AP: Coronavirus Deaths Take A Long-Expected Turn For The Worse
A long-expected upturn in U.S. coronavirus deaths has begun, driven by fatalities in states in the South and West, according to data on the pandemic. The number of deaths per day from the virus had been falling for months, and even remained down as states like Florida and Texas saw explosions in cases and hospitalizations — and reported daily U.S. infections broke records several times in recent days. (Stobbe and Forster, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Top 3.3 Million
Total U.S. coronavirus cases topped 3.3 million Monday and the nation’s death toll exceeded 135,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. World-wide, more than 12.9 million confirmed cases have been recorded, according to Johns Hopkins. (Hall, 7/13)

The Hill: COVID-19 Surge Pushes US Toward Deadly Cliff 
The coronavirus is spreading at ever-faster rates in a broad array of states, putting the U.S. on the precipice of an explosion of illness that threatens to overwhelm the nation's health care system. The painful economic lockdowns imposed in March gave the country time to flatten the epidemiological curve and contain the virus. But that window of opportunity, which came at great economic cost, is quickly slamming shut. Health experts say all signs point to a deadly summer and fall unless government leaders implement a much more robust national strategy. (Wilson, 7/12)

The New York Times: Florida Breaks U.S. Coronavirus Record For Most New Cases In A Day 
Florida on Sunday reported the highest single-day total of new coronavirus cases by any state since the start of the pandemic, with more than 15,000 new infections, eclipsing the previous high of 12,274 recorded in New York on April 4 amid the worst of its outbreak. (De Freytas-Tamura, Rojas and Fink, 7/12)

NPR: Florida Smashes U.S. State Record Of Daily New Cases: More Than 15,200 
Sunday's number exceeds New York's peak of more than 12,200 new cases in one day back in April, when it was the epicenter of the outbreak. Despite the uptick in cases, many entities are continuing or resuming operations. On Saturday, as the state reported more than 10,000 new cases, two of Disney World's four area parks reopened to the public. The others are expected to open on Wednesday. (Treisman, 7/12)

Politico: Florida Reports 15,000 New Coronavirus Cases, Smashing National Record
In responding to the new numbers, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has continued its messaging strategy of putting them in a positive light, an approach that has increasingly drawn criticism as Florida has emerged as one of the biggest virus hot spots in the world. “Florida COVID positive cases decline for a third day in a row to 11.25% despite a record 142,981 tests results returned in a single day,” tweeted DeSantis’ communications director, Helen Aguirre Ferré, using a figure that includes those who have been tested multiple times. “Average age of those testing positive also decreased: 38 years old.” (Dixon and Sarkissian, 7/12)

CNN: Florida's Virus Record Exemplifies Growing Disaster Of Early State Openings 
Florida's staggering new single-day US state record of coronavirus cases underscores how the aggressive opening strategy championed by President Donald Trump and allied governors is turning into one of the worst political and economic calls in modern history. The Sunshine State recorded more than 15,000 new infections on Sunday — the highest number of new cases in a single day by any state — as the pandemic raged across southern and western heartlands including Texas, Georgia and Arizona. The surge came two months after many states, disregarding government guidelines, opened up bars, gyms, hair salons and other businesses. (Collinson, 7/13)

In related news —

Politico: DeSantis Downplayed New York Help His Aides ‘Very Much Appreciated’
Florida will start getting shipments this weekend of an antiviral drug that has shown signs of helping severely ill Covid-19 patients — cargo senior aides scored in part from New York just as Gov. Ron DeSantis was publicly dismissing the state's help, emails show. (Sarkissian and Gronewold, 7/11)

CNN: Disney Won't Give You A Picture From Your Ride If You Don't Wear A Mask 
The magical world of Disney has implemented quite a few changes as the Magic Kingdom Park reopened to visitors in Florida this weekend. In addition to wearing mouse ears, all guests ages two and older will be required to wear face coverings in the park. (Chen and Silverman, 7/13)

The Hill: New York City Reports Zero COVID-19 Deaths For First Time Since Pandemic Hit 
New York City on Sunday reported zero new coronavirus deaths for the first time since early March, a milestone that comes as the virus spikes in other parts of the country. Preliminary health data from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene showed that no one died from the coronavirus in New York City on Saturday, the first time zero new deaths have been reported there since March 13, according to multiple reports. (Klar, 7/12)

Bloomberg: New York City Reports Zero Covid-19 Deaths 
It marked the end of a four-month stretch since the city reported its first Covid-19 fatality on March 11. The confirmed daily death count hit its height on April 7 at 597. Another 216 people were reported likely to have died from the virus despite no positive laboratory tests that day. (Yang, 7/12)

CNN: Trump Wears A Mask During Visit To Wounded Service Members At Walter Reed 
President Donald Trump paid a visit to wounded service members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Saturday and wore a mask after months of refusing to be seen doing so in public. "I'll probably have a mask if you must know. I'll probably have a mask. I think when you're in a hospital especially in that particular setting, where you are talking to a lot of soldiers, people that in some cases just got off the operating table. I think it's a great thing to wear a mask. I've never been against masks but I do believe they have a time and a place," Trump told reporters ahead of his visit. (Mena and Stracqualursi, 7/11)

AP: Trump Wears Mask In Public For First Time During Pandemic
Trump flew by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in suburban Washington to meet wounded service members and health care providers caring for COVID-19 patients. As he left the White House, he told reporters: “When you’re in a hospital, especially ... I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask.” (Lemire, 7/12)

Politico: Trump Wears Mask In Public For First Time During Visit To Walter Reed
Though the move was expected and had been trailed in a series of media appearances this week, it was still a noteworthy evolution for the president, who has balked at wearing protective face coverings as a deadly pandemic surged across portions of the U.S. (Semones, 7/11)

The Washington Post: Trump Dons Mask In Public For The First Time, Months After Public Health Experts Said Everyone Should 
Trump’s decision to don a mask during a trip to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center followed several months of controversy over his reluctance to abide by public health guidelines even as novel coronavirus cases surged nationwide. Before wearing the navy-colored mask Saturday, Trump had disparaged his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, for wearing a mask and publicly downplayed the importance of face coverings. (Olorunnipa, 7/11)

The New York Times: Trump’s Health Officials Warn More Will Die As Covid Cases Rise 
Two of the Trump administration’s top health officials acknowledged Sunday that the country is facing a very serious situation with the onslaught of rising coronavirus cases in several states, striking a far more sober tone than President Trump at this stage of the pandemic in the United States. Adm. Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary with the Health and Human Services department, and Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general, both emphasized their concern about surging outbreaks, many of them in areas where people have not followed recommended public health guidelines to contain the spread of the virus. (Belluck, 7/12)

Politico: HHS Testing Chief: 'We Do Expect Deaths To Go Up' 
HHS testing czar Brett Giroir implored Americans to wear masks in public Sunday and said “everything should be on the table” when asked if more stringent lockdowns might be needed in southern states where the coronavirus cases are shattering record after record. (Lim, 7/12)

ABC News: Testing Czar Adm. Brett Giroir Breaks With Trump On Masks, CDC Guidance As Coronavirus Cases Surge 
Adm. Brett Giroir broke with the president on ABC's "This Week" Sunday on a number of issues including the severity of the coronavirus, mask wearing and guidelines for reopening schools, as President Donald Trump pushes for schools to reopen for in-person instruction despite record-breaking coronavirus cases across the U.S. Sun Belt. While Trump this week said the country is in "a good place," Giroir, who serves as the assistant secretary of Health in the Department of Health and Human Services and coordinates the federal government's coronavirus testing programs, characterized the current situation as "a better place" than in April but said to expect hospitalizations and death rates to rise in the coming weeks. (Cathey, 7/12)

ABC News: White House Seeks To Discredit Fauci In Memo Leaked To Reporters 
The White House has taken the unusual step of attacking a member of its coronavirus task force, by providing a document to several media outlets that contains a list of comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci in an effort to damage his reputation. The comments were first reported by the Washington Post. The news of the document comes as two senior level White House sources tell ABC News that Fauci has at times been referred to among aides to President Donald Trump as "Dr. Gloom and Doom." (Faulders and Santucci, 7/13)

