MADISON (WKOW) -- After Wisconsin's record-breaking spike in reported COVID-19 cases Saturday, the number of newly reported cases dropped again Sunday -- but the percentage of tests that came back positive rose.
The Department of Health Services reported 7,617 new test results, of which 769--or 10.1 percent--came back positive, according to the numbers released today.
Measuring the percentage of new cases returned in tests each day helps differentiate if increases in cases are due to greater spread or more testing, according to DHS.
Theseven-day average, another measure reported by DHS,has risen over the last several weeks.
The next highest total of new cases reported in a single day was the 845 reported yesterday.
DHS also listed no new deaths and 27 new hospitalizations.
DHS also said that there was a a negative change in deaths in Sunday's COVID-19 numbers because a death was reported to the DHS in error and the correction has decreased the death count by one.
More than 680,000 tests have come back negative since testing began.
Of the positive cases, 28,318, or 78 percent have recovered.
DHS now has a county-level dashboard to assess the COVID-19 activity levelin counties and Healthcare Emergency Readiness Coalition regions that measure what DHS calls the burden in each county.View the dashboard HERE.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services updates the statistics each dayon its website around 2 p.m.
(Our entire coronavirus coverage is available here.)
The new strain of the coronavirus causes the disease COVID-19. Symptoms include cough, fever and shortness of breath. A full list of symptoms is available onthe Centers for Disease Control website.
In severe cases, pneumonia can develop. Those most at risk include the elderly, people with heart or lung disease as well as anyone at greater risk of infection.
For most, the virus is mild, presenting similarly to a common cold or the flu.
Anyone who thinks they may have the disease should call ahead to a hospital or clinic before going in for a diagnosis. Doing so gives the staff time to take the proper precautions so the virus does not spread.
Those needing emergency medical services should continue to use 911.
TORONTO -- A baby girl in Texas tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after her birth, offering what researchers call the strongest evidence yet that the disease can be transmitted from mothers to children in the womb.
There have been several well-documented cases of female COVID-19 patients giving birth while positive for the disease. Doctors were even able to deliver a baby boy in Colombia last month 14 weeks early, after the mother slipped into a coma.
Researchers have also found evidence of the novel coronavirus in at-term placenta, an umbilical cord and breast milk of infected mothers.
However, there had been no known examples of a baby born to a COVID-19-positive mother also testing positive for the disease not until Friday, when researchers affiliated with the University of Texas published their findings in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
In this case, the baby was born prematurely, at 34 weeks. Because of that and because of the possible exposure to COVID-19 through her 37-year-old mother, she was placed in a neonatal intensive care unit for observation.
Although all her vital signs were normal on the day of her birth, the researchers say, she developed a fever and some mild breathing difficulty the following day. A test administered 24 hours after her birth came up positive for SARS-CoV-2, as did a second test 24 hours later.
Further tests of the placenta revealed the presence of coronavirus particles and a protein that is believed to be specific to the virus. Because of these results, the researchers concluded that COVID-19 was passed on to the baby in the womb, not during or after her birth.
The researchers say this sort of transmission "appears to be a rare event" given that no other documented cases of it have come to light.
The baby was given supplemental oxygen for a few days and continued to test positive through her first two weeks of life. Three weeks after she was born, she and her mother were sent home, and both are said to be in good condition.
A CORONAVIRUS vaccine could be more than two years away in a blow that could cripple the global economy, former New Zealand leader Helen Clark has warned.
Her warning comes as she has been named to co-chair a panel to review the World Health Organisation's (WHO) handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The former Prime Minister called for a dramatic increase in global action to save countries from collapse should the coronavirus pandemic get worse.
The findings from her introspective investigation could take more than a year to publish, but Ms Clark is hopeful it will help mankind learn lessons from global outbreak.
However, she warned the virus threat is likely to last for several years as a vaccine is still a long way off - potentially not arriving until late 2022.
Most scientists believe developing the inoculation is the only safe way life can return to how it was before the pandemic.
She said: "I'm told from Geneva that the most optimistic scenario for a widely available vaccine would be at least two and a half years.
"And even then we dont know how efficacious it would be it may not stop us getting it, it may simply mitigate the impact of getting it.
"In the end, a disease like this, like a plague of ancient times, will keep going as long as hosts present themselves for it, so we have to cut the transmission cycle."
The warning counters some of the optimistic claims for the development of the first vaccines to counter Covid-19.
The Milken Institute is tracking at least 180 vaccine projects around the world - with British scientists hoping for a breakthrough by September.
Ms Clark - who led New Zealand from 1999 to 2008 - will be working alongside former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to lead a WHO panel investigating its own handling of the Covid-19 crisis.
