July 12 coronavirus news

New York City reported no confirmed or probable Covid-19 deaths Saturday,?according to preliminary?data?from the New York City Health Department and a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

Officials from both offices stressed that this data is preliminary and subject to change due to the retroactive nature of the City’s reporting system.

Similarly a representative from the mayor’s office tells CNN while data from the health department shows no new deaths reported Saturday, the deaths are reported retroactively so it’s still uncertain whether there were no Covid-19 related deaths on Saturday.

Earlier Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported five people died from Covid-19 Saturday.

NYC reported no Covid-19 confirmed deaths Friday, but reported two probable Covid-19 deaths that day, according to available data.

Park guests arrive at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, on Saturday, July 11.

Prompted by claims on social media this weekend that a guest felt sick on Disney property, CNN asked Disney about its policy regarding guests who feel unwell while inside the parks.

A Disney spokesperson replied, saying the company has?robust protocols in place and will address each situation individually, considering advice provided by public health agencies and the company’s medical and safety experts.

In addition to the health screenings prior to entry of the park, this includes the process that if someone comes to the parks’ First Aid with Covid-19-like symptoms, Disney requires them to leave the park and assists them in seeking additional medical care.

Peru’s Health Ministry reported 3,616 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing its nationwide total confirmed cases to?326,326.?

The ministry also reported 188 new deaths from the virus. Peru’s death toll is?11,870, making it the third highest death toll in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Mexico and Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University.?

Despite the steady increase in cases, the Peruvian government is moving forward with it’s reopening plan that began on June 22.?

Beginning Wednesday, long distance transportation will restart its operations, according to the state-run?Agencia?Andina?news agency.?

Some transportation companies are preparing their waiting and boarding areas to respect social distancing guidelines, with one company even implementing disinfecting devices for passengers and their carry-ons before boarding, Agencia Andina reported.

Peru is among the top five countries in the world with the most confirmed cases, and is second after Brazil in the region.?

Brazil is nearing 1.9 million cases of the novel coronavirus after its health ministry reported 24,831 new cases Sunday.

Brazil’s nationwide total of confirmed cases now stands at 1,864,681, the world’s second highest number of cases, behind the US.

The ministry also reported 631 new deaths from the virus Sunday, bringing its death toll to 72,100, also the second highest worldwide.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro remains in semi-isolation after testing positive for the virus last week.

There were 3,322 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 18 new deaths reported Sunday in Los Angeles, according to a press release from the LA County Department of Public Health.

This is second highest daily case count reported in the last week. The agency reported 4,015 new cases on July 7, the largest single day case count increase, which they attributed to a backlog of test results.

There are currently 2,093 people hospitalized with 26% being confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the ICU and 19% confirmed cases on ventilators, the release said.

“This remains substantially higher than the 1,350 to 1,450 daily hospitalizations seen four weeks ago,” the release said.

Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell walks onto the field prior to an NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals in 2019.

Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell has been released from a Rhode Island hospital after admitting?himself due to a Covid-19 diagnosis, according to a?statement?on the team’s website.

Bidwell issued a statement expressing his appreciation for front line workers as well as his team’s fan base.?He said he is fortunate to have the experience behind him and encouraged people to take measures to avoid contracting the virus.

Bidwell’s full?statement:

The Toronto Blue Jays play an intrasquad game at Rogers Centre in Toronto on July 9.

Toronto Mayor John Tory says negotiations are ongoing between government, public health officials and the Blue Jays’ management team to strike a deal that will see the city’s major league baseball team play its home games in Toronto.?

At issue, strict Canadian quarantine procedures that would see players and staff restricted to a “bubble” between their training facility and stadium at Toronto’s Rogers Centre and an adjoining hotel.?

The Blue Jays are currently training in Toronto and are observing the stadium-to-hotel quarantine, but some players have taken to social media to express their concerns about the quarantine rules lasting for the entire season.?

MLB is already requesting an exemption for its players entering Canada so they do not have to quarantine for 14 days, but will instead follow restrictions and continue to stay within the stadium-to-hotel bubble.?

The US-Canada border remains closed to non-essential travel until at least July 21.

On Friday, Blue Jays infielder Travis Shaw tweeted that staying in a restrictive bubble between the stadium and the hotel was not sustainable.

Shaw and a few other players have expressed concern that the restrictions are too much of a burden, especially on their families.?

