As U.S. cases decline elsewhere, the Midwest sees a worrying spike
September 1, 2020: reports of new cases had fallen significantly around the country since July; they were flat in 26 states and falling in 15 others. But in nine states, cases were still growing, and in some, setting records — especially in the Midwest.
Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota all added more cases in a recent seven-day stretch than in any previous week of the pandemic. Together, they reported 19,133 new cases in the week ending Sunday, according to a New York Times database — 6.4 percent of the national total, though the five states are home to only 4 percent of the population. In each, some of the biggest surges in new case numbers have come in college towns. (NYT story)
September 2020 COVID 19
855,652 COVID Deaths Worldwide
September 1: 25,671,845 case worldwide; 855,652 deaths worldwide
187,793 COVID Deaths USA
September 1: 6,212,708 cases in the USA; 187,793 deaths in the USA.
September 2020 COVID 19
Steroid treatment
September 2: published international clinical trials confirmed the hope that cheap, widely available steroid drugs could help seriously ill patients survive Covid-19.
Following release of the new data, the World Health Organization strongly recommended steroids for treatment of patients with severe or critical Covid-19 worldwide. But the agency recommended against giving the drugs to patients with mild disease.
The new studies include an analysis that pooled data from seven randomized clinical trials evaluating three steroids in over 1,700 patients. The study concluded that each of the three drugs reduced the risk of death.
That paper and three related studies were published in the journal JAMA, along with an editorial describing the research as an “important step forward in the treatment of patients with Covid-19.” [NYT article]
September 2020 COVID 19
US/WHO
September 3: the Trump administration pulled U.S. officials from the headquarters of the World Health Organization.
The U.S. officially announced its withdrawal from the WHO this summer, initiating a year-long process that will not go into effect until a year later on July 6, 2021. But the State Department announced on this date that the U.S. was already beginning to scale down its engagement, including “recalling the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) detailees from WHO headquarters, regional offices, and country offices, and reassigning these experts.” [NBC News article]
September 2020 COVID 19
Pledge
September 4: a Wall Street Journal article stated that a group of drug companies competing with one another to be among the first to develop coronavirus vaccines announced a pledge that they will not release any vaccines that do not follow rigorous efficacy and safety standards.
The manufacturers that are said to have signed the letter include Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, and Sanofi. [NYT article]
September 2020 COVID 19
Trial halted
September 8: the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca halted global trials of its coronavirus vaccine because of a serious and unexpected adverse reaction in a participant, the company said.
The trial’s halt, which was first reported by Stat News, would allow the British-Swedish company to conduct a safety review.
In a statement, the company described the halt as a “routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”
September 2020 COVID 19
902,537 COVID Deaths Worldwide
September 9: 27,769,074 case worldwide; 902,537 deaths worldwide
194,037 COVID Deaths USA
September 9: 6,514,376 cases in the USA; 194,037 deaths in the USA.
September 9: on this date media reported that on February 7 President Trump acknowledged to the journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly played down the coronavirus even though he was aware it was life-threatening and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu.
President Trump said: “This is deadly stuff,” Mr. Trump said in one of 18 interviews with Mr. Woodward for his coming book, “Rage.”
“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” the president told Mr. Woodward in audio recordings made available on The Washington Post website. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”
But three days after those remarks, Mr. Trump told the Fox Business anchor Trish Regan: “We’re in very good shape. We have 11 cases. And most of them are getting better very rapidly. I think they will all be better.”
A little less than two weeks later, he told reporters on the South Lawn that “we have it very much under control in this country.” [NYT article]
September 2020 COVID 19
September 10: top regulators at the Food and Drug Administration issued an unusual statement promising to uphold the scientific integrity of their work and defend the agency’s independence.
In an opinion column published in USA Today, eight directors of the F.D.A.’s regulatory centers and offices warned that “if the agency’s credibility is lost because of real or perceived interference, people will not rely on the agency’s safety warnings.”
“We absolutely understand that the F.D.A., like other federal executive agencies, operates in a political environment,” they wrote. “That is a reality that we must navigate adeptly while maintaining our independence to ensure the best possible outcomes for public health.”
