#	Country, Other	Total Cases	New Cases	Total Deaths
	World	11,732,996	+171,508	540,137
1	USA	3,040,833	+50,586	132,979
2	Brazil	1,626,071	+21,486	65,556
3	India	720,346	+22,510	20,174
4	Russia	687,862	+6,611	10,296
5	Peru	305,703	+2,985	10,772
6	Spain	298,869	+414	28,388
7	Chile	298,557	+3,025	6,384
8	UK	285,768	+352	44,236
9	Mexico	256,848	+4,683	30,639
10	Iran	243,051	+2,613	11,731
11	Italy	241,819	+208	34,869
12	Pakistan	231,818	+3,344	4,762
13	Saudi Arabia	213,716	+4,207	1,968
14	Turkey	206,844	+1,086	5,241
15	South Africa	205,721	+8,971	3,310
16	Germany	198,057	+499	9,092
17	France	168,335	+176	29,920
18	Bangladesh	165,618	+3,201	2,096
19	Colombia	120,281	+3,171	4,210
20	Canada	105,935	+399	8,693
21	Qatar	100,345	+546	133
22	China	83,557	+4	4,634
23	Argentina	80,447	+2,632	1,582
24	Egypt	76,222	+969	3,422
25	Sweden	73,061	+44	5,433
26	Indonesia	64,958	+1,209	3,241
27	Belarus	63,804	+250	429
28	Ecuador	62,380	+422	4,821
29	Iraq	62,275	+1,796	2,567
30	Belgium	62,016	+107	9,771
31	UAE	52,068	+528	324
32	Netherlands	50,657	+36	6,128
33	Kuwait	50,644	+703	373
34	Ukraine	49,043	+543	1,262
35	Kazakhstan	48,574	+1,403	264
36	Oman	47,735	+1,557	218
37	Philippines	46,333	+2,079	1,303
38	Singapore	44,983	+183	26
39	Portugal	44,129	+232	1,620
40	Panama	39,334	+1,185	770
41	Bolivia	39,297	+1,226	1,434
42	Dominican Republic	38,128	+703	804
43	Poland	36,155	+205	1,521
44	Afghanistan	33,190	+239	898
45	Switzerland	32,315	+47	1,965
46	Israel	30,749	+791	334
47	Bahrain	29,821	+454	98
48	Nigeria	29,286	+575	654
49	Romania	29,223	+250	1,768
50	Armenia	28,936	+330	491
51	Ireland	25,531	+4	1,741
52	Guatemala	23,972	+724	981
53	Honduras	23,943	+1,022	639
54	Ghana	21,077	+992	129
55	Azerbaijan	20,837	+513	258
56	Japan	19,775	+253	977
57	Austria	18,365	+85	706
58	Moldova	17,906	+92	592
59	Serbia	16,420	+289	317
60	Algeria	16,404	+463	959

 

Source：https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

 

 

 

Months into the pandemic, many U.S. cities still lack testing capacity.

 

A coronavirus test site in Phoenix last week. In Arizona, where cases have grown to more than 100,000, a shortage of testing has alarmed local officials.Credit...Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

In the early months of the nation’s outbreak, testing posed a significant problem, as supplies fell far short and officials raced to understand how to best handle the virus. Since then, the United States has vastly ramped up its testing capability, conducting nearly 15 million tests in June, about three times as many as it had in April.

But in recent weeks, as cases have surged in many states, the demand for testing has soared, surpassing capacity and creating a new testing crisis.

In many cities, officials said a combination of factors was now fueling the problem: a shortage of certain supplies, backlogs at laboratories that process the tests, and skyrocketing growth of the virus as cases climb in almost 40 states.

Fast, widely available testing is crucial to controlling the virus over the long term in the United States, experts say, particularly as the country reopens. With a virus that can spread through asymptomatic people, screening large numbers of people is seen as essential to identifying those who are carrying the virus.

Testing in the United States has not kept pace with other countries, notably in Asia, which have been more aggressive. When there was an outbreak in Wuhan last month, for instance, Chinese officials tested 6.5 million people in a matter of days.

In Arizona, where reported cases have grown to more than 100,000, a shortage of testing has alarmed local officials, who say they feel ill equipped to help residents on their own.

“The United States of America needs a more robust national testing strategy,” Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix said in an interview.

 

 

Baseball’s stumbles continue as virus test delays shut down several teams’ spring training.

