COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11.
More than 6.1 million cases of the virus have been confirmed worldwide, and more than 372,000 people have died from it, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Efforts to curb the outbreak have led to the global disruption of daily life and the economy, as schools and workplaces shutter in hopes of slowing transmission.
HuffPost reporters around the world are tracking the pandemic and the measures being taken to flatten the curve of transmission.
Read the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic below. (To see the latest updates, you may need to refresh the page. All times are Eastern. For earlier updates on the pandemic, go here.)
Trump Threatens To Move Republican Convention If He Can’t Have Rally Despite Coronavirus Concerns — 6/3/20, 11:11 a.m. ET
President Donald Trump may move a planned speech for the 2020 Republican National Convention in North Carolina to a new state because coronavirus rules implemented by the state would mean Trump wouldn’t get to host a large rally.
“The night the president accepts the nomination will not happen in Charlotte,” an RNC official told CNN Wednesday.
The possible change-up has to do with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s refusal to pre-authorize a gathering of more than 19,000 people. Trump said last week that he was “forced” to find a new state to give his speech, one that presumably would allow him to host a large rally despite concerns about the deadly pandemic.
— Sebastian Murdock
Experts Worry Protests Against Police Could Lead To More Cases Of Coronavirus — 6/3/20, 11:00 a.m. ET
Health experts are cautioning that protests against police brutality sweeping the United States could lead to more cases of coronavirus.
“I don’t think there’s a question of whether there will be spikes in cases in 10 to 14 days,” Mark Shrime, a public health researcher at Harvard University, told The Atlantic.
At least 75 cities have seen protests demanding justice for George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by Minneapolis police. One officer is in custody and has been charged with third-degree murder.
“All things considered, there’s little doubt that these protests will translate into increased risk of transmission for COVID-19,” Maimuna Majumder, a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, also told The Atlantic.
— Sebastian Murdock
Number Of U.S. Cases Approaching 2 Million — 6/3/20, 10:45 a.m. ET
More than 1.8 million people have now been infected with the coronavirus in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The nation’s death toll also continues to tick upward, now at more than 105,000 deaths.
The U.S. has the highest number of cases worldwide, in part because of states reopening prematurely and a White House administration that has continued to downplay the threat.
— Sebastian Murdock
Hurricane Season Brings New Challenges, Guidelines Due To Pandemic — 6/1/20, 11:16 a.m. ET
People are being asked to prepare for the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which started Monday, in new ways because of the coronavirus outbreak.
In addition to stocking up on essential supplies ― now including face masks, hand sanitizer and soap ― authorities ask that people make a plan and register for weather and safety alerts.
Learn more here about what to expect over these next six months, including where people should go if forced to evacuate while sick.
― Nina Golgowski
Fauci Says Meetings With Trump On Coronavirus Have ‘Dramatically Decreased’ — 6/1/20, 11:05 a.m. ET
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading infectious disease expert on the White House’s coronavirus task force, said the frequency of his meetings with President Donald Trump has “dramatically decreased.”
“We used to have task force meetings every single day, including Saturday and Sunday, and about 75% of the time after the task force meeting we’d meet with the president,” Fauci told health-oriented news website Stat in an interview that published Monday. “So I was meeting with him four times a week back a month or so ago.”
“But as you probably noticed, that the task force meetings have not occurred as often lately,” he added. “And certainly my meetings with the president have been dramatically decreased.”
Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump appointed to lead the coronavirus task force, said last month that the White House may wind down the group in early June.
“We’ve already begun to talk about a transition plan with [the Federal Emergency Management Agency],” Pence told reporters on May 5. “But it’s — it really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country.”
The U.S. has by far the highest number of documented COVID-19 cases and deaths around the world. As of Monday, more than 1.7 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with the disease caused by the coronavirus and at least 104,000 have died from it, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
― Hayley Miller
Rival Soccer Fans Come Together In Anti-Bolsonaro Protest — 6/1/20, 4:55 a.m. ET
Fans of some of Brazil’s biggest soccer teams took to the streets of Sao Paulo on Sunday, taking part in the largest march against President Jair Bolsonaro in months.
Several hundred members from the Corinthians, Palmeiras and Santos fan groups shouted “democracy” and “dictatorship, never again.”
