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Coronavirus cases fall and deaths stop: masks work but fewer tests are also done

2020-08-12T18:24:58.388Z


Although the death toll shows a stagnation, Florida and Georgia registered records of deaths in the last 24 hours.


The United States has been facing a serious health crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic for months. The country has detected more than 5,150,000 confirmed infections and has registered more than 165,000 deaths from COVID-19, according to the most recent statistics.

These are the main news for this Wednesday, August 12  , 2020:

  • Coronavirus cases fall and deaths stop: masks work but fewer tests are also done
  • The unemployment aid will be less than what Trump promised. His order does not oblige states to contribute in profits
  • Companies are working on antibody treatments to combat COVID-19 amid uncertainty about a vaccine
  • The US Secretary of Health says four companies have already offered favorable test results on a vaccine 
  • Trini López, a Latin musician who established himself in the 1960s, dies of complications linked to the virus

Coronavirus cases fall and deaths stop: masks work but fewer tests are also done

The use of the mask may have been decisive in the decrease in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, according to a study carried out in the state of Kansas that analyzed the drop in cases in the 15 counties where the use of a mask is mandatory.

The result agrees with the conclusions of a study from UC Davis University, California, which determined that the risk of infection is reduced by 65% ​​when using a mask, according to The Hill.

"The counties where the mask is used are winning the battle. All the progress we've seen comes from those counties where its use is mandatory," Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health told the Kansas City Star.

In the first weeks of August, the weekly average of COVID-19 infections has fallen to 52,000 cases, a figure that is still very high compared to other countries, but is lower than the average of over 65,000 that was recorded for much of the time. of July.

Graphs showing infections and deaths from coronavirus in the United States.Felipe Gálvez, Telemundo

The United States exceeded 5 million cases a few days ago, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Engineering Sciences. However, it took the country 17 days to go from 4 to 5 million infections, two days longer than to go from 3 to 4 million.

The decrease in cases, however, is also explained by the decrease in the number of tests that are performed. In the last two weeks, the country went from performing some 820,000 daily tests to 710,000, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project, prepared by The Atlantic.

Graph showing the number of coronavirus tests that are performed daily in the United States.Felipe Gálvez, Telemundo

Although the death toll at the national level seems to stagnate and even decrease in recent days, the situation continues to be worrying in various parts of the country. The states of Florida and Georgia registered a record day in the number of deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday .

Florida recorded 276 deaths, the highest daily number since the pandemic began. The deceased in this state already exceed 8,700 people.

In addition, the number of deaths inside prisons rose by 52% in the last 15 days, according to the state Department of Corrections. As of August 11, 70 prisoners have died from coronavirus.

In Georgia, 137 people died in the past 24 hours, marking the worst day since the health crisis began. 4,300 people have died from COVID in this state. 

Other places, like Alabama and Tennessee, saw their second-highest day in death toll, at 50 and 38, respectively.

In the country, 164,000 people have already died and the latest projection from the University of Washington is that this number could grow to 300,000 by December.

The unemployment aid will be less than what Trump promised. His order does not oblige states to contribute in profits

The financial aid for those who lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic will be less than those that President Donald Trump assured he would give by extending the benefit through an executive order.

When signing the extension of the benefits granted in the first aid package for the pandemic, the president affirmed that the weekly payment to the unemployed would be 400 dollars, which already represented a decrease compared to the 600 dollars that were initially delivered to more 25 million people.

When the president signed the order, he clarified that the states should contribute 25% of those funds. 

However, advisers to the president acknowledged on Tuesday that the order does not oblige the states to increase the benefits they already provide by that percentage, so the benefit signed by Trump only guarantees a maximum of $ 300.

The scope and legality of these actions has been called into question, causing confusion among the millions of Americans who are waiting for some form of economic relief to alleviate the effects of the pandemic.

Several Democratic governors have declared their intention to file lawsuits in court to overturn the measures, claiming that only Congress has the power to control the federal budget, not the president.

Even some Republican authorities reacted to the measure. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said he didn't know if his state could afford it.

Companies are working on antibody treatments to combat COVID-19 amid uncertainty about a vaccine

Despite politically charged announcements by some world leaders, it may still be months before a mass-scale effective vaccine against COVID-19 is available, or one with such characteristics will never be developed. 

Faced with such a scenario, several companies are rushing to try another option: drugs that release antibodies to fight the virus immediately, without having to train the immune system to produce them as occurs when a vaccine is injected, reports The Associated Press news agency.

Antibodies are proteins that the body makes when an infection occurs; they stick to a virus and help eliminate it. And vaccines work as a deception for the body: they make it believe that there is an infection and thus push it to generate antibodies. Plus, they remind you how to do it when a virus really strikes. 

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But a vaccine takes time to work properly and allow the body to make the most effective antibodies. Experimental antibody drugs, by contrast, shorten that process by providing concentrated versions of those that work best against coronavirus in laboratory and animal tests.

["I don't think it's a dream." Fauci is optimistic and cautious about developing a vaccine towards the end of the year]

These drugs are believed to last a month or more and could provide rapid and temporary immunity to people at high risk of infection, such as healthcare workers or people living with someone who is infected. They are also being tested as treatments to help the immune system to prevent more serious symptoms or death.

Eli Lilly, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amgen, and Adaptive Biotechnologies are some of the companies most involved in this effort. 

"I am cautiously optimistic," the nation's leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said of these treatments. Dr. Janet Woodcock of the Food and Drug Administration called them "very promising" drugs, which, moreover, could be available "quite soon." 

Key studies are currently underway: Some answers should arrive in early fall, the AP reports. 

With information from The Associated Press. 

The US Secretary of Health says four companies have already offered favorable test results on a vaccine 

For the Secretary of Health of the United States, Alex Azar, the push to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 "is not a race to be first."

The comment, made this Wednesday during a visit to Taiwan, follows an announcement the day before by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said his country was the first to approve a coronavirus vaccine, raising doubts about the scientific soundness. and the security behind that supposed achievement.

Azar said the United States has established an advanced manufacturing contract for a vaccine being developed by Moderna and has supply agreements with five other companies that have vaccines in the pipeline.

Four of the six companies under contract have reported test results showing they produce more antibodies to the virus than people who have survived COVID-19, he added, without serious side effects.

[More than 250 students and teachers quarantined in Georgia, after just one week of school. It is not the only case]

Azar also indicated that the candidate vaccines of two companies have entered the third phase of trials, while that of Russia has just embarked on that phase without information being disclosed.

In his view, the United States aims to produce a "standard, safe and effective vaccine" available in tens of millions of doses by the end of the year. 

With information from AP. 

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Trini López, a Latin musician who established himself in the 1960s, dies of complications linked to the virus

Trini López, a Latin singer and actor who became very popular in the 1960s for the song "If I Had A Hammer" and who participated in the film "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), died this Tuesday at the age of 83 for complications linked to the coronavirus, as confirmed by collaborators of this artist. 

Lopez's death occurred very shortly after directors P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes had finished filming a documentary on the life and work of the interpreter.

[Follow our coverage of the pandemic]

Born Trinidad López III in Dallas, Texas, into a family of Mexican origin, Trini López began her musical career in the late 1950s with the group Big Beats.

With the support of Buddy Holly and Frank Sinatra, who were delighted to see him perform live, the Hispanic, who always carried his Latino roots with great pride, made his way solo in the following decade. 

Thanks to his triumphs as a singer, he also had the opportunity to work in some Hollywood movies. 

With information from EFE, AP and NBC News. 

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2020-08-12

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