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Live Coronavirus Updates: Nations Scramble to Fend Off Outbreaks - The New York Times

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Key Data of the Day

More than 35,000 new coronavirus cases were identified across the United States on Tuesday, according to a New York Times database, the highest single-day total since late April and the third-highest total of any day of the pandemic.

As the United States continues to reopen its economy, case numbers are rising in more than 20 states, mostly in the South and West. Florida on Wednesday reported a new daily high of 5,508 cases. Texas reported more than 5,000 cases on Tuesday, its largest single-day total yet. Arizona added more than 3,600 cases, also a record. And in Washington State, where case numbers are again trending upward, the governor said residents would have to start wearing masks in public.

“This is about saving lives,” said Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat. “It’s about reopening our businesses. And it’s about showing respect and care for one another.”

The elevated case numbers are a result of worsening conditions across much of the country as well as increased testing, but testing alone does not explain the surge. The percentage of people in Florida testing positive has risen sharply. Increases in hospitalizations also signal the virus’s spread. Arizona reported its highest number of virus hospitalizations on Monday. In Texas, more than 4,000 people with the virus are hospitalized, more than double the number at the beginning of June.

“I strongly feel we are moving in the wrong direction and we are moving fast,” Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston said.

But in Missouri, where new case reports have reached their highest levels in recent days, coronavirus hospitalizations have declined slightly over the last month.

“We are NOT overwhelmed,” Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, said on Twitter, linking the uptick to more testing. “We are NOT currently experiencing a second wave. We have NO intentions of closing Missouri back down at this point in time.”

Credit...Juan Arredondo for The New York Times

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Wednesday that New York and two neighboring states will begin requiring certain out-of-state travelers entering their states to quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.

The restrictions, which also cover New Jersey and Connecticut, will be based on specific health metrics related to the virus, Mr. Cuomo said.

Mr. Cuomo said the quarantine would apply to states where either 10 percent of the total population tested positive, or where there were 10 infections per every 100,000 people on 7-day rolling average. Included immediately, he said: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, Texas and Washington State.

“Any state that has an infection rate above that will be subject to the quarantine,” he said.

The move punctuated a stark shift in the course of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak; for months, the state, particularly New York City, had been a global center of the pandemic. Hospitals filled to near capacity. Hundreds died each day, reaching a peak in mid-April.

“We did a full 180 degrees,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We went from the highest transmission rate to some of the lowest rates in the country.”

Many New Yorkers with the means to do so fled, often to out-of-state locales. By late March, Florida began requiring travelers from the New York area to quarantine. Other states sought to restrict visitors. Researchers later found that by March, New York City had been seeding outbreaks around the country.

Now, the virus appears to be spreading more rapidly outside of New York than inside of the state. New infections are surging in Arizona and Texas. Nearly 20,000 people tested positive for the virus in Florida over the last five days ending Tuesday; in New York, where far more people are being tested daily, roughly 3,200 did during that period.

Only a handful of states, including Maine, Rhode Island and Hawaii, have required out-of-state travelers to quarantine. A larger number have asked travelers to quarantine but do not mandate doing so. And a few, such as Florida and Kansas, apply the requirement only to those coming from certain states.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey called the travel policy the “common sense thing to do.”

Credit...Yuri Gripas/Reuters

The International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that the global economy faces an even deeper downturn than it previously projected as the coronavirus pandemic continues to sow uncertainty and businesses around the world struggle to shake off the virus.

The forecast underscores the scale of the task that policymakers are facing as they try to dig out from what the I.M.F. has described as the most severe economic contraction since the Great Depression. Even as countries begin reopening their economies, it is increasingly evident that the recovery will be uneven and protracted, particularly until the virus dissipates or a vaccine becomes available.

In an update to its World Economic Outlook, the I.M.F. said it expected the global economy to shrink 4.9 percent this year — a sharper contraction than the 3 percent it predicted in April. The fund noted that, even as businesses began to reopen, voluntary social distancing and enhanced workplace safety standards were weighing on economic activity. Moreover, the “scarring” of the labor force from mass job cuts and business closures means that the world economy will recover much more slowly, with the I.M.F. projecting 5.4 percent global growth in 2021, far below its pre-pandemic projections.

