Category: Corona Virus Vaccine

Editors note:This is a live account of COVID-19 updates from Wednesday, July 8, as the day unfolded. It is no longer being updated. Clickhereto see all the most recent news about the pandemic, andclick hereto find additional resources.

As of Tuesday, Washington businesses are required to turn away customers who arent wearing face coverings, per a new statewide order.

The rule comes as the World Health Organization acknowledges that airborne transmission of the virus may be a threat indoors which could have broad implications for our daily lives.

Heres what researchers have found aboutthe most effective non-medical masks, andhow to wear a face mask properly.

Throughout Wednesday, on this page, well be posting Seattle Times journalists updates on the outbreak and its effects on the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest and the world. Updates from Tuesday can be foundhere, and all our coronavirus coverage can be foundhere.

In the wake of a pandemic that has triggered unpredictable costs for school districts across the country, the Seattle School Board approved $1.3 billion in spending for the upcoming school year at its Wednesday meeting.

The budget passed with four yes votes and three abstentions from Board members Lisa Rivera-Smith, Eden Mack and Leslie Harris. Mack and Harris questioned the accuracy of the budget, given uncertainty about how many students will re-enroll in the fall, and what additional costs may arise from the districts negotiations with its teachers union over reopening schools.

Im rather concerned that we are not set up effectively for the current crisis and what is actually going to happen come fall, Mack said.

District officials said theyre confident they can flex the 2020-21 budget to meet the anticipated costs associated with reopening in the fall, about $15 million. The district will also receive more than $10 million from the federal CARES Act.

Read the full story here.

Dahlia Bazzaz

Wearing a mask and standing against the wall while reporters stood in an awkward configuration 6 to 10 feet apart down T-Mobile Parks club-level hallway, Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto answered questions about the start of summer camp Wednesday.

The coronavirus has changed just about everything.

On Wednesday, the Mariners released their results from 122 initial intake tests prior to the start of summer camp workouts, and three players tested positive for COVID-19. All three were asymptomatic and are in minimum 14-day quarantine and following the required procedure to be cleared, which includes daily testing. After the 14-day quarantine, a person must test negative on consecutive days before beginning the process to be admitted to workouts.

Dipoto said hes encouraged because other teams have reported more positive tests in the intake period.

Read the full story here.

Ryan Divish

The United States Department of Labor on Wednesday approved a trade adjustment assistance petition filed by hundreds of Alcoa workers trying to save their jobs at the company's Ferndale aluminum smelter.

The petition was filed by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) for the more than 700 workers at the Whatcom County plant. It will provide the workers with training and resources to get rehired, according to a statement from Rep. Suzan DelBene's office.

Alcoa announced in April that the plant the last remaining smelter west of the Mississippi would curtail production by July, citing challenges created by the coronavirus crisis. The company also announced it would cut $100 million in capital expenditures and defer $220 million in pension fund contributions.

In May, DelBene and Sen. Patty Murray, joined by Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Rick Larsen, wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia to support the petition, according to the statement.

These layoffs could not have come at a worse time amid a global pandemic," DelBene said in the statement. "The transition for the workers at the Intalco facility wont be easy but the TAA assistance approved today is a critical resource for them and their families during this difficult time."

The four lawmakers also wrote to the president and CEO of the Alcoa Corporation, as well as to President Donald Trump, urging him to "prioritize resolving the issue of excess Chinese aluminum capacity, which has depressed prices in the global market and harmed American businesses and workers, specifically in Washington state."

Elise Takahama and Geoff Baker

Public Health Seattle & King County shut down Dukes Seafood on Alki Beach on Wednesday morning as a safety precaution after seven employees at the popular West Seattle hangout tested positive for thecoronavirusin the past two weeks, management confirmed.

A source told The Seattle Times that two employees at its branches in Bellevue and Tacoma also tested positive, though neither of those restaurants was shut down.

Dukes management released a statement Wednesday saying team members at three locations alerted us to exposure to COVID-19 outside of the restaurant over the past few weeks. Each subsequently tested positive. When we learned of their exposures, we worked to contain it, evaluated each situation, informed all company team members, alerted the health department, and notified our guests through a variety of channels. In each case, we closed these stores for cleaning and to allow time for team members to be tested.

Read the full story here.

Tan Vinh

Washington Athletics performed coronavirus tests on 17 athletes who returned to campus this week and those tests revealed zero positive cases, according to a university release.

