Southern States Start Reopenings; N.Y. Deaths Slow: Virus Update
Bloomberg News
April 20, 2020, 7:44 AM GMT+10 Updated on April 21, 2020, 7:48 AM GMT+10
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L.A. Study Suggests Virus More Widespread Than Thought (5:30 p.m. NY)
A collaborative study between the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the University of Southern California estimated that about 4.1% of the county’s adult population has antibodies to the coronavirus. That estimate, researchers said, is 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed cases of the virus in the county at the time of the study.
Antibody tests, which show not whether a person is currently suffering from Covid-19 but whether they have ever been exposed in the past, are crucial to understanding how widespread and deadly the virus really is. Such tests are typically conducted with drops of blood from a finger or a draw from a vein.
In Los Angeles, researchers collected samples from a representative sample of the county population at six drive-through testing sites using a rapid antibody test. When accounting for study limitations and potential errors, they said the number of people with antibodies could range from 2.8% to 5.6%.
The presence of antibodies, though, doesn’t necessarily mean someone is immune to the virus. Antibody tests for SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, are new to market, and there is evidence that many do not perform as well as they should. Still, the tests are regarded as crucial to reopening efforts. Several other antibody studies conducted so far have confirmed suspicions that the number of infections in the U.S. and elsewhere may currently be significantly under-counted.
L.A. County reported its highest number of daily deaths yet on Saturday, at 81, with the total surpassing 600. Barbara Ferrer, director of the county’s public-health department, last week said she hopes the area can start taking steps toward relaxing restrictions next month.
Southern States Move to Lift Lockdowns (5:23 p.m. NY)
Southern Republican governors who were among the last to institute shelter-at-home orders pushed to become the first to lift them. Tattoo parlors, movie theaters and nail salons in Georgia will begin opening up this week, along with beaches, florists and shoe shops in South Carolina.
The announcements came Monday afternoon after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp spent the weekend talking to his fellow Republican governors in the South about how best to re-open their economies in response to guidelines from the White House late last week.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster announced in a Monday briefing he was forming a task force termed “Accelerate South Carolina” to look at quickly and safely opening up the economy and serve as a resource to citizens. “We must be ready to stomp on the gas when the green light comes up,” McMaster said.
Brazil Deaths Rise; Peak Seen Weeks Away (4:40 p.m. NY)
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U.S. Confirmed Cases Rise 2.7% (4 p.m. NY)
U.S. cases rose 2.7% from the day before to 766,664 by Monday afternoon, the lowest daily increase in at least two weeks, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and Bloomberg News. That was lower than Sunday’s growth rate of 5.6% and down from the average daily increase of 4.5% over the past week.
New York cases rose 2.4%, as the hardest-hit state shows signs of stabilizing in the past week. New York’s cases were rising at a rate of 3.3% a week ago.
California had 42 deaths from the virus overnight, bringing the state’s total to 1,208, according to Governor Gavin Newsom. Hospitalizations rose 1.9%. The number of patients in intensive-care units increased 2.8%, a figure that has been fluctuating and has yet to show the downward trend needed to provide more clarity on easing restriction measures, Newsom said at his daily press briefing.
New cases in Texas fell by 19% to 535, the fourth consecutive daily decline in the nation’s second most-populous state, the state’s heath department reported on Monday.
Iowa had the biggest daily increase, with cases rising 26% to 3,159.
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N.J. Seeks Cash from U.S. (3:05 p.m. NY)
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Florida Plans for Reopening (2:40 p.m. NY)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said predictions of massively overwhelmed hospitals haven’t materialized in the state as he laid the groundwork for potentially reopening the economy. Ensuring adequate hospital capacity was among the main reasons for shutting down the state.
“We’ve got an enormous amount of capacity,” DeSantis said, as he addressed the first meeting of his Re-Open Florida Task Force on Monday. “The system is holding up.”
DeSantis, a Republican, said testing, including antibody testing, would be key to successfully reopening the state. Florida has had 789 Covid-19 deaths and 26,660 total confirmed cases, with South Florida hit especially hard.
Another Big U.S. Meat Plant Closes (2:36 p.m. NY)
JBS SA, the world’s top meat company, will shutter its pork processing facility in Minnesota following an outbreak of coronavirus, adding to concerns that slaughterhouse logjams will tighten meat supplies for consumers.
The shutdown is the latest blow to the U.S. meatpacking industry, which is struggling to contain the spread of coronavirus among its workers, and spurring concerns of a shortfall in pork and beef at grocery stores. Smithfield Foods Inc., the world’s biggest pork producer, indefinitely shut down a slaughter plant in South Dakota last week after hundreds of workers tested positive for Covid-19.
French Hospitals See Fewer Patients (2:20 p.m. NY)
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Texas Cases Fall for Fourth Day (1:28 p.m. NY)
New cases in Texas fell by 19% to 535, the state’s heath department reported on Monday. It was the fourth consecutive daily decline in the nation’s second most-populous state and represented a 63% drop from the April 10 peak, state data showed.
Fatalities fell for a third straight day to 18 on Monday, bringing the total so far to 495. Governor Greg Abbott is scheduled to unveil preliminary plans at the end of this week for reopening the biggest economy in the U.S. outside of California. Meanwhile, elected officials in Houston appointed czars to oversee the process of unwinding the lockdown in the state’s largest metropolitan area.
Virus’s Stability Helps Vaccines: WHO (1:20 p.m. NY)
Researchers have studied about 10,000 genome sequences, and it appears that the virus is relatively stable, which is good news for the potential of developing a vaccine, epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said at a World Health Organization press briefing in Geneva. If viruses mutate too much, vaccines can become ineffective.
A big proportion of people are vulnerable to Covid-19 infection as several studies suggest that only a single-digit percentage has been infected, Van Kerkhove said. That’s smaller than expected, which raises the risk that lifting lockdowns too quickly or all at once will fuel a resurgence, she said. Several Asian countries have been reporting increases after easing restrictions.
“We have been warning from day one: This is a devil that everyone should fight,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Politics may fuel the pandemic further, he warned, denying allegations from the U.S. that the group withheld information and from Taiwan that the country had alerted the WHO about the possibility of human-to-human transmission on Dec. 31.
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NYC Short on Hospital Gowns (10:25 a.m. NY)
New York City hospitals face a shortage of surgical gowns, Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he announced that public events through June are canceled.
While the city has enough equipment, including ventilators, for the coming week, de Blasio said he’s concerned that it might run of gowns despite help from the federal government over the weekend to get 265,000 Tyvek suits and fabric to help make 40,000 gowns this week and 400,000 by May 23.
It’s “nowhere near” what the city needs, he said. He asked for more federal help as well as gowns from other states.
Among the June events canceled are the National Puerto Rican Day Parade and the Pride Parade, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
EU Expects to Complete Repatriation Next Week (9:42 a.m. NY)
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Merkel Warns Against Easing Too Quickly (9:39 a.m. NY)
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Fauci to Protesters: No Recovery If Virus Not Controlled (9:22 a.m. NY)
The U.S. economy won’t recover until the virus is under control, Fauci said. He said his message to the protesters is that “this is something that is hurting from the standpoint of economics” but that reopening too soon could cause even more harm. His comments on ABC’s “Good Morning America” contrasted with remarks made by Trump, who has encouraged the protests.
“Unless we get the virus under control, the real recovery economically is not going to happen,” Fauci said.
— With assistance by Mark Schoifet, Adveith Nair, Wout Vergauwen, Jordan Fabian, Thomas Mulier, Joe Carroll, Jonathan Levin, Margaret Newkirk, Kristen V Brown, and Brian Eckhouse
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