 

The Washington Nationals held their first training camp session on Friday.Credit...Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

Major League Baseball triumphantly declared on Monday that it would announce a 60-game schedule. Around the same time, the two teams from last year’s World Series, the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros, were canceling their Monday workouts for safety reasons — and blaming M.L.B.

The reason for the holdup was a delay in receiving the results of the coronavirus tests both teams took on Friday. The Oakland Athletics’ tests, too, had not even been delivered to the M.L.B. laboratory in Utah as of Sunday night. The St. Louis Cardinals also canceled their workout Monday because of the testing delay.

“The season, it’s not on my radar, really,” Craig Counsell, the manager of the Brewers, told reporters in Milwaukee. “This is on my radar: It’s keeping everybody healthy and safe and doing the best we can at that job.”

M.L.B. is trying to find its way in the grim new reality of pandemic life. The coaches and some players wear masks, news media access is severely limited, and everyone practices social distancing as much as possible. There is no recent blueprint to follow, no foolproof protocol for administering nearly 4,000 tests last week.

Still, it is hard to excuse the delay, and it has given the players yet another reason to distrust Rob Manfred, the M.L.B. commissioner.

“We will not sacrifice the health and safety of our players, staff and their families,” The Nationals general manager, Mike Rizzo said in a statement on Monday. “Without accurate and timely testing, it is simply not safe for us to continue with summer camp.”

 

 

 

Elsewhere in the worlds of sports and culture:

•  

The National Hockey League and its players union announced on Monday that the two groups reached a pivotal agreement that paves the way for hockey to resume play amid the coronavirus pandemic. As part of the deal, the sides set dates for the so-called Phase 3 and 4 of a return to play protocol. The start of formal training camps is slated for July 13, with teams traveling to two hub cities starting July 26. The league reportedly selected Edmonton and Toronto as the two so-called hub cities that will host its proposed return to play, but is awaiting approval from the players union.

•  

•  

FC Dallas pulled out of Major League Soccer’s tournament in Florida after 10 players and a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, M.L.S. officials announced on Monday. The positive tests appeared after the team arrived in Orlando, Fla., on July 1, where the tournament starts July 8.

•  
•  

The PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament, scheduled for next week in central Ohio, has canceled plans to have fans at the tournament. The rise in virus cases nationwide, and in Ohio, were the primary factors in the decision.

•  

•  

The Louvre, the world’s most-visited museum, reopened on Monday, ending a 16-week shutdown that resulted in a loss of more than 40 million euros, or about $45 million, in ticket sales. On Monday, about 7,000 visitors had booked tickets, compared with the 30,000 daily visitors who toured the Louvre before the pandemic.

•  
•  

Nick Cordero, a musical theater actor whose intimidating height and effortless charm brought him a series of tough-guy roles on Broadway, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, three months after he was hospitalized with Covid-19. The Broadway star died from the coronavirus, despite being just 41 and in apparent good health. Cases like his, experts said, are growing.

•  
•  

For the first time since the pandemic erupted, Actors’ Equity is agreeing to allow a few of its members to perform onstage. The union said it had given the green light to two summer shows in the Berkshires region of Western Massachusetts: an outdoor production of the musical “Godspell,” and an indoor production of the solo show “Harry Clarke.”

•  
•  

Britain’s arts sector, largely shuttered since March because of the pandemic, is being given a lifeline through what Prime Minister Boris Johnson described as a “world-leading” rescue package for cultural and heritage institutions, which will be given 1.57 billion pounds, about $2 billion.

 

 

Harvard will ask most students to study remotely, but tuition will remain the same.

 

Harvard University announced Monday that only up to 40 percent of its undergraduates would be allowed on campus at a time during the next academic year, but that tuition and fees would remain the same.

The university said that all first-year students would be invited to campus for the fall semester, but would be sent home in the spring to allow seniors to return before they graduate. Some students whose home environments are not conducive to learning will also be invited to return to campus.

While room and board costs will be waived for students learning from home, the university said, tuition and fees will remain the same, whether students are studying on-campus or off. (It had previously announced that tuition for the year would be $49,653 and fees would be $4,314.)

But the university offered a summer term next year of two tuition-free courses for all students who had to study away from campus for the full academic year.

All classes will be online, even for those students living on campus.

