BlackMask Breaking News – Page 631

July 25, 2020 4:26 am

Texas coronavirus deaths rising as hospitals reach ICU capacity

“Our hospitals look like war zones”: Texas battling influx of COVID-19 cases

An eye-opening study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said coronavirus cases are a lot higher than the numbers reported in some parts of the country — up to 13 times higher — because so many who were infected didn’t know it and unwittingly spread the virus. Now, we’re seeing the results of this undetected spread. Confirmed cases in the U.S. are over 4 million. The virus has killed more than 150,000 Americans. Texas recorded a thousand deaths in just 10 days. That’s as many deaths as in the prior three months. At hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley, state health officials say 37 ICU beds are available. Hidalgo County is the epicenter. “Unfortunately, our hospital rooms look like war zones because there are just so many from so many sick people there,” Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez told CBS News. Cortez issued a shelter-at-home order late Monday. Although, Texas Governor Greg Abbott argues that it’s unenforceable. “My job is is to take care of the public health,” Cortez explained. “We brought in a lot of refrigerated trailers to access more morgues, and their capacity is 50. Well in the last eight days, we have an average of 22 people die per day.” While cities like Dallas and Houston are now seeing a decrease in positive cases and hospitalizations, virus-related deaths in the state are up 33% over the last 10 days. Nationwide, just nine states are seeing a decline in cases or holding steady; three of those — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — are asking visitors from 31 states to self-quarantine. This comes as new data from the CDC published on Tuesday estimates that COVID infections were as much as 13 times higher in parts of the country than actually reported. But the results found more people are still vulnerable to infection. “What was interesting about this study is that even given the fact that so many people have likely had COVID-19 without having any symptoms or without having any diagnosis officially made. Still, it implies that the vast majority of Americans have still not been infected,” CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook explained. And while a new study found effective social distancing with masks and handwashing could stop 90% of large outbreaks, Big Pharma companies continue their race toward a vaccine. Executives from AstraZeneca and Pfizer predicted millions of doses could be delivered by the end of the year. Meanwhile, California passed 400,000 thousand COVID cases and could soon pass New York as the hardest-hit state. The city of Los Angeles is bracing for the possibility of another stay-at-home order.

In Florida, at least five counties have no ICU beds available at this time.

Nick Note: Is it not time you suck it up and self isolate and protect yourself. Your public officials are barely able to arrange refrigerated containers for all the body bags…… Think about it!

July 24, 2020 4:09 pm

California posts daily record of coronavirus deaths

California reported a record number of COVID-19 infections in a single day Monday, with 11,554 new cases, according to the Los Angeles Times’s roundup of all 58 counties in the state. The report entered on Monday surpasses the single-day record broken just last week, when the state saw 11,142 COVID-19 cases, according to The Los Angeles Times. California has also reported increased death tolls ranging between 91 and 99 fatalities each day since July 10, which ranks as the worst seven-day average since the pandemic started earlier this year. The weeklong period that ended Monday marked the highest weekly total to date, with 674 deaths in the state. The new record indicates a 5 percent increase in fatalities since the previous seven-day period, which saw 640 deaths. For the past three weeks, government-mandated shutdowns of businesses and services, including bars and restaurants, have been underway and could contribute to lowering hospitalization rates across the state.

California, Florida report record numbers of daily deaths
Overnight Health Care: US passes 4 million COVID infections |…

Hospitalizations grew by 7 percent Sunday, but were lower than the previous weekend of July 12, when admissions increased by 12 percent. Gov. Gavin Newso (D) announced Monday the positivity rate from coronavirus tests had dropped from 7.7 percent to 7.2 percent compared to the previous seven-day rate. However, it is likely too early to know whether the trend will continue to fall, according to Mark Ghaly, secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency. “As soon as we feel confident in that trend and we see other numbers start to stabilize, we’ll credit some of the moves we made over the last few weeks,” Ghaly said. “It’s been about three, four weeks since we … first started to make moves … so we’re right in that time period where we may see some of the … benefits of those [policy changes].”

