Florida breaks single-day fatality record
Florida has reported 276 deaths relating to the coronavirus on Tuesday, which breaks the record for deadliest single-day report in the state. Miami-Dade county and Broward County both reported 35 of these new deaths. The Miami Herald notes that it does not necessarily mean that all 276 of those residents died in the past 24 hours. The state does not provide an exact day the death occurred, and it could be from several days earlier and just now being reported. Florida's Department of Health also confirmed 5,831 new cases, which brings the state's total reported cases to over 542,000. In total, 8,553 Floridians have died from the coronavirus.
Life in Wuhan, China, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, is slowly returning to normal. The city, home to 11 million people, ended a 76-day lockdown in April, one of the strictest to be enforced through the duration of the pandemic. Even after the lockdown ended, the city had to deal with rounds of severe flooding. Gridlocked traffic, long lines for food and large crowds at electronic music concerts are some of the ways the city seems normal again. However, some businesses have been slow to recover, AFP reports. "In the first half of the year, we only opened some projects that had been decided before the outbreak," Hu Zeyu, an employee at a real estate company, told AFP. "Business volume has been greatly reduced." Other residents are enjoying the resumption of daily activities, despite fears virus cases could increase again. "Now I enjoy every day as if it were the last," Wuhan resident Hu Fenglian told AFP. "I don't want to worry too much." Watch the video below for more.
Pennsylvania state officials have warned that many state parks and recreation areas are seeing "significant overcrowding" on weekends despite the pandemic. An overcrowding alert was put into place by the Department of Conservation and Nationals Resources, saying that some parks are turning people away and closing overflow parking, according to The Associated Press. Most overcrowding has been occurring in Beltzville State Park in eastern Pennsylvania. State forests have also reported reaching capacity as more visitors are being turned away. Pennsylvania has 121 state parks that span a total of 2.2 million acres of forestland, which officials say is plenty to explore less crowded options.
The World Health Organization emphasized the need for dental patients and staff to be protected from aerosol-generating procedures, according to Reuters. Many dentists are beginning to resume operations worldwide in areas where there are lower numbers of cases. The WHO called for more research into dental procedures that can produce tiny particles that could result in transmission of the virus from one person to another, Reuters said. This includes teeth polishing, three-way air/water spray and ultrasonic cleaning equipment that removes deposits from the surface of a tooth, Reuters said.
“WHO guidance recommends in case of community transmission to give priority to urgent or emergency oral cases, to avoid or minimize procedures that may generate aerosol, prioritize a set of clinical interventions that are performed using an instrument and of course to delay routine non-essential oral health care,” said Benoit Varenne, a WHO dental officer, according to Reuters.
Growing tensions about mask wearing turned violent in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, after a man punched a 17-year-old theme park employee after being reminded to wear a mask. Police reported the incident took place on Sunday when the teenage employee told an unidentified man and woman that wearing a mask was required when inside Sesame Place theme park, according to NBC Philadelphia. The man then confronted the worker at a ride and punched him in the face, before fleeing from the scene after park security approached them. The 17-year-old suffered a damaged tooth and a jaw injury. The suspect was last seen driving a vehicle with New York registration. Sesame Place is located about 30 minutes north of Philadelphia.
Since restarting their respective seasons in bubble environments, it's been so far so good for the NBA and NHL. Now, Major League Baseball, which has encountered numerous COVID-19 issues since beginning play in late July, may be looking to incorporate a bubble environment for its postseason. According to ESPN, with the league expanding its postseason to include 16 teams this year, MLB officials say at least three separate hubs will be needed to conduct its playoffs. Southern California, Chicago and New York City are being floated as possible sites because those markets each have multiple MLB stadiums. However, Southern California, with stadiums in Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Diego, could end up hosting the entire postseason due to weather concerns elsewhere, ESPN reported.
One month after reopening, Disney World has announced that it will be modifying its schedule starting on Sept. 8 due to smaller-than-expected crowds. Although the hours of operations for the park were already reduced since its July 9 reopening, Disney plans to further reduce them by one or two hours per day, depending on the park. The announcement comes after Disney reported unexpectedly low park attendance and “adversely impacted” earnings, according to The Washington Post. The schedule posted on Disney World’s website shows that parks will have delayed opening times on the weekends. Additionally, Epcot and Animal Kingdom’s hours of operation will be cut by two hours, while Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios will both be losing one hour per day.
New Zealand reported its first new cases of COVID-19 in over 100 days on Tuesday. According to the South China Morning Post, Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern said that four cases were confirmed in an Auckland household, but it's unknown how the people contracted the virus as the family didn't have a history of international travel. Auckland will now be placed under a nearly full lockdown and the city, the country's largest, will move to an Alert Level 3 starting midday Wednesday until midnight Friday. This means people will be ordered to stay at home unless to go out for essential movement such as grocery shopping or exercise. The country's COVID alert system consists of four tiers, with Alert Level 3 being the second-most restrictive. The rest of New Zealand will increase to Alert Level 2 “These three days will give us time to assess the situation, gather information, make sure we have widespread contact tracing so we can find out more about how this case arose and make decisions about how to respond to it,” Ardern said. Watch a video in the tweet below for more.
A medical worker performs a COVID-19 test at a test center at Vnukovo airport outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, Aug. 7, 2020. Authorities in Russia say they are about to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, with mass vaccinations planned as early as October 2020, using shots that are yet to complete clinical trials. But scientists worldwide are sounding the alarm that the headlong rush could backfire and point to ethical issues that undermine confidence in the Russian studies. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
On Tuesday, Russia became the first country to declare a coronavirus vaccine ready for use, despite international skepticism. President Vladimir Putin said that the vaccine underwent the necessary testing stages, and even added that his own daughter had been vaccinated. “I know it has proven efficient and forms a stable immunity, and I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,” Putin said, according to The Associated Press. “We must be grateful to those who made that first step very important for our country and the entire world.” Despite Putin’s claims, scientists have expressed concern, as the vaccine was approved before Phase 3 trials. “I wouldn't take it, certainly not outside a clinical trial right now," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, told CNBC’s Squawk Box."It appears that it’s only been tested in several hundred patients at most.” Hear from Gottlieb in the video below.
Almost four out of five chief executives predict that working from home will become more common as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a global survey published by PwC on Tuesday, which took into account the responses of 3,500 of the accounting company’s clients, 78% of the CEOs surveyed expected remote working to endure to some extent, even after the pandemic is over. “A blend of office and home working is most likely to be the future norm,” PwC UK’s chairman Kevin Ellis said, according to Reuters. Additionally, two-thirds of the CEOs also expected an economic recession as a result of the pandemic.
Week over week, the United States saw a 16% decrease in COVID-19 fatalities for the week ending on Aug. 9, according to journalists at Reuters, who crunched the numbers. About 7,200 deaths were reported last week, the first time the U.S. has seen a decrease in four weeks. Still, the number of new cases reported across the country -- 376,000 -- remained high. As for the decline in fatalities, Reuters reported that a sharp drop in deaths in some of the worst COVID-19 hotspots this summer is what helped move the needle.
Here are the latest global COVID-19 numbers, provided by researchers at Johns Hopkins:
Confirmed cases: 20,092,855
Fatalities: 736,254
Recoveries: 12,350,879
Almost exactly five months after the World Health Organization deemed COVID-19 a pandemic, the total number of confirmed cases from the coronavirus topped 20 million. The United States, Brazil and India lead the way with more than 10 million reported cases between the three countries alone.
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