Returning students will live in single bedrooms with a shared bathroom. The university said they will be required to sign a “community compact” agreeing to health measures like viral testing every three days.

Preference was given to first-year students so they could have “the opportunity to adjust to college academics and to begin to create connections with faculty and other classmates,” the announcement said.

As with many other colleges, Harvard said that students would move out of their campus residence halls before Thanksgiving and complete the semester from home.

Harvard officials acknowledged that sophomores and juniors would be disappointed by the decision. The university said it had trained a special team to advise upperclassmen who were thinking of taking a leave of absence because of the disruption in their education.

The university said it had made the decision in light of the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in some states, particularly among young people.

Colleges and universities around the nation are grappling with when and how to reopen. Here’s a look at other developments

•  

Immigration authorities announced Monday they would discontinue exceptions to visa requirements that are currently allowing international students studying at American universities to attend all of their classes online. As a result of the change in policy, foreign students whose college campuses will not reopen for the fall semester will be required to return to their home countries, as their visas will no longer be considered valid. More than a million international students were issued visas to study in the United States last year. Many come from families that sacrificed greatly — selling homes and skipping meals to pay for an American education that can dramatically change the trajectory of their lives.

•  

•  

More than 850 members of the Georgia Tech faculty have signed a letter opposing the school’s reopening plans for the fall, under which wearing face masks on campus would not be mandatory but only “strongly encouraged.” The Montana University System is also facing pushback from the faculty over its mask policy.

•  
•  

President Trump on Monday said that schools “must” reopen in the fall and asserted without proof that Democrats, including his presidential rival Joseph R. Biden Jr., wanted them to stay shuttered “for political reasons.”

•  
•  

A $222 million state program to help young South Carolina students catch up on their reading and math comes with a big string attached: school districts were told last week that they would only receive money for face-to-face programs, not online instruction. With the recent resurgence of coronavirus cases in the state, many school administrators are worried about the risk of spreading the virus among students and teachers. But few districts have the resources to hold virtual summer school without state aid.

 

 

California steps up enforcement as cases and hospitalizations rise.

 

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said Monday that the state was cracking down on businesses that violate virus-related restrictions, inspecting nearly 6,000 businesses over the holiday weekend. More than 50 were cited, the governor said.

“The overwhelming majority of people were doing the right thing,” Mr. Newsom said.

With infections surging in the state, the governor last week reversed his reopening plan, closing down indoor operations of many businesses in the hardest-hit counties. The number of counties placed on the state’s “watch list” for their rising case loads increased to 23 from 19 last week, the governor said.

There have been at least 272,000 cases in California, according to a New York Times database, second only to New York State. As of Monday, 6,369 people there had died.

Testing has increased to more than 100,000 a day, but the overall positivity rate of those tested has also increased by more than a third, reaching an average of 7.2 percent positive tests over the past week, according to state data. Hospitalizations are up by 50 percent in California over the past two weeks, and in some southern counties, hospitals are at capacity.

But overall, California is using just 8 percent of its hospital beds for coronavirus patients.

“We still have ample hospital capacity in our system,” Mr. Newsom said.

The California Capitol building was closed Monday as a number of people, including one lawmaker, were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus. Autumn Burke, an assemblywoman representing Los Angeles, reported on Twitter that she tested positive for the virus on July 4 and had no symptoms. The decision to close the Capitol was made a day earlier, on Friday, when the leadership of the legislature learned that two other people who work in the building were confirmed to have the virus.

Katie Talbot, a spokeswoman for Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, said the Capitol would be cleaned and sanitized during the closure. “Additionally, to help protect health and safety at the Capitol, legislative recess has been extended until further notice,” she wrote in an e-mail.

 

 

Israel tightens restrictions and is ‘a step away from a full lockdown.’

 

A mobile testing station in East Jerusalem on Sunday.Credit...Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

With the virus roaring back and positive test results reaching new heights, the Israeli government on Monday ratcheted up its restrictions, closing bars, gyms and public swimming pools, curtailing gatherings in restaurants, synagogues and buses and canceling summer camps for all but the youngest children.

Separately, Israel’s largest airline, El Al, agreed to a government bailout that will provide it with a $250 million infusion but could allow it to be nationalized depending on the proceeds of a separate public stock offering. The airline was barely still operating when it put its last 500 crew members on unpaid leave last week.

