Category: Corona Virus

Nearly a month ago, there were 49 cases at the ICE detention center in Farmville, Virginia, which holds adult males. Now, of the 360 immigrants in custody at the center, there are 268 confirmed cases of coronavirus currently under isolation or monitoring, according to agency statistics.

"We're just stuck in here. We can't do anything about it," said a 39-year-old detainee who agreed to share his experience on condition CNN not use his name.

"Some people are worried, sad, because they worry about their families, they worry about being deported," said the detainee, who tested positive for coronavirus in early July.

"A humanitarian crisis is rapidly unfolding at Farmville Detention Center," reads a complaint in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia filed Tuesday by the National Immigration Project, Legal Aid Justice Center and Gibson Dunn.

At Farmville, lawyers attribute the rise in cases to an agency effort to transfer detainees to provide for social distancing.

In early June, 74 detainees were transferred to the Farmville center from facilities in Arizona and Florida and quarantined. They were eventually tested after three detainees had confirmed cases.

Of the 74 detainees transferred, 51 eventually tested positive for coronavirus. Up until then, the center had few to no cases.

Prior to the transfer, the director of the Farmville facility, Jeffrey Crawford, relayed concerns from the center's medical director to ICE about new intakes into the facility, according to a court filing obtained by CNN.

ICE, according to the filing, proposed quarantining any new intakes at another Virginia location for 14 days before transferring them to Farmville. But that wasn't possible for the transfers coming from facilities in Arizona and Florida. Lawyers say that's where the problem began.

"In June, when this started to happen and reports started coming out that people were sick with Covid ... what they originally said is this is just the transfers," said Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project. "And then eventually they started testing and realized 'oh, it's everywhere.'"

Crawford maintained that "none of the 74 detainees were exposed to the general population" and detailed precautionary measures put in place to stem the spread of the virus, according to the court filing.

But detainees said that despite measures to separate those with confirmed cases, there continued to be intermingling, particularly with the staff members attending those who are separated and then engaging with the general population.

In a statement to CNN, ICE said it's "ramped up its efforts to protect and care for detainees in its custody by providing face masks, procuring additional handwashing stations and most recently, administering comprehensive testing of all detainees."

"The majority of those who tested positive are asymptomatic, but are being closely monitored and receiving appropriate medical care," ICE said, adding that medical checks are done twice daily, including a temperature screening and medication disbursement. "Detainees who have tested negative will be retested and are being held separately from positive detainees"

But that's still done little to quell the concerns of detainees in the facility.

"People are still scared," said Brian Casson, an immigration attorney representing two detainees at the Farmville facility. "The people who don't have results back are worried they're going to get it or have it. I haven't had any clients test negative. I just had one client who tested inconclusive."

ICE said it doesn't deliberately move detainees who have tested positive for coronavirus between its detention facilities, but conceded there "have been some instances where positive cases have been transported by ICE."

The inspector general similarly found issues related to social distancing, stating in the report that "facilities reported concerns with their inability to practice social distancing among detainees, and to isolate or quarantine individuals who may be infected with COVID-19."

Concerns over conditions have prompted a litany of lawsuits nationwide to release detainees and put measures in place to protect those in custody.

Shebaya is involved in three lawsuits relating to Farmville, calling for release of some detainees and challenging conditions at the detention center.

"At this point we're trying to figure out what we can do to make this better for people in the inside," Shebaya said.

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Nearly 75% of detainees at US immigration facility in Virginia have coronavirus - CNN

The drag is felt acutely in tourist destinations dependent on air travel, like the Canary Islands, hundreds of miles from mainland Spain. Airlines carried 15 million visitors to the archipelago last year, but the flight capacity this month is just 30 percent of what it was a year ago.

Italy has tried to promote national tourism by issuing a so-called holiday bonus, a 150-euro voucher per Italian for lodging, up to 500 per family. Dario Franceschini, the minister of culture and tourism, told Parliament this month that about 400,000 vouchers had been issued, worth 183 million in total. According to Italian news reports, however, only a small fraction of hotels accept them.

Greece, though suffering less from the pandemic than either Italy or Spain, has still seen scant evidence of a rebound in tourism. In the first 12 days of July, passenger traffic at the Athens airport was down 75 percent from a year ago.

Though all of the countries of southern Europe have emerged from lockdown, new outbreaks there and quarantine orders elsewhere have added hurdles. This month, Britain said that people coming from Portugal, among other countries, would be forced to quarantine on arrival, a move that essentially choked off British tourism there.

Outbreaks have also occurred around major tourism hubs like Barcelona, where about three million residents were told on Friday to stay indoors to help contain the coronavirus.

Carlos Garca Pastor, the marketing director of Logitravel Group, a Spanish travel operator that had revenue of about 800 million last year, said that his company expected earnings to drop at least 50 percent this year.

The final result, he said, will really depend on how many new outbreaks there are.

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Trump Administration Aims to Block New Funding for Coronavirus Testing and Tracing - The New York Times

Nearly 10 times as many Bay Area residents had been infected with the coronavirus by the end of April than the official tally at the time, according to a new federal study that analyzed antibody tests to determine how widespread the virus was across a handful of United States hot spots.

The study underscores just how deficient testing for the virus was in the early weeks of the pandemic, when the vast majority of cases were never identified.

