June 9 coronavirus news

Helen Regan, Steve George and Adam Renton, CNN

Updated 0641 GMT (1441 HKT) June 10, 2020
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8:00 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has ended for the evening. Read up on the latest news here.

7:19 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

The coronavirus food assistance program has processed $1.4 billion since mid-May

From CNN’s Dan Shepherd

A box of food part of the Farmers to Families Food Box Program sits at the distribution center of Coastal Sunbelt Produce in Laurel, Maryland, on Friday, May 15.
A box of food part of the Farmers to Families Food Box Program sits at the distribution center of Coastal Sunbelt Produce in Laurel, Maryland, on Friday, May 15. Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

According to the latest United States Department of Agriculture’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program payment report released Monday, $1.4 billion has been awarded across more than 80,000 applicants since the program was announced in mid-May. 

USDA Commissioner Sonny Perdue said in a May 19 release the CFAP assistance program would provide up to $16 billion “in direct payments to deliver relief to America’s farmers and ranchers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.” 

The payment report cites that 49 states and two territories had applicants for the aid; Rhode Island is the only state without any applications in the CFAP program, up to this week.

Applicants from states in the upper Midwest had the largest awards with crop farming in the “specialty” and “non-specialty” categories, including Illinois ($60.6 million), Iowa ($52.5 million), Nebraska ($45.2 million), Minnesota ($28.4 million) and Kansas ($20.5 million). 

The livestock/cattle industries received the largest amounts of money, with more than $676.2 million, while crop farmers were awarded $392.9 million and dairy farmers collected just over $337 million. 

One surprise in the June report is that two states and one territory have not received any money, despite multiple applicants listed in those locations. 

Delaware had 73 applicants, the US Virgin Islands had seven applications, Alaska had three applications. The amount listed on the CFAP payment plan on June 8 is “$0.00” for each of these states and territory.

When asked about the lack of money going to these states and territory, a USDA spokesperson told CNN: “The number of CFAP applications shown on our weekly data reports include both approved applications as well as those that have been signed by producers but not yet approved by locally elected farmers who sit on the FSA county committee.” 

The Farm Service Agency is the department within the USDA that handles the application process.

CNN has reached out to the Delaware Farm Bureau, the Alaska Farm Bureau and the Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture for comment, but has not heard back from any of these organizations at this time.

7:16 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

Brazil records more than 32,000 coronavirus cases in a day

From CNN's Rodrigo Pedroso and Shasta Darlington

Cemetery workers carry a coffin at the municipal cemetery Recanto da Paz in Breves, Brazil, on June 7.
Cemetery workers carry a coffin at the municipal cemetery Recanto da Paz in Breves, Brazil, on June 7. Tarso Sarraf/AFP/Getty Images

Brazil recorded 32,091 more coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the country's total confirmed cases to 739,503, according to the Brazilian Health Ministry.

This is the fourth day Brazil's Health Ministry has recorded more than 30,000 new cases in a 24-hour period since the outbreak started.

The ministry also reported 1,272 new Covid-19 deaths Tuesday, bringing the country's death toll from the virus to 38,406.

Brazil's new totals come after the Pan American Health Organization said Covid-19 "continues to spread aggressively" in Brazil, Peru and Chile in a news briefing Tuesday.

The Americas have reported more than 3.3 million cases of Covid-19 as of June 8 — more than any other region in the world, according to Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization.

6:15 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

France announces $51 billion coronavirus stimulus package proposal

From CNN's Ya Chun Wang and Benjamin Berteau

French Finance Minister Bruno LeMaire holds a press conference during the IMF - World Bank Spring Meetings at International Monetary Fund Headquarters in Washington, on April 12, 2019.
French Finance Minister Bruno LeMaire holds a press conference during the IMF - World Bank Spring Meetings at International Monetary Fund Headquarters in Washington, on April 12, 2019. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire will present a second stimulus package of $51 billion (45 billion euros) for the French economy amid pandemic on Wednesday, he said in an interview French radio RTL on Tuesday.

“Hundreds of thousands” of people will be unemployed due to the economic fallout from the pandemic, Le Maire said, adding he predicts a “wave of bankruptcies” and unemployment and that the economic fallout could last well into 2021. 

“We have everything we need to recover,” Le Maire said, adding that he trusts France’s resources in terms of manpower and technology to find new economic growth with help from the stimulus package.

"Forty-five billion euros is the sum that we will be putting on the table tomorrow ... this second stage consists in coming to the rescue of the sectors most at risk: hotels, restaurants, the automobile and aeronautics industries,” he said. 

In total, France will be spending close to $521 billion (460 billion euros) in recovery measures, which represents 21% of the French national wealth, the finance minister said, adding, "To put it in perspective, it is the equivalent of Austria's GDP."

The minister said the national debt would reach 121% of the French GDP in 2021 and that there will be no tax increase during French President Emmanuel Macron's current term in order to encourage spending.

Le Maire and Public Account Minister Gerald Darmanin will present the recovery plan after the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

6:10 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

California health officer resigns amid threats over face covering order

From CNN's Cheri Mossburg

Orange County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick resigned from her position amid threats to her personal safety after she issued an order requiring face coverings in the county.

