June 30 coronavirus news

By Nectar Gan, Adam Renton, Melissa Macaya, Meg Wagner and Mike Hayes, CNN

Updated 12:02 a.m. ET, July 1, 2020
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8:30 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

At least 16 US states have paused reopening over fears of Covid-19 spread

From CNN's Christina Maxouris

At least 16 states have halted their reopening plans in response to a surge in new infections, but some health officials say the spread of coronavirus will be difficult to control.

Meanwhile, at least 36 states are seeing a rise in new coronavirus cases compared to last week. At least 11 states are seeing a 50% or more rise in cases.

The virus has been especially rampant in Arizona, and the state is closing bars, gyms and other businesses for another 30 days as a precaution. In Florida, some jurisdictions are requiring the use of face masks, including in Jacksonville, where President Trump is expected to accept the Republican presidential nomination in less than two months.

"What we hope is we can take it seriously and slow the transmission in these places," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But what I think is very discouraging is we're clearly not at a point where there's so little virus being spread that it's going to be easy to snuff out."

The US has reported more than 2.5 million cases of the virus and at least 126,140 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. State and local leaders have said the rise in cases are in part driven by gatherings, both in homes and in places like bars — which some experts called the perfect breeding ground for the virus.

Here's where cases are increasing across the US:

8:48 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

Miami Beach mayor on mask mandate: "We're trying everything we can to stop this spread"

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

Miami Beach, Florida, Mayor Dan Gelber said the city is implementing a face mask mandate today, in part because there “hasn't been a unity of purpose in the community.”

The city still gets hundreds of thousands of visitors almost every day, Gelber said, and there will be civil penalties those those who don’t comply. 

“We don't have a lot of tools left in the kit right now, so we're trying everything we can to stop this spread and reverse what is a very enormous spike in our community and in our state. And, you know, we don't want to go back to sheltering in place because of the impact that has,” Gelber said. 

The mayor said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis should make mask-wearing mandatory, and it’s been a “problem” to get people to wear them.  

“There are people who think it's a political statement to wear a mask, and it's like an insult to the family and they're fighting us about it, and I can't imagine why that has become something right now, other than that, you know, the President has made it something,” Gelber said.  

Watch more:

8:22 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

What it's like inside a South African field hospital

From CNN's David McKenzie

CNN's David McKenzie reports from a recreational center in South Africa converted into a field hospital as the country grapples with the worst coronavirus outbreak in Africa.

According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, South Africa has reported more than 144,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 2,500 deaths.

Watch more:

8:03 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

It's 8 a.m. in New York and 1.p.m. in London. Here's the latest on the pandemic.

More than 10.3 million coronavirus cases have been reported worldwide, including at least 505,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

But the pandemic is far from coming to an end any time soon, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Monday.

"This is not even close to being over," Tedros said at a media briefing in Geneva on Monday.

"Although many countries have made some progress globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up. We're all in this together and we're all in this for the long haul," Tedros said.

Here's what you need to know about the global outbreak:

Fauci to testify: Today, coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield and other top government health officials will testify before a Senate Committee on the latest efforts by the US government to contain the pandemic.

The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions panel hearing comes as several states are struggling to contain the virus as cases counts continue to rise across the nation and states begin to reopen. The US reported more than 40,000 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, its biggest daily jump yet.

EU preparing to reopen its borders -- but probably not to Americans: The European Union is preparing to reopen its external border to 15 countries outside of the bloc as early as Wednesday. However, one country that won't be featured on the proposed list is the United States, according to two EU diplomats.

There have been almost 2.6 million cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 126,000 people have died, according to JHU.

The diplomats, who were not permitted to discuss the matter before the EU's 27 member states had reached an agreement, have confirmed to CNN that EU governments have been given until lunchtime Tuesday to agree on the list of 15 countries allowed entry.

"High incidence" of cases among children in new UK hotspot: UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Tuesday that there is an unusually “high incidence” of coronavirus cases among children in Leicester, a city in England's East Midlands region and the first in the UK to be put under a localized lockdown. One in 10 of all of positive cases across the whole country in the last week have happened in Leicester, Hancock said, but local officials have warned that enforcing the lockdown will be challenging given a lack of resources.

Australian state announces partial lockdown after coronavirus case rise: The Australian state of Victoria announced a partial lockdown after seeing a double-digit rise in the newly confirmed cases for over two weeks. On Wednesday 11:50 pm local, ten postcode areas in Victoria will return to stage 3 “Stay at Home” until July 29th.

8:24 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

Australia's Victoria state announces partial lockdown after coronavirus case rise

From CNN's Sol Han

Members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) gather information and conduct temperature checks at a drive-in Covid-19 testing site in Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday, June 30.
Members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) gather information and conduct temperature checks at a drive-in Covid-19 testing site in Melbourne, Australia, on Tuesday, June 30. Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Australian state of Victoria announced a partial lockdown after seeing a double-digit rise in the newly confirmed cases for over two weeks.

On Wednesday 11:50 pm local time, 10 postcode areas in Victoria will return to stage 3 “Stay at Home” until July 29, Premier Daniel Andrews announced in a daily press briefing on Tuesday.

What does this mean? People who live in one of the so-called "hot zones" can only go out for food and supplies, care and caregiving, exercise, and study or work -- if they can’t do it from home, and the Victorian police will be “actively enforcing these suburban lockdowns.”