She called on the world's nations to step up to help tackle the looming economic fallout of the pandemic.
The former world leader said the world faces a "$2.5trillion crisis".
She warned some nations would"go over a cliff"with dire effects on their neighbours unless the G20 develops a joint response.
She said: "No-one has stepped up from the G20 to say 'we have to act' even when it is not in anybody's interest to have one economy after another fall over."
Ms Clark added: "I think it can get worse if the G20 doesn't mobilise the support required for the international financial institutions to do their job."
Britain is already feeling the pinch from the pandemic, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirming the economy has shrunk by 25 per cent in just two months.
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It come as the US formally notified WHO on Tuesday that it will be withdrawing from the UN body in 2021.
WHO has come under heavy criticism over the pandemic, with US President Donald Trump's alleging it was too "China-centric".
Ms Clark said: "I feel in a sense that the coordination was left to rest on the WHOs shoulders when it had spun out into a crisis that was far greater than the WHO could cope with."
She described the task ahead as "exceptionally challenging" - with the virus having infected more than 12million people worldwide and killed almost 550,000.
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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said announced the inquiry at a virtual meeting with representatives of WHO's 195 member states.
He said: "The magnitude of this pandemic, which has touched virtually everyone in the world, clearly deserves a commensurate evaluation, an honest evaluation.
"This is not a standard report that ticks a box and is then put on a shelf to gather dust. This is something we take seriously."
The panel will produce its first findings in November before presenting a "substantive report" in May.
It might be the next best thing to a coronavirus vaccine.
Scientists have devised a way to use the antibody-rich blood plasma of COVID-19 survivors for an upper-arm injection that they say could inoculate people against the virus for months.
Using technology thats been proven effective in preventing other diseases such as hepatitis A, the injections would be administered to high-risk healthcare workers, nursing home patients, or even at public drive-through sites potentially protecting millions of lives, the doctors and other experts say.
The two scientists who spearheaded the proposal an 83-year-old shingles researcher and his counterpart, an HIV gene therapy expert have garnered widespread support from leading blood and immunology specialists, including those at the center of the nations COVID-19 plasma research.
But the idea exists only on paper. Federal officials have twice rejected requests to discuss the proposal, and pharmaceutical companies even acknowledging the likely efficacy of the plan have declined to design or manufacture the shots, according to a Times investigation. The lack of interest in launching development of immunity shots comes amid heightened scrutiny of the federal governments sluggish pandemic response.
There is little disagreement that the idea holds promise; the dispute is over the timing. Federal health officials and industry groups say the development of plasma-based therapies should focus on treating people who are already sick, not on preventing infections in those who are still healthy.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said an upper-arm injection that would function like a vaccine is a very attractive concept.
However, he said, scientists should first demonstrate that the coronavirus antibodies that are currently delivered to patients intravenously in hospital wards across the country actually work. Once you show the efficacy, then the obvious next step is to convert it into an intramuscular shot.
But scientists who question the delay argue that the immunity shots are easy to scale up and should enter clinical trials immediately. They say that until theres a vaccine, the shots offer the only plausible method for preventing potentially millions of infections at a critical moment in the pandemic.
Beyond being a lost opportunity, this is a real head-scratcher, said Dr. Michael Joyner, a Mayo Clinic researcher who leads a program sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration to capitalize on coronavirus antibodies from COVID-19 survivors. It seems obvious.
The use of so-called convalescent plasma has already become widespread. More than 28,000 patients have already received the IV treatment, and preliminary data suggest that the method is safe. Researchers are also looking at whether the IV drip products would prevent new infections from taking root.
The antibodies in plasma can be concentrated and delivered to patients through a type of drug called immune globulin, or IG, which can be given through either an IV drip or a shot. IG shots have for decades been used to prevent an array of diseases; the IG shot that prevents hepatitis A was first licensed in 1944. They are available to treat patients who have recently been exposed to hepatitis B, tetanus, varicella and rabies.
Yet for the coronavirus, manufacturers are only developing an intravenous solution of IG.
Joyner told The Times that 600 COVID-19 survivors donating their plasma each day could, depending on donation volumes and concentrations, generate up to 5,000 IG shots. With millions of probable survivors in the United States, he said, capacity isnt a problem.
Plasma companies said theyve focused their efforts on an intervention for the sickest patients. Grifols, for example, said it has not developed a shot because it is pursuing a federally supported IV formula to treat patients already infected with a serious case of COVID-19, but the company acknowledged that an antibody injection would be a good choice for prevention.
Advocates for the immunity shots say businesses are reluctant to invest in a product that could soon be replaced by a vaccine, so the government should offer financial incentives to offset that risk. Billions of federal dollars are already being spent on vaccine research through Operation Warp Speed, and funding for an IG shot that could serve as a bridge to a vaccine would come with a relatively modest price tag, they say.