After the order, Quick was threatened during a county board meeting and received threats on social media, according to County Executive Frank Kim.

Quick was not alone. A number of personal threats were made to county staff since the beginning of the pandemic, Kim said, but he would not go so far as to say threats were the sole reason for Quick’s departure.

Kim said he was caught off guard by Quick’s resignation. 

"It was a surprise to me," he said. “I am very disappointed that she left. There was no encouragement from myself or any other board members for her to resign." 

He said he understood that the title of health officer “is a very stressful position.”

Everyone in the health department has been working massive overtime, upwards of 80-hour weeks since February, he said. 

Quick is the third high profile member to leave the department since the coronavirus pandemic began.

5:27 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

US awards AstraZeneca $23 million to develop coronavirus antibody treatment

From CNN’s Maggie Fox

Facade with logo at office of pharmaceutical company AstaZeneca, in San Francisco, on April 11.
Facade with logo at office of pharmaceutical company AstaZeneca, in San Francisco, on April 11. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The US federal government said Tuesday it was awarding drug giant AstraZeneca $23.6 million to help the company develop an antibody treatment for the new coronavirus.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), said they were helping AstraZeneca to get to a phase one clinical trial of its monoclonal antibody combination. The trial would test the antibody cocktail for safety in people.

“Using an interagency agreement, BARDA will support AstraZeneca’s development of a monoclonal antibody combination product against SARS-CoV-2, including a Phase I clinical trial and the manufacturing of the investigational product for testing in Phase 1,” Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

“Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory synthesized therapies that can be used to neutralize viruses. A combination of monoclonal antibodies that neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be used as both a prophylaxis to prevent infection and as a treatment for COVID-19 infections,” it added.

“Therapeutic and prophylactic antibody therapies are urgently needed to combat COVID-19, particularly in the absence of vaccines.”

There’s currently no approved treatment for Covid-19, although the antiviral drug remdesivir has received an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration.

5:22 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

Peru surpasses 200,000 coronavirus cases

From CNN's Kiarinna Parisi

A doctor wearing personal protective gear examines Covid-19 patients at Regional Hospital of Loreto Felipe Arriola Iglesias in Iquitos, Peru, on May 20.
A doctor wearing personal protective gear examines Covid-19 patients at Regional Hospital of Loreto Felipe Arriola Iglesias in Iquitos, Peru, on May 20. STR/Getty Images

Peru surpassed 200,000 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus Tuesday, according to numbers released by the country's Health Ministry.

The country reported 4,040 new cases Tuesday, bringing its total to 203,736. Peru also recorded 167 new Covid-19 deaths, bringing the country's total to 5,738.

Latin America has become the hotspot for the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 3.3 million cases in the Americas, "more than any other region around the world," Pan American Health Organization’s Director Carissa Etienne said during a virtual news conference on Tuesday.

7:52 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

Ebola was "scary," HIV was "insidiously" spread, but Covid-19 is Fauci's "worst nightmare"

From CNN’s Jen Christensen

BIO International Convention
BIO International Convention

Coronavirus is “my worst nightmare,” worse in ways than Ebola or HIV, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday.

“Ebola was scary, but Ebola would never be easily transmitted,” Fauci said speaking at the BIO International Convention.

“HIV, as important as it is, was drawn out and over an extended period of time,” added Fauci, who is also a top member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

Many never felt threatened by the disease because it was always a threat “depending upon who you are, where you are, where you live.”

In the past, when people would ask Fauci to describe a disease that would be his worst nightmare, he said he would often describe it as something that was a brand new respiratory infection that likely jumped from an animal, and had a very high degree of transmissibility. The world has seen outbreaks that have at least some of those characteristics, he said, but Covid-19 had all of those characteristics combined.

“Now we have something that turned out to be my worst nightmare,” Fauci said. “In the period of four months, it has devastated the world.”

Condensed into a short amount of time, the pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands in the US alone, and there are many millions of infections worldwide.

It was “unexpected how rapidly,” it would spread," he said.

“It just took over the planet,” Fauci said. “And it isn’t over yet.”

Watch:

4:38 p.m. ET, June 9, 2020

Coronavirus vaccine is going to take a global collaboration, FDA disease expert says

From CNN Health’s Shelby Lin Erdman

Developing a safe and effective vaccine for the deadly coronavirus is going to take a global collaboration, said Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Centers for Biologics Evaluation & Research.

Marks told panelists during a vaccine discussion at the BIO International Convention Tuesday that the FDA is committed to expediting the development of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine and working with international colleagues to share information and discoveries.

“It's one of these once in a lifetime events,” he said. “We've had other bad infectious diseases around to deal with but this one, in terms of the speed that I think we're all trying to work in order to stave off a second wave, and as well as abrogate this first wave that is continuing to spread around the globe, has really put renewed energy into working together.”

Marks said he’s looking forward to collaborating with international partners, including other regulators.

“This is one of those where everyone will need to work together because this is really a global issue where we're all connected and until this particular virus is wiped out across the globe, we're all going to have issues with it," he said.