They added, “We and our career staff do the best by public health when we are the decision makers, arriving at those decisions based on our unbiased evaluation of the scientific evidence.” [NYT story]
September 2020 COVID 19
Temperature check have little value
September 13: the practice of checking for fever in public spaces had become increasingly common, causing a surge in sales of infrared contact-free thermometers and body temperature scanners even as scientific evidence indicating that they are of little value has solidified.
While health officials had endorsed masks and social distancing as effective measures for curbing the spread of the virus, some experts say that taking temperatures at entry points is a gesture that is unlikely to screen out many infected people and offered little more than an illusion of safety. [NYT article]
September 2020 COVID 19
925,373 COVID Deaths Worldwide
September 13: 28,989,073 case worldwide; 925,373 deaths worldwide
198,150 COVID Deaths USA
September 13: 6,679,023 cases in the USA; 198,150 deaths in the USA.
September 2020 COVID 19
Again At Odds
September 16: President Trump rejected the professional scientific conclusions of his own government about the prospects for a widely available coronavirus vaccine and the effectiveness of masks in curbing the spread of the virus as the death toll in the United States from the disease neared 200,000.
Trump publicly slapped down Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the president promised that a vaccine could be available in weeks and go “immediately” to the general public while diminishing the usefulness of masks despite evidence to the contrary.
Dr. Redfield had just told a Senate committee that a vaccine would not be widely available until the middle of next year and that masks were so vital in fighting the disease caused by the coronavirus, Covid-19, that they may even more important than a vaccine.
September 2020 COVID 19
945,782 COVID Deaths Worldwide
September 17: 30,070,457 case worldwide; 945,782 deaths worldwide
201,348 COVID Deaths USA
September 17: 6,828,301 cases in the USA; 201,348 deaths in the USA.
Unapproved post
September 17: The New York Times reported that a heavily criticized recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in August about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections, The posted guidance said it was not necessary to test people without symptoms of Covid-19 even if they had been exposed to the virus.
It came at a time when public health experts were pushing for more testing rather than less, and administration officials told The Times that the document was a C.D.C. product and had been revised with input from the agency’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield.
Officials told The Times this week that the Department of Health and Human Services did the rewriting and then “dropped” it into the C.D.C.’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process.
September 2020 COVID 19
September 22: NPR reported that the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 surpassed 200,000 — reaching what was once the upper limit of some estimates for the pandemic’s impact on Americans. Some experts warned that the toll could nearly double again by the end of 2020.
“I hoped we would be in a better place by now,” said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It’s an enormous and tragic loss of life.”
COVID-19 became the second leading causes of death in the U.S. after heart disease.
945,782 COVID Deaths Worldwide
September 23: 31,828,741 case worldwide; 976,342 deaths worldwide
205,491 COVID Deaths USA
September 23: 7,098,291 cases in the USA; 205,491 deaths in the USA.
September 2020 COVID 19
White House Overrules CDC
September 30: the White House blocked a new order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep cruise ships docked until mid-February, a step that would have displeased the politically powerful tourism industry in the crucial swing state of Florida.
The current “no sail” policy, which was originally put in place in April and later extended, was set to expire. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the C.D.C., had recommended the extension, worried that cruise ships could become viral hot spots, as they did at the beginning of the pandemic.
But at a meeting of the coronavirus task force on September 29, Dr. Redfield’s plan was overruled, according to a senior federal health official who was not authorized to comment and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The administration will instead allow the ships to sail after October. 31, the date the industry had already agreed to in its own, voluntary plan. [NYT article]
1,016,433 COVID Deaths Worldwide
September 30: 34,081,921 case worldwide; 1,016,433 deaths worldwide
211,475 COVID Deaths USA
September 30: 7,436,898 cases in the USA; 211,475 deaths in the USA.
August 2: 18,055,793 cases worldwide; 689,588 deaths worldwide
157,921 COVID Deaths USA
August 2: 4,765,155 cases in the USA; 157,921 deaths in the USA
August 2: Dr. Deborah Birx , the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said the US was in a new phase in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the deadly virus was more widespread than when it first took hold in the US.
“What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as equal urban areas,” said Birx.
She stressed that Americans needed to follow health recommendations, including wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.
