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As the U.S. tally of coronavirus cases surged past 4 million on Thursday, President Trump abruptly canceled next month’s Republican National Convention events in Jacksonville, Fla., a sign that his large, boisterous campaign rallies may be a thing of the past. The about-face is the latest reversal from Trump, who in the past week has begun enthusiastically promoting masks and acknowledging the gravity of the pandemic while conceding that schools may have to delay reopening.
Meanwhile, with millions of people days away from losing unemployment benefits, an impasse within the GOP is delaying the rollout of a new stimulus package. The White House has backed down from Trump’s demand to include a payroll tax cut in the next coronavirus relief bill, but has yet to reach agreement with Senate Republicans on many other aspects of the legislation.
Here are some significant developments:
- Florida set a new single-day record for fatalities on Thursday as the U.S. death toll surpassed 141,000, and more than 71,500 new covid-19 cases were reported nationwide. The U.S. has reported more than one million new cases in the past 15 days alone, with the infection rate doubling in less than a month.
- Some of the CDC’s new guidance on reopening schools was written by White House officials, rather than health experts, people familiar with the process said.
- Miami, the epicenter of Florida’s coronavirus outbreak, is urging residents to wear masks in their own homes so that they don’t infect family members.
- As Trump continues to blame China for the pandemic, his aides are launching a broader campaign to punish Beijing for a slew of unrelated issues.
July 24, 2020 at 12:40 AM EDT
The coronavirus is exacerbating a crisis on social media. Human rights activists could pay the price.
As the novel coronavirus began to make its way around the world earlier this year, an epidemic of online misinformation spread alongside it. Companies stepped up their moderation efforts — sometimes with unintended results.
Public health officials warned that rumors and conspiracy theories, including false claims that 5G technology was causing the virus or that bleach could cure it, would cost lives.
As the pandemic took hold, platforms began to implement new measures: working with governments and the World Health Organization to push accurate information; introducing misinformation warning systems; and removing more content than ever, increasingly through the use of algorithms as the pandemic forced companies to send human moderators home.
But those efforts could have inadvertent consequences, activists say, for researchers and advocates who study the spread of information online and who use the Internet to document and monitor conflicts and human rights abuses.
By Rick Noack
July 24, 2020 at 12:12 AM EDT
Washington rolls back aspects of reopening amid rising hospitalizations and deaths
As coronavirus-related hospitalizations and deaths increase in Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and the state’s health department on Thursday announced new restrictions intended to decrease transmission during high-risk activities.
Washington’s counties have been moving separately between phases of reopening, with several in each of Phases 1, 2 and 3. Inslee’s guidance came as the state’s seven-day average of new cases reached 885 on Thursday, up from 729 on this day last week. The other changes include:
- The state’s eviction moratorium will continue until Oct. 15. Inslee’s new guidance said details of the extension would be released “in the coming days.”
- As of July 25, the state will require masks in common spaces, including elevators, hallways and shared spaces in apartment buildings, hotels, university housing and nursing homes. The state already required face coverings in indoor public spaces and outside when social distance cannot be maintained.
- Wedding receptions will be banned as of Aug. 6. The guidelines don’t specify what characteristics define a gathering as a reception.
- Guests eating together inside a restaurant must live in the same household. The announcement didn’t say how this rule will be enforced.
- The number of people allowed in a fitness facility at a given time has been reduced to five people, not including staff members.
- Indoor entertainment, including arcades, bowling alleys and mini golf courses, cannot reopen. Movie-theater occupancy will be reduced.
By Marisa Iati
July 24, 2020 at 12:11 AM EDT
The Tokyo Olympics were supposed to open Friday. Instead, the city is facing a spike in coronavirus cases.
If all had gone according to plan, Tokyo would awake tomorrow to the opening day of the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Instead, the city is grappling with a spike in coronavirus infections, with 366 new cases reported Thursday, a daily record.
The rescheduled Summer Games are set for a year from Thursday. Japan marked the moment with a 15-minute ceremony held in Tokyo’s newly built Olympic Stadium, absent an audience.
The 68,000-seat arena cost $1.4 billion. But a poll this week by Japan’s Kyodo News Agency found fewer than 1 in 4 people in Japan even want to host the Games anymore. A third of respondents said they should be canceled, while 36 percent expressed interest in postponing them for more than a year.
“If current situation continues, we couldn’t” host, Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee President Yoshiro Mori said Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
By Miriam Berger
July 24, 2020 at 12:11 AM EDT
U.S. passes 4 million coronavirus cases as pace of new infections roughly doubles
The United States on Thursday passed the grim milestone of 4 million confirmed coronavirus infections, and President Trump announced he was canceling the public celebration of his nomination for a second term, as institutions from schools to airlines to Major League Baseball wrestled with the consequences of a pandemic still far from under control.
The rapid spread of the virus this summer is striking, taking just 15 days to go from 3 million confirmed cases to 4 million. By comparison, the increase from 1 million cases to 2 million spanned 45 days from April 28 to June 11, and the leap to 3 million then took 27 days.
By Anne Gearan, Marisa Iati and Jacqueline Dupree