The I.M.F. now projects that the U.S. economy will shrink 8 percent this year before expanding 4.5 percent next year. Economies in the eurozone are projected to shrink 10.2 percent this year and expand 6 percent next year. The economy of China, where the virus originated and which imposed draconian containment measures, is expected to expand 1 percent this year and 8.2 percent in 2021.

Credit...Roman Pilipey/EPA, via Shutterstock

China is testing restaurant workers and delivery drivers block by block. South Korea tells people to carry two types of masks for differing social situations. Germany requires communities to crack down when the number of infections hits certain thresholds.

Around the world, governments that appeared to have tamed the virus are adjusting to the reality that the disease is here to stay. But in a shift away from nationwide lockdowns that damage the economy, they are looking for targeted ways to find and stop outbreaks before they become third or fourth waves.

While the details differ, the strategies call for flexibility or for tightening or easing regulations as needed. They require some mix of intensive testing and monitoring, lightning-fast response times by the authorities, tight border management and constant reminders to their citizens of the dangers of frequent human contact.

The strategies often force central governments and local officials to share data and to work closely together, overcoming incompatible computer systems, turf battles and other longstanding bureaucratic rivalries. Already, in Britain, some local officials say their efforts are not coordinated enough.

The shifting strategies are an acknowledgment that even the most successful countries cannot declare victory until a vaccine is found. They also show the challenge facing countries like the United States, Brazil and India, where the authorities never fully contained initial outbreaks and from where the coronavirus will continue to threaten to spread.

“It’s always going to be with us,” said Dr. Simon James Thornley, an epidemiologist from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. “I don’t think we can eliminate the virus long term. We are going to need to learn to live with the virus.”

Even in places where the coronavirus appeared to be under control, big outbreaks remain a major risk. In Tokyo, there have been 253 new infections in the past week, 83 from a nightlife district. In Gütersloh, in western Germany, more than 1,500 workers from a meat processing plant tested positive, prompting the authorities to shut down the district. South Korea has announced dozens of new infections in recent days.

Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Joseph R. Biden Jr. has taken a commanding lead over President Trump in the 2020 race, building a wide advantage among women and nonwhite voters and making deep inroads with some traditionally Republican-leaning groups that have shifted away from Mr. Trump following his ineffective response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new national poll of registered voters by The New York Times and Siena College.

Mr. Biden is currently ahead of Mr. Trump by 14 percentage points, garnering 50 percent of the vote compared with 36 percent for Mr. Trump. That is among the most dismal showings of Mr. Trump’s presidency, and a sign that he is the clear underdog right now in his fight for a second term.

Nearly three-fifths of voters disapprove of Mr. Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including majorities of white voters and men. Self-described moderate voters disapproved of Mr. Trump on the coronavirus by a margin of more than two to one.

Most of the country is also rejecting Mr. Trump’s call to reopen the economy as quickly as possible, even at the cost of exposing people to greater health risks. By a 21-point margin, voters said the federal government should prioritize containing the coronavirus, even if it hurts the economy, a view that aligns them with Mr. Biden.

Just a third of voters said the government should focus on restarting the economy even if that entails greater public-health risks.

The poll is the first national survey of the 2020 cycle by The New York Times and Siena College. Here are more results and the methodology for the poll.

Credit...Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

Poolside at President Trump’s resort near Miami, dozens of guests sunned last weekend on lounge chairs and chatted in cabanas. Golfers fanned out across multiple courses, and the hotel lobby hummed with activity for the first time in months.

The reopening of Trump National Doral, the most important source of revenue for the president’s strained family business, came as new coronavirus cases spiked in surrounding Miami-Dade County and as public health officials urged caution about resuming normal activity.

Virus cases in Florida exceeded 100,000 on Monday, with more than 3,100 deaths. About one-quarter of the cases have been in Miami-Dade County, a per capita rate twice the number statewide. On Tuesday, the county reported an average positive test rate of 12.4 percent in recent weeks. The latest single-day positive rate rose to 25.9 percent.

At the Doral resort last weekend, steps were taken to prevent infections, even as many visitors and some staff members did not wear masks — something the president has been reluctant to do in public.

Ordering a meal at the poolside restaurant required a cellphone. Tables and chaise longues were disinfected between guests. On the golf courses, there were no ball-washers, among other changes.

The financial strain of virus-related shutdowns on the Trump Organization has been real. The company’s revenue from its hotel operations is way down this year, and it recently requested a rent abatement from Palm Beach County, where the Trumps operate two golf courses on county land.

