July 28 coronavirus news

A house party in New Jersey was so packed with partygoers openly flouting the state's Covid-19 crowd guidelines this weekend that it took police officers over five hours to break it up.

The bust occurred on Sunday at around 8:30 p.m., when police officers arrived at a house in Jackson that was being rented out through Airbnb, according to a statement by Captain Steven Laskiewicz posted on the Jackson Police Department's Facebook page.

Still, the party continued to grow, with the crowd surging to an estimated 700 people with well over 100 vehicles parked in the area, according to the statement.

It took police until 1 a.m. to fully clear the residence. The homeowner and two party organizers were each issued summons, the statement said.

Murphy's executive order limits indoor gatherings to 100 people and outdoor gatherings to 500.

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Vietnam has suspended all domestic passenger flights to and from popular tourist destination Da Nang for 15 days, starting from Tuesday, according to Chinhphu, the official state-run newspaper of the Vietnamese government.  

This comes after the country reported 11 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on Monday evening, including four healthcare workers. A total of 16 new cases had been reported in the past three days, the news report said.  

About 80,000 tourists are stranded in Da Nang. Earlier, domestic airlines were asked to increase the number of flights to evacuate them, but they had to depart before midnight Tuesday local time, according to Chinhphu.

Reemergence of the virus: Da Nang witnessed a surge in cases since July 25, after the country had reported no local infections for 100 days. Authorities suspended road passenger transport both within the city and to and from Da Nang, except for the transportation of patients, workers, experts for business establishments, food, and goods.  

Reimposed restrictions: In a series of social-distancing measures imposed from midnight Tuesday, residents in six districts of Da Nang are required to stay at home. They can go out for food, medicine, emergencies and work. When they are out, they are required to keep a distance of at least 2 meters from each other.  

A ban on gatherings of more than two people was imposed outside offices, schools, hospitals and other public places.  

The government of Australia’s Victoria state is transferring elderly care residents into public and private hospitals to protect them from Covid-19, Premier Daniel Andrews said Tuesday.

Around 200 patients have already been moved from aged care homes, where there are 769 active cases.

All but the most serious surgeries have been suspended to make space for the at-risk individuals.

Victoria announced 384 new Covid-19 cases from 18,521 tests conducted Monday, down on Sunday’s daily high count of 532.

There are 4,775 active cases in Victoria, among whom 414 are health workers.

The Victorian government believes that Covid-19 patients refusing to isolate are driving the spread of the disease, despite a stay-at-home order imposed on metro Melbourne and the neighboring Mitchell Shire. 

Soldiers employed to knock on the doors of Covid-19 patients to enforce quarantine and contact tracing are "sadly finding some people who are positive who are not at home, which is a real concern," Andrews said.

China reported 68 novel coronavirus cases on Monday, including 64 locally transmitted infections, the country's National Health Commission said on Tuesday morning.

This is the second consecutive day that China has reported the highest number of local cases since March 6. On Monday, the country reported 57 new local infections for Sunday.

Among the 64 locally transmitted cases reported on Tuesday, 57 were in Xinjiang, six in Liaoning, and one in Beijing. China also reported a further 34 new asymptomatic infections, which are not included in its overall tally.

The far western region of Xinjiang has seen a fresh coronavirus outbreak in its capital Urumqi since July 15, after nearly five months of no new cases.

The total number of confirmed infections across China now stands at 83,959, according to the National Health Commission. The death toll remains at 4,634.

Mexico recorded 4,973 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing the country's total to 395,489.

On Friday, Mexico surpassed Peru's total number of coronavirus cases, making it the country with the second highest number of infections in Latin America and sixth highest worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.

Brazil, where cases have now surpassed 2.4 million, has reported the highest number of infections in Latin America.

The Mexican health ministry also recorded 342 new fatalities from the virus, bringing the country's death toll to 44,022.

CNN is tracking worldwide Covid-19 cases here:

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Nearly 7 million more children worldwide could suffer from acute malnutrition due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an analysis published Monday in the Lancet medical journal. 

Disruptions in mobility and food systems caused by even relatively short lockdowns will result in a decrease of nearly 8% of gross national income (GNI) per capita compared to pre-pandemic projections.

A drop in the GNI per capita is associated with a rise in acute malnutrition or child wasting, which is low weight for height and a strong predictor of mortality among children under five, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). 

These projections suggest a 14% increase in the number of children under 5 with moderate or severe wasting, meaning an additional 6.7 million could be affected this year compared to pre-pandemic projections, UNICEF said.

Nearly 130,000 additional deaths from wasting in children under 5 are projected, with more than half of them occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Increased risk of malnutrition: Covid-19  "is expected to increase the risk of all forms of malnutrition," the team at the Standing Together for Nutrition consortium wrote, adding their estimates are likely to be conservative as the duration of the pandemic is unknown. 

Nutrition services hit: Covid-19 has resulted in a 30% reduction of essential nutrition services in low and middle-income countries, leaders of four United Nations agencies said in accompanying comments. Some of these countries have seen a complete shutdown of these services during lockdown. The UN estimates a minimum of $2.4 billion is needed to treat and prevent child wasting. 

Call for urgent action: The UN called for five "urgent actions" to protect children's right to nutrition during the pandemic, including maintaining school meals and expanding social protections that include diet services. 

Vaccine maker Moderna started its final, phase 3 trial of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States Monday, and this is the stage that can’t be sped up, a top vaccine expert said.

Development of a coronavirus vaccine has been extremely fast so far, Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics at the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told CNN.

But the last part, the Phase 3 trial, will have to be taken more slowly, he said.

“The proof is in the pudding. The Phase 3 trial’s the pudding and now you’re going to test hopefully 10, 15 or 20 thousand people that will get this vaccine, 15,000 people that will get placebo and you’ll see to what extent this is really safe and you’ll see to what extent it’s effective.”

Data on whether the Moderna vaccine prevents infection should be available by the end of the year, and, if all goes well, it should be available for use by early 2021, although the vaccination process will take months.

“I’m willing to wait to see the data,” Offit said.

Mitigate risk: Offit said the Phase 3 trial helps to mitigate any sense of risk. “If you test it on 10,000 or 15,000 people and you find that it’s safe, you can say it doesn’t have an uncommon side-effect problem,” he said. But very rare side-effects won’t become obvious until after the vaccine is on the market, he said.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech also said Monday they were about to start a phase 2/3 trial of their experimental coronavirus vaccine in the US.

Even as coronavirus cases increase across the United States -- and as members of his administration encourage some states to reverse their reopenings -- US President Donald Trump said Monday that some governors need to loosen restrictions.

The message doesn't align with what members of the White House coronavirus task force have advised governors in states where cases are increasing. Health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx have said states with spiking case counts should close bars and indoor restaurants, among other restrictions. 

Trump offered a more optimistic view, saying that rapid development of a vaccine and therapeutics to treat coronavirus would help spur an economic resurgence.

"I think the recovery’s been very strong," Trump said.