COVID-19 Totals from Worldometer
Cases in the World: 8,287,927
Deaths in the World: 446,678
Recovered from Coronavirus: 4,342,553
Active Cases: 3,498,696
Coronavirus Cases from Worldometer
COVID-19 Updates in June 2020
June 16
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Connecticut
Connecticut, the least hard-hit of the tri-states amid the COVID outbreak and the most aggressive of the three on reopening, takes its biggest step yet today as it moves into a phase that allows 95 percent of its economy to restart.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the state’s rate of COVID-19 infection is among the “best five or six states in the country,” signaling that the state was ready to reopen indoor dining, outdoor amusement parks, libraries, tattoo parlors, nail salons, gyms, pools, bowling alleys, museums, zoos, aquariums and movie theaters.
Those reopen at 50 percent capacity with mask and social distancing mandates.
New York
The Capital Region becomes the state’s seventh region to start Phase III, allowing indoor dining and personal care services
Apple reopens 10 stores in the 5 boroughs today for the first time since they closed in March amid a then ever-worsening pandemic. The stores will be open “by appointment,” meaning that customers can schedule a time to pick up previously purchased products or get service for their iPhones.
Some, especially restaurants, want to see the process move more quickly. A number of them have quietly started allowing outdoor dining, even though that is a step reserved for Phase II. New York’s two-week Phase I is up Monday, June 22, and some owners are hopeful that’ll be the day they can set up outdoor seats.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who himself got tested for COVID Tuesday after feeling under the weather the day before, believes it’s more likely the city enters Phase II in early July, even as it continues to see a steady decline in COVID numbers.
New Jersey
Gov. Phil Murphy has issued public pleas for patience. The state just entered Stage 2 of Murphy’s reopening roadmap two days ago, resuming outdoor dining, child care, in-person retail and library pickup, among other services. Some towns have threatened to defy Murphy’s executive orders, saying the reopening needs to move more quickly for businesses to survive.
June 15
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New York – Interesting Statistics
The testing positivity rate tracks the percentage of tests that came back positive each day. After bouncing around early in the epidemic when there was very little testing, it gradually rose to nearly 60% around April 5th, and has fallen since.
This is explained by an increase in the number of people tested each day, as well as by the waning of infections as social distancing has curbed spread.
New covid-19 cases in NYS have continued to drop despite reopening and protests.
When normalized for population, Rockland and Westchester counties are leading the other downstate counties in cases by a large margin.
On June 11th, Lombardy, the center of the outbreak in Italy, would be around 910 on this graph.
Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, and Westchester counties have more cases per capita than New York City. (Gothamist.com)
June 12
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New York
Church Mass in upper counties
The Archdiocese of New York is resuming daily Mass in the upper counties – Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, Sullivan, Ulster – at a limit of 25% church capacity. This is in alignment with those counties entering Phase 2.
Phase Two
The Mid-Hudson region, which includes Westchester and Rockland counties, starts phase 2 on Tuesday. Long Island starts phase 2 on Wednesday.
Hair salons, barber shops, in-store retail, and outdoor dining are all included in phase 2.
New legislation would provide assistance for families struggling to pay rent
Senator Charles Schumer says he is pushing for the passage of the COVID-19 Legislation in the Senate. The legislation would provide much-needed assistance for families struggling to pay their rent and utility bills.
Renters are currently shielded by temporary bans on evictions, but those protections will eventually end.
June 10
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USA
New Jersey: Nearly all U.S. states have at least partially reopened (or are about to reopen), according to The New York Times. New Jersey is the one state that is still largely locked down, though they are expected to begin a wider reopening on June 15.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is signing an executive order today that will increase the number of people permitted to gather outdoors to 100, and will permit the number of people to gather indoors to 25% of the building’s capacity or 50 people – whichever number is lower, he said in a news conference and on Twitter.
All outdoor recreational and entertainment businesses in New Jersey — except for amusement parks, water parks, and arcades — will be permitted to open on June 22, Murphy said.
The governor said he anticipates being able to raise the limit on “non-protest” and “non-religious” activities to 250 people on June 22 and 500 people on July 3.
“School districts planning graduations should prepare for a 500-person limit to be in place by the time graduations can resume on July 6,” he said.
Antibody Testing
In a recent study, researchers ran antibody tests on a total of 15,101 individuals at 99 grocery stores in 26 counties in New York state from April 19-28. The participants were 18 and older. Overall, 1,887 individuals (or 12.5%) showed antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, suggesting they had a past infection with the novel coronavirus.