At the same time, it provides further evidence that aggressive shelter-in-place orders protected much of the Bay Area, where researchers estimate only about 1% of all residents had been infected by the time the study was done. That number is surely higher now with the outbreak surging again.

Scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 65,000 people in the Bay Area had been infected with the coronavirus by April 27, based on results of antibody tests conducted on a sample of the population. During that period, only about 7,000 cases had been reported,

The CDC performed antibody tests on about 16,000 blood samples collected in 10 regions in the United States, including the Bay Area, in March, April and May. Results showed that the Bay Area had the lowest infection rate in the country during that time period, compared to 6.9% in New York City, which had the highest rate.

The study, results of which were published in JAMA Internal Medicine, is the largest look so far at the estimated infection rate in several of the countrys COVID-19 hot spots. As with previous studies, it shows how widespread the virus is in American communities and how much testing for active infections has fallen short, according to the authors and infectious disease experts.

This study is consistent with what everyones been thinking: The number of cases reported are a gross under-estimation of the actual number of cases occurring, said John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert with UC Berkeley.

The 1% infection rate in the Bay Area certainly has climbed since the antibody tests were done at the end of April, infectious disease experts said. But the percentage of people who have been infected is probably still very small overall potentially 2% to 6%, based on the number of confirmed cases now compared to two months ago. The CDC has not yet done a follow-up study in the Bay Area but has plans to do so, the authors said.

The regions remarkably low infection rate, especially compared to places like New York City, demonstrates the success of sheltering in place for two months, infectious disease experts said. When the antibody tests were done, the Bay Area had been under stay-at-home orders for five weeks and case counts and hospitalizations were at their lowest.

In fact, though the Bay Area was one of the first parts of the country to experience community spread of disease, it had the lowest overall infection rate, according to the CDC study.

This is what we managed to do, said George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert with UCSF. Even with the current surge in cases in the Bay Area, he guesses the percentage of people who have been infected remains small.

Youre only talking about hundreds of cases a day in a region with millions of people in it, he said.

New York City had the highest infection rate, at close to 7% at the end of March; a follow-up study there found that the rate had jumped to about 23% by the first week of May. Washington state, which was also an early hot spot, had an infection rate of 1.1%.

About 5.8% of people had been infected in Louisiana at the time the antibody testing was done, and 4.9% in Connecticut, which was wrapped up in New Yorks outbreak. About 1.9% of people in South Florida had been infected by early April; that climbed to 2.9% about two weeks later, and infectious disease experts said the percentage is likely much higher now, as cases have swelled there in recent weeks.

The CDC study looked for coronavirus antibodies in blood samples taken from people during routine screening, such as cholesterol tests. Samples were analyzed from the Bay Area, New York City, Connecticut, South Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Utah and western Washington State, plus the metro areas in Minneapolis and Philadelphia. The Bay Area samples were collected and tested April 23-27.

The CDC researchers extrapolated the positive results to the community at large to determine what percentage of all residents in the area likely had been infected.

The body produces antibodies to a pathogen when a person is infected, regardless of whether the individual experiences symptoms of disease. So antibody tests can identify people who were infected and may not have known it, or who were never tested for active illness because they did not have access to testing.

In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, testing for active infection was in extremely short supply in the United States. Infectious disease experts have long said the number of confirmed cases represents only a fraction of the actual number of people infected. Generally, experts have estimated that the actual infections are about 10 times the confirmed cases.

In all sites, the estimated number of infections with the virus that causes COVID-19 ... was much higher than the reported cases. This may reflect the number of persons who had mild or no illness or who did not seek medical care or undergo testing, but who still may have contributed to ongoing virus transmission in the population, said the studys lead author, CDC researcher Fiona Havers, in an email.

Because people often do not know if they are infected, the public should continue to take steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, she said, including wearing face coverings, maintaining social distance and washing hands frequently.

An earlier study from Stanford looking at antibody results in Santa Clara County reported 2.4% to 4.2% of people had been infected, but that analysis has since been widely challenged. Another study, by UCSF, that looked at antibody prevalence in the Mission District found that about 6% of residents there had been infected as of early May. Almost all of the infections were found among Latino residents who were essential workers and unable to shelter in place.

The CDC study comes with some caveats, in particular that the people who were tested are not necessarily representative of the larger population, since they were individuals with access to health care who were undergoing routine screening.

But infectious disease experts said its still an important snapshot of how widespread the disease was in American communities. Such studies are critical to understanding key questions about the virus, including how many cases are asymptomatic. It will be important to repeat these studies at later dates to get a sense of how the spread of disease has changed over time, experts said.

These studies also demonstrate how much more testing needs to be done for active infections. Depending on the region, the number of people testing positive for antibodies was six to 24 times greater than the confirmed cases.

The good way to interpret this study is despite this huge pandemic, the actual number of people getting infected, even in places like New York City, was not that high. So thats kind of reassuring, said Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley. But the bad way of looking at this is there are still a lot more people who could potentially get infected in the future.

Its unclear yet whether antibodies prevent individuals from being reinfected, though most experts believe they provide at least some protection for a period of time.

The pandemic hasnt gotten everybody, Riley said. If the antibody is protective, there are still a lot of people who arent protected.

Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday

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Antibody study finds coronavirus infections may have been 10 times higher in Bay Area - San Francisco Chronicle

The novel coronavirus pandemic has now killed more than 613,000 people worldwide.

Over 14.8 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their nations' outbreaks.

The United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 3.8 million diagnosed cases and at least 141,845 deaths.

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Here is how the news is developing today. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.

Younger people are continuing to drive new COVID-19 infections in Los Angeles County, health department officials said.

The county reported 2,741 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, of which 57% were people under age 41.

However an overwhelming majority of all deaths -- nearly 75% -- are in people over the age of 65, Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said. That age group accounts for 11% of all cases.

"The tragedy of what we are witnessing is that many of our younger residents are interacting with each other and not adhering to the recommended prevention measures, while our older residents continue to experience the results of this increased spread with the worst health outcomes, including death," Ferrer said.

The county has 161,673 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 4,154 deaths.

Statewide, California reported 400,769 total cases on Tuesday. That number will likely edge out New York's statewide total -- currently at 408,181 -- on Wednesday.

Texas reported a new record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Tuesday.

There are 10,848 patients currently hospitalized statewide, according to state data. Hospitalizations have remained above 10,000 since July 10.

The state saw 9,305 new cases on Monday, for a total of 341,739. There were 131 new fatalities, bringing the statewide total to 4,151.

The testing positivity rate was 15.05% as of Monday.

At President Donald Trump's first briefing focused on the coronavirus crisis in nearly three months, he encouraged people to wear masks and said that the pandemic will "get worse before it gets better."

"Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact," said Trump, who, except on rare occcasions is usually seen not wearing one. At Tuesday's briefing, he said he wears a mask "when I need."

President Donald Trump points to a reporter for a question during a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response news briefing at the White House in Washington, July 21, 2020.

The return of the briefings comes as cases of the coronavirus have surged in the country, particularly in the South.

"It will probably, unfortunately get worse before it gets better," Trump said. "That's the way it is."

The president said getting a vaccine "remains a top priority." Two vaccine candidates are entering clinical trials this month, and four others will in the coming weeks, Trump said. The military is ready to distribute them whenever they're ready, he added.

Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, fixtures at past briefings, were not in attendance Tuesday. Birx was "right outside," Trump said when a reporter asked where they were.

The briefing lasted about half an hour, in contrast to previous briefings, some of which came close to two hours long.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Tuesday afternoon that he had not been invited to President Donald Trump's 5 p.m. White House briefing.

"I was not invited up to this point," Fauci said prior to the briefing. "I'm assuming that I'm not going to be there, because it's going to be in just a short while, and I'm still here at the NIH [National Institutes of Health]."

Asked when was the last time he spoke to the president, Fauci said he had a "good, long conversation with him towards the end of last week."

A nurse beckons to people in a car at a newly opened mega drive-thru site at El Paso Community College Valle Verde campus on July 21, 2020 in El Paso, Texas.

Fauci also responded to Trump's characterization on Fox News on Sunday that the nation's top expert on infectious diseases is an "alarmist."

"People have their opinion about my reaction to things," Fauci said. "I consider myself more of a realist than an alarmist."

Five months into the pandemic, Fauci said the U.S. testing system is "patchy."

People exercise on the lawn of the state capitol in Lansing, Mich., July 21, 2020. The fitness workout and rally on the Michigan State Capitol lawn is intended to spotlight the benefits of exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It isn't as uniform as we would like," he said. "We need to do better, particularly when you're dealing with the surges that we're seeing now in some of the southern states."

Asked what Americans need to do to slow the spread, Fauci said universal mask wearing, closing bars, physical distancing and good hand hygiene.

"It's not rocket science," he said.

As hospitalizations rise, Louisiana is extending its Phase 2 restrictions until Aug. 7, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Tuesday.

For the next two weeks, masks are mandatory across the state, crowds are limited to 50 people, and bars must be take-out only.

Maria Jones, center, sits at an outdoor table with her mother Stacey Jones at El Paso Mexican Grill on Magazine Street in New Orleans, July 9, 2020. A sharp increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is forcing bars in the good-time-loving, tourist-dependent city to shut down again just a month after they were allowed to partially reopen.

Louisiana is ranks second in the nation per capita in COVID-19 cases, the governor said.

The Nobel Prize banquet has been canceled for the first time in over 60 years due to the pandemic, the Nobel Foundation said Tuesday.

Usually all the Laureates and their families gather in Stockholm and Oslo in December and a traditional Nobel Banquet is held at the Stockholm City Hall.

This year, the award ceremony will still take place in Oslo and Stockholm on Dec. 10, but with "new formats that both comply with social distancing restrictions and take into account that only some or perhaps no Laureates will participate on site," the foundation said in a statement.

The banquet will be canceled because the event hosts over 1,000 people in an indoor space, the foundation said.

The Nobel Prizes will be announced in October as usual.

From the outset, officials in hard-hit California have envisioned reopening as a "dimmer switch," making modifications based on the ongoing data, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.

Insignia Hair Salon stylist Regina Muslimova gives a haircut in the parking lot behind the salon, July 21, 2020, in Walnut Creek, California. The salon reopened its doors to clients for haircuts a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced guidance for barbershops and hair salons to offer haircuts in an outdoor setting. According to the new guidelines, "outdoor operations may be conducted under a tent, canopy, or other sun shelter as long as no more than one side is closed, allowing sufficient outdoor air movement."