July 24, 2020 3:57 pm

Trump could lose reelection in 100 days — and the US is on edge

https://youtu.be/WziErryUXog

Washington (AFP) – Cratering in the polls, canceling his showcase convention event, and struggling to land punches on his opponent, Donald Trump has only 100 days from Sunday to save his presidency — and it’s not going well. In the latest blow to momentum ahead of November 3, the president announced late Thursday that he was ditching the razzmatazz-filled Republican convention in Florida for next month because of coronavirus fears. An indication of how badly Trump wanted the made-for-TV affair in Jacksonville, complete with screaming crowds, warm-up acts and constant adulation, is that he’d moved it to Florida when coronavirus fears had already scotched his original plans for North Carolina. “It’s a different world,” Trump said. Coronavirus has not only upset Trump’s pageant. The disease is ravaging the US economy, adding steadily to a death toll of well over 140,000, and undermining public confidence in government. Add explosive protests against racism and police brutality, leftist-led riots, flourishing right-wing conspiracy theories, and the specter of Russian meddling — and you have a country more on edge than at any time since the cataclysmic 1960s. Now Trump, who boasts he never tires of “winning,” faces possible humiliation at the hands of Democrat Joe Biden, a man he derides as “sleepy” and mentally incompetent, yet who leads by double digits in some polls. In 2020, a year of historic uprisings against racism and sexism in the United States, the match-up between Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, might seem out of step. One is a billionaire born into extreme privilege, while the other, with three decades in the Senate and two terms as vice president under Barack Obama, is the epitome of the professional politician. Yet Trump vs Biden will deliver all the upheaval a confused and bitter US electorate can stomach. Trump’s pitch boils down to claiming Biden will have Americans “cowering to radical left-wing mobs.” Biden, no less apocalyptic, says he’s fighting for “the soul of America.” Polls give Biden an advantage nationally, strong leads in swing states, and even a shot at Republican strongholds like Texas. Congressional Democrats, who already control the House, are eying recapture of the Senate. Trump presides over mass unemployment — even if this was triggered by the coronavirus shutdown — racial unrest and a growing crisis of confidence. On the pandemic, the biggest issue of the day, polls show that two-thirds of Americans have no faith in his leadership. To boot, Trump, with overall approval ratings permanently stuck in the low 40 percent range, is the first president to seek reelection after impeachment. Yet no one counts him out. Belittled as a clown in 2016, he handily defeated all the top Republican establishment names for the nomination. He then came from behind to defeat the Democrats’ polished candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump believes he still has the secret sauce. “I’m not losing, because those are fake polls,” he insisted on Fox News last weekend. “They were fake in 2016 and now they’re even more fake.”- Two ‘invisible’ enemies – COVID-19, which Trump calls “the invisible enemy,” makes a frustrating target for a man used to dealing in large, tangible objects, like skyscrapers. But he’s having an equally hard a time getting to grips with Biden. The Democrat is running a unique campaign from his Delaware home, with no rallies, few media interviews and even rarer press conferences. This began with social distancing but has grown into what critics mock as the “bunker strategy” — and an extraordinarily lucky boost for a candidate widely seen as a gaffe machine. Rather than take risks, Biden is able to sit back, ignore the #HidenBiden hashtag jibes, and watch Trump lurch ever deeper into his own self-inflicted troubles.

Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley said Friday that voter enthusiasm will make the difference at the polls.

“Our supporters will stand through rain, sleet, snow, hail, and crawl across broken glass to vote for Donald Trump,” he told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” show. “Joe Biden’s supporters won’t even click on a link to watch him doing a Q&A.”

– ‘Death star’ –

That has long been team Trump’s theory — that their man has a unique ability to fire up the base.

But Brad Parscale, the once uber-confident campaign manager who described the campaign as the “Death Star” from the “Star Wars” movies, has been demoted. And the vaunted reelection machine now resembles a misfiring rocket.

Trump’s mass rallies, vital to his political identity, have fizzled due to health risks, while his trademark bravado and name-calling sits less easily in a country shaken by death and economic misery.

