June 29 coronavirus news

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo extended several executive orders until August 3. She announced the decision today because she will not have a news conference on July 4 when these orders are set to expire.

Here's what will remain in effect:

Some context: Earlier today, Raimondo imposed a mandatory 14-day quarantine starting Tuesday for people coming from a state with a 5% or greater positivity rate.

The quarantine rule currently applies to 23 states as of Monday, and Rhode Island will keep a list of states impacted by the rule updated weekly based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University, Raimondo said.

About 3,000 people have signed up for coronavirus testing under a statewide program aimed at identifying people who have no symptoms, the New Hampshire governor’s office said Monday.

The Asymptomatic Spread Assessment Program (ASAP) is open to all residents of the state.

The testing program is “a community challenge meant to help the state identify asymptomatic carriers of Covid-19 by challenging residents to go out and get a test even if they don’t think they have Covid-19,” Ben Vihstadt, a spokesperson for Gov. Chris Sununu, told CNN by email.

Sununu announced the program with a tweet on June 5 and followed up with details about his own testing experience on the social media outlet on June 7. “I have no symptoms, but it only took 10 minutes to book an appointment online and 2 minutes to take the test from my car. Easy. Painless. Done,” he tweeted

Anyone in New Hampshire can get a test by going to the state’s online portal and requesting one under the ASAP program, Vihstadt said.

The program was put in place to “help identify the extent of asymptomatic spread throughout the state, and to identify asymptomatic carriers before they become unknowing spreaders.”

Vihstadt said so far roughly 3,000 appointments for testing have been made through the program. 

Testing programs that look for asymptomatic spreaders of Covid-19, such as ASAP, are important tools when it comes to trying to control the pandemic, said Gigi Gronvall, associate professor and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Washington Nationals infielder Ryan Zimmerman and pitcher Joe Ross have announced they will not play in the 2020 Major League Baseball season due to health concerns amid the coronavirus outbreak, the team confirmed. 

In a statement released by the Nationals on Monday, Mike Rizzo, the team’s General Manager, announced the decision saying, “Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross have decided not to participate in the 2020 season for the personal health and safety of themselves and their loved ones. We are one hundred percent supportive of their decision to not play this year. We will miss their presence in the clubhouse and their contributions on the field.”

Zimmerman clarified his reasoning, saying it was family related and he feels like playing would put those love ones at risk. 

Players and staff will report to their respective teams starting Wednesday.

Clubs can begin full workouts starting Friday, with Opening Day games on either July 23 or 24.

Read the statements:

More than 2,500 inmates in California prisons are infected with coronavirus today and more of a third of those are at San Quentin alone, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced.

Approximately 42% of San Quentin’s population is considered particularly vulnerable to the virus, and already approximately 1,011 inmates have tested positive. The total inmate population at San Quentin is 3,507, according to data from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

With a total of at least 2,589 active cases, changes are being made to the way inmates are transferred between facilities, the state said.

India will begin to implement looser restrictions in its second phase of reopening, India’s Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Monday, a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address to the nation.

The latest numbers: It comes as India reported its biggest one-day jump in new coronavirus cases for the eighth consecutive day, after a record 19,459 new cases were reported on Monday, according to the country's health ministry.

India has now seen a total of more than 100,000 new infections just in the past six days. The total number of coronavirus infections in India is now at approximately 548,318, with at least 16,475 deaths.

Here's what will happen under the new guidelines:

The changes go into effect on July 1, but strict enforcement will continue in all containment zones. Government training institutions will be allowed to function starting July 15.

Persons above 65 years, people with co-morbidities, pregnant women and children below the age of 10 are advised to stay at home, except for meeting essential requirements and for health purposes.

Getting the flu vaccine is more important this year than it ever has been before, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People want to avoid getting flu anyway, during normal times, Schuchat said. Averting flu during the Covid-19 pandemic could prevent people from having to get tested for other respiratory illnesses.

