Coronavirus Update
July 6, 2020
Driving the Day:
By the Numbers
Monday, July 6, 2020 7:30 AM
Number of US cases reported: 2,888,729
Number of US deaths: 129,947
Total Number of People Tested in US: 35,512,916 (may not include all labs)
What to Watch For
Today: President Trump has no public events scheduled today.
Tuesday: Trump will participate in a conversation about “safely reopening American schools.”
Wednesday: Trump will host Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lòpez Obrador at the White House.
Thursday: Trump will host a roundtable with Hispanic leaders.
Saturday: Trump will hold an outdoor campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Must-Read Stories
New Record High Case Levels Were Set Over The Holiday Weekend
- NPR: U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Near 130,000; Florida And Texas Report Record Case Numbers: Nearly 130,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus and more than 2,800,000 people have been infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Both Florida and Texas reported their biggest daily rise in new confirmed cases over the past few days, with Florida reporting 11,443 new resident cases on Saturday and another 9,999 on Sunday. Texas reported a record 8,258 new cases on Saturday followed by 3,449 on Sunday. California reported 5,410 new cases on Sunday and Arizona reported 3,536 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
- Washington Post: Seven-Day Average Case Total In The U.S. Sets Record For 27th Straight Day: Officials in states with surging coronavirus cases issued dire warnings and blamed outbreaks on early reopenings Sunday as the seven-day average for daily new cases in the United States reached a record high for the 27th straight day. “We don’t have room to experiment, we don’t have room for incrementalism when we’re seeing these kinds of numbers,” said Judge Lina Hidalgo (D), the top elected official in Harris County, Tex., which encompasses the sprawling Houston metro area. “Nor should we wait for all the hospital beds to fill and all these people to die before we take drastic action.”
- Axios: 15 States Broke Single-Day Coronavirus Records This Week: At least 15 states broke their single-day novel coronavirus infection records this week, according to state health department data reviewed by Axios. The number of coronavirus cases increased in the vast majority of states over the last week, and decreased in only two states plus the District of Columbia, Axios’ Andrew Withershoop and Caitlin Owens report.
Trump Gives Up On Even Pretending To Fight Virus, Says “We Need To: Learn To Live With It” Instead
- NBC: ‘We Need To Live With It’: White House Readies New Message For The Nation On Coronavirus: After several months of mixed messages on the coronavirus pandemic, the White House is settling on a new one: Learn to live with it. Administration officials are planning to intensify what they hope is a sharper, and less conflicting, message of the pandemic next week, according to senior administration officials, after struggling to offer clear directives amid a crippling surge in cases across the country. On Thursday, the United States reported more than 55,000 new cases of coronavirus and infection rates were hitting new records in multiple states. At the crux of the message, officials said, is a recognition by the White House that the virus is not going away any time soon — and will be around through the November election.
- Politico: Why The U.S. Still Hasn’t Solved Its Testing Crisis: The United States still doesn’t have a handle on testing six months into the coronavirus pandemic. The nation has conducted more than 4 million tests in the past week, more than ever before. But big jumps in testing capacity have been effectively erased by record-breaking increases in new infections as states reopen their economies. The supply chain problems that hampered testing early on never entirely went away and still threaten the ability of labs to conduct testing for everyone asking. The renewed testing crisis threatens federal and state officials’ ability to quell an outbreak that public health experts say could spin out of control in the coming months.
- Washington Examiner: Fauci Warns US Headed In Wrong Direction On Coronavirus: Top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the country is on the wrong path in the fight against the coronavirus. “I think it’s pretty obvious … that we are not going in the right direction,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with the American Medical Association. “We need to realize that if we do not adhere to the guidelines as we’re trying to open, and I don’t mean officially, I mean the citizenry, the people that are out there, we’re going to be in some serious difficulty.” Fauci added, “If you look at the number of cases, it’s quite disturbing. We’re setting records, practically every day, in the new cases that are reported.”
The Consequences Of Trump’s Incredibly Reckless Behavior Continue To Spread Among His Supporters And Staff
- CNN: At Least 8 Secret Service Agents Stuck In Phoenix With Coronavirus After Pence Trip: At least eight Secret Service agents are currently holed up in a hotel in Phoenix, some suffering the flu-like coronavirus symptoms after coming down with the disease while preparing for a visit by Vice President Mike Pence, two people familiar with the matter say. Last month, up to 15 agents who tested positive for the virus loaded into cars and drove themselves home, avoiding flights after becoming infected while preparing for President Donald Trump’s campaign rally, according to another source familiar with the situation. And in South Dakota, agents have been on the ground for days preparing for Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore — but also for what some view as the inevitability that one or many of them will contract the virus.
