 147,143 fatalities from the virus.
Vaccine alliance eyes range of prices for COVID shots, says $40 would be maximum
Coordinators of a global coronavirus vaccines funding scheme are looking at a wide range of potential prices for COVID-19 shots, with a reported $40 per dose price tag the "highest number" in that range, one of the co-leads of the project said.
Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccine alliance, which is co-leading the COVAX facility designed to ensure fair global access to COVID-19 shots, said the facility had no specific target price and would also seek to negotiate tiered pricing for richer and poorer countries.
Berkley rejected comments from European Union sources last week who said the COVAX facility was targeting a $40 price for COVID vaccines for wealthy countries. The EU sources had said the EU would be seeking to secure cheaper deals outside of the COVAX scheme.
"There was a large range of numbers, and they (the EU sources) put the highest number out," Berkley said in an interview. He said that in a presentation to EU officials, COVAX officials had given "a range of different prices".
"And that ($40) was the maximum price in the range for high income countries, rather than a set price," he told Reuters.
COVAX is co-led by GAVI, the World Health Organization and the CEPI Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and is designed to guarantee fast and equitable access globally to COVID-19 vaccines once they are developed.
Miami medical teams feel helpless as COVID-19 devastates South Florida
As the coronavirus ravages Florida, healthcare workers in Miami hospitals are struggling to cope with the emotional and physical impact of treating a crushing wave of COVID-19 patients.
After seeing 10,000 new cases a day become the norm across the state in July, many of those on the frontlines are frustrated with the apparent inability of local, state, and federal governments to coordinate an adequate response. They are equally aghast with what appears to be the reluctance or refusal of many Floridians to honor safety precautions to stop the spread of coronavirus.
“I know, and my colleagues know, that we’re putting a Band-Aid on a problem, we’re supporting people as best we can to get them through, but the real fight happens outside,” said Dr. Eric Knott, a pulmonary and critical care fellow working in three of Miami’s largest hospitals. “If you can’t stop the spread, all of my work is for nothing.”
MLB postpones games in Miami, Philadelphia due to Covid-19
Major League Baseball's coronavirus-delayed season hit a serious snag less than a week after it began as it postponed games scheduled for Monday in Miami and Philadelphia due to COVID-19 related concerns.
The Miami Marlins, who opened their season Friday in Philadelphia, were scheduled to return home on Sunday ahead of their scheduled Monday home opener but put off traveling after a number of their players tested positive for the virus.
The Philadelphia Phillies were scheduled to host the New York Yankees on Monday but that game also was postponed as the Marlins players were recently in their stadium.
MLB said in a news release the games were postponed while it "conducts additional COVID-19 testing" and that members of the Marlins team traveling party were self-quarantining in place while the league awaits the results. COVID-19 is the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
O'Brien: Trump's National Security Adviser tests positive for Covid-19
O'Brien: Trump's National Security Adviser tests positive for Covid-19
According to a report by Bloomberg, Robert O’Brien contracted coronavirus at a family event and has self-quarantined at home as a precaution.
Read more here
Miami Marlins-Baltimore Orioles game cancelled - players test positive
The Miami Marlins' home opening game against the Baltimore Orioles tonight has been canceled due to a number of players and staff testing positive for Covid-19, according to multiple reports.
According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, eight players and two coaches have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total cases on the team to at least 14. Miami played their first three games of the shortened 60-game season in Philadelphia this past weekend, winning two of three. The Marlins did not travel back to Miami after the three-game series ended Sunday as they remained overnight for more testing.
This is the first game to be canceled this season.
Bioprinting could be used for testing potential treatments for Covid-19
According to The New York Times, The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has been using 3-D printing to create copies of human organs which can then be used for testing viruses and diseases such at Covid-19 and cancer. The program has been in progress at a biosafety lab at George Mason University in Fairfax. The process of creating an artificial human tissue using the printing process is a form of "bioprinting."
The bioprinting method is currently used to print skin for those victims who suffered from burns, as well as testing cosmetics to avoid using live animals as test subjects.
NBA concerned about Covid-19's long-term effects on the heart and lungs
Doctors who study athletes’ hearts, lungs and respiratory systems say it‘s logical to believe that professional athletes’ ages and extreme fitness levels would allow those infected with the coronavirus to produce milder symptoms and better long-term prognosis than the hospitalized, seriously ill patients whose cases make up much of the available worldwide data.