Antibodies are the most precious resource on the planet right now, next to air. We have the industry, the technology, and the know-how to produce a proven product, said Patrick Schmidt, the chief executive of FFF Enterprises, a major distributor of IG products in the United States.
The amount of money and resources going into a vaccine, with no guarantee it will work this could have saved lives by now.
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The proposal for an injection approach to coronavirus prevention came from an immunization researcher who drew his inspiration from history.
Dr. Michael Oxman knew that, even during the 1918 flu pandemic, the blood of recovered patients appeared to help treat others. Since then, convalescent plasma has been used to fight measles and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, among other diseases.
Like other doctors, Oxman surmised that, for a limited time, the blood coursing through the veins of coronavirus survivors probably contains immune-rich antibodies that could prevent or help treat an infection.
On March 27, he and Dr. John Zaia, the director of City of Hopes Center for Gene Therapy, submitted a proposal to the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, urging the rollout of IG shots for first responders and members of other high-risk groups.
The agency granted $12.5 million to Grifols and $14.5 million to Emergent BioSolutions to produce plasma-based COVID-19 medicines in IV form drips, among more than 50 different biomedical partnerships to fight the pandemic. But the immunity shot proposal was rejected.
The pair followed up with a detailed proposal to conduct a clinical trial at UC San Diego. They believed injectable 5-milliliter vials of IG could be given quickly by minimally trained healthcare workers, offering at least two months of immunity to doctors and nurses, as well as residents of nursing homes, college dormitories and military submarines.
The submission was backed by four other infectious disease researchers and statisticians, but it was also rejected, records show.
A spokeswoman for BARDA told The Times that the agency had received thousands of submissions, and that while we are interested in the potential of [IG] for treatment and prevention, we are focused intently on treatments for hospitalized patients to save lives.
The strategy baffled Oxman and Zaia, who said the IG shots are a far more efficient delivery system that can potentially reach many more people.
Whats more, prophylactic shots would probably require far fewer antibodies than IV treatments, Joyner said. With IG shots, plasma donations could possibly go twice or even five times as far, he said.
If a second wave of the virus were to arrive before an effective vaccine, that stockpile would be all the more essential.
Oxman started focusing his attention on the key players in the industry the manufacturers who dominate the development of plasma drugs. He held weekly phone calls with Schmidt, the distributor; together, the two tried to persuade seven companies to produce the shots themselves and bring them to health agencies for testing. They were unsuccessful.
Takeda and CSL Behring, two large companies who co-lead the new CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance to develop an IG product for IV drips, said their efforts are trained on the sickest. The IV formula represents the fastest path to reach patients, assuming the trial is successful, said Julie Kim, the head of the plasma-derived therapies business unit at Takeda.
Financial calculations may be another factor for companies. Intravenous plasma products are traditionally the main economic driver for the industry, supply experts said, in part because vaccines have replaced many short-term immunity shots over the years. The money-making antibodies are also far more diluted in intravenous drugs than in injectable ones, which boosts profit margins.
They charge a fortune off of intravenous drugs in the hospital. They dont want to devote the manufacturing plant to something that wont make oodles of money, said one infectious disease expert, who has advocated for coronavirus IG shots but asked not to be publicly identified.
Researchers also said industry executives have little incentive to produce the immunity shots for the coronavirus, given the possibility that a longer-lasting vaccine could replace it within a year.
Representatives for CSL, Takeda and Grifols all challenged that assertion.
The choice of one delivery method or another has no connection with the potential financial or pricing implications, a Grifols spokesman told The Times.
Throughout May, researchers and doctors at Yale, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Duke and four University of California schools sent a barrage of letters to dozens of lawmakers. They held virtual meetings with health policy directors on Capitol Hill, but say they have heard no follow-up to date.
Dr. Arturo Casadevall, the chair of the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project, said he spoke to FDA officials who told him they do not instruct companies on what to produce. Casadevall told The Times that the leaders of the national project were very supportive of the need to develop an IG shot rapidly and that he believed it would be very helpful in stemming the epidemic.
Joyner, of the Mayo Clinic, said there are probably 10 million to 20 million people in the U.S. carrying coronavirus antibodies and the number keeps climbing. If just 2% of them were to donate a standard 800 milliliters of plasma on three separate occasions, their plasma alone could generate millions of IG shots for high-risk Americans.
At a hot-spot meatpacking plant, or at a mobile unit in the parking lot outside a mall trust me, you can get the plasma, Joyner said. This is not a biological problem nor a technology problem. Its a back-of-the-envelope intelligence problem.
