Live updates: Public health experts warn of coronavirus risks at Trump’s Tulsa rally

Egypt’s airports will reopen to international flights on July 1 after they were shut down in March to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the civil aviation minister said late Sunday.

Domestic flights have been allowed inside the country, but otherwise it has been cut off from the rest of the world as it struggles to bring its own coronavirus outbreak under control.

Mohammed Manar Anba said tourism would be restricted to coastal provinces that have seen very low rates of coronavirus infections, including southern Sinai and the resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh as well as the resort of Hurghada on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. The northwest Mediterranean coast will also be open for tourists.

Egypt’s outbreak has been largely confined to the large, crowded cities like the capital Cairo.

The pandemic has struck a devastating blow to Egypt’s tourist industry, which contributes up to 15 percent of the country’s economic output if indirect jobs linked to the sector are included.

Flights will not have printed publications on board and will only serve dry food and canned drinks, the minister said at the news conference. Since June 1, hotels have been restricted to operating at 50 percent capacity.

Despite the moves to open the economy, Egypt appears to be in a particularly severe phase of its outbreak, with a steady increase in the daily toll of cases since the end of the fasting month of Ramadan in late May.

More than half of the countries 44,598 cases were found since the beginning of the month, and in the last three days, record new numbers cases of more than 1,600 daily have been recorded.

The threat of coronavirus has left Alaska with few poll workers willing to staff its upcoming elections — a dilemma that could soon be facing communities across the United States.

The Anchorage Daily News reported on Sunday that 95 percent of Anchorage’s regular poll workers declined to help out this year, and none of the Alaska’s legislative districts have enough staff lined up for the August’s statewide primary elections. Though still a little further away, November’s general election is likely to have similar complications.

Officials are warning that it may be necessary to close some polling places if there aren’t enough election workers to go around, the Daily News reported. The majority of poll workers are typically retired and see the $12-an-hour job as a way to give back to their communities, but are more vulnerable to covid-19 because of their age.

Alaska offers what is known as “no excuses absentee voting,” meaning that voters can request an absentee ballot without providing a specific reason they need one. The state is strongly encouraging people to vote by mail, and plans to send absentee ballot request forms to every voter over the age of 65, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer told the Daily News. But election officials have ruled out having the August primary take place entirely by mail, and have yet to make a decision about the November general election.

President Trump’s plan to hold a campaign rally in Tulsa next weekend is worrying public health experts, who warn that there is a high risk of the coronavirus spreading through the 19,000-seat Bok Center arena.

More than 800,000 people have signed up for the event, which will be the first of its kind to take place since coronavirus-related lockdowns were announced across the country in March, campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted on Sunday. Citing the recent uptick of infections in the city and across Oklahoma as a whole, Bruce Dart, the director of Tulsa city’s and county health department, told the Tulsa World this weekend that he wished the rally would be postponed to a later date.

“I’m concerned about our ability to protect anyone who attends a large, indoor event,” he said. “And I’m also concerned about our ability to ensure the president stays safe as well.”

Michael T. Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” that he was concerned about the implications of bringing together a large number of people in an enclosed indoor venue. Chanting and cheering could help aerosolize the virus, enhancing the risk of exposure, he noted.

“Would I want my loved ones in a setting like that? Absolutely not,” Osterholm said. “And it wouldn’t matter about politics, I wouldn’t want them there.”

Rally attendees are being asked to sign a disclaimer waiving their rights to hold the venue or Trump campaign liable if they contract covid-19. On Sunday, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told CNN that he hadn’t yet decided if he would wear a mask at the June 20 event.

Ohio State University football players and their parents were asked to sign a waiver acknowledging the heightened risk of coronavirus that comes along with participating in the fall season.

The Columbus Dispatch obtained a copy of the waiver, called the “Buckeye Pledge,” which asks players to submit to testing, monitor for symptoms, self-quarantine if exposed to the virus, and follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention including wearing masks and social distancing.

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith told ESPN that the pledge was intended as an educational tool to help students better understand the precautions needed to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus while playing football this fall.

“We don’t look at that as a legal document,” he told ESPN. “It’s a Buckeye pledge. Allow us to help you so that if we face a situation, our trainers, our strength coaches, our coaches or any athletic administrator sees a student-athlete not wearing a mask or not social distancing, we can say, ‘Hey, you made a commitment. You signed a pledge.’”

Smith said every Ohio State football player had signed the pledge. In doing so, the student-athletes acknowledged that “although the university is following the coronavirus guidelines issued by the CDC and other experts to reduce the spread of infection, I can never be completely shielded from all risk of illness caused by COVID-19 or other infections.”

The waiver is just one strategy schools are undertaking to promote coronavirus precautions as they prepare to return to campus this fall. Some colleges have suggested limiting spectators at sporting events, requiring students to wear masks indoors, relying on takeout food, keeping large lectures online, and formally discouraging parties.

Ghana’s health minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, has contracted the coronavirus and is receiving treatment in the hospital, the country’s president said Sunday night.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a state broadcast that the health minister had contracted the virus “in the line of duty” and is in stable condition, Reuters reported. During the same address, Akufo-Addo confirmed that the West African nation would move forward with plans to gradually lift restrictions, and allow secondary schools and universities to reopen on Monday.

Ghana has reported 11,964 coronavirus cases to date, one of the highest tallies on the continent. But the country has also introduced a much more robust testing scheme than many of its neighbors and its death count remains relatively low at 54.

By the end of last week, Brazil reached a grisly milestone. It surpassed Britain in confirmed coronavirus-linked fatalities, ranking now only below the United States with more than 42,000 dead and more than 867,000 confirmed cases. Infection rates are still surging, the country’s daily death tolls are among the highest in the world and health authorities aren’t close to flattening the curve. In one study, researchers project that the country could see 100,000 deaths before August.

The depth of the calamity hitting the region’s most populous nation was not unexpected: Public health experts, journalists and opposition politicians warned of the risks the virus posed in Brazil’s teeming cities, marked by stark inequality, densely-packed slums and uneven access to public goods.