U.S. Sets Record for Daily New Cases as Virus Surges in South and West – The New York Times

U.S. sets new high point in daily cases, two months after the previous record.

More than two months after the United States recorded its worst day of new infections since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the nation reached another grim milestone on Wednesday as it reported 36,880 new cases.

The number of infections indicated that the country was not only failing to contain the coronavirus, but also that the caseload was worsening a path at odds with many other nations that have seen steady declines after an earlier peak. Cases in the United States had been on a downward trajectory after the previous high of 36,739 cases on April 24, but they have roared back in recent weeks.

The resurgence is concentrated largely in the South and West. Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and South Carolina reported their highest single-day totals on Wednesday, but case numbers have been rising in more than 20 states.

The tally of new cases, based on a New York Times database, showed that the outbreak was stronger than ever even as the United States continued to reopen its economy. The elevated numbers are a result of worsening conditions across much of the country, as well as increased testing but testing alone does not explain the surge. The percentage of people in Florida found to be positive for the virus has risen sharply. Increases in hospitalizations also signal the viruss spread.

Some states, including New York, which at one point had the most daily virus cases, have brought their numbers under control. Hoping to keep it that way, New York along with New Jersey and Connecticut said it would institute a quarantine for some out-of-state travelers.

The stock market slid 2.6 percent as investors fretted about what the latest troubling news meant for the economic recovery. That could lead some states to slow the reopening of businesses, further hobbling the economy and delaying its recovery.

As of Wednesday, 2.3 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, and 121,925 have died.

On Wednesday it was as if the country had found itself back in March at the start of the pandemic, in the early days of the lockdown, when masks were in short supply and when the death toll was skyrocketing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said that the state had recorded more than 7,000 new cases over the previous day.

In Washington State, where case numbers have again been trending upward, the governor said residents would have to start wearing masks in public.

This is about saving lives, said the states governor, Jay Inslee, a Democrat. Its about reopening our businesses. And its about showing respect and care for one another.

In Florida on Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis gave no indication that the state would roll back its economic opening, but he urged residents to avoid closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowds and close contact with others.

Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, continued to attribute the rising infections, especially in cities, to younger people who have started to socialize in bars and homes, in spite of rules in many municipalities prohibiting group gatherings. He pressed older people to keep staying home as much as possible, and pleaded with young people to be responsible.

You need to do your part and make sure that youre not spreading it to people who are going to be more at risk for this, he said.

Arizona on Tuesday reported its highest number of virus hospitalizations, as did North Carolina, prompting its governor, Roy Cooper, to announce on Wednesday that the state would pause reopening for three weeks and require face masks. In Texas, more than 4,300 people with the virus are hospitalized, more than double the number at the beginning of June.

But in Missouri, where new case reports have reached their highest levels in recent days, coronavirus hospitalizations have declined slightly over the last month.

We are NOT overwhelmed, Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, said on Twitter, linking the uptick to more testing. We are NOT currently experiencing a second wave. We have NO intentions of closing Missouri back down at this point in time.

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that if governments and communities in the Americas are not able to stop the spread of the virus through surveillance, isolation of cases and quarantine of contacts, there may be a need to impose or reimpose general lockdowns.

It is very difficult to take the sting out of this pandemic unless we are able to successfully isolate cases and quarantine contacts, said Dr. Michael Ryan, the executive director of the W.H.O. health emergencies program. In the absence of a capacity to do that, then the specter of further lockdowns cannot be excluded.

He said that the growing number of coronavirus cases in the Americas has not peaked and that the region is likely to see sustained numbers of cases and deaths in the coming weeks.

With cases surging in the Houston area, the citys intensive-care units are now filled to 97 percent of capacity, Mayor Sylvester Turner told the City Council on Wednesday, with Covid-19 patients accounting for more than one-quarter of all patients in intensive care.

The city, known for its large concentration of medical schools and research hospitals, could run out of I.C.U. beds within two weeks if nothing is done to slow the upward trajectory of the virus, said Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He called on the state to reimpose more aggressive social distancing restrictions.

Dr. Hotez said that hospitalizations were rising along with the case counts, so the data is not just the result of increased testing. That means we have to act this week, Dr. Hotez said.

On Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott said in a television interview that more than 5,000 people had tested positive in the past day and that more than 4,000 were hospitalized. There is a massive outbreak of Covid-19 across the state of Texas today, he said.

Apple said it closed seven of its stores in the Houston area because of rising coronavirus cases in the region. The move on Wednesday followed its closing of 11 stores in Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina because of the virus. Apple had closed nearly all of its roughly 500 stores worldwide months ago, but had opened most in the United States in recent weeks after cases declined. Just over 200 of Apples 271 American stores are now open, with some still closed because of damage from protests, an Apple spokesman said.