In four weeks of testing, 157 Husky athletes have been tested and there have been three positive tests (1.9%). Of those three positive tests, just one is an active positive case. That unnamed individual is currently going through UWs COVID-19 care and quarantine protocols.

Additionally, the release stated that surveillance testing is being done on athletes who have previously returned to campus, and those tests have returned zero positive cases as well.

The university declines to name the athletes who tested positive or provide details on which sports they participate in.

Read the full story here.

Mike Vorel

This year's Washington State Fair which has run mostly uninterrupted for about 120 years has been canceled due to coronavirus concerns, the fair said in a statement Wednesday.

"We have met the challenges of fires and floods, withstood changes in culture and the challenges of time and, except for the four years of World War II, operated uninterrupted that entire span," the statement said. "Now, after thoughtful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Fair."

The decision was made by the fair's board of directors, which voted on the cancellation after reviewing recommendations from the management team. This years fair was supposed to take place in Puyallup in September.

"Though it was a difficult decision, it was really the only decision possible based on what we currently know," the statement said. "It was a decision made in what we feel are the best interests of the health and safety of all of our guests, our employees, our exhibitors."

The fair still plans to host three events this summer, including a drive-thru food-to-go event, a drive-in concert series and a drive-in movie night. More information about each event is available here.

Read the full story here.

Yasmeen Wafai and Elise Takahama

Washington health officials confirmed 521 additional coronavirus cases on Wednesday, including 10 more deaths.

The update brings the states totals to 37,941 cases and 1,394 deaths, meaning about 3.7% of people diagnosed in Washington have died,according to the state Department of Health (DOH). The data is as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday.

So far, 645,072 tests for the novel coronavirus have been conducted in the state, per DOH. Of those, 5.9% have come back positive since testing began.

Overall deaths are concentrated in King County, Washington's most populous county, where DOH has confirmed 11,284 diagnoses and 628 deaths accounting for about 45% of the state's death toll.

Elise Takahama

SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP, N.J. Armed with a cheap steak knife and a plastic basket lined with a garbage bag, a high-school sophomore named Alicia Garlic sat cross-legged in the dirt at Specca Farms, a pick-your-own operation here in South Jersey.

Garlic wasnt picking greens for herself on this Tuesday morning in June, but for Farmers Against Hunger, a program of the New Jersey Agricultural Society. Along with more than a dozen others spread out along the rows for social distancing a retired schoolteacher, a Census Bureau employee, a young mother with her grade-schooler in tow she was there to glean, a practice traditionally defined as gathering anything left over after a harvest.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic, mile-long traffic jams at food banks and the disturbing sight of farmers plowing under their onions when food-service contracts disappeared overnight.

Now, gleaning groups are at the front lines of those helping to stabilize the nations shaky food supply, perfectly positioned to leverage one problem a bounty of unsellable crops to help solve another: rampant hunger.

The New York Times

In late May, former World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, an American who has served in Democratic and Republican administrations, waxed incredulous at the lack of a coordinated U.S. strategy aimed at combating the novel coronavirus.

The thing thats been driving me crazy is that weve just decided that the standard health response the only thing thats worked in any of the countries that suppressed the virus is something that were just not going to do, Kim said.

Sara Cody, head of the public health department in Californias Santa Clara County, known now for orchestrating one of the countrys earliest coronavirus shutdowns, was also on the call. She seemed relieved to hear him say so.

Cody is not alone among U.S. health officials, epidemiologists, virologists and other experts in feeling like she missed the memo saying the worlds richest nation really couldnt do much to keep this virus from paralyzing it. Many local officials are still asking the same question Kim posed that day: Why have we given up on containment?

So far, that political will has been largely lacking, from President Donald Trump down to many state and local officials trying to limit the viruss spread without destroying the economy.

The Washington Post

The Ivy League on Wednesday became the first Division I conference to say it will not play sports this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. The league left open the possibility of moving some seasons to the spring if the outbreak is better controlled by then.

Although the coalition of eight academically elite schools does not grant athletic scholarships or compete for an NCAA football championship, the move could have ripple effects throughout the big business of college sports. Football players in the Power Five conferences have already begun workouts for a season that starts on Aug. 29, even as their schools weigh whether to open their campuses to students or continue classes remotely.

The Ivy decision affects not just football but everything before Jan. 1, including soccer, field hockey, volleyball and cross country, as well as the nonconference portion of the basketball season.