“The kind of person that should be tested for Covid probably should be tested for flu, and they can have both at the same time,” she said. Data from China has suggested that people can have both viruses at the same time, Schuchat said.

CDC has developed a test that looks for both flu strains and Covid-19 at the same time. It’s being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization.

“We’ve also updated guidance about how to get vaccine out in this era,” Schuchat said. “You don’t really want a big, mass crowd of people,” she added. There is also guidance on how to distance while you’re getting a flu vaccine.

Two reports published Monday show that a pediatric inflammatory syndrome linked to Covid-19 can cause serious symptoms in children and can sometimes be deadly. 

They show that 80% of patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) were treated in intensive care. Most recovered but four children died and more than a quarter of the children in one study were still hospitalized as of May 20. 

In one report, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed 186 cases from 26 states between March 15 and May 20. Patients were hospitalized for a median of seven days; 20% required ventilation to help them breathe, and 2% — or four patients — died. The median age of patients was 8 years old; just 7% of patients were under a year old, most of the rest were between a year old and 14, and 16% were ages 15 to 20. 

Most of the children — 70% — tested positive for the infection by a test called PCR that finds direct evidence of the virus, or antibody testing, which finds evidence of past infection. The rest had been exposed to people with the virus in the past month, the researchers said.

The CDC team said the timing of the illnesses suggests “a substantial proportion of the patients in this series were infected ... at least one to two weeks before the onset of MIS-C.”

Overall, 19% were White, 25% were Black, 31% were Hispanic or Latino, and the ethnicity of 22% was unknown.

A second report by the New York State Department of Health looked at 99 children with suspected or confirmed MIS-C hospitalized between March 1 and May 10. In this study, median hospital stay was six days, and just over half the patients had evidence of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle.

Both reports, published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine, described how a majority of children with MIS-C experienced symptoms including fever and chills, elevated heart rate, gastrointestinal problems and rash. 

On May 14, the CDC issued a health advisory to doctors across the country, providing an official definition of the syndrome — called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) — and telling physicians to be on the lookout. 

The agency describes MIS-C as “a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.” While it is still not known precisely what causes the syndrome, most children get better with medical care, the agency adds.

Rhode Island will impose a mandatory 14-day quarantine starting Tuesday for people coming from a state with a 5% or greater positivity rate, Gov. Gina Raimondo announced on Monday. 

If a traveler can attest to having a negative Covid-19 test within the past 72 hours, then a quarantine will not be required, she added. That would be done on an “honor system.” 

She said the state will enforce the rule through widespread signage and working closely with the local tourism industry to make sure individuals are made aware of the rule.  

The state will not be stopping people with out-of-state license plates to enforce the rule. It is not clear what the penalties will be for violating the quarantine.

The quarantine rule currently applies to 23 states as of Monday, and Rhode Island will keep a list of states impacted by the rule updated weekly based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University, Raimondo said.

Professional golfer Harris English has tested positive for coronavirus. English becomes the fifth PGA TOUR player to test positive for Covid-19 since the tour's return to tournament play in mid-June.

English did not compete in last week's Travelers Championship but was set to play in this week's Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit, Michigan. English has withdrawn from the event but says he feels healthy.

 “While it’s disappointing to receive this news, as I feel healthy, I’m pleased that the new safety protocols we have in place worked this week," English said in a statement provided by the PGA Tour.

He continued: "I fully supported the TOUR’s new rule of not allowing anyone on the tournament grounds until testing negative, as protecting others in the field and everyone affiliated with the tournament and the community should be the No. 1 priority as a result of a positive test. I appreciate the TOUR’s support and I look forward to competing again after I’m fully recovered.”

Some context: On Sunday, it was announced that Dylan Frittelli had become the fourth PGA tour golfer to test positive for coronavirus. Previously, Nick Watney, Cameron Champ and Denny McCarthy had tested positive for Covid-19.