Andrews was told in a briefing that “at least a significant number and potentially more” of the outbreaks in the north of the city are attributable to “staff members in hotel quarantine breaching well-known, well-understood infection control protocol,” he said.

He would not elaborate further on the details of those breaches, but said he will have a former judge conduct an inquiry into those infection control protocol breaches.

Andrews said when there’s a spike in cases, they “literally leave no stone unturned to try and answer the riddle,” using genomic sequencing as an important tool to provide answers on the linkages between cases that are not always apparent through contact tracing.

Last Friday, Victoria announced that it would launch a targeted blitz for testing, allowing residents in 10 suburbs to receive free testing for the next 10 days.

So far 93,000 tests have been conducted in total, the biggest testing effort in Australia.

7:27 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

Spain's GDP shrinks 5.2% in first quarter due to Covid-19

From CNN's Laura Pérez Maestro in Madrid

People are seen shopping at Vallsur Shopping Center in Valladolid, Spain, on June 8.
People are seen shopping at Vallsur Shopping Center in Valladolid, Spain, on June 8. Photogenic/M.A Santos/Europa Press/Getty Images

Spain's economy contracted 5.2% in the first quarter of 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19, the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) said in a report Tuesday.

This is the largest quarterly decline since INE records began in 1970. The previous largest quarterly drop was the first quarter of 2009 as Spain suffered the financial crisis, when the decline was 2.6%.

The Spanish economy was growing in 2019 at rates of 0.6% in the first quarter and 0.4% in the second, third and fourth quarters.

7:19 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

Fauci and Redfield to testify before Senate as states struggle to contain coronavirus

From CNN's Jamie Ehrlich in Washington

Dr. Robert Redfield, left, listens as Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine Covid-19 on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 23.
Dr. Robert Redfield, left, listens as Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine Covid-19 on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 23. Kevin Dietsch/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield and other top government health officials will testify before a Senate Committee on Tuesday on the latest efforts by the US government to contain the pandemic.

The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions panel hearing comes as several states are struggling to contain the virus as cases counts continue to rise across the nation and states begin to reopen. The US reported more than 40,000 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, its biggest daily jump yet.

More than half of all states are seeing a rise in cases, and Florida, Texas and Arizona are getting hit particularly hard. Texas has begun scaling back its reopening, and beaches in Florida have closed for the upcoming holiday weekend.

Fauci and Redfield testified before lawmakers last week, when Fauci said "we're going to be doing more testing, not less," in response to President Donald Trump's recent claim that he asked his administration to slow down testing during the pandemic.

Senators have been weighing another stimulus package in recent weeks as unemployment numbers remain worrisome and economic hardship stemming from the pandemic persists. Republicans remains divided on the size and scale of the next stimulus bill and while it has been discussed for months, the next phase of economic relief is still weeks away. But there is now broad agreement something has to be done -- something that wasn't always the case.

Read the full story here.

7:08 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

Shell warns of $22 billion hit from coronavirus price slump

From CNN Business' Charles Riley

The Royal Dutch Shell Plc Norco Refinery is pictured in Norco, Louisiana, on June 12.
The Royal Dutch Shell Plc Norco Refinery is pictured in Norco, Louisiana, on June 12. Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Royal Dutch Shell is writing down the value of its assets by as much as $22 billion as lower oil prices push the Anglo-Dutch company to accelerate a shift away from fossil fuels.

Shell slashed its outlook for energy prices Tuesday, saying in a statement that it expects Brent crude to cost $40 per barrel in 2021 and $50 per barrel in 2022. Prices are forecast to rise to $60 per barrel in 2023.

The company said the changes to its price forecast reflect the economic trauma caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged countries around the world into recession and sharply reduced demand for energy.

Brent crude futures hit their lowest level in decades in April, falling below $20 per barrel. They've staged a comeback to trade above $41 per barrel, but that's still well below where prices started the year.

Shell said Tuesday that it expects to take a charge of between $15 billion and $22 billion in the second quarter as a result of the shifting market conditions. It's scheduled to report its financial results for the quarter on July 30.

Read the full story here.

6:49 a.m. ET, June 30, 2020

Summer violence could overwhelm coronavirus precautions in Chicago's biggest jail

From CNN's Omar Jimenez

The Covid-19 quarantine tier with single cells is pictured at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, on May 20.
The Covid-19 quarantine tier with single cells is pictured at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, on May 20. Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

Inside America's jails and prisons there's a delicate balance at play, weighing the usual demands of a typically crowded inmate population against the potent reality of an ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

These precautions have mostly come in the form of single celling detainees, quarantining individuals who are either sick or symptomatic, reducing the overall population by releasing nonviolent low-level offenders and more.

In places like Chicago's Cook County Jail, summertime spikes in detainees are typical, usually coinciding with violence in the warmer months, meaning that the "delicate balance" they've put in place to protect against coronavirus quickly gets thrown off.

"I'm probably 500 people away from where this can't work," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. "There are all these interlinking parts here where there's not unlimited beds, there's not unlimited space, there's not unlimited correctional staff to watch them."

On a month-to-month basis, the jail is already beginning to see an uptick in the average number of detainees they're getting, according to data provided by the jail.

It means the jail may have to lose one of their main precautions of single celling and go back to putting two in a cell, following general Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that those who have recovered from coronavirus are not as likely to be infectious.

That would mean pulling from a pool of detainees siloed in the jail's quarantine bootcamp, created specifically for the pandemic to separate out those who are sick.

Read the full story here.