“To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus,” Birx said. “If you’re in multi-generational households, and there’s an outbreak in your rural area or in your city, you need to really consider wearing a mask at home, assuming that you’re positive, if you have individuals in your households with comorbidities.” [CNN story]
August 2020 COVID 19
Dr. Anthony Fauci/death threats
August 5: Dr. Anthony Fauci said that he had received death threats and his daughters had been harassed as a result of his high-profile statements about the coronavirus pandemic.
“Getting death threats for me and my family and harassing my daughters to the point where I have to get security is just, I mean, it’s amazing,” Fauci said.
Fauci didn’t reveal any more details about the threats and harassment. But he said he and his wife, and his three daughters, who live in three separate cities, were weathering the stress.
Fauci has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and has advised six presidents on matters of public health. In recent months, he has sometimes made statements that have contradicted President Trump.
“I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it, and don’t like what you and I say, namely in the word of science, that they actually threaten you. I mean, that to me is just strange,” Fauci said. [NPR story]
August 2020 COVID 19
Trump posts removed
August 5: both Twitter and Facebook removed a post shared by President Trump for breaking their rules against spreading coronavirus misinformation.
Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump election campaign account from tweeting until it removed a post with a video clip from a August 5 Fox News interview , in which the president urged schools to reopen, falsely claiming that children are “almost immune from this disease.”
Facebook also removed a post containing the same video from Trump’s personal page. Both Facebook and Twitter said the post violated their rules on COVID-19 misinformation.
August 2020 COVID 19
711,876 COVID Deaths Worldwide
August 6: 19,006,692 case worldwide; 711,876 deaths worldwide
161,608 COVID Deaths USA
August 6: 4,973,741 cases in the USA; 161,608 deaths in the USA
August 2020 COVID 19
> 97,000 US children tested positive
August 9: according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, at least 97,000 children in the United States tested positive for the coronavirus the last two weeks of July alone,. The report said that at least 338,000 children had tested positive since the pandemic began, meaning more than a quarter had tested positive in just those two weeks.
August 2020 COVID 19
711,876 COVID Deaths Worldwide
August 10: 20,055,099 case worldwide; 734,561 deaths worldwide
165,619 COVID Deaths USA
August 10: 5,200,313 cases in the USA; 165,619 deaths in the USA
August 2020 COVID 19
Russia pre-approves
August 11: a Russian health care regulator become the first in the world to approve a vaccine against the coronavirus, President Vladimir V. Putin announced, though the vaccine had yet to complete clinical trials.
The announcement came despite a warning last week from the World Health Organization that Russia should not stray from the usual methods of testing a vaccine for safety and effectiveness. [NYT article]
August 2020 COVID 19
Aerosol Virus
August 11: a team of virologists and aerosol scientists has produced exactly confirmation of infectious virus in the air.
“This is what people have been clamoring for,” said Linsey Marr, an expert in airborne spread of viruses who was not involved in the work. “It’s unambiguous evidence that there is infectious virus in aerosols.”
A research team at the University of Florida succeeded in isolating live virus from aerosols collected at a distance of seven to 16 feet from patients hospitalized with Covid-19 — farther than the six feet recommended in social distancing guidelines.
August 2020 COVID 19
Local Chinese Hid Information
August 19: the NY Times reported that according to American officials familiar with a new internal report by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials in Beijing were kept in the dark for weeks about the potential devastation of the virus by local officials in central China,
The report concluded that officials in the city of Wuhan and in Hubei Province, where the outbreak began late last year, tried to hide information from China’s central leadership. The finding is consistent with reporting by news organizations and with assessments by China experts of the country’s opaque governance system.
August 2020 COVID 19
787,777 COVID Deaths Worldwide
August 19: 22,474,212 case worldwide; 787,777 deaths worldwide
175,927 COVID Deaths USA
August 19: 5,687,014 cases in the USA; 175,927 deaths in the USA
August 2020 COVID 19
August 23: the NY Times reported that the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency approval for expanded use of antibody-rich blood plasma to help hospitalized coronavirus patients.
August 2020 COVID 19
813,045 COVID Deaths Worldwide
August 24: 23,615,418 case worldwide; 813,045 deaths worldwide
180,605 COVID Deaths USA
August 24: 5,874,358 cases in the USA; 180,605 deaths in the USA
August 2020 COVID 19
Reinfection
August 24: researchers in Hong Kong reported the first confirmed case of reinfection with the coronavirus.
