Notre Dame Moves To Virtual Classes; Texas COVID-19 Cases Bounce Back: Live Updates

Summary:

• Notre Dame moves classes online
• Texas sees cases bounce back from yesterday’s low reading
• Florida reports latest numbers
• Chancellor rules out further reopening as German cases surge
• WHO warns against “vaccine nationalism”
• NYC’s de Blasio says hotels must collect contact info from visitors
• COVID now No. 3 cause of death in US
• Germany infections surge highest in 4 months
• South Korea flareup continues
• Hong Kong imposes 3rd round of restrictions
• England & Wales celebrate lowest death numbers in 20 weeks

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Update (1620ET): The University of Notre Dame just joined UNC by suspending in-person classes amid growing outcry from students and the community about the dangers of COVID-19. The university has reportedly seen a “steady increase” in tests positivity rates. The shift will last for at least the next 2 weeks.

said it will suspend in-person classes and shift to remote learning for the next two weeks because of a “steady increase” in virus positivity rates.

ND said 147 people have tested positive since Aug. 3, many of whom were seniors who lived off campus and spread the virus at gatherings, according to the university’s website.

The move comes a day after UNC, one of the biggest colleges to attempt in-person learning, said it would shift to online classes because of a spike in cases.

Meanwhile, in the states, Texas’s new-case count climbed by 7,282 on Tuesday to 550,232, according to state health department data.

The increase was almost triple the day-earlier addition, though Monday tallies tend to be the smallest of the week because of a falloff in weekend testing.

There were 216 new fatalities, bringing the cumulative total to 10,250.

Coronavirus cases in the US increased 0.8% to 5.46 million compared with the same time a day earlier.

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Update (1045ET): Florida has just reported its latest batch of COVID-19 cases, with 3,838 new cases reported, along with 219 new deaths and 501 new hospitalizations, bringing the state’s totals to 579,932 cases, 9,893 deaths and 34,695 hospital admissions.

There are now 146,990 confirmed cases in Miami-Dade County, 67,193 cases in Broward, and 39,460, in Palm Beach.

State officials tallied the positivity rate at roughly 8%.

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Update (1022ET): We saw a few major pandemic-related headlines out of Europe Tuesday morning in the US (afternoon on the Continent). Perhaps the most important: As cases climb in a handful of hotspots across Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out any further loosening of virus measures, claiming that a doubling in the number of daily cases in the last three weeks must be contained before Germany can move on with its slow transition back to normality (or whatever becomes ‘reality’ in the post-pandemic world).

As we noted earlier, Europe’s largest economy recorded the largest tally of new infections in about 4 months on Tuesday, fueling fears about a resurgence across the continent.

During a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that countries must avoid “vaccine nationalism”, a subtle rebuke of Western powers who have cast aspersions of Russia’s vaccine and China’s efforts.

“As new diagnostics, medicines and vaccines come through the pipeline, it’s critical that countries don’t repeat the same mistakes,” Dr. Tedros. Tedros followed up his plea with a ‘request’ for member states to join the WHO’s Covax facility, which aims to “accelerate vaccine development and to guarantee fair and equitable access,” according to Bloomberg.

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin moved to working from home on Tuesday and is getting tested for COVID-19 after experiencing mild respiratory symptoms. The 34-year-old leader told local media that she’d caught the cold from her young daughter who had recently returned to daycare.

Meanwhile, as cases continue to decline across the country (they’re practically non-existent in NYC), Mayor de Blasio is continuing to ramp up restrictions on travelers visiting the state, and locals returning home, saying Tuesday that he would require hotels to collect contact info from visitors.

Those who refuse to fork over their address and itinerary should be refused service and turned away.

Circling back to Europe real quick – Austria is reportedly reevaluating its travel restrictions and border check protocols as new infections continue to rise, driven by  returning summer vacationers from regions including the former Yugoslavia.

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After focusing on Europe, Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region over the weekend and into Monday, our focus on Tuesday shifts back to the US, where the number of new infections falls across the Sun Belt, with Arizona, Texas, California and even Florida all seeing single-day tallies of new cases decline.

Yesterday, the US reported roughly 40,000 new cases yesterday, the lowest number in weeks, even as deaths continued to climb at an aggressive pace after passing 170,000.

Source: NYT

Even as deaths show some signs of declining, the US has arrived at its latest milestone in the pandemic: COVID-19 has become the third-worst cause of death in the US, according to the CDC.

The pandemic has now surpassed accidents, injuries, lung disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and many other causes of deaths – even drug overdoses, which are surging again due to the outbreak.

Elsewhere, Germany continued to report an elevated number of new cases, while an outbreak in Hong Kong showed signs of tapering off, though that didn’t stop Chief Executive Carrie Lam from imposing a third round of anti-COVID restrictions on Monday.

In South Korea, a flareup continued to grow, with 246 more cases reported Tuesday, and the country banned large gatherings in and around Seoul.

In the UK, England and Wales recorded the fewest fatalities in 20 weeks. Deaths in the week ended Aug. 7 fell 21% to 152 vs. the prior week.

While the UK celebrated its milestone of lower deaths, Germany on Tuesday recorded its highest number of new coronavirus infections in nearly four months, the latest in a string of signs that the country’s outbreak is expanding aggressively once again.

There were 1,693 new infections in the 24 hours through Tuesday morning, the most since April 25, bringing Germany’s total to 226,700.