"The overall health and well-being of Californians will always guide our decisions," he said, adding that state officials are open to adapting approaches.

A medical worker wears protective clothing in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of St John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, Calif., July 9, 2020.

Motorists line up to take a coronavirus test at Dodger Stadium, July 16, 2020, in Los Angeles.

"Our goal has always been to box the virus in with clear sector guidance ... as well as testing and contact tracing," Ghaly said.

Regarding contact tracing, Ghaly said, "we need to continue to scale it up ... even despite the fact that high levels of transmission have made traditional contact tracing impractical and difficult to do."

From left, manager Dave Roberts, Bob Geren, and Dino Ebel line up for the National Anthem for a preseason game against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic at Dodger Stadium on July 20, 2020, in Los Angeles.

"Contact tracing is a tried-and-true method in public health," Ghaly said. "At the level of transmission that we're seeing across the state, even a very, very robust contact tracing program ... will have a hard time teaching out to every single case."

Thousands of state staff members have been trained and are ready to be deployed to counties, Ghaly said.

A San Diego county nurse works at a newly opened drive through testing site at a closed high school in Imperial Beach, Calif., July 16, 2020.

"As we build up the capacity county by county ... there are gonna be some novel and important approaches to reach out to contacts," he continued.

If COVID-19 positive people can make "that initial reach out ... that's another important way to reduce transmission," he said.

The Trump administration says it is working with hospitals on accommodations for religious leaders to visit patients and health care workers.

Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Health and Human Services Department, told reporters Tuesday that the administration has helped to resolve several issues so far, including a medical student who didn't want to shave his beard but was told the N95 respirator wouldn't fit properly otherwise.

The student, who was on rotation at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, was allowed to use a powered air purifying respirator instead, Severino said.

"This was a win-win situation," Severino said. "It avoided the difficult and painful situation of having to force someone to choose between their deeply held religious beliefs and pursuing the practice of medicine."

In another case, the Trump administration intervened when a Maryland woman was told in June that her husband couldn't receive visitors after being in a serious motorcycle accident. The hospital did not believe he was close to death and thought visitors presented safety concerns.

The Health and Human Services Department intervened and a priest was allowed to visit, Severino said.

"Spiritual needs don't exist only at the point of death" Severino said.

The South Carolina National Guard is sending about 40 medics to five hospitals to help respond to a COVID-19 surge, officials said Tuesday.

Georgetown County and Horry County have reported over 4,000 new coronavirus cases since July 1, hospital officials said.

All local hospitals are at or near capacity in their ICU, emergency and inpatient care departments, officials said.

Ten new states have been added to New York and New Jersey's travel advisory list.

The new states are: Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Virginia and Washington.

Seattle Mariners outfielder Kyle Lewis, center right, stretches with teammates at baseball practice in Seattle, July 7, 2020.

Diane Tomey cleans a classroom at McClelland Elementary School, June 22, 2020, in Indianapolis.

Those states join: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

Minnesota has been removed from the list.

Travelers headed to New York, New Jersey or Connecticut from those states must quarantine for two weeks.

People gather at the beach in Ocean City, Md., on July 3, 2020.

The quarantine applies to states with a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents over a one-week average, or any state with a 10% or higher positivity rate over a one-week average.

In Highlands County, Florida, parents must sign a COVID-19 waiver for students to take part in extracurricular activities this summer and during the upcoming school year, reported ABC affiliate WFTS.

The waiver asks that parents agree to check their children's temperature each day, visually inspect their children for signs of illness and confirm that the children have not been in contact with a coronavirus-positive person in the last two weeks. Parents also must agree to promptly pick up their children if they show signs of illness and to keep their children at home until they are illness-free for at least 72 hours without medicine.

The waiver is meant to remind parents that participating in any activity now carries a risk, Deputy Superintendent Andrew Lethbridge told WFTS.

In hard-hit Florida, five counties -- Hernando, Monroe, Nassau, Okeechobee and Putnam -- had no available ICU beds as of Tuesday morning, according to the state's Agency for Healthcare Administration.

Of the adult ICU beds across the state, just 16.47% are available, the agency said.

Those numbers are expected to fluctuate throughout the day.

At least 21,780 coronavirus patients in Florida have been hospitalized since the pandemic began -- up 517 from Monday, according to the state's Department of Health.

A National Guard troop directs cars as people are tested by healthcare workers at the COVID-19 drive-thru testing center at Hard Rock Stadium, in Miami Gardens, Fla., as the coronavirus pandemic continues, July 19, 2020.

Florida's positivity rate is now at 13.62% as the state's number of COVID-19 cases reaches 369,834.

Miami-Dade County, which includes Miami, and Bay County, which includes Panama City, are especially hard hit.

Juan Carlos, a host at Ocean 10 restaurant, stands at the entrance of the restaurant to turn customers away as a curfew from 8pm to 6am is put in place on July 18, 2020, in Miami Beach, Fla. The city put the curfew back into place to fight the spread of the coronavirus which has spiked in after the reopening of businesses.

A Miami Beach police officer directs people out of the entertainment district as a curfew from 8pm to 6am is put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus on July 18, 2020, in Miami Beach, Fla.