Toronto’s first home game of 2020 is currently scheduled for July 29 at the Rogers Centre.?

There are at least?3,286,025?cases of?coronavirus?in the US and at least?135,089?people have died in the US from?coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases in the United States, .??

As of 5 p.m. ET Sunday,?40,100?new cases and?312?new deaths have been reported in the US.

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as repatriated cases.?

CNN has an interactive map tracking cases across the country.

Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego told CNN’s Dana Bash that coronavirus positivity rates and record-setting ventilator usage by Covid-19 patients continue to plague the greater Phoenix area.

Gallego also said that Federal funding and testing could not “come a moment too soon” as her city had huge issues with testing for coronavirus.

“We have had people waiting, eight, 10, 13 hours” to get tested, Gallego said.

Gallego said she’s joined other mayors from across the state of Arizona in asking Gov. Doug Ducey to put significant expansion and safety precautions in regards to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We do not have a statewide requirement for facial coverings in Arizona,” Gallego said.

When asked about school reopenings, Gallego said the city has a separately elected school board and many of those elected leaders are saying schools can’t open until at least October with the level of the virus so pronounced in the community.

“They just don’t feel?like it is a safe environment for teachers to go in and they are concerned about our students as well as spread of the virus,” Gallego said.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds a virtual meeting with lawmakers in Tehran on July 12.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the resurgence of coronavirus in Iran as “truly sad” and encouraged citizens to take appropriate measures to help contain the outbreak.?

Khamenei told lawmakers in a video call Sunday that citizens should “play their role in the best way to shorten the chain of transmission in the short term to bring the country to the shore of salvation,” according to Khamenei’s office.

Iran reported 184 new coronavirus related deaths on Sunday. The death toll brings the nationwide total to 12,829 fatalities, according to Iran’s Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadaat Lari,?who was speaking on state television.?

She announced 2,186 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections in Iran to 257,303. There are a total?of 3,359 patients are in ICU and in critical condition.

Iran said 219,993 people who had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus have recovered.

South Africa will resume a ban on alcohol sales and reinstate a daily curfew to free up hospital capacity as the country’s Covid-19 cases continue to rise.

Gauteng Province, the home of the commercial hub of Johannesburg and the country’s capital, Pretoria, is leading the surge as it fast approaches 100,000 confirmed cases.?

What the numbers say: South Africa has recorded more than 12,000 new Covid-19 infections every day, equivalent to 500 new cases every hour. A quarter of South Africa’s more than 4,000 coronavirus deaths have occurred in the last week.?

Ramaphosa said it was projected that 40,000 to 50,00 South Africans could die from the virus within the year.

“We must make it our single most important task to prove these projections wrong,” Ramaphosa said.?

He highlighted the success of treatment interventions and a stringent lockdown for keeping South Africa’s 1.5% case fatality rate among the lowest in the world.?

As the country’s pandemic stretches into its fourth month, the?healthcare shortfalls across South Africa are becoming clear, including the need for more than 12,000 health workers, mostly nurses.?

“Our greatest challenge still lies ahead,” Ramaphosa said. “Health facilities in several provinces are already under tremendous strain.”??

The total number of test results reported yesterday in South Carolina was 8,769 with the percent positive of those tests being 22.3%, according to a news release from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control issued Sunday.?

A total of 538,022 tests have been conducted in the state, according to the release.

There were 1,952 new cases of coronavirus and?10 new deaths?reported for a?total of 56,485 confirmed cases and 163 probable cases. There was also 950 confirmed deaths and 11 probable deaths statewide, the release said.?

Over the past 24 hours, 230,370 new cases of Covid-19 worldwide have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) according to Sunday’s report. That brings the total number of cases reported to WHO from around the world to 12,552,765.

The previous record for cases reported to WHO in a 24-hour period was on July 10 with 228,102 new cases.

Sunday’s report also had 5,285 additional deaths in the past 24 hours from the virus worldwide, bringing the global death toll to 561,617, according to WHO.

As coronavirus surges in some areas of the United States and declines in others, some doctors in hotspot areas said they were running low or couldn’t access remdesivir, while doctors in other parts of the country said they have more of the antiviral drug than they currently need – and there’s no mechanism for hospitals to shift the drug where it’s needed most.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services told CNN that in the coming week, allocations of remdesivir to states “will emphasize locations with large recent increases.”