“An apparently young and healthy patient had a second case of Covid-19 infection which was diagnosed 4.5 months after the first episode,” University of Hong Kong researchers said in a statement.
The report was of concern because it suggested that immunity to the coronavirus may last only a few months in some people. And it had implications for vaccines being developed for the virus. [NYT story]
FDA authorizes convalescent plasma
August 23: President Trump announced the emergency approval of blood plasma for hospitalized Covid-19 patients. Trump and two of his top health officials cited the same statistic: that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35 percent.
Trump called it a “tremendous” number. His health and human services secretary, Alex M. Azar II, a former pharmaceutical executive, said, “I don’t want you to gloss over this number.” And Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said 35 out of 100 Covid-19 patients “would have been saved because of the administration of plasma.” [CNN article]
August 2020 COVID 19
F.D.A. ‘Grossly Misrepresented’ Blood Plasma Data
August 25: some scientists were taken aback by the way the administration framed plasma data announced on August 23, which appeared to have been calculated based on a small subgroup of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in a Mayo Clinic study: those who were under 80 years old, not on ventilators and received plasma known to contain high levels of virus-fighting antibodies within three days of diagnosis.
Many experts — including a scientist who worked on the Mayo Clinic study — were bewildered about where the statistic came from. The number was not mentioned in the official authorization letter issued by the agency, nor was it in a 17-page memo written by F.D.A. scientists. It was not in an analysis conducted by the Mayo Clinic that has been frequently cited by the administration. [NYT story]
August 2020 COVID 19
C.D.C. Pressured to Change Guidance
August 26: higher-ups in the Trump administration instructed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to modify its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus, according to two federal health officials.
One official said the directive came from the top down. Another said the guidelines were not written by the C.D.C. but were imposed. [NYT article]
August 2020 COVID 19
827,069 COVID Deaths Worldwide
August 26: 24,243,682 case worldwide; 827,069 deaths worldwide
183,317 COVID Deaths USA
August 26: 5,990,439 cases in the USA; 183,317 deaths in the USA
August 2020 COVID 19
More Plasma Fallout
August 28: the NY Times reported that two senior public relations experts advising the Food and Drug Administration were fired from their positions after President Trump and the head of the F.D.A. exaggerated the proven benefits of a blood plasma treatment for Covid-19.
Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, , removed Emily Miller as the agency’s chief spokeswoman. The White House had installed her in the post just 11 days earlier. Ms. Miller had previously worked in communications for the re-election campaign of Senator Ted Cruz and as a journalist for the conservative cable network One America News.
The day before, the F.D.A.’s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, terminated the contract of another public relations consultant, Wayne L. Pines, who had advised Dr. Hahn to apologize for misleading comments about the benefits of blood plasma for Covid-19.
Guidance Change Fallout
August 28: the leaders of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the Big Cities Health Coalition, two organizations that represent thousands of local public health departments in the United States sent a letter to senior Trump administration officials asking that they “pull the revised guidance” on virus testing and restore recommendations that individuals who have been exposed to the virus be tested whether or not they have symptoms.
The letter — addressed to Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Adm. Brett P. Giroir, an assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services. The organizations’ leaders wrote that their members were “incredibly concerned” about the changes.
August 2020 COVID 19
838,468 COVID Deaths Worldwide
August 28: 24,789,603 case worldwide; 838,468 deaths worldwide
185,272 COVID Deaths USA
August 28: 6,067,600 cases in the USA; 185,272 deaths in the USA
We ended June with some States reaching the upper phases of reopening their economy, yet others, that had opened too soon, having to go back and restrict contact. It would be a terrible month in the US and many other parts of the world.
U.S. Reports Nearly 50,000 New Coronavirus Cases, Another Single-Day Record
July 1: the United States reported 49,932 new coronavirus cases, the fifth single-day case record in eight days, according to a New York Times database. North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas also hit daily records, with Texas reaching more than 8,000 new infections.
As new cases rose, states and localities reversed course on reopenings. New York City decided not to let its restaurants resume indoor service next week as originally planned. Miami Beach said that it would reinstate a nightly curfew beginning Thursday at 12:30 a.m., extending until 5 a.m., to try to curb the spread. And California shut down bars and halted indoor dining at restaurants in 19 counties that were home to more than 70 percent of the state’s population. [NYT article]
July 2020 COVID 19
532,687 COVID Deaths Worldwide
July 4: 11,364,440 cases; 532,687 deaths worldwide
132,302 COVID Deaths USA
July 4: 2,934,168 cases; 132,302 deaths in the United States
July 2020 COVID 19
States Shatter Coronavirus Records
July 4: NPR reported that state authorities had again reported a record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases.
