June 24 coronavirus news

Los Angeles County has more confirmed coronavirus cases than any other county in the nation.

According to data generated by Johns Hopkins University, L.A. County surpassed Cook County in Illinois on Wednesday to become the single US county with the highest number of coronavirus cases.

Los Angeles County — the nation’s most populous with roughly 10 million residents — reported 88,512 cases as of Wednesday. Cook County, which includes Chicago, reported the second highest number of confirmed infections with 87,784 cases.

New York’s Queens County was third with 64,099, according to the Johns Hopkins data.

The surge in cases in Los Angeles comes as California sees record numbers of new infections, hospitalizations, and patients in intensive care units.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the increased infections, pleading with residents to think of others when it comes to wearing face masks, keeping a safe distance, and hand washing.

Loosely quoting scripture, Newsom implored residents to “love thy neighbors, like yourself, please.”

People shouldn’t count on getting a hiatus from Covid-19 in the summer months to prepare for fall, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Infectious Disease Research and Policy Center at the University of Minnesota, at a JAMA live event on Wednesday.

Using areas with recent case increases to demonstrate this, Osterholm pointed out that some of them have been happening in very hot places and some in places with very moderate climates, and that there is no difference in the way Covid-19 is acting.

“I am not convinced there will be a second wave. I don’t think there will be. I think that we’re just going to see one onslaught where it shows up here, shows up there; a little higher there, a little lower there; but in the end, it’s just going to be like one river of virus flowing downstream.”

Fighting coronavirus is like trying to fix a leaky bucket, a pandemic expert said Wednesday; something is going to get out.

There are not many weapons against it, Osterholm said. 

“I think distancing, distancing and distancing, really, the only focus we have, and it has proven to be successful,” he said.

Mitigating the spread of infection: Wearing masks can also work, but a lot depends on what people use. N95 respirators, used to protect health care workers, are far more effective than surgical masks or cloth face coverings, for instance, Osterholm said.

“It’s kind of like saying I have a semi-truck, a VW beetle and a trike and they’re all the same because they have tires,” he said.

More work is needed to understand how different types of masks work in the environments they are used in.

Osterholm also pointed out that masks need to be worn correctly to be effective.

CIDRAP has found that 25% of people who use masks are wearing them with their noses uncovered. 

“It’s like fixing three of the five screen doors in your submarine. If we’re going to use them we have to use them correctly,” Osterholm said.

During a news conference to mark 101 days since the state of emergency was imposed due to Covid-19, Peru’s President Martin Vizcarra recounted his administration’s accomplishments against the pandemic but also acknowledged the current challenges.

Vizcarra told the nation his government has managed to do 1,560,653 tests until Wednesday while it started with a capacity of 500 tests per day. The country’s capacity is now from 15,000 to 20,000 tests per day, according to Vizcarra.

He also acknowledged his government faces what he called "structural problems" to fight the pandemic but responded to his critics saying “they demand us to fix the country’s problems in one hundred days while these problems have not been solved in one hundred years." 

Vizcarra also recognized current problems in the fight against coronavirus in his country such as the lack of oxygen for patients and the need to improve rules for local markets, which have become hubs of infection across the country for example.

His government allowed shopping centers to reopen starting last Monday in order to relieve the economy but the president implored the population not to relax the current social distancing and hygiene rules when going shopping.

“We can’t relax and trust yet, we will only be relaxed when science finds a vaccine or a treatment to neutralize the virus ... Please do not let our guard down,” Vizcarra added. 

The numbers: Peru has the second-highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Latin America, following Brazil. Peru reported 260,810 Covid-19 cases and 8,404 deaths on Tuesday. Peru was one of the first countries in the region to impose a state of emergency and lockdown in order to fight the pandemic. 

Covid-19 cases in Latin America have now tripled since the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) announced the region had become the new epicenter of the pandemic, the organization's director said Wednesday.

There is now widespread transmission in most of Central America, while the Caribbean has hotspots on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, as well as in northern South America, Etienne said. 

"Brazil surpassed 1 million Covid-19 cases, joining the United States as the only other country in the world with cases in the six digits," Etienne said of the South American country. 

"While the recent increase in cases is extremely concerning, we have averted an even greater tragedy, thanks to the early adoption of public health measures, which have helped protect health systems and saved lives in many countries," Etienne added. 

