May 22 coronavirus news

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer today signed a new executive order that extends the state's safer-at-home order to June 12.

The governor’s order also extends the temporary closure of certain places of public accommodation, such as theaters, gyms, and casinos, according to her office.

Whitmer also signed a new executive order to extend the state’s state of emergency declaration related to the Covid-19 pandemic to June 19.

Some background: A Michigan judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Republican leaders of the state's Legislature challenging Whitmer's use of emergency powers to extend Michigan's state of emergency.

Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Diane Stephens ruled that while Whitmer's action of re-declaring the same emergency violated the provisions of the state's Emergency Management Act, the Legislature's challenges to Whitmer's use of the Emergency Powers of Governor Act to issue executive orders are meritless.

A number of restrictions will be lifted in New Hampshire starting June 1, Gov. Chris Sununu said.

Small group fitness classes and personal one-on-one training, where social distancing can be allowed and properly provided will be allowed.

Business that were classified as “personal care,” acupuncture, massage therapy centers, tattoo parlors, tanning and nail salons may reopen. Each must meet strict social distancing guidelines and each industry has its own sanitation and adaptation requirements that must be met.

New Hampshire’s beaches will also open on June 1 for active recreation, such as walking, running, lounging, swimming and surfing.

“These are just first steps, and while they hopefully work for some, we know they might not be able to work for all," the governor said.

Every county in Pennsylvania is expected to be partially reopened by June 5, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Friday.

As of Friday morning, 49 of the state’s 67 counties were in the “yellow phase.” The “yellow phase” refers to the subsequent reopening stage after the “red phase,” during which all counties were under stay-at-home orders.

The “green phase” is the last stage, where even more social distancing rules are relaxed, but precautions will still be taken, according to Wolf’s office. 

Eight more counties will move from the “red” to “yellow phase” on May 29, and 17 counties will move from the “yellow” to “green phase.” The remainder of the state’s counties are expected to move to the “yellow phase” on June 5, Wolf said.

The governor said the state will continue to closely monitor reopened counties for any upticks in Covid-19 cases and even counties that move into the “green phase” will still be required to take necessary precautions to stop the spread of coronavirus. 

The governor added that guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health, such as wearing masks in public, must continue to be observed.

If you're just joining us, here are the latest coronavirus updates from across the globe:

There are over 100,000 cases of coronavirus across Africa, with the virus having spread to every country in the continent, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

So far, 3,100 people in Africa have died from the virus.

During a briefing on Friday, Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO executive director of health emergencies program, said, “On the one hand, good news — the disease hasn't taken off in a very fast trajectory, but a concern some countries are accelerating in the number of cases.”

Ryan said within Africa, there are “many, many highly vulnerable groups” and the impact of coronavirus on those groups has yet to be seen. 

“We don't know what the impact of this will be in undernourished children with chronic malnutrition, we don't know what the impact of this will be in in overcrowded refugee camps. So, there's a lot still to be learned,” he said. 

The number of active Covid-19 cases in Italy dropped by 1,638 on Friday, bringing the total to 59,322, according to the Italian Civil Protection Agency.

In the past day, 130 people have died, bringing the total number of fatalities to 32,616, the agency said. This increase of 0.4% is the second smallest in the last few weeks.

The number of patients in intensive care units dropped below the 600 mark for the first time since March 7. There are now 595 people in intensive care, 45 fewer than yesterday.

The total number of cases in Italy is 228,658.

As many as 80 million babies worldwide are missing out on vaccines because of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The pandemic has disrupted vaccination programs in at least 68 countries, WHO, the global vaccine initiative Gavi, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Sabin Vaccine Institute said in a joint statement.

They said 80 million children under the age of 1 were living in those countries.

“We cannot exchange one deadly outbreak for another,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said at a news conference.

WHO released new guidance to countries on how they can resume vaccination campaigns safely during the pandemic.

Plus, fewer of the health workers who usually deliver vaccines can due restrictions on travel, the lack protective equipment and because they’re busy fighting coronavirus, the groups said.

“Disruption to immunization programs from the Covid-19 pandemic threatens to unwind decades of progress against vaccine-preventable diseases like measles,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

Impacted programs: Measles immunization campaigns have been suspended in 27 countries, while efforts to vaccinate children against polio are paused in 38 countries, the groups said.

“We cannot let our fight against one disease come at the expense of long-term progress in our fight against other diseases,” Fore said. “We have effective vaccines against measles, polio and cholera. While circumstances may require us to temporarily pause some immunization efforts, these immunizations must restart as soon as possible.” 

WHO said late last year, that measles surged globally because of disruptions to vaccination campaigns. More than 140,000 people died as a result – most of them young children.

Efforts to eradicate polio have been continually stymied by conflict and difficulties reaching certain areas. Polio also mainly affects very young children, and 1 in 200 cases result in irreversible paralysis, WHO says.

Only 33 cases were reported in 2018 but WHO forecasts up to 200,000 cases of polio a year within a decade if the virus cannot be eradicated by vaccination.

Covid-19 has changed the way the world looks at the importance of hand hygiene – for the better, Henrietta Fore, executive director of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said Friday.

“How often we wash our hands, how we use soap,” she said. “This is not available everywhere in the world, so if we can focus on getting good … wash systems for water and soap around the developing world it will have a lasting impact and it will change both what healthcare workers can do, but also how communities can keep themselves safe.”

Travelers arriving in the United Kingdom will be required to self-isolate for 14 days starting June 8, the British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced on Friday.

“People arriving in the UK will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, except for those on a short list of exemptions,” she said, adding that new arrivals will be required to provide their address and contact details should authorities need to trace them and that the quarantine was mandatory. “There will be penalties for those who break these mandatory measures.”

Patel defended the measures saying the UK government was taking them “to guard against imported cases” and assured it was doing so at “a time where it would be most effective.”

“It is to protect that hard-won progress and prevent a devastating resurgence and a second wave of the virus,” she said.