Global cases of COVID-19 exceed 11 million

Kimberly Guilfoyle, a Trump campaign official and Trump Jr’s girlfriend was tested positive for the COVID-19 in South Dakota on Friday. She and Trump Jr. did not board the AirForce One along with the President for the Independence Day celebration at Mount Rushmore. Trump Jr. was tested negative however, he has cancelled all public events and is currently in self-isolation exercising ’precaution.’

Brazil was set to pass 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday. Brazil has the world’s second largest outbreak after the United States and the virus has killed over 60,000 people in the country. Despite this, cities are allowing bars, restaurants and gyms to reopen

Croatians are set to vote on Sunday to choose a government. The centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), led by the incumbent PM Andrej Plenkovic, believes it can re-emerge as the biggest party with the strongest chance to lead a coalition. A recent opinion poll gave the Plenkovic’s party 27% of the vote, just ahead of the main opposition Social Democrats (SDP) at 25%.

Castex, a senior official who spearheaded France’s Covid-19 reopening strategy, has been named the country’s new PM by President Macron. His appointment was announced just hours after Philippe, who served as PM for three years, resigned. Castex is a career public servant who has served in multiple administrations and is a member of the conservative party Les Republicains.

France’s PM Edouard Philippe resigned from government Friday. The resignation comes amid speculation that Macron was preparing a reshuffle to focus on the economic recovery post COVID-19. The move comes after recent losses in nationwide municipal elections. The elections revealed surging support for the Green party.

The one day record of increase in cases has been broken by the US four times in one week as the number of cases of COVID-19 surge again. More than 40,000 cases have been recorded in the country on four separate days. 51,200 cases were recorded in the United States on Wednesday. This was the first time that more than 50,000 cases were recorded in a day.

VP Pence delayed a trip to Arizona this week after several Secret Service agents assigned with the responsibility of drafting the itinerary tested positive for Covid-19. Hence Pence decided to postpone the trip from Tuesday to Wednesday this week to allow time for healthy agents to get to Arizona. The VP also postponed campaign events in Florida owing to a significant spike in Covid-19 cases.

Nearly 105 students living in fraternity houses near the University of Washington campus have tested positive for COVID-19. Results for hundreds of others remain pending. The Interfraternity Council, a governing board for UW fraternities, has asked fraternity houses to stop holding social events. Experts say the outbreak is a troubling sign of what may be in store if colleges reopen in the fall.

Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas issued an executive order on Thursday as per which residents are required to wear face masks in public in counties which have 20 or more positive cases of the novel coronavirus. Local authorities have also now been given the ability to limit gatherings of more than 10 people.

Nine more NBA players were tested positive for the coronavirus under a week before teams will begin traveling to Florida to continue the season. The National Basketball Association claimed that a total of 25 players and 10 team staff members have tested positive for the virus since testing started on June 23.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) on Thursday called on the White House to shutter its Covid-19 task force, claiming the nation’s top public health experts were undermining the president. ’Birx and Fauci, they’ve gone well past their ... they’ve expired,’ Biggs Fox News’s Neil Cavuto in an interview. ’...they make these statements that engender panic and hysteria and undermine what the president’s doing.’

Herman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Mr. Cain, who is also a businessman and media contributor, was admitted to the hospital with symptoms on Wednesday. Mr. Cain’s staff reported that he is in a stable condition and is not on the ventilator.

The US has reached a daily global record for the Covid-19 pandemic, reporting more than 55,000 new cases. The daily US tally stood at 55,274 on Thursday which exceeds the previous single-day record of 54,771 set by Brazil on June 19. Johns Hopkins University & Medicine’s Covid-19 Resource Center, which tracks the cases globally, said that the total number of cases reported in US stood at 2739879.

Dr. Fauci, director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the country is on the wrong path in fighting the Covid-19. Fauci’s warning comes as US witnesses 40,000 new cases a day. Dr. Fauci said he was concerned and would not be surprised if the new cases go up to 100,000 a day if the present situation continues.

The US notched more than 52,000 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours Wednesday, a new one-day record as infections surge around the country. The epicenter of the country’s epidemic has now moved from the Northeast to California, Arizona and New Mexico in the West along with Texas, Florida and Georgia. Texas again topped its previous record on Wednesday with 8,076 new cases.

A Southern California man expressed his regret in a Facebook post over attending a party where he contracted Covid-19. He died a day later. He warned everyone to compulsory wear a mask and practice social distancing. His niece, Danielle Lopez, said her uncle had gone to a party where no one wore a mask and met a friend who had tested positive for the virus but showed no symptoms.

Tesla said that it delivered more EV globally in Q2 than it did in Q1. This was mainly because the Covid-19 restrictions forced it to shut down its only US factory for most of the period during Q1. The company delivered 90,650 vehicles from April through June as it rolled out the new Model Y SUV in the US & China which is a 2.5% increase over Q1’s 88,400 vehicles sold.

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday held a pre-holiday press briefing at the White House, where he talked about the jobs report from the month of June in order to proclaim that the ’economy is roaring back’. The President also claimed that the response to the coronavirus pandemic is working out ’very well’ after coordination with governors.

The Supreme Court has denied a request by Texas Democrats to fast-track a review of the party’s effort to expand mail-in voting. The state’s primary runoff is set for July 14. Texas only allows absentee ballots from elderly, disabled, incarcerated or traveling voters. Democrats have been seeking to expand the definition of ’disabled’ to include those who fear COVID-19 exposure.

The British government said it is scrapping a 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals from 75 countries deemed ’lower risk’ for the coronavirus, including France, Spain, Germany and Italy. The full list of countries, which will be released Friday, is not expected to include the U.S. The change takes effect July 10. The quarantine was in effect just over a month.

San Quentin, one of California’s oldest prisons as seen an explosion of cases of the novel coronavirus. Authorities reported on Thursday that more than 1,000 inmates had tested positive for the virus. Governor Gavin Newsom also said that 42 percent of the nearly 3,500 inmates are considered ’medically vulnerable’.

Approximately 28% of the Apple stores in the United States have been closed due to an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in several states. 77 stores which had previously reopened have been closed once again following the sudden spike in cases.

Dutch sex workers welcomed customers back on Wednesday as the country further eased lockdown measures. However, customers have been advised to avoid heavy breathing and kissing to help reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19. The government recently brought forward the date of opening for Amsterdam’s ’Red Light’ district from a tentative Sept. 1 to July 1.

As per a new research, the official number of deaths caused due to the novel coronavirus in the United States could be a figure of dispute, with the actual number being approximately 28 percent higher. Currently, nearly 2.7 million people have got the infection in the country, and the virus has claimed 129,000 lives, too.