Congress included language in a federal relief package that prohibited the Trump family from taking part in assistance programs controlled by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the company decided not to seek loans from the Small Business Administration.

Global roundup

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Tens of thousands turned out for the annual celebration of Russia’s defeat of Nazi Germany, which had been delayed because of the pandemic, but few took precautions.CreditCredit...Pool photo by Alexander Vilf

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Wednesday celebrated his country’s victory 75 years ago against Nazi Germany, presiding over an enormous military parade through Red Square in Moscow that featured thousands of soldiers marching shoulder-to-shoulder without face masks.

The parade, the largest of several celebrations taking place nationwide, was originally scheduled for May 9, an annual holiday known as Victory Day, but was delayed for six weeks by the pandemic. The outbreak continues to grow in Russia — the world’s third-worst-affected country, with more than 600,000 cases — but at a slightly slower pace than before.

Aging veterans in their 80s and 90s joined Mr. Putin on the reviewing stand, nearly all of them without masks, to watch 14,000 troops march by.

Kremlin critics have accused Mr. Putin of gambling with public health to put himself at the center of a gigantic display of Russia’s military might and to rally support ahead of a nationwide vote on his future. Voting on constitutional amendments that would allow Mr. Putin to stay in power until 2036 starts on Thursday.

In other news from around the world:

  • Saudi Arabia effectively canceled the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, for what some scholars say may be the first time in history. The decision sent shock waves of sadness and disappointment across the Muslim world.

  • European Union countries are prepared to block Americans from entering because the United States has failed to control the virus, according to draft lists of acceptable travelers reviewed by The New York Times. Travelers from the United States and the rest of the world had already been excluded from visiting the European Union since mid-March, but a final decision on reopening the borders is expected early next week, before the bloc reopens on July 1.

  • The virus is gaining steam in Latin America, where the number of deaths have more than doubled in a month, according to the Pan American Health Organization. The region now accounts for several of the world’s worst outbreaks.

  • Taiwan said on Wednesday that it would relax its entry rules for travelers from Hong Kong and Macau for “humanitarian” reasons, after closing its borders in March. Arrivals from the Chinese-controlled territories would have to provide proof that they had tested negative for Covid-19 at least three days before boarding their flights and enter home quarantine for 14 days after entry, according to a statement from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control.

  • India is under pressure to open its airspace to international airlines after the United States and some European nations accused the Asian nation of discriminatory practices under the guise of “repatriations.” The U.S. Department of Transportation accused Air India of selling tickets in the open market, even while New Delhi officials keep American carriers from flying to India.

  • The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said on Wednesday that he was considering relocating City Hall next year to save money amid the financial emergency prompted by the pandemic. A move to East London from the center of the British capital would save about 55 million pounds, or around $68 million, over five years, Mr. Khan said.

  • Citing the pandemic, the Walt Disney Company has decided to close Disney English, a 12-year-old chain of 25 language schools in China, ending a once-promising business that, at times, prompted questions about education as brand building.

Credit...Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

The New York City Marathon, the world’s largest marathon and one of the city’s biggest annual spectacles, has been canceled this year as the virus prevents the holding of large-scale events.

The race would have celebrated its 50th anniversary this year in November. It regularly attracts more than 50,000 runners, 10,000 volunteers and roughly one million fans, who line the 26.2-mile course through the five boroughs.

City officials and the New York Road Runners, which owns and organizes the event, decided holding the race would be too risky. Public health experts have said mass events, especially those that bring people together from across the globe, will remain a danger until a treatment or a vaccine for Covid-19 is widely available.

Following widespread health guidelines like avoiding crowds and social distancing while holding a major race is simply impossible, leaving the endurance sports business economically devastated this year.

Michael Capiraso, the chief executive of New York Road Runners, said he and other organizers had held out hope that the race could happen. They decided to cancel before having to spend more money to organize it.

“There was hope but that turned to uncertainty, and given what we have seen the past months this was really the only decision,” Mr. Capiraso said.

On Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that New York City will close 23 more miles of streets to car traffic, in an attempt to give pedestrians and cyclists more outdoor space while social distancing rules remain in place. The closed streets will also provide seating space for restaurants, which are currently restricted to outdoor dining.

The city’s beaches will be open for swimming and recreation on July 1, the mayor said. Social distancing will still be required.