Even though it’s not a cure for Covid-19, doctors say most of their hospitalized patients could benefit from remdesivir. The shipments headed to some hotspot states in the coming week, however, don’t even come close to the number hospitalized.

As of July 10, Texas had 10,002 hospitalized patients with Covid-19, but the batch headed to Texas will have only enough remdesivir for about 3,507 patients; Florida had 6,974 patients, but only enough for 2,733; California had 7,896 patients but only enough for 2,080; Arizona had 3,432 hospitalized patients but enough for 2,080 patients, according to state and federal data.

HHS will make another shipment in two weeks.??

The spokesperson also said the company hired to distribute remdesivir will reach out to each hospital that received the drug to confirm that it still needs it. The department “is committed to equitable and efficient distribution of the drug with the goal of reaching as many patients as possible across all states and U.S. territories,” according to the spokesperson.??

Some doctors said the distribution system needs to be overhauled.

Some context: In May, the FDA granted emergency authorization for remdesivir for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, and the federal government is overseeing its distribution. At first, Gilead Sciences, the company that makes the drug, donated the supply, but starting next week, hospitals have to purchase it.

The HHS spokesperson said once a hospital purchases remdesivir, “that hospital owns the drug and is free to handle it as it sees fit, which could include transferring or selling to other hospitals within or outside of its state or territory.”?

But Dr. Michael Ison, an infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said Illinois health officials have warned hospitals against shipping drugs across state lines for legal reasons.

Even if they were able to ship anywhere they wanted, doctors and hospitals shouldn’t be making decisions about where it goes, Ison said.

“What we don’t want is for someone to say, ‘Oh, I have a friend at Hospital X, so I’ll send it all to them,” he said.??

Ison said instead, the government should have a systematic way of seeing which hospitals have a surplus, and which hospitals have the most need, and coordinate shipments accordingly.?

“No one has a sense of where there’s excess and where there’s deficiencies,” he said. “This is a national limited, scarce resource. There needs to be some process to this.”??

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Brasília, Brazil, on June 30.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Brazil is “on the brink of recession” as the economy feels the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Accusing “misinformation” for causing widespread panic, Bolsonaro said, “people believed they had only one serious problem to deal with” and warned that the “side effects of fighting the virus could not be worse than the virus itself.”

Bolsonaro said the situation could have been even worse had it not been for the action of the federal government which provided “emergency aid for more than 60 million people” and distributed resources.

He also asked families to “depoliticize from the pandemic” and added, “It won’t be easy, but we’ll have to start over.”

In April: The Brazilian government offered emergency aid to those without income during the pandemic, initially offering R200 a month (US $40) but after criticism from Congress, it was increased to R600 (US $120). This government assistance was initially to be paid for three months but last month was extended another two months.

In a Facebook live on Thursday night, Bolsonaro said he hopes governors and mayors “open commerce as soon as possible” because the government cannot continue paying emergency aid to unemployed people for too long.

“We are contracting debt to pay it,” he said.

Bolsonaro announced he tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday and has since been working remotely from Alvorada Palace, his official residence. The first lady announced Saturday that she and her two daughters tested negative.?

Miami-Dade County is reaching capacity in available hospital beds and intensive care unit (ICU) beds at some of the county’s hospitals treating Covid-19 patients, Mayor Carlos Gimenez told CNN.

The mayor concluded by saying that the county still has hospital bed capacity but it does cause him great concern.

When asked to reflect on Secretary of Education Betsy Devos’ advice for schools to reopen in the fall, Gimenez said that he is working with the superintendent to find a solution on when to reopen schools in the county.

“Our number one priority is keeping our kids safe,” Gimenez said. “[I]t all depends on the virus and what it’s doing here at that time.”

People are tested for Covid-19 at a drive-through testing site operated by the Florida Department of Health in Kissimmee, Florida, on July 11.

Florida health officials on Sunday reported?15,300?new?Covid-19 cases, a record for the state,?according to data posted on the Florida Department of Health (DOH) website.?

The previous high for the state was on July 4 with 11,434, according to?Johns Hopkins University?data.?

Florida’s current positivity rate is 19.60%, according to Johns Hopkins.?

There were 45 additional Covid-19 related deaths bringing the state total to 4,346. There have been?18,271 patients hospitalized in the state throughout the pandemic.?Florida cases now total 269,811, DOH reports.?

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, where Pittsburgh is located, says there were no new deaths from Covid-19 cases, according to a press release issued Sunday from the Allegheny County Health Department.?

