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 389,099 Deaths, 6,625,675 Corona Virus Infections, Mostly in the US, UK, Italy, Brazil, France, Spain, and Msexico

June 4, 2020

 

Commuters crowd a train station in Tokyo during the morning rush hour on May 26, 2020	Miami beach, Floriday, June 2020

World: 6,625,675 Confirmed Cases, and 389,099 Deaths:

As of June 4, 2020, 16:23 GMT 

A list of countries with the highest Coronavirus (Covid-19) deaths:

1 USA 1,908,265 confirmed cases, and 109,347 deaths.

2 UK 279,856 confirmed cases, and 39,728 deaths.
3 Italy 233,836 confirmed cases, and 33,601 deaths.
4 Brazil 590,485 confirmed cases, and 32,688 deaths.

5. France 151,677 confirmed cases, and 29,021 deaths.
6. Spain 287,406 confirmed cases, and 27,128 deaths.
7. Mexico 101,238 confirmed cases, and 11,729 deaths.
8. Germany 184,492 confirmed cases, and 8,701 deaths.

9 Iran 164,270 confirmed cases, and 8,071 deaths.
10 Canada 93,085 confirmed cases, and 7,498 deaths.

11 India 224,500 confirmed cases, and 6,302 deaths.

12 Russia 441,108 confirmed cases, and 5,384 deaths.

13 Peru 178,914 confirmed cases, and 4,894 deaths.
14 Turkey 166,422 confirmed cases, and 4,609 deaths.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
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WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - 03 June 2020

3 June 2020

中文, Français, Русский, Español

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.

WHO is continuing to respond to the new Ebola outbreak in the city of Mbandaka, in the Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

So far, 8 cases have been detected. Four of those have died and the other 4 are receiving care. 
To be clear, this outbreak is in the same area as a previous outbreak in 2018, which was stopped in just 3 months.

However, it is on the other side of the country to the Ebola outbreak that WHO and partners have been fighting for almost 2 years in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, in eastern DRC.

The latest person confirmed with Ebola attended the burial of one of the first cases, but was detected in the town of Bikoro, 150 kilometres away from Mbandaka. This means that two health zones are now affected. 
Today almost 50 responders from WHO and partners arrived in Mbandaka, plus 3600 doses of Ebola vaccine and 2000 cartridges for lab testing.

The government is now sequencing the virus to see whether or not it is related to a previous outbreak. 
This is an important reminder that even as WHO focuses on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to monitor and respond to many other health emergencies.

=== 
More than 100 000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported to WHO for each of the past 5 days. 
The Americas continues to account for the most cases. For several weeks, the number of cases reported each day in the Americas has been more than the rest of the world put together.

We are especially worried about Central and South America, where many countries are witnessing accelerating epidemics.

We also see increasing numbers of cases in the Eastern Mediterranean, South-East Asia and Africa, although the numbers are much smaller. 
Meanwhile, the number of cases in Europe continues to decline. Yesterday saw the fewest cases reported in Europe since the 22nd of March. 
WHO continues to work through our regional and country offices to monitor the pandemic, to support countries to respond, and to adapt our guidance for every situation.

WHO continues to provide the world with new and updated technical guidance, based on the most up-to-date evidence.

Just in the past week, WHO has released a new case report form for suspected cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children;

Operational guidance on maintaining essential health services;

Guidance on controlling the spread of COVID-19 at ground crossings; 
Planning recommendations for mass gatherings;

A protocol for surveillance of infections among health workers; 
Ethical considerations for the use of digital technologies in tracking COVID-19;

And updated guidelines on the clinical management of patients with COVID-19.

This is an update of the guidance we published in March.

It includes a COVID-19 care pathway, which describes the steps followed by a patient from screening to discharge, to ensure delivery of safe and quality care, while stopping onward transmission. 
WHO continues to train millions of health workers all over the world to apply our guidance.

Our OpenWHO.org online learning platform has now registered 3 million enrolments for our courses on COVID-19. 
And we have added two new courses: one on decontamination and sterilization of medical devices, and another on environmental cleaning and disinfection.