The antibody injections, for now, do not appear to be a high priority for the government or the industry.
Grifols, on April 28 the same day that the U.S. topped 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases made a major product announcement that would expand its leadership in disease treatment with immunoglobulins.
The product was a new vial for IG shots to treat rabies.
July 10, 2020 / Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Forbes Staff
A German biotech firm working with New York-based pharma giant Pfizer Inc. to develop a coronavirus vaccine claims its confident it will be ready to seek regulatory approval for widespread distribution of its drug by the end of the year, its chief executive told theWall Street Journal, making what scientists had seen as an optimistic goal appear achievable.
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Creating pure, uncontaminated water isn't as easy as turning on a tap.
MANDEVILLE, La. Its the most abundant resource on Earth, and at MECO, a water purification company born in New Orleans more than 90 years ago, now based in Mandeville, water is what keeps business flowing. Its also a crucial part in developing a vaccine for coronavirus. Thats something company president George Gsell says MECO is working to help with.
Water is the critical utility in the manufacture of drugs and biologics, Gsell said. COVID-19s rise has put a tremendous demand obviously on these biopharmaceutical companies in a race for the cure.
Part of what the company does is manufacture the equipment needed to make sure water is nothing but water.
Many of us think of tap water off the wall, but water to these standards has to be actually manufactured and the manufacturing requirements are significant, Gsell said.
Through various and sometimes complex techniques, any contaminates must be removed.
Thats the key is to make sure theres absolutely nothing in it, nothing can grow in it and thats its pure water, Gsell said.
Equipment from MECO and the water that comes from it are used by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world. The same goes for some laboratories currently testing for coronavirus.
Water is critical, said Dr. Jim Diaz, professor of public health and preventive medicine at LSU Health.
While not a vaccinologist and no connection to MECO, Dr. Diaz knows the importance of pure water across the medical and pharmaceutical industries.
Over time there have been some terrible tragedies from some things that have been mixed into drugs that havent been pure. They may have been contaminated with bacteria or fungi or they may have been contaminated by chemicals, Diaz said.
When it comes to water, thats what Gsells company is trying to prevent, especially in the fight against coronavirus.
We know that the vaccine is coming and so were really pleased to be a part of that, Gsell said.
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- According to WKRN in Nashville, Tennessee, statistics in multiple states show an increase in COVID-19 cases predominantly from people in their 20s and 30s, and now doctors say they are also seeing different symptoms among their younger patients.
Over the past few days, theyre starting to develop, theyre describing some new symptoms, explained Dr. Alex Jahangir with Metro Nashvilles Coronavirus Task Force.
While fever was originally the first telltale sign of the novel coronavirus, now many dont ever get one, as cited by WKRN.
The spectrum of symptoms continues to expand and so younger people often do come in now somewhat to our surprise without fever, and this abdominal pain seems to affect them a little bit more, said Dr. William Schaffner, an Infectious Disease professor at Vanderbilt University.
Other symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, loss of taste and smell, and severe headaches.
Associate Chief Medical Officer at UCHealth Memorial, David Steinbruner, says, "I suspect that we're going to see a rise in a week or two, maybe two weeks, as the people who started to spread it inadvertently who are young and don't realize they have it, spread it to the older, more vulnerable population."
According to COVID-19 case data in Colorado, young adults ages 20-39, make up 36.52% of people who are infected with COVID-19. People aged 70+, only make up 12.93% of cases, however, due to their age, the older population sees a major disparity in deaths.
That 20-39 age group has only 22 reported deaths, while the 70+ age group spikes to 1,307. Doctors are urging young adults to be vigilant, and help stop the spread to older, more vulnerable populations.
If you live in Colorado Springs and need to get tested, there is a drive-through testing site at UCHealth Laboratory - Printers Park, Kids Care Point, 2050, Colorado Springs, CO 80909.
If you thought COVID-19 symptoms couldn't get worse, doctors say a new symptom has emerged. Hallucinations. USA TODAY
A spiking COVID-19 case countis straining Florida's hospital system as nearly half of its intensive care units are at least 90% full.
Mississippi has also seen a recent strain on its hospitals. Five of the largest medical centers have no ICU bed space for new patients COVID-19 or otherwise and are being forced to turn patients away.
Meanwhile, some states are scaling back reopening guidelines or adding new requirements: Some bars in Nevada will be closing again Friday and restaurants can no longer serve parties more than six people.Kentucky will join the growing list of states that require face coverings in public, too.
In New Mexico, indoor dining at restaurants and breweries will be restricted again starting Monday, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham halted high school sports and said state parks will be closed to out-of-state residents.