Miami-Dade County has a positivity rate of 19.2% while Bay County's positivity rate stands at 24.4%, according to the state's Department of Health.

A DMV licensing center in Wayne, New Jersey, is closing for one week after an employee tested positive, state officials announced Tuesday.

The facility will be sanitized and the employee will quarantine for two weeks.

Officials in Calhoun County, Alabama, about 70 miles east of Birmingham, are pleading with residents to wear masks as COVID-19 cases surge in the area.

Of the county's 814 coronavirus cases, 430 of those were reported in just the last two weeks, Michael Barton, Director of Emergency Management for Calhoun County, said Monday.

"This is alarming," Barton said, adding that hospitals are at an "all-time high in reaching our capacity."

One local hospital had five COVID-19 patients two weeks ago. That hospital now has 44 patients.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a mandatory statewide mask requirement last week.

"Make sure that you wear your mask and you adhere to all of the standards and guidelines that you possibly can," urged Joe Weaver, CEO at the local Stringfellow Memorial Hospital. "We know it's restrictive, but at the same time, there's no other thing. There's nothing else that we can do at this point in time."

Russia's first vaccine against the novel coronavirus is ready, First Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov told Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.

The vaccine was created by military specialists and scientists of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology.

"Final assessments on the results of testing by our specialists and scientists of the National Research Center have been already made. At the moment of release all volunteers without exception developed immunity against the coronavirus and felt normal. So, the first domestic vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection is ready," Tsalikov told the newspaper.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons announced late Monday a third COVID-related death at FMC Carswell, a specialized federal medical prison for women in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Fauci says he wasn't invited to White House briefing - ABC News

Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Tuesday evening. We'll have another update for you on Wednesday morning.

We must be realistic about the fact that coronavirus is here for the long term, leading scientists have told MPs. Even potentially successful vaccines and treatments will probably not be enough to eliminate it, and humanity will have to live with it for "decades to come", Prof Sir Jeremy Farrar of the Wellcome Trust explained to the Commons health select committee. The disease will come and go, and we will need a continual cycle of vaccinations. It comes after the PM said last week he was hoping for a return to some sort of normality by Christmas.

After four days of painstaking negotiations, European Union leaders finally hammered out a 750bn (677bn) package to help countries in the block rebuild their economies. A 390bn programme of grants will be made available to those hardest hit by the virus - countries such as Italy and Spain, while a further 360bn in low-interest loans will also be up for grabs for member states. It's the biggest joint borrowing ever agreed by the EU, with summit chairman Charles Michel describing it as a "pivotal moment" for Europe. For more on the global impact of the pandemic, see our visual coronavirus guide.

The strain of the virus continues to be felt across the UK economy, with government borrowing reaching a record 127.9bn between April and June - the first quarter of the financial year and the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. The figure - which is the difference between spending and tax income - was more than double the 55.4bn borrowed in the whole of the previous tax year. But borrowing in June was lower than in May, at 35.5bn. Meanwhile, summer property sales were nearly a third lower than the same time last year - even though things picked up in June when the market reopened. If you're thinking of buying a house, check out what recent stamp duty changes could mean for you.

Nurse Ayesha Orlanda, 52, has been given an emotional send-off from hospital after spending nine-and-a-half weeks there. The senior sister at Bradford Royal Infirmary became critically ill with coronavirus and was eventually put on a ventilator. She said she was "one of the lucky ones" and felt she'd been given "a second chance at life". Staff from four wards gathered to applaud her as she left.

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...that's what we wanted most during lockdown, according to market research firm Kantar. Brits working from home splashed out an additional 24m on tea and coffee, and an extra 19m on biscuits in the past three months, it said. We've also been reading much more, publisher Bloomsbury found, with book sales jumping almost a fifth compared to last year. Bestsellers included JK Rowling's Harry Potter series and books relating to the Black Lives Matter campaign.

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You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.

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Coronavirus: Virus here to stay, and lockdown tea and biscuits - BBC News

From 1980 to 2018, the income per person in New Yorks metropolitan area rose from 118 percent of the national average to 141 percent, according to government data. Bostons rose from 109 to 144 percent, San Franciscos from 137 to 183 percent, and Seattles from 120 to 137 percent.

But if big-city businesses find that work from home doesnt hit their productivity too hard, they might reassess the need to pay top dollar to keep employees in, say, Seattle or the Bay Area. Workers cooped up in a two-bedroom in Long Island City, Queens, might prefer moving to the suburbs or even farther away, and save on rent.

Mr. Glaeser and colleagues from Harvard and the University of Illinois studied surveys tracking companies that allowed their employees to work from home at least part of the time since March. Over one-half of large businesses and over one-third of small ones didnt detect any productivity loss. More than one in four reported a productivity increase.

Moreover, the researchers found that about four in 10 companies expect that 40 percent of their employees who switched to remote work during the pandemic will keep doing so after the crisis, at least in part. Thats 16 percent of the work force. Most of these workers are among the more highly educated and well paid.

Will they stay in the city if they dont need to go to the office more than a couple of times a week? Erik Hurst, an economist at the University of Chicago, argues that people will always seek the kind of social contact that cities provide. But what if their employers stop paying enough to support the urban lifestyle? Young families might flee to the suburbs sooner, especially if a more austere new urban economy can no longer support the ecosystem of restaurants and theaters that made city life attractive.