Power Five conferences told The Associated Press on Wednesday that they were still considering their options. But it was the Ivy Leagues March 10 decision to scuttle its postseason basketball tournament that preceded a cascade of cancellations that eventually enveloped all major college and professional sports.

Associated Press

A new report studying the impact of the coronavirus on workers at meat processing plants has found that 87% of people infected were racial or ethnic minorities and that at least 86 workers have died.

The report released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined more than 16,000 COVID-19 cases at 239 plants in 21 states. It offers perspective on how the virus devastated U.S. pork, beef and poultry processing plants, but the figures likely understate the problem as Iowa officials declined to participate in the study.

Iowa is the nations largest pork-producing state and saw severe coronavirus outbreaks at several huge processing plants.

The CDC report found 87% of coronavirus cases occurred among racial and ethnic minorities even though they made up 61% of the overall worker population. The data shows 56% of coronavirus illnesses involved Hispanic workers, 19% were non-Hispanic Blacks and 12% were Asians. The data showed 13% of coronavirus cases involved white workers, who made up 39% of the overall workforce studied.

Read the full story here.

The Associated Press

President Donald Trumps campaign rally in Tulsa that drew thousands of people in late June, along with large protests that accompanied it, likely contributed to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday.

Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday.

Although the health departments policy is to not publicly identify individual settings where people may have contracted the virus, Dart said those large gatherings more than likely contributed to the spike.

In the past few days, weve seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, so I guess we just connect the dots, Dart said.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story here.

The Associated Press

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will issue new guidance on school openings, Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump criticized earlier recommendations as very impractical and vowed to meet with the agency himself.

Citing Trumps concern that the guidance might be too tough, Pence said the CDC would issue additional recommendations starting next week that would provide more clarity and stressed that the guidelines should not supplant judgments by local officials.

We dont want the guidance from CDC to be a reason why schools dont open, Pence said. I think that every American, every American knows that we can safely reopen our schools. . . . We want, as the president said this morning, to make sure that what were doing doesnt stand in the way of doing that.

His comments, at a White House coronavirus task force briefing, came about two hours after Trump undercut the recommendations of administration health experts as he continued to ramp up pressure on state and local officials to reopen schools this fall.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

United Airlines is warning 36,000 employees nearly half its U.S. staff they could be furloughed in October, the clearest signal yet of how deeply the virus pandemic is hurting the airline industry.

The outlook for a recovery in air travel has dimmed in just the past two weeks, as infection rates rise in much of the U.S. and some states impose new quarantine requirements on travelers.

United officials said Wednesday that they still hope to limit the number of layoffs by offering early retirement benefits, and that 36,000 is a worst-case scenario. The notices going to employees this month are meant to comply with a 60-day warning ahead of mass job cuts.

The furloughs could include up to 15,000 flight attendants, 11,000 customer service and gate agents, 5,500 maintenance workers and 2,250 pilots.

Read the full story here.

The Associated Press

TOKYO Japan is facing a sudden spike in coronavirus cases, but this time with no political will for another round of economically punishing shutdowns.

At the end of last month, the national government abruptly dismantled a panel of medical experts that had been guiding the response to the virus, and replaced it with a group that includes envoys from the business world and others.

Tokyos municipal government also abandoned an alert system based on numerical targets that could have triggered fresh shutdowns if the virus started spreading again.

The message from Japans leadership has been clear: The virus will be tackled only through measures that would not further harm the economy, according to Tokyos governor, Yuriko Koike.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

ATLANTA Atlantas mayor says she will sign an executive order mandating masks in Georgias largest city Wednesday, defying Gov. Brian Kemps decision to strongly encourage but not require face coverings.

Spokesman Michael Smith said Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms plans to sign an order requiring masks, which could set up a confrontation with the Republican Kemp.

Like a number of other local leaders in Georgia, Bottoms has unsuccessfully appealed to Kemp to change his order that local governments cant exceed the states requirements.

Read the full story here.

The Associated Press

Missouri leaders knew the risk of convening thousands of kids at summer camps across the state during a pandemic, the states top health official said, and insisted that camp organizers have plans in place to keep an outbreak from happening.

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Coronavirus daily news updates, July 8: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world - Seattle Times

Vaccines don't act as impenetrable shields that prevent viruses from entering our bodies. Rather, they teach our bodies how to rapidly mobilize our immune defenses against a foreign invader. The rapid immune response helps us clear the virus from the body before it wreaks its damage.