Similar protests involving fans of the Flamengo team also took place in Rio de Janeiro, HuffPost Brazil reported (in Portuguese). Brazil has reported nearly half a million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 28,000 deaths — figures widely considered understatements due to a lack of adequate testing.
However, the military police said they fired tear gas in an attempt to keep rival protest groups apart after pro-Bolsonaro supporters, carrying what a police spokesman described as a neo-Nazi flag, approached the pro-democracy group.
Supporters of the president have gathered weekly to back Bolsonaro and his calls for easing restrictions on movement, gatherings and work.
— James Martin
U.S. Protests Raise Fears Over New Coronavirus Outbreaks — 5/31/20, 2:45 p.m. ET
Local and state officials are warning of potential coronavirus outbreaks as thousands of people across the U.S. gather to protests police violence and racial inequality after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on Memorial Day.
“If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms warned over the weekend. “There is still a pandemic in America that’s killing Black and brown people at higher numbers.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey earlier in the week called on protesters to wear masks and socially distance as much as possible during demonstrations. “We have two crises that are sandwiched on top of one other,” he said.
As of Sunday, there were more than 1.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 104,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Black people are disproportionally impacted by the virus, accounting for 52% of diagnoses and 58% of coronavirus deaths nationally, according to a study released earlier this month.
Read more from The Associated Press.
— Hayley Miller
True Coronavirus Death Toll In U.S. Likely Passed 100,000 Weeks Ago: Report — 5/30/20, 2:28 p.m. ET
Reported coronavirus deaths hit a dark milestone this week as Johns Hopkins University’s tally surpassed 100,000. But a Washington Post analysis of nationwide mortality data indicates that the U.S. likely hit that milestone three weeks ago.
A team at the Yale School of Public Health compared the total number of deaths from all causes to the projected number of deaths for the same time period. Based on historical data, we have a pretty good understanding of how many deaths the U.S. can expect to see on a weekly basis. Between March 1 and May 9, there were around 101,600 excess deaths — that is, more than 100,000 over the number expected. That leaves about 26,000 more deaths than have been officially attributed to COVID-19 on the patients’ death certificates, the paper said, citing federal data.
How COVID-19 directly impacted the deaths of the additional 26,000 — if it did at all — is not clear. Fear of contracting the virus may have stopped some people from seeking medical attention in a timely fashion. There may also have been higher rates of deaths from causes such as suicide or domestic violence.
Public health experts largely believe the true coronavirus death toll is higher than official reports. Due to spotty testing early on in the crisis and confusion on exactly when the virus came over here, though, it’s hard to come up with precise figures. That’s why experts are turning to the metric of excess deaths to help illustrate the virus’s real impact — and the Yale researchers’ findings support the theory that the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. is worse than official statistics describe.
“It’s clear that the burden is quite a bit higher than reported totals,” Daniel Weinberger, the epidemiologist who led the analysis, told The Washington Post.
— Sara Boboltz
Tyson Shuts Down Pork Processing Plant In Iowa After Hundreds Fall Ill — 5/29/20, 2:20 p.m. ET
A Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Storm Lake, Iowa, is temporarily halting operations after 22% of the plant’s 2,500 workers tested positive for COVID-19.
Iowa Department of Public Health Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter told the Des Moines Register that 555 of the plant’s 2,517 employees tested positive, which the company blamed on “a delay in COVID-19 testing results and team member absences related to quarantine.“
Tyson said it plans to reopen next week after a “deep cleaning and sanitizing of the entire facility.”
Mayra Lopez, vice president of the Storm Lake League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa, told the Register that Tyson could have done more to prevent the outbreak.
A meeting with Tyson earlier this month regarding the company’s efforts was “very short, very scripted, and very vague,” she said, though she agreed a lack of adequate testing was at least partly to blame.
“We finally, finally have the testing we’ve been waiting for,” she said. “I don’t think people are getting results quickly enough. I’ve heard Tyson employees waiting as long as a week to hear back if they have a confirmed case. By the time they get the results, it could be too late and they’ve passed it on to someone else.”
Meat processing plants have become COVID-19 hot spots in rural communities across the country. As of last week, an estimated 17,000 workers in processing plants across the United States have fallen ill and 66 have died.
— Ryan Grenoble
For more updates on the pandemic, go here.
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