Florida and South Carolina both reported passing their previous single-day highs, while Alabama, Texas and a slew of others continued to reel from recent records of their own.
In Florida on July 3 alone, there were more than 11,400 newly confirmed cases of the virus. That sum shatters a record that was set in the state just a couple of days ago — around the same time that the U.S. as a whole recorded the world’s highest-ever daily tally, with more than 55,000.
In a desperate bid to curtail the latest spike in the statewide caseload, local leaders in Florida implemented a slew of measures to tamp down the weekend’s usual holiday festivities. Miami-Dade County, for one, has instituted a curfew beginning at 10 p.m. “until further notice,” while beaches across much of South Florida are closed.
July 2020 COVID 19
Coronavirus Is Airborne
July 4: the NY Times reported that the emerging clusters of infection increasingly confirm what many scientists had been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby.
If airborne transmission is a significant factor in the pandemic, especially in crowded spaces with poor ventilation, the consequences for containment will be significant. Masks may be needed indoors, even in socially distant settings. Health care workers may need N95 masks that filter out even the smallest respiratory droplets as they care for coronavirus patients.
Ventilation systems in schools, nursing homes, residences and businesses may need to minimize recirculating air and add powerful new filters. Ultraviolet lights may be needed to kill viral particles floating in tiny droplets indoors.
The World Health Organization had long held that the coronavirus is spread primarily by large respiratory droplets that, once expelled by infected people in coughs and sneezes, fall quickly to the floor.
July 2020 COVID 19
Trump administration moves to formally withdraw US from WHO
July 7: the White House officially moved to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO), a senior administration official confirmed, breaking ties with a global public health body in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. submitted its withdrawal notification to the United Nations secretary-general, the official said. Withdrawal requires a year’s notice, so it will not go into effect until July 6, 2021, raising the possibility the decision could be reversed. [The Hill article]
July 2020 COVID 19
Another national record & at least five states set single-day records for infections
July 8: the NY Times reported that as President Trump continued to press for a broader reopening, the United States set another record for new coronavirus cases, with more than 59,400 infections announced, according to a New York Times database. It was the fifth national record in nine days.
The previous record, 56,567, was reported July 3.
The country reached a total of three million cases July 7 as the virus continued its resurgence in the South and West. At least five states — Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia — set single-day records for new infections on this date.
As of July 7 the country’s daily number of new cases had increased by 72 percent over the past two weeks. And by this date 24 states had reported more cases over the past week than in any other seven-day stretch of the pandemic.
July 2020 COVID 19
552,781 COVID Deaths Worldwide
July 9: 12,196,982 cases; 552,781 deaths worldwide
134,883 COVID Deaths USA
July 9: 3,159,514 cases; 134,883 deaths in the United States
July 2020 COVID 19
Another US record
July 12: the Florida Department of Health reported at least 15,299 new Covid-19 cases, the highest number of new cases in a single day by any state since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The test positivity rate — which could indicate how rampantly the virus was spreading — reached 19.6% as of July 12, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Across the country, more than half the states are dealing with increased rates of new cases compared to last week. And more than half the states have paused or rolled back their reopening plans in hopes of getting coronavirus under control. [CNN article]
July 2020 COVID 19
572,227 COVID Deaths Worldwide
July 13: 13,062,585 cases; 572,227 deaths worldwide
137,787 COVID Deaths USA
July 13: 3,414,105 cases; 137,787 deaths in the United States
July 2020 COVID 19
C.D.C. Stripped of Control of COVID Data
July 14: the Trump administration ordered hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all Covid-19 patient information to a central database in Washington beginning July 15. The move alarmed health experts who feared the data will be politicized or withheld from the public.
The new instructions were posted in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. The department — not the C.D.C. — would collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.
Officials said the change would streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database that would receive new information was not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on C.D.C. data to make projections and crucial decisions.