CNN: As Fauci Disagrees With Trump On Virus, White House Takes Aim 
As coronavirus cases surge in the United States, the White House is taking aim at the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. In a statement Saturday, a White House official told CNN that "several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things." The official went on to provide a lengthy list of examples, citing Fauci's comments early in the pandemic and linking to past interviews. (Holmes, 7/13)

The Hill: US Testing Official: 'Dr. Fauci Is Not 100 Percent Right' 
The U.S.'s top coronavirus testing official, Adm. Brett Giroir, said Sunday that infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci is “not 100 percent right” because he looks at the coronavirus pandemic from “a very narrow public health point of view.” Chuck Todd of NBC's “Meet the Press” asked the White House testing czar about a Washington Post report that cited an official saying Fauci has argued for parts of the country with surges to shut down without buy-in from the rest of the White House task force. (Coleman, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Fauci Sidelined By Trump As He Talks Bluntly About Pandemic 
In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president’s crosshairs. During a Fox News interview Thursday with Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci “is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.” And when Greta Van Susteren asked him last week about Fauci’s assessment that the country was not in a good place, Trump said flatly: “I disagree with him.” (Abutaleb, Dawsey and McGinley, 7/11)

The Hill: Surgeon General Says U.S. Can Reverse Coronavirus Surge In A Few Weeks 'If Everyone Does Their Part' 
Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Sunday that the U.S. can reverse course and control the latest outbreaks of the coronavirus in just a few weeks if people follow social distancing and hygiene guidelines to prevent the spread of the potentially fatal virus. “Together we can turn this thing around in just two to three weeks if everyone does their part. More studies coming out showing the effectiveness of face coverings,” Adams said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” adding that the disease course is about two to three weeks. (Klar, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Surgeon General Jerome Adams May Be The Nicest Guy In The Trump Administration. But Is That What America Needs Right Now? 
The test now for the surgeon general, and by extension for his patient — the United States of America — is whether nice will work. Can a nice guy wrangle and guide a confused and angry nation? Should America’s Doctor wag a finger, scare us into submission? Issue orders? Doctors’ orders? Or does this worried nation need a light touch in the midst of this dangerous pandemic? (Roig-Franzia, 7/12)

Stat: The CDC Is An Apolitical Island. That's Left It Defenseless Against Trump
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country’s top public health agency, is being kicked around by the White House. And it doesn’t have much power to kick back. (Florko, 7/13)

NPR: CDC Employees Call For Racial Justice At The Federal Agency
More than 1,000 current employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have signed a letter calling for the federal agency to address "ongoing and recurring acts of racism and discrimination" against Black employees, NPR has learned. In the letter, addressed to CDC Director Robert Redfield and dated June 30, the authors put their call for change in the context of the coronavirus pandemic's disproportionate impact on Black people and the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks. (Simmons-Duffin and Huang, 7/13)

Politico: Not Dangerous: DeVos Defends Schools Reopening According To CDC Guidelines
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Sunday broke with President Donald Trump’s criticism of federal guidelines for reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic, calling the recommendations the president described as tough, expensive and impractical “common sense.” DeVos also emphasized that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations were merely guidance, as she insisted that children needed to return to school this fall, despite surging coronavirus infections throughout swaths of the country that have contributed to new nationwide daily infection records. And she said that returning children to school would not endanger them. (Oprysko, 7/12)

AP: AP FACT CHECK: Trump Team's False Comfort On Schools, Virus
President Donald Trump’s administration is providing misguided assurances on the safety of kids in school during a coronavirus epidemic. In remarks Sunday, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos urged schools to provide full-time, in-person learning in the fall even with community transmission of COVID-19 rising in many parts of the U.S., suggesting that there is no danger “in any way” if kids are in school. (Woodward, Yen and Rugaber, 7/13)

The Hill: Pressley Hits DeVos Over Reopening Schools: 'I Wouldn't Trust You To Care For A House Plant Let Alone My Child' 
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) swiped at Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Sunday after the Trump administration official doubled down on her push for students to return to school. In a tweet knocking DeVos on Sunday afternoon, the first-term lawmaker directly called her out, writing, “@BetsyDeVosED you have no plan. Teachers, kids and parents are fearing for their lives.” (Folley, 7/12)

CNN: Superintendent For One Of US's Largest Public School Systems Has A Message For DeVos: 'You Can't Put Every Kid Back In A School'
The signage reminding students to stay 6 feet apart is already on the floors. The plexiglass is up in the front office. The desks are spaced in a socially-distanced way in the classrooms. This is how Mantua Elementary and all other public schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, are preparing for back-to-school in the age of Covid-19. (Bash and Nolan, 7/12)

Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Leverage Marketing To Get Patients Back During COVID-19
Even as Los Angeles health systems face surging COVID-19 cases this summer, they have a consistent message to the community: Don’t delay routine or emergent medical care. The city’s six major health systems launched a campaign in early May—before Los Angeles became a COVID-19 hot spot again—letting the community know their doors are open and urging patients to keep up with their health during the pandemic. The systems—Cedars-Sinai, Dignity Health, Kaiser Permanente, Keck Medicine of USC, Providence and UCLA Health—are usually fierce competitors that don’t collaborate, but lower patient volumes had them all worried. (Castellucci, 7/11)

Modern Healthcare: HHS, Lawmakers Unlikely To Force Insurers To Pay For Back-To-Work COVID-19 Tests
HHS said it will refuse to change its guidance letting insurers off the hook for paying for COVID-19 tests that employers may mandate for employees to return to work, and lawmakers appear unlikely to force a legislative change. If Congress doesn't address the issue, who gets stuck with the potentially big bill for COVID-19 tests for occupational and public health purposes could remain a gray area. The Trump administration issued guidance on June 23 that exempted health insurers from covering COVID-19 tests that aren't deemed medically necessary by a healthcare provider. The interpretation creates a loophole though which individuals could be charged. (Cohrs, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: New Flexibilities Proposed For Grandfathered Group Health Plans
Numerous federal agencies on Friday said they want new flexibilities for group health plans grandfathered in under the Affordable Care Act. Under the proposed rule, those plans could change cost-sharing requirements without losing their grandfathered status. The regulation also allows the health plans to meet minimum cost-sharing requirements for high-deductible health plans to enable enrollees to contribute to health savings accounts. The proposed changes wouldn't apply to grandfathered individual plans. If finalized as is, the changes would increase out-of-pocket costs for beneficiaries. (Brady, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: UHS Inks Final Settlement With DOJ Over False Claims
Universal Health Services and the Department of Justice announced a final settlement Friday to resolve claims stemming from 19 whistleblower lawsuits accusing the for-profit chain of providing unnecessary care and improperly luring patients to use its programs, among other allegations. The for-profit hospital chain said the $122 million agreement, which follows years of investigation by the government, is largely consistent with the preliminary settlement announced one year ago. (Bannow, 7/10)

Sacramento Bee: Judge Denies Delay In Sutter’s $575M Antitrust Settlement
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo denied Sutter Health’s motion to delay finalizing its $575 million settlement with the state of California in a case that alleged anti-competitive practices. The benefits arm of the United Food & Commercial Workers began pursuing this civil lawsuit in 2014, but four years later, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that, because Sutter’s actions were driving up prices all around Northern California, he was filing a lawsuit that would consolidate the grocery worker’s lawsuit. (Anderson, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Sutter, CommonSpirit, Adventist Affiliates Got Small-Business Loans
Some of the physician practices that received millions of dollars' worth of small-business COVID-19 relief loans are affiliates of major health systems like Sutter Health, Adventist Health and CommonSpirit Health. But just because the medical groups' websites feature the health systems' logos and branding doesn't mean they get financial support. The health systems, which themselves got hundreds of millions in aid under the CARES Act, explained that their finances are separate from that of their affiliate medical groups, making those practices eligible for the Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses with 500 employees or less. (Bannow, 7/10)

In other health industry news —

The Oklahoman: State Renegotiates Hospital Surge Contracts As COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Spike
Oklahoma public health officials are finalizing new contracts for hospital surge plans as the number of positive cases and hospitalizations of coronavirus patients have spiked in recent weeks. The contracts expand the number of hospitals for COVID-19-only treatment for the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and keep an existing contract in place at Oklahoma State University Medical Center-Tulsa. In all, 335 beds will be available under the contracts to treat COVID-19 patients. (Monies, 7/13)