Cornered, Trump is doubling down with fearmongering. It’s a vision of chaos, violent crime and what Trump tweeted is Biden’s desire to “abolish the American Way of Life.” Come November 3, coronavirus precautions and mail-in ballot use will complicate voting, meaning late tallies. Last week, Trump repeated his claim that efforts are underway to “rig the election.” Then he went further. Asked on Fox News if he would accept the results, as every president before him has, Trump said this: “I have to see.”

July 24, 2020 3:01 pm

Coronavirus At-A-Glance: Miami-Dade Sees Big One Day Increase Of 3,362 Cases

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – New cases of the coronavirus are surfacing every day South Florida and the rest of the state. Here are the latest numbers and information you need to know at-a-glance as of 11 a.m. on July 24, 2020.

FLORIDA: 402,312 confirmed cases

One-Day increase: 12,444 cases
Total Florida Deaths: 5,768
New Deaths: 136 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Resident Hospitalizations: 23,225
Total Tests: 3,281,087
Negative Test Results: 2,874,324
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 13.31%

MIAMI-DADE: 98,430 confirmed cases (largest number in the state)

One-Day Increase: 3,362
Total Deaths: 1,370
New Deaths: 16 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Hospitalizations: 5,080
Total Tests: 547,830
Negative: 448,175
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 19.7%

BROWARD: 45,576 confirmed cases

One-Day Increase: 1,566
Total Deaths: 546
New Deaths: 10 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Hospitalizations: 3,024
Total Tests: 350,194
Negative: 303,176
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 15.7%

MONROE: 1,082 confirmed cases

One-Day Increase: 84
Total Deaths: 6
New Deaths: 0 *(Reported in last 24 hours)
Hospitalizations: 66
Total Tests: 10,701
Negative: 9,609
14-Day Average Positivity Rate: 16.8%

UNITED STATES: 4,054,407 confirmed cases

Deaths: 144,469 (all states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico)

AROUND THE WORLD: 15,559,865 confirmed cases

Deaths: 634,405
188 countries/regions affected

July 24, 2020 2:45 pm

Intel down over 15% after admitting production delays

Intel Corp.’s stock faced one of its worst days in 20 years Friday after the chip giant divulged that its next generation of chips would be delayed and that it may seek a third-party manufacturer to make them. Intel INTC, -15.81% shares were last down 16% at $50.84 Friday after earlier plummeting nearly 18% to drop below $50 for the first time in five months. The drop put the stock in jeopardy for its worst day since March, when it finished down 18% amid a broader market rout when the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.59% tanked 12%. In comparison, the S&P 500 was only off 0.6% Friday.Other than the March 16 rout, Intel shares have only seen worse days three other times over the past 20 years, two 18% drops in 2002 and a 22% drop in 2000. Late Thursday, Intel said it was delaying its 7-nanometer line of chips by at least six months because of a “defect mode” and that it may have to resort to a contingency plan of using “somebody else’s foundry” to make them. In chip parlance, nanometers, or nm, refers to the size of the transistors that go on a computer chip, with the general rule being that smaller transistors are faster and more efficient in using power. Wall Street responded to Intel’s news with a slew of downgrades and stock price target cuts.Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon downgraded Intel to “underperform” from “market perform” after what he considered the worst Intel earnings call in the 45 he has covered. In Thursday’s call, Intel brought “the structural issues we have been talking about for years directly to the forefront,” he said. “From here we see things growing increasingly painful as 7-nm delays are likely to overshadow anything good they can put forth, while magnifying any negative events, all while they fight an existential conflict with themselves as they attempt to figure a way out of the hole they have dug,” Rasgon said. Deutsche Bank analyst Ross Seymore also downgraded Intel, in this case to a hold from a buy, because the delay “will foster fears of competitive pressures persisting, if not accelerating over the next 2-3 years and thereby cap the valuation on its shares.” B of A Securities analyst Vivek Arya downgraded Intel to neutral from a buy and said the delay called into question the long-term competitiveness of Intel manufacturing process against foundry rivals TSMC and Samsung Electronics Co. 005930, +0.18%, which are “making rapid progress.” Arya said Intel’s delay will likely return AMD market share back to its peak levels of 20% in PCs and 25% in servers, the likes of which haven’t been seen since 2006. Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland, who has a neutral rating and cut his price target on Intel to $53 from $58, said Intel should just get out of the foundry business altogether since it has “zero-to-no chance” catching up to TSMC now. “Given the new timeline, we believe it’s near impossible for Intel to catch/surpass TSM in the next half decade, accelerating competitive pressures (AMD),” Rolland said. “While not probable, we believe it makes sense for Intel to sell some of their leading-edge fabs to TSM, given the fungibility of Intel’s state-of-the-art fabs/equipment.” “Yes, It’s That Bad,” was the title of Cowen analyst Matthew Ramsay’s note on Intel. Ramsay has a market perform rating and a $55 price target, down from $60. “Road map uncertainty on 7-nm (both timing and in/out-sourcing manufacturing strategy) will leave Intel’s customers and investors frustrated and simultaneously ensure that the company cannot catch TSMC-enabled competitors’ (namely AMD and Nvidia) silicon process leadership in any bounded time frame as it stands now,” Ramsay said. Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis, who has a hold rating and a $62 price target, said there may be a bright side to Intel’s news, in that it may force the company to rethink how it is structured. Lipacis said back in January “we argued that Intel’s transistor lead was lost for good and that by going fabless it would turn into a cash flow and capital return machine, which would add $19 to the stock.” “We actually are more constructive on the stock as we think 7nm delays will force management to outsource and restructure,” Lipacis said. Of the 41 analysts who cover Intel, 12 have overweight or buy ratings, 20 have hold ratings, and nine have sell ratings, after two other analysts downgraded Intel, according to FactSet data. At least 16 analysts cut their price target on the stock, resulting in an average target price of $59.55, down from a previous $64.82, according to FactSet. Nick Note: I wanted this processor… Its the coolest thing imaginable. And the lock down, supply change disruptions and travel banns have cost Intel their lead

