June 30 coronavirus news

Individuals traveling to New York state from California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee will now be required to quarantine for two weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today, expanding the list of states that meet Covid-19 metrics that qualify for the travel advisory.

"We've set metrics for community spread just as we've set metrics for everything the state does to fight Covid-19 and eight more states have reached the level of spread required to qualify for New York's travel advisory, meaning we will now require individuals traveling to New York from those states to quarantine for 14 days," he said.

Travelers from the following 16 states will be required to quarantine, according to the governor’s office:

The governors for New Jersey and Connecticut also announced that they are asking individuals traveling from 16 states significantly impacted by community spread of Covid-19 to quarantine for 14 days upon entry to the state.

The advisory applies to travel from states that have positive Covid-19 test rates higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or have a 10% or higher positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's office said.

More context: Last week, New York announced a joint travel advisory with Connecticut and New Jersey mandating that travelers from states where Covid-19 is surging quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in any of the three states.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy indicated it is unlikely Republicans will agree to extending unemployment benefits that were included in coronavirus stimulus legislation earlier this year. 

The $600 benefit is set to expire in July.

He also suggested that the payments are “becoming a hardship for individuals to be able to go back to work.”

“I think the greatest incentive here is, let’s help people get back to work in a safe manner,” he said.

In a briefing with reporters today, TSA Administrator David Pekoske said the agency is taking a number of steps to protect travelers and employees and maintain social distancing, including opening more screening lanes at airports. 

He said the agency is opening the lanes to limit exposure, with the hope of keeping wait times to nine minutes or less. 

TSA is also asking passengers to self-scan their boarding pass on new machines it is using at some locations.

Officers now use face shields when they are doing passenger pat-downs, Pekoske said. He also said they are cleaning bins more often and changing gloves more often. 

“We will continue to evaluate more safety measures,” Pekoske said. 

There were 13 coronavirus-related deaths across New York State Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted today.

About 1% — 524 of 52,025 — individuals who tested for coronavirus Monday tested positive, he posted, adding that there were 891 coronavirus-related hospitalizations across the state.

Read his tweet:

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency use authorization to the company Beckman Coulter for its Covid-19 antibody test.

Beckman Coulter announced the authorization on Monday and noted that it has already shipped tests to more than 400 hospitals, clinics and diagnostics labs in the United States, as well as begun distributing the test globally. The company claims it is able to deliver more than 30 million tests a month.

"At a time when significant confusion was created by the initial influx of poor-quality antibody tests, our team worked meticulously to develop a highly sensitive and specific assay," Julie Sawyer Montgomery, president of Beckman Coulter, said in the company's announcement. 

Some context: As of Monday, the FDA has authorized 24 antibody tests for emergency use in the United States, according to the agency. The tests are an important public health tool to determine who has had Covid-19 in the past. They look for antibodies that are evidence of an immune response to coronavirus infection.

Before making his opening statement in Tuesday's hearing on the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander reiterated his support for wearing masks and his view that President Trump should wear one to eliminate the political stigma around doing so.

Alexander lamented the politicization of face coverings, saying the growing divide is why he has suggested that the President "occasionally wear a mask, even though in most cases it's not necessary for him to do so."

More on this: On Sunday, Alexander told CNN's Manu Raju on "Inside Politics" that he thinks it would "help" if President Trump wore a mask.

As he made these remarks, Alexander told the committee that he was not wearing a mask because he was at least six feet apart from others in the room, as is permitted in the Office of Attending Physician's guidance.

The European Union published its list of countries to start lifting travel restrictions. The US is not on that list.

“Council agrees to start lifting travel restrictions for residents of some third countries," a readout says.

Based on the criteria and conditions set out, starting tomorrow, member states should start lifting the travel restrictions at the external borders for residents of the following third countries:

China is also on the list, but subject to confirmation of reciprocity.

According to the readout, regarding the epidemiological situation, the countries on the list should meet the following criteria:

The European Union said this list of countries allowed to enter the EU should be reviewed every two weeks and may be updated.

US stocks opened lower on Tuesday, taking back some of the prior session’s big gains.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite had their best day in nearly two weeks Monday, while the Dow recorded its best session since June 5.

Rising Covid-19 infections and setbacks to reopening schedules are weighing on market sentiment with no positive news there to outweigh the negative.

Here's how the market opened:

Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno announced additional controls for the country’s capital Quito due to the coronavirus pandemic, while he again implored the populaiton to follow the government’s health safety guidance, social distancing and hygiene rules.

In a speech via social media on Monday evening, Moreno announced more controls will be established across four areas in Quito: the capital’s historical centre, Panecillo, Chilibulo, and La Ecuatoriana neighborhoods, in order to reduce the movement of people. 

The president also announced stronger controls on informal street vendors in the city, as well as improving the capacity of the health services.

Moreno told Ecuadoreans that after more than 3 months of fighting the pandemic, no measure is enough if each citizen does not take individual responsibility in fighting the pandemic.

The president also said that during the first 15 days of June, a total of 1,200 social parties were stopped by the National Police, while 106,000 citizens were fined for breaching curfew.

Moreno implored Ecuador’s citizens to keep wearing face masks, keep social distance and wash their hands at all times. “We can’t assign a policeman for each citizen”, he said.

On Monday, Ecuador’s Health Ministry reported a total of 55,255 Covid-19 cases, while the death toll stands at 4,429.