July 13 coronavirus news

After revelers celebrated the Fourth of July at a Michigan lake, some started testing positive for Covid-19 -- prompting health officials to warn other party-goers that they might have been infected, too.

The Health Department of Northwest Michigan said other health officials in the state reported that several people have tested positive "after attending the festivities at the Torch Lake sandbar over the Fourth of July holiday," the department said Friday.

Those who tested positive weren't able to identify everyone they had contact with, "and therefore we want to make the public aware that those who attended could be at risk for exposure, and additional cases could be seen in the coming days," the health department said.

Before the pandemic put a stop to most international travel, each year millions of people flocked to Southeast Asia's white sandy beaches, ancient temples and diverse wildlife.

Last year, 133 million tourists visited the region, spurred by an increase in arrivals from China, which is now the world's largest market for outbound travel.

In some places the crowds became so intense it caused locals, environmentalists and even governments to complain that overtourism was pushing the region's fragile ecosystems to breaking point.

Coral die-offs, vanishing marine life, damaged cultural sites and idyllic islands overflowing with plastic and human waste were all blamed on too many tourists -- and the unchecked development set up to attract and accommodate them.

Then the global coronavirus pandemic struck. Countries went into lockdown. International travel dramatically reduced. And the tourists were largely gone.

For countries like Cambodia, where tourism contributes an estimated 30% of GDP, the effect has been devastating. Asia-Pacific is estimated to lose $34.6 billion due to the pandemic, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) said.

As travel restrictions lift, countries that rely heavily on tourism will be competing for visitors as they seek to rebuild their economies. The temptation to attract as many tourists as possible could be difficult to resist.

But experts say the global pause on tourism has offered countries an unprecedented opportunity to examine how to rebuild their tourism industries in a way that benefits their economies and also protects the planet.

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Japan recorded 411 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the country's health ministry said today.

In the capital Tokyo, 206 infections were reported on Sunday, the fourth straight day that cases have topped 200.

The western city of Osaka also reported an uptick in infections, with 32 cases.

This figure does not include the 62 cases detected on US military bases in Okinawa between July 7 to 12, which are all US personnel and their families, according to the Okinawa prefecture local government.

The total number of people infected by the virus in the country stands at 22,580, with 995 deaths.

As coronavirus cases surge in the United States, the White House is taking aim at the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

In a statement Saturday, a White House official told CNN that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." The official went on to provide a lengthy list of examples, citing Fauci's comments early in the pandemic and linking to past interviews.

These bullet points, which resembled opposition research on a political opponent, included Fauci downplaying the virus early on and a quote from March when Fauci said, "People should not be walking around with masks," among other comments.

The move by the White House comes as President Donald Trump and Fauci are not speaking. The tension between the two men has grown publicly as the two have responded to one another through interviews and statements.

In a recent series of newspaper and radio interviews, Fauci -- who has worked under six US presidents from both parties -- has at times openly disagreed with Trump.

Kathleen Sebelius, who served as secretary of Health and Human Services under former President Barack Obama, said efforts to discredit Fauci and other scientists are "potentially very, very dangerous" as the US and other countries work toward a coronavirus vaccine.

"I think people want to know from the scientists that the vaccine is safe, that it is effective, that it will not do more harm than good," she said.

Read the full story.

Hospitals in Miami Beach, Florida are reaching full capacity, the city's Mayor Dan Gelber said on Sunday.

“We’re going to have to start moving regular beds into ICU (intensive care unit) beds,” Gelber told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. “We’re clearly being strained at this point.”

Almost 1,900 Covid-19 patients in Miami Beach have been hospitalized and a further 400 are in intensive care, with 200 on ventilators, Gelber said.

Gelber added that he is frustrated by the response from the national government to combat the spread of the virus.

 On Sunday, Florida saw its highest single-day number of cases with more than 15,000 new infections and 7,500 hospitalized patients.

More than 3,000 healthcare workers have died from the coronavirus globally and governments must be held responsible for their deaths, rights group Amnesty International said today.

Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States topped the list of countries with the most healthcare worker deaths, the report “Global: Health workers silenced, exposed and attacked,” said.

Out of 79 countries examined, Amnesty found that:

“Countries yet to see the worst of the pandemic must not repeat the mistakes of governments whose failure to protect workers’ rights has had devastating consequences,” said Sanhita Ambast, Amnesty International’s Researcher and Advisor on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Threatened for speaking out: The report said that healthcare and essential workers have faced retaliation from authorities after being threatened with arrest, violence, a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and in some cases not being paid for their job.

Two female Russian doctors are facing retaliation after complaining about a lack of PPE, with one being charged under Russia’s fake news laws and being fined up to $1,443, and the second facing disciplinary proceedings that could result in her dismissal, Amnesty found.

Choosing "between death and jail": An unidentified Egyptian doctor told Amnesty that doctors who speak out against their conditions were faced with threats to their life and interrogations by the National Security Agency and penalties. 

Amnesty said the 3,000 deaths is likely to be underestimated due to under-reporting and differences in how countries count and collect data.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent a two-person advanced team to China to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.

"The experts will develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission. The mission objective is to advance the understanding of animal hosts for Covid-19 and ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans," said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout said this is what we know so far:

According to the WHO, these two individuals will try to get answers to two very critical questions: 

This comes at a time of fraught political tension between the US, China and the WHO:

More than 100 beach-goers in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro were fined over the weekend for not wearing masks, according to Rio's Municipal Guard.

The guards carried out health inspections Saturday and Sunday on beaches in Arpoador, Ipanema Park, Copacabana and Leme, resulting in fines for 135 people not wearing masks.

The mask mandate went into effect on May 21, and inspections began June 5. Since then, 1,377 fines have been issued for people violating the mask order, the city's municipal guard said. Those fined must pay 107 Brazilian reais ($22).

Rio state has the second highest number of cases in Brazil, just after Sao Paulo, with nearly 130,000 and 11,415 deaths. The city of Rio de Janeiro tallies more than 64,000 and 7,310 deaths.

India has recorded its highest 24-hour jump in Covid-19 cases yet, with 28,701 infections announced on Monday morning by India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The latest jump brings the total positive cases in the country to 878,254 -- the third highest in the world, after the United States and Brazil, the health ministry said.

In total India currently has 301,609 active cases; more than 550,000 people have recovered since testing positive.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 11.8 million tests have been conducted across the country.