June 23 coronavirus news

By Ben Westcott, Adam Renton, Meg Wagner, Mike Hayes, Veronica Rocha and Melissa Macaya, CNN

Updated 12:05 a.m. ET, June 24, 2020
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3:43 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

Texas governor to residents: "The safest place for you is at your home"

From CNN Health’s Naomi Thomas

KBTX
KBTX

As Texas sees its highest numbers of positive tests and hospitalizations, Gov. Greg Abbott advised residents of the state to stay at home. 

“The safest place for you is at your home,” Abbott told CNN affiliate KBTX News 3 today.

“Because the spread is so rapid right now, there’s never a reason for you to leave your home, unless you do need to go out,” Abbott added.

New restrictions could be put into place if the virus spread continues at its current rate, Abbott said, but the state is already encouraging and reinforcing the ideas of mask wearing, hand sanitization and social distancing. 

There is increased enforcement in areas, such as bars, that are seeing overcrowding, he said. He added that his first obligation is that people in the state understand the magnitude of Covid-19. 

4:08 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

Officials say 50% of new coronavirus cases in Tennessee are likely from community spread

From CNN's Shawn Nottingham

Dr. Lisa Piercey
Dr. Lisa Piercey State of Tennessee

Half of newly diagnosed coronavirus patients in the state say they don’t know where they may have contracted the virus, said Dr. Lisa Piercey, commissioner for the Department of Public Health.

Piercey said that indicates many of the new cases are from community spread.

She said state officials are still waiting on Tuesday’s case numbers but said they are trending up. The daily average has increased in the past two weeks, Piercey said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said they are closely watching coronavirus trends after Tennessee experienced its highest single-day case total last week.

3:33 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

Tennis star Novak Djokovic says it was "too soon" to hold tournament after testing positive for Covid-19

Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/FILE
Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/FILE

The world's top ranked men's tennis player Novak Djokovic has issued another statement hours after announcing that he had tested positive for Covid-19 after competing in the Adria Tour, a tennis event that he organized. 

Djokovic's new statement follows the announcement that the remaining events on the Adria Tour have been canceled.

In his new statement, Djokovic said he is sorry that the tournament caused harm.

"We believed the tournament met all health protocols and the health of our region seemed in good condition to finally unite people for philanthropic reasons. We were wrong and it was too soon. I can't express enough how sorry I am for this and every case of infection," he said.

He said tournament organizers will be sharing health resources with those who attended the events in Belgrade, Serbia, and Zadar, Croatia.

Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov and Croatian tennis player Borna Coric announced they had tested positive after attending the tournament.  

Read Djokovic's full statement here.

3:43 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

Texas Children's Hospital is admitting adult patients due to spike in cases in Houston area

From CNN's Kay Jones

Matt Patterson via AP/FILE
Matt Patterson via AP/FILE

Texas Children's Hospital is admitting adult patients, according to a statement sent to CNN.

The hospital is providing "additional capacity through ICU and acute care beds across our hospital campuses to take on both pediatric and adult patients," according to a statement. 

Both non-Covid-19 positive and Covid-19 positive adult patients are being accepted at facilities run by Texas Children's Hospital. 

"Those adults who are Covid-19 positive will be cared for in our expanded Special Isolation Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus," according to a hospital spokesperson.

The numbers: Harris County, which includes Houston, has seen a sharp increase in the seven-day rolling average of new cases and in hospitalizations. There are more than 23,000 cases reported in the county and over 118,000 positive cases reported across Texas. 

4:21 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

A Florida bar's liquor license was suspended for violating reopening guidelines

From CNN's Tina Burnside

An Orlando area bar had its liquor license temporarily suspended for violating reopening guidelines.

According to the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears The Knight's Pub was in "flagrant violation" of the required social distancing guidelines set forth by the state, and had 13 of the pub's employees tested positive for the virus.

Orange County Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino tells CNN affiliate WFTV that they have linked 152 cases to the Knights Pub. "That's about 50 percent of the people who entered the bar," Pino said. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said businesses failing to comply with state rules will get a visit from Beshears, whom DeSantis called “the grim reaper for business licenses.”

3:43 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

Masks now mandatory in Florida's Palm Beach County

From CNN's Tina Burnside

People wear protective face masks as they walk along Worth Ave. as shops began to reopen during the new coronavirus pandemic, Monday, May 11, in Palm Beach, Florida.
People wear protective face masks as they walk along Worth Ave. as shops began to reopen during the new coronavirus pandemic, Monday, May 11, in Palm Beach, Florida. Lynne Sladky/AP/FILE

It is now mandatory for Florida's Palm Beach County residents to wear face masks in public.

The Palm Beach County Commission approved a motion on Tuesday to require all residents to wear face masks in public places when social distancing is not possible. 

Several counties across the state including Hillsborough, Orange and Miami-Dade counties approved similar mandates in the last few days requiring the use of facial coverings while in public. 

On Tuesday, Florida reported nearly 3,300 new cases of coronavirus. 

2:33 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

British health leaders urge UK government to prepare for second wave of Covid-19

From CNN's Maggie Fox and Lauren Kent

Leaders of the UK’s medical, nursing, and public health professions are urging the British government to set up a cross-party review to prepare for a second coronavirus wave, according to The British Medical Journal (BMJ) on Tuesday. 

