June 17 coronavirus news

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany would not directly answer when asked if President Trump or the White House would take responsibility if attendees catch coronavirus during a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma set to be held Saturday.

McEnany got into an extended exchange with CNN’s Jim Acosta, but never responded directly to the question. 

“The campaign has taken certain measures to make sure this is a safe rally, temperature checks, hand sanitizers, and masks,” McEnany said during a press briefing Wednesday. “We are taking precautions. 

CNN reported that attendees of Trump's upcoming rally must agree not to sue the campaign if they contract coronavirus.

Rallygoers are asked to RSVP to gain admission to the event and by registering, they must agree to a disclaimer that states they acknowledge the "inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present."

Asked by Acosta if attendees would be required to wear masks, McEnany said they will not be required.  

“They will be given a mask, it’s up to them whether to make that decision,” she said, adding that, “CDC guidelines are recommended, but not required,” and that it was a “personal choice of individuals.” 

McEnany then accused the media of a lack of “internal coherence,” for not asking the same questions of the protesters who came out across the country after the death of George Floyd. 

Acosta pointed out that they were marching against injustice, racism, and police brutality, not attending a political rally, and again asked if the President or White House would take responsibility if people get sick. 

McEnany deflected, attacked health experts who came out in support of the protests, and reiterated that the campaign has taken “certain measures to make sure this is a safe rally.” 

Asked later by another reporter if the White House position was that outdoor events and indoor events carry the same risk for coronavirus, McEnany said that it’s the White House position that “the media should not be making decisions about their guidelines to us about social distancing based on political ideology.”

The Secretary of Higher Education in New Jersey today released guidance for colleges and universities to reopen for in-person instruction for the upcoming summer and fall sessions. 

Here's what's in the guidance:

“Colleges this fall and summer will not look the same as they did last year,” New Jersey Higher Education Secretary Dr. Zakiya Smith Ellis said Wednesday.   

Schools must submit their restart plans to the office of the Secretary of Higher Education at least 14 days before any staff or students return to campus. 

Ninety-six Tulsa residents tested positive for Covid-19 in the past day, according to Dr. Bruce Dart of the Tulsa Health Department.

This is a new daily record for the county, according to Dart. He said the number of cases reported are continuing to set new records. 

There are 1,825 total positive cases in Tulsa County. At least 1,166 people have recovered and 64 residents have died.

In a news conference, Dart also issued a warning ahead of President Trump's campaign rally in the city on Saturday saying that "anyone planning to attend a large scale gathering will face an increased risk of becoming infected with Covid-19."

The rally would be Trump's first major campaign event since the coronavirus pandemic shut down most of American life, and officials are expecting hundreds of thousands of supporters to attempt to attend. 

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in the news conference today that more than 1 million requests have been made to attend the rally.

There are at least 2,143,193 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 117,129 people have died, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

So far on Wednesday, Johns Hopkins reported 5,486 new cases and 167 deaths.  

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

Dr. Bruce Dart of the Tulsa Health Department issued a warning ahead of President Trump's campaign rally on Saturday: "Anyone planning to attend a large scale gathering will face an increased risk of becoming infected with Covid-19."

Dart said he shared the same concerns as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding large in-person gatherings. The CDC warns that "the more people an individual interacts with at a gathering and the longer that interaction lasts, the higher the potential risk of becoming infected with COVID-19 and COVID-19 spreading."

He went on to say that he supports the right to assemble but asked those who are part of a vulnerable population to stay at home and to seek other ways to participate in the event virtually. 

Dart also recommended that anyone attending the rally wear a mask covering correctly, covering your nose and mouth. 

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a news conference today that more than 1 million requests have been made to attend President Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday.

Stitt will be at the White House on Thursday to meet with the President prior to the rally, he told reporters.

“I haven’t decided if I’m going to wear a mask,” Stitt said when responding to a question regarding wearing a mask while at the White House.

He went on to say that he won’t wear one when he introduces the President at the rally.

Stitt acknowledged that Covid-19 is in Oklahoma and they would have to learn how best to live with that.

Some context: A judge on Tuesday denied an emergency motion to stop  Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa on Saturday. The decision came after local lawyers asked the court to block the event unless organizers agreed to take steps to adhere to the administration's own social distancing recommendations to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Saturday's rally is still scheduled to take place at BOK Center, but the campaign is exploring an additional venue designed to work as an overflow location to help accommodate the overwhelming response of supporters hoping to see the President speak.

During an interview on Fox News, Vice President Mike Pence suggested that the additional venue could be outdoors.

Oklahoma is among at least 21 states that are seeing upward trends in newly reported cases from one week to the next.

Schools across Michigan will be allowed to resume in-person instruction this fall with strict safety measures in place, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced in a news conference Wednesday.

Whitmer said the "Return to Learn" advisory council has been hard at work coming up with a safe plan to reopen schools. 

The governor will release an executive order and the "Michigan Return to School Roadmap" on June 30 to outline details on what will be required and recommended for schools to reopen.

The roadmap will set minimum health and safety requirements, Whitmer said, adding school districts may choose to enact more aggressive ones.

The hydroxychloroquine arm of the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Solidarity Trial will end based on a recommendation from the agency’s Data Safety and Monitoring Committee, according to a WHO official.

Dr. Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo, a medical officer at WHO's Department of Immunization Vaccines and Biologicals, said during a media briefing in Geneva on Wednesday that the decision was made based on preliminary information from a separate hydroxychloroquine study in the United Kingdom that showed no benefit of the antimalarial against Covid-19, and early data from the Solidarity Trial itself. 

"Today, just five minutes ago, we finalized a call with all the investigators in the trial," Henao-Restrepo said during Wednesday's briefing. 

In May, WHO temporarily paused the hydroxychloroquine arms of its Solidarity Trial due to concerns surrounding the safety of hydroxychloroquine and in order to review its own data. Then earlier this month, after that review, WHO announced that it would resume studying hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment in the Solidarity Trial.

Yet in the days following, a separate trial in the United Kingdom, called the Recovery Trial, announced plans to stop using hydroxychloroquine in its study due to "no evidence of benefit," according to the researchers. That spurred WHO to conduct another review of the hydroxychloroquine arm in its Solidarity Trial, which led to this most recent decision to drop hydroxychloroquine from the trial.

This latest announcement from WHO comes just days after the US Food and Drug Administration on Monday revoked its emergency use authorization for the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19. 

Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced today that the District will enter into phase two of reopening on Monday if the current trends in Covid-19 metrics continue.

The mayor said she expects to be able to announce this Friday whether or not the District will be ready to enter phase two Monday.

In phase two of reopening:

Officials said three out of the four key metrics used to decide if DC is ready to move into phase 2 have been met, barring a spike in community spread cases of coronavirus over the coming days.

The fourth metric is that the contact tracing force has a 90% success rate contacting positive cases within one day —that is yet to be met.

Director of DC Public Health LaQuandra Nesbitt explained that the government has a new digital system and has increased the number of contact tracers, which Bowser said “gives us confidence in saying that we are hitting, going to hit, where we need to be.”

As of today, Washington, DC, has at least 9,847 positive community spread cases of the coronavirus, and 523 people have died from the virus.

When asked if the District should wait to enter phase two until the effects of protests are clear on the spread of the coronavirus, Bowser said “we always have the ability to turn up or turn down our reopening.”

“This virus is not gone, it is still here,” Bowser added.