AP: Old Fight Flares As Work Begins On New Hospital In Georgia
Leaders of a southwest Georgia county say the region’s largest hospital system has tried to obstruct plans for a new competitor hospital in their county, but Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany denies doing anything wrong. (7/12)

NPR: Experts Worry About Arizona Health Care System As State's Hospitals Near Capacity 
Arizona hospitals are now reaching capacity — some have to send patients to other states. Many experts are concerned the health care system could soon crumble under pressure. (Stone, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: HHS To Send $3 Billion To Help More Safety-Net Hospitals
HHS on Friday announced plans to send an additional $3 billion in provider COVID-19 relief grants to safety-net hospitals that were left out of a prior funding tranche, and will give $1 billion to an assortment of rural and smaller hospitals. HHS officials said the new distribution is being made because they realized some safety-net hospitals didn't meet the criteria for a prior $10 billion distribution. America's Essential Hospitals, a trade group that represents safety-net hospitals, said less than half of its members qualified for the first round of safety-net funding. (Cohrs, 7/10)

AP: Pandemic, Racism Compound Worries About Black Suicide Rate
Jasmin Pierre was 18 when she tried to end her life, overdosing on whatever pills she could find. Diagnosed with depression and anxiety, she survived two more attempts at suicide, which felt like the only way to stop her pain. Years of therapy brought progress, but the 31-year-old Black woman’s journey is now complicated by a combination of stressors hitting simultaneously: isolation during the pandemic, a shortage of mental health care providers and racial trauma inflicted by repeated police killings of Black people. (Tareen, 7/11)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus Death Rate Is Getting Worse In Black Communities
If you’re Black in America, Covid-19 is more likely to kill you, and the disparity has only widened as cases have surged across the U.S. In counties where the majority of residents are Black, the death rate has climbed to 3.5 times the national average, up from roughly three times as high in May, an ongoing analysis of Johns Hopkins University and Census Bureau data by Bloomberg News finds. In places where African Americans exceed 13.4% of the population, the proportion they make up of the U.S., the death rate is double the national average, also a slight uptick from two months ago. (Green and Gu, 7/13)

Stat: Another Covid Disparity: Black And Hispanic Americans Die At Younger Age
Long after calls for more data on the disproportionate number of Covid-19 infections and deaths among Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released limited additional information, which revealed non-white and Hispanic Americans under age 65 are dying in greater numbers than white people in that age group. The agency reported that more than a third of deaths among Hispanic Americans (34.9%) and almost a third of deaths among non-white Americans (29.5%) were in people younger than 65. That compares to 13.2% among white people under that age. (Cooney, 7/10)

Dallas Morning News: How Latino Residents In Dallas’ Hardest Hit ZIP Code Are Weathering COVID-19
As COVID-19 cases soar, the 75211 ZIP code illustrates broader patterns playing out across North Texas. The area is 84% Latino. In Dallas County, more than 60% of those infected are Latinos, though the group comprises only 41% of the population. Texas leads the nation in the most uninsured residents. In Dallas County, those most likely to lack health insurance are Latinos — leading many of them to delay medical care. (Solis and Kuchment, 7/11)

NPR: In Minority Neighborhoods, Knocking On Doors To Stop The Spread Of The Coronavirus 
Around the country, communities of color continue to be among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. So in many of these communities, local leaders are stepping in to try to help solve a problem they say is years in the making. In Richmond, Va., crews of local firefighters and volunteers have been fanning out across the city, going door to door with plastic bags filled with masks, hand sanitizer and information about staying healthy. (McCammon, 7/10)

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer Orders Training For Mich. Health Care Workers To Reduce Bias
Keith Gambrell knows more than he ever wanted to know about the coronavirus pandemic and the racial health disparities it exposed. As a Black man in Detroit, Gambrell, 33, had COVID-19. So did his mother, his brother, his father and grandfather. He says his dad, Gary Fowler, died at age 56 in a recliner in his Grosse Pointe Woods home after being turned away from several metro Detroit hospitals, even though he begged for help and said he could not breathe. (Shamus, 7/10)

In other news on health care disparities and racial justice —

AP: Tear Gas Used On Portland Protesters, 1 Man Injured
Federal law enforcement officers used tear gas and crowd-control munitions on people protesting near Portland’s federal courthouse during a protest that started Saturday night, Portland police said. Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that friends and family of a demonstrator say a 26-year-old man was struck in the head and injured by an impact munition fired by authorities. (7/12)

Modern Healthcare: Gender Bias In Surgical Residency Faculty Evaluations May Be Improving
New research suggests progress has been made in efforts to reduce gender bias against female surgical faculty members. An analysis of teaching evaluations conducted by surgical trainees of more than 1,700 faculty members across 21 general surgery residency programs found women faculty scored on average higher than men, receiving 90.6% versus 89.5%. (Johnson, 7/10)

KQED: California Could Release 8,000 State Prisoners By End Of August To Slow Coronavirus Outbreaks
Roughly 8,000 people incarcerated in state prisons in California could be eligible for early release by the end of August, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Friday. The decision comes amid a devastating COVID-19 outbreak at San Quentin State Prison and other facilities. Gov. Gavin Newsom and prison officials have faced mounting pressure from advocates, lawmakers and federal judges to slow the spread of the virus by quickly downsizing the state's immense prison population to better enable physical distancing and quarantine efforts. (Green, 7/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Two More San Quentin Prisoners Die From COVID-19
Two San Quentin inmates died Saturday from what appears to be complications with COVID-19, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Sunday, bringing the total number of prisoner deaths at the state prison to nine. The inmates died July 11 at outside hospitals. No additional information is provided to protect individual medical privacy, the department said. (Narayan, 7/12)

Boston Globe: What Is A Homeless Encampment? Don’t Ask Mass. Cities 
When homeless people in Boston set up campsites to shelter themselves, how is the city supposed to respond? Eight months after the mayor’s office released its first draft protocol on dealing with encampments, the policy has yet to be finalized, setting the city up for potential legal risks and leaving unsheltered homeless people on edge about when and how they might be forced to move. (Dalmia, Summer and Mulvihill, 7/12)

Boston Globe: Governor Raimondo Unveils A Plan For The ‘Eviction Pandemic' 
Governor Gina M. Raimondo unveiled a $7 million program during Friday’s news conference to help [Rhode Island] residents who are facing eviction during the coronavirus pandemic. “The public health crisis has led to an economic crisis,” Raimondo said. While there hasn’t been a massive spike in evictions during the pandemic, people are struggling to pay their rent, she said. “I am worried as the $600 benefit from the federal government ends and the economic crisis drags on, this is a crisis that’s going to get worse before it gets better,” Raimondo said. (Milkovits, 7/10)

Reuters: One In Three South Korean COVID-19 Patients Improve With Remdesivir
One in three South Korean patients seriously ill with COVID-19 showed an improvement in their condition after being given Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral remdesivir, health authorities said. More research was needed to determine if the improvement was attributable to the drug or other factors such as patients’ immunity and other therapies, they said. (7/13)

Stat: Hospitals Running Short Of Remdesivir For Covid-19 Patients 
With Covid-19 patients filling her Houston hospital, pharmacist Katherine Perez wishes she had enough remdesivir to treat all those who might benefit. In June, as Texas businesses welcomed customers and coronavirus cases surged, Houston Methodist, the hospital where she works, restricted the medication to only those patients who weren’t yet on ventilators, in the hope of making the supply last longer. Even with those narrowed criteria — and with enough vials to treat 200 more patients delivered last weekend — there still isn’t enough. (Boodman, 7/10)

AP: Arizona Will Use Experimental Drug To Help COVID-19 Patients
Gov. Doug Ducey says Arizona will be getting 361 cases of the experimental antiviral drug Remdesivir, which appears to help patients with COVID-19 recover faster. The drug received emergency approval in May by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The shipment comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as Arizona grapples with a surge of coronavirus cases around the state. (7/12)

ABC News: The Heart: Before, During And After COVID-19
As the coronavirus pandemic rapidly evolved into a public health crisis of global proportions, doctors and scientists embarked upon a real-time journey to uncover how the virus mercilessly attacks various parts of the body and what to do about it. While medical experts have been troubled by the respiratory virus’ tendency to wreak havoc on the lungs, perhaps more puzzling has been its relationship with the heart. ... studies have shown that COVID-19 can not only exacerbate existing heart problems, but could also potentially cause new ones, causing experts to question whether the cardiac impacts of the virus may outlast the infection itself. (Johnson and Bhatt, 7/12)