Here are some recent developments:
Today's stats:The U.S. has surpassed 3.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. More than133,000deaths have been confirmed, according toJohn Hopkins University data. Globally, there have been 12.3 million cases and over 556,000deaths.
What we're reading:ThreeArizona teachers shared a classroom for summer school.They thought they were being "very careful."All threecontracted COVID-19, and one died.The teachers who survived say their colleague's death is a stark reminder of the risks teachers will face if school reopens too soon.
Our live blog will be updated throughout the day. For first-in-the-morning updates,sign upfor The Daily Briefing.
R-0 may be the most important scientific term youve never heard of when it comes to stopping the coronavirus pandemic. USA TODAY
The Pac-12 will use a conference-only playing schedule for all fall sports should teams be able to compete in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, a personwith direct knowledge of the league's decision told USA TODAY Sports on Friday.
The person requested anonymity because the league had not made an announcement.
In doing so, thePac-12 joins the Big Ten in becoming the second Power Five conference to make a decisionthat could foreshadow similar changes across the entire Bowl Subdivision.
Paul Myerberg
Schools should prioritize safety and rely on local authorities inschool reopening plans, ajoint statementfrom associations of pediatricians, educators and superintendents says.
"Returning to school is important for the healthy development and well-being of children, but we must pursue re-opening in a way that is safe," says the statement from The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Federation of Teachers, the National Education AssociationandThe School Superintendents Association. "Science should drive decision-making on safely reopening schools."
The statement follows a push fromTrump to open schools across the nation andamid a nationwide debate over whether children should return to the classroom.
In an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Californiastate prisons, upto 8,000 currently incarcerated people could be released by the end of August, the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Friday.
"Too many people are incarcerated for too long in facilities that spread poor health. Supporting the health and safety of all Californians means releasing people unnecessarily incarcerated and transforming our justice system,"Jay Jordan, Executive Director ofCalifornians for Safety and Justice, said in a press release.
Since the start of the pandemic, the state has releasedabout 10,000 people, according to the state'sDepartment of Corrections.
Activists have repeatedly called on the governor to address the outbreak atSan Quentin prison, where more than 200 staff and more than 1,300 prisoners have active cases, and at least six inmates have died, according to local news reports.
Amid a resurgence of COVID-19 in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday that the state will reactivate its makeshift coronavirus hospital at a convention center in Atlanta.
The 200-bed temporary hospital at theGeorgia World Congress Centerwas constructed in April but wound down operations at the end of May.
Nearly 3,000 people have died and more than 111,000 people have tested positive for the virus in the state.
At least 47 students at UC Berkeley tested positive for the coronavirus in just one week, and most of the new cases stem from a series of Greek life parties, university officials said.
In a message to the campus community, UniversityHealth Services Medical Director Anna Harte and Assistant Vice Chancellor Guy Nicolette said it was "becoming harder to imagine bringing our campus community back in the way we are envisioning."
"Generally, these infections are directly related to social events where students have not followed basic safety measures such as physical distancing, wearing face coverings, limiting event size, and gathering outside," the officials wrote.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott begged Texans to mask up in a Friday interview with eastern Texas TV station CBS19, saying face coverings were "the only way"businesses could stay open.
"Its disappointing"that some local officials are refusing to enforce the states mask order, Abbott said. "If we do not all join together and unite in this one cause for a short period of time it will lead to the necessity of having to close Texas back down."
Abbott's ordereffective July 3 requires face masksin public spaces in counties with 20 or more active COVID-19 cases.The order does not apply to people eating,drinking, swimming orexercising or those under 10 years old.
Joel Shannon
West Virginia is among states with the fewest COVID-19 cases, but the state now has the highest coronavirus transmission rate in the country, the head of the state's coronavirus response said Friday.
"The virus is spreading faster person to person in West Virginia right now than in any other state in the country,"Dr. Clay Marsh.The state's "RT value" the average number of people who become infected by an infectious personis the highest in the nation, at 1.37, Marsh said. "We can see that COVID is starting in that logarithmic phase, that compounding phase."
The state has doubled its number of active cases in the last 10-14 days.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday expanded Michigan's mask-wearing requirements, effective Monday, saying that wearing masks is the best way to reverse an increase in coronavirus cases.
The order requires the use of face coverings in crowded outdoor spaces and reiterates that individuals are required to wear a face covering whenever they are in an indoor public space. The mandate also requires any business that is open to the public to refuse entry or service to people who refuse to wear a face covering, with limited exceptions.
Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press
Shutting down states in the early days of the US COVID-19 outbreak prevented at least 250,000 deaths and as many as 750,000-840,000 hospitalizations, a new study found. Shelter-in-place orders took about two weeks to show an effect on hospitalizations and three weeks to limit the number of deaths, according to the study by researchers at the University of Iowa and National Bureau of Economic Research.