However, the PAHO director warned that governments are now facing pressure to ease these public health measures due to economic and political reasons, even though transmission is increasing.

"In the absence of effective treatments, or of widely available vaccines, we expect that over the next two years in the region of the Americas we will experience recurring Covid-19 outbreaks, which may be interspersed with periods of limited transmission," Etienne said. "We must be realistic about the future. All of us must adjust to a new way of life, and redefine our sense of normal,” she added.

“The question is no longer how do we go back to the way things were before, but rather, how do we move forward and build a sustainable outbreak response."

President Trump said he would welcome getting Poland involved in a potential vaccine for Covid-19 and predicted there will be a “beautiful surprise, sooner than anybody would think.”

He made the remarks during a joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda.

“The answer is yes we will be getting Poland involved in terms of helping and taking care of the polish people,” Trump said.

On the progress of vaccines and therapeutics, Trump said: “I think you’re gong to have a big surprise, a beautiful surprise, sooner than anybody would think.”

He offered no specific details.

Trump also told reporters in the Rose Garden that he plans to visit Poland after the 2020 election. Trump canceled a trip to Poland due to hurricanes last year.

It’s important to build up stockpiles, both nationally and at the state level, as more than 10 states begin to see a resurgence in coronavirus cases, Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a virtual appearance Wednesday at the Sacramento Press Club.

When the pandemic first started spreading in the United States, the country was not prepared, Fauci said.

“You know, the stockpile in the beginning was not adequate to really address the major surges received — particularly in the northeast part of the country, in the New York metropolitan area,” he said. 

“But right now we have some time. I mean, we're not where we want to be, because we want to see that curve go way down. It hasn't come down,” he said.

“Yesterday we had something like 35 or 37,000 new cases of coronavirus disease — new cases.” 

Fauci said at one point the number of new cases was heading in the right direction: down.

“Now, it’s not. It’s going back up.” 

Fauci urged states and cities to address the issues of equipment and drug stockpiles, as well as hospital capacity.

“I think it's time to start preparing each state. I mean the one thing I've learned not to do, is that you don't go in and tell people what they should do,” he said.

“We have the possibility of a surge of cases. Do we have enough backup to handle them? If we don't, let's start building it up.” 

A group of Florida lawmakers wrote a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis urging him to require masks statewide. 

“The recommendation by Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees, that all individuals in Florida should wear face coverings in any setting where social distancing is not possible” is evidence that wearing a mask in public is sound and necessary practice from a scientific perspective. You must take the next step and make it a requirement,” the letter read.

The lawmakers who signed the letter include: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Shalala, Alcee L. Hastings, Ted Deutch, Charlie Crist, Val Demings, Lois Frankel, Stephanie Murphy, Kathy Castor, Frederica Wilson, Darren Soto, Al Lawson and Debbie Murcarsel-Powell. 

DeSantis addressed the lack of a statewide mask mandate saying he feels masks orders can be problematic.

He added: “Ultimately we have to trust people to make good decisions.”

As Florida emerges from its coronavirus shutdown, the state is experiencing a surge of Covid-19 cases, with younger Floridians accounting for a significant number of positive tests.

The Florida Department of Health reported an additional 3,286 cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the state total to 103,503.

Nearly 180,000 Americans will die from coronavirus by October 1 unless just about everyone starts wearing masks, new projections show.

The latest coronavirus projection from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation shows 179,106 deaths by October 1 if nothing changes.

But that number would drop to 146,000 if 95% of Americans started wearing masks in public, the model forecasts.

The previous IHME forecast, published June 15, projected 201,129 deaths by October 1. “California and other states have seen over the past several weeks increasing case numbers, but deaths are not yet rising at the same rate, a trend which could change in the coming weeks,” IHME Director Christopher Murray said in a statement Wednesday.

According to a June 12 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 74% of Americans nationwide said they wore masks often or always. That number approached 90% in New York and Los Angeles.

“States reporting the ages of confirmed cases suggest there are more cases being detected in younger people who are at substantially lower risk of death than older people,” Murray said. “It remains to be seen how this will unfold over the next few weeks, and if transmission continues to go up, we may see increasing infections in at-risk populations.”