June 18 coronavirus news

Dr. Sanjay Gupta returned to CNN’s Atlanta headquarters to show people how to safely navigate the office during the pandemic.

Office workers can expect to see a lot more hand sanitizing stations and should try and take the stairs more often, Gupta said during CNN’s global coronavirus town hall Thursday evening.

“It is probably always a better idea to take the stairs but if you have to take an elevator keep in mind this is one of the higher risk situations. Obviously a small space indoors. Try to find an elevator that is not that crowded. Everyone should face the same direction to reduce the spread of the virus. Use something like a pen to push the button. It goes without saying, think about every surface you touch. Think about this constantly,” Gupta said.

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Dr. Ala Stanford administers a COVID-19 swab test on a person in the parking lot of Pinn Memorial Baptist Church in Philadelphia, Wednesday, April 22.

One of the reasons why Covid-19 is disproportionately infecting Black Americans is because of testing limitations, Dr. Ala Stanford, the founder of the Black Doctors Covid-19 Consortium, told CNN Thursday evening during its global coronavirus town hall.

“It has to do with access, particularly when African-Americans were being turned away from testing, at work even,” Stanford said.

What the data shows: As of May 11, 17,155 Black Americans are known to have died due to Covid-19, according to an analysis from the American Public Media (APM) Research Lab.

That’s out of nearly 65,000 deaths for which race and ethnicity data was available. More than 80,000 people total had lost their lives to the coronavirus at the time of the analysis.

APM compiled its data from the 39 states and the District of Columbia that are reporting the race and ethnicity of residents who have died of Covid-19.

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he would not permit a large political rally in his state like the one planned by President Trump’s campaign in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday.

“No, no,” said Cuomo when asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if he’d permit such event an event in New York, which could draw up to 19,000 people to an indoor arena without requiring masks. “That’s not only going to hurt the economy, it’s also going to cause more Americans to die.”

Cuomo went on to say Trump was disregarding the science and sending the wrong signal to the nation. 

“The President… knowing that the models now say another 30,000 people die by October, still insists that we shouldn’t be careful, that we shouldn’t follow the science: don’t worry about the public health, have a political arena,” the governor said.

“It makes no sense and it’s the exact wrong signal, he added.

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The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has announced Thursday that a player from one of its teams has tested positive for Covid-19. 

“The health and safety of the players and staff is of utmost importance and the NWSL is doing everything to ensure the affected player is receiving proper care,” the league said in a statement.

“The affected club is performing all appropriate contact tracing and increased testing of potentially exposed individuals. Thus far all resulting tests have been negative,” the statement added.

The statement also said there are no planned changes to the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup schedule.

The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup will mark the return to action for all nine teams. The 25-game tournament will kick off on June 27 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah, and will be held without spectators.

California recorded 4,084 new coronavirus cases today, an all-time high on the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide mask order. 

This daily record-high surpasses the previous 3,705 cases recorded on May 30, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.

The high number of cases is attributed to an increase in testing capacity and delayed testing results coming in from an earlier period, state health officials said in a statement.

“As testing capacity continues to increase across the state, an increase in the number of positive cases has been expected,” state health officials said.

By the numbers: Thursday’s count brings the total number of cases in California to 161,099. 

There have been 5,290 Covid-19 deaths in California since the start of the pandemic, according to state data.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he is considering a mandatory 14-day quarantine for people coming to New York from states with high infection rates saying, “it is doable.”

“New York is in better shape than their state, and we’re seeing people who want to come to New York and I understand that. But we worked very hard to get the infection rate down. I don’t want to see it going back up,” he told CNN during a coronavirus town hall on Thursday.

He pointed out that at the beginning of the pandemic other states implemented quarantines for travelers coming from New York.

“The tables have turned,” he said.

Earlier today, Cuomo said that while he hasn’t made a decision yet, he has “had experts advise me of that. It is a real concern, you’re right it could happen and it’s something I’m considering.”

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo praised the effort across New York to bring its coronavirus infection rate to below 1%.

“We have less than a 1% infection rate. We did 60,000 tests yesterday, less than 1% infection rate,” Cuomo said during CNN’s global coronavirus town hall Thursday evening.

Cuomo said he fears that rate could increase as “people who get on airplanes and they come to New York, and they could bring the infection with them.”

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People are already lining up outside of the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa about 48 hours before a President Trump’s campaign rally.

CNN reports that about 20,000 people are expected to attend the event in the convention center on Saturday, and another 40,000 people to be in the overflow section outside the venue — giving the rally the potential to be the largest gathering in the country since the start of the pandemic.

CNN Political Correspondent Abby Phillip reported that local officials are saying up to 100,000 people could be coming to the city for the rally, but also for other counter-events happening a few blocks away.

The Trump campaign has said they will be giving out hand sanitizer and masks, but they won’t be required.

Some context: As of this morning, Tulsa County currently has the most cases – 1,825 total – of any county in the state, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

New cases in Tulsa County have also been climbing, and the county is now seeing its highest seven-day average for new cases at 73.9, according to the Tulsa Health Department.

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta implored people to continue wearing masks because Covid-19 can be spread by asymptomatic people “even if they’re not showing symptoms.”

The virus is “still very contagious,” Gupta said Thursday evening during CNN’s global coronavirus town hall.

“People can spread the virus, even if they’re not showing symptoms. So that’s why masks are so important. They can decrease transmission six-fold. Being outside can decrease transmission 18-fold. So being outside with a mask on is safer than being inside without a mask,” Gupta said.

To put the number of deaths in perspective, Gupta said “essentially two jumbo jets of people every 24 hours” die from the virus.

Some context on infections: Just as much of the US was improving, 10 states are seeing their highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases per day since the pandemic started months ago, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

The data includes new cases reported by Johns Hopkins through Tuesday. The states seeing record-high averages are Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas.

Texas also reported a record-high number of daily Covid-19 hospitalizations on Monday, with 2,326.

Los Angeles County, which accounts for almost half of California’s cases, on Wednesday reported another single-day high of new cases, though officials said the spike was due to lagging test reports.

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An ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects 135,461 coronavirus deaths in the United States by July 11, with deaths increasing in nine states. 

This week’s national forecast relies on 21 individual forecasts from outside institutions and researchers. The new projections, published Thursday, forecast a possible range of 129,000 to 145,000 deaths.

“The state-level ensemble forecasts suggest that the number of new deaths over the next four weeks in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Utah will likely exceed the number reported over the last four weeks,” the CDC said on its forecasting website.   

“For other states, the number of new deaths is expected to be similar or decrease slightly compared to the previous four weeks,” the CDC added.

Some context: Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections for the next month.

The previous ensemble forecast, published last Friday, predicted 130,000 deaths from coronavirus in the US by July 4. So far, according to Johns Hopkins University, more than 118,000 people have died in the US.