The county announced 200 new Covid-19 cases and eight new hospitalizations, the release said.?

The positive test results are from June 26 through July 11, according to the release.?

One thing to note: The figures listed were released by the Allegheny County Health Department and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The state of Maryland conducted more than 21,000 Covid-19 tests over the last 24 hours, Gov. Larry Hogan said today in a statement.

The governor said this is a record number of tests for the state.

Maryland has a total of 73,109 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 3,188 deaths related to the virus.?

Of the people tested over the last seven days the state has a 4.45% positivity rate, the governor said.

One thing to note: The numbers listed were released by the state of Maryland and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called comments from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on schools reopening during the pandemic a “dereliction of duty.”

In the interview with CNN today, DeVos?refused to say whether schools should follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on reopening.?Pelosi told CNN that everyone, including teachers and parents, want children to go back to school in the fall, but that it must be done safely.??

Pelosi said the CDC’s guidelines should be mandated nationally by the administration, claiming that the administration has the authority to do so, just as a governor can require masks and social distancing in his or her state. She also told CNN that she hopes Republicans will join with Democrats in calling for President Trump to implement the Defense Production Act to ensure more personal protective equipment, testing materials and other supplies are available.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Sunday tried to argue both that schools should open nationwide and that local officials should be the ones making decisions about reopening, claiming that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines are only meant to be applied as “appropriate.”

In pushing so aggressively for nationwide school openings this fall, DeVos joined President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, both of whom this week argued the administration would pursue in-person classroom learning to the extent possible so working parents could get back to the office.?

Some context: The CDC has issued some guidance for schools looking to bring back their students in the next few months, such as spacing desks six feet apart and staggering arrivals. But DeVos stressed that the CDC guidelines are not mandatory, and said schools should have the flexibility to implement only the ones that make sense.

“The CDC guidelines are just that, meant to be flexible and meant to be applied as appropriate for the situation,” she said.

New York state is closely monitoring an uptick in Covid-19 cases in Rensselaer County – a number of which are being investigated as being linked to several individuals who tested positive for the virus after returning from Georgia, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said in a news release.

More context: Georgia is one of several states on New York’s travel advisory?list, which requires individuals traveling from certain qualifying states to quarantine upon return.

Of the tests conducted statewide yesterday, 677, or 1.08%, were positive, the governor’s office said.

Covid-19 deaths matched the state’s previous low, with five reported in the state Saturday.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hinted at the possibility of asking visitors from England to quarantine on arrival in Scotland.?

Speaking to the BBC, Sturgeon said that imposing quarantine restrictions for English travelers is “not something we have decided to do at this stage, it’s not something I am immediately planning to do, but I will take decisions the best I can to protect the health of Scotland and to take that absolutely from a public health perspective.”

Sturgeon said that Scottish officials would “take a very close look” at making sure the virus isn’t brought into the country by people arriving from other parts of the UK.?

Surgeon also added that the decision to quarantine English travelers is “not political, it’s not constitutional, it’s just taking a similar view to countries across the world in terms of protecting populations from the risk of the virus.”

Some context: This decision comes after Scotland — which is one of the four nations of the UK along with England, Wales and Northern Ireland —?opted against easing lockdown restrictions as quickly as England due to fears of a second phase.

Sturgeon has been critical of Boris Johnson’s tactics in handling the pandemic, recently calling the British government’s decision-making process during the crisis “shambolic.”

DC United and Toronto FC’s match on Sunday has been postponed due to an “initial unconfirmed” positive coronavirus test for one player and an “inconclusive test” for another.

Under Major League Soccers’ health and safety protocols, teams are tested the day before each match, MLS said in a statement.

MLS said it will “continue to prioritize the health and safety of all participants of the MLS is Back Tournament in making these decisions.”

DC United and Toronto FC were?scheduled to kick off at 9 a.m. ET in Orlando, Florida.

At least 73 key workers working for vegetable producers AS Green and Co based in the town of Mathon in the west of England have tested positive for the coronavirus during an outbreak among their workforce, according to joint statement from the Herefordshire Council and Public Health Midlands (West).

The whole group of around 200 workers are “being treated as one extended bubble” and are being asked to self-isolate on the farm to reduce the spread of the virus, the statement said.

“While Herefordshire is the first to experience an outbreak of this kind, this is not unexpected. Our priority is to protect the health and wellbeing of all residents in our community,” Karen Wright, the director of Public Health for Herefordshire, said. “Prompt testing on the farm has allowed us to understand transmission and control the spread of infection.”?