In total, we’re now offering 12 courses in 27 languages.

In the past week, we launched COVID-19 courses in Amharic, Arabic, French, Hausa, Macedonian, Odia, Spanish and Vietnamese.

=== 

As you know, last week the Executive Group of the Solidarity Trial decided to implement a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial, because of concerns raised about the safety of the drug.

This decision was taken as a precaution while the safety data were reviewed.

The Data Safety and Monitoring Committee of the Solidarity Trial has been reviewing the data. 
On the basis of the available mortality data, the members of the committee recommended that there are no reasons to modify the trial protocol.

The Executive Group received this recommendation and endorsed the continuation of all arms of the Solidarity Trial, including hydroxychloroquine.

The Executive Group will communicate with the principal investigators in the trial about resuming the hydroxychloroquine arm. 
The Data Safety and Monitoring Committee will continue to closely monitor the safety of all therapeutics being tested in the Solidarity Trial.

So far, more than 3500 patients have been recruited in 35 countries.

WHO is committed to accelerating the development of effective therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics as part of our commitment to serving the world with science, solutions and solidarity.

I thank you.

https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---03-june-2020

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US coronavirus deaths: Over 1,000 reported in the past 24 hours

  By Faith Karimi,

CNN, June 5, 2020 

In a little over a week, Americans have gone from taking their first hesitant steps outside again to marching in tightly-packed crowds in cities all over the country.

Any uncertainty about venturing out during a coronavirus pandemic has been seemingly cast aside to protest police brutality after watching the video of George Floyd pinned under an officer's knee in Minneapolis. They've chanted slogans and shouted Floyd's name, some without masks. During arrests, police have loaded them into vehicles and holding cells -- without social distancing.

But despite the sudden shift, coronavirus isn't over. So far this week, 4,430 people have been reported dead since Sunday. Of those, 1,036 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours.

And by late Thursday, the virus had killed more than 108,000 people in the United States and infected at least 1.8 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Officials fear those numbers will rise significantly due to the protests, and are urging those taking part to get tested for coronavirus.

"Based on the way the disease spreads, there is every reason to expect that we will see new clusters and potentially new outbreaks moving forward," US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams warned this week.

The virus is not mutating, but it's still dangerous

New discoveries about coronavirus are still emerging months later. Scientists studying the virus discovered that it's not mutating in a way they'd feared early on. But that doesn't mean it's any less dangerous, they said this week.

So far, evidence does not show it's getting worse or more transmittable. But complacency by people and governments could increase its spread, said Maria Van Kerkhove, a disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization.

"Scientists are looking to see, are there changes in the virus? And as it is a coronavirus ... there are normal changes in this virus that one would expect over time," she said. "None of these changes so far indicate that the virus itself is changing in terms of its ability to transmit or to cause more severe disease."

But she said the presence of the virus over time may lead some people to lower their guards.

"They may become lax in the measures needed to control the spread of the virus, such as social distancing," she said. "It's very difficult to keep up all of these measures and we must remain strong and vigilant."

Study highlights a new reaction in children

Early on in the outbreak, there were reports that coronavirus doesn't affect children as much.

But things are slowly changing, and a new study shows a rare inflammatory syndrome in children initially compared to the Kawasaki disease is a little different.

A high proportion of children sick with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a troubling complication of Covid-19, had gastrointestinal symptoms and were of African ancestry. Those characteristics differ from those of classic Kawasaki disease, according to the study.

The study was among a group of 21 children and teens in Paris who had multisystem inflammatory syndrome. All the patients had gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the study published in the medical journal BMJ this week.

© Spencer Platt/Getty Images Medical workers walk outside a special coronavirus area in Brooklyn last month.

And more than half -- 57% -- had at least one parent who was born in sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean Islands.

"While children are more likely to get very sick if they have other chronic conditions, including obesity, it is important to note that children without chronic illness are also at risk," said Lawrence C. Kleinman, professor at the Department of Pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. "Parents need to continue to take the virus seriously."

