Confusion erupts again over asymptomatic spread of COVID-19. Nineteen states are seeing new cases increase. And the race for a vaccine gets complicated. Get caught up on coronavirus developments at home and around the world:
- As of this morning, the world has seen 7.26 million confirmed cases. Almost 412,000 people have lost their lives, while almost 3.39 million have recovered. The number of infections is rising faster than ever, but many countries have decided that this is the moment to ease lockdown restrictions. Here in the U.S., we’re fast approaching 2 million confirmed cases. Just over 112,000 Americans have died, and another 525,000 have recovered.
- It’s an issue that’s been argued about for months, both by experts and by people strolling through parks all over the world: Can people who don’t feel sick spread the coronavirus, and if so should we all be wearing masks to stop it? A new study found that population-wide face mask use could push COVID-19 transmission down to controllable levels.
- In Texas, North and South Carolina, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah, and Arizona, an increasing number of patients have been hospitalized since the holiday weekend because of coronavirus infections. Arizona again told hospitals to activate coronavirus emergency plans after cases spiked following reopening, turning it into a U.S. virus hotspot. It’s one of 19 states with the trend of new coronavirus cases still increasing. While 24 are trending downward, seven states' trends are holding steady.
- Across the U.S., states are building armies of contact tracers, trying to contain the spread of COVID-19. Utah is among the states at the forefront of the effort.
- Once upon a time, developing a new vaccine was a step-by-step process that went from concept, to design, to tests in humans, to regulatory approval, to manufacturing. The process could take a decade or more. But the urgent need for a COVID-19 vaccine has radically changed all that. Now, some steps are happening concurrently. Meanwhile, the top teams rushing to develop coronavirus vaccines are alerting governments, health officials, and shareholders that they may have a big problem: The outbreaks in their countries may be getting too small to quickly determine whether vaccines work.
- For the fortunate COVID-19 patients who survive intensive care and long stretches on ventilators, the journey home can be an arduous and lonely one. Their survival is testament to the lifesaving value of some of the world’s most sophisticated medical interventions, but their deficits reveal the toll of the disease and of hospitalization itself.
- An estimated 40% of the country’s more than 100,000 COVID-19 deaths are connected to long-term care facilities. Longstanding problems with staffing shortages and chronic turnover have left nursing homes especially exposed.
- The Veterans Affairs Department on Tuesday acknowledged its current supplies of personal protective equipment may not be enough to handle a second wave.
- Even before the pandemic, millions of people in the U.S. were struggling with access to groceries, and it’s only gotten harder. Access to food is a problem worldwide. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for immediate action Tuesday to avoid a “global food emergency,” saying more than 820 million people are hungry, some 144 million children under 5-years-old are stunted, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse.
- For millions of people who live in poor and troubled regions of the world, the novel coronavirus is only the latest epidemic. They already face a plethora of fatal and crippling infectious diseases.
- In Brazil, the situation is dire and confusing. A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to resume publication of full COVID-19 data, including the cumulative death toll, following allegations the government was trying to hide the severity of the pandemic in Latin America’s biggest country. The nation’s low-income favelas, neglected by the government, organize their own coronavirus fight. More than 30,000 indigenous people live in Manaus, the Brazilian state capital hardest hit by the global pandemic. Many among them are sick with fever, straining for air and dying, but just how many no one knows.
- Air travel in and out of major cities around the world facilitated the spread of the deadly coronavirus among passengers, a new study from the Institute for Economics & Peace stated.
- Scientists are turning a spotlight on China’s version of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic as they scrutinize everything from the virus’s genetic code to proxy data, such as cremations and internet searches for disease symptoms.
- At a hotel in Jerusalem dubbed “Hotel Corona,” guests came from many walks of life — Israeli Jews, Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel, Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, religious, secular -- but all had one thing in common: They were among thousands of COVID-19 patients quarantined in hotels throughout the country.
- After three months of near total blackout of cinemas nationwide, movie theaters are preparing to reopen — even if it means only a few titles on the marquee and showings limited to as little as 25% capacity.