April 9 coronavirus news

It doesn't look like coronavirus will go away once the weather warms up, a prestigious scientific panel told the White House on Tuesday.

Remember: Trump has claimed that "when it gets a little warmer [the virus] miraculously goes away."  

In their letter to the White House, members of a National Academy of Sciences committee said data is mixed on whether coronavirus spreads as easily in warm weather as it does in cold weather — but that it might not matter much given that so few people in the world are immune to coronavirus.  

The letter noted, for example, that a study of the outbreak in China showed that even under maximum temperature and humidity conditions, the virus spread "exponentially," with every infected person spreading it to nearly two other people on average.   

The scientists sent the letter to Kelvin Droegemeier at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Two separate datasets suggest that the earliest infections of the novel coronavirus in New York City most likely originated in Europe and other parts of the United States.

New data from NYU Langone Health suggests that the novel coronavirus has been spreading in New York for a couple of months now and a genetic analysis of viral samples in the city indicate that they originated in Europe, according to an announcement from the academic medical center today.

This early data was based on a genetic analysis of the novel coronavirus taken from 75 patients in New York City. The data has not been described yet in a report, pre-print paper, study or peer-reviewed journal. 

Separately, a pre-print study from Mount Sinai — which was published online today at medRxiv and not yet peer-reviewed — involved sequencing and analyzing 90 complete coronavirus genomes from 84 Covid-19 patients who sought care in the Mount Sinai Health System between Feb. 29 and March 18.

"With increased testing, we observed the emergence of community acquired infections with the majority of the community cases caused by viral isolates from clades that are of European origin," the researchers wrote in the Mount Sinai study.  

"Taken together, we provide a first analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 viral genotypes collected from patients seeking medical care," the researchers wrote. "We find that New York City, as an international hub, provides not only a snapshot of the diversity of disease-causing SARS-CoV-2 at the global level but also informs on the dynamics of the pandemic at the local level."

An 18-year-old grocery store worker who recovered from coronavirus cautioned others to follow social distancing guidelines and group limits. 

Mitchell said he thinks he caught the virus while working as a cashier at his Iowa grocery store. He became sick in the middle of March and progressively got worse — with a high temperature, fatigue, difficulty speaking and “horrible” headaches.

His mother, Laura Yoder, said she took him to the emergency room but he couldn’t get tested at first because the hospital said he was too young to meet the criteria for testing. He admitted he didn’t think he could get coronavirus because the virus at the time seemed to be mostly affecting older people. 

“I just never expected myself to get it, and I never expected it to even reach my community,” he said.

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Another 6.6 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits in the week that ended on April 4.

It was the second largest number of initial unemployment claims in history, since the Department of Labor started tracking the data in 1967.

At least 100 doctors have died from coronavirus in Italy, the Italian Association of Doctors said Thursday.

Eighty of them worked in the north of Italy, the hardest-hit area of the country. 

As of Wednesday, 13,522 health workers have been infected in Italy, according to the Italian Institute of Health.

As Italy enters its eight week of restrictions, it has the highest death toll in the world, with at least 17,669 deaths, Johns Hopkins University.

The number of active coronavirus cases in Italy reached 95,262 on Wednesday, with 3,693 people in intensive care units. It is the fifth day in a row that the intensive care unit numbers have fallen, with 99 fewer patients than the day before. 

China responded to criticism of its handling of coronavirus Thursday, as the situation worsens in the US.

"Smearing and accusations won't get rid of the virus," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press conference in Beijing Thursday. "We hope to see the American people win its fight against the outbreak as early as possible."

Some background: The US and China are fighting to shape the narrative about the pandemic's origins.

Trump and senior members of the administration, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have attempted to brand the outbreak as the result of a "Chinese virus" as they ramp up accusations that Beijing failed to identify, stop or warn about the virus early on.

Zhao refrained from naming Pompeo or Trump in his rebuke, added that "we hope that the American people will reject certain politicians' actions to politicize the pandemic, stigmatize China, shift public attention and deflect blame."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Americans have the potential to take summer vacations — if we continue with mitigation strategies to prevent a resurgence.  

Speaking to CBS This Morning, Fauci was asked if he could envision a typical summer, filled with vacations, baseball games, weddings and family reunions.

“It can be in the cards,” he said. 

But he warned:

Getting back to normal is not like a light switch that you turn on and off, Fauci said, adding it’ll be gradual and depend on where in the country you live. 

“The bottom line of it all is, that what we see looking forward, it is very likely that we will progress towards the steps towards normalization as we get to the end of this thirty days. And I think that’s going to be a good time to look and see how quickly can we make that move to try and normalize. But hopefully, and hopefully, by the time we get to the summer we will have taken many steps in that direction," he added.

When asked if Fauci would be taking a summer vacation, he laughed, “I don’t take vacations.”

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s condition "continues to improve," his official spokesperson said. 

Johnson has spent a third night in intensive care at London’s St Thomas’ hospital. Johnson was hospitalized Sunday because he was still suffering coronavirus symptoms 10 days after testing positive for the virus.

 “(Johnson) had a good night and continues to improve,” his spokesperson said. “He’s in good spirits.”

He said Johnson is continuing to receive “standard oxygen treatment” and thanks health staff for their care.

Here's your roundup of the latest coronavirus developments from around the world.