Daily Coronavirus Updates 4/28/20

Global Updates

1. Oxford University is leading the way in a possible vaccine for Coronavirus, and is now claiming that it could be ready as early as September. Scientists in Montana, USA trialed the Oxford vaccine on 6 monkeys. They were each given a single dose of the vaccine and then exposed to high levels of the virus. More than 28 days after exposure, all 6 were healthy.

2. Argentina has banned all commercial flights to and from the country, through Sep. 1st. 

3. Amid a growing outbreak in Afghanistan, healthcare workers across the country are falling ill with Covid. Officials fear that the healthcare system will be completely overrun due to a lack of healthy medical personnel, a deeply impoverished population and an uptick in recent attacks between the Taliban & Afghan Security Forces. 

4. Putin has extended Russia’s “self-isolation guidelines” until May 11. Putin announced that while case #s seem to be stabilizing, Russia is entering a new phase of the virus and one that Putin claims is deadly and still extremely serious. 

5. Dr. Yoshitake Yokokura, the president of the Japan Medical Association, said that even with the Tokyo Olympic Games pushed out a year, it would be difficult if not impossible to host the games in a year unless an effective vaccine was widely available. 

6. French PM Edouard Philippe outlined France’s reopening plan which will begin on May 11th with a reopening of lower-schools, on a voluntary basis. Philippe said that middle schools could follow soon thereafter. Between May 11-June 2, the gov’t will monitor and make decisions regarding high schools, as well as bars, cafes and restaurants during this period. 

7. Germany’s R0 (rate of infection transmission) went from 0.7 on April 17 (when they began reopening), to 1.0 today.

8. The IRC (Int’t Rescue Committee) released a statement that said unless swift action is taken now by the international community, crisis-affected countries could see 1 billion infections and up to 3.2 million deaths.

9. The British Gov’t has announced that the families of healthcare workers who die from Covid will be financially compensated (about $75,000).

10. Schools across China’s major cities opened yesterday, with many precautions put in place. Temperature checks at school gates, glass dividers between desks and no speaking while eating lunch are only some of the restrictions for students returning back to school. 

11. Bangladesh has allowed for garment factories to resume work, after a nationwide lockdown was put in place on on March 26. Travel by air, sea or train is still banned. 

12. A new study that looked at hospitals in Wuhan, China reported that the virus seems to linger in the air in crowded spaces or rooms that lack ventilation. The highest concentrations of virus particles appeared in the rooms where medical staff removed their protective equipment.

13. Austria will not renew its lockdown order, which ends this week. They have outlined a phase-in plan which will begin on May 1st. Many shops will reopen in the beginning of may, with restaurants and bars opening on May 15- with social distancing measures in place. Hotels will reopen on May 29. 

14. The Office of National Statistics continues to announce conflicting reports to those announced by the NHS in the U.K. The ONS says that the death-toll in England and Wales up to April 17, is 54% higher than what the the UK government reports. 

15. More than 2 million Australians have downloaded the voluntary COVIDSafe app, an app that notifies users if they have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.

16. In Hong Kong, Civil Servants and public services will resume work next Monday. Hong Kong has reported no new cases for the 4th time in 8 days. 

17. A team of engineers at Trinity College in Dublin, are testing the use of their robot, Violet, as a way to boost patient safety. Violet uses high wavelengths of ultraviolet light which acts as a disinfectant in health care settings. 

18. Nigeria will begin a phased reopening and an easing of restrictions in Lagos & Abuja, beginning on May 4th.

Domestic Updates

1. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, ordered that a limited number of stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls will reopen this Friday. 

2. Mayor Di Blasio of NYC has instituted a new grading system for the rest of the academic year. Students will not receive failing grades, high school students will be given the option of switching their poor grades to pass/fail and students who receive poorer grades will be prioritized to receive help over the summer. 247,000 iPads with built-in internet have been sent to students who cannot otherwise participate in online learning.

3. Yesterday, President Trump announced a new testing initiative. In the plan, the federal government will aim to give each state the ability to test 2% of their populations per month. Many experts are saying that this does not go far enough with some saying that states need the capacity to test 50% of their population per month and/or the U.S. needs to be testing 20 million people daily, by June. 

4. LA, Boston, Georgia will follow NY in random antibody sampling on asymptomatic people to gain a better idea of the rate of infection. LA will test ride share and taxi drivers while Boston and Georgia will visit homes at random. 

5. When asked about a second surge of infections coming back later this year, Dr. Anthony Fauci replied, “I'm almost certain it will come back”. 

6. Florida reported a 2.2% increase in # of cases from a day earlier and deaths have increased 7.6%. Governor Ron DeSantis of FL is in Washington today to meet with President Trump. Gov. DeSantis has been largely quiet on the reopening plan for his state. 

7. FDA Chief Stephen Hahn said that there has been good preliminary data concerning the Plasma treatment which hospitals in the U.S. have been trying with critical covid patients. He did not offer up any other details.

8. More than 56,000 Americans have died from the virus with an average of about 2,000 a day this month. The number of confirmed infections countrywide is about to hit 1 million. It is assumed that the real toll, both in confirmed infections and fatalities is higher than what is “confirmed”. 

9. According to the UWash Model (used by the White House), The U.S. death toll from the outbreak could exceed 74,000 by August, a number which is down from the 90,000 that they predicted about a month ago. 

10. Gov. Cuomo reported that the 24 hour death-toll in NY remains flat, with 335 more fatalities in the last 24 hours. Hospitalizations are down 70% since the peak of the outbreak. 

This list has been curated by @jamieplancher