More states were slowing reopening plans Monday amid a national boom in coronavirus cases while the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert remained «cautiously optimistic» that…
More states were slowing reopening plans Monday amid a national boom in coronavirus cases while the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert remained «cautiously optimistic» that a vaccine could be widely available by year’s end.
And a drug company’s steep price for remdesivir, a drug that has proved to shorten recovery times by about 31% for severe COVID-19 patients, is drawing criticism.
Nashville, Tennessee, is requiring masks as of Monday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars in eight counties to close Sunday, days after governors in Florida and Texas issued similar, wide-ranging edicts. San Francisco Mayor London Breed halted its plans for businesses that were scheduled to reopen Monday. The state of Washington paused its fourth and final reopening phase.
In Arizona, the number of confirmed cases increased by more than 3,850 on Sunday. Meanwhile, the mayor of a town in an eastern part of the state said that he has no plans to cancel a slew of upcoming summer events or require masks.
«It is somewhat alarming how many expect and almost invite a more drastic infringement on their freedoms,» Eagar Mayor Bryce Hamblin said in a statement. «My response from the onset of COVID-19 pandemic has been that we will err on the side of freedom.»
Here are the most significant developments of the day:
????Today’s stats: As of Monday, the number of confirmed cases were more than 10 million, and the death toll was more than 502,000. There are more than 2.5 million cases in the U. S. and over 125,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.
???? What we’re reading: A Detroit woman dropped her husband off at a hospital on the night of March 28. Less than 24 hours later, a doctor called to tell Denise Chandler that her husband died. Chandler finally gets answers from a nurse who saw her husband die.
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The virus blamed for killing more than a half million people worldwide was detected in wastewater in Spain months before it emerged on the world stage in China in late 2019, researchers say in a study submitted to the journal MedRxiv. The study, led by the University of Barcelona, could alter the «chronology on the evolution of the disease,» said Albert Bosch, president of the Spanish Society of Virology. Bosch said the SARS-CoV-2 genome was present in samples of Barcelona wastewater collected in March 2019. That suggest the infection was present before COVID-19 cases had been discovered anywhere in the world, he says.
«It is possible for a similar situation to have taken place in other parts of the world,» Bosch said. «Those cases could have been disguised as an undiagnosed flu.»
Dr. Anthony Fauci said he remains hopeful that a vaccine will be available as soon as November but warned that it might only be 70% effective. He added that, because a significant segment of the population won’t want the vaccine, it’s not likely the pandemic will be eradicated completely. Fauci blamed a «general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among… an alarmingly large percentage of people.»
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN that the most effective vaccine, for measles, is 97 to 98% effective. «That would be wonderful if we get there. I don’t think we will,» Fauci said. «I would settle for 70,75% effective.»
The maker of a drug shown to shorten recovery time for severely ill COVID-19 patients says it will charge $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries.