There are a total of 7,268 patients hospitalized in?Florida?with the primary diagnosis of coronavirus, according to new data released by the Agency for Health Care Administration on Sunday.?

The three most populated counties: Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, are seeing the highest number of patients hospitalized.

Here’s the breakdown of patients for these counties:

In Orange County, where Disney World reopened on Saturday, 489 patients are hospitalized.

Thousands of Israelis filled Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square Saturday night to protest the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, angered by what they say is a critical lack of economic aid, predominantly for the self-employed.

Protesters waved yellow and black signs that called the political leaders “disconnected” and saying “enough,” while others held up signs calling this an “economic war” and demanding the government “release the money.”

Following the demonstration, some protesters attempted to block roads in Tel Aviv and damaged public areas, according to Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Twelve suspects were arrested for causing public disturbances and blocking roads, Rosenfeld said, while three police officers were lightly injured.

Some context: Unemployment in Israel hit 21% Sunday morning, according to the Israel Employment Service, as new unemployment filings?were?more than?double?the number of people returning to work over the weekend. Since Thursday, 1,250 returned to work, according to the governmental agency, but 2,843 filed for unemployment.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday morning that the government had approved up to 7,500 shekels (approx. $2,170) in “rapid assistance” to business owners and the self-employed with more steps ahead.

“This support, this grant, is not dependent on legislation and we ordered that it will be enacted already today, the button will be pressed so that the money will arrive in the accounts in the next few days,” Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

With the economy in such a fragile state, Netanyahu has tried to avoid another complete closure, instead employing stricter social distancing restrictions and localized lockdowns to attempt to contain the second wave of coronavirus in Israel.

Israel appeared to be on track to contain the coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, when new cases dipped as low as 20 per day in mid-May following a near-complete national lockdown. But two months later, new coronavirus cases have surged to more than 1,100 per day, raising fears of another lockdown, as the dire economic outlook has?taken its toll on the public.

Tour guide Erez Deron says protesters like him are fed up with the abundance of words but the lack of action.

“The government is dealing only with petty things like taxes and words between one another,” Deron told CNN. “[Netanyahu] doesn’t see the citizens. He only cares for himself, and I’m really furious about the time they are spending on foolish things.”?

During the first wave of coronavirus infections that began in late-March, Netanyahu appeared on television many nights to reassure the public that the country was doing well in its fight against Covid-19 and that he had everything under control. His approval ratings for his handling of coronavirus soared, hitting 74% in mid-May when the worst seemed to have passed. As cases have soared again in recent weeks, Netanyahu’s approval rating has tanked, dropping to 46% last week.

The crisis and the ensuing protests have exposed widening gaps within Israel’s national unity government.

Heralded Bollywood actress?Aishwarya?Rai?Bachchan, the daughter-in-law of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan and wife of fellow actor Abhishek Bachchan, has tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Health Minister of Maharashtra state.

Rajesh Tope confirmed the diagnosis on his Twitter account.?The couple’s daughter?Aradhya Bachchan has also tested positive.

The star’s father-in-law and husband were both admitted to hospital Saturday night after they also tested positive for coronavirus.?Mumbai’s Nanavati Hospital said Amitabh Bachchan was in a stable condition on Sunday.

Both mother and daughter initially tested negative in rapid antigen tests conducted on Saturday night.?But swab test results returned on Sunday came back positive, according to Health Minister Tope.

Alec Mahon, 29, met his girlfriend Brooke, during the pandemic. They've been inseparable for the past month.

If you asked Alec Mahon one month ago whether he believed in love, he’d probably tell you he had “given up.”

When coronavirus first hit in March, the freelance production manager paid about $30 for a three-month premium subscription on the dating app Hinge – and he figured he’d just keep swiping until that ended.

Like many, the 29-year-old used dating apps like Hinge as a way to connect with others, especially since making in-person connections had become nearly impossible with Covid-19 shutdowns. He went on one Facetime date – the girl, he said, seemed like she was “just going through her matches … like on a spreadsheet.”

But on May 29, he had plans to meet up with a different match – this time in person. A 28-year-old nurse named Brooke, with whom he would hike Runyon Canyon – Los Angeles’ picturesque, influencer-ridden trail.