The researchers estimated that it takes about 21 days from symptom onset to a person building up enough antibodies to show up in an antibody test, so their results would indicate who has been infected through March 29.
They found that overall 14% of New Yorkers (about 2.14 million) have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 through March 2020.
Broken out into regions, New York City showed the highest incidence of 22.7%, followed by both Westchester/Rockland Counties and Long Island, which showed an incidence of 13.2%. The rest of New York State showed an incidence rate of 3.6%.
The hope is that people with such antibodies will be immune to the coronavirus. However, scientists don’t have enough data to be able to say whether that’s the case. (LiveScience.org)
US Awards AstraZeneca $23 Million to Develop New Antibody Treatment
The US federal government said Tuesday it was awarding drug giant AstraZeneca $23.6 million to help the company develop an antibody treatment for the new coronavirus.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) said they were helping AstraZeneca to get to a phase one clinical trial of its monoclonal antibody combination. The trial would test the antibody cocktail for safety in people.
“Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory synthesized therapies that can be used to neutralize viruses. A combination of monoclonal antibodies that neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be used as both a prophylaxis to prevent infection and as a treatment for COVID-19 infections,” it added.
“Therapeutic and prophylactic antibody therapies are urgently needed to combat COVID-19, particularly in the absence of vaccines.”
There’s currently no approved treatment for Covid-19, although the antiviral drug remdesivir has received an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration. (CNN)
UK
Retail outlets can reopen starting June 15 as long as they comply with government coronavirus-secure guidelines, UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma said Tuesday.
“This is the latest step in the careful restarting of our economy and will enable high streets up and down the country to spring back to life,” Sharma said at a daily Downing Street news conference.
Shops for essential items, such as food and medicines, were allowed to remain open during the lockdown but this announcement means outlets selling nonessential items can now reopen.
AMC Movie Theaters
The largest movie theater chain in the U.S. said it plans to be fully open globally by July as it also reported a $2.2 billion quarterly loss that reflects the financial damage of closures because of the coronavirus pandemic.
AMC said it has already reopened 10 theatres in Norway, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
The company is currently planning to reopen almost all of its US and UK theatres in July in time for the Warner Bros. release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet slated for release on 17 July and Disney’s Mulan slated for release on 24 July.
June 9
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USA
While big cities on the coasts were hit hard early in the pandemic, the past few weeks have seen wider spread in inland states, including Arkansas, Texas and Arizona.
New York
The Mid-Hudson region, which includes Westchester and Rockland counties, starts phase 2 on Tuesday. Long Island starts phase 2 on Wednesday.
Hair salons, barber shops, in-store retail and outdoor dining are all included in phase 2.
Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images
June 8
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New York
The number of people testing positive for coronavirus is continuing to decline and has reached its lowest level since March 16th, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced at a Sunday press briefing. Out of over 60,000 tests conducted statewide on Saturday, there were just 781 people who tested positive, making for a positivity rate of approximately 1 percent.
June 7
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New York
COVID-19 killed 35 people across the state in the last 24 hours — down from a peak of over 700 fatalities a day in April.
Friday’s deaths, which included 26 fatalities in hospitals and nine in nursing homes, broke Thursday’s record-low of 42 deaths statewide.
New York City earlier this week for the first time reported no new COVID-19 deaths in a single day.
“Our metrics are all, today, very good. We are going to open the valve more than we originally anticipated because the metrics are so good,” Cuomo said at his daily press conference in Albany. “Compared to where we were, this is a big sigh of relief.”
The numbers will mean an accelerated reopening of houses of worship, Cuomo said.
Synagogues, mosques, and churches will be allowed to open at 25 percent capacity once the region they’re in hits the state’s phase 2 requirements, the governor said.
The mayor expects hundreds of thousands more to return to work when the city enters Phase II, which he said could happen in early July. He has already laid out an outdoor dining plan to help restaurants prepare for that next step.
As the city prepares to enter phase one of reopening on Monday, with construction, manufacturing, and curbside retail returning to work, Cuomo signed an executive order that allows all commercial buildings to take the temperatures of anyone entering. (NY Post)
New Jersey
The Garden State is expected to enter Stage 2 of its three-stage reopening on June 15, opening up in-person retail and hair salons, among other businesses.
In-person customer services will resume at New Jersey’s motor vehicle centers at that time, Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday. The Motor Vehicle Commission hopes to start road tests and issue new licenses and permits two weeks later.
