U.S. Cases Climb 1.7%; Trump Again Blames Testing: Virus Update

(Bloomberg) --

The World Health Organization reported a one-day high for global coronavirus cases, led by the Americas, as U.S. cases rose 1.7%. Florida and Texas recorded new virus records. President Donald Trump again linked testing and mounting cases.

Italy reported an above-average increase in cases, and India added more than 22,700 infections, the most in a day. Boris Johnson’s dad defended his trip to Greece after the U.K. advised against such international travel.

A sports agent said he’s confident U.S. baseball can resume, citing success in three Asia nations.

Key Developments:

• Global Tracker: Cases top 11.1 million; Deaths over 527,000
• Cheers? English pubs shake off lockdown into uncertain world
• Americans aren’t much interested in going out and spending
• A thousand pork workers tested positive at JBS plant in Brazil
• Japan insists this time is different even as cases surge
• Low-income U.S. households suffer inflation shock from virus

Subscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus.

Man in 9/11 Photo Dies of Covid-19 (5:15 p.m. NY)

A New York electrical engineer photographed in a crowd fleeing the smoking World Trade Center in 2001 died of the coronavirus, the Palm Beach Post reported, citing his family. Stephen Cooper, 78, died March 28 in Delray Beach, Florida, where he lived part-time. The photograph was widely published and is part of the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York.

Texas Records Record Rise (4:38 p.m. NY)

Texas reported a record 8,258 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the state’s total to 191,790 as of July 4. It marked a 4.4% rise, above the seven-day average of 4.2%. The number of deaths rose by 33 to 2,608, the Department of State Health Services said on its website.

U.S. Cases Rise in Line With Week’s Average (4 p.m. NY)

Coronavirus cases in the U.S. increased by more than 46,000 from the same time on Friday, to 2.82 million, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The 1.7% increase was below the average daily increase of 1.8% over the past week. Fatalities rose 0.3% to 129,601.

• Florida reported another record jump in Covid-19 cases, rising by 11,458 cases, or 6.4%. That’s compared with the seven-day average of 5.5%, for a total of 190,052 cases. Another 18 people died, the fewest since June 22, for a total of 3,702.
• New York, once the nation’s epicenter for the outbreak, reported a 0.2% rise in cases, in line with the past 7 days, or 726 cases. The state’s total is now 396,598. Eleven more people died, for a total of 24,896.
• California reported 6,510 new cases, and increase of 2.6%. In total, 254,745 people have tested positive. The number of deaths rose by 50 to 6,313. The state website warned some data might be delayed from Los Angeles County.
• Arizona reported 2,695 new cases, a 2.9% rise from a day earlier. It was the slowest rate of increase in five days, and below the record for daily cases set on Wednesday. Cases in the state have been rising at a 4.4% rate over the past seven days and now stand at 94,553.
• New Jersey reported 303 new cases, for a total of 173,033. That is a slight drop from 386 reported the day before. The state had 25 deaths, down from 58 the day before, for a total of 13,333.

Trump Again Blames Testing for Case Rise (3:04 p.m. NY)

President Donald Trump again blamed the amount of testing for the record rise in U.S. Covid-19 cases. “Cases, Cases, Cases! If we didn’t test so much and so successfully, we would have very few cases,” he tweeted.

But many health experts point out the percentage of those testing positive is also rising. In Florida, his home state, 14% of tests on Friday came back positive -- a daily rate that has topped 10% since June 25 -- compared with his former home of New York, which had a positive rate of 1.2% on Friday.

WHO Ends One Malaria Drug Trial (2:30 p.m. NY)

The World Health Organization halted one of the clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, touted by President Donald Trump for Covid-19, and lopinavir/ritonavir, accepting a steering committee recommendation.

WHO set up the so-called Solidarity Trial to find a treatment for patients in hospitals, but interim results showed the two drugs did little to reduce mortality rates whilke not adding to the risk of death.

This decision doesn’t affect possible evaluation in other studies of the two drugs in non-hospitalized patients or as pre- or post-exposure protection for Covid-19, the agency said in a statement. Trump took hydroxychloroquine in May.

California Cases Rise 2.6% (2:15 p.m. NY)

California reported 6,510 new Covid-19 cases, and increase of 2.6%. In total, 254,745 people in the state have tested positive. Deaths rose by 50 to 6,313. Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as the reporting of test results can be delayed, according to the website.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is making improvements to its data processing systems beginning Saturday. As a result, testing data from the county won’t be included in statewide totals for the next few days. The county will continue to collect data during this time and it will be reported by the state early next week.

Johnson Dad Defends Trip Despite Guidance (2 p.m. NY)

The father of U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his trip to Greece this weekend made after the government advised British citizens to avoid all but essential international travel, including to Greece.

Stanley Johnson, 79, said his visit was “essential business” because he needed to “Covid-proof my property” ahead of the rental season, the Press Association reported. The elder Johnson, who owns a villa in Greece, earlier posted a picture on social media as he arrived wearing a face mask: “I didn’t put them up... in a spirit of defiance, or anything like that,” he told reporters, the PA said.

Boris Johnson refused to condemn his father for the apparent breach of travel guidance during a radio call-in program on a London sation.

