Coronavirus: Florida surpasses 200,000 coronavirus cases

2020-07-05

Florida surpassed 200,000 coronavirus cases as the state reported another 10,059 new positives on Sunday.

The state has reported more than 10,000 new cases for a fourth straight day as the country sees another surge in the pandemic. Florida is among 11 states where numbers have spiked, at least doubling over the past two weeks.

On Saturday, Florida reported 11,458 new cases of the virus, which breaks its previous records and approaches New York’s highest daily tally of 11,571 from April.

Broadway actor Nick Cordero dies with coronavirus

Broadway actor Nick Cordero died Sunday after contracting the coronavirus and spending weeks in intensive care, his wife said.

“I am in disbelief and hurting everywhere,” his wife, Amanda Kloots, posted on Instagram. “My heart is broken as I cannot imagine our lives without him.”

Cordero, 41, went to an emergency room with symptoms of the virus on March 30 and was placed on a ventilator two days later.

He had no known pre-existing conditions, Kloots has said, but he developed an infection that caused two mini-strokes and septic shock. Doctors at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles also placed Cordero, a Tony-nominated actor, in a medically induced coma and amputated his right leg.

“As I sang the last line to him, ‘they’ll give you hell but don’t you light them kill your light not without a fight. Live your life,’ I smiled because he definitely put up a fight,” she said. “I will love you forever and always my sweet man.”

How Texans celebrated July Fourth during the coronavirus pandemic

If Memorial Day unofficially signals the start of summer in Texas, the Fourth of July confirms that it’s here for the long haul. For many Texans, both holidays are about getting outside — hitting the beaches, going to parks, barbecuing, swimming — and on Independence Day, taking in a fireworks show and maybe setting a few off themselves.

But this Fourth of July was like no other. COVID-19 is surging across the state, and not just in the cities. Memorial Day weekend is now widely seen as a turning point, when people flocked to newly reopened bars and other businesses after the state had seemed to escape the worst of the pandemic’s early weeks.

Just over a month later, Texas is setting new records for new cases and hospitalizations nearly every day as hospitals across the state signal that they’re straining or surpassing their capacity.

Seven-day average case total in the U.S. sets record for 27th straight day

Officials in states with surging coronavirus cases issued dire warnings and blamed outbreaks on early reopenings Sunday as the seven-day average for daily new cases in the United States reached a record high for the 27th straight day.

“We don’t have room to experiment, we don’t have room for incrementalism when we’re seeing these kinds of numbers,” said Judge Lina Hidalgo (D), the top elected official in Harris County, Tex., which encompasses the sprawling Houston metro area. “Nor should we wait for all the hospital beds to fill and all these people to die before we take drastic action.”

Phoenix Mayor Says FEMA Refused to Help With Testing

Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix said on Sunday that with cases and death counts soaring in Arizona, testing sites in her city and surrounding Maricopa County are overwhelmed, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has rebuffed her pleas for help.

She raised the issue on the ABC program “This Week,” saying that it “feels like they’re declaring victory while we’re in crisis mode.”

In an interview later in the day, Ms. Gallego, a Democrat, said she had been trying since April to get more testing resources for Phoenix, both from FEMA and from the private sector. But testing, she says, remains woefully inadequate, especially for those who lack health insurance.

“We are the largest city not to have received this type of investment,” Ms. Gallego said, noting that FEMA had set up testing sites in Houston, Los Angeles and elsewhere. “And you can see it in the increasing rate of positives.”

Australia Turn Lockdown On Again

The Australian state of Victoria has locked down nine public housing towers in Melbourne, its capital, telling about 3,000 residents that they must not leave their homes for any reason for at least five days.

The strict quarantine — which is the first of its kind in Australia during the pandemic and is being monitored by hundreds of police officers — started immediately on Saturday afternoon after 23 coronavirus infections were found in 12 of the towers’ households. Public health officials said everyone in the towers would be tested over the next few days.

“There is a lot of intermingling of the people between those towers for work, for family, for community events,” said Dr. Paul Kelly, Australia’s acting chief medical officer.

239 Experts Claim The Airborne of Coronavirus

The coronavirus is finding new victims worldwide, in bars and restaurants, offices, markets and casinos, giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby.

If airborne transmission is a significant factor in the pandemic, especially in crowded spaces with poor ventilation, the consequences for containment will be significant. Masks may be needed indoors, even in socially-distant settings. Health care workers may need N95 masks that filter out even the smallest respiratory droplets as they care for coronavirus patients.

Ventilation systems in schools, nursing homes, residences and businesses may need to minimize recirculating air and add powerful new filters. Ultraviolet lights may be needed to kill viral particles floating in tiny droplets indoors.

The World Health Organization has long held that the coronavirus is spread primarily by large respiratory droplets that, once expelled by infected people in coughs and sneezes, fall quickly to the floor.