Return-to-play recommendations published in May by the American College of Cardiology’s sports and exercise cardiology council cited research showing that acute cardiac injury had been found in 22% of hospitalized patients with Covid-19 — a rate that is “something we’ve never seen before as it relates to viral infection,” said Dr. Jonathan Kim, a co-author of the paper and a member of the NBA’s cardiac advisory committee.
Trump's national security adviser tests positive for coronavirus
U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, a source familiar with the situation said on Monday. The White House has said staff is regularly tested for the virus, and O'Brien is the most senior official to be found positive amid the pandemic.
O’Brien has been isolating at home and working remotely after apparently contracting the virus at a family event, Bloomberg earlier reported citing unnamed sources. Politico separately reported it was unclear how O’Brien was exposed to the virus or how much contact he had recently with Trump in person.
Representatives for the White House and the National Security Council could not be immediately reached for comment. A U.S. military member who works at the White House as a valet tested positive for coronavirus in May as did Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary.
Pelosi slams Donald Trump for his statements about the pandemic
Pelosi slams Donald Trump for his statements about the pandemic
The Democratic House speaker labelled Donald Trump "Mr. Make Matters Worse" on CBS, leading the US president to call her "Crazy Nancy Pelosi" on social media.
Read more
Diabetes, obesity and Covid-19
Americans with diabetes and related health conditions are 12 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than those without such conditions. Roughly 90% of Americans who die of Covid-19 have diabetes or other underlying conditions. And people of color are over-represented among the very sick and the dead.
Diabetes often comes paired with other health problems – obesity and high blood pressure, for instance. Add smoking, Liam Smeeth, dean of the faculty of epidemiology and population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said, and "for someone with diabetes in particular, those can really mount up."
People with diabetes are more vulnerable to many types infections, Peters said, because their white blood cells don't work as well when blood sugar levels are high.
"The virus is not of natural origin and did not emerge in Wuhan"
"The virus is not of natural origin and did not emerge in Wuhan"
Li-Meng Yan, a virologist who fled to the US, has claimed that China deliberately withheld information and that Covid-19 is not a naturally occurring virus.
Read more:
Moderna Covid-19 vaccine candiate moves into late stage trial
Moderna Inc said on Monday it has started a U.S. government-backed late-stage trial evaluating its Covid-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, in about 30,000 adults who do not have the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. The main goal of the study will be prevention of the symptomatic Covid-19 disease, the company said.
Covid-19 crisis by far our worst global health emergency - WHO
The coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 16 million people is easily the worst global health emergency the World Health Organization (WHO) has faced, its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.
Only with strict adherence to health measures, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, would the world manage to beat it, Tedros added at a virtual news briefing in Geneva. "Where these measures are followed, cases go down. Where they are not, cases go up," he said, praising Canada, China, Germany and South Korea for controlling outbreaks.
Resurgences of the coronavirus in various regions, including where nations thought they had controlled the disease, are alarming the world, with deaths nearing 650,000. WHO emergencies programme head Mike Ryan said far more important than definitions of second waves, new peaks and localised clusters, was the need for nations around the world to keep up strict health restrictions such as physical distancing. "What is clear is pressure on the virus pushes the numbers down. Release that pressure and cases creep back up," he said, acknowledging, however, that it was virtually impossible for nations to keep borders shut for the foreseeable future.
Pelosi: Congress can't go home without a deal on coronavirus relief package
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress will remain in session until there is agreement on the proposed, new CARES 2 aid package which will be discussed by the Senate later today.
"We can't go home without it," Pelosi, a California Democrat, said on "Face the Nation" when asked whether the House would stay in session until a deal is negotiated. "It's so sad that people should have this uncertainty in their lives."
Lawmakers will also discuss the $600 bonus payment to unemployment benefits which expires this week.
Fauci urges Americans to get a flu jab
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top infectious disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, has urged members of the public to get the flu vaccine and "blunt" the disease's effect amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an interview withMarketWatch, Fauci explained, "We're telling people that, when the flu vaccine becomes available, make sure you get vaccinated so that you could at least blunt the effect of one of those two potential respiratory infections."
