June 12 coronavirus news

Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in Harris County, Texas — which includes the city of Houston — said the county saw its highest numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations this week. 

Harris County is the third most-populous county in the US. Hidalgo, who serves as its chief executive officer, warned the county “may be approaching the precipice of a disaster” in a press conference yesterday.

Hidalgo said they are seeing the numbers increase as the state has started to reopen over the past few weeks.  

“I’ve always said I think the reopening timeline was a little too fast. I wouldn't have done it that quickly,” she said.

She said that while there is enough hospital space right now, it’s “alarming” that more than 15% of ICU space is being occupied by Covid-19 patients. 

She is working with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and alerting the state on the latest numbers, she said. 

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Friday is day 104 of the Covid-19 crisis and the numbers are going down, with 42 deaths related to Covid-19 on Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.

Cuomo also said the state has the lowest rate of transmission saying, “the virus is spreading at the lowest rate of transmission in the state of New York of every state in America, that is incredible.” 

He went on to say, “we were the number one state in terms of infection, number one in the nation, number one on the globe, per capita, and now we are the last state in terms of rate of transmission, that is because New Yorkers stepped up, they were smart they were disciplined they did what they had to do and we need to stay there.”

Citing US states that have seen elevated numbers in coronavirus cases, the governor called it a "pivotal moment" in making sure this does not happen to New York.

"This is deja vu," Cuomo said. "They reopen and then the number goes up, which is common sense on one level."

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations in Maryland have fallen by more than 100 over the past 48 hours and “are now at their lowest level in 66 days,” Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Twitter Friday morning.

At least 9,748 people across the state have been tested for Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the statewide total of completed tests to 473,271, he said, adding the statewide positivity rate is now 6.9%.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow sought to calm markets after stocks tumbled Thursday on news of a projected second wave of coronavirus, claiming there “is no second wave.”

After fears about a rise in coronavirus cases, US stocks posted their sharpest selloff in three months. US stocks surged at Friday's opening bell.

But Kudlow appears to contradict himself almost immediately by saying some places are up — although he is quick to say the Trump Administration has it handled. 

Kudlow continued, “What you do have is certain spots are seeing a little bit of a jump up. Some small metropolitan areas are seeing it. CDC and the health people are all over it – they sent some task forces out to deal with that. You know, nowadays, we have better equipment, much more experience, much better testing. I mean the testing itself has jumped up, so you’re going to get a little more positivity from that. But if you look nationally, the important point is the rate of increase of new cases is between 0 and 1 percent. It’s really flattened out, and with respect to fatalities, it’s the same, it’s actually lower than that, it’s like zero to a half a percent.”

What we know about the virus: While new case rates aren’t growing significantly for now, 19 states are experiencing rising cases as of Friday. In many states, hospitalizations are also increasing, an indicator of people seriously ill with Covid-19.

Kudlow also suggested Dr. Deborah Birx – who has been largely silent and away from cameras – may be seen Friday, but it’s unclear how or when.

“If I can calm fears, again I’m not the health expert, Amb. Birx may be out and about later today. Nonetheless, there is no emergency, there is no second wave. I don’t know where that got started on Wall Street,” he said.

Mass transit ridership is up across New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday at the city’s daily news conference.

This comes as the city started phase one of its reopening plan earlier this week.

Subway ridership, as of Wednesday, has been up 25% compared to the Wednesday before, de Blasio said.

Bus ridership is up 23%, compared to that same time, and Staten Island Ferry ridership is up 31%.

Traffic into Manhattan is up 14% during that time period, de Blasio said.

The mayor also noted that daily Covid-19 indicators for the city showed a "good news report."

Citing data from Wednesday, the mayor said:  

US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said he wants people who decide to protest against racial injustice to do so as safely as possible during the pandemic — and he said he understands why the protests are being prioritized.

"If you are going to go out, then we want you to take precautions," Adams added. "We want you to try to stay six feet apart from each other whenever you can. We want you to wear a face covering. We want you to practice good hand hygiene, including carrying hand sanitizer."

Adams also advised to bring as little with you as possible, because if you are carrying a backpack or multiple layers of clothing, for instance, those items would need to be disinfected.

"What I've always said for anyone going out is that if you're going to go out, know your risk and know how to stay safe. It's important for people to know that there are communities where we are seeing upticks and spread and the coronavirus is still here — it is still deadly, it is still contagious," Adams said.

The phase 3 trial of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by University of Oxford is underway, and is expected to include 42,000 people when the Oxford-led trial is combined with a phase 3 trial led by its partner, AstraZeneca.  

In phase 3, Oxford is enrolling 10,000 people in the UK, and AstraZeneca is enrolling 30,000 in the US. On June 2, the Brazilian government approved the inclusion of volunteers in their country, with 2,000 volunteers to be tested there.

The AstraZeneca portion of the phase 3 trial will begin in August, according to the National Institutes of Health, which will be conducting and funding the trials. 

Participants in the phase 3 group will “receive one or two doses” of their Covid-19 vaccine candidate, or another licensed vaccine that will be the control group. 

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More than 500,000 people crossed through US Transportation Security Administration checkpoints on Thursday, the first time the numbers have climbed above that mark since travel cratered this spring due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The 502,209 people TSA reported screening is still well below typical levels — nearly 19% of the 2.7 million the agency screened on the same Thursday last year. 

The passenger rates have steadily risen since bottoming out at about 3% of last year’s traffic – less than 100,000 daily travelers — in mid-April.   

Airlines are operating more flights than at that point, and each plane is also carrying more passengers. 

Airlines for America, representing the major US carriers, said Thursday that the average departure carries 57 passengers, compared to 50 the group reported on Monday and fewer than 20 at the low point. 

All viruses mutate — including the novel coronavirus. But as the world now races to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, the coronavirus mutations are not expected to alter vaccine efficacy during this race, said World Health Organization chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan.

Swaminathan added that "viruses keep on changing and we have to keep an eye on that."

Currently there are about 200 vaccine candidates in development around the world, with 10 in human trials — four in the United States, five in China and one in the United Kingdom — and 126 in preclinical trials globally, according to WHO.

Regarding how the coronavirus may differ across countries due to mutations, "the virus may be slightly different but it’s not so different that the vaccine will not work," Swaminathan said.

"It’s also good to have vaccine trials in many different countries because you have different populations, different genetics, different risk factors and WHO very much would like to see the candidates that are being developed now being tested in many countries."