The authors, who published their results in the journal Health Affairs, also found that deaths from causes other than COVID-19 might have increased if hospitals had become overwhelmed; slowing cases saved those lives, as well, they said.
"These estimates indicate that [stay in place orders] played a key role in flattening the curves not only for cases, but also for deaths and hospitalizations, and eased pressure on hospitals from avoided COVID-19 admissions," the authors conclude.
Karen Weintraub
All 50 states had visitors from Floridathis week, according to data that 15 million U.S. mobile device users provided to the data company Cuebiq. Applying Cuebiqs sample to the whole population, approximately 1.5 million Floridians are now setting up shop in other states.
Residents have left the state in increasing numbers at a time when the crisis there got worse. In early June, just 5% of the states residents appeared in other states. That number has ticked up every week.
Cuebiqs data, which is based on cell phone locations, shows that most interstate visitors from Florida appeared in other parts of the South. About 38% of the states travelers were in Georgia at least once during the week, for example. Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee also topped the list of destinations for visitors from the hard-struck state.
States outside the region saw big Florida influxes as well. New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio all had more than 50,000 visits from Florida residents in the most recent week of data, based on an extrapolation of the cell phone location data.
Matt Wynn
New data on the experimental drug remdesivir confirms it can shorten the course of COVID-19 infections and suggests it also can save lives.
Gilead Sciences, Inc., a California pharmaceutical company that makes the drug, revealed data Friday about nearly 400 patients in its late-stage clinical trial.
According to the results, 74% of patients treated with remdesivir had recovered by their 14th day of hospitalization, compared to 59% of those who did not get the drug. Nearly 8% of the patients on remdesivir had died by day 14, versus more than 12% of patients who did not receive it.
The study also found patients who took the drug hydroxychloroquine along with remdesivir fared worse than those on remdesivir alone. The company recommended against using the drugs in combination.
Remdesivir, an antiviral initially developed to treat Ebola, has not yet been approved for widespread use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but it has been given emergency use authorization to treat COVID-19 patients.
Karen Weintraub
Congestion, runny nose, nausea and diarrhea are the four most recent COVID-19 symptoms that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added to its growing list of potential signs of the novel coronavirus.
The CDC previously said symptoms include chills, fever, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and a new loss of taste or smell. The agency now lists 11 symptoms on its website.
The additions come as health experts continue to learn more about the disease, and care for very ill COVID-19 patients is improving. Even so, the CDC states the current list doesn't include all possible symptoms for the virus.
Wyatte Grantham-Philips
Fifty-eight Major League Baseball players tested positive for the coronavirus upon reporting to their team, while an additional 13 tested positive after workouts began, according to data released by MLB on Friday.
Perhaps most disconcerting is that 10 teams reported positive test results during what MLB is calling "monitoring testing," meaning one-third of the league's teams had an infected player or staff member after workouts began last week.
Several teams have had workouts halted or curtailed while awaiting test results, and besides those testing positive, players who have come in contact with those testing positive have been temporarily sidelined, as well.
Gabe Lacques
As COVID-19 cases spikeacross, multiple states have taken measures to scale back their reopening plans. Here are some of the last moves:
Read more about states that arepause reopening or take new steps to slow the spread.
A Los Angeles Times report says that researchers are working on an upper-arm injection that would deliverantibody-rich blood plasma of COVID-19 survivors to provide potentially months of protection from the virus.
The approach is similar to one used for other diseases likehepatitis A and could be widely available across the United States, the Times reported.
However, the proposal has received push back from the federal government and pharmaceutical companies, who argue efforts in plasma-based therapy should focus on treating sick people rather than preventing infection, the Times report says.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told the newspaper that the research was promising but more work is needed to show thatcoronavirus antibodies work.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said Friday he has not briefed President Donald Trump in at least two months and not seen him in person at the White House since June 2, despite a coronavirus resurgence that has strained hospitals and led several states to pause reopenings.
Fauci told the Financial Times he was "sure" his messages were sent to the president even though the two have not been in close contact in the past several weeks.
The comments from the Trump administration's director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases came as Trump has been critical of Fauci and spoken openly about issues on which they disagree.
In a Thursday interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci had "made a lot of mistakes" but called him a "nice man." Trump also said "most cases" of coronavirus would "automatically cure. They automatically get better."
Fauci also in the FT interview said Trump was incorrect in claiming 99% of coronavirus cases were "harmless" and may have conflated some statistics.