CIDRAP: Increased Incidence Of Stress Cardiomyopathy Linked To Pandemic
Psychological, social, and economic stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with an increased incidence of stress cardiomyopathy, also known as "broken heart syndrome," in uninfected patients, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic reported yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (7/10)

ABC News: 30-Year-Old Dies After Attending 'COVID Party' Thinking Virus Was A 'Hoax' 
"I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it's not." Those were the final words of a 30-year-old patient who died at Methodist Hospital in San Antonio this week after attending a so-called "COVID party," according to the hospital. Dr. Jane Appleby, chief medical officer for Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children’s Hospital, said in a recorded statement that the unidentified patient told nurses about the party, which she said is hosted by someone diagnosed with coronavirus. (Torres, 7/11)

Stat: Telehealth Is Convenient During Covid-19. It’s Also A Magnet For Data Theft
The increased convenience of telemedicine visits during the Covid-19 pandemic is spurring calls among patients and doctors to permanently expand access across the U.S. But financial and privacy watchdogs are spreading a different message: Be careful what you wish for. (Ross, 7/13)

Kaiser Health News: Adding To COVID Stress, Families Of Health Workers Fight For Denied Workers’ Comp Benefits 
James “Mike” Anderson was a hospital employee in suburban Philadelphia with a low-profile though critical job: changing air filters in COVID patients’ rooms. By late March, new COVID cases in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, had ramped up to as many as 90 per day. At the hospital, Anderson handled air filters and other surfaces that might have been contaminated with the deadly virus, also known to hang in the air. (Bailey and Jewett, 7/13)

NPR: How To Help Kids With Anxiety During The Pandemic
As the pandemic continues, children are still mostly at home. Summer activities are canceled or up in the air, and many children are suffering confusion and stress. Parents may be stressed themselves, but there are ways to help kids feel better. (Neighmond, 7/11)

ABC News: Faces Of Some Of The More Than 130,000 Lives Lost In US To Coronavirus 
The novel coronavirus pandemic has left an indelible mark on Americans of all ages and from all walks of life. The death toll has climbed well over the grim milestone of 100,000 -- more than the deadliest flu season in recent years and at such a startlingly quick pace that it forced the unprecedented shutdown of the country's economy. Those we've lost come from all backgrounds and include the very people -- first responders and medical staff -- who have been working so diligently and selflessly to stem the tide of the infection and care for the sick. (Shapiro, Brown, Lloyd and Miller, 7/11)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Is Just One Of Many Viruses Bats Carry. So Why Don't They Get Sick? 
For several weeks in March, Arinjay Banerjee would eat breakfast at 6 a.m. and then drive the empty roads of Toronto to a restricted-access lab. Then he’d ready himself for work, donning three layers of gloves, a helmeted mask kitted with an air-purifying respirator and a surgical-style gown. The stringent conditions in that Toronto lab — only one level below the most secure in the biosafety hierarchy — were crucial. Banerjee, a virologist, was on a team working to isolate SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19, from one of the first patients in Canada so that they could get a jump on vaccine development. (Ehrenberg, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: From Flour To Canned Soup, Coronavirus Surge Pressures Food Supplies
Grocers are having trouble staying stocked with goods from flour to soups as climbing coronavirus case numbers and continued lockdowns pressure production and bolster customer demand. (Gasparro and Kang, 7/12)

AP: URI Grant To Help Reduce Food Waste, Boost Food Access
The University of Rhode Island has received a $100,000 federal grant that will help reduce food waste while improving access to healthy, locally-grown food for residents in need. The grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be used to establish the Food System Steward Program at URI, according to a statement from Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed’s office. (7/12)

In other news —

CIDRAP: CDC Confirms 300 More Cyclospora Cases In Bagged Salad Outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there were 303 additional cases of cyclosporiasis in a multistate outbreak linked to bagged salads sold at major grocery stores. The CDC said 509 people in eight states have been sickened. Thirty-three people have been hospitalized, but there have been no deaths. (7/10)

AP: Activists Seek To Decriminalize 'Magic' Mushrooms In DC
Last Monday, activists presented more than 36,000 signatures to the Board of Elections. If the signatures hold up through the verification process, voters in the nation’s capital will face a November ballot initiative that would decriminalize psilocybin “magic” mushrooms and other natural psychedelics like mescaline. (Khalil, 7/13)

KQED: Who Benefits From San Francisco’s Paid Leave For New Parents? 
Back in 2017, San Francisco became the first city in the U.S. to offer new parents their full paychecks while they miss work to bond with their babies or adopted children. But according to a study published this week in the health policy journal, Health Affairs, the historic law has limited reach among low-income families, who arguably need the benefits the most. (Romero, 7/11)

The Wall Street Journal: How To Exercise Safely Outdoors In The Heat
Summer’s heat doesn’t have to ruin your exercise routine. It will be hot and sweaty—that’s a given. But you can help your body adjust to higher temperatures and feel less uncomfortable. (Potkewitz, 7/12)

AP: Virus Spread, Not Politics Should Guide Schools, Doctors Say
As the Trump administration pushes full steam ahead to force schools to resume in-person education, public health experts warn that a one-size-fits-all reopening could drive infection and death rates even higher. They’re urging a more cautious approach, which many local governments and school districts are already pursuing. But U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos doubled down on President Donald Trump’s insistence that kids can safely return to the classroom. (Tanner, 7/12)

The New York Times: How To Reopen Schools: What Science And Other Countries Teach Us 
As school districts across the United States consider whether and how to restart in-person classes, their challenge is complicated by a pair of fundamental uncertainties: No nation has tried to send children back to school with the virus raging at levels like America’s, and the scientific research about transmission in classrooms is limited. (Belluck, Mandavilli and Carey, 7/11)

AP: 3 School Teachers In Winkelman Get COVID-19, One Later Dies
Three school teachers in the small eastern Arizona community of Winkelman tested positive for the coronavirus last month and one of them died, according to a Phoenix television station. ABC15 reported Sunday that Kimberley Byrd shared a classroom with two other teachers at Leonor Hambly K-8. (7/12)

Politico: California Teachers Fight Back Against Pressure To Reopen Schools
The California Teachers Association, one of the largest and most powerful unions in the country ... is insisting on prolonging distance learning instead of forcing its army of more than 300,000 educators back into schools. “We hope we don’t have to go there, but if it comes to it, we do retain the right to refuse to work under unsafe conditions,” said David Fisher, president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association. (Mays, 7/11)

Boston Globe: As September Looms, The Gap Between 3 Feet And 6 Feet Is Feeling Hard To Bridge For Schools
When Governor Charlie Baker released guidelines for reopening schools, one measure seemed to come out of left field: In an effort to get as many students as possible back into their classrooms this fall, he would allow schools to practice only 3 feet of social distancing instead of the standard 6 feet, sparking a passionate debate across the state. (Vaznis, 7/12)

AP: Mobile COVID-19 Testing Site Placed Outside Suburban School
Health officials have put a mobile COVID-19 testing station outside a suburban Chicago high school as the area sees an increase in cases among younger residents, a trend that has happened elsewhere in the country. (7/12)

In other education news —

Reuters: Dozens Of U.S. Universities Support Challenge To Trump's Order On Foreign Students: Court Document 
About 60 U.S. universities on Sunday filed a brief supporting a lawsuit by two others, seeking to block a Trump administration rule barring foreign students from remaining in the country if educational institutions don’t hold in-person classes this fall. (7/13)

Los Angeles Times: Employers Balk At Frequent COVID-19 Tests For Workers. Here's Why 
From nursing homes in New York and a landfill in Utah to Disney World and the Las Vegas Strip, employers are wrestling with workplace safety in the age of COVID-19 and making fraught calculations about how to safeguard their businesses and their employees. Mass testing, a crucial tool to stem the virus’ spread, seems like an obvious solution. (Court, Palmeri and Lavito, 7/10)

