June 27 coronavirus news

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he’s pausing the state's planned move into phase four of reopening due to rising cases across the state and concerns about the continued spread of Covid-19, according to a statement released on Saturday.

The president of the European Council, Ursula Von Der Leyen, said on Saturday that the European Union will pledge 4.9 billion Euros ($6 billion) to help vulnerable countries “devastated” by the coronavirus pandemic.

During the summit "Global Goal – Unite for our Future," Von Der Leyen said the EU needs to “rebuild communities,” and pledged the money alongside a partnership with the European Commission and the European Investment Bank.

Von Der Leyen said the EU must "invest in producing vaccines at unprecedented speed and scale." Von Der Leyen added that she was a “firm believer” in vaccine multilateralism, saying that you cannot beat the virus by only “vaccinating your own people while neglecting others."

“We live in a very connected world,” she said.

Von Der Leyen also said she is trying to convince high income countries to reserve vaccines not only for themselves, but also for low and middle income countries, adding it is a “stress test for solidarity.”

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he is concerned about the rising percentage of coronavirus cases in the region.

Gimenez said they are seeing a spike in the 18-to-34 and 35-to-44 age groups.

Miami-Dade beaches are closing on the July 4 weekend as a pro-active measure to prevent "a spike on top of a spike" in positive coronavirus cases, the mayor said.

"Here in Miami-Dade we expected huge crowds to be at the beach, it would have been very hard for us to control our social distancing and having people abide by the rules," Gimenez said.

Statewide numbers: Florida health officials reported at least 9,585 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, according to the Florida Department of Health. This is the highest single-day increase the state has seen since the start of the pandemic.

Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, is calling for more protections and federal support for airline staff – including things like a mask mandate for passengers and personal protective equipment for attendants.

Nelson also said flight attendants need to be able to social distance when working.

"So if our workspace is within 6 feet of passengers' seats, those seats should be blocked out," she said.

On the issue of passengers wearing masks, she said flight attendants are the ones enforcing individual airline's policies without the backing of federal leadership. This makes it difficult, Nelson said.

"The federal government had led people to believe that this is a political issue rather than a public health issue. So we're dealing with conflicts there, just in enforcing this policy that keeps everyone safe," Nelson said.

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Health reported 855 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 30,619.

Six new deaths were also reported on Friday, bringing the Caribbean country’s death toll to 718, according to health authorities. 

The Dominican Republic’s Covid-19 death rate is currently 2.34% of the total number of confirmed cases, according to a health report published Saturday on the ministry��s Twitter account.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has reported a single day increase of 5,972 positive cases of coronavirus, with 60 deaths from Friday to Saturday, according to an update released Saturday morning.

The CDPH also reported that the Golden State’s rate of positive testing is trending modestly upward in the 14-day average.

The total number of Covid-19 infections may be six to 24 times greater than reported, according to a survey of blood samples in six areas across the country conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The survey looked for Covid-19 antibodies in blood samples from commercial laboratories – which were collected for reasons unrelated to Covid-19, between March 23 and May 3 – in Connecticut, South Florida, the New York City metro area, Missouri, Utah and western Washington State.

In Connecticut, the survey estimated that 5% of people had antibodies to Covid-19 between April 26 and May 3, which meant there were six times more cases than reported.

In the New York City metro area, that number was 7% of people around late March – 12 times higher than the number of cases reported then. And the survey estimates that 2.65% of Missourians had antibodies in late April. In that case, there were nearly 162,000 cases by April 26 in the state – 24 times higher than the 6,800 reported at the time.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield hinted at preliminary results on Thursday when he told reporters, "The estimates that we have right now … is that's about 10 times more people have antibody."

Redfield said that earlier testing efforts may have missed mild and asymptomatic cases, instead focusing on people who were ill in hospitals or nursing homes.

Moving forward: The seroprevalence survey is ongoing, and the CDC says it plans to test about 1,800 samples every three to four weeks from these areas, in addition to four additional states: California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. 

The agency says these samples may not be representative of the total populations in these areas, and the survey didn't look at risk factors among those sampled – such as a person's occupation or underlying health conditions.

The survey suggests that while the estimated number of infections may be much greater than official numbers, the vast majority of people have not been infected with the virus.

The jury is still out when it comes to what antibodies mean for immunity to this virus.

"Other studies are planned to learn more about SARS-COV-2 antibodies, including how long they last, whether or not they provide protection against getting infected again, and if you get infected again, whether or not they can make that illness milder," the agency said.

The CDC adjusted its estimates to account for false positive and false negative results, which may occur frequently in some areas, and cautions against interpreting results on an individual basis for this reason.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stressed that people should continue to social distance and wear masks in public until there is a vaccine for Covid-19. 

"Until we find a vaccine, these are really important," McConnell said Friday while holding up a blue mask, according to CNN affiliate WKYT. "This is not as complicated as a ventilator, and this is a way to indicate that you want to protect others."

Some context: The comments from McConnell, as well as other leading congressional Republicans, are in contrast to President Trump's refusal to wear a mask in public and his urge to move on from the pandemic even as cases surge.

McConnell made the comments while visiting a hospital in Morehead, Kentucky, to talk about the money provided to rural health care systems from the CARES Act, the massive coronavirus stimulus package that was enacted two months ago. 

In contrast to other nation's dealing with the pandemic, mask wearing in the US has taken on a political dimension –– in part because of Trump. 

Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said he thinks schools in the US won't operate normally until May or June of 2021.

"I'm hearing a lot of parents say, 'let's scrap the fall and we'll maybe start in the spring,'" Jha added. "January and February aren't going to be better. They're going to be the deep winter months and March will be pretty tough. I don't expect a widespread vaccine will be available, and widespread and readily available, by January or February."

Jha said he is concerned that if schools do open in the fall and send students back into classrooms, they will not be able to stay open.

This is a possible scenario for communities that have a high number of cases, he said, adding that he is worried schools across the country will be shut down for most of the fall, winter and spring.

"If we don't get our act together and get the virus under control we're going to have a whole year of online education for all of our children. It is going to have a lot of effects on kids and parents," he added.