A vaccine may be available next year

The race to find a vaccine remains a priority. About 100 million doses could be available by early next year, said Director Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health.

"Perhaps we will have, if all goes well," Collins told CNN. The US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is funding research on five different experimental vaccines. " I am optimistic that at least one, maybe two, maybe three will come through looking like what we need," he said. "We want to hedge our bets by having a number of different approaches, so that it's very likely that at least one of them and maybe more will work."

He said his main concern is that people may be afraid to get vaccinated, and the government will have to assure them it's safe.

Pepcid could ease coronavirus symptoms

A common, over-the-counter drug used for treating heartburn may have provided relief to coronavirus patients.

Ten patients sick with Covid-19 took famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid. In all 10 cases, their symptoms improved, according to a study published Thursday. None were hospitalized, and all survived.

"All patients noticed a rapid improvement in their condition within 24 to 48 hours of starting famotidine," the study published in the medical journal Gut said. "These findings suggest that famotidine may affect the course of Covid-19."

A coauthor of the study emphasized that it's a small group of patients. Even so, Dr. Joseph Conigliaro, a physician at Northwell Health in New York, said he was encouraged by the results and plans to do a larger study with outpatients on famotidine.

Major tourist attractions are reopening

The economy has been a major casualty of the coronavirus. As the recession drags on, an additional 1.9 million workers filed for initial unemployment aid last week.

More than a quarter of the labor force -- 42.6 million people -- has now claimed benefits since the pandemic began ravaging the US labor market.

To help keep the economy afloat, all states in the US have reopened in different phases. For example, in Pennsylvania, more than 80% of the state is in some phase of reopening, and an additional 16 counties will ease their restrictions Friday, Gov. Tom Wolf said.

In Las Vegas, people packed casinos on reopening day Thursday. Most casinos required employees to wear masks and encouraged guests to do so as well, CNN affiliate KTNV reported.

Universal Orlando will reopen to the public Friday. Universal Studios Florida, Universal's Islands of Adventure and Universal's Volcano Bay will welcome guests but with limited attendance.

"This carefully managed reopening comes with stringent new health, safety and hygiene procedures in place. ... Everyone will need to follow CDC guidelines and the recommendations of health officials, and Universal Orlando's policies," the resort said in a statement.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-coronavirus-deaths-over-1-000-reported-in-the-past-24-hours/ar-BB154GHK?ocid=msnews

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US Counties in Every State Where COVID-19 Is Growing the Fastest

  Michael B. Sauter

Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2020  

More than 1.8 million COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the U.S. as of June 3 as well as over 105,000 deaths, by far the most cases and deaths of any country. Accounting for population size, the U.S. has the 10th most cases per capita and the 11th most deaths per capita of any country. Within the United States, as nearly three months have passed since President Donald Trump declared a national state of emergency, the extent of the spread varies widely from state to state, and even from county to county. 

Using COVID-19 data from state and local health departments, and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths for the seven days through June 1 in over 3,000 U.S. county and county equivalents. We identified the county or county equivalent in each state with the highest average number of new cases per day for that week for every 100,000 people. 

In the counties on this list, spread of the disease ranges from an average of zero new daily cases to an average of 345 new daily cases per 100,000 people. Data in every state is current as of June 1, with the exception of Connecticut, where state-level data is as of May 31, and New Hampshire, where state and county-level data are as of May 31.

In states Like New York and New Jersey, which were hit the hardest by the outbreak initially, the number of daily new cases is declining, while in others, such as Nebraska, Virginia, and Mississippi, which had fewer total diagnosed cases per capita in the earlier period of the pandemic, the number of average daily new cases has increased substantially in the past week. 

Generally, the counties on this list where the spread of the virus is relatively fast are in states where the virus is spreading the fastest, and vice versa. But there are some notable exceptions, in states like Florida, Texas, and Kansas, where the average number of daily new cases is far higher in the county than the state’s relatively low number of new cases. These are the states with the most and fewest COVID-19 cases.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/counties-in-every-state-where-covid-19-is-growing-the-fastest/ss-BB14ZQY8?ocid=msnews

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