The United States encountered a new setback in the coronavirus battle as separate analyses indicated the country on Tuesday had slipped back to once again recording more than 1,000 deaths in a 24-hour period. Here’s what’s going on with the pandemic around the world.
The latest:
- Canadian federal employee special leave cost at least $440M from March-May.
- U.S. official says ‘not out of the woods’ in battle for PPE supply.
- Trump gives most direct advice yet on benefit of masks.
- South Africa accounts for well over half of confirmed African cases.
- Pan American Health Organization says more areas of concern than bright spots in the Americas.
The United States encountered a new setback in the coronavirus battle as separate analyses indicated the country on Tuesday had slipped back to once again recording more than 1,000 deaths in a 24-hour period.
Both the COVID Tracking Project and data compiled by the Washington Post put the death toll in the latest 24-hour tracking period as between 1,000 and 1,100, a threshold not seen since early June, and not regularly since May. Health experts soberly warned of such developments after recent weeks of an upsurge in cases, particularly in the south and southwest regions.
Swaths of the country are now battling rising infections and growing deaths, and some states are once again having to close businesses and rethink school in the fall. Many retailers themselves are insisting their customers don masks. For months, the nation’s top health experts have pleaded with Americans to wear masks in public and steer clear of crowds — calling those simple steps life-saving — even as President Donald Trump’s stance on masks fuelled a partisan social divide.
As recently as a Fox News interview recorded last week and broadcast four days ago, Trump said “masks cause problems, too.”
WATCH | At coronavirus briefing, Trump touts masks:
In his first briefing focused on the coronavirus pandemic in months, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the situation will probably get worse before it gets better. 1:16
But at a White House briefing on Tuesday, Trump gave his most unequivocal advice so far to Americans on masks.
“We’re asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask, get a mask,” he said. “Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact.”
“We are imploring young Americans to avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings,” Trump, who was not wearing a mask himself, went on. “Be safe and be smart.”
But elsewhere, Trump did not provide any tangible updates on progress for a vaccine and said the administration was “in the process of developing a strategy.” Some state and local officials across the country have implored Washington to streamline the process of distributing personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing materials and lobbied for a more prominent role for the Centers for Disease Control.
The administrator of the the Federal Emergency Management Agency testified at a House homeland security committee on Wednesday morning that the U.S. has bolstered its stockpile of PPE but said the country was “not out of the woods,” given the global competition for supplies.
“We’re in a much better place than coming out of March and April,” said FEMA’s Peter Gaynor.
Gaynor, and some Republicans on the panel, said the hope is that over time the U.S. could ramp up domestic production and be less reliant on foreign supply chains.
Democrats early on tried to pin Gaynor down over whether the agency received coherent direction early in the pandemic from the administration.
WATCH | Canadian cases ‘price to pay’ of reopening but U.S. scenario a warning, doctor says:
The question now is whether the uptick in cases in Canada will remain small, or if the country ends up like Florida and Texas and finds itself in real trouble in a few weeks, says Dr. Samir Gupta. 6:20
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, lawmakers were negotiating what is expected to be a trillion-dollar-or-more “Phase Four” rescue package.
Texas on Tuesday represented the mixed bag of developments as the U.S. battles the coronavirus, as well as the political jousting sometimes seen on who has authority over public health advice.
Dallas County officials said the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients dropped below 1,000 on Tuesday for the first time in more than two weeks, and officials in Houston are seeing signs of optimism.
But officials in counties along the border with Mexico said the outlook there remains bleak. In Starr County, Judge Eloy Vera sai