The overall economy might be less productive, having lost some of the benefits of social connection. But as long as the hit is not too severe, employers might be better off, paying lower wages and saving on office space. And workers might prefer a state of the world with somewhat lower wages and no commute.

Municipal governments in superstar cities might have a tough time doing their job as their tax base shrinks. The survival of brick-and-mortar retailers will be threatened as social distancing accelerates the shift to online shopping.

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Coronavirus Threatens the Luster of Superstar Cities - The New York Times

The BDN is making the most crucial coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact in Maine free for all readers. Click here for all coronavirus stories. You can join others committed to safeguarding this vital public service by purchasing a subscription or donating directly to the newsroom.

Another Mainer has died as health officials on Tuesday reported 12 more cases of the coronavirus in the state.

But state health officials also cautioned that some of those case numbers would change on Wednesday because of apparently false positive test results from a summer camp that found seemingly positive cases using a less reliable testing technology.

In the morning, the Maine Center for Disease Control reported that there have now been 3,723 cases across all of Maines counties since the outbreak began here in March. That was up from 3,711 on Monday.

Of those, 3,300 had been confirmed positive, while 423 were classified as probable cases, according to the Maine CDC.

But on Tuesday afternoon, Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah announced that an unspecified number of cases were going to be removed from the probable count on Wednesday because they were the result of inaccurate results from a summer camp that he didnt identify.

So far, 377 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Of those, 12 people are currently hospitalized, with eight in critical care and four on ventilators.

Meanwhile, 32 more people have recovered from the coronavirus, bringing total recoveries to 3,191. That means there are 414 active and likely cases in the state, down from 435 on Monday.

Heres the latest on the coronavirus and its impact on Maine.

The state will add four new swab and send coronavirus testing facilities to the 18 sites already in place around Maine as part of its plans to contain the spread of COVID-19, it announced on Tuesday. Nick Sambides Jr., BDN

There is still hope for a fall high school sports season in Maine. It just wont be happening until at least mid-September. The Maine Principals Association Interscholastic Management Committee voted on Tuesday to delay the start of the fall season until Sept. 18. Pete Warner, BDN

The Aroostook Agency on Aging received an $88,895 federal grant that will fund new services to combat social isolation in a population that is among the oldest in Maine. David Marino Jr., BDN

The Walmart in Presque Isle has a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak with three employees testing positive for the virus, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah said Tuesday. They are the first COVID-19 cases confirmed in Presque Isle, though not in the Presque Isle area. David Marino Jr., BDN

Housing advocates and public officials expect a sharp increase in evictions when court hearings resume Aug. 3. They worry a proposed $50 million housing assistance plan may not provide the necessary aid to avoid thousands of evictions, according to the Portland Press Herald. Eviction proceedings have been on hold for the past three months as the state navigated the economic cost of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Willis Ryder Arnold, Maine Public

The University of Maine at Augusta will allow its sports teams to practice but has postponed its fall sports schedule to spring 2021 due to the need to limit the spread of coronavirus, the school announced on Tuesday. Nick Sambides Jr.

As of Tuesday evening, the coronavirus has sickened 3,858,686 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 141,426 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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July 21 evening update: The latest on the coronavirus and Maine - Bangor Daily News

As Congress resumes work on a new coronavirus financial relief package, nearly 100 Texas mayors are pressing the states congressional delegation for more funding to address revenue losses incurred due to the economic downturn brought by COVID-19.

Texas received $11 billion in funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which were distributed among the state, counties and cities. Some Texas mayors said these have to be spent before the end of the year and for expenditures related to the pandemic response and dont address government entities losses in anticipated revenues related to decreased economic activity. Others said theres been conflicting information about how the money can be spent.

Since March, the economic slowdown has directly hit cities revenues. According to the state comptroller, local sales tax allocations for cities in June dropped by 11.1% compared with the same month last year.

The budget calamity looming over local governments is real and it requires extraordinary measures, said a letter signed by 97 Texas mayors and directed to members of Congress. We therefore fear that state and local revenue is going to take time to rebound. We also fear that if we do not stabilize our economy, we could see a drop in property tax revenue next year.

In the letter, which included signatures of leaders from urban, suburban and rural areas, the mayors asked for direct and flexible fiscal assistance to all cities.

What were asking [is] for direct assistance for state and local governments. Not for things like pension measures, none of that, but as a result of lost revenue as a result of coronavirus itself, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a press conference Monday. We are the infrastructure that supports the public and private sector, and at this point in time, we are needing direct assistance."

Before the summer recess that ended Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a Democratic plan to provide $3 trillion in aid on top of what was in the CARES Act. That bill includes nearly $1 trillion for local governments. But unlike the CARES Act, the proposal hasnt received bipartisan support and has stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate, according to The Washington Post.

Were going to work with our mayors and county judges and the governor to see what the need is, and where theres a real need we will respond, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said on a call with the media earlier this month.

According to NPR, one of the main disagreements between Republicans and Democrats is how much aid should go to local governments and whether this money should be limited to helping only in pandemic-related costs, like the CARES Act, or could be used for filling the budgetary gaps that cities have experienced since the economic downturn. Texas mayors said that although they know they can use the funding from the CARES Act in areas directly related to the health crisis, they do not have clarity on whether they can use it on other areas that are financially strained.