“Historically, C.D.C. has been the place where public health data has been sent, and this raises questions about not just access for researchers but access for reporters, access for the public to try to better understand what is happening with the outbreak,” said Jen Kates, the director of global health and H.I.V. policy with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. [NYT article]
July 2020 COVID 19
582,320 COVID Deaths Worldwide
July 15: 13,504,043 cases; 582,320 deaths worldwide
139,189 COVID Deaths USA
July 15: 3,548,546 cases; 139,189 deaths in the United States
July 2020 COVID 19
White House reversal
July 16: the US Department of Health and Human Services changed course on its controversial decision about hospital data, directing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to re-post public hospital information onto its website.
On July 14, the HHS had told hospitals to stop reporting the data on coronavirus hospitalizations to CDC, saying the agency was posting the information too slowly. HHS, the parent department of CDC, said it would manage the information instead.
CDC had taken down some of the data from its website on July 15th, but on the morning of July 16, HHS said it was directing the agency to put the data back up. [CNN story]
July 2020 COVID 19
U.S. shatters its single-day record for new cases, with more than 75,600
This was the 11th time in the past month that the record had been broken. The number has more than doubled since June 24, when the country registered 37,014 cases after a lull in the outbreak had kept the previous record, 36,738, standing for two months.
As of July 15, the country’s seven-day average case number exceeded 63,000, up from about 22,200 a month before.
July 2020 COVID 19
For 1st time, Trump urges Americans to wear masks
July 21: the daily death total in the United States exceeded 1,000 for the first time in weeks, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were likely far more infections than have been reported.
The news came as President Trump abandoned his consistently rosy forecasts and told reporters during his first coronavirus briefing since April that the outbreak would probably “get worse before it gets better.”
Having previously described recent outbreaks around the country as just “embers” of the virus, Mr. Trump conceded that there were now “big fires,” particularly in Florida and elsewhere across the South and West.
He also reversed his past resistance to masks, for the first time imploring Americans to wear them and acknowledging that “they have an impact.” [NYT article]
July 2020 COVID 19
620,292 COVID Deaths Worldwide
July 22: 15,121,827 cases; 620,292 deaths worldwide
144,958 COVID Deaths USA
July 22: 4,028,733 cases; 144,958 deaths in the United States
July 2020 COVID 19
U.S. nears a single-day record
July 24: the United States came just short of breaking its single-day record for new coronavirus cases, adding more than 73,400, the second-highest daily total, and signaling that infection rates show no signs of slowing.
The single-day record, set on July 16, is 75,697 cases. Since June 24, the seven-day average had more than doubled, from 31,402 to more than 66,100 on this date, which was also the fourth consecutive day with more than 1,100 deaths reported.
As the number of cases has continued to climb, so has the number of hospitalizations, which had skirted its own record in recent days.
The number of people known to be hospitalized with the coronavirus in the United States was 59,670, according to the Covid Tracking Project, a few hundred short of the record of 59,940 reported by the database on April 15. [NYT article]
July 2020 COVID 19
Florida
July 26: Florida recorded more coronavirus cases than New York. Only California, the most populous state in the country, had more.
As of July 26, data from Johns Hopkins University showed 423,855 people in Florida had tested positive for the coronavirus, compared to 411,736 in New York. California lead with 450,242 cases.
New York, once the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., managed to bring the number of deaths and hospitalizations under control in late spring, as cases began to surge in many Western and Southern states.
In Early July, Florida reported 15,299 new resident cases in one day, marking the largest single-day increase in any state since the start of the pandemic and overshadowing a record New York had set in April. It recorded more than 9,000 new cases per day since then.
And its death toll was starting to catch up. On July 23, Florida reported 173 new deaths, its largest increase in a single day.
Florida logged 9,338 new cases among residents and 77 new deaths on July 26, while New York’s latest daily numbers reflect 536 new cases and three deaths. [NPR story]
U.S. July cases more than double the total of any other month
July 31: The United States recorded more than 1.9 million new infections in July, nearly 42 percent of the more than 4.5 million cases reported nationwide since the pandemic began and more than double the number documented in any other month, according to data compiled by The New York Times. The previous monthly high came in April, when more than 880,000 new cases were recorded.
The virus was picking up dangerous speed in much of the Midwest — and in states from Mississippi to Florida to California that thought they had already seen the worst of it.
