June 22 coronavirus news

A new study suggests that as many as 8.7 million Americans came down with coronavirus in March but that 80% of them were never diagnosed.

A team of researchers looked at the number of people who went to doctors or clinics with influenza-like illnesses that were never diagnosed as coronavirus, influenza or any of the other viruses that usually circulate in winter.

There was a giant spike in these cases in March, the researchers reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Only 100,000 cases were officially reported during that time period, and the US still reports only 2.3 million cases as of Monday. But there was a shortage of coronavirus testing kits at the time.

The team used data collected from each state by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for influenza-like illness. The CDC uses this data to track the annual seasonal flu epidemic.

“We found a clear, anomalous surge in influenza-like illness (ILI) outpatients during the COVID-19 epidemic that correlated with the progression of the epidemic in multiple states across the US,” Silverman and colleagues wrote.

“The surge of non-influenza ILI outpatients was much larger than the number of confirmed case in each state, providing evidence of large numbers of probable symptomatic COVID-19 cases that remained undetected.”

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Gov. Asa Hutchinson said that Arkansas will not back off on testing during a news conference on Monday.

The governor’s comment comes after President Trump suggested on Sunday that the country slow down testing.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday that Trump was speaking “in jest” when he said during his rally Saturday that he asked administration officials to slow down testing for Covid-19 in the US.

Hutchinson said that he was listening to the President and called the comment “flippant.”

Houston Health Department tweeted Monday that Harris County hospitals have seen a 177% increase in Covid-19 positive patients since May 31. 

The department urged residents to "act now."

"Wear a mask, social distance & wash hands," the department tweeted. 

Harris County has a total of 8,725 Covid-19 cases and 136 people have died from the virus.

At least 103 Houston police officers are currently quarantined with Covid-19, according to police spokesperson Officer Kese Smith. 

In total, 146 police officers have had Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

South Africa has at least 101,590 confirmed coronavirus cases after reporting 4,289 new cases in the last 24 hours. According to the country’s department of health, at least 1,991 people have died from the virus.

South Africa accounts for close to a third of all cases on the continent.

At a World Health Organization briefing on Monday, the organization’s head of health emergencies, Dr. Mike Ryan said the situation in Africa remains mixed, “We’ve seen increases of disease in some countries in excess of 50% in the last week and we’ve seen other countries with very, very stable numbers.”

Overall, Ryan said, the mortality rate on the continent remains lower than in other regions.

“What we haven’t seen yet are large increases in the number of deaths. So Africa, at this point, is still avoiding the large proportion of that, that have been associated with this disease in other continents,” he said.

Yale College has asked faculty to plan their courses with a "residential/remote model" in mind, given the uncertainties of the fall semester due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The university will announce its plans for the fall by early July. But an email sent to students Monday, the undergraduate college of Yale University revealed the model being used to plan the semester assumes that even if students return to the campus in New Haven, Connecticut, classes will primarily be offered remotely.

"Courses will be built primarily for remote delivery so that all enrolled students may participate," Dean of Yale College Marvin M. Chun and psychology professor Richard M. Colgate said in the email. "Limited exceptions for additional in-person engagements, such as tutorial or discussion sessions, might also be possible as enhancements in other types of courses; details will be provided as the public health situation becomes clearer."

Yale previously announced it will follow a modified academic calendar for the fall semester. Yale College classes will begin August 31, and in-person instruction will conclude before the Thanksgiving break. "The last week of instruction, reading period, and final exam period will be online," according to the email, with the semester ending December 18.

More than 35% of the confirmed coronavirus cases in California have been recorded in just the past two weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news conference Monday.

There have been three single-day highs recorded in the past week, and on Sunday, the highest rate of hospitalizations to date. Hospitalizations have climbed about 16% over the last 14 days.

Testing is increasing throughout the state with about 85,000 tests conducted each day, Newsom said. While that may be factor in the uptick in confirmed cases, the positivity rate is also climbing slightly and currently stands at about 4.8%.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said the state had its first coronavirus-related death since June 12 over this past weekend.

The 74-year-old woman's death brings the cumulative total in the state to 89.

Justice said during his news conference Monday that 100 new positive cases appeared over the weekend as well, adding he thought it was possibly due to traveling out of state, especially from Myrtle Beach, which is seeing a rise in cases.

Currently, there are 782 active cases in West Virginia, he said.

Justice said he disagreed with President Trump’s assessment — which said he believed Trump said “in jest” — that testing needs to slow down. He said he believes testing needs to increase and he said he thinks the President believes that as well.

Democrats unveiled two pieces of legislation Monday they say will keep prices down for any taxpayer-funded treatments and vaccines for Covid-19. 

The federal government has granted billions to pharmaceutical companies for Covid-related research without assurances that the drugs and vaccines that result from that research will be affordable and accessible to the American public, according to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL). 

The bills have bipartisan support from co-sponsors Schakowsky and DeLauro as well as Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Francis Rooney (R-FL) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR). 

The bills intend to establish protections against drug price gouging for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines and excessive pricing of drugs for any disease that causes a public health emergency.  

The bills would also initiate major steps toward transparency, including a database of the funding and tax benefits that pharmaceutical companies have received.  

“Every other major country in the world negotiates lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry for all its residents,” DeFazio said.  

“Today’s legislation provides what the Trump administration has been unwilling to do by executive order, and that is meaningful protection for taxpayer dollars and insurance of patient access,” Doggett said.