Weve had conflicting directions, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said. "If you look at the words themselves [in the CARES act], it suggests that you cant use this money for things that were already in your budget, but then the Treasury suggested in the guidance that you can. The flexibility we are seeking is to use funding to fill budgetary shortfalls that cities are experiencing because of the virus.

Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price explained that flexibility could help her city promote employment, which she cant directly do under the current CARES Act regulations.

What we want is the ability to use it in infrastructure projects to create jobs, Price said. Cities need to be able to apply that money in the best way they see to provide help to their communities.

Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams said his city which spearheaded the letter is facing a projected $20 million shortfall due to revenue losses from shutdowns and decreased economic activity. Although the funding was helpful for costs related to COVID-19, such as testing, it did not address the losses in revenue due to shutdowns and decreased economic activity. Overall, COVID-19 expenditures are vastly outpaced by the citys revenue losses, Williams said.

This virus is a natural disaster, just like a hurricane, tornado or flooding. And so consequently, were requesting aid for emergency services and medical relief, but then also help rebuilding our city as a result of the virus, just as you would if we had had a major flood or tornado, he said.

Another issue that mayors have pointed out is how the funds have been distributed so far. While the CARES Act provided direct funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury to cities with populations larger than 500,000 people, smaller cities are receiving these funds through the state and the counties.

Arlington is one of those cases. The citys population is just under 400,000 not reaching the 500,000 threshold required to receive direct funding from the CARES Act and instead receiving funds funneled from the state. Mayors like Williams, in these smaller cities, said the process of getting the funds needed to be sped up to avoid going through several layers of government.

Cities are one of the most important economic engines in the country. And so, if we dont help cities now, were not going to be able to help our citizens and our businesses, Williams said. It actually is going to cost the country more later if were not helped now.

The call from mayors to the congressional delegation comes as cities are starting to debate their budgets and considering possible cuts for next fiscal year. Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz said his city, which has a population of about 262,000, is projecting $26 million in revenue losses through December, which could mean drastic layoffs for city employees. The ripple effects of these losses could also have long-term effects on the city budget, he said.

We foresee, easily, a two-year impact or more, depending on how quickly the vaccine comes out and how quickly we can open up our businesses, Saenz said.

Saenz said hes concerned that because many residents may be furloughed or unemployed, the city may see a surge in delinquent property tax payments, further impacting revenue. This, coupled with the decline of sales tax revenue and other revenues, will further impact the local economy as well, he said.

Many mayors worry that without these federal funds, the economic crisis residents are facing will deepen.

We are struggling really hard now not to have to cut our workforce or reduce our services, Adler said. And it is important that local governments are able to keep providing services to local communities, or else it will exacerbate the challenges.

Meena Venkataramanan contributed to this story.

Disclosure: The Texas Tribune, as a nonprofit local newsroom and a small business, applied for and received a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program in the amount of $1,116,626.

Steve Adler, a former Texas Tribune board chairman, and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts have been financial supporters of the Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Texas mayors plead with Congress for coronavirus relief funding - The Texas Tribune

On Tuesday, Tulip published her mother's obituary. In it, she wrote of her love of the flute, her two dogs, Shadow and Gauner, and how "the carelessness of politicians" led to her mother's "undeserving death."

"Isabelle was a giant, and powerful in her kindness. She made a difference each and every day in many people's lives. And like hundreds and thousands of others, she should still be alive today," Tulip wrote.

"Her undeserving death is due to the carelessness of the politicians who continue to hedge their bets on the lives of healthcare workers through a lack of leadership, through a refusal to acknowledge the severity of this crisis, and through an inability and unwillingness to give clear and decisive direction on how to minimize the risks of the coronavirus," she said.

She also invited Abbott to her burial "to witness first-hand the tragedy of my brother and I mourning our incredible mother who gave her life to save others."

This "honest obituary" is not the first of its kind.

Indeed, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spike across the United States, family members who have lost loved ones are calling out leaders in an unusual way: publishing memorials tinged by grievances in their local newspapers.

Its website allows anyone to request funding through a form, asking them, "Obituaries are basically advertisements for the dead. You pay for them and you get to have the last word. Why not tell the truth?"

Next month, on August 13, Marked By Covid will hit the streets for a national day of action. Volunteers will "support actions in current and burgeoning covid-19 hotspots; local constituents will create vigils and ofrendas outside of their elected officials' offices to honor the lives lost to coronavirus, raise awareness of the severity of the pandemic, and challenge their leaders to only reopen when it's safe."

Abbott hasn't responded publicly to the letter and didn't respond to CNN's request for comment.

But his stance on masks has certainly changed.

While there is no statewide mandate requiring masks in Arizona, Gov. Ducey announced on June 17 that he would allow mayors to create their own restriction.

Scottsdale was the first to make it mandatory starting June 19, with other major municipalities including Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff issuing their own later.

In an emailed statement to CNN last week, Patrick Ptak, a spokesman for Gov. Ducey said, "Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Mark Anthony Urquiza. We know nothing can fully alleviate the pain associated with his loss, and every loss from this virus is tragic."

He did not say whether the governor would attend the funeral.

CNN's Hollie Silverman contributed to this story.

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People are using honest obituaries to blame governors for coronavirus deaths and invite them to their loved ones' funerals - CNN

We're making coronavirus coverage available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider joining others in supporting local journalism in Alaska for just $3.23 a week.

