(CNN) As Texas grows to over 500,000 Covid-19 cases, state teams are doubling their efforts to get residents to wear masks and exercise social distance, after suggesting the turnout has been driven by people waiting for them in the let go.
“The most important thing I was able to convey today is that although Covid-19’s numbers have improved. Jefferson County has not left, Orange County has not left. It has not left the state of Texas,” God said. Greg Abbott said.
Texas has been at the center of the resurgence of coronavirus cases along with California and Florida, both of which report thousands of new daily cases. Although Texas officials initially came under scrutiny for downplaying the severity of the virus’ spread and slowing down plans to withdraw plans, Abbott said at a news conference Tuesday that the state’s distribution of personal protective equipment promotes and encourages Texans to wear masks and take social distance.
“The bottom line is that Texans are realizing how dangerous Covid-19 can be,” Abbott said.
Infection and hospitalization rates are improving in the state, but are “still too high,” he said. To get businesses up and running, Texans need to lower the positivity rate below 10% and maintain and adhere to security measures.
Beaumont Mayor Becky Ames said in a news conference with Abbott that the spike in July followed people who let their guards down when the state reopened. And increasing positive rates now could be the result of the same thing, Abbott said.
You asked, we answer: Your top questions about coronavirus
“There’s a reason why this happens, I believe, and that’s that some people feel like they’re just with family members – even if it’s 50 family members – they can leave their protection,” Abbott said. “And that turns out to be not the case.”
The next opening in the state will be for the new school year; and although local leaders will decide how and when to return, officials have worked to provide schools with the personal protective equipment and sanitizer they need to stay safe, he said.
Positive tests at noon begin after a new school year
School buildings have reopened across the country, even as new cases of coronavirus among students and staff have been reported in places where personal learning has been reopened.
In Ohio, more than a third of Ohio students, a total of about 590,000 children, will return to full-time personal learning, Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday.
But among the 101 largest school districts in the country, 63 will begin the new academic year remotely over concerns about viruses.
Public schools in Elizabeth, New Jersey, had to scrap plans to return to classrooms and switch to virtual learning after more than 400 teachers notified the district they could not return to campus because of “special considerations for health-related risks.” ”
Students have not yet returned to school in the Broken Arrow Public School District in Oklahoma, but 33 district employees tested positive last week, Superintendent Janet Vinson said Monday, according to Tulsa World.
Meanwhile, North Paulding High School in Georgia will announce plans to reopen on Wednesday after reports of several virus cases and criticism over a viral photo that showed students – wearing a pair of masks – walking into a packed school hall.
Relying on science – not politics, says Fauci
Although practices such as wearing face masks are politicized, Drs. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday that he has learned that in order to be a good people without a people in a crisis, you need to separate yourself from politics, rely on science and be as transparent as possible.
“Separate yourself completely from the kind of political undertones that sometimes go into a major outbreak like this,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, when he was honored Tuesday night with a Citizen Leadership Award from 2020 by the Aspen Institute. “” You must stay away from it, lead by example, be completely honest and do not be afraid to say that you do not know something if you do not know it. I find that to be a very good formula when you are dealing with a crisis. “
Even with the polarization, every state in the U.S. took at least one physical distance measure in March to slow the spread, said researchers from Harvard University and University College London. Those measures worked, a new study found.
Physical distance resulted in the reduction of more than 600,000 cases within just three weeks, according to the study, published Tuesday in the journal PLOS. If there were no preventative interventions, the models suggest that up to 80% of Americans would be infected with Covid-19.
“In short, these measures work, and policymakers need to use them as an arrow in their chambers to get to the top of local epidemics, where they do not respond to contained measures,” said the study’s co-author. Mark J. Siedner in a news release
Rush, but not racing, to a fax
A vaccine against the virus is feared, but health experts said the US will not rush its development – even if Russia announces its own.
“We will require every vaccine in the United States to be safe and effective and comply with the FDA’s gold standard,” U.S. Secretary of Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said during a news conference in Taipei, Taiwan, adding that “this is not a race is to be first. ”
Russia claims to have approved a ‘world first’ coronavirus vaccine, but is only in the first step of clinical trials, Azar said. And data from those threads have not been made public.
Fauci has serious doubts that Russia’s approved vaccine is safe and effective, he told ABC News’ Deborah Roberts.
“We have half a dozen or more faxes,” Fauci said. “So if we wanted the chance to hurt a lot of people or give them something that doesn’t work, we could start this, you know, new week if we wanted to. But that’s not how it works.”
When the US finally gets a fax from Moderna Inc. approved, the company will produce and deliver 100 million doses after a $ 1.525 billion deal was struck with the Trump administration, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Moderna is one of several companies producing the vaccine “at risk”, as the sector calls it, which means that the company is currently producing the vaccine before it is approved. Clinical trials are currently underway to test whether it is safe and effective.
CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas, Meridith Edwards, Dave Alsup, Kay Jones, Rebekah Riess and Andrea Kane contributed to this report.