See the rest here:

Even without a Covid-19 vaccine, there's reason for hope - CNN

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, many are putting their hopes on a vaccine to end the health crisis.

But how long will it really take for one to become available and how long will it last in your system? CBS2s Dr. Max Gomez has more in his latest Max Minute report.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread unabated across much of the country, the nation holds on to the hope that a vaccine is what will finally allow us to begin a return to whatever normal will be.

But is that hope and the promised delivery timeline realistic?

While there are as many as 100 candidate vaccines in development around the world, there are perhaps a half-dozen outside of China that have begun actual human testing. The final Phase 3 is by far the most time consuming, normally requiring years and tens of thousands of volunteers to test a vaccine for effectiveness and especially for safety because vaccines can actually make a disease much worse.

Then theres the question of how long a vaccines immunity will last.

If you look at the neutralizing antibody from recovered patient, as Dr. Fauci said, it only lasts three-to-six months, so thats very short duration, said Dr. Henry Ji, CEO of Sorrento Therapeutics.

MORE:Max Minute: World Health Organization Says Small Airborne Particles Can Infect People With COVID-19

Sorrento is one of the companies with a vaccine in development. Others have announced positive test results in either Phase 2 or 3 human trials. What none of the companies have announced is whether they will attempt human challenge trials in Phase 3, where volunteers will be deliberately infected with coronavirus. That is the only way to speed up vaccine testing.

Without human challenge trials, Phase 3 vaccine testing usually takes years, making the often cited end-of-the-year vaccine availability wildly optimistic in the view of many impartial experts. So, for now, please wear a mask and practice social distancing.

For the top questions people have been asking about the coronavirus, visitcbsnewyork.com/max, and go tofacebook.com/cbsnewyorkto submit your question.

Excerpt from:

Max Minute: A Realistic Look At How Long It Will Take To Develop Coronavirus Vaccine - CBS New York

"Today also our companies are active in international efforts for development and production of Covid-19 vaccine," Modi said.

The prime minister was speaking at the India Global Week 2020's inaugural session Wednesday, a virtual conference organised in UK. It will also feature a performance "Atmanirbhar Bharat" by Madhu Nataraj and a special 100 birth anniversary concert in tribute to the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar by three of his most eminent students.

In the inaugural speech, Modi also said vaccines made in India are responsible for two-third of the vaccine needs of the world's children.

Earlier this week, the process of conducting clinical trials for Covaxin, the first possible vaccine candidate for Covid-19 rom India, began at the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here, a top official of the state-run medical facility said. "We will select healthy individuals and draw blood and send the blood samples to designated labs in New Delhi. They will give the green signal. Then the medicine people will examine and the first shot of the vaccine will be given due observation," NIMS director Dr K Manohar told PTI.

Besides, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has identified 12 clinical trial sites such as medical institutions and hospitals, including NIMS, and has asked their principal investigators to ensure that the subject enrolment is initiated no later than 7 July.

PM Modi also said, "The pandemic has once again shown that India's pharma industry is an asset not just for India but for the entire world. It has played a leading role in reducing the cost of medicines, especially for developing countries."

He also spoke on this year's performance. He said Aatmanirbhar Bharat is not about being self-contained or closed to the world; it is about being self-sustaining, self-generating:

The India Global Week 2020 is a three-day virtual conference, being held from July 9 to July 11, themed 'Be The Revival: India and a Better New World', and will have 5,000 global participants from 30 nations being addressed by 250 global speakers across 75 sessions.

The other speakers at the three-day event include Dr S Jaishankar, Union External Affairs Minister, PiyushGoyal, Union Minister of Railways, and Commerce and Industry, Lt Gen of JK, GC Murmu, Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, along with UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel, US Ambassador to India Ken Juster, among others.

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India will be key for developing and scaling up production of Covid-19 vaccine: PM Modi - Livemint

Written by Kaunain Sheriff M | New Delhi | Updated: July 9, 2020 8:09:15 am People throng a market at lower Bazar, Shimla on June 25, 2020. (Express Photo: Pradeep Kumar)

A new study published in The Lancet has concluded that herd immunity against Covid-19 is difficult to achieve at this stage, while a separate commentary describes it as unachievable. The conclusion is based on estimates of seroprevalence for the entire Spanish population.