Credit...Tony Karumba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In low-income nations, the pandemic may erase 20 years of hard-fought progress against tuberculosis, H.I.V. and malaria, diseases that together claim more than 2.4 million lives each year.

A report released on Wednesday estimates that countries hit hard by these diseases will need at least $28.5 billion over the next year to shore up health campaigns and to respond to the pandemic itself. The figure does not include costs associated with a vaccine, assuming one is found.

The toll is most severe in nations already strapped for resources. The pandemic has overwhelmed fragile health care systems in those countries, disrupting programs for preventing and treating tuberculosis, H.I.V. and malaria. Restricted air and sea transport also threatens the availability of crucial medicines.

Several models produced by the World Health Organization and others project that deaths from these diseases could double as a result. Treatment interruptions also raise the threat of drug resistance, already a formidable problem in many countries.

“The stakes are extraordinarily high,” Peter Sands, who heads The Global Fund, a public-private partnership that published the estimates, said in a statement. “The knock-on effects of Covid-19 on the fight against H.I.V., T.B. and malaria and other infectious diseases could be catastrophic.”

Since March, The Global Fund, which works mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, has provided $1 billion to help countries maintain their campaigns against these diseases. In the new report, the organization said that amount served only as a stopgap measure.

The Global Fund estimated that countries would need more than $13 billion to protect front-line health care workers and shore up their health systems, about $9 billion to develop and deploy treatments, and nearly $5 billion for diagnostics.

Credit...Desiree Rios for The New York Times

The pandemic’s devastating human toll in New York City has been well documented. But it has also affected lives in ways that have gotten less attention, including what happens to the pets of the seriously ill.

Dr. Robin Brennen, a veterinarian at Animal Care Centers of NYC, is part of a team of specialists who help the animal companions that are left behind.

In March, residents of a co-op building on the Upper West Side alerted Dr. Brennen’s organization that a woman who lived there was in intensive care battling the virus, with two beloved cats left behind. Dr. Brennen went and fed the cats twice a week.

Across the city, animal specialists in full-body personal protective gear enter homes to feed, at no charge, famished pets whose owners are hospitalized, or to take custody of pets of patients who do not return home.

In late April, New York City’s emergency management and animal welfare officers introduced a hotline for people struggling to care for their pets because of the virus.

Credit...Jessica Rinali/The Boston Globe, via Getty Images

More than two million pounds of in-shell peanuts are consumed during a typical baseball season. Now, vast quantities are languishing in cold storage, waiting — like the fans — for an opening day at the stadium that is unlikely to come.

Major League Baseball appears on track to begin a 60-game season in July, but there will be no one in the stands to shell out $4 or $5 for a bag of peanuts.

The pandemic shut down the season before it even started. Teams postponed or canceled orders. Farmers, who had harvested peanuts for the 2020 season in October, had already shipped them to the roasters and been paid.

Now, the race is on to figure out what to do with all those peanuts — and not just any peanuts. Only a certain type bred for the proper size and look makes the cut for the ballpark trade: the Virginia.

There’s always peanut butter, but it doesn’t make sense to dump Virginias into the grinder. Because they cost more to produce, they need to sell at a premium for the economics to work.

Credit...Emon Hassan for The New York Times

After Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that restaurants in New York City could start serving outdoors this week, our critic Pete Wells was ready:

On Monday, I had lunch at Veselka in the East Village. Normally I wouldn’t bother you with this fact. I’ve done the same thing at least a hundred times before. But this lunch, I’m pretty sure, I’ll remember for the rest of my life. It was the first restaurant food I’ve had since March that didn’t come out of a paper bag.

With cases on the rise in the United States and around the world, here’s what to do if you feel sick and are worried it may be the coronavirus.

Reporting was contributed by Azam Ahmed, Brooks Barnes, Emma Bubola, Alexander Burns, Matthew Futterman, Michael Gold, J. David Goodman, Jack Healy, Andrew Higgins, Ben Hubbard, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Ernesto Londoño, Iliana Magra, Apoorva Mandavilli, Jonathan Martin, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio, Jesse McKinley, Alan Rappeport, Donald McNeil Jr., Benjamin Mueller, Daniel Politi, Austin Ramzy, Dana Rubinstein, Kim Severson, Mitch Smith, Matt Stevens, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Eileen Sullivan, Declan Walsh, Sui-Lee Wee, Noah Weiland, Pete Wells, Sameer Yasir and Karen Zraick.

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