Murphy also said Friday he expected to be able to make an announcement on the reopening of outdoor pools, both municipal and private, early next week. (NBC News)
June 5
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COVID
Covid Vaccine from Oxford
The global supply of a potential coronavirus vaccine being developed at Oxford University has been doubled to 2 billion after a deal including $750 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The vaccine is being produced by AstraZeneca British drugmaker, drawing on work by researchers from Oxford University.
The company has committed to mass-producing the vaccine before it has been proved effective, an unusual step designed to compress the long timeline of vaccine production.
300 million of the potential vaccines are already pledged to the US and 100 million to the UK, the BBC said. If clinical trials prove that the vaccine works, the first doses could be ready by September.
In the statement, AstraZeneca Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said: “We are working tirelessly to honor our commitment to ensure broad and equitable access to Oxford’s vaccine across the globe and at no profit.”
It remains unclear whether the vaccine, named AZD1222, will work. Soriot said the company should know by August, the BBC reported.
Two Elite Medical Journals Retract Coronavirus Studies Concerning AntiMalaria Drugs and Covid-19
Another study using Surgispgere data had reported ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, dramatically reduced mortality in COVID-19 patients, prompting increased use and government authorization of the drug in several Latin American countries.
The Lancet paper was what brought Surgisphere under scrutiny as it focused on the safety and effectiveness of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, which had already become a political controversy, in large part because of Trump’s embrace of the drug.
As soon as the study was published, it came under attack by clinicians, as well as experts in biostatistics and medical ethics who questioned how Surgisphere, a tiny company without much publishing experience in big data analysis, could have collected and analyzed tens of thousands of patient records from hundreds of hospitals—particularly given the complexities of navigating patient confidentiality agreements.
A lack of rigor in the rush to publish has also put “elite journals at the top of the academic pyramid.”
Leigh Turner, a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota said that by publishing only the author’s retraction statements, The Lancet and NEJM “didn’t show any self-reflection, any introspection. They should have looked at what might have gone wrong” in their own editorial process. (Sciencemag.org) LINK ScienceMag Article
June 4LNK for latest Disney updates
COVID-19 has not mutated says WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) said a large number of scientists across the world are studying coronavirus and none of the genome sequences show the virus is mutating to become more dangerous.
“Scientists are looking to see, are there changes in the virus? And as it is a coronavirus — it is an RNA virus — there are normal changes in this virus that one would expect over time,” she said. RNA viruses such as influenza and coronaviruses are generally more unstable and prone to mutation than viruses that use DNA to replicate. (CNN)
“None of these changes so far indicate that the virus itself is changing in terms of its ability to transmit or to cause more severe disease,” Van Kerkhove added.
COVID-19 may be a disease of the blood vessels instead of the respiratory system
While early on COVID-19 was branded as a respiratory illness, its wide array of symptoms — from the toes to the brain — baffled experts.
According to experts interviewed in an Elemental article, it’s unprecedented that a respiratory illness could migrate outside the lungs. But new research suggests COVID-19 may actually be a blood vessel disease, which would explain all of the virus’ symptoms.
- COVID-19 may be a “vasculotropic virus,” or a virus that affects the blood vessels
- Specifically, the coronavirus may target endothelial cells that line your blood vessels and help protect your heart, prevent clotting and keep blood flowing smoothly
- This could also explain why people with high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease are at higher risk of COVID-19, because all of these conditions already impact endothelial cells. (Yahoo.news)
June 2
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NYC Curfew after Months of Lockdown
New York City imposed a late-night curfew Monday as officials tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent another night of destruction amid protests over George Floyd’s death.
With an 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, New York joined other cities around the country in imposing such measures after days of unrest. The limit on a city of more than 8 million people comes after months of restrictions already imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But so much mayhem happened before the curfew took effect that Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted that it would move up to 8 p.m. Tuesday.
As the deadline to get off the streets approached, bands of protesters marched through Manhattan and Brooklyn, and police simultaneously responded to numerous reports of roving groups of people smashing their way into shops and emptying them of merchandise.
The doors of Macy’s flagship Manhattan store were breached, and police pulled two handcuffed men out and put them in a van.
People rushed into a Nike store in Manhattan and carried out armloads of clothing. Near Rockefeller Center, storefront windows were smashed and multiple people arrested. Wreckage littered the inside of an AT&T store.
Video posted on social media showed some protesters arguing with people breaking windows, urging them to stop, but instances of vandalism and smash-and-grab thefts mounted as the night deepened.
