June 16 coronavirus news

Several Major League Baseball (MLB) players and team staff have tested positive for Covid-19, according to USA Today. 

It is unknown how many players or staff have tested positive, or which teams have been impacted.

The news of the positive tests was released in a letter obtained by USA Today sent from MLB’s Deputy Commissioner Dan Halem to Player’s Association attorney Bruce Meyer, as the two sides work to come up with a formal agreement to get the players back onto the field, to salvage at least some of the season.

The two sides are trying to hammer out complicated issues like player compensation, quarantine measures for players, and the number of games to be played.

Several players have taken to social media to publicly question the leaking of the letter. Negotiations between the two sides have taken a turn for the worse in recent days.

Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle tweeted Monday: "First, I hope everyone is feeling ok and recovering well. But the timing of this leak is suspicious and it feels really gross."

New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso added: "It’s almost as if they planned it." Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo wrote: "Good timing." 

CNN has reached out to MLB and the players' union for confirmation about this report.

Most of Spain's schools will remain closed until September but the country is trying out a new normal for some students ahead of the autumn.

The Colegio Virgen de Europa in Madrid is one of the few schools opening their doors to pupils -- with only a week left of classes -- cautiously testing new coronavirus precautions.  

Kids are checked for masks and fevers at the school gate. Classes begin and end with a thorough handwashing and disinfecting of desks and chairs. Students are allowed to take their masks off in the class room as long as they sit two meters apart. The same goes for the teachers, who have all been tested and cleared of the virus

Classes are smaller. Coming to school is still optional. So, in the class we visited, half the students were learning by video conference. The other half sat at their desks, masks neatly folded into plastic envelopes. 

Most importantly, the classes stick together, minimizing interaction with other groups and grades. In hallways, masked students walk single file following taped arrows on the floor to ensure physical distancing.

“If we should have a case in our school, we would then know which and how many [students] came into contact. So, we limit interaction with other classes as much as possible,” says O’Halloran. 

It’s tough on kids though. The hardest part, says fourth grader Ellana, is not being able to reach out and touch your friends.  

But just how much of a risk is opening schools? 

“I believe the risk of reopening schools is not very high. Quite the contrary. The benefits of reopening for parent and child are very high.” Andrea Buron of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology told CNN in a video interview.

“Children are at a low risk of catching the disease as well as spreading the disease.”

But O’Halloran has some advice for parents and kids who can’t wait to get back to school.

“Time is important," she said. “Learning the new rules is going to take a bit more time and patience.”

The German government's coronavirus warning app has gone live.

The app uses Bluetooth technology and is designed to measure whether cell phone users have breached a 2-meter proximity for a long period of time.

If a user has tested positive and shared that information with the app, it will inform other users nearby of their diagnosis.

But for the app to succeed, Germany's government will have to overcome a widespread reluctance to share data with authorities.

The country has not made using the app mandatory for its citizens. Officials have also said that contact information will not be shared centrally, a point of concern for Germans with privacy concerns over the technology.

More than 52,000 people across the UK have died after contracting Covid-19. 

According to the statistic bodies from within the UK, the total number of deaths listing Covid-19 on a death certificate is now 52,110. 

In England and Wales 47,336 deaths mentioning coronavirus were recorded up to June 5. Health authorities recorded 1,588 deaths mentioning the disease in the week up to June 5, the lowest weekly number in nine weeks.

Both Scotland and Northern Ireland experienced a sixth consecutive week of declining coronavirus deaths. 

Scotland recorded 4,000 deaths mentioning Covid-19 up to June 7 and Northern Ireland recorded 774 deaths up to June 5.

The UK remains one of the worst affected countries globally.

The global tourism industry might be struggling, but that's not stopping China's second-biggest airline from launching a new carrier in Hainan, the country's most popular island holiday destination.

The new carrier, Sanya International Airlines -- named after the main beach city of Hainan province -- is a joint venture between China Eastern Airlines and several other companies including the state-owned Hainan Province Transport Investment Holding Company Limited and Trip.com, China's largest online travel platform.

Sanya International Airlines was revealed during a signing ceremony on June 13 held to launch the future development of Hainan as a free trade port -- "a project envisioned and directed personally by China's President Xi Jinping," said a news release.

As for when the airline will start flying, no timeline was provided at the ceremony.

Read more:

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By Maggie Hiufu Wong, CNN

Authorities in Beijing locked down more residential compounds, had more than 30,000 restaurants disinfected and tightened outbound travel as the Chinese capital's latest coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, with more than 100 people now infected.

The Beijing Municipal Health Commission reported 27 fresh Covid-19 cases today -- taking the five-day total to 106 following a flare-up at Xinfadi, the city's largest wholesale food market.

The sprawling, bustling market in Beijing's southwestern Fengtai district occupies 277 acres and has more than 2,000 stalls, selling mainly fruit and vegetables as well as meat and seafood. It supplies about 70% of the city's vegetables and 10% of its pork, according to officials.

The market has been shut down since Saturday, but its sheer size and the amount of people who work or visit there from in and outside of Beijing have heightened the risk of the outbreak spreading.

Via door-to-door visits and calls, authorities have tracked down nearly 200,000 people who had been to the market during the two weeks prior to its closure. They have been told to stay at home for medical observation and are being tested for the coronavirus, a city official told a news conference on Monday.

Read the full story:

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The German government's coronavirus warning app went live this morning.

The "Corona-Warn-App" works by notifying users when a person infected with Covid-19 is in close proximity.

If a user has tested positive and shares this information with the app, other users will be alerted that they were close to a person with the virus.

Due to privacy concerns, the app doesn't rely on a central hub to store contact information -- instead it will be stored on individual smartphone devices.

The app is not mandatory for German citizens.

US President Donald Trump has no intention of accepting any new normal dictated by the coronavirus pandemic.

His big return-to-the-campaign trail rally set for Saturday night is dramatic proof of that. The event in Oklahoma, will be an extraordinary moment, even in a presidency that has often defied credulity. 

In effect, it will be one of, if not the first, mass participation event indoors anywhere in the world in months. Trump's 20,000-strong crowd will be packed together, flouting social distancing, at a moment when major North American sports leagues are weeks away from playing games -- without spectators amid fears of creating "super-spreader" events. 

The rally is only the most dramatic example of the President's refusal to temper his behavior any longer to reflect a pandemic that has buckled the rhythm of normal life. In order to push economic openings, he is continuing to spread disinformation about the disease and the state of US testing. 

The cumulative effect is that it makes it seem like the worst public health crisis in 100 years has all but passed. By suppressing the White House appearances of leading governmental health officials and flouting his government's advice on wearing a mask, Trump is also downplaying the seriousness of a virus that is still killing thousands of Americans every week.

Trump on Monday suggested that the disease was already a faded threat in comments that defied science and logic.

"If you don't test, you don't have any cases," he said.

Read the full analysis:

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India's central government and the local government of New Delhi have announced a series of measures following a steady increase in the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the capital. 

The government has directed that testing capacity should be doubled in the next two days and tripled by the end of the week, according to a news release.

The New Delhi government will also be conducting house-to-house health surveys for contact tracing in containment zones in the city.

Private hospitals have been asked to ensure 60% of their beds are available to Covid-19 patients in anticipation of a possible influx of positive cases. 

The measures come after 500 railway coaches, which were converted into isolation wards, will be moved into the city to increase the number of beds. 

The Ministry of Railways said that 50 coaches equipped with the needed medical facilities have been installed at two local railway stations in the city. 

The total number of confirmed cases in New Delhi stands at 42,829, including 1,400 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The city has reported the third-highest number of cases in the country.