WHO Reports Most New Cases for a Day (12:25 p.m. NY)

The World Health Organization reported a record 212,326 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours ended early Saturday, the first infection total to top 200,000. The WHO has reported more than 163,000 new cases every day for the past week, led by a rise in the Americas.

The Americas region -- chiefly the U.S. and Brazil -- account for 61% of all new cases, followed by Southeast Asia, which made up 12% of the daily infections. Europe, once an epicenter for the outbreak, represented 9.3%, the WHO daily report showed. Cases in the U.S. and Brazil were 48% of the global total.

The Americas make up 51% of all cases, or 5.58 million of 10.92 million, followed by Europe with 25% and the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Middle East, with 10%. The WHO total often lags behind tallies from John Hopkins University, which showed 11.13 million cases as of midday Saturday.

Italy’s Infection Pace, Deaths Edge Higher (11:45 a.m. NY)

Italy, Europe’s first pandemic epicenter, reported 21 new virus-related deaths on Saturday, compared with 15 a day earlier, raising the country’s toll to 34,854, according to the Health Ministry. New cases increased by 235, more than the previous seven-day average of 175.

Arizona Cases Rise Less Than 7-Day Average (11:20 a.m. NY)

Arizona reported 2,695 new cases on Saturday, a 2.9% rise from a day earlier but less than the record set Wednesday. Cases have been rising at a 4.4% rate over the past seven days and now stand at 94,553. The state had 4,878 new cases on Wednesday, the most for a day.

The state reported 17 new deaths, down from a record 88 on Wednesday, putting the total at 1,805.

New York Hospitalizations Decline (11:10 a.m. NY)

New York reported fewer hospitalizations and new admissions as cases climbed by 726, or 0.2%, according to the state health department website, a rate consistent with most days since the middle of June.

The state had 844 patients in hospitals, 13 fewer than on the previous day, with 63 admissions, a drop of 10 from Thursday. Of all tests on Friday, 1.16% were positive, down from 1.38% a day earlier.

Sports Agent Bullish on Baseball Safety (11:10 a.m. NY)

Sports agent Scott Boras, who represents some of the highest-paid professional baseball players, said he’s convinced games can safely return this month without fans, even as Covid-19 cases surge. In an interview, Boras cited the experience of Korea, Japan and Taiwan, where games were played without hospitalizations.

Four players have decided to sit out the year and on Friday the game’s biggest star, Mike Trout, said he’s concerned about playing with his wife pregnant. Thirty-one players and seven staff members tested positive for Covid-19, according to an announcement from Major League Baseball and the players union. That was 1.2% of the total 3,185 samples, a rate lower than 5% of players reported by the National Basketball Association in its initial round of testing.

Florida Cases Surge By Record (10:35 a.m. NY)

Florida’s Covid-19 cases reached 190,052 on Saturday, up 6.4% from a day earlier, compared with an average increase of 5.5% in the previous seven days. Deaths among Florida residents reached 3,702, an increase of 0.5%, according to the report, which includes data through Friday. The increase in infections was 11,459, the most for a single day.

Cumulative hospitalizations of Florida residents rose by 244, or 1.6%, to 3,702. The rate of people testing positive for the first time fell to 14.1% for Friday, from 14.9% a day earlier.

Portugal Reports More Cases, Mostly in Lisbon Region (10 a.m. NY)

Portugal reported 413 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, up from 374 on Friday, taking the total to 43,569. Daily new cases have ranged between 192 and 457 since the start of June. The additional cases are mostly in the greater Lisbon region, where authorities have tightened restrictions in 19 parishes and increased testing after new clusters were identified.

Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva on Friday called a U.K. requirement that travelers quarantine when they arrive in England from Portugal “absurd,” citing a higher number of deaths in Britain due to the pandemic.

Spanish Region Locked Down (8 a.m. NY)

Spain’s Catalan government has put the Segria region and its capital Lleida under lockdown to contain an outbreak. The number of cases in the region of 210,000 has soared 20% in the past two weeks to 3,312. Four of nine outbreaks currently being monitored by authorities are associated to companies harvesting and processing fruit and vegetables.

The lockdown won’t impact the harvest season, but Alba Verges, head of the regional department of health, called for agriculture workers to limit their social activities. The precarious conditions that these workers often live in make controlling the outbreaks more difficult, Verges said. These temporary workers, many of them African migrants, are often hired by the day, paid very low salaries and live in crowded spaces or even on the streets.

“We have taken exceptional public health measures in this region because the data make us think that contagion is much greater than in the rest of the country,” Verges said.

India Cases Rise by More Than 22,000 (4:50 p.m. HK)

Infections in the South Asian nation of 1.3 billion people rose to 648,315, including 18,655 deaths as of Saturday -- the world’s fourth-largest outbreak, according to the country’s health ministry. It recorded 22,771 fresh infections on Saturday, the highest increase in new cases so far.

India has set an ambitious timeline for its first potential vaccine -- from human trials to general use in six weeks. Bharat Biotech International Ltd., an unlisted Indian vaccine maker, got regulatory approval to start human clinical trials for its experimental shot earlier this week.

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With assistance from Bloomberg