- Forbes: Testing, Masks Optional For National Park Staffers Who Prepared Trump Mount Rushmore Event: None of the National Park Service staff on site preparing for the Mount Rushmore fireworks event President Trump plans to attend Friday night were required to undergo testing or wear masks, a National Park Services spokesperson tells Forbes, even though thousands of people have reserved tickets for the event scheduled for Friday evening amid a surge in coronavirus cases across the country.
- NBC: Herman Cain, A Trump Surrogate, Tests Positive For Coronavirus After Attending Tulsa Rally: Herman Cain, a 2012 Republican presidential candidate and businessman, has tested positive for COVID-19 more than a week after attending President Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally, a statement posted to his official Twitter account on Thursday. “There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus, but we do know he is a fighter who has beaten Stage 4 cancer,” the statement said. Cain is currently receiving treatment at an Atlanta hospital.
- New York Times: Kimberly Guilfoyle, Top Fund-Raising Official for Trump Campaign, Tests Positive for Coronavirus: Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of President Trump’s eldest son and a top fund-raising official for the Trump re-election campaign, tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday before a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore, a person familiar with her condition said. Ms. Guilfoyle traveled to South Dakota with Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., in anticipation of attending a huge fireworks display where the president was set to speak. They did not travel aboard Air Force One, according to the person familiar with her condition, and she was the only person in the group who tested positive. As a routine precaution, people who come in close contact with Mr. Trump are screened for the virus. Ms. Guilfoyle is the third person in possible proximity to Mr. Trump known to have contracted the virus.
The Consequences Of Rushed Reopening: Hospitals In Crisis As Coronavirus Cases Surge
- Washington Post: Rush To Reopen Led To Spikes In Cases That Threaten To Overwhelm Hospitals In Some States, Officials Say: The Independence Day weekend concluded with dire predictions about the surge of coronavirus cases around the country and with national and local officials saying a rush to reopen fueled the spread of the novel coronavirus and outpaced efforts to care for its victims. “We’re right back where we were at the peak of the epidemic during the New York outbreak,” former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “The difference now is that we really had one epicenter of spread when New York was going through its hardship, now we really have four major epicenters of spread: Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida, and Arizona. And Florida looks to be in the worst shape.”
- Texas Tribune: Several Texas Cities Worry Hospitals May Run Out Of Beds In Two Weeks Or Sooner: Local officials and experts in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth have expressed concerns in recent days that increasing coronavirus hospitalizations could overwhelm their intensive care capacities, with some saying it could happen in less than two weeks. As Texas hit another record high Sunday, reporting 8,181 people hospitalized for the new coronavirus, local officials predicted cities could soon run out of space to care for the sickest patients. The state reported that there still are 13,307 available staffed hospital beds, including 1,203 available staffed ICU beds statewide, but hospital capacity varies greatly by region. On Sunday, Austin Mayor Steve Adler told the Austin American-Statesman that hospitals there could be overwhelmed in the “next 10 days to two weeks” if the amount of people admitted because of the coronavirus continues to increase, adding that 434 out of 1,500 Austin-area hospital beds for coronavirus patients are occupied. The San Antonio Express-News also reported that the city’s hospitals could be overrun with patients in the next week or two, noting that the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in that area’s trauma service region rose by 55% in the past week.
- New York Times: As Coronavirus Slams Houston Hospitals, It’s Like New York ‘All Over Again’: As Houston’s hospitals face the worst outbreak of the virus in Texas, now one of the nation’s hot zones, Dr. Bakshy and others are experiencing some of the same challenges that their New York counterparts did just a few months ago and are trying to adapt some lessons from that crisis. Like New York City in March, the Houston hospitals are experiencing a steep rise in caseloads that is filling their beds, stretching their staffing, creating a backlog in testing and limiting the availability of other medical services. Attempts to buy more supplies — including certain protective gear, vital-sign monitors and testing components — are frustrated by weeks of delays, according to hospital leaders. Methodist is swiftly expanding capacity and hiring more staff, including local nurses who had left their jobs to work in New York when the city’s hospitals were pummeled. “A bed’s a bed until you have a staff,” said Avery Taylor, the nurse manager of a coronavirus unit created just outside Houston in March. But with the virus raging across the region, medical workers are falling ill.
