July 26 coronavirus news

Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat from California, says that Los Angeles County should return to a stay-at-home order as cases surge.

Bass told CNN, "yes, I would go back" to stay-at-home in LA, adding, "I would reopen very conservatively."

Some context: California surpassed New York with the most cases in the nation this past week.

Los Angeles County alone has more than 172,000 confirmed cases — the most of any county in the nation — according to the latest count from Johns Hopkins University.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles County health officials announced that the virus is on track to be the second leading cause of death in the county — with at least 3,400 fatalities in the first six months of the year.

The Spanish government is focused on dialogue with Britain in order to have the Canary and Balearic Islands excluded from the UK's new quarantine rules, according to Spain's Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya. 

Speaking to reporters in Madrid on Sunday, Gonzalez Laya said the popular holiday destinations should be excluded because the epidemiological Covid-19 data there is "extremely positive" and "well below data in the UK."

Gonzalez Laya added that the Spanish government would not be retaliating against the UK government's decision, saying it is "not a tit-for-tat exercise." 

"If we think that in any country in Europe the epidemiological data requires stricter measures on our side we will do this," Gonzalez Laya added.

Hong Kong has recorded 128 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the fifth straight day of cases surpassing the 100 mark, according to the head of the communicable disease branch of the Department of Health, Chuang Shuk-kwan, at a press conference on Sunday.

The city has been struggling to contain a third wave of the virus.

Among the new infections, 103 are local transmissions and 25 are imported cases. Among the 103 local cases, 68 are related to previous cases and the sources of 35 are still under investigation. Hong Kong's total case tally stands at 2,634 as of Sunday.

Health officials also announced Sunday that standard crew change arrangements for passenger and goods ships without cargo would be suspended from July 29.

More details: Crew members on goods vessels entering Hong Kong for cargo operations will have to remain on board the ship and cannot enter the city. Crew members arriving at the airport have to present a negative result of a nucleic acid test before entering.

Instead of crew members entering the city in order to switch from vessel to vessel, shipping companies will be expected to arrange ship to ship transfers, according to the Hong Kong's Department of Health.

Flight crews will also be required to present a negative test result within 48 hours before boarding a flight to Hong Kong. Otherwise, they have to take a test at the Hong Kong airport and wait for the results at the designated locations.

Even as coronavirus cases soar in Latin America, another calamity looms: Sharply contracting economies, unsustainable debt and deepening inequality could unleash social turmoil in the region.

The regional economy of Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to shrink more than any other region worldwide -- a contraction of nearly 10% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund's June forecast.

The IMF said the "pandemic's still rapid spread indicates that social distancing measures will need to remain in place for a longer time, depressing economic activity in the second half of 2020."

A new UN report goes further -- saying Covid-19 could lead to "the worst economic and social crisis in decades, with highly damaging effects on employment, the fight against poverty and the reduction of inequality."

Read more here.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the country's response to the pandemic has defied global expectations.

"The way Indians came together to fight against coronavirus in the last few months, we have proved the world wrong," he said Sunday, delivering his monthly radio address to the nation.

India has the third-highest number of virus cases worldwide, with more than 1.3 million recoded instances of Covid-19 and 32,060 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Modi claimed the coronavirus recovery rate was better in India than in other countries but warned that the threat of the disease remained.

India on Sunday recorded 48,661 new cases. Research conducted by the country's National Center for Disease Control suggests that nearly one in four residents in New Delhi, the country's capital, have contracted the virus.

The UK government has advised against travel to mainland Spain, in a dramatic reversal of policy.

Britain is "very clear now that we advise against travel to mainland Spain," Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb said on Sunday while speaking about the sudden removal of a travel corridor between the two countries.

On Saturday Britain unexpectedly announced people returning from all parts Spain would be required to self-isolate for two weeks, reversing their previous stance with immediate effect. 

The quarantine advice applies to all parts of the country, while the travel warning applies only to mainland Spain.

The decision came after Spain announced 922 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, and 971 on Thursday -- the highest increase since May 8. 

Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Raab said the government "took the decision as swiftly as we could, and we can't apologize for doing so."

His comments came as the Spanish government said Spain is a "safe country."

The "outbreaks are localized, isolated and controlled," the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. 

Travel operator TUI said it was "incredibly disappointed" with the lack of notice from the British government about its decision. TUI cancelled all flights from the UK to mainland Spain and the Canary Islands on Sunday, according to a statement sent to CNN.

"We also look to understand why quarantine has been issued for a whole country, including the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, when the travel advice isn't aligned (only applying to mainland Spain.) It demonstrates why clear regional travel corridors need to be considered," TUI's Managing Director Andrew Flintham said in the statement.

The Government of the Balearic Islands -- home to popular destinations like Mallorca and Ibiza -- expressed "great concern" over the new British quarantine measures, adding it will cause "serious problems" to their tourism industry. 

"The Balearic Islands' government has been working over the last few hours to establish the basis for a safe air corridor with the UK," a government spokesperson tweeted from an official account, while pointing out the infection rate per 100,000 people is higher in the UK than on the islands. 

One of the British government's ministers -- Transport Secretary Grant Shapps -- is currently in Spain, a spokesman told CNN on Sunday. His presence in the country has prompted criticism from British opposition figures.

"I think that tells you everything about the government's approach to this," Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said.

Ashworth described the communication around the U-turn as "shambolic."

The UK has a higher number of both total confirmed cases and deaths than Spain, with the third-highest death toll globally.

The posts come every few minutes. Members from South Africa to Arizona report their coronavirus symptoms. Someone asks for vitamin suggestions. Another user asks for prayers for their mom.

This unlikely support group began as a way for 32-year-old Andrey Khudyakov, from Paris, to keep in touch with his family members during the pandemic, some of whom live in New York, others in Sweden and some in Italy. They began inviting friends to the Facebook group, who added their own friends and soon the online community grew to more than 28,000 members.

Coronavirus support groups, like Khudyakov's, have multiplied in recent weeks. With more than 16 million global cases and the fear of infection heightened all over the world, those who catch the virus can often still be stigmatized, says New York-based psychiatrist Dr. Julia Samton. And the online groups serve as safe spaces to connect with others trekking on the same path.

Read more here.

The number of coronavirus cases globally surpassed 16 million on Sunday, according to John Hopkins University (JHU). 

JHU has recorded 16,048,100 cases and 644,537 deaths around the world. 

More than a quarter of cases are in the US, where there have been more than 4 million positive cases and 146,000 deaths. The nation recorded 65,490 on Saturday, according to JHU. On Friday the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus was set to become a leading cause of death in the country.

Other global hotspots include Brazil, which has more than 2.3 million cases and India, which has more than 1.3 million cases.

CNN is tracking Covid-19's global spread here.

Coronavirus deaths in the US topped 1,000 four days in a row this week amid an ongoing debate on the return of school and mask mandates.

The country recorded 900 new virus-related deaths Saturday, down from the 1,130 reported Friday. Since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 146,460 Americans have died from the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

And models project that there will be up to 175,000 deaths linked to the virus by August 15, according to an ensemble forecast published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects there will be around 165,000 US deaths by that time.

The grim patterns come as several states have reported record-breaking numbers of new cases and deaths in the past weeks. Some local leaders, including Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, have mentioned the possibility of a second stay-at-home order as officials warn of strained testing labs and overwhelmed hospitals.

And on Thursday, more than 150 prominent medical experts, scientists, teachers, nurses and other experts signed a letter urging leaders to shut the country down and start over to contain the rampant spread of the virus.

Read more here.