June 30 coronavirus news

Massachusetts reported no new deaths from Covid-19 on Tuesday, the first time in months that officials reported no new deaths in a daily update.

Once an epicenter for coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Massachusetts has lost at least 8,054 residents to the pandemic. That number itself was down by one since yesterday, a decrease the Massachusetts Department of Health attributed to "ongoing data cleaning which identifies and removes duplicate reports," according to the data released Tuesday evening. 

Hospitalizations from Covid-19 have been dropping across the state in recent weeks, as well. As of Tuesday, 733 Massachusetts residents are currently hospitalized with the disease. 

The state reported their first death related to the coronavirus on March 20, according to data from the Massachusetts Department of Health.

Any new coronavirus vaccine will have to work at least 50% better than a placebo in preventing infection or serious disease in people, the US Food and Drug Administration said in new guidance released Tuesday to vaccine makers.

New vaccines should also be at least as safe as other vaccines against infectious diseases, and testing should include three to four weeks’ follow-up in volunteers to make sure there are no adverse events, the FDA said. 

While that’s not considered desirable for a vaccine, it’s within the range of current influenza vaccines, for instance. In some years flu vaccines can have 40% efficacy or even less in preventing infection. That compares to measles vaccines, which have about 97% efficacy after two doses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA also says that vaccine makers should specifically ask about adverse events in volunteers for at least seven days after they get the vaccine, and then wait for any unsolicited reports of side-effects for 21 to 28 days after each vaccination. And any study should include watching for serious events requiring a medical intervention for at least six months after the last vaccination.

“All pregnancies in study participants for which the date of conception is prior to vaccination or within 30 days after vaccination should be followed for pregnancy outcomes, including pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and congenital anomalies,” the FDA adds in its guidance.

But it doesn’t say pregnant women should be excluded.

And companies making vaccines using new and untested designs will have to test in animals first, the FDA said.

The guidelines also consider reports that show Blacks and Hispanics are especially hard hit by the virus.

“FDA strongly encourages the enrollment of populations most affected by COVID-19, specifically racial and ethnic minorities,” the guidelines say.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he will be signing an order today closing restaurants in the county nightly at midnight.

"We've seen some restaurants taking advantage of that order and basically turning themselves into nightclubs after 12 o'clock," Gimenez told CNN’s Jim Acosta.

"They are converting themselves into nightclubs after 12 o'clock and we have seen a sharp rise in the number of young people," he added.

Gimenez said that not complying with the order is a misdemeanor and violators can be fined and spend up to 180 days in jail.

Official conducted 7,000 inspections on businesses today to "make sure they were complying," he said.

"The vast majority are complying but again we think it's more of a problem with young people, they're not complying," Gimenez said.

More than 40% of people infected with coronavirus in a small village in northern Italy had no symptoms during a coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, an international team of researchers reported Tuesday.

Yet the people without symptoms had virtually the same viral load – that’s the amount of virus in their systems – as people who did have symptoms, the researchers wrote in a pre-print, non-peer reviewed report published in the journal Nature.

The team tested most of the residents of Vo after an outbreak forced a two-week lockdown of the village in February.

They found 42.5% of people with confirmed Covid-19 infections were asymptomatic, meaning they “did not have symptoms at the time of the swab testing and did not develop symptoms afterward,” researchers Enrico Lavezzo and Elisa Franchin of the University of Padova in Italy and colleagues across Europe wrote. “On the first survey, which was conducted around the time the town lockdown started, we found a prevalence of infection of 2.6%, they wrote. “On the second survey, which was conducted at the end of the lockdown, we found a prevalence of 1.2%.”

This is the first definitive assessment of the rate of asymptomatic infection in Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, Lavezzo and Franchin’s team said.

“This figure is of enormous value as it informs estimates and decisions regarding the further dealing with the epidemic in many countries,” they wrote. 

Brazil's health ministry reported 1,280 new Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, nearly doubling the previous day's count.  

The country's death toll stands at 59,594 as Rio de Janeiro state alone surpassed 10,000 total deaths from the virus Tuesday, according to Rio's state health secretary.

The national health ministry also recorded another 33,846 new cases Tuesday, bringing the country's total to at least 1,402,041.

This comes after a new survey published Tuesday showed that fewer Brazilians are sheltering at home, although showing they are increasingly afraid of contracting the virus. 

At the end of June, 47% of Brazilians were "very afraid" of contracting the novel coronavirus, up from 36% in mid-March when several states ordered all but essential businesses to close, according to the Datafolha polling firm.

Nonetheless, fewer Brazilians reported staying at home. Those who reported remaining totally isolated fell to 12% from 18% and those who said they were taking precautions but still leaving home to work and perform other activities was up to 34% from 24%.

Vermont will allow people from low-risk counties in other states to visit effective July 1, according to the Vermont Health Department.

The additional states include: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia, the health department announced in a statement.

New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were previously included.

Vermont defines low risk as any county with less than 400 active cases of Covid-19 per one million residents, basing their data off Johns Hopkins University.

If not exempt by the low risk guidelines above, Vermont allows individuals outside of New England and New York to quarantine in their home state for 14 days, or seven days followed by a negative test.

Vermont also “strongly encourages” out-of-state travelers to register with Sara Alert when they arrive in state to get two weeks of reminders to check for Covid-19 symptoms.

Texas reported 6,975 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

This is the state's highest daily number of cases, bringing the total to at least 159,986 cases. At least 2,424 people have died from the virus in the state.

The reporting comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered for bars to close following the rise in cases. He also paused more reopenings for the state.

WATCH:

Toronto City Council voted unanimously in favor of requiring face masks in all indoor public places starting July 7 to help stop the spread of Covid-19, according to a statement from the city. 

Businesses must adopt a policy to ensure masks or face coverings are worn in indoor public spaces under their control.

It will apply to all indoor spaces that are openly accessible to the public, including retail stores, grocery stores, restaurants, bars, gyms, swimming pools, churches, and common areas in hotels, motels and short-term rentals, among others.

The mandate will expire the day of Toronto’s first council meeting after their summer recess, currently scheduled for September 30, unless extended by council.

Toronto’s medical officer of health will review the recommendations regarding masks and face coverings on a monthly basis and report if any changes are needed before that date, according to the statement.

Bars and nightclubs that do not serve food must close during the month of July, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced at a briefing Tuesday.

Keeping them open is “too big a risk,” he said. They will be closed for in-person service only, and will be allowed to sell alcohol as a take-out option.

The move comes amid an uptick of Covid-19 cases in many states across the nation, including Colorado.  

It’s possible that areas of Colorado that have improvement will be able to reopen bars at nightclubs at some point during July, he said.  

Bars that now serve food and function as restaurants can stay open provided there is social distancing and people remain six feet apart. Customers must also be seated with their own party.