The number of coronavirus cases reported Monday was the lowest it has been since mid-June, a positive sign for the United States.
Roughly 34,100 new COVID-19 cases were reported Monday. Monday’s tally is the lowest since June 22. New case rates have declined over the last few days after averaging about 41,000 new cases daily over the past week.
The average coronavirus test positive rate over the past seven days is about 5.7%, the lowest it has been since the end of June, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Public health experts are worried that upcoming Labor Day festivities could result in another case surge if people flout social distancing protocols as they did over Memorial Day weekend. Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said last week that he is “nervous” about Labor Day as well as the months ahead when flu season settles in.
“I think the fall is going to be a bit of a mess,” Jha told CNBC last week. “If Labor Day begins with a 50-person backyard barbecue, that turns into a 30-person indoor drinks after the sun goes down, that’s going to be a huge problem.”
The total number of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. is over 6 million, with more than 184,000 deaths.
The Trump administration announced an eviction moratorium Tuesday using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantine authority. The order is meant to protect renters from evictions until the end of 2020.
Renters who make no more than $99,000 a year, or $198,000 a couple, would qualify for the rent moratorium if they are likely to become homeless if evicted, the CDC order stated.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told House lawmakers on Tuesday that he’s “prepared to sit down” with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and negotiate another coronavirus relief package, adding that President Trump also supports more emergency aid for businesses, workers, and schools.
“The president and I want to move forward with more fiscal response,” Mnuchin told the special House subcommittee tasked with investigating the federal response to the pandemic.
A panel of researchers from the National Institutes of Health said Tuesday that there is not enough evidence to show that convalescent plasma therapy will prove effective in treating coronavirus patients, Bloomberg reported. Just days after the Trump administration granted emergency use approval for the therapy to be used for COVID-19 patients, NIH advisers said there was “no difference in 7-day survival overall” among those who received plasma containing high amounts of antibodies.
“There are currently no data from well-controlled, adequately powered randomized clinical trials that demonstrate the efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19,” the NIH group said. “There are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19.”
The panel’s statement contradicts claims from Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn last week that the treatment could cut deaths due to COVID-19 by 35%. He later had to apologize for misstating the benefits and defend the agency from accusations that it was bending to the political whims of Trump.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that state agencies will sever all ties to Quest Diagnostics for delays in reporting coronavirus tests results to state health officials, the New York Times reported. Quest submitted the results from about 75,000 tests late Monday. Some test results were a couple of weeks old, while some stretched back as far as April.
“To drop this much unusable and stale data is irresponsible,” DeSantis said. “I believe that Quest has abdicated their ability to perform a testing function in Florida that the people can be confident in.”
Trump said Tuesday that he had a “productive” conversation with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren regarding the on-again-off-again fall football season. The Big Ten, which includes powerhouse teams such as Ohio State University and Penn State University, is one of two top football conferences in the U.S. that has decided to forgo restarting the season in September.
“Had a very productive conversation with Kevin Warren, Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference, about immediately starting up Big Ten football,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “Would be good (great!) for everyone — Players, Fans, Country. On the one yard line!”
Speaking with reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday, Trump said his administration was “pushing very hard” to help get the season restarted.
Public health officials will soon be able to use smartphones for contact tracing without having to build a separate app. The new system, announced Tuesday by Google and Apple, according to multiple news reports, is called Exposure Notification Express. Through ENE, public health officials will be able to submit a small configuration file to the two tech giants. Google and Apple will then build a system using those files that phone owners can acquire to see if they have been in the proximity of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Pelosi came under fire Tuesday when security footage at a San Francisco salon showed her going into the salon for indoor services without a mask Monday, despite city rules that prohibited such services. San Francisco started allowing salon services to be performed outdoors Tuesday. Footage showed Pelosi inside the salon with her face covering around her neck.
The salon owner, Erica Kious, told Fox it felt like “a slap in the face,” given the city rules have kept her salon closed for about six months.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to delay the start of in-person learning Tuesday as part of his efforts to negotiate with the city’s teachers union. In-person classes will begin Sept. 21, two weeks behind schedule. Remote classes will begin Sept. 16.
“We’re going to make testing available every month in every school. And it’s going to be made available in a way that maximizes the ease for everyone in the school community to get tested,” de Blasio said.
In response to a rise in COVID-19 cases, the government of Scotland announced that people living in Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, and East Renfrewshire would not be allowed to hold indoor gatherings. Bars, schools, and restaurants will be allowed to remain open.
“Transmission appears mainly to be happening inside people’s homes and between households, rather than in pubs and restaurants,” said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. Scotland has seen over 300 new cases in the last two days. The restrictions are expected to last for two weeks.
Pope Francis stated Tuesday that “in some ways, the current pandemic has led us to rediscover simpler and sustainable lifestyles.” He urged people to adopt simpler lifestyles to help a planet “groaning” under the constant demand for economic growth.
