Myriam Borzee/iStockBy MORGAN WINSOR, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 291,000 people worldwide.
More than 4.2 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some governments are hiding the scope of their nations’ outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the United States has become the worst-affected country, with more than 1.3 million diagnosed cases and at least 82,387 deaths.
Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:
7:25 a.m.: ‘We’ll never be completely open until we have a cure,’ Los Angeles mayor says
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday that the city will “never be completely open until we have a cure,” as county health officials recommend stay-at-home orders remain in place for months longer to help suppress the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“I think we have to all recognize that we’re not moving beyond COVID-19, we’re learning to live with it,” Garcetti told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Good Morning America.
Garcetti urged residents “not to overreact” to the comments made Tuesday by Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the public health director of Los Angeles County, who recommended that the county extend stay-at-home orders for at least three more months. The county’s original stay-at-home order is set to expire Friday.
“But it’s important to take this serious because [the virus] is as dangerous today as it was the first day that it arrived in our cities and our country,” Garcetti added. “So quite frankly, there’s no so-called open state or open country that doesn’t continue to have health orders telling us to cover our faces, physically distance and to tell people that you’re safest working from and staying at home. That’s all that the county health director was saying, and we can’t expect that to disappear in a matter of weeks or even a few months.”
The mayor said he hopes the city’s K-12 school will be able to reopen in “some sense,” though he cautioned “it won’t be in the way that we’ve known school in the past” and vulnerable children won’t be able to go back “for some time.”
“It might be fewer days a week, it might be staggered because we have to maintain that physical distance,” Garcetti said. “Look, we have to tell the hard truths and protect our people. At the same time, we take steps forward.”
“We’ve never been fully closed. We’ll never be completely open until we have a cure,” he continued. “I do believe that we can take steps but monitor those numbers, listen to the scientists and the medical professionals and make the tough calls even when there’s criticism.”
More than 32,000 people in Los Angeles County have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and at least 1,570 have died, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
Garcetti said he was proud of how his city and the county has stood up its own testing centers, which he said is essential for reopening.
“We have a capacity of 20,000 tests a day just in Los Angeles County, whereas the country is doing 300,000 tests a day and we’re just 3% of the population,” he said. “We’ve got to keep that going and we have to make it regular. For kids to go back to school, we need testing. For workers to get back to work, we need testing.”
“We were the first city in America to offer widespread testing to people with and without symptoms,” he added, “because we’ve got to find the silent spreaders that are amongst us as well.”
7:06 a.m.: Hong Kong reports locally-transmitted cases for first time in 23 days
Hong Kong reported two new locally-transmitted infections of COVID-19 on Wednesday, after 23 straight days with only imported cases.
Health officials are working to trace any close contacts of the two new patients.
“We are all very concerned,” Dr. Chui Tak-yi, undersecretary of Hong Kong’s Food and Health Bureau, told a press conference Wednesday. “We must heighten our alertness. Citizens cannot let their guards down and must continue to carry out anti-epidemic measures.”
The semiautonomous Chinese city now has 1,051 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including four deaths.
6:13 a.m.: California authorities says Tesla can reopen factory with new safety measures
Tesla can reopen its sole U.S. vehicle factory in California as soon as next week, so long as the electric carmaker adopts extra safety recommendations amid the coronavirus pandemic, local officials said.
The Alameda County Health Department released a statement late Tuesday announcing that the plant in Fremont, some 40 miles southeast of San Francisco, will be allowed to go beyond basic operations this week and start manufacturing vehicles on Monday if Tesla holds up its part of the agreement.
“We reviewed the plan and held productive discussions today with Tesla’s representatives about their safety and prevention plans, including some additional safety recommendations,” the health department said in the statement. “If Tesla’s Prevention and Control Plan includes these updates, and the public health indicators remain stable or improve, we have agreed that Tesla can begin to augment their Minimum Business Operations this week in preparation for possible reopening as soon as next week.”
The Alameda County Health Department noted that it will be working with the Fremont Police Department to verify whether Tesla “is adhering to physical distancing and that agreed upon health and safety measures are in place for the safety of their workers as they prepare for full production.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter earlier this week that he was restarting production at the Fremont factory in defiance of the county’s ordinance. Operations at the plant apparently continued into Tuesday, although the company met a Monday deadline to submit a site-specific plan for worker safety.
“I will be on the line with everyone else,” Musk tweeted. “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
It’s unclear whether Tesla would face any punishment for the reopening.
5:10 a.m.: Russia reports over 10,000 new cases for 11th straight day
Russia reported more than 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday for the 11th day in a row, as the country emerges as a new hot spot in the coronavirus pandemic.
There were 10,028 new infections confirmed in Russia over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 242,271, according to the country’s coronavirus response headquarters.
Russia has the second-largest national tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind the United States. The country reported a record 11,656 new infections on Monday.
Russia also has one of the world’s fastest rates of new infections in the coronavirus pandemic, second only to the U.S.
However, the country’s death toll from the disease remains relatively low with just 96 new fatalities reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 2,212, according to the coronavirus response headquarters.
4:41 a.m.: Pakistan reports record daily spike in COVID-19 cases
Pakistan saw more than 2,000 new infections of the novel coronavirus in a single day for the first time since the outbreak began.
The country’s health ministry said Wednesday there were a record 2,255 new cases of COVID-19 registered over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 34,312.
The spike comes just days after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan began a phased reopening of the nation after a weekslong lockdown.
Khan has argued that the country’s poorest were worst-affected by the coronavirus restrictions, as a vast majority of the population earn barely $75 a month, mostly doing daily wage work.
3:28 a.m.: Fresno City Council president cited for three counts of assault after confrontation with protesters
Fresno City Council President Miguel Arias was cited for three counts of assault after a group of anti-lockdown protesters approached his home Tuesday afternoon, police said.
The unarmed protesters showed up at Arias’ residence to demand the reopening of businesses and the lifting of social-distancing restrictions in the California city. A spokesman for the Fresno Police Department told ABC News there was sufficient evidence that Arias committed assault against the protesters.
Video allegedly taken by one of the protesters purportedly shows the city council president shoving a man down a staircase away from the front door of his apartment.
Arias claims the protesters tried to break into his home and refused to leave.
“Not only did they go into private property that’s gated that requires security to get through, but they showed up to my front door and banged on my front door,” Arias told Fresno ABC station KFSN-TV. “Folks didn’t want to give way to my private property, so I moved them out of the way.”
Investigators are still trying to determine whether there was an attempted break-in. Police said they are beefing up security at the homes of other city leaders at this time as a precaution.
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