July 23 coronavirus news

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announced that the Florida city will increase its penalties for people not adhering to its mask mandate, raising the amount from $50 to $100 for first and second offenses. Violators could face arrest for third offenses. 

Suarez said that 39 officers this week will be dedicated solely to mask enforcement.

“We want to make sure that we're able to continue these gains so that we don't have to take more dramatic measures,” he said. 

Suarez said the situation in Miami has improved, so he isn't planning on implementing a stay-at-home order.

“Just a few days ago, we were at 60 new cases per day. …We're down to 20 new cases a day, which means that the remediation efforts that we've taken, including the mask-in-public rule, are working,” Suarez said.

“We're being patient and letting those remediation efforts take full effect before making any decisions,” he added. 

Suarez said that delays in testing are leading to further coronavirus spread, particularly in large households, contradicting the President, who called testing “overrated.”

Watch:

It's Thursday morning in the US, where the number of total cases since the start of the pandemic is nearing 4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally.

If you're just reading in, here are the latest updates from around the country:

Hear more:

Americans have long had a love affair with Italy. This summer, that relationship is on hiatus, and Italy is feeling the heartache.

According to the Italian government's statistics bureau, 6 million US travelers choose Italy for their vacation each year. Lured by timeless dolce vita, dramatic coastal beach settings, food and wine, history and so much more, US travelers will largely have to do without this year.

As Europe transitions out of the emergency phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, border closures remain in place with only a handful of non-EU nations added to a "safe" list for essential travel only.

Italy hasn't adopted the EU's recommended list of safe countries, and the US -- deemed a high risk because of a surge in coronavirus cases -- wasn't even on the list to begin with.

Read more here.

In Florida, 53 hospitals have reached ICU capacity and have no beds available for the second day in a row, according to data released by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). 

Eight of the hospitals at capacity are in Miami-Dade County, AHCA data shows.

Another 44 hospitals have 10% or less ICU capacity available.

More than 5,000 people have died because of the virus in Florida.

Despite the crisis, the state's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has announced that all public schools will reopen by August. DeSantis has also resisted calls to consider a mask mandate.

With the US economy wavering as coronavirus cases spiral out of control, millions of renters across the country who are already behind on payments are increasingly concerned about the threat of evictions as the new rent month approaches.

Jose Palma, a construction worker in Richmond, California, is one of them. The 40-year-old father of two just started getting regular hours after months out of work and owes four months of back rent on a three-bedroom unit on top of his August rent -- a bill of about $8,000, he says.

"There isn't a solution right now," said Palma. "I owe rent. I have to put food on the table for my kids. It's stressful and all very hard."

Housing instability has been a looming crisis in the US against the backdrop of the pandemic as the economic fallout coupled with the absence of a broad federal response has left renters vulnerable. And this week, more than 25 million people will lose the extra $600 weekly federal unemployment benefits boost, cutting out a crucial lifeline many renters have depended on to make ends meet.

Read more here.

Canadian resident David Edward-Ooi Poon was in Ireland with his girlfriend Alexandria Aquino when pandemic travel restrictions were first announced in March.

Aquino was unable to get into Canada in early April, in spite of what Poon insists was overwhelming support in favor of their case as a couple -- shared bills, a mortgage on a condo containing Poon and Aquino's names, and a common law relationship according to Canada's definition.

Aquino arrived in Canada only to be forced to turn around and head back to Ireland.

They have been apart ever since.

The couple are part of a growing group of people around the world demanding that travel exemptions be made for them as the pandemic continues.

The group's message is often delivered with the tag lines: "love is essential" and "love is not tourism." They are an impressive, growing group on social media, committed to being heard and ultimately allowed to travel to be together again.

Separated, binational couples -- some married, many not -- are fighting for their right to travel. They're fighting for love.

Read the full story here.

Hong Kong recorded 118 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday, all of which except seven cases were locally transmitted, according to a daily health briefing.

Among the 111 local cases, around half are untraceable. An additional death was also recorded Thursday afternoon, bringing Hong Kong’s Covid-19 death toll to 15.

Many of the local infections are related to family and workplace transmissions, including several restaurant outbreaks.

Officials in the city have struggled to contain the city's third wave.

Dr. Chui Tak-yi, the under secretary of food and health, said the government was still closely monitoring the situation to see whether it needed to tighten the social distancing measures, which include restrictions for restaurants.

"The epidemic situation in Hong Kong remains severe. From July 16-22, there were 543 confirmed cases, of which 481 are locally transmitted. Compared to last week, 256 cases were recorded from July 9-15, of which 207 were locally transmitted. The epidemic trend is still increasing," he said. 

"We have to still be very cautious about potential further increase in the outbreak," he added.

France will distribute 40 million face masks to the country's poorest citizens, Health Minister Olivier Véran told television station France 2 on Wednesday.

The free and reusable masks will be sent to “7 million French people on the threshold of poverty,” Véran said. 

Those receiving state financial aid to help pay for medical expenses will get the masks, Véran added, noting that the face coverings are washable and can be worn up to 30 times.

They will be posted directly to those who qualify for them, he said.

Mask-wearing was made compulsory in all indoor public spaces in France on Monday. French police officers have the power to fine citizens €135 ($156) for not abiding by the rules.

President Donald Trump's new political self-preservation effort to show he has a grip on a pandemic that is killing hundreds of Americans every day is being exposed by his refusal to share the stage with scientific experts -- or the facts.

On a day that laid bare his refashioned campaign strategy, Trump hammered out a tough law-and-order push, escalated a Cold War with China and tried to show he is managing the fight against Covid-19 after weeks of neglect.

The President has been flailing for days, as a vicious surge in infections races across the sunbelt, caused in part by governors who heeded his calls to open states before the pathogen was suppressed.

With one poll showing him down 20 points to Democratic presumptive nominee Joe Biden on who can best handle the situation, Trump has taken the rare step of performing a partial reversal -- on the wearing of masks -- though he is still reluctant to model one in public. He also decided that outright denial of the worst public health crisis in 100 years was not working and has returned to the White House briefing room to spin the disaster as best he can.

Read the full article here.