The Wall Street Journal: As Offices Reopen Amid Coronavirus, Workers Clash Over Masks, Cubicle Barriers And Lysol 
When Matt Wells returned to the office in mid-April, he was surprised to see a note pinned to a colleague’s cubicle urging people to keep their distance. “I thought it was an overreaction” to the coronavirus pandemic, he said. Now he has a note just like it on his cubicle. (Needleman, 7/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Interns Seek Solutions To Isolation During The Summer Of Coronavirus 
Halfway through this most virtual summer, one thing’s certain: Many interns crave a greater sense of unity to help them feel like they’re not in this alone. Managers report that interns are requesting additional communication and events that allow them to get to know each other informally. Those running virtual summer internships that are now halfway over are still figuring out how to make the interns feel less isolated. (James, 7/12)

AP: As Beach Towns Open, Businesses Are Short Foreign Workers
At this time of the year, The Friendly Fisherman on Cape Cod is usually bustling with foreign students clearing tables and helping prepare orders of clam strips or fish and chips. But because of a freeze on visas, Janet Demetri won’t be employing the 20 or so workers this summer. So as the crowds rush back, Demetri must work with nine employees for her restaurant and market — forcing her to shutter the business twice a week. (Casey, 7/12)

In other business news —

Stat: Google Faces Continued Scrutiny Over Use Of Health Data In Fitbit Deal
Google is again facing questions from regulators about its $2.1 billion bid for Fitbit. The biggest sticking point: How will the tech giant use Fitbit’s trove of health data? (Brodwin, 7/10)

AP: Churches Amid The Pandemic: Some Outbreaks, Many Challenges
Crowded bars and house parties have been identified as culprits in spreading the coronavirus. Meat packing plants, prisons and nursing homes are known hot spots. Then there’s the complicated case of America’s churches. The vast majority of these churches have cooperated with health authorities and successfully protected their congregations. Yet from the earliest phases of the pandemic, and continuing to this day, some worship services and other religious activities have been identified as sources of local outbreaks. (Crary, 7/12)

AP: Church Asks Utah Mormons To Wear Face Coverings In Public
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has asked all its members in Utah to wear face coverings when in public, a request that comes as confirmed infections in the state increase. The Deseret News reports that the Utah Area Presidency sent out the request in an email on Friday evening. (7/11)

Some churches are working to stop the epidemic, including offering testing to congregations --

PBS NewsHour: Local Groups Are Running Pop-Up Testing Sites In South Carolina
Amid a surge in COVID-19 infections in South Carolina, PBS NewsHour Weekend visits a mobile testing site in Orangeburg County. Organized by the statewide chapter of the African Methodist Espicopal - or AME - churches, it was one of dozens of pop-up testing sites around the state this week to help increase coronavirus testing. (Weber and Sreenivasan, 7/11)

Reuters: NBA Docs Worried About Lingering Effects Of COVID-19 
League physicians and officials are concerned about the lingering health effects for NBA players who contract the coronavirus, ESPN reported Saturday. “There are unknown effects it has on lung capacity, unknown effects it has on cardiac health,” one general manager of a team entering the NBA bubble told ESPN on the condition of anonymity. (7/11)

The Washington Post: The NHL Moves North For Its Restart, Shifting To Canada As U.S. Struggles With Pandemic 
As the NHL tries to resume play and crown a Stanley Cup champion by early October, it is also shifting its operations to Canada. According to a pair of health experts, that might give the NHL the best shot among the North American professional sports leagues to complete the season. “I don’t know what greater indictment you need of the United States’ response to the virus than the NHL picking up its puck and retreating to Canada,” said Zach Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University. “That was a smart decision. That was a very smart decision.” (Pell, 7/11)

AP: Yankees Closer Chapman Has COVID-19; Judge Scratched
Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman has tested positive for the coronavirus and is experiencing mild symptoms. New York manager Aaron Boone said Saturday that Chapman “overall is doing well” but “will not be here for the foreseeable future.” (Seiner, 7/11)

AP: 2 Florida Strip Clubs Shut Down For Violating Covid Rules
Officials shut down two Florida strip clubs as part of a statewide crackdown on violators of an emergency order that forced bars to close in the face of rising coronavirus cases. The Tallahassee Democrat reports that the Department of Business and Professional Regulation suspended the licenses of Le Palace Otown in Orlando and Show N Tail The Legend in Panama City Beach, saying that patrons didn’t observe social distancing guidelines. (7/12)

Reuters: Hamburg Sex Workers Demand Germany's Brothels Reopen
Prostitutes demonstrated in Hamburg’s red light district late on Saturday evening demanding that Germany’s brothels be allowed to reopen after months of closure to curb the spread of coronavirus. (Bimmer, 7/12)

People: Kelly Preston Dies Of Breast Cancer At 57 
Kelly Preston has died. She was 57. "On the morning of July 12, 2020, Kelly Preston, adored wife and mother, passed away following a two-year battle with breast cancer," a family representative tells PEOPLE exclusively. "Choosing to keep her fight private, she had been undergoing medical treatment for some time, supported by her closest family and friends," the family rep says. (Leonard and Mizoguchi, 7/13)

CNN: Kelly Preston, Actress And Wife Of John Travolta, Has Died Following A Two-Year Battle With Breast Cancer 
Actress Kelly Preston died after losing her battle with breast cancer, her husband John Travolta said in a post on Instagram Sunday. She was 57 years old. Preston had been battling breast cancer for two years, Travolta said, and "fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many. My family and I will forever be grateful to her doctors and nurses at MD Anderson Cancer Center, all the medical centers that have helped, as well as her many friends and loved ones who have been by her side." (Spells, 7/13)

The New York Times: Does Cuomo Share Blame For 6,200 Virus Deaths In N.Y. Nursing Homes?
The death toll inside New York’s nursing homes is perhaps one of the most tragic facets of the coronavirus pandemic: More than 6,400 residents have died in the state’s nursing homes and long-term care facilities, representing more than one-tenth of the reported deaths in such facilities across the country. What went wrong? The effort to answer that question has become politically charged, with Republican lawmakers using the deaths to try to undermine Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, who has largely been praised for helping New York State to rein in the outbreak. (Ferré-Sadurní and Harris, 7/8)

NPR: Strict Rules Apply, But Visitors Will Be Allowed Back In New York Nursing Homes
After months of prohibiting in-person visits to relatives in nursing homes amid COVID-19 fears, New York says it will begin easing those restrictions for facilities that are certified as virus-free. The change comes after the state — one of those hardest-hit by the virus — has seen thousands of deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. (Neuman, 7/10)

Kaiser Health News: Visits To Nursing Homes Resume In Half Of US States To The Relief Of Families 
States across the country are beginning to roll back heart-wrenching policies instituted when the coronavirus pandemic began and allow in-person visits at nursing homes and assisted living centers, offering relief to frustrated families. For the most part, visitors are required to stay outside and meet relatives in gardens or on patios where they stay at least 6 feet apart, supervised by a staff member. Appointments are scheduled in advance and masks are mandated. Only one or two visitors are permitted at a time. (Graham, 7/13)

The New York Times: A Health Worker Raised Alarms About The Coronavirus. Then He Lost His Job. 
In February, he said the directors of the nursing home where he worked kept him from wearing a mask, fearing it would scare patients and their families. In March, he became infected and spoke out about the coronavirus spreading through the home. In May, he was fired amid claims that he had “damaged the company’s image.” (Bubola, 7/13)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Slow To Inspect Nursing Homes For Infection Control
As the coronavirus ravaged nursing homes across the country this spring, federal regulators directed Georgia and other states to conduct targeted infection-control inspections of every facility by July 31. But Georgia is one of the slowest to respond to the directive from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The latest CMS data shows that as of July 3, Georgia had completed 41 percent of the on-site inspections, even as more than 1,300 residents of long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19. (Schrade, 7/11)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: An End In Sight? Coronavirus Reopening Pause Means More Isolation Time In Nursing Homes 
As the first resident of her nursing home to be sickened and hospitalized with the coronavirus, Johannessen knows firsthand the frightening experience and the reasons for so many precautions. The coronavirus has created very real fears among her friends and neighbors given the startlingly high rate of death for people 65 years and older. But the isolation meant to protect older residents of assisted-living facilities, where the virus has killed 1,371 people as of July 6, is also taking a toll. (Umholtz, 7/12)