July 24, 2020 1:51 pm

Over 150 Medical Experts Urge Trump, Congress and States

More than 150 health professionals and medical experts are urging politicians to shut down the country again in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “The best thing for the nation is not to reopen as quickly as possible, it’s to save as many lives as possible,” they said in a letter sent to the Trump administration, members of Congress and state governors this week.

The letter criticized the officials for reopening too soon and not doing enough during the shutdown to prepare. It calls for increased testing capacity and additional production of personal protective equipment.

“In March, people went home and stayed there for weeks, to keep themselves and their neighbors safe. You didn’t use the time to set us up to defeat the virus. And then you started to reopen anyway, and too quickly,” the letter said. “Right now we are on a path to lose more than 200,000 American lives by November 1st. Yet, in many states people can drink in bars, get a haircut, eat inside a restaurant, get a tattoo, get a massage, and do myriad other normal, pleasant, but non-essential activities.” The letter is a stark contrast to messaging from President Donald Trump, who has been encouraging states and schools to reopen and stay open. On Thursday, he again said that schools need to bring students back for in-person learning so that parents can get back to work. “The Council of Economic Advisers estimates that 5.6 million parents will be unable to return to work if schools do not reopen this year. That’s a tremendous problem,” he said at the White House. “It’s a tremendous problem. Schools have to open safely, but they have to open.” The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control released new school guidelines Thursday night after promising the documents for more than a week. The guidance places a heavy emphasis on children returning to school, but it does recommend that local officials consider closing schools if there is substantial, uncontrolled spread of the virus in the area. While some of the nation’s largest school districts have moved to start the school year online, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that students be “physically present in school” as much as safely possible. The president has consistently downplayed the resurgence of the virus in the U.S. in recent weeks. He only on Tuesday acknowledged that the situation will “get worse before it gets better.” Officials on Thursday reported the country has surpassed 4 million cases of the virus. Nick Note: You need to understand this one thig. One way or another they will go into lockdown again. And it will drive the US economy into its biggest depression ever.