The letter calls for an urgent review, to be completed by October, which evaluates the UK's national preparedness to deal with coronavirus ahead of winter. 

“As stakeholders and leaders of the UK’s medical, nursing and public health professions, we urge you to establish such a review,” the health leaders wrote. “We think there’s a strong case for an immediate assessment of national preparedness, with the first results available no later than August, and that all its work should be completed by the end of October.”

The health leaders wrote that a review should look to the future rather than attribute blame for past mistakes and should "focus on those areas of weakness where action is needed urgently to prevent further loss of life and restore the economy as fully and as quickly as possible."  

“We believe that such a review is crucial and needs to happen soon if the public is to have confidence that the virus can be contained,” said the letter. 

The letter has been signed by the president of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Andrew Goddard; the president of the Royal College of Nursing, Anne Marie Rafferty; the Chair of the Council of the British Medical Association, Chaand Nagpaul; Editor in Chief of The Lancet medical journal, Richard Horton; and Editor in Chief of The BMJ, Fiona Godlee.

The letter added, “We don’t underestimate the complexities of establishing this in the required timeframe. We stand by ready to help in whatever way we can.”

3:44 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

Trump is in Arizona today. Here are the latest coronavirus figures in the state.

From CNN’s Konstantin Toropin

Alex Brandon/AP
Alex Brandon/AP

President Trump is visiting Arizona today, despite ongoing concerns about an uptick in coronavirus cases in the state.

He will be participating in a border security roundtable in Yuma and head to a section of the border wall. Later in the day, he will be participating in an indoor rally in Phoenix.

Arizona is seeing a rise in new reported cases compared to the previous week, according to John Hopkins University data. Arizona is reporting 3,591 new cases of Covid-19 as well as 42 deaths from the disease over the last 24 hours, state data shows.

Today’s numbers are a new record high for both new daily cases and deaths since the state started posting data publicly in mid-March.

Arizona is also reporting that it conducted 15,940 new tests for the infection in the last 24 hours.

The state has been battling a surge in Covid-19 cases and had nine days in the last two weeks where there were more than 1,500 new cases being reported by Arizona’s Department of Health Services.

The state has also been reporting that more than 80% of its available intensive care hospital beds have been in use since last week.

Last Wednesday, Gov. Doug Ducey announced that the state would allow local communities to require masks in public if they choose, but would not issue a statewide order.

“We knew that when we lifted the stay-at-home order, we would have an increase in cases,” Ducey said yesterday afternoon. “The objective has always been that we could slow the virus.”

2:16 p.m. ET, June 23, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic could lead to up to 500,000 fewer US births according to one study

From CNN's Jacqueline Howard

Shutterstock
Shutterstock

The coronavirus pandemic is more likely to lead to a baby bust in the United States rather than a baby boom, possibly leaving the nation with about half a million fewer births than otherwise would be expected, experts at the Brookings Institution and nonprofit March of Dimes predict.

Researchers at Brookings in Washington, DC examined data from previous economic studies on fertility in the United States during the recession of 2007-2009 and the 1918 influenza pandemic. After analyzing that data, along with other factors such as job losses during the coronavirus pandemic, the researchers predicted in a report published last week that the United States could see a drop of around 300,000 to 500,000 births due to Covid-19.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, chief medical and health officer at March of Dimes in New York, told CNN on Monday that he and his colleagues have come to a similar conclusion.

"When we started to do the math, we looked at the 1918 pandemic -- as did Brookings -- and we saw that there was about a 10% drop in fertility about nine to 10 months after peak mortality," Gupta said, "A drop in 10% or 15% or 20% in the next few years could really spell trouble."

"The economic and demographic implications that stem from a severe drop in pregnancies could have a tremendous impact on the next generation, which is why this is an important and very serious issue."

According to the Brookings Institution, data from the recession suggests that the US birth rate dropped from about 69 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 2007 to 63 births per 1,000 women in 2012 -- marking a decline of about 9% or roughly 400,000 fewer births.

The Brookings team also found that in 1918, each spike in deaths due to the flu pandemic led an otherwise steady birth rate to fall roughly 21 births per 1,000 -- representing a 12.5% decline.

They also noted that the uncertainty and anxiety associated with the coronavirus pandemic, job losses and to some extent physical distancing, could play a role in a further decline of births. This is something that Gupta, a specialist in internal medicine and preventive medicine, said he has seen among his own patients.

"As I see my patients, I see more and more demands on family planning and contraceptives and other things, coupled with the economic forces and people losing their jobs," Gupta said, adding that the lives of many of his patients changed drastically, as they not only had to work from home but their home lives became hectic with their children having to stay home too.

This new research has some limitations, including that the findings are based on comparisons with two previous events and might not reflect the real nuances of the current coronavirus pandemic. "Some of these estimates are also dependent on what happens next," Gupta said. 

"For example, the fear factor could be addressed with a robust plan and call to action that prevents a second wave of Covid infections this fall. On the other hand, if you do get several waves like we saw in 1918, the situation could be even worse," Gupta said. "This pandemic and our response to it and the trust of the public in its government could have a consequential, long-term impact."

See full report from the Brookings Institution here.