In related news on nursing and the elderly —

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Nurses On COVID-19 Front Lines: How To Help Colleagues
While the headlines change and the numbers of those infected and dying dip and surge, most nurses on the frontlines of COVID-19 care are experiencing steady levels of stress, challenge, exhaustion, and perhaps despair. If you're a nurse who's not intimately involved with ICU, respiratory care, nursing homes or other areas hard hit by the pandemic, you may be in a good position to support and encourage nurse friends and colleagues who are. (Kennedy, 7/10)

WBUR: How Elderly People Are Left Behind During Medical Care Rationing 
With hospitals in places like Arizona running short on intensive care beds for coronavirus patients, health care officials must make critical decisions about which coronavirus patients get priority. Some older adults are worried that the odds are stacked against them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports people over 65 years old make up 80% of COVID-19 deaths. (O'Dowd, 7/10)

WBUR: More Than 20 U.S. States Now Require Face Masks In Public
More than 20 states have now issued orders requiring people to wear face masks in public as the rate of new coronavirus cases surges to record heights in parts of the United States. The U.S. has recorded more than 1 million coronavirus infections over the past month alone, pushing the number of confirmed cases past the 3 million mark this week. (Chappell, 7/10)

Kaiser Health News: Ex-West Virginia Health Chief Says Cuts Hurt Virus Response 
The former West Virginia public health leader forced out by the governor says decades-old computer systems and cuts to staff over a period of years had made a challenging job even harder during a once-in-a-century pandemic. Republican Gov. Jim Justice demanded Dr. Cathy Slemp’s resignation on June 24. He complained about discrepancies in the number of active cases and accused Slemp of not doing her job. He has refused to elaborate. (Smith and Izaguirre, 7/10)

WBUR: 'In A Fight For Our Lives': Mississippi Issues New Mask Order Amid COVID-19 Spike 
Mississippi's governor has imposed mandatory use of face masks and limited nonessential gatherings in 13 counties, including those that cover the state's most populous cities, as COVID-19 cases have surged in recent days, causing record hospitalizations. The state's Department of Health reported 1,031 new coronavirus cases and 11 new deaths from the disease on Friday, one day after the State Department of Health Officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, said intensive care units in five Mississippi hospitals were full because of the increase in cases. (Neuman, 7/10)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans 'Going In The Wrong Direction' With Coronavirus; Changes Coming To Public Testing 
There will be changes next week to public coronavirus testing sites in New Orleans as the city's health department director said recent data shows Orleans Parish is "going in the wrong direction." The state reported 2,642 more coronavirus cases, 25 more deaths and 75 more hospitalizations in its daily noon update Friday. That reported case total, according to an Advocate | Times-Picayune analysis, is one of the largest single-day case totals, excluding backlogs, on record. The record is 2,726 on April 2. (Whitfield, 7/10)

ABC News: States That Reopened Too Quickly Amid Coronavirus Are Facing A Problem: Getting The Genie Back In The Bottle 
Strict social distancing measures, and eventually mask-wearing, were seen as life-saving tools early on in the coronavirus pandemic, as it tore through the Northeast and officials came to fear the worst. But as daily caseloads and death rates began to fall in the spring, many states in the South and West pushed hard to reopen, egged on by President Trump, despite not meeting White House guidelines for doing so. (Pereira, 7/12)

CNN: Michigan Coronavirus: Revelers Celebrated The July 4 Weekend At A Michigan Lake. Now Some Have Covid-19 
After revelers celebrated the Fourth of July at a Michigan lake, some started testing positive for Covid-19 -- prompting health officials to warn other party-goers that they might have been infected, too. The Health Department of Northwest Michigan said other health officials in the state reported that several people have tested positive "after attending the festivities at the Torch Lake sandbar over the Fourth of July holiday," the department said Friday. (Jones and Yan, 7/12)

Bangor Daily News: Maine Health Providers Worry About Second Virus Wave As Protective Equipment Runs Low
Supplies of personal protective equipment were a major worldwide concern in the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Four months after the virus was identified in Maine, the situation has improved. But many health care providers say finding protective equipment is still a struggle, and they worry that if there’s a surge of the disease this fall, there won’t be enough on hand. (Wight, 7/13)

Boston Globe: Worst-Case Scenarios Predicted Mass. Hospitals Would Be Overwhelmed By COVID-19 Patients. Here’s Why That Didn’t Happen
Every hospital leader had the same nightmare in the run-up to this spring’s COVID-19 surge: that a moment would come when the number of patients would overwhelm hospital resources. All had read about the doctors in Italy who, short on lifesaving equipment, had to choose who would live and who would die. But it hasn’t happened here. (Freyer, 7/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia To Reactivate Makeshift Hospital At Atlanta Convention Center
Georgia officials are racing to expand hospital capacity to cope with soaring numbers of coronavirus cases, unveiling plans Friday to reopen a makeshift medical facility at the sprawling convention center in Atlanta and other efforts to add more beds. Gov. Brian Kemp's office said the temporary hospital at the Georgia World Congress Center, which opened in April and shuttered a month later, will soon be reactivated to relieve healthcare systems struggling with rising numbers of coronavirus patients. (Bluestein, 7/10)

The New York Times: Pittsburgh Seemed Like A Virus Success Story. Now Cases Are Surging. 
A little more than three weeks ago, officials in Pittsburgh announced a milestone enviable for almost any major city in America: A day had gone by without a single new confirmed case of the coronavirus. It was good news for a city that had seen only a modest outbreak all along, even as the virus raged through places like Philadelphia and New York. That was then. (Robertson and Mervosh, 7/12)

Dallas Morning News: ‘Very, Very Difficult’: Texas COVID-19 Hospitalizations At Record High, Nearing Overwhelming Level
In South Texas, a school district is turning over portable buildings to be used for hospital space. In San Antonio and Austin, concert and convention venues are being prepped as field hospitals. In North Texas, Medical City Healthcare opened more COVID-19 units this week, and Parkland Hospital had to request a disaster assistance team. Texas is entering a dire new phase of the coronavirus epidemic. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 keep climbing to record levels, and the state health department on Friday said it had no prediction for when that will stop. (Morris and Ambrose, 7/10)

The latest on the COVID-19 case count by state:

AP: Nevada Reports 845 Additional COVID-19 Cases, 1 More Death
Health officials in Nevada reported 845 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday along with one more known death.That pushes the totals to 27,683 positive coronavirus cases around the state with 593 known deaths. (7/12)

AP: Arkansas Reports 503 New Coronavirus Cases, 8 More Deaths
Arkansas reported 503 new cases of COVID-19 Sunday and eight additional deaths related to the new coronavirus. State health officials said the total number of confirmed cases climbed to 28,367. The death toll for the outbreak, which officials began tracking in early March, was 321 Sunday. (7/12)

AP: South Dakota Reports Two More COVID-19 Deaths, 55 Cases
South Dakota on Saturday recorded two more deaths from COVID-19 a day after state health officials reported a record number of deaths from the virus. (7/11)

AP: Missouri Reports 310 More COVID-19 Cases
The Missouri Department of Heath and Senior Services is reporting 310 more confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 27,443.The state on Sunday also reported five more deaths, bringing the total to 1,069. (7/12)

AP: 1 Death, 390 New Coronavirus Cases Reported In Michigan
Michigan reported hundreds of new coronavirus cases Sunday, but the number was down from a day earlier. The state health department also reported one COVID-19 death, pushing the total since March to 6,068. More are probable but haven’t been officially counted yet. (7/12)

AP: Iowa Reports 35,002 Coronavirus Cases, 750 Deaths In State
The number of coronavirus cases in Iowa is now over 35,000.The Iowa Department of Public Health said the number of cases of COVID-19 grew to 35,002 at 10 a.m. Sunday. That is 503 higher than Saturday’s total. (7/12)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Records 3,322 New Coronavirus Cases, 18 Deaths 
Los Angeles County continued to report a surge in coronavirus cases Sunday, tallying 3,322 new cases of the virus and 18 related deaths.With that, the county has now recorded a total of more than 133,700 cases and 3,800 deaths. (Wigglesworth, 7/12)

AP: Feds To Execute 1st Inmate In 17 Years For Arkansas Murders
The federal government is planning to carry out the first federal execution in nearly two decades on Monday, over the objection of the family of the victims and after a volley of legal proceedings over the coronavirus pandemic. (Balsamo, 7/13)