Trump now says he won’t throw first pitch at Yankees game
U.S. President Donald Trump won’t throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium next month after all. Last week, Trump revealed during a White House briefing that he’d throw the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on 15 August but he tweeted on Sunday that he won't be able to make the date.
German sniffer dogs can detect Covid-19 infections in humans
Yet another reason why they really are man's best friend.
Dollar struggles amid China-U.S. tensions and coronavirus crisis
(Reuters) The dollar crumbled on Monday as cracks in the U.S. economic recovery drove investors away from the world’s reserve currency as they increased bets the Federal Reserve could flag another accommodative shift in its outlook this week.
The greenback fell to a four-month low against the yen, a new 22-month trough on the euro and a five-year low against the Swiss franc.
People with appointments arrive in cars for a coronavirus antibody test at an antibody rapid serological testing site on Sunday in San Dimas, California, 30 miles east of Los Angeles. The free blood tests were offered by appointment to anybody without Covid-19 symptoms by the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation and Medical Task Force International, two US-based charitable organisations.
(Photo: Robyn Beck / AFP)
Over 9,300 new cases in Florida
Florida, which has averaged 10,000 new cases a day in July, reported 9,344 fresh coronavirus infections on Sunday, taking the state's overall tally to just under 424,000. Only California, which has around 450,000, has registered more cases in the US.
New York, which was previously the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the US, is now third with approximately 416,000 cases, but still has more deaths - 32,000 - than any other state. Florida recorded 78 new deaths on Sunday, leaving its death toll at just under 6,000.
Second stimulus check: when will relief bill proposal be presented?
CARES 2: when will the proposed relief bill be presented?
Senate Republicans in the US are preparing to unveil CARES 2, a proposal for the next relief package amid the coronavirus crisis.
Full story:
Clippers' Williams in 10-day quarantine after food run
Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams must complete a 10-day quarantine and will miss the first two games of the restarted season next week, the NBA announced Sunday.
The three-time NBA Sixth Man of the Year reportedly visited a gentleman's club on Thursday night in Atlanta while he was away from the NBA bubble in Orlando, Fla., on an excused absence.
Williams, 33, admitted going to the club but said he went there to pick up food after attending the viewing of his late grandfather, Paul G. Williams.
"Ask any of my teammates what's my favorite restaurant in Atlanta is. Ain't nobody partying. Chill out lol Maskon inandout," the 15-year NBA veteran tweeted Friday.
Germany rejects Trump's proposal to let Russia back into G7
Germany has rejected a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin back into the Group of Seven (G7) most advanced economies, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.
Trump raised the prospect last month of expanding the G7 to again include Russia, which had been expelled in 2014 following Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region.
But Maas told Rheinische Post that he did not see any chance for allowing Russia back into the G7 as long as there was no meaningful progress in solving the conflict in Crimea as well as in eastern Ukraine.
Moderna gets further $472 million U.S. award for coronavirus vaccine development
Moderna Inc said on Sunday it has received an additional $472 million from the U.S. government's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support development of its novel coronavirus vaccine.
The U.S.-based drug maker said the additional funding will support its late-stage clinical development including the expanded Phase 3 study of Moderna's vaccine candidate.
In April, Moderna had received $483 million from the U.S. federal agency that funds disease-fighting technology, when the experimental vaccine was in an early-stage trial conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
"Encouraged by the Phase 1 data, we believe that our mRNA vaccine may aid in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing future outbreaks," Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said in a press release.
Coronavirus: the complete guide to the Covid-19 pandemic
All the information you need to understand the coronavirus and ways to stay safe during the Covid-19 pandemic
In this guide you’ll find a summary of many of the recommendations and explanations provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other public health authorities, along with answers to many of the most frequently asked questions about the coronavirus.
Coronavirus USA: is Michigan going back to phase 3?
Is Michigan going back to phase 3?
Local politicians feel that it’s “probably inevitable” that the entire state will need to regress to the “flattening phase” if residents don’t take efforts to reduce the growing spread of the virus.
Coronavirus live US updates: welcome
Hello and welcome to our live, United States-focused coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now registered almost 4.2 million cases and over 146,000 deaths in the country, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.