Nearly two dozen coronavirus cases have popped up in the past 10 days at Fort Yukon after community leaders took extreme measures months ago to avoid the disease.

Like other rural villages scattered around Alaska, leaders in March imposed travel bans and other restrictions far beyond those imposed by the state to protect residents in a place without an emergency room.

Fort Yukon, an Interior community of about 600 on the Yukon River 145 miles northeast of Fairbanks, reported 21 new cases as of Tuesday morning.

The first person with symptoms appeared this week someone sick enough to get medevaced on Monday, according to City Manager Andrew Firmin. The individual had to be airlifted to a hospital because the local clinic doesnt have any ventilators.

Were not set up to intubate anybody, Firmin said. We have excellent medical staff but were almost on Its Motrin or medevac.' Theres no extended-care specialists or anything like that.

But the news isnt necessarily as alarming as it sounds, local residents said. The community performed roughly 150 tests. Thats about a quarter of the population. The positive numbers account for between 3% and 4% of all residents.

Fort Yukon, the states largest Athabascan village, is made up of many extended, multigenerational families under one roof, said Dacho Alexander, a council member of the Gwichyaa Zhee Gwichin Tribal Government.

This is kind of what we had suspected from the beginning, because of the way village life is so intertwined with friends and family: once it did arrive, it would spread like wildfire. Which it has indeed, Alexander said. It was something that we were trying to avoid but we knew that it was just a matter of time before it did arrive and these types of numbers would appear.

The community had access to two rapid testing machines, one donated by the community of Venetie, he said. The high testing level reflected several factors: tests on people considered close contacts of a positive case from another community; screening for essential workers; and the expansion of testing to the citys various workforces, from tribal and city governments to the local fuel supplier.

The Fort Yukon cases arent specifically listed on Alaskas COVID-19 dashboard where health officials post daily updates on COVID-19 cases. Instead, the citys statistics are included in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, where the state identified 29 cases as of Tuesday. Other communities, like Circle, have some cases as well.

Fort Yukon in March adopted aggressive measures in hopes of keeping out coronavirus: no travel except for cargo, essential workers, medical and law enforcement. Other measures still in place include a 14-day quarantine for travelers, masks required for anyone leaving their yard, a shelter-in-place order, and a curfew between midnight and 6 a.m. Patrols previously on snowmachine and now boat watch for incoming visitors. People at the airport watch for private planes.

Fort Yukon reopened for travel in mid-June and shut it back down again two weeks later, Firmin said. Thats when COVID-19 cases were reported in Circle. Then Fort Yukons cases began rising.

Now its hard enforcing quarantine due to state confidentiality policies that keep authorities from knowing just who is sick, Firmin said. The liquor store is closed, the gas station is curbside service only, and the Alaska Commercial Co. store is open but the city is discussing asking them to close temporarily too, he said.

The post office in Fort Yukon. (Stephen Nowers / ADN archive)

On Tuesday, the Fort Yukon post office was only letting in one person at a time, said Hans James, a city council member who manages the local radio station, where he started daily COVID-19 updates a week and a half ago.

You might say were on lockdown, James said

The sources of the local infections arent certain. People are congregating more, Firmin said. There have been several funerals in the area.

I wouldnt blame that only on funerals, Firmin said, adding that there are still essential workers coming into town. Then you have people that just dont care about the rules and are coming and going just as they please.

Statewide COVID-19 case counts are spiking, with most of the new cases in Anchorage and in younger people, though so far hospitalizations arent rising as quickly. The state hit a new daily high Monday with 141 confirmed infections in Alaskans and nonresidents. Another 109 new cases were reported Tuesday.

Most of the big numbers are in urban areas. But Fort Yukon isnt the only rural area seeing a sudden rise in confirmed cases.

More than two dozen people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the Copper River region, including 15 new cases in the past week, according to the Copper River Native Association, which expects those numbers to rise.

The state counts Copper River resident cases in the Valdez-Cordova Census Area, local officials say. As of Tuesday, a category designated other in that section showed one new case and a total of 12. The state generally uses that category for any communities smaller than 1,000 people to protect patient confidentiality.

The state numbers wont match the ones reported by the Native association.

Local tribal and health officials are tracking the virus based on positive tests administered in the region, and not the hometowns of the people who test positive like the state does, according to Melanie McGinnis, public information officer for the Copper River Native Association. The data comes from the association, Glennallen-based Cross Road Medical Center, and Gakona-based Mt. Sanford Tribal Consortium.

The Copper River region includes a combination of smaller villages such as Gulkana and Gakona; larger communities like Glennallen, a Glenn Highway hub; the dipnet fishing destination Chitina; and the Wrangell Mountains hamlet of McCarthy, which along with a small year-round population attracts summer visitors and urban Alaskans with seasonal cabins.

The intent of posting testing data is to let community members know positive cases spent time there regardless of what address their drivers license shows, McGinnis said.

Maybe theyre not a resident or plan on staying but that positive case has still spent time in our region, she said. Whether its one or one hundred positive cases, were hoping the community understands our response doesnt change: we should still be wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing.

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Fort Yukon and Copper River communities avoided coronavirus for months. Now cases are rising in both. - Anchorage Daily News