Politico: First Federal Execution In 17 Years Back On Track 
Barring further developments, Daniel Lee, 47, is set to be executed at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., on Monday afternoon for the brutal 1996 murder of a family of three in Arkansas as part of a robbery aimed at raising funds for a white supremacist organization. (Gerstein, 7/12)

AP: Okinawa Governor Wants Tougher Action As 61 Marines Infected
The governor of Japan’s Okinawa island demanded a top U.S. military commander take tougher prevention measures and more transparency hours after officials were told that more than 60 Marines at two bases have been infected with the coronavirus over the past few days. (Yamaguchi, 7/12)

Reuters: Japan, U.S. Discuss Jump In Coronavirus Cases At U.S. Military Bases
Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said it was “extremely regrettable” that a large number of infections had occurred in a short time, adding that Okinawans were “shocked” by the news. “I can’t help but have strong doubts about the U.S. military’s measures to prevent infections,” he said, adding that there were reports of personnel leaving base for beach parties and visits to night life districts around Independence Day on July 4. (7/12)

Reuters: Mexico Set To Surpass Italy's Coronavirus Tally As Death Toll Nears 35,000
Mexico’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is poised to overtake Italy’s and shoot above 35,000 on Sunday, with the Latin American nation set to post the world’s fourth highest deaths total, according to Reuters data. (7/12)

CIDRAP: Italian Study Finds COVID-19 Symptoms Persist In Many Patients
A small study by Italian researchers found that more than 87% of patients who had recovered from acute COVID-19 still had at least one symptom 2 months after illness onset. (7/10)

Reuters: More Than 70 Workers Test Positive For COVID-19 On An English Farm
Around 200 people employed to pick crops at a farm near Malvern in England’s West Midlands region have been told to self isolate after 73 of them tested positive for COVID-19, Public Health England (PHE) and Herefordshire Council said on Sunday. (7/12)

AP: Catalonia Tightens Lockdown After Virus Outbreak
Regional authorities in northeast Spain have tightened a health lockdown and confined over 140,000 people to only leaving their homes for work and other essential activities. (7/12)

CIDRAP: Deadly Pneumonia Reported In Kazakhstan
Mike Ryan, MD, head of the WHO's health emergencies program, said the WHO is aware of reports based on Chinese embassy social media posts about a surge of pneumonia in Kazakhstan that is deadlier than COVID-19. He said the country has reported a big spike in lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases, more than 10,000 over the past 7 days. Ryan said atypical pneumonia cases can arise anywhere in the world, and though WHO officials are keeping an open mind, most cases are believed to be COVID-19. (7/10)

Reuters: Lebanon Records New Coronavirus Infection High With 166 Cases
A Lebanese waste management company is quarantining 133 Syrian workers who tested positive for the coronavirus, the company manager said on Sunday, as the country recorded a new daily high for infections. The health ministry said a total of 166 new cases had been confirmed in the last 24 hours. (7/12)

The Washington Post: Bolsonaro Coronavirus: Brazil’s President Defied Health Guidelines Before Testing Positive For Covid-19
For months, even as the coronavirus pandemic grew into a debilitating national crisis, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro did everything he could to downplay it. He called on people to return to normal. He waded into crowds of supporters. He repeatedly described it as nothing more than a little flu. (Cahlan, McCoy, Samuels and Traiano, 7/11)

Reuters: With Masks And Gel, Spaniards Vote Amid New Outbreaks Of Coronavirus
Voters in northern Spain protected themselves with face masks and hand sanitizer before voting on Sunday as Galicia and the Basque Country held regional elections despite new localised outbreaks of COVID-19. (7/12)

In other global developments —

CIDRAP: H1N2v Flu Infection Reported In Brazilian Slaughterhouse Worker
Brazil has reported a variant H1N2 (H1N2v) influenza infection in a 22-year-old woman from Parana state who worked in a swine slaughterhouse, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday. The woman's flulike symptoms began on Apr 12, and after seeking medical care a few days later, health workers obtained a respiratory specimen as part of routine surveillance. She was treated with oseltamivir, wasn't hospitalized, and has since recovered. (7/10)

Stat: Germany Law Offers A Cost-Saving Model On Cancer Drug Prices
After Germany revamped its approach to purchasing medicines a decade ago, the prices negotiated by the government for cancer treatments were more closely aligned with clinical benefits, a new study finds. Moreover, the effort led to a 25% drop in prices one year after product launches, prompting the researchers to suggest U.S. policymakers should consider Germany as a cost-saving model. (Silverman, 7/10)

The Washington Post: Japan Sees Surge In Online Matchmaking During Pandemic Isolation 
Japan's matchmakers faced a dilemma: how to make those matches during the social distancing of the pandemic? Gone were group gatherings, one of the common icebreakers held by Japan's popular agencies for people seeking a mate. Also called off were the one-on-one introductions arranged by dozens of Japan's matchmaking companies, which can charge monthly fees as high as $200 for the many in Japan who don't want to go solo into the online dating world. (Denyer and Kashiwagi, 7/12)

The New York Times: Reopening Schools Will Be A Huge Undertaking. It Must Be Done. 
American children need public schools to reopen in the fall. Reading, writing and arithmetic are not even the half of it. Kids need to learn to compete and to cooperate. They need food and friendships; books and basketball courts; time away from family and a safe place to spend it.Parents need public schools, too. They need help raising their children, and they need to work. In Britain, the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health has warned that leaving schools closed “risks scarring the life chances of a generation of young people.” The organization’s American counterpart, the American Academy of Pediatrics, has urged administrators to begin from “a goal of having students physically present in school.” Here is what it’s going to take: more money and more space. (7/10)

The Washington Post: Betsy DeVos Wants You To Ignore Reality
It has been a bad few months for conservative politicians who hoped to ignore coronavirus reality. Governors and mayors, egged on by the Trump White House, reopened their states and encouraged citizens to dispense with masks and other preventive measures. Warnings that it was too early to relax restrictions were ignored or even scoffed at. The result? Record case numbers. Imagine looking at all that and still thinking, “You know what else should reopen, regardless of what local health experts think? Schools.” Yet that’s exactly what President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are saying. And they’re threatening to cut funding to schools that don’t go along. (James Downey, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Schools Can Open Safely This Fall
Schools should open in the fall. It’s critical for meeting the educational and social needs of children. But local officials should have the discretion to take tailored actions to help keep children safe. One thing about Covid-19 is clear: We don’t fully understand its severity and transmission. At various turns, we’ve both underestimated and overestimated the virus.T he debate over schools has been swept up in a political maelstrom. Reopening schools will draw more controversy if people believe their school district was forced into opening. I’ve talked to Republican and Democratic governors about their strategies. The commitment to reopening is universal. Their approach is appropriately varied to local conditions. The main risk is transmission inside school buildings, but there are ways to reduce the chance of a big outbreak. (Scott Gottlieb, 7/12)

Dallas Morning News: Schools Need Federal Support To Reopen Safely. The President’s Bluster Is A Major Distraction
All across the country, schools were working hard to figure out how to have a safe and productive school year in the midst of a pandemic. Then President Donald Trump last week made a tough situation worse with threats and recriminations. Anyone who has been paying attention — and parents have been especially attentive — knows that school reopenings should be guided by science, safety and diligence. But as has been the case throughout the national response to the coronavirus pandemic, presidential bluster continues to complicate the already arduous task of getting children back to their classrooms. Trump’s call to water down Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for how the nation’s schools could reopen safely and the threat to cut federal funding if classes aren’t held in person are the last things parents, teachers and school administrators need from the president. We all know that K-12 instruction with teachers and students in the same room beats remote learning. However, we also know that the spread of COVID-19 may make distant learning a necessary alternative. (7/13)

The New York Times: Trump Threatens To Turn Pandemic Schooling Into A Culture War
Two weeks ago, I asked Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, what a functioning Department of Education would be doing to prepare the country to reopen schools in the fall.“ A functioning Department of Education would have been getting groups of superintendents and principals and unions and others together from the middle of March,” she told me. It would have created a clearinghouse of best practices for maintaining grab-and-go lunch programs and online education. By mid-April it would have convened experts to figure out how to reopen schools safely, and offered grants to schools trying different models.“ None of that has happened,” said Weingarten. “Zero.” (Michelle Goldberg, 7/10)