Nicholas Wu
COVID survivors' main symptoms can linger for weeks or even months, causing pain, trouble breathing, nightmares and even organ failure. USA TODAY
Two scientists from the World Health Organization are traveling toBeijing on Friday to lay the groundwork for an investigation into the origins of the new coronavirus.
The researchers,an animal health expert and an epidemiologist, will work with counterparts in China to "look at whether or not it jumped from species to humanand what species it jumped from," WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris said.
The team will determine the logistics, locations and participantsfor a WHO-led international mission.
The virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. Scientists believe the novel virusoriginated in bats, transferred to another mammal then jumpedto humans.
The Trump administration this week officially began withdrawing the United Statesfrom the WHO, of which President Donald Trump and his advisers have been sharply critical.
Americans are three times as likely to know someone in their community who has been sick with the coronavirus than they did in March, according to a new survey.
More than one-third of Americans (36%) say someone they know outside of their immediate family or work has been sick with the coronavirus, according to a new survey from the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project. That number is more than triple the number in mid-March, when it was 11%.
The survey also showed Black (11%) and Latino (11%) Americans are more likely than white Americans (7%) to have had an immediate family member get sick, according to the survey. These racial differences were not apparent in the survey from March.
Rebecca Morin
Nearly half of Florida's intensive-care units are at least 90% full, and more than 1 in 5 are completely full, according to state data.
Hospitals are increasingly strained under COVID-19, andhospitalizations across the state have jumped more than 13% just since July 1. More than 17,100 Floridians have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
A total of 95 hospital ICUs were at least 90% full Thursday, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. That's nearly half the 207 ICUs that the agency is tracking. At least 45 hospital ICUs were at capacity, and 46 others had only one bed available in the units.
At least 4,111 people in Florida have died from the virus, according to the state a figure that would have made it the ninth leading cause of death in Florida last year, according to Florida Department of Health statistics. Florida set a one-day record Thursday with 120 deaths. The previous high, 83, was in late April.
Frank Gluck, Fort Myers News-Press
The five largest medical centers in Mississippi have no ICU bed space for new patients coronavirus or otherwise and are being forced to turn patients away, even as COVID-19 continue to surge.
In some cases, patients are being sent to facilities out of state and as far away as New Orleans. In many hospitals, patients admitted to the ER are being forced to spend the night before they receive treatment.
"(Wednesday), five of our biggest hospitals in the state had zero ICU beds. Zero," State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said. "Our biggest medical institutions who take care of our sickest patients have no room."
The transition from shelter-in-place to where we currently stand, with the highest number of hospitalizations since the first reported case of the coronavirus virus on March 11, has left the state "wide open," said Dr. Louann Woodward, UMMC vice chancellor for health affairs.
Justin Vicory, Mississippi Clarion Ledger
California is set to become the first state to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over anew policy that prevents international students from staying in the U.S. if their college or university switches to online-only classes in the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement comes a day after some colleges and universities filed similar lawsuits or announced plans to do so.
The Trump administration revealed its new guidelines in a memo issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday. It says that international students will have to leave the country, or face possible deportation, if their schools switch to remote learning, which many have planned to do amid the pandemic.
President Donald Trumps attack on his own health experts guidance for safely reopening schools cracked open for public display a power strugglewithin the administration that has been building for months.
Trump blasted the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday as very tough & expensive and asking schools to do very impractical things.
But CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on Thursday the guidance would stand, and his staff would provide some new documents to clarify the recommendations.
Theflare-up punctuates a conflict escalating for months, with the nations top scientists publicly sidelined in the Trump administrations initial coronavirus response. Earlier disagreements delayed the release of the reopening guidance for schools and businesses.
Public health leaders who worked at the CDC under prior presidents said they had never seen anything like this weeks open discord."It underminesleadership for everyone involved, said Dr.JeffreyKoplan, a former CDC director."It's public health malpractice to say, 'Open without worrying about anything.'"
So far two M.L.S. clubs have been forced to withdraw from its tournament after multiple players tested positive after arriving at the site. FC Dallas had 10 players and one coach test positive before competition began. On Thursday, the second day of the tournament, Nashville SC was forced to pull out of the event after nine players on its team tested positive.
Binney said the coronaviruss incubation period, which normally lasts around three to five days but can be up to two weeks, probably made it tough to catch cases over a short period of testing. It would be another few days before the league could be sure that the virus had not spread to others there.
That is why Briana Furch, an infectious disease specialist who has informally advised a number of N.B.A. players this summer, has urged athletes to continue to exercise caution even upon arrival in a bubblelike environment. She said they should wear masks, practice social distancing and wipe down surfaces, whenever possible.
In a bubble it can still spread like wildfire, she said.
