By Helen Regan, Adam Renton, Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya and Mike Hayes, CNN
From CNN's Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt
Miami-Dade County in Florida reported a 27% Covid-19 positivity rate on Wednesday, according to data released by the mayor’s office. The positivity rate is tracked daily by the county.
According to the Miami-Dade Mayor’s office, the goal is to not exceed 10% positivity rate. The county has exceeded the 10% mark for the past 10 days. The current 14-day average is 13.68%.
From CNN's Faith Karimi and Douglas Wood
There are fears of "apocalyptic" surges in major Texas cities if current the coronavirus trends continue — and Houston could become the hardest hit city in the US, an expert warned.
Models show that Houston could have a four-fold increase in the number of daily cases by July 4, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN.
If the current case trajectory continues, the Houston numbers rival those in Brazil.
Infection numbers are also rising in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, Hotez added.
"The big metro areas seem to be rising very quickly and some of the models are on the verge of being apocalyptic," Hotez said.
From CNN's Homero DeLaFuente
The National Football League's 2020 Hall of Fame game scheduled for Aug. 6 has been canceled, and its Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony scheduled for Aug. 8 in Canton, Ohio, has been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to league sources, reports ESPN.
The Hall of Fame, which serves as the preseason-opener, between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers, is the first event to be canceled in NFL history.
It was reported last week that members of the Cowboys, including star running back Ezekiel Elliot, Buccaneers, 49ers and Texans organizations tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.
Earlier this week, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced that two team members had tested positive but have since returned to the team.
CNN has reached out to the NFL.
From CNN's Niamh Kennedy
Coronavirus is resurgent across Europe after restrictions were eased in many countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
There was an increase in weekly cases, last week for the “first time in months,” WHO Europe chief Henri Kluge said at a press conference in Copenhagen.
Kluge said he had warned of the “risk of resurgence” as countries eased lockdown measures.
Thirty countries in Europe have recorded increases in cumulative cases in the past fortnight, he said.
Kluge added that accelerated transmission in 11 countries “has led to very significant resurgence that if left unchecked will push health systems to the brink once again in Europe."
“While the European region is reporting a decreasing proportion of global cases than earlier in the year, the region continues to report close to 20,000 new cases and over 700 new deaths daily,” he said.
Kluge cited Poland, Germany and Spain as examples of countries which responded quickly to new outbreaks of Covid-19 in schools, coal mines and food production facilities.
“Rapid and targeted interventions,” by those countries helped to control the transmission, the WHO official said.
Kluge also emphasised the role that digital technology can play in the suppression of outbreaks.
“We need to get smarter in using the evidence and information we have from our Covid-19 surveillance systems," he said.
Twenty-seven countries have released national solutions for digital contact tracing with solutions underway in places such as Portugal and Ireland.
Kluge also spoke of artificial intelligence projects being piloted including an Italian smartphone app which measures a person's heart rate, oxygen saturation rate and respiration rate in real time.
According to Kluge these digital technologies help health systems to “cope with the delivery of essential health care,” but cautioned that “integrating digital health must be done carefully and wisely in partnership with the public and patients.”
From CNN's Jordan Valinsky and Chris Isidore
Chuck E. Cheese's parent company, CEC Entertainment, filed for bankruptcy Thursday, blaming the financial strain caused by Covid-19 and the prolonged closures of its entertainment centers from stay-at-home orders issued across the United States.
CEC, which also owns Peter Piper Pizza, said it will use Chapter 11 protection to "achieve a comprehensive balance sheet restructuring that supports its re-opening and longer-term strategic plans."
The company expects to operate normally, which includes the reopening of its Chuck E. Cheese locations. So far, nearly half of Chuck E. Cheese's 555 locations have reopened, with plans to reopen more locations weekly. Unlike other bankrupt brands, it didn't immediately announce store closures.
In a release, CEO David McKillips, said that the past few months have "been the most challenging event in our company's history" and is "confident" about the future of the 40-year-old brand.
The novel coronavirus has infected more than 9.4 million people worldwide and caused the deaths of more than 480,000. Here's what you need to know today:
From CNN's Shawn Deng and Jadyn Sham
Beijing health officials have ruled out imported meat, eggs, and seafood as the cause of the virus outbreak at a sprawling food market.
China's capital reintroduced strict lockdown measures and rolled out mass testing after the outbreak emerged earlier this month at the Xinfadi market, which supplies most of Beijing's fresh fruit and vegetables.
Director of the Infectious Disease Department at the First Hospital of Peking University, Wang Gui-Qiang tried to quell the fears of local residents by saying that “all meat, eggs, and seafood supplied in the regular supermarket are all safe to consume.”
Wang acknowledged that the topic was of “great concern” to local residents, many of whom are afraid they could be infected by consuming meat and seafood after market officials blamed the outbreak on imported seafood.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal People’s Government said the coronavirus outbreak linked to the market has “basically been contained.”
From CNN's Tim Lister, Mia Alberti and Claudia Rebaza
Around 388,300 people will die from Covid-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean by October, according to a projection by The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
"Several Latin American countries are facing explosive trajectories, while others are containing infections effectively,” said IHME Director Dr. Christopher Murray in a statement.
“I cannot overemphasize the imperative of mitigation measures, such as mask-wearing and social distancing, especially since South American nations are facing increasing infections due to seasonality of Covid-19, an important factor contributing to the transmission of the virus," he added.
According to the forecast, Brazil is set to be the most affected country, with an expected 166,000 deaths, followed by Mexico with 88,000 deaths. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru follow this list of most affected countries.
The study expects Paraguay, Uruguay and Belize -- countries with a current low number of cases-- to have fewer than 1,000 deaths by October.
IHME's study takes into account factors such as social distancing measures and the percentage of people wearing masks when leaving their homes -- a factor that can reduce transmission by 50%.
From CNN's Nada Bashir
Lockdown measures introduced by authorities across Europe to limit the spread of coronavirus have disproportionately impacted ethnic minority communities, a new study by Amnesty International has found.
According to a report released by the human rights organization Wednesday, minority communities across the continent have been “targeted with violence, discriminatory identity checks, forced quarantines and fines” by local authorities, in relation to new coronavirus-related legislation.
“This report highlights systemic human rights concerns regarding institutional racism, discrimination in law enforcement and lack of accountability regarding allegations of unlawful use of force by law enforcement officials,” Amnesty said.
“The implementation of the lockdown measures to combat the pandemic has laid bare existing structural inequalities and discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, race, migration and socio-economic status. In some cases, the enforcement of lockdown measures has led to further marginalization, stigmatization and violence,” the report added.
The study, which covers 12 countries across Europe, documents several cases in which law enforcement officials reportedly “resorted to the unlawful use of force” to implement lockdown legislation, often occurring in the context of police identity checks.
According to Amnesty’s findings, members of the Roma community living in informal settlements, and refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants living in camps, have experienced a “disproportionate and discriminatory” implementation of lockdown measures.
“Informal settlements and migrant camps in countries such as Bulgaria, France and Slovakia have been heavily policed, including the deployment of the army, and subject to mandatory testing. In several instances, Amnesty International obtained information about the unlawful use of force by law enforcement officials against the residents,” the report says.
“Instead of ensuring adequate access to water and sanitation and the alternative accommodation necessary to enable people to comply with recommended individual quarantine measures, the authorities in some countries have imposed mandatory quarantines on entire settlements,” Amnesty added.