Fox News: Homeschooling During Coronavirus – Here's Why My Kids Will Be With Me This Fall
Before the novel coronavirus pandemic, I swore up and down that I’d never homeschool my kids. Patience is not one of my virtues. I hate crafts. Playgroups are not my thing. I work full-time in a job I love. Homeschooling was not happening – until it did. Like every other parent in the country who had their child in school, I had to figure out how to crisis homeschool, cover the basics with eLearning and wrangle kids all day long to do their schoolwork. It was hard and I fought with my kids and I worked late, late hours but admittedly, I loved having my two children home with me. Yet as I watched the pandemic unfold to epic proportions, I realized I needed to seriously consider homeschooling as they enter kindergarten and fourth grade this coming school year. (Kristina Hernandez, 7/13)

The Hill: Coronavirus Unveils The Digital Divide In Our Education System 
Out of the coronavirus crisis have come shockwaves fundamentally affecting our country, the national economy, and many aspects of how we live. It may be tempting to think that only obviously impacted sectors like the healthcare and service industries need to adapt and learn from the pandemic, but in truth, coronavirus has touched more spheres of the economy than can easily be observed. (Francis Taylor, 7/9)

CNN: I Teach Public School. I Love My Students. I Don't Want To Die 
I am a public school teacher and I don't want to die. As the question of whether and how to reopen schools in the fall intensifies, with parents and especially politicians expressing their opinions, I want to ask: Has anyone asked what we want to do in the fall? (Elana Rabinowitz, 7/10)

The Hill: As The Pandemic Continues, Where Will All The Children Go? 
Four months ago, America’s 74 million children were active, conspicuous members of society, waiting for school buses, playing on playgrounds, and shopping with their families. Today, they are largely invisible, the homebound charges of frazzled parents. While newspapers and social media forums have filled with parenting advice about homeschooling and online playdates, society’s commitment to children has gone largely unmentioned. (Carolyn P. Neuhaus and Josephine Johnston, 7/12)

USA Today: Black Health: COVID-19 Has Shown It Matters More Than Ever
The Trump administration’s latest move to end the Affordable Care Act threatens to deprive millions of Americans of health coverage in the midst of a pandemic. Especially troubling is that dismantling the law would disproportionately harm Black people — advancing racism precisely as we grapple with its shameful legacy. We emphatically endorse the need to develop policies to dismantle the racist structure of policing as one means of saving Black lives. However, unless we create and put in place strategies to ensure their health, well-being and access to medical care, many Black people will continue to fall sick and die from preventable illnesses. (Roslyn Young-Daniels and M. Lindsay Kaplan, 7/11)

Stat: Pickup Truck Medicine: Saving Primary Care During Covid-19 
As the Covid-19 pandemic burned through Chicago, New York, Detroit, and other large U.S. cities this spring, residents serenaded and applauded hospital health care workers. Rightly so: They were doing amazing, high-risk, and innovative work. We should also have been celebrating primary care physicians, who kept finding new ways to continue caring for their patients during times of lockdown and hardship, often putting themselves at risk of being infected with the coronavirus. (Timothy J. Hoff, 7/13)

The New York Times: American Horror, Starring Donald Trump
I think I echo many Americans, and people of the world in general, when I say that I’m having a hard time fully grappling with the gravity of this moment. It is still hard to absorb that a virus has reshaped world behavior, halted or altered travel, strained the economy and completely reshaped the nature of public spaces and human interaction. It is also hard to absorb that this may not be a quickly passing phase, an inconvenience for a season, but something that the world is forced to live with for years, even assuming that a vaccine is soon found. There’s this notion that things could turn on a dime, not because of a human action, but rather because humans are under attack. (Charles Blow, 7/12)

Bloomberg: Covid Fear Will Keep The World In A Slump
To date, the economic damage wrought by the pandemic has been mostly hidden by massive government subsidy. That’s about to change. And so the next few months will reveal the underlying economic impact of Covid-19 across the globe more clearly than we’ve seen so far. My bet: As governments withdraw fiscal support, the economic picture is going to look worse than commonly appreciated.Getting a sense of what’s about to happen requires that we first be clear about how and why the pandemic has affected the economy: Is it because governments have required people to stay home, or is it because of the virus itself? New research shows that economic losses have come mainly from fear, not government mandate. So eliminating the mandates without ending the fear does very little. (Peter Orszag, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Want To Know How Badly We’ve Botched The Pandemic? Consider The Plight Of Movie Theaters.
Theater owners have sued New Jersey for the right to reopen in the middle of a pandemic, in a rather perfect symbol of how badly both governments and the public have botched the response to the coronavirus. Like the rest of us, movie theaters are stuck trying to navigate conflicting advice, obvious hypocrisy and inconsistent governance to figure out the right balance between keeping safe and staying afloat. Let’s be clear: With infection numbers rising in much of the country and indoor gatherings serving as one of the key vectors of transmission, there’s much to be said for keeping theaters shuttered. Despite the complicated seating charts theaters have devised to make social distancing possible, the extra-intense cleanings they’ve promised to conduct between screenings and pledges the three biggest chains — Regal, Cinemark and AMC — have made to require mask usage by patrons, it’s hard to argue that the benefit of theaters being open outweighs the risk. (Sonny Bunch, 7/9)

The Washington Post: Trump Finally Puts On A Mask 
President Trump finally wore a face mask! In public! This development came more than three months after his own administration recommended that all Americans wear masks in situations where social distancing is not possible. Granted, wearing one should have been a no-brainer, given that Trump was visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, a facility full of vulnerable patients and front-line health-care workers. Also, that it is Defense Department workplace policy to “mandate use of cloth face coverings in situations where social distancing is difficult to maintain.” (Karen Tumulty, 7/12)

CNN: What Trump's Mask Can't Hide
On Saturday, we learned how many Americans had to die from Covid-19 before President Donald Trump would wear a mask in public: At least 134,000. But Trump deserves zero applause for finally allowing himself to be photographed wearing a mask, which he did while on a visit wounded service members at Walter Reed hospital. (Dean Obeidallah, 7/12)

Arizona Republic: Gov. Doug Ducey Again Showcases His Weak Response To COVID-19
Acknowledging “the brutal facts of our current reality,” Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey took bold, new action on Thursday to get the coronavirus under control. Except it wasn’t bold. Ducey ordered that restaurants limit their indoor dining to 50% of their capacity. And it wasn’t new. Ducey on June 17 ordered that restaurants space their indoor tables at least 6 feet apart, essentially requiring them to keep every other one empty. Ducey’s announcement comes as the state is in the national spotlight, America’s embarrassed poster child for how not to handle a highly contagious, sometimes fatal disease. (Laurie Roberts, 7/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ga.’s Approach To Controlling COVID-19 Isn’t Working
Looking at the skyrocketing number of COVID-19 cases in Georgia is like staring down the barrel of a gun.No, make that a rocket-propelled grenade. Things are getting so much worse so quickly that it is apparent that the state’s approach to controlling the epidemic is not working. Yet, what did the governor do? As we reach 3,000 deaths, he extended the current guidelines for another 5 weeks and even loosened them by allowing live performance venues to reopen and conventions to occur. (Mark Rosenberg and Julie Rosenberg, 7/11)

Orlando Sentinel/Tampa Bay Tribune: The Florida Economy Can’t Take Another Lockdown
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently walked back the reopening process in Florida by reclosing bars and nightclubs; the most populous county has also reversed the decision to allow restaurants to resume indoor dining. Targeted restrictions to slow the spread of the virus is warranted so area hospital systems aren’t overrun. But Florida, as well as Texas, Arizona and other states with hotspots, should avoid slipping into another broad lockdown. The economy, which is already hanging on by thread, can’t withstand another blow. (Joseph Semprevivo, 7/12)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Who Could've Known Trump's Tulsa Rally Would Spike Virus Cases? Everyone.
Exactly as predicted, and right on schedule, coronavirus cases are hitting new records in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma, where President Donald Trump staged his first campaign rally of the season in late June. Public health officials say it’s likely a direct result of the rally, in which thousands of Trump supporters followed the lead of their idol by packing indoors and defying recommendations to wear masks. Since death rates reliably lag behind infection rates, there’s little question that some of those infected soon could die — all in service to this president’s insatiable ego and contempt for science. How does this make America great again? (7/11)