Herd immunity refers to a situation when a certain percentage of the population have become immune to a certain disease-causing pathogen, thus preventing the infection from spreading to the rest of the population. While the concept is most commonly used in the context of vaccination, herd community can also be reached when enough people have become immune after being infected.

The premise is that if a certain percentage is immune, members of that group can no longer infect another person. This breaks the chain of infection through the community (herd) and prevents it from reaching those who are the most vulnerable.

What is the new study?

It is a large-scale seroepidemiological study, and concluded that just five per cent of the Spanish population has developed antibodies in response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. This implies that an estimated 95 per cent continues to be susceptible to the virus.

The study, which included 66,805 participants, was conducted between April 27 and May 11. It found that seroprevalence for the entire country was 5% by the point-of-care test and 4.6% by immunoassay. In seven provinces in the central part of Spain, including Madrid, seroprevalence was greater than 10 percent; and in provinces along the coast, seroprevalence was greater than 5% only in Barcelona.

In age-specific findings, according to the point-of-care test, seroprevalence was 1.1 percent in infants younger than 1 year and 3.1 percent in children aged 5-9 years, increasing with age until plateauing around 6 percent in people aged 45 years or older.

How significant is the study?

It is the largest serological study conducted so far in Europe and captures the true number of Covid-19 infections, which isnt captured by laboratory tests. It provides an estimate for the population of the entire country. Based on an overall seroprevalence range of 3.7% to 6.2% and accounting for the proportions of seropositive individuals who were asymptomatic, the study estimated that between 3,76,000 and 10,42,000 asymptomatic individuals went undetected in the non-institutionalised Spanish population.

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What are the implications of the study?

While a seroprevalence study largely provides information only about previous exposure to the virus, this study strengthens the line of argument that in the absence of treatment or a vaccine against Covid-19, achieving herd immunity at this stage is not possible.

Herd immunity is difficult to achieve without accepting the collateral damage of many deaths in the susceptible population and overburdening of health systems, it states.

In a separate commentary on the study, German virologists Isabella Eckerle and Benjamin Meyr wrote in The Lancet: In light of these findings, any proposed approach to achieve herd immunity through natural infection is not only highly unethical but also unachievable. With a large majority of the population being infection naive, virus circulation can quickly return to early pandemic dimensions in a second wave once measures are lifted.

Beyond Spain, the study sends signals to other countries: that even in countries that have reported high prevalence of Covid-19, the pandemic is far from coming to an end; therefore, these countries have to be cautious about easing of restrictions.

Why does the study suggest that herd immunity is difficult?

At the beginning of the pandemic, the United Kingdom had hinted at a strategy that would allow the novel coronavirus to infect 60 per cent of the countrys population so that a degree of herd immunity could be achieved.

Now, the data from Spain shows that in a country that has reported community transmission, only an estimated 5% have developed antibodies in response to the virus. Hence the conclusion.

In their commentary, the German virologists have raised two important issues: At present, immunity after SARS-CoV-2 infection is thought to be incomplete and temporary, lasting only several months to a few years; second, it is unknown whether these patients are protected by other immune functions, such as cellular immunity.

What have previous seroprevalence studies revealed?

On June 11, The Lancet published a paper by researchers who had studied seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 2,766 participants in Geneva. They estimated seroprevalence of 4.8% in the first week, 8.5% in the second week, 10.9% in the third week, 6.6% in the fourth week and 10.8% in the fifth week. After accounting for the time to seroconversion, we estimated that for every reported confirmed case, there were 11.6 infections in the community, the researchers wrote.

On June 5, Nature published a study conducted by researchers from China, who studied seroprevalence of specific antibodies immunoglobulin M and G against SARS-CoV-2 in 17,368 individuals from Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic in the country. The study found that seropositivity varied between 3.2% and 3.8% in different sub-cohorts. It also found that patients who visited hospitals for dialysis, and healthcare workers had a higher seroprevalence 3.3% and that seropositivity progressively decreased in other cities as the distance of the epicenter increased.

Dont miss from Explained | Could the Covid-19 virus be airborne?

On May 18, a research letter published in the Journal of the Medical Association said that the prevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 was found to be 4.65% in a community seroprevalence study conducted in Los Angeles County. The study tested 865 participants on April 10. The researchers estimated that approximately 3.67 lakh adults had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies which is substantially greater than the 8,430 cumulative number of confirmed infections in the county on April 10. Therefore, fatality rates based on confirmed cases may be higher than rates based on the number of infections, the study said.