Worth Watching
Immigrants at risk as cases surge in ICE detention:
- Buzzfeed: An Government Watchdog Group Will No Longer Conduct Onsite Inspections Of Immigration Facilities Because Of The Coronavirus
- NPR: ‘You Can Either Be A Survivor Or Die’: COVID-19 Cases Surge In ICE Detention
Other News
Trump’s Failures
Associated Press: Trump’s bluster doesn’t beat a virus, calm a restive nation
Axios: 15 states broke single-day coronavirus records this week
Axios: Case growth outpacing testing in coronavirus hotspots
Bloomberg: Trump Support Withering in Areas Where Virus Cases Are Rising
CNN: Coronavirus is surging in Florida — and so is anxiety over Trump’s chances with senior voters
NBC: ‘We need to live with it’: White House readies new message for the nation on coronavirus
NPR: U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Near 130,000; Florida And Texas Report Record Case Numbers
Politico: Why the U.S. still hasn’t solved its testing crisis
Politico: Western fire season could raise stakes in battle against Covid-19
Talking Points Memo: FDA Chief Won’t Refute Trump’s Claim That 99% Of Coronavirus Cases Are ‘Harmless’
Talking Points Memo: ‘Unbelievable’: Experts Fume At CDC’s New Guidance For College In The Fall
Washington Examiner: Fauci warns US headed in wrong direction on coronavirus
Washington Post: Lawmakers criticize SBA leadership for ‘absolutely terrible’ management of disaster-loans program
Washington Post: Rush To Reopen Led To Spikes In Cases That Threaten To Overwhelm Hospitals In Some States, Officials Say
Trump and the GOP Not Looking Out For You
CNBC: Trump ambassadors sold stocks as president downplayed pandemic and virus was spreading
CNN: At least 8 Secret Service agents stuck in Phoenix with coronavirus after Pence trip
CNN: Texas Republicans to hold in-person convention amid spike in coronavirus
Forbes: Testing, Masks Optional For National Park Staffers Who Prepared Trump Mount Rushmore Event
NBC: Herman Cain, a Trump surrogate, tests positive for coronavirus after attending Tulsa rally
New York Times: Kimberly Guilfoyle, Top Fund-Raising Official for Trump Campaign, Tests Positive for Coronavirus
Politico: Top conservative lawmaker demands White House disband coronavirus task force
Politico: White House ‘free marketeers’ raised concerns over coronavirus price-gouging crackdown
Affordability and Access
Newsweek: Family of Man Who Died of Coronavirus Hit With $1 Million Hospital Bill
Campaigns and Elections
New York Times: Biden Supporters Are More Worried About the Health Risks of Voting
Politico: Coronavirus threatened to make a mess of Kentucky’s primary. It could be a model instead.
Economic Impact
Axios: The impending retail apocalypse
Education
Politico: From anti-vax to anti-mask: School districts brace for parent resistance
Immigration and Travel
Buzzfeed: An Government Watchdog Group Will No Longer Conduct Onsite Inspections Of Immigration Facilities Because Of The Coronavirus
Dallas Morning News: Despite ‘closed’ border, Americans travel freely to Mexico, increasing virus dangers
NPR: ‘You Can Either Be A Survivor Or Die’: COVID-19 Cases Surge In ICE Detention
Inequality
New York Times: The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus
In The States
CBS: 105 University of Washington students in frat houses test positive for coronavirus
Daily Beast: This Deep Red State Admits: We’re in Deep COVID Trouble
The Guardian: ‘We don’t live in a communist country!’: battle over masks rages in Texas
Houston Chronicle: Once lauded for its COVID-19 response, Texas now grapples with one of country’s worst outbreaks
Los Angeles Times: L.A. County coronavirus cases hit a record one-day high over 4th of July weekend
New York Times: As Coronavirus Slams Houston Hospitals, It’s Like New York ‘All Over Again’
Texas Tribune: Gov. Greg Abbott orders Texans in most counties to wear masks in public
Texas Tribune: Several Texas cities worry hospitals may run out of beds in two weeks or sooner
Washington Post: As coronavirus cases skyrocket across Texas, hospitals grapple with patient influxes
Personal Narratives
Washington Post: Man who went to party warned people not to be an ‘idiot like me’ a day before dying of covid-19
Washington Post: Nick Cordero, Tony-nominated Broadway star, dies at 41 of coronavirus
Science and Technology
New York Times: 239 Experts With 1 Big Claim: The Coronavirus Is Airborne
Workers
Buzzfeed: Who Died For Your Dinner?
New York Times: European Workers Draw Paychecks. American Workers Scrounge for Food.
Popular Information: Amid new COVID surge, corporations keep wages flat for frontline workers
Trump Tweets
New China Virus Cases up (because of massive testing), deaths are down, “low and steady”. The Fake News Media should report this and also, that new job numbers are setting records! [@realDonaldTrump, 7/5/20]
Cases, Cases, Cases! If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases. If you test 40,000,000 people, you are going to have many cases that, without the testing (like other countries), would not show up every night on the Fake Evening News. In a certain way, our tremendous Testing success gives the Fake News Media all they want, CASES. In the meantime, Deaths and the all important Mortality Rate goes down. You don’t hear about that from the Fake News, and you never will. Anybody need any Ventilators??? [@realDonaldTrump, 7/4/20]
There is a rise in Coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good, far bigger and better than any other country. This is great news, but even better news is that death, and the death rate, is DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster! [@realDonaldTrump, 7/2/20]
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