Coronavirus Live News: Cases on the Rise in 27 US States as CDC Estimates 20 Million Americans Could Have Been Infected | World News

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Thursday that he could have contracted the new coronavirus previously and could do another test to detect the disease, having already tested negative for the virus several times before.

Bolsonaro had said he tested negative twice, but fought a court battle to stop publication of the hospital’s test results, raising questions about whether or not he may have been infected.

On Thursday, Brazil confirmed 39,483 new cases. Brazil now has 1,228,114 known coronavirus infections. The death toll approaches 55,000, with current deaths at 54,971, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Mexico’s treasury secretary said Thursday that he tested positive for the coronavirus and will isolate himself while working from home, the AP reports.

Arturo Herrera said he only had minor symptoms. It was unclear how recently he was in close contact with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who refuses to wear a face mask and has resumed public tours of Mexico.

Herrera is the highest-ranking cabinet member in the country who has been infected so far. Previously, the director of the Mexican Social Security Institute tested positive but then returned to work. Several state governors have also acknowledged that they tested positive.

Currently, Mexico has around 196,847 confirmed cases of coronavirus and has reported more than 24,300 deaths. Those numbers continue to rise at near record rates.

Joanna Walters reports for The Guardian in New York, with Mario Koran in Oakland:

The news that US government experts believe more than 20 million Americans may have contracted the coronavirus came as Texas, one of the most populous US states, has seen an increase in cases. of Covid-19 and the governor announced Thursday that it would have to halt the next phases in what has been a rapid reopening of business. Cases are now on the rise in 27 US states, up from 22 earlier this week.

The CDC’s new estimate that for each diagnosis of coronavirus in the US, an additional 10 people are likely to be or have been infected is based on serological tests used to determine the presence of antibodies that show whether an individual has had the illness, officials said. .

Officials, speaking to a small group of reporters on Wednesday night, said the estimate was based on the number of known cases, currently close to 2.4 million in the US, multiplied by the average antibody rate. observed in serology tests, approximately an average of 10 to one.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

I am Helen Sullivan and I will bring you the latest news from around the world in the next few hours. You can send me news and advice from your part of the world, comments, questions or suggestions on Twitter @helenrsullivan or by email: [email protected].

US government experts believe more than 20 million Americans could have contracted the coronavirus, 10 times more than official counts, as cases are increasing in more than half of the states and a new one has emerged. warning about the risk of “apocalyptic” infection in major cities.

My colleagues Joanna Walters and Mario Koran report that new estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that many people without symptoms have or have had the disease, senior administration officials said Thursday. .

Here are the latest developments from the last hours:

• Cases worldwide passed 9.5 million on Thursday, and the WHO said it expected global infections to top 10 million by the end of the week. The current total is 9,523,858. At least 484,880 people have died so far.
• Brazil confirmed 39,483 new cases. Brazil now It has 1,228,114 confirmed cases. The death toll approaches 55,000, with 54,971 deaths currently confirmed.
• Florida reports more than 5,000 new cases. For the second consecutive day, Florida has reported more than 5,000 new confirmed cases of Covid-19. Thursday’s increase in reported cases was less than Wednesday’s record mark, but it’s only the second time the state has crossed the 5,000-case mark in one day. Overall, the state has reported more than 114,000 confirmed cases and at least 3,327 coronavirus-related deaths.
• Mexico’s finance minister, Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez, has announced that he has tested positive for coronavirus but is only experiencing “minor” symptoms.
• Cases continue to rise in the Americas, with Texas announcing that it is halting its reopening after an alarming increase in infections and hospitalizations. US government experts have said they believe more than 20 million Americans could have contracted the coronavirus, 10 times more than official counts. Mexico confirmed its second highest number of daily coronavirus deaths so far, with 947 deaths on Wednesday.
• Europe has seen an increase in Covid-19 cases since countries began easing restrictions, WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge told reporters. “Last week, Europe experienced an increase in weekly cases for the first time in months,” he said, adding that more than two dozen countries in Europe had seen resurgences of the deadly virus.
• In Portugal, various parts of Greater Lisbon will have to return to the running of the bulls. starting next week, as Portuguese authorities grapple with a troubling tidal wave of coronavirus outside the city.
• Israel is also experiencing an alarming increase in new cases of coronavirus, which has led the government to approve the reimposition of a controversial monitoring system administered by the country’s national security agency, the Shin Bet.
• The decline in the number of people in England who are estimated to have Covid-19 has stabilized, suggest new figures from the Office of National Statistics. The agency said the percentage of positive tests has “clearly decreased over time” since the first measurement on April 26 and that “this downward trend has now flattened out.”
• The World Health Organization warned that hospitals face a shortage of oxygen concentrators, that are necessary to support the breathing of Covid-19 patients suffering from respiratory distress, as 1 million new cases of coronavirus are confirmed worldwide per week.
• Volunteers from the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa received their first doses of an experimental vaccine. as part of a human trial conducted by the University of Oxford.
• China reported 19 recently confirmed cases of coronavirus amid massive tests in Beijing, where a recent outbreak appears to have been controlled. Of the new cases he reported on Thursday, 13 were in Beijing and one in the neighboring Hebei province. Authorities say the other five were brought in by Chinese travelers from outside the country. No new deaths were reported.