July 24, 2020 1:22 pm

Fauci not certain COVID-19 can be eradicated

r. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and White House adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, warned Wednesday that COVID-19 may never be eradicated. “I think with a combination of good public health measures, a degree of global herd immunity and a good vaccine, which I do hope and feel cautiously optimistic that we will get, I think when we put all three of those together, we will get control of this, whether it’s this year or next year. I’m not certain,” Fauci told the TB Alliance, an organization dedicated to the development of medication for tuberculosis. At the same time, Fauci said “I don’t really see us eradicating it.” He claimed that the virus is different from SARS, a virus that was contained after it emerged in the early 2000s. “I have never seen infection in which you have such a broad range literally no symptoms at all in a substantial proportion of the population to some who get ill with minor symptoms to some who get ill enough to be in bed for weeks,” Fauci said. “Others get hospitalized, require oxygen, intensive care, ventilation and death. The involvement with the same pathogen is very unique.” Fauci’s comments contradict public remarks by President Trump, who has frequently downplayed the virus and claimed that it would disappear. “It’s going to leave. it’s going to be gone. It’s going to be eradicated,” Trump said in April. During a press briefing on Monday, Trump admitted that the current outbreak is likely “to get worse before it gets better.” Nick Note: Their will be no cure, their will be no viable vaccine and their sure as hell will not be any herd immunity.Ther is a cure…. their is a medicine… Its called isolation!

July 24, 2020 12:45 pm

Spain reports largest daily rise in COVID cases since May 8

Spain has recorded its highest daily rise in new coronavirus cases since the beginning of the deescalation process, with 971 infections detected in 24 hours on Thursday, compared to Wednesday’s figure of 730. According to the latest figures from the Spanish Health Ministry, which now only offers disaggregated data from Monday to Friday, the daily rise of 241 new cases is the largest increase recorded since May 8, when the government began to roll back its coronavirus lockdown rules.

Replying to media questions at a government press conference on Thursday, María José Sierra, from the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts, said: “This may already be a second wave.”

France on Friday recommended not traveling to Catalonia due to the surge in cases there. “We strongly urge French citizens to avoid traveling to that territory until the health situation there improves,” said Prime Minister Jean Castex on Friday. And Norway will impose a 10-day quarantine on travelers from Spain starting on Saturday due to the spike in cases, the Norwegian government said on Friday. The Spanish Foreign Ministry has published a list of countries currently applying restrictions on travelers from Spain (updated before Norway made its announcement).

✈? Restricciones a los viajes de ciudadanos provenientes de #España ⤵️

ℹ️ Consulta en nuestra web la lista actualizada a las 14:45 horas de hoy:

➡️ https://t.co/jwj4h35eJJ pic.twitter.com/HCB0J2atCT

— Exteriores (@MAECgob) July 24, 2020

No new lockdown “in theory”

Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Friday that “in theory” there are no plans to decree a new national state of alarm like the one that kept people mostly confined to their homes for three months between March and June. Instead, Robles said that the government wants to “support the work” of regional authorities in their own fight against the spread and effects of Covid-19. In an interview on the private television network Antena 3, the minister also asked authorities in regions experiencing significant transmission spikes to “reflect” on their own management of the crisis. Without mentioning the Catalan government specifically, Robles recalled that some regional authorities harshly criticized the central executive for its handling of the crisis earlier this year, claiming that things would be different when they got their powers back. But “we are now seeing that it’s not that easy or simple,” she said. The rise in coronavirus cases is being felt across Spain, with the cumulative incidence of the virus tripling in the past two weeks. According to Thursday’s report, the Spanish regions of Aragón and Catalonia recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 infections, with 415 and 182, respectively. Both regions have recorded community transmission of the virus: in Lleida province and Barcelona city in Catalonia, and in Zaragoza province in Aragón. Sierra described the situation in these two areas as “the most delicate,” although in Lleida the number of new cases has begun to stabilize. Madrid also saw a rise in daily coronavirus infections, with the figure jumping from 70 on Wednesday to 102. Meanwhile in Navarre, where regional authorities have introduced new lockdown rules in a neighborhood of Pamplona due to a large Covid-19 outbreak, the number of new cases was half – 66 on Thursday, compared to 132 the day before.