Israel had fared relatively well in the early days of the pandemic after closing its borders. But lax compliance and erratic action by a government rushing to revive the battered economy sent numbers spiking last week. The number of daily positive tests reached 781 on June 30, a new high, and 1,138 on Thursday.

The prime minister’s office said government offices would require at least 30 percent of their staff members to work from home. No more than 20 people will be allowed on public buses and in indoor restaurants. Outdoor restaurants may seat up to 30. Some of the measures require Parliament’s approval, but others can be imposed by fiat.

Israel news media reported that government ministers vigorously debated the new restrictions, with the health minister warning that the number of cases could double in a week given Israelis’ failure to follow instructions and an ultra-Orthodox minister demanding that synagogues be left alone. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel was “a step away from a full lockdown,” according to local reports.

 

 

In other news from around the world:

•  

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed on Monday he won’t attend a meeting in Washington this week with Mr. Trump and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, blaming his absence on scheduling conflicts. But since the coronavirus pandemic reached Canada, the prime minister has become the country’s model for following new medical guidelines on virus-spreading prevention, which include wearing a mask and avoiding travel. The meeting was meant to celebrate the official start of the new trade deal between the three countries — the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (U.S.M.C.A.).

•  
•  

The Dominican Republic, which has been slammed by the coronavirus pandemic, elected on Sunday a businessman who has never held elected office as president, ending a 16-year hold on the presidency by a center-left party. The president-elect, Luis Rodolfo Abinader, defeated Gonzalo Castillo of the Dominican Liberation Party, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Abinader spent most of the past month in isolation after testing positive for the coronavirus. The Caribbean nation of 10.5 million people has been hit hard by the pandemic, with at least 37,000 cases and nearly 800 deaths. Sunday’s elections had been postponed from May because of the disease.

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Families in many Arab countries rely on millions of low-paid workers from Southeast Asia and Africa to drive their cars, clean their homes and care for their children and elderly relatives under conditions that rights groups have long said allow exploitation and abuse. Now, the pandemic and associated economic downturns have exacerbated these dangers. Many families will not let housekeepers leave the house, fearing they will bring back the virus, while requiring more of them since entire families are staying home, workers’ advocates say.

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About 270,000 people in Spain have re-entered lockdown, after the country officially ended its state of emergency on June 21. Emergency measures went into effect over the weekend in the Galicia region of northwestern Spain, as well as in the northeastern region of Catalonia, around the city of Lleida. The Catalan authorities anticipated that the Lleida lockdown would last two weeks, while officials in Galicia said theirs would be limited to five days, which would also allow residents to vote on Sunday in regional elections.

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Officials in India postponed the reopening of the Taj Mahal this week. The number of cases in the country started to rapidly rise several weeks ago after the government began lifting a lockdown imposed in March, and some cities have already reinstated tough rules to keep their caseloads down. India has reported about 700,000 confirmed infections and nearly 20,000 deaths as of Monday.

 

 

The virus has revived Italy’s age-old safety net: the pawnshop.

 

Customers waiting to enter the pawn branch of the Bank of Naples in Italy to pay interest in June.Credit...Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times

The economic repercussions of Italy’s lockdown nearly wiped out Anita Paris, a 75-year-old widow. Her son, a car mechanic who had provided financial support, couldn’t work. Her small pension didn’t suffice. The hoped-for government welfare checks didn’t materialize.

And so Ms. Paris turned to a shadow safety net that Italians have relied on for centuries, through plagues and sieges, wars and downturns. She rummaged through her home for “rings, necklaces, bracelets” and turned to the pawnshops that are an official, if anachronistic, part of the Italian banking system.

“I have bills to pay,” Ms. Paris said under a vaulted ceiling in the “Valuables Appraisal” hall of a baroque palace after pawning her things.

The picture does not look good for Italians in need of cash. Banks, laden with debt and wary of taking on toxic loans, are unlikely to extend credit. The government’s aid packages and job security measures are set to expire at the end of the summer.

But the managers of the collateral loan sector — that is the institutional name for pawnshops — aren’t complaining.

Anxiety may be palpable among Italians on pawnshop lines around the country, but for the pawnbrokers, business is good. Activity increased from 20 to 30 percent immediately after the lockdown, and they expect it to increase even more.

“In the autumn, we will see more financial problems than what we have seen,” Rainer Steger, the director general of the pawnbroker conglomerate Affide, said in his Rome office.

