Tag Archives: coroanvirus

The Associated Press reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pushing on Wednesday for an immediate and strict nationwide lockdown as the country’s raging coronavirus outbreak showed no signs of slowing. Netanyahu warned the nation that tough measures loomed as he took a break from a stormy session of his coronavirus Cabinet. Members of the policy-making body were reportedly deeply …

Reuters reports: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people on Tuesday to work from home where possible and ordered bars and restaurants to shut earlier in a bid to tackle a fast-spreading second wave of COVID-19. After government scientists warned that the death rate would soar without urgent action, Johnson said the new restrictions in England could last for six …

Politico reports: As the presidential election fast approaches, the Department of Health and Human Services is bidding out a more than $250 million contract to a communications firm as it seeks to “defeat despair and inspire hope” about the coronavirus pandemic.  Several weeks ago, the department sent out to a number of communications firms a “performance work statement,” which lays …

CNN reports: Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said Monday that she wished the US shutdown had looked like Italy’s, which was under a total lockdown. “I wish that when we went into lockdown, we looked like Italy. When Italy locked down, I mean, people weren’t allowed out of their houses,” she said. “Americans don’t react …

The BBC reports: The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has postponed the country’s general election by a month amid a spike in coronavirus cases. The vote was due to take place on 19 September but will now be held on 17 October instead. Ms Ardern said on Monday that the new date would allow parties “to plan around …

Mediaite reports: With anxious parents around the state of Florida debating whether or not to send their children back to school in the next few weeks, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) shared a metaphor which is unlikely to provide much reassurance. Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, the Florida governor relayed comments made to him by Martin County Superintendent Laurie …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Florida logged a new record for the most coronavirus deaths announced in a day with 277 on Tuesday. Tuesday’s record brought the statewide death toll to 8,685 people, according to the Florida Department of Health. The weekly death average increased to 166 people dead per day. The previous high was 257 deaths on July 31, …

The Washington Post reports: After each long day of working on the United States’ pandemic response, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert power-walks through his Northwest Washington neighborhood with his wife and their daughter’s dog. Recently, Anthony S. Fauci’s nightly jaunts through the neighborhood where he has lived since 1977 have taken him past at least a dozen signs bearing his …

The New York Daily News reports: Mayor de Blasio announced NYC will set up checkpoints for the bridge-and-tunnel crowd to comply with the state’s mandatory 14-day coronavirus quarantine rule for those arriving from COVID-19 hotspots. “They (visitors) will be reminded that it is required not optional,” de Blasio said. “This is serious stuff. If we’re going to hold at this …

The Huffington Post reports: President Donald Trump’s insensitive “it is what it is” dismissal of the soaring U.S. death toll from the coronavirus is turned against him in presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s new campaign video. The clip released by the Biden campaign on Tuesday begins with footage of Trump making the callous comment during an interview with Jonathan Swan …

ABC News reports: Dr. Oxiris Barbot resigned as New York City’s health commissioner, saying in her resignation letter that “the Health Department’s incomparable disease control expertise was not used to the degree it could have been.” “I leave my post today with deep disappointment,” her resignation letter said. “Our experts are world renowned for their epidemiology, surveillance and response work. …

The Houston Chronicle reports: The government’s official data on the coronavirus outbreak is startling: More than 4.6 million cases in the U.S. More than 440,000 in Texas. More than 70,000 in Harris County. But those numbers don’t include all positive COVID-19 patients. Texas, unlike 27 other states, excludes the results of increasingly popular, rapid COVID-19 tests from the numbers it …

The Texas Tribune reports: Local health officials do not have the authority to shut down all schools in their vicinity while COVID-19 cases rise, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in nonbinding guidance Tuesday that contradicts what the Texas Education Agency has told school officials. After Texas ordered schools to reopen their classrooms this fall, county and city public health …

Reuters reports: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday he caught the coronavirus and recovered “on his feet” without showing any symptoms, sounding a defiant tone as he addressed military leaders in Minsk. Lukashenko, 65, has resisted calls for strict lockdown measures to contain the pandemic, dismissing fears about COVID-19 as a “psychosis” and suggesting remedies such as drinking vodka, …

Colorado Springs’ ABC News affiliate reports: Woodland Park-based Andrew Wommack Ministries held a multi-day conference that included over 1,000 attendees from July 30th through July 3rd. Now the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has traced a COVID-19 outbreak to the event, with seven staff members and fifteen attendees testing positive. During the conference, a cease and desist letter …

Reuters reports: Florida reported over 12,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the fifth day in a row the state has announced over 10,000 new infections, even as President Donald Trump pledged that the virus was coming under control. Trump defended his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in an interview broadcast on Sunday, including his statement that there were only …

Orlando’s NBC News affiliate reports: Florida health officials on Tuesday reported a record 132 new coronavirus-related deaths among residents and more than 9,100 new cases of COVID-19. The 132 deaths is the biggest single-day spike Florida has seen since the beginning of the pandemic, however that doesn’t mean all of these people died in the past 24 hours. Another 9,194 …

Reuters reports: The number of coronavirus infections around the world hit 13 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, climbing by a million in just five days. The pandemic has now killed more than half a million people in six-and-a-half months, and World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said there would be no return to the “old …

The Guardian reports: The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has announced live on television he has tested positive for coronavirus. “It came back positive,” a mask-wearing Bolsonaro told a hand-picked group of reporters on Tuesday lunchtime. Bolsonaro, 65, has repeatedly trivialized the pandemic and flouted social distancing, even as Brazil became the second-worst hit country after the United States, with more …

CNBC reports: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has scoffed at risks of the coronavirus, has undergone another test for Covid-19 shortly after the presidential palace said the right-wing leader had displayed symptoms consistent with the disease. Bolsonaro, 65, told supporters gathered outside the presidential palace in Brasilia on Monday that he had taken a test for the virus and “everything …