The early success of the National Womens Soccer Leagues restricted campus might provide a sense of hope for other sports. The teams there have shown no positive cases since play began on June 27.
They have had a few factors working in their advantage. They did have an outbreak within a team, but were lucky that this cluster of infections 10 positive cases among the players and staff of the Orlando Pride, which ruled the team out of the competition on June 22 happened before the individuals arrived at the site in Utah. They have fewer people there, meaning there are fewer opportunities for infection. And the virus around the world, in general, seems to be hitting men harder than women.
But on a basic level, Binney said, The N.W.S.L. bubble is a proof of concept that a bubble can work.
Infections, particularly in the South and West, have been surging for the past month. And experts reiterated that no matter how tightly controlled a sports leagues restricted space might be, it will still exist within, and be affected by, a larger surrounding ecosystem.
As Texas continues a weeks-long streak of setting grim coronavirus records, the most somber one was reached Friday: The virus has killed 3,013 people, according to the Department of State Health Services.
Among the recent deaths were a Northeast Baptist Hospital patient in San Antonio who was in his 30s, a Grand Prairie man in his 40s, a Garland woman in her 60s who had no underlying conditions, a 73-year-old man who was about to go home from a prison rehabilitation program and a baby boy in Corpus Christi who wasnt 6 months old yet.
Their deaths come as counties prepare for a surge in fatalities, some by requesting trailers to expand their hospital and county morgue capacities.
"That's why we're asking people to wear face masks," Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales told NBC-affiliated KRIS-TV. "I am now having to order additional body bags and morgue trailers. People have to understand how real it is."
In that county, which includes the city of Corpus Christi, the morgue is already full. County medical examiner Dr. Adel Shaker has requested an extra morgue trailer, provided by FEMA to local authorities. The refrigerated truck has a temperature-control system and can accommodate up to 40 more bodies, adding to the current 12-body capacity located inside the morgue building itself.
The county and the city of Corpus Christi reported 29 deaths from Monday to Friday, or nearly 70% of their total of 42 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. A morgue trailer was in place at the beginning of the pandemic, but it was released early, Shaker said.
We have seen very few deaths for the first few months of the pandemic, so the FEMA trailer was placed in another city. But the need is here now, he said.
Unlike other states, Texas does not publicly report probable coronavirus deaths, which means patients who have died without testing positive for COVID-19 could go uncounted. More Houston residents are also dying at home before they can make it to a hospital. That means the death toll is likely higher than the states official count.
The rate of deaths in Texas has been accelerating. On Friday, the state surpassed 3,000 deaths 24 days after 2,000 deaths were reported. It took 53 days to get from the first death to 1,000 deaths and 39 days to get from 1,000 to 2,000 deaths.
Nearly 40% of Texas fatalities were residents of long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Other hotspots include prisons and meatpacking plants.
The death rate is a lagging indicator and has not yet followed the same steep curve as new cases and hospitalizations, but experts warn the worst could come. On average over the past week, 63 people have died daily, with a peak of 105 people on Thursday. The week prior, on July 3, this 7-day average was 35.
Austin and Travis County are in the process of procuring a refrigerated truck to face the surge in COVID-19 deaths, Travis County public information officer Hector Nieto said.
The mobile morgue will be placed where there is space for it and where it is needed the most, whether closer to hospitals or to the county morgue. Nieto could not confirm when the unit will arrive.
Cameron County is also preparing for a worst-case scenario and bought a 53-foot refrigerated trailer in case morgues become full, Juan Martinez, the local emergency management departments operations section chief told The Valley Morning Star.
Our hope is we never have to use it, he told the newspaper.
Hidalgo County also said on Friday that they will share a refrigerated FEMA trailer with neighboring Cameron County.
Im going to let them take this one, because they are in dire need," Ricardo Saldaa, Hidalgo County emergency management coordinator, said.
People who die in hospitals or in nursing homes under a doctors care dont usually go through the medical examiners office and will not go to the county morgue.
In Houston, a spokeswoman at the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences insisted that no extra capacity is needed at the county morgue right now. But individual hospitals are also counting on refrigerated trucks to expand their morgues capacity. HCA Healthcare Northwest confirmed to the Houston Chronicle that a refrigerated trailer is being used as temporary storage before the transfer from the hospital to funeral homes.
Williamson County had assembled a mobile morgue to be prepared, but it was returned to its vendor around June 1, given that the county has not seen large volumes of deaths in a short period of time. Their capacity is currently 50 bodies, between hospitals, funeral homes and the county morgue. A mobile unit would be quite easy to add, if the toll gets dire, county Judge Bill Gravell said.
Gravell also said such preparations are the part of the story no one wants to talk about.
Its difficult, complicated and incredibly painful for families, he said.