In the United States, pawnshops are associated with bulletproof-glass partitions and “Guns, Gold and Cash” lawn signs. Not so in Italy, where money changers in the Lombardy region worked with collateral in the Middle Ages.

Today, clients of pawn shops deposit valuables as collateral, and then pay interest over a set period. If the client fails to pay up, the item may be put up for auction. In that case, the pawnbroker recoups its loan, and if a profit is made at the auction, it goes to the client.

 

 

The pandemic has worsened discrimination against the Roma people in Europe.

 

The Roma suburb in the Bulgarian town of Kyustendil in June.Credit...Nikolay Doychinov for The New York Times

The authorities in several European countries have harshly enforced strict lockdown measures on Roma communities, exacerbating the poverty and discrimination that they were already facing.

In Bulgaria, at least seven Roma settlements have been shut off from the rest of society at various points since March, despite low rates of confirmed infections in most of them. Officials in one town even sprayed disinfectant on a Roma settlement from a plane. In Slovakia, five Roma towns were cordoned off, according to Amnesty International.

Since Europe’s lockdowns began, there have been 15 incidents of police violence against Roma in Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, the Netherlands and North Macedonia, including against young children, according to research shared with The New York Times by the European Roma Rights Center, a Brussels-based watchdog.

In Belgium, two groups of Roma were made homeless in April after the police confiscated their four caravans on accusations of violating coronavirus restrictions.

“It’s a perfect storm,” said Jonathan Lee, a spokesman for the European Roma Rights Center. “The coronavirus measures have exacerbated the level of institutional racism that was already prevalent throughout institutions and police forces across Europe.”

At least 10 million Roma people, sometimes known as Gypsies, live in Europe, many of them in overcrowded, segregated areas, often with limited access to health care, education and basic amenities like water and electricity.

 

 

When New York City’s schools reopen, they will not take a one-size-fits-all approach.

 

School will look radically different until there is a vaccine, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.Credit...Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to reopen New York City’s 1,800 public schools this September, but what that will actually look like could vary greatly between schools, as Eliza Shapiro reports.

The city’s 1.1 million students will almost certainly not return to their classrooms full time.

Some might physically attend school a few times a week, or one week out of every two, and continue their classes online the rest of the time. Math and English classes could be held in cafeterias or gyms, where there is room to spread out. And students may be asked to keep their distance from one another in once-packed hallways and schoolyards.

Mr. de Blasio is expected to announce more details of his plans in the coming days, but the specifics for each school will largely be worked out by principals, who will have to determine the best approach based on their institution’s physical limits and staffing. An extremely overcrowded school in Queens, for example, could have three or more cohorts of students who cycle in and out of the building on alternating days or weeks.

Political, logistical, staffing and budgetary issues loom, and some parents, students and teachers dread returning to the classroom.

Still, most city parents — about 75 percent — are tentatively willing to send their children back to school in some capacity, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Education. But only 28 percent of the roughly 400,000 parents who answered the survey said they were “very” comfortable with doing so. Families who do not wish to return could opt for full-time remote learning.

Although New York’s task is enormously complex, other school districts and colleges across the country are grappling with many of the same questions about how to safely reopen.

On Monday, the city took a tentative yet symbolic step toward normalcy, when personal-care services and some outdoor recreation were allowed to resume.

The businesses allowed to reopen include tanning salons, massage centers and spas. The city is also reopening outdoor basketball, tennis, volleyball and handball courts, providing new recreation opportunities during the summer. Public beaches are now open for swimming, and dogs will get their opportunity for more exercise as dog runs reopen.

For the city, the third phase of the state’s reopening plan was narrower in scope than previous stages, but it marked the return of nonessential services that promised to bring some jobs back and offer a balm to New Yorkers unnerved by virus-related fears and economic woes.

But concerned by the rising caseload in other states that have eased restrictions, New York officials decided last week to delay the resumption of indoor dining in the city, even though restaurants elsewhere in the state can welcome diners inside, with occupancy limits, during Phase 3.

 

Source：https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/world/coronavirus-updates.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus-national&variant=show&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storylines_menu

 

 

 

 

The coronavirus rise is "very grave," says Miami mayor, as Florida hospitals run out of beds

From CNN’s Rebekah Riess

 

 

Cars are seen as the drivers wait to be tested for Covid-19 at the test site located in the Hard Rock Stadium parking lot on July 6, in Miami Gardens, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Last week, Miami was seeing 91 new coronavirus cases per day. Now, it's up to 125.