Nightclubs and nighttime venues have become a new hotspot for Covid-19 outbreaks.Joan Mateu / AP

The age of new coronavirus cases continues to fall as outbreaks at parties and nighttime venues lead to more infections among young people. A few days ago, the average age was 48, and by Tuesday it had dropped to 45. Sierra, however, warned on Thursday that a “certain upwards trend” in cases has been detected among people over the age of 60. This trend is of concern to the Health Ministry, given patients in this age group are at greater risk of experiencing complications. “We are worried because age is the factor most closely associated with the severity [of the disease],” said Sierra. Nick Note: This is the new far more infectious mutilate strain of this killer virus. In other words its back to black.

July 24, 2020 8:17 am

Virus Can Travel 26 Feet at Cold Meat Plants With Stale Air

hhttps://youtu.be/ew3aFxRls7k

(Bloomberg) — Cold and stale air conditions allowed coronavirus particles to travel more than 8 meters (26 feet) at a German slaughterhouse, a study showed, giving an insight into how meat plants turned into hotspots for infections across the world. Authorities announced today that schools and child day care centers in the region will be shut temporarily following a dramatic increase in the number of confirmed Covid-19 infections among workers at the Toennies plant. More than 650 infected workers have been confirmed, with the number likely to rise as further test results become available. According to media reports 7,000 people are in quarantine. Researchers reconstructed the likely cause of the outbreak at a Toennies Group slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, where about 1,500 workers contracted the virus. Similar conditions at plants globally are a reason they’ve become virus epicenters, according to the report from groups including the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research. Meat plants from the U.S. to the U.K. and South America have seen the rapid spread of the virus, infecting thousands of employees who often work in close proximity on processing lines. Dozens of workers have died, and labor advocates have said that a lack of social distancing could continue to put people at risk. Outbreaks also forced American meat plants to close earlier this year, sparking some protein shortages. Meanwhile, China is ramping up testing of imports of cold food for the virus. Even as global scientific experts say that the likelihood of transmission through food is extremely low, the Asian country has slapped export bans on some abattoirs with cases, further fueling the urgency to contain the disease. The Toennies outbreak likely began from one employee in May and was largely transmitted in the plant’s dismantling area, where rooms are often chilled to 10C degrees (50 Fahrenheit). Chilly air circulated without frequent changes — coupled with a strenuous work conditions — helped particles move large distances, said Adam Grundhoff, a co-author of the study. “It is very likely that these factors generally play a crucial role in the global outbreaks in meat or fish processing plants,” said Grundhoff, a research group leader at the Heinrich Pette Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology. Under these conditions, a distance of 1.5 to 3 meters between workers isn’t sufficient to prevent transmission, he said.

Workers at meat plants represent some of the populations facing a disproportionate hit from the health crisis and its economic fallout.

In the U.S., about half are immigrants, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Employees also come from relatively low-income families, and about 44% of them are Hispanic and a quarter are African Americans, a demographic seeing a devastating toll both physically and financially. Minority workers at the U.S. plants have seen the biggest blow from the outbreaks. In a July Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that showed infection tallies through the end of May, data showed that of the of the cases that disclosed race and ethnicity, 87% involved minority workers — with employees identified as Hispanic accounting for 56% of infections despite making up less than a third of the overall workforce. The report’s findings show that no factory worldwide was built for such a crisis, and the company has invested in air filters and other mechanisms to protect employees, a Toennies spokesman said by email. Housing conditions — also often pinpointed as a factor in the outbreaks — were not found to play a significant role in the disease’s initial spread.

“The important question now is under what conditions transmission events over longer distances are possible in other areas of life,” said Melanie Brinkmann, a research group leader at the Helmholtz center.

