(AP) As Brazil and India struggle with surging coronavirus cases, a top health expert is warning that the world is still smack in the middle of the pandemic, dampening hopes for a speedy global economic rebound and renewed international travel.
“Right now, we’re not in the second wave. We’re right in the middle of the first wave globally,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization’s executive director.
“We’re still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up,” Ryan said, pointing to South America, South Asia and other parts of the world.
A U.S. travel ban takes effect Tuesday for foreigners coming from Brazil. On top of that, the South American country got a warning from the U.N. health agency not to reopen its economy before it can perform enough tests to control the spread of the coronavirus. India reported a record single-day jump in new infections for the seventh straight day and Russia had a record number of daily coronavirus deaths
— Georgia’s governor is offering his state as the host of the Republican National Convention — a day after President Donald Trump threatened to pull the convention out of North Carolina if that state’s Democratic governor didn’t assure Trump that the August gathering can go forward despite coronavirus fears. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, sent an open plea to Trump on Tuesday to consider his state as an alternate site for the convention, which is set to gather more than 2,500 delegates and thousands more guests, press and security officials.
— The New York Stock Exchange reopened for in-person trading for the first time in two months. The trading floor in lower Manhattan opened with plastic barriers, masks and a reduced number of traders to adhere to the 6-foot social-distancing rule.
— Blood clots that can cause strokes, heart attacks and dangerous blockages in the legs and lungs are increasingly being found in COVID-19 patients, including some children. Even tiny clots that can damage tissue throughout the body have been seen in hospitalized patients and in autopsies, confounding doctors’ understanding of what was once considered mainly a respiratory infection.
— Congress is wrestling over whether to “go big,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants for the next relief bill, or hit “pause,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insists. It’s a defining moment for the political parties heading toward the election and one that will affect the livelihoods of countless Americans suddenly dependent on the federal government. Billions of dollars in state aid, jobless benefits and health resources are at stake.
— Sweden’s government defended its response to the COVID-19 global pandemic on Tuesday despite the Scandinavian country now reporting one of the highest mortality rates in the world with 4,125 fatalities, or about 40 deaths per 100,000 people.
— Manaus is one of the hardest hit cities in Brazil, but in the absence of evidence proving otherwise, relatives are quick to deny the possibility that COVID-19 claimed their loved ones, meaning that the national death toll of more than 23,000 toll is likely a vast undercount.