“I'm looking at the statistics and the statistics are very grave," said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. “Every single metric is up.”

The Miami-Dade county just signed an emergency order to roll back business reopenings -- but officials also need to start working on a long-term plan, said Suarez. 

“We know that you can’t implement these orders forever,” Suarez said. “I think if this is just a measure to maintain or reduce hospital capacity, then it’s something that is obviously a short term-measure. What we need is a plan and strategy that is long-term, and that is calculated to defeat Covid-19 in our community.”

Florida is now the third hardest-hit state nationwide in terms of total case numbers.

Hospitals running out of beds: Across the state, 43 hospital intensive care units (ICU) have hit capacity with zero beds available, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). 

Another 32 hospitals have 10% ICU bed availability or less.

14 hospitals have hit capacity of non-ICU beds, and another 54 hospitals have 10% or less non-ICU hospital beds available.

Mass testing: More than 2.23 million people have been tested in Florida since the start of the pandemic, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday.

For the week of June 29, Florida tested over 400,000 people, DeSantis said on Twitter.

 

 

Melbourne is going back under lockdown as coronavirus cases surge

From CNN's Angus Watson in Sydney

 

Workers in personal protective equipment are seen, along side police patrols, on July 7, in Melbourne, Australia. Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

The Australian city of Melbourne is going back into Stage 3 lockdown for six weeks as it struggles with a spike in coronavirus cases, announced Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews today.

The lockdown will start at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday local time.

People will be only allowed to leave their homes to buy food, go to work, receive or give care, and do exercise, Andrews said.

Elsewhere in Victoria state, the region of Mitchell Shire will also be locked down for six weeks.

Businesses such as restaurants that had reopened will now be forced to close again, the premier said.

“We know we’re on the cusp of something very very bad if we don’t get on top of this,” said Andrews. “The alternative though is to pretend that its over, just as I think some Victorians have been doing.”

The housing towers: Since Saturday, 3,000 residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne have been under "hard lockdown," meaning they cannot leave at all. All residents are now being tested, with meals and other necessities provided by the government.

With Melbourne going under Stage 3 lockdown -- softer restrictions than a "hard lockdown" -- the residents in the towers will be allowed to go outside again for essential activities.

Earlier today, the Victoria health department announced that it recorded 191 new cases on Monday -- the highest daily jump so far.

 

 

Study finds silent spreaders could be responsible for half of Covid-19 cases

From CNN Health’s Lauren Mascarenhas

 

People ride the Staten Island Ferry on as New York City officially begins ‘Phase Three' of opening on July 6, 2020 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Silent transmission could be responsible for half of coronavirus cases in the US, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The term "silent transmission" means the virus is transmitted through asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic patients, who are harder to find and trace.

How the study worked: The study, led by Alison Galvani of Yale University and colleagues, used coronavirus transmission models and existing research, which already indicated that asymptomatic infections account for 17.9% to 30.8% of all infections.

Based on these existing figures, the team found that presymptomatic people would account for 47% to 48% of transmission, and asymptomatic people would account for 3.4% to 6.6% of transmission. 

What this means: The team found that even immediate isolation of all symptomatic cases would not be enough to get the spread under control. Authorities would need to identify and isolate more than one-third of silent transmitters, as well as all symptomatic cases, to prevent an outbreak.

Researchers emphasized the need for both testing and contact tracing to safely lift the current social distancing and stay-at-home restrictions.

 

 

Brazil president attended party with US ambassador without masks or social distancing

From CNN's Marcia Reverdosa in São Paulo and Taylor Barnes in Atlanta

 

 

President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro reacts during a conference with the press and supporters at Alvorada Palace on June 5, in Brasilia, Brazil. Andressa Anholete/Getty Images

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attended a July 4th celebration event with Todd Chapman, the US Ambassador to Brazil, shortly before getting tested for coronavirus.

The event took place on Saturday, according to a photo posted that day to the President’s official Facebook page. In the photo, Bolsonaro is standing in close proximity to several US and Brazilian officials, in what Bolsonaro said was Chapman's residence.

No one in the photo is wearing a mask. Chapman is seen with his arm around the President; he also shared a photo of the event on Twitter, saying he was “honored” to host Bolsonaro on July 4th.