It was in the middle of their approximately three-mile hike, when the two decided they felt comfortable enough to remove their face masks, that he knew this was different. Their guards were down, or as he described it, “all caution (regarding coronavirus) was thrown to the wind.”

Now, less than one month and many dates later, they split most of their time between his West Hollywood apartment and hers in Long Beach. He’s done what many initially considered impossible with social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders:

He found love during a global pandemic.

“This is truly two people finding their soulmate during the most unlikely of times,” he told CNN in a phone interview. “We’re thinking about eloping to Vegas if the chapels open.”

Read more here.

Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, left, and his son Abhishek Bachchan attend a Bollywood party in Mumbai on February 28, 2010.

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan is in “stable” condition in the isolation unit at Nanavati Hospital, according to a hospital statement released on Sunday.??

Bachchan and his son Abhishek Bachchan were both admitted to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 late Saturday evening.

“Amitabh Bachchan is stable with mild symptoms and is currently admitted in the isolation unit of the hospital,” reads the hospital statement.

A living legend in Hindi-language cinema, Bachchan has made more than 180 films in a career spanning five decades.

Hailed by many as India’s greatest living actor, he is revered in his home nation.

A banana vendor waits for buyers outside closed shops at a wholesale vegetable market which was closed after a recent spike in Covid-19 cases in Bengaluru, India, on Tuesday, June 23.

The Indian city of Bengaluru will be put under lockdown for a week starting Tuesday to contain a massive cluster of Covid-19 cases, authorities said.

Detailed guidelines will be issued on Monday, the statement added. Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore, is the capital of the state of Karnataka, and has a population of more than 8 million people – making it India’s third-most populous city. It is home to a thriving tech industry and often referred to as India’s IT capital, or the country’s Silicon Valley.

Authorities have identified 16,862 cases of Covid-19 in the Bengaluru urban area and 245 cases in rural areas, state health authorities said.

As of Saturday evening, 229 people in urban areas had died after contracting the virus, while seven died in rural locations.

The coronavirus pandemic has already?claimed?over half a million lives across the world, with case numbers continuing to rise. A?report?by Oxfam warns that the hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic could kill more people each day than the infection itself.

An estimated 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to Covid-19 by the end of the year, Oxfam said. By comparison, data by Johns Hopkins University shows that the pandemic’s deadliest day so far was April 17, when 8,890 deaths were recorded.

Among the issues that have left many unable to put food on the table are lost income caused by unemployment or a reduction in remittance payments, the lack of social support for those who work in the informal economy, and disruptions to the supply chain and hurdles faced by producers.

Also contributing to the crisis are the travel restrictions related to lockdowns, which affect not just workers and farmers, but also the delivery of humanitarian aid.

These new challenges add themselves to long-standing issues worsening global hunger, including wars, climate change and rising inequality.

Read more:

Maria Rita Dias dos Santos, 53, wearing a protective face mask, carries food donated food from former inmates, part of a nonprofit organization known as "Eu sou Eu" or "I am me", who are delivering food to people struggling due to the new coronavirus pandemic, at the Para-Pedro favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, May 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Related article The hunger crisis linked to coronavirus could kill more people than the disease itself, Oxfam warns

After Memorial Day, as the United States began to reopen, coronavirus cases began to rise. The number of hospitalizations had risen in at least a dozen states two weeks after the holiday weekend.

For the Fourth of July weekend, a new analysis of cell phone data suggests even more people hit the road among 10 coronavirus hotspots, despite warnings from health experts.

Mobility, experts say, is one driver of transmission of the novel coronavirus.

The analysis comes from data shared with CNN by?Cuebiq, one of the private companies that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses to track general movement in the United States. Cuebiq gets its data when people download apps on their phones and opt into anonymous location data tracking. The company’s full data set includes 15 million phones nationwide.

For the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the data shows that the numbers of people traveling?were generally higher overall than Memorial Day weekend. The July 4 weekend was generally recognized as Friday, Saturday and Sunday, while Memorial Day weekend in May was Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Read more:

MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA - JULY 03: People walk past restaurants on Ocean Drive on July 03, 2020 in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida. In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Miami-Dade county has closed beaches from July 3-7 and imposed a curfew from from 10pm to 6am. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

Related article Cell phone data show Americans hit the road over July 4, even as coronavirus surged

A medical professional collects swab sample to test for Covid-19 infection, at MMG hospital, on July 11, in Ghaziabad, India.