In other news around the United States:

In Florida, which had a record number of new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis urged people to avoid closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowds and close contact with others. Total virus cases in Florida exceeded 100,000 on Monday, with more than 3,100 deaths. About one-quarter of the cases have been in Miami-Dade County, where the per capita rate is twice the number statewide. Still, Trump National Doral, which is in the county and is the most important source of revenue for the presidents strained family business, reopened last weekend.

Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, which reached a record 915 virus hospitalizations on Tuesday, announced on Wednesday that the state would pause its reopening for three weeks and require face masks in public. The state has more than 56,000 cases and nearly 1,300 deaths. Mr. Cooper said that hospitals had not reached capacity, but could quickly become overwhelmed. Also, a judge in the state ruled against the reopening of Ace Speedway, which state health officials had ordered to shut down, saying the racetrack had defied restrictions on the size of public gatherings.

State officials in Virginia are proposing workplace virus safety rules that, unlike those in some other states, would be mandatory and backed by enforcement. Labor activists and state officials said Virginia was acting because the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration had not issued enforceable standards or acted on thousands of complaints. The Virginia rules would impose physical distancing and sanitation requirements, and among other measures, companies would have to notify workers of possible exposure. Violators could be fined or shut down.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. has taken a commanding lead over President Trump in the 2020 presidential race, building a wide advantage among women and nonwhite voters, according to a new national poll of registered voters by The New York Times and Siena College. Mr. Biden has made deep inroads into some traditionally Republican-leaning groups that have shifted away from Mr. Trump after his ineffective response to the coronavirus pandemic. He currently leads Mr. Trump by 14 percentage points, garnering 50 percent of the vote. Nearly three-fifths of voters disapprove of Mr. Trumps handling of the pandemic.

A judge in Texas who signed an order requiring everyone in the San Antonio area to wear masks was assaulted at a Lowes home improvement store on Wednesday after he confronted another customer who was not wearing a mask, the authorities said. When Judge Nelson Wolff tried to hand a card to the man, the other customer slapped away his hand, surveillance video released by the Bexar County Sheriffs Office showed. It was not clear what the card said. The man, who also berated the judge, could face a felony charge of assault of a public servant, the sheriff, Javier Salazar, said during a news conference at the store.

As California recorded its highest number of infections, Disneyland indefinitely postponed its plans to reopen in Anaheim on July 17. The Walt Disney Co. said that it was awaiting the states guidelines for reopening theme parks, which were not expected to be issued until after July 4. Thousands of workers at Disneyland and at Walt Disney World in Florida, which is scheduled to begin a phased reopening on July 11, have signed petitions calling on Disney executives to pause plans.

N.Y. ROUNDUP

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced on Wednesday that the state will begin requiring out-of-state travelers coming from hard-hit states to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, a move that punctuated a stark shift in the course of the nations outbreak.

The restrictions will be based on specific health metrics related to the virus, he said at a news conference. The quarantine would apply to travelers arriving from a state, as well as New Yorkers returning from a state, where there was either a positive test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents, or a state with a 10 percent or higher rate over a seven-day rolling average.

A lot of people come into this region and they could literally bring the infection with them, he said. It wouldnt be malicious or malevolent, but it would still be real.

Eight states would be included, Mr. Cuomo said, when the restrictions took effect at midnight: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Washington State had originally been included, but was dropped from the list after a further review of the data.

Travelers returning to New Jersey and Connecticut from those states would also be told to quarantine; their governors appeared with Mr. Cuomo to announce a tristate joint travel advisory. Mr. Cuomo said that enforcement would be up to each of the three states. Officials from New Jersey and Connecticut said there was no enforcement mechanism at the moment in their states.

In New York, those violating the quarantine order could be subject to a judicial order and mandatory quarantine, he said, and fines of up to $10,000. Mr. Cuomo also said that officials would not be stopping people at state borders to forbid them to enter, but that travelers were being asked to comply once they arrived.

A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo said that if a New Yorker believes that a recent arrival or a returning neighbor has not been abiding by the quarantine, then that person should start by reporting the possible violation to the local health department. Elsewhere in the U.S. where there are similar quarantines for travelers, there has not been widespread enforcement.

The goal, the governor said, was to maintain the hard-fought gains made in the region at great economic and human cost. For months, the state New York City particularly had been a global center of the pandemic. Hospitals filled to near capacity. Hundreds died each day, reaching a peak in mid-April. But on Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo said there were only an additional 17 deaths statewide.