Bolsonaro was tested for coronavirus on Monday evening, and expects to receive the results on Tuesday, according to a statement from the president’s communication team.

"The President is, at the moment, in good health and at his residence," the statement added.

Chapman will also be tested for coronavirus. The US Embassy in Brasilia wrote on Twitter late Monday that Chapman will take Covid-19 tests and follow CDC protocols.

Other top US and Brazilian officials were at the event, including the US Defense Attache, Bolsonaro’s secretary of government, and Bolsonaro’s chief of staff. 

 

Source：https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-07-07-20-intl/index.html

 

 

 

Summary

 

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

· Deaths in India pass 20,000. The country reported 467 new deaths on Tuesday, taking the toll to 20,160. It also recorded 22,252 new infections, increasing the total to 719,665. India on Monday overtook Russia as the third most affected country globally, behind the United States and Brazil.

· Flights in New Zealand will be limited as the government seeks to ease pressure on its quarantine regime – international arrivals are quarantined for 14 days to ensure Covid-19 does not enter the community – by rationing the return of citizens to the country. Jacinda Ardern’s government has struck a deal with Air New Zealand to limit the number of places available for international arrivals, given the strain on compulsory isolation facilities.

· The Australian state of Victoria recorded 191 new coronavirus cases. The ABC reports that the state of Victoria in Australia, which is fighting a worsening coronavirus outbreak, has confirmed 191 new cases overnight, breaking yesterday’s record of 127 cases.

· US cases near 3 million. Known US coronavirus cases stand at almost 3 million, with 2,911,888 currently confirmed on the Johns Hopkins University tracker.The country’s death toll passed 130,000 on Monday, following a massive surge of new cases that has derailed efforts to restart the economy. Nonetheless, the White House claimed on Monday that the US has been “a leader” in the global fight against coronavirus, despite and America recently witnessing the highest ever number of new daily cases reported in the world, with over 55,000.

· Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he has been tested again for coronavirus. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he had undergone another test for the novel coronavirus, after local media reported he had symptoms associated with the Covid-19 respiratory disease that it causes. The results are not available yet.

· Boris Johnson accuses care homes over high Covid-19 death toll. Care leaders, unions and MPs have rounded on Boris Johnson after he accused care homes of failing to follow proper procedures amid the coronavirus crisis, saying the prime minister appeared to be shifting the blame for the high death toll.

· Nearly one in six Britons would refuse Covid-19 vaccine – survey. Nearly one in six Britons will refuse a coronavirus vaccine if and when one becomes available, and a similar number are unsure whether they will get one, according to a survey. The findings come amid a significant rise in anti-vaccination sentiment on social media, and represent a threat to efforts to contain the disease.

· South Africa’s coronavirus cases have passed 200,000, the highest total in Africa. There are currently 205,721 cases and 3,310 deaths in South Africa, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government data, making it the 15th worst-affected country worldwide.

· Kenya emerged from lockdown. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday announced a “phased reopening” of the country, with the resumption of international flights from 1 August as well as the lifting of internal travel restrictions.

· The Democratic Republic of Congo extended its coronavirus health emergency on Monday for 15 days, the sixth extension since March, with some lawmakers voicing concern about the effect on the economy.

· Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tests positive for coronavirus. Bottoms announced Monday that she had tested positive for Covid-19.The 50-year-old Democrat is among the women named as a potential vice-presidential running mate for presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden. She told MSNBC that she decided her family members should get tested again because her husband “literally has been sleeping since Thursday.”

·  In China, Beijing city reported zero new coronavirus cases. China reported eight new coronavirus cases in the mainland for 6 July, up from four a day earlier, the health authority said. All of the new infections were imported cases, involving travellers entering China from abroad.

· China’s Sinovac Biotech is starting Phase III trials of its potential coronavirus vaccine in Brazil, it said on Monday, becoming one of three companies to move into the late stages in the race to develop an inoculation against the disease.

· Israel has reimposed certain restrictions after a surge in cases, to avoid a wider lockdown that could devastate the economy. Bars, nightclubs, gyms and event halls have been closed.

 

Source：https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/jul/07/coronavirus-live-news-india-sees-record-new-cases-as-texas-warns-of-overwhelmed-hospitals?page=with:block-5f02ad3a8f0832109a719b53#liveblog-navigation