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Explained: Doubts over herd immunity - The Indian Express

Coronavirus: Bed Bath & Beyond to close 200 stores as pandemic weighs on sales as it happened  Financial Times

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Coronavirus: Bed Bath & Beyond to close 200 stores as pandemic weighs on sales as it happened - Financial Times

Despite a surging number of new coronavirus cases, President Donald Trump said Tuesday afternoon that he will be putting a lot of pressure on governors to get schools open this fall.

We hope that most schools are going to be open in the fall, Trump said at a White House event called a "National Dialogue on Safely Reopening America's Schools."

We dont want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. They think its going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed, he said. No way. Were very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open.

And its very important. Its very important for our country, its very important for the well being of the student and the parents. So were going to be putting a lot of pressure on you to open your schools in the fall, he said.

Earlier in the day, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also told the nation's governors the administration wants schools to reopen fully in the fall.

On a call that included Vice President Mike Pence, DeVos said "a couple of hours of week of online school is not OK."

She also said, "Ultimately, it's not a matter of if it needs to open, it's a matter of how and they must be fully operational and how that happens is best left to education and community leaders."

Their calls to reopen schools came despite Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. expert on infectious disease and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, warned on Monday, "We are still knee-deep in the first wave of this."

In a live-streamed interview with his boss, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, Fauci said circumstances associated with states and cities trying to open up "has led to a situation where we now have record breaking cases.

So within a period of a week and a half, we've almost doubled the number of cases," Fauci said.

In Europe, countries saw cases go up and then come back down to a baseline. But in the U.S., Fauci said, "We went up, never came down to baseline, and now it's surging back up. So it's a serious situation that we have to address immediately.

In the U.S., there have been 2.97 million confirmed cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. There have been more than 130,900 deaths in the U.S.

Worldwide, more than 11.7 million infections have been reported with more than 540,157 deaths.

United States:

-The Trump administration has informed the United Nations it is withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, The Washington Post reported. The notice was delivered in a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, according to the Post.

-On Tuesday, Fauci said he does not foresee the government mandating a coronavirus vaccine for the general public. "I don't see it on a national level, merely because of all the situations you have encroaching upon a person's freedom to make their own choice of their own health, Fauci told Sen. Doug Jones during a Facebook Live event.

-Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued a sweeping order saying school districts and charter school governing boards must provide the full array of services that are required by law so that families who wish to educate their children in a brick and mortar school full time have the opportunity to do so. The only option for schools to not be physically open in August is if local Department of Health officials say schools cannot open, according to the emergency order.

-Mississippis Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann tested positive for the new coronavirus hours after Gov. Tate Reeves announced his own test for the highly contagious virus had come back negative. Over the weekend, House Speaker Philip Gunn, 57, announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.

-Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN cases of COVID-19 are rising so quickly across parts of the South and Southwest, contact tracing is no longer possible.

-Five people who work in California's state Assembly have tested positive for the coronavirus. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said the Assembly will stay in recess until further notice.

-Maryland biotech company Novavax has been awarded a $1.6 billion contract as part of the government's "Operation Warp Speed" COVID-19 vaccine program. It is the fourth company to receive federal funds to conduct large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials and manufacturing of the vaccine. The others are AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

-Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that international students who are pursuing degrees in the United States will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only courses.

-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced she, her husband, and one of her children have tested positive for the new coronavirus. She told CNN on Monday that she had no idea how the family was exposed.

Worldwide:

-A six-week Stage 3 lockdown of the Australian city of Melbourne begins at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews announced. People will be allowed to leave their homes only to buy food, go to work, receive or give care, and do exercise, Andrews said.

-South Africas health ministry reported 8,971 new cases on Monday, bringing the total to 205,721.

-India's rate of new virus infections and deaths are now rising at their fastest pace. The country reported 467 new deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the toll to 20,160. It also recorded 22,252 new infections, increasing the total to 719,665.

-Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for COVID-19, CNN reported. Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of the virus, went to a hospital for a lung scan after developing symptoms, including a fever and an abnormal blood oxygen level. His press office said he was being treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

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Coronavirus Updates: President Trump Wants Nation's Schools Fully Reopened in the Fall - The Weather Channel

MADISON (WKOW) -- Wisconsin's statewide infections have doubled in just over a month, numbers from health officials indicate.

The Department of Health Services reported 12,594 new test results, of which 495--or 3.9 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 numbers represent a doubling of total infections in Wisconsin since the Memorial Day weekend.

