The US reached another historic milestone on Sunday, surpassing 5 million reported cases of COVID-19 – a number roughly equal to a quarter of the total reported cases worldwide.
The figures continue to rise: More than 56,000 new cases in the US were reported on Sunday, with more than 1,000 dead. More than 162,000 Americans have died in just over six months.
The Johns Hopkins University coronavirus dashboard also reported record-breaking numbers in Brazil, the second hardest hit people in terms of deaths and cases. Brazil has now reported 100,000 deaths and 3 million cases.
All this because the world was close to 20 million cases, a number of experts widely believe that it has been underreported due to insufficient testing.
The staggering numbers come as world leaders wrestle with the ongoing human and economic toll of the virus. President Donald Trump has previously attributed a high number of cases in the US to extended tests, but data show that tests alone do not explain the high number of cases. When economic concerns arose about halting stimulus negotiations in Washington, Trump sought to act unilaterally by signing executive orders on unemployment benefits and other measures to support the economy.
Here are some key developments:
- Florida, won by a historic peak in COVID-19 cases for weeks, shows signs of progress in statistics such as hospitalizations and positivity rates, according to its governor.
- After just one week of school, more than 250 students and teachers from one Georgian school district will be quarantined for two weeks after several teachers and students tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district’s website.
- The Mid-American Conference became the first major college football conference to cancel its fall season.
Hjoed Today’s Numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 162,000 deaths and 5 million cases of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 725,000 deaths and nearly 20 million cases.
📰 What we read: Mike DeWine, Ohio, tested positive, then negative for COVID-19. This underscores how not all tests work the same way, nor do they always produce identical results. Even the same test taken twice can show conflicting results. Here are answers to common questions on the subject.
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US covers over 5 million cases
The US passed 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, just 17 days after reaching 4 million cases. Last week, President Donald Trump reiterated that the U.S. “has the virus under control,” describing his administration’s response to the pandemic as “incredible” in an interview with Axios aired Aug. 3 on HBO. This despite an average daily death toll hovering around 1,000, with nearly 60,000 new cases being reported every day.
Trump’s recurring theme has been the high number of cases in the US, thanks to the high rate of testing. However, ominous hospitalizations and death rates are not a function of testing.
– Khrysgiana Pineda
Trump signs executive orders that provide $ 400 unemployment benefits
Speaking of his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump said his orders would provide an additional $ 400 a week in unemployment benefits, which is $ 200 less than the additional benefit that expired at the end of July. Trump said he would also suspend payments on some student loans by the end of the year, protect tenants from being evicted from their homes, and instruct employers to defer certain tax rates by the end of the year for Americans who annually earn less than $ 100,000.
It was not immediately clear if he had the power to issue such an order in the sidelines of the Congress. Trump said he decided to act on his own and order the benefits after two weeks of negotiations with Congressmen collapsing without an agreement on a new package for coronavirus relief.
– David Jackson and Michael Collins
Brazil has over 100,000 dead; some U.S. states set weekly records
Brazil is now the second country with 3 million cases and also the second country to report 100,000 deaths, Johns Hopkins reports. A USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Saturday shows three states set records for new cases in a week, while two states had a record number of deaths in a week. New business records were set in Hawaii, Indiana and Virginia. Record numbers of deaths were reported in Arkansas and Nevada, as well as Puerto Rico.
– Mike Stucka
Approximately 250 students in Georgia’s school district were quarantined after one week
After just one week of school, more than 250 students and teachers from one Georgian school district will be quarantined for two weeks after several teachers and students tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district’s website.
Cherokee County School District, north of Atlanta, shares regular updates on cases of coronavirus at its schools on its website. The district has more than 42,000 students. As of Friday, at least 11 students, ranging in age from first to 12th grade, and two staff members, from various elementary, middle and high schools, have tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the quarantine order for nearly 250 students and staff. The students will receive online instruction during the period.
In a letter to families, Superintendent Brian Hightower said the trend of students and staff testing positive every day “will continue as we operate schools during a pandemic.” He called on students and staff to wear masks at school.
– Doug Stanglin
MAC becomes first major conference to cancel fall football season
The Mid-American Conference, facing significant financial losses without the possibility of playing more than a handful of non-conference matches against Power Five opponents this season, became the first Football Bowl Subdivision conference to cancel its relegation season on Saturday, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the league had not yet made an announcement. In addition to a small chunk of TV revenue, MAC schools are dependent on money from guarantees for football games, which amount to outside money to play large conference schools. MAC schools stood to raise $ 10.5 million this season from non-conference games alone against the Big Ten.
But with the SEC and in particular the Big Ten deciding to play only within their conference, MAC Buffalo’s only Power Five games were in Kansas State, Ball State in Iowa State, Miami at Pitt, Ohio at Boston College and Western Michigan by Notre Dame.
– Then Clouds
Young people struggle to find support for mental health amid pandemic
Prevalence of depression among college students has increased since the pandemic caused campus closures this spring compared to fall 2019, according to a survey of 18,000 college students published by the Healthy Minds Network on July 9th. And of the nearly 42% of students who sought mental health care during the pandemic, 60% said it was either much more or somewhat more difficult to access care.
Mental health among young people has been declining for years. A 2019 analysis of teens reported 13% of U.S. teens ages 12 to 17 said in 2017 that they had at least one major depressive episode in the past year, up from 8% in 2007.
– Elinor Aspegren
What we read
- Saying goodbye to a dying woman has probably cost a 90-year-old ‘Romeo’ his life. He had no regrets, says family.
- University of Michigan among 1st in US to test campuses living during COVID-19 pandemic
- Read this while wearing your comfortable pants? Nobody buys business clothes right now. That’s bad news for retailers.
- Party killers: Colleges hope new rules will slow down COVID distribution. Students are not convinced.
- Travel during coronavirus: How can you get faster security faster – and safer?
21-year-old recovers from mild case, then lacks his organs
A 21-year-old from Florida warns of possible complications in long-term virus after his mild case became almost fatal. Two weeks after Spencer Rollyson tested negative and returned to work, he began to suffer from an array of symptoms. His fever eventually reached 103.4 degrees – and Rollyson fell unconsciously in the middle of a June 15 telehealth appointment.
Doctors diagnosed Rollyson with multi-organ failure with heart failure, acute respiratory failure, and severe sepsis with septic shock. “I thought I was going to die. I was literally sitting in the hospital like, ‘I’m going to die,'” Rollyson recalls.
It is yet another astonishing example of how the virus can damage the body in unpredictable ways. For example, two German studies published last week found heart abnormalities in COVID-19 patients months after recovering from the disease.
– Rick Neale, Florida Today
No masks needed as expected 250,000 at Sturgis bike rally
One of the biggest events since the start of the pandemic has begun in South Dakota: More than 250,000 people are expected at the iconic Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. That’s scaled up from previous years, where about half a million people in the city of about 7,000 descend for an event that has developed a reputation as a festival with everything that goes on.
While the 80-year-old tradition is not as raging as it once was, festival-goers will be largely free of social distance constraints that are normal elsewhere in the country during this 10-year-old year. Masks are encouraged but not required.
More COVID-19 sources from USA TODAY
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Contribution: The Associated Press