New Yorks quarantine will not apply to Yankees and Mets players returning to the area to complete spring training, which can begin on July 1, Mr. Cuomo said, adding that the state had been working on separate health protocols with them since last week.

Elsewhere in New York:

The New York City Marathon has been canceled this year. City officials and organizers decided holding the race, the worlds largest marathon, would be too risky.

The mayor said that the city will close 23 more miles of streets to car traffic to provide more outdoor space while social distancing rules remain in place. The citys beaches will also be open for swimming and recreation on July 1 but with required social distancing.

Five upstate regions are set to enter Phase 4, the final phase of the states reopening plan, on Friday, Mr. Cuomo said. Indoor gatherings of up to 50 people will be allowed, and some arts and entertainment venues can open. Malls, movie theaters and gyms must remain closed.

New Jersey officials said on Wednesday that bowling alleys, museums, arcades, aquariums, batting cages, shooting ranges and libraries may reopen at 25 percent capacity on July 2. Gyms stay closed, though individual appointments with trainers can be scheduled, said the governor, who reported 48 more deaths on Wednesday.

The global economy will shrink 4.9 percent this year, the I.M.F. predicts in a dismal forecast.

The forecast underscores the scale of the task that policymakers are facing as they try to dig out from what the I.M.F. has described as the most severe economic contraction since the Great Depression. Even as countries begin reopening their economies, it is increasingly evident that the recovery will be uneven and protracted, particularly until the virus dissipates or a vaccine becomes available.

In an update to its World Economic Outlook, the I.M.F. said it expected the global economy to shrink 4.9 percent this year a sharper contraction than the 3 percent it predicted in April. The fund noted that, even as businesses began to reopen, voluntary social distancing and enhanced workplace safety standards were weighing on economic activity. Moreover, the scarring of the labor force from mass job cuts and business closures means that the world economy will recover much more slowly, with the I.M.F. projecting 5.4 percent global growth in 2021, far below its pre-pandemic projections.

The I.M.F. now projects that the U.S. economy will shrink 8 percent this year before expanding 4.5 percent next year. Economies in the eurozone are projected to shrink 10.2 percent this year and expand 6 percent next year. The economy of China, where the virus originated and which imposed draconian containment measures, is expected to expand 1 percent this year and 8.2 percent in 2021.

In the markets on Wednesday, the S&P 500 fell more than 2 percent by midafternoon, erasing gains from earlier in the week, as investors confronted new signs of the pandemics persistence. Shares of retailers, airlines and cruise companies which are proxies for sentiment about the prospects of a recovery are faring poorly. Nervousness about the economic outlook was evident in oil prices, and shares of energy companies also declined.

In Yemen, the toll of the pandemic is rising. So is the cost of a burial.

The top U.N. relief official warned Wednesday of a drastic worsening in the outbreak in war-ravaged Yemen, the Arab worlds poorest country, where he said 25 percent of those infected die about five times the global average.

As Covid-19 sweeps the country, many deaths are most likely going unreported, said Mark Lowcock, the under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. But there is one unmistakable measure of the viruss toll: Burial prices in some areas have increased by seven times compared to a few months ago, he said.

The United Nations has been chronically hampered in providing aid to Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been waging war on the rebel Houthi group for more than five years.

Even before the pandemic, the devastation caused by the war had left a vast majority of Yemens population hungry, destitute and afflicted with preventable diseases, including cholera and diphtheria. Millions of Yemeni children are malnourished, and some have died of starvation.

Mr. Lowcock spoke Wednesday at a United Nations Security Council briefing on the conflict, held three weeks after a major donor conference to raise money for the humanitarian emergency in Yemen secured $1.35 billion in pledges.

That was about half what was pledged a year earlier and many of the pledges, Mr. Lowcock said, have not yet been paid.

If donors fail to make good on their pledges, he said, at a minimum, we can expect many more people to starve to death and to succumb to Covid-19, and to die of cholera, and to watch their children die because they are not immunized for killer diseases.

The pandemic could erase 20 years of progress against tuberculosis, H.I.V. and malaria, an NGO warns.

In low-income nations, the pandemic may erase 20 years of hard-fought progress against tuberculosis, H.I.V. and malaria, diseases that together claim more than 2.4 million lives each year.

A report released on Wednesday estimates that countries hit hard by these diseases will need at least $28.5 billion over the next year to shore up health campaigns and to respond to the pandemic itself. The figure does not include costs associated with a vaccine, assuming one is found.

Updated June 24, 2020

A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort and requires balancing benefits versus possible adverse events. Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. In my personal experience, he says, heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask. Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.

The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.