(Adds de

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

July 24, 2020 7:12 amJuly 24, 2020 8:06 am

Head of White House taskforce Dr Deborah Birx warns 11 major cities including Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Baltimore need to take ‘aggressive’ steps to mitigate coronavirus outbreaks

Dr Deborah Birx issued the grave warning Wednesday during a call with hundreds of state and city leaders
The 11 cities include: Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St Louis
Dr Birx warned that the outbreak currently plaguing cities in Sunbelt states, like Phoenix and San Antonio, was now moving north
She warned leaders of the 11 cities that they should take ‘aggressive’ steps to stem their current outbreaks
Her warning came as the number of cases reported in the United States passed 4 million on Thursday

The head of the White House coronavirus task force, Dr Deborah Birx, has warned that 11 major cities – including Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Baltimore – need to take ‘aggressive’ steps to mitigate COVID-19 outbreaks. Dr Birx issued the grave warning on Wednesday during a phone call with hundreds of state and city leaders. The 11 cities she mentioned include: Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New Orleans, Pittsburgh and St Louis.

Dr Birx warned that the outbreak currently plaguing cities in Sunbelt states, like Phoenix and San Antonio, was now moving north, according to audio of the call obtained by the Center for Public Integrity.

Dr Deborah Birx, who leads the White House task force, issued the grave warning on Wednesday during a phone call with hundreds of state and city leaders ‘What started out very much as a southern and western epidemic is starting to move up the East Coast into Tennessee, Arkansas, up into Missouri, up across Colorado, and obviously we’re talking about increases now in Baltimore,’ she said. ‘So this is really critical that everybody is following this and making sure they’re being aggressive about mitigation efforts.’ She warned leaders of the 11 cities that they should take ‘aggressive’ steps in order to stem their current outbreaks. Dr Birx said it was vital for health officials to contract trace patients testing positive in areas where test positivity was increasing. ‘When you first see that increase in test positivity, that is when to start the mitigation efforts,’ she said. ‘I know it may look small and you may say, ‘That only went from 5 to 5-and-a-half [percent], and we’re gonna wait and see what happens’. If you wait another three or four or even five days, you’ll start to see a dramatic increase in cases.’

Indiana: Cases in the state of Indiana have been increasing since mid-June. The city of Indianapolis is on the list of 11 cities that Dr Birx has warned of

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh currently has 6,817 confirmed COVID-19 cases

Baltimore, Maryland: There are currently 9,841 infections in Baltimore with cases trending upwards since late June

Columbus, Ohio: Columbus currently has 11,877 coronavirus infections Her warning came as the total number of coronavirus cases reported in the United States passed 4 million on Thursday, reflecting a rapid acceleration of infections in the country since the first case was recorded on January 21. It took the country 98 days to reach 1 million cases but just 16 days to go from 3 million to 4 million. The case total indicates that at least one in 82 people in the United States have been infected. As the pandemic has spread from the early epicenter of New York to the South and West, federal, state and local officials have clashed over how to ease lockdowns imposed to curb the infection rate, including in some states whether to rollback reopenings. The ordering of face coverings, a common practice around the world and recommended by the federal government’s own health experts, has also become highly politicized, with some Republican governors particularly resistant. Hostility to the idea appeared to be dwindling this week, including from the Republican administration of President Donald Trump, who once dismissed mask-wearing as an effort to be politically correct. Trump, who faces falling poll numbers over his handling of the health crisis ahead of the November election, has long refused to wear a mask in public but this week encouraged Americans to do so. While Trump did not issue a national mandate, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir on Thursday cited the importance of masks to bring the virus under control. ‘We have to do our mitigation steps: wear a mask, avoid the crowds. We won’t see hospitalizations and deaths go down for a couple of weeks because (they are) lagging indicators, but we are turning that tide,’ Giroir told Fox News Network. He also said the time it currently takes to get coronavirus test results back needs to be reduced.

Nick Note: this has a name… Its called a pandemic out of control. And it will kill millions. I am of the opinion that it has gone to far to contain. Please note its the poorly built highly congested cities. If your high on crack the last thing you are thinking about is isolation or social distancing. Remember the cites of America are stuffed with the poorly educated, cramped ignorant masses. And that is a fact. If black lives really matter why is no one trying to save them form the pandemic? More blacks have died of the coronavirus then all the blacks killed by polices, vigilantes and the clan combined. As a mater of fact not one PC incorrect statue has killed anyone. I did hear of a black man injured when one of those civil war statues was pulled down on him!