India announced another 28,637 coronavirus cases on Sunday morning – the fourth day in a row in which the country set a new daily record for infections.

India has now recorded at least 849,553 cases of Covid-19, more than any other country except Brazil or the United States. Of those, 292,258 are active cases, while 534,620 patients have recovered, according to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

At least 22,674 people have died from the virus.

The western state of Maharashtra remains India’s worst-hit region with 246,660 cases and 10,116 virus-related deaths, according to officials.?

People socialize in Soho, central London, after the lifting of further coronavirus lockdown restrictions in England.

Walk into any busy store in England or board a train on London’s cramped underground system and you will see dozens of people unmasked. And you can forget about face coverings at recently reopened pubs … that’s about as likely as a free pint of beer.

This is all happening despite the United Kingdom being one of the world’s worst-hit countries by coronavirus. It stands third behind Brazil and the United States in terms of the number of people killed by the virus, with almost 45,000 fatalities.

The three countries with the most deaths also have populations not wearing masks.?

Now, as the World Health Organization confirms there is “emerging evidence” of airborne transmission of the coronavirus, senior scientists are urging Britons to take up mask wearing, as two new reports highlight the potential effectiveness of facial coverings.?

Ramakrishnan said not wearing a mask should be regarded as antisocial as drink driving and reasoned that there is a “growing body of evidence that wearing a mask will help protect others – and might even protect you.”

Read more here:

A pedestrian wearing a protective face mask passes an entrance to Covent Garden Market in London, U.K., on Saturday, July 4, 2020. Restaurants, hotels, cinemas and hairdressers will also be allowed to open their doors again on what has been dubbed 'Super Saturday' after 3 1/2 months of an economic lockdown brought in to contain the outbreak. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article Britain is the worst-hit country outside of the US and Brazil. It STILL won't wear masks

Trendy home-goods chain Muji has filed for bankruptcy, making it?the latest?in a?string of retailers?to do so as the coronavirus crisis decimates the industry.

Muji, which sells minimalist decor, stationery and clothing, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday in the US State of Delaware. The company plans to use the process to emerge with a renewed focus on online sales.

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A customer holds a Muji shopping bag while walking through the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall on Black Friday in Paramus, New Jersey, U.S., on Friday, Nov. 29, 2019. U.S. shoppers are expected to spend around $32 billion on?Black?Friday, according to Customer Growth Partners' President Craig Johnson. Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Related article Muji files for bankruptcy

At least?3,245,925?cases of coronavirus had been recorded in the United States by the end of the day Saturday Eastern Time, according to Johns Hopkins University. Since the pandemic began, at least 134,777?people have died in the US from the virus.?

On Saturday, Johns Hopkins University reported?61,352?new cases and?685?new virus-related deaths in the country.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.?

A woman is instructed on how to swab her nose by a medical worker at a free COVID-19 testing site, on Friday, July 10, in Chelsea, Massachusetts

About 40% of people infected with Covid-19 show no symptoms of the disease, according to new guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In May, the CDC created five “Covid-19 Pandemic Planning Scenarios,” using data to provide a range of possible situations for the coronavirus in the US.

Those scenarios have now been updated based on new data the agency received in June.?

Under the CDC’s “current best estimate,” 40% of people with Covid-19 are asymptomatic. This number is up from the 35% the agency estimated on May 20.?The?number of asymptomatic cases remains uncertain, the CDC emphasized.

The CDC is also now including an infection fatality ratio, which takes into account both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases (in the estimates published in May, the agency only included the fatality ratio for symptomatic cases).

Under the best estimate scenario, the infection fatality ratio is 0.65%, meaning that 0.65% of people infected with Covid-19 will die.

About half of Covid-19 transmissions happen before people get sick; this is up from the 40% estimate in May.

Under the CDC’s current best estimate, the transmissibility of the virus from asymptomatic people – in comparison to people with no symptoms – is now 75%, down from 100%. However, the agency said this “remains highly uncertain as asymptomatic cases are difficult to identify and transmission is difficult to observe and quantify.”

The agency says this new information is “intended to support public health preparedness and planning.”

Since the pandemic began, there have been more than?3.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.

With more than 3.2 million cumulative cases, that’s more than the population of 21 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, according to data from the US Census Bureau.

More people in the US now have Covid-19 than live in Chicago, the country’s third-largest city, according to US Census Bureau?2019 population estimates.

Medical workers check patients for COVID-19 at a drive-thru testing center in Melbourne, Australia on July 10, 2020.