The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who dont typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the countrys largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.

So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was very rare, but she later walked back that statement.

Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus whether its surface transmission or close human contact is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.

A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nations job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.

Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

If youve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

The toll is most severe in nations already strapped for resources. The pandemic has overwhelmed fragile health care systems in those countries, disrupting programs for preventing and treating tuberculosis, H.I.V. and malaria. Restricted air and sea transport also threatens the availability of crucial medicines.

Several models produced by the World Health Organization and others project that deaths from these diseases could double as a result. Treatment interruptions also raise the threat of drug resistance, already a formidable problem in many countries.

The stakes are extraordinarily high, Peter Sands, who heads The Global Fund, a public-private partnership that published the estimates, said in a statement. The knock-on effects of Covid-19 on the fight against H.I.V., T.B. and malaria and other infectious diseases could be catastrophic.

Since March, The Global Fund, which works mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, has provided $1 billion to help countries maintain their campaigns against these diseases. In the new report, the organization said that amount served only as a stopgap measure.

The Global Fund estimated that countries would need more than $13 billion to protect front-line health care workers and shore up their health systems, about $9 billion to develop and deploy treatments, and nearly $5 billion for diagnostics.

A state-run veterans home in Massachusetts was total pandemonium and a nightmare in late March, when a series of blunders contributed to the rapid spread of the virus at the home and the deaths of 76 patients, employees told investigators.

A blistering 174-page independent report on the outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home, released on Wednesday, paints a picture of a facility in chaos, as traumatized nurses carried out orders to combine wards of infected and uninfected men, knowing that the move would prove deadly to many of their patients.

One social worker told investigators that she felt it was like moving the concentration camp we [were] moving these unknowing veterans off to die, the report said.

More than 60 percent of fatalities from the coronavirus in Massachusetts have been at nursing homes.

In addition to combining crowded wards, the report said, the home rotated staff members between the wards; discouraged them from using protective gear in an effort to conserve limited supplies; and often failed to isolate infected veterans or to test those who had symptoms.

In short, this was the opposite of infection control, the report said.

Thousands of employees with the federal agency that administers the countrys immigration system are expected to begin receiving furlough notices as applications for green cards, citizenship and other programs drop, Zolan Kanno-Youngs reports.

At one office, where well over half the employees were warned to expect furlough notices, staffers were told that the agency was focused on retaining jobs that keep the lights on, according to an email obtained by The New York Times.

LaDonna Davis, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that more than 13,000 employees should expect to receive the notices in early July.

This dramatic drop in revenue has made it impossible for our agency to operate at full capacity, she said. Without additional funding from Congress before Aug. 3, U.S.C.I.S. has no choice but to administratively furlough a substantial portion of our work force.

The agency has asked lawmakers for $1.2 billion, citing economic damage from the pandemic.

But critics say the problem lies not with the recession but with the Trump administrations restrictionist immigration policies, which have led to backlogs and skyrocketing denials. The agency relies on application fees to fund most of its operations.

Evan Hollander, spokesman for the Democratic-controlled House Appropriations Committee, said the Office of Management and Budget had provided a letter to the committee with virtually no information on the shortfall or their proposed remedies. He said Democratic lawmakers were prepared to discuss the financial situation with Republicans.

Citizenship and Immigration Services officials have told Congress they would repay the funds to the Treasury Department by adding a 10-percent surcharge to applications.

In the email obtained by The Times, Jennifer Higgins, associate director of the office that deals with asylum and refugee applications, said the agency would send furlough notices to 1,500 of its 2,200 employees. It will to retain people whose duties include border screenings, refugee case completions and parole requests, she said.

Global roundup

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Wednesday celebrated his countrys victory 75 years ago against Nazi Germany, presiding over an enormous military parade through Red Square in Moscow that featured thousands of soldiers marching shoulder-to-shoulder without face masks.

The parade, the largest of several celebrations taking place nationwide, was originally scheduled for May 9, an annual holiday known as Victory Day, but was delayed for six weeks by the pandemic. The outbreak continues to grow in Russia the worlds third-worst-affected country, with more than 600,000 cases but at a slightly slower pace than before.

Aging veterans in their 80s and 90s joined Mr. Putin on the reviewing stand, nearly all of them without masks, to watch 14,000 troops march by.

Kremlin critics have accused Mr. Putin of gambling with public health to put himself at the center of a gigantic display of Russias military might and to rally support ahead of a nationwide vote on his future. Voting on constitutional amendments that would allow Mr. Putin to stay in power until 2036 starts on Thursday.

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U.S. Sets Record for Daily New Cases as Virus Surges in South and West - The New York Times