DHS also reported nine new deaths and 37 new hospitalizations.

More than 600,000 tests have come back negative since testing began.

Of the positive cases, 25,758, or 79 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.

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Wisconsin COVID-19 cases nearly double over past month - WKOW

Washington: Scientists have identified several existing compounds that block the replication of the COVID-19-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus within human cells grown in the laboratory, by targeting a key viral enzyme.

The inhibitors all demonstrated potent chemical and structural interactions with viral proteins critical to the virus's ability to proliferate, according to the study published in the journal Cell Research.

The most promising drug candidates -- including the USFDA-approved hepatitis C medication boceprevir and an investigational veterinary antiviral drug known as GC-376 -- target the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) enzyme, the researchers from the University of South Florida (USF) in the US said.

The enzyme cuts out proteins from a long strand that the virus produces when it invades a human cell, they said.

The researchers noted that without Mpro, the virus cannot replicate and infect new cells.

This enzyme had already been validated as an antiviral drug target for the SARS and MERS, both genetically similar to SARS-CoV-2, they said.

"With a rapidly emerging infectious disease like COVID-19, we don't have time to develop new antiviral drugs from scratch," said Yu Chen, an associate professor at USF.

"A lot of good drug candidates are already out there as a starting point. But, with new information from studies like ours and current technology, we can help design even better drugs much faster," said Chen.

Mpro represents an attractive target for drug development against COVID-19 because of the enzyme's essential role in the life cycle of the coronavirus and the absence of a similar protease in humans, Chen noted.

Since people do not have the enzyme, drugs targeting this protein are less likely to cause side effects, he explained.

The team, including researchers from the University of Arizona in the US, identified four leading drug candidates as the most potent and specific for fighting COVID-19.

These are Boceprevir, a drug to treat Hepatitis C, GC-376 -- an investigational veterinary drug for a deadly strain of coronavirus in cats -- and Calpain inhibitors II and XII, investigated in the past for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and other conditions, they said.

All four compounds were superior to other Mpro inhibitors previously identified as suitable to clinically evaluate for treating SARS-CoV-2, Chen added.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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Compounds that halt reproduction of Covid-19 virus identified - Livemint

(Reuters) - The United States saw a 27% increase in new cases of COVID-19 in the week ended July 5 compared to the previous seven days, with 24 states reporting positivity test rates above the level that the World Health Organization has flagged as concerning.

FILE PHOTO: Sun seekers gather at Clearwater Beach, which remains open despite high numbers of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections in the state, on Independence Day in Clearwater, Florida, U.S. July 4, 2020. REUTERS/Drone Base

Nationally, 7.5% of diagnostic tests came back positive last week, up from 7% the prior week and 5% two weeks ago, according to a Reuters analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer-run effort to track the outbreak.

The WHO considers a positivity rate above 5% to be a cause for concern because it suggests there are more cases in the community that have not yet been uncovered.

Arizonas positivity test rate was 26%, up from 24% last week; Floridas rose to 19% from 16%, and Mississippi was 17%, up from 13%, according to the analysis.

Graphic: Where coronavirus cases are rising in the United States - here

Testing rose by 7.5% last week and set a new record high with over 721,000 tests performed on July 3.

Deaths, which health experts say are a lagging indicator, continued to fall nationally to 3,447 people in the week ended July 5. A handful of states, however, have reported increases in deaths for at least two straight weeks, including Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee.

Nationally, new COVID-19 cases have risen every week for five straight weeks. Thirty-three states, mostly in the West and South, reported more new cases of COVID-19 last week compared to the previous week, the analysis found.

Many states have temporarily halted the reopening of their economies or ordered some businesses to close. California, Kansas, Oregon and West Virginia have become the latest to mandate wearing masks in public, but at least 30 states, including Florida, have no statewide mandate.

Cases continue to decline in the Northeast on a weekly basis, but some Midwest states are seeing increases again, including Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

New Hampshire, where President Donald Trump plans an outdoor rally on Saturday, posted a near 30% drop in new infections to 140 last week, the biggest percentage drop in the nation, according to the analysis.

Graphic: World-focused tracker with country-by-country interactive - here

Reporting by Chris Canipe in Kansas City, Missouri, and Lisa Shumaker in Chicago; Editing by Tiffany Wu

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Where COVID-19 is spreading fastest as U.S. cases rise 27% in past week - Reuters