The Australian state of Victoria reported another 273 cases of coronavirus and one death on Saturday, according to the state’s Premier Daniel Andrews.?

The state has now recorded 1,184 active cases – 57 of those are in hospital, with 16 patients in intensive care, Andrews said.

After weeks of keeping the virus under control, Victoria is battling a worrying spike in cases. Last week, the state closed its borders in order to stop the spread.

He urged people to follow the government’s stay-at-home order and warned citizens that they would be fined if caught “out and about doing the wrong thing.”

Residents in metropolitan Melbourne have been subject to strict lockdown measures since earlier this week. They cannot leave their homes unless it’s for grocery shopping, caregiving, exercise or work.?

Healthcare workers test positive: Eight healthcare workers at a hospital in Melbourne have tested positive for coronavirus.

Five of those people are believed to have contracted the virus through community transmission, and not at work, the Alfred Hospital said in a statement released Sunday.

Three of the cases were identified through contact tracing efforts. Currently, no patients have contracted Covid-19 within the hospital.

Schools go virtual: Andrews also said Sunday that most students in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, a municipality north of Melbourne, will return to online learning once the winter break ends on July 20.

Andrews said that students in years 11-12 will be returning to face-to-face learning, while certain year 10 students will also be allowed to return to in-person classes.?

Education Minister Jason Merlino said the state has already rolled out 48,000 laptops and 26,000 WiFi dongles for students who will be doing at home learning.

A health worker cares for a COVID-19-infected patient at the intensive care unit of Anhembi emergency makeshift hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil on July 1.

Another 1,071 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil, health authorities there announced on Saturday.

The South American country’s death toll now stands at 71,469, the second-highest in the world. Only the United States has recorded more coronavirus-related fatalities.

Authorities also said that they recorded another 39,023 Covid-19 cases, bringing the nationwide total to 1,839,850 since the pandemic began.

Among those who have tested positive is Brazilian President Jair?Bolsonaro. Following his diagnosis, Bolsonaro acknowledged the grave risk posed by the virus, which he has in the past dismissed as just a “little flu.”

Brazil has been reporting tens of thousands of new cases, and over 1,000 deaths, a day since late May.

President Donald Trump wore a face mask during a visit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on Saturday, July 11.

President Donald Trump?paid a visit to wounded?service members at Walter Reed?National Military Medical Center on Saturday and wore a mask after months of refusing to be seen doing so in public.

Trump was seen briefly in a mask while walking with staff, who also were wearing masks, at the medical center in Bethesda, Maryland. He did not make any remarks while wearing one. This is the first time since the pandemic began that the White House press corps got a glimpse of Trump with a face covering.

The President’s decision to wear a mask during his Saturday trip to the medical center comes after months of declining to publicly wear one – against the recommendations of his own administration’s public health experts.The President said that wearing a mask while he is in the hospital is “a very appropriate thing.”

“I think when you’re in the hospital you should definitely wear a mask. That wouldn’t be difficult at all for me,” Trump said in an interview with Telemundo on Friday.?

Over the course of the pandemic, Trump has refused to wear a mask in public, ridiculed those who have and done little to encourage his supporters to embrace the common sense public health measure.

CNN has previously reported?that some of the President’s aides practically begged him to agree to today’s mask photo op and hope it will encourage skeptical Trump supporters to do the same.

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President Donald Trump wears a mask while visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on July 11, 2020.

Related article Trump wears a mask during visit to wounded service members at Walter Reed

Bollywood superstar?Amitabh Bachchan?said he has been hospitalized after testing positive for coronavirus.

The 77-year-old actor tweeted on Saturday that he tested positive for the virus and asked that anyone who has “been in close proximity to me in the last 10 days are requested to please get themselves tested!”

Bachchan is a living legend in Hindi-language cinema and many consider him to be India’s greatest living actor.

He starred in his first film in 1969 and?has dominated the silver screen?since then. To date, Bachchan has made has made more than 180 films in a career spanning five decades – most of India’s 70 years as an independent nation.

Staffers from Colombia's Secretary of Health check Venezuelan Yukpa indigenous ethnic group member, in Cucuta, Venezuela on July 9, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Venezuela has now recorded 9,178 cases of Covid-19, after another 375 infections were registered in the past 24 hours, the government said Saturday.?

At least 85 people have now died from the virus in the country. Two deaths were reported on Saturday.