“We worked hard to build up the business, and within a second, someone does this,” said the owner of a ransacked Manhattan smoke shop, who identified himself only by the name Harri. “Really bad.”
Big crowds rallied in Times Square and Brooklyn on Monday afternoon and marched through the streets for hours. As in previous days, the demonstrations held in daylight hours were peaceful with officers mostly keeping their distance from marchers.
But Manhattan descended into chaos as night fell.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea expressed doubts earlier Monday about whether a curfew would be heeded.
The New York City Liberties Union said it was “deeply problematic that our leaders are imposing a curfew and essentially silencing New Yorkers from expressing their outrage at the racism that permeates the nation.”
After largely peaceful protests Sunday, groups of people poured down the sidewalks in Manhattan’s chic Soho neighborhood and other areas overnight, breaking into Rolex, Kate Spade, and Prada boutiques and electronics stores. Hundreds of people were arrested.
“People are doing this so next time, before they think about trying to kill another black person, they’re going to be like, ’Damn, we don’t want them out here doing this … again,’” New York City resident Sean Jones said as he watched the destruction.
“It’s disturbing because I’m 100% behind the protesters and against police brutality and bad cops killing people of color whenever they fricking want to, but this is a different story,” said Ruby Packard, a teacher and longtime SoHo resident.
“There are people using this as a reason to create chaos and be violent,” she added.
Record Number of People Moving out of NYC
New York City, the metropolitan area hardest hit by the domestic coronavirus outbreak, is losing residents at an unprecedented clip, according to local moving companies.
Roadway Moving President Ross Sapir, said people are moving out of Manhattan in numbers he has “never seen before,” as his company deals with its busiest season since its 2008 inception.
“It’s insane … I’ve never seen such growth,” Sapir said. “[Business is] double or triple compared to any other season as far as moving out of the city.”
On some days, Roadway experiences a 200 percent increase in leaving inquiries. Its clientele consists largely of higher net-worth individuals, typically 25-year-old to 45-year-old professionals in well-to-do parts of Manhattan.
United Van Lines CEO Marc Rogers said that the majority of residents moving out of Manhattan, 61 percent, are earning over $100,000. And those moving out also tend to be older – 64 percent are aged 55 or over – or in the 25 to 40 age range (25 percent).
The New York market has seen a 40 percent uptick in interest for move-outs when compared with last year, according to data provided by United Van Lines. Those numbers far outpace national trends, which show an average increase of 8 percent during the same time period.
Consistent with the national data, Sapir said he has not seen activity anywhere near New York City levels in any of the other markets that his company serves across the country.
The bad news for the Big Apple is that 2020’s busiest season has likely not even arrived yet.
Initially, panic drove people out of Manhattan, as coronavirus cases surged. Sapir said he fielded frantic calls from people who were requesting next-day service. However, now he is working with clients who have a more thought-through plan – whom he doesn’t see returning to the city, especially if schools do not reopen.
United Van Lines says large moving companies are sitting on thousands of initiatives in the queue, predicting the “busy season” this year will occur between July and September, rather than the traditional May through July. Rogers said there is a lot of “pent-up demand.”
A large proportion of Roadway’s clients are leaving Manhattan for Florida, or other areas in the South.
Data from United Van Lines corroborated those trends. The top destination that New York City residents were showing moving interest in was Miami, while Tampa and Orlando also made the top 10 – as did Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham.
The other popular destinations among New York City escapees include surrounding suburban areas in New Jersey, Connecticut, and Westchester, Sapir said.
Local lawmakers said the city will begin to reopen in June.
When asked last week whether he had tabled plans to raise taxes on the wealthy over fears of driving them from the city at a time when tax revenues have plummeted, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the coronavirus pandemic has brought up a number of disparities, including class disparities.
“The rich keep getting richer even in the midst of this crisis,” de Blasio said. “So, I absolutely believe this is a fair time to talk about higher taxes on the wealthy.”
UK
Queen Elizabeth II has been pictured riding a pony on the grounds of Windsor Castle, in her first photographed appearance since the coronavirus lockdown started in the UK.
The 94-year-old Queen has been a passionate horse lover throughout her reign and was photographed over the weekend riding one of her ponies, a 14-year-old Fell Pony called Balmoral Fern. On Sunday, the Royal Family’s verified Twitter page posted photos of the Queen riding.
The Queen has made two televised addresses during the lockdown, the first assuring those in isolation that “we will meet again” and the other to mark VE Day.
LINK Coronavirus Daily Updates May 2020
