June 29 coronavirus news

New York City will reexamine and possibly pause indoor dining, which had been set to resume next week in phase three of reopening, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The decision comes as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the US.

The rest of phase three is moving on pace for next Monday, July 6, de Blasio said, “but the indoor dining element is now in question.”

He added that it may be paused or modified and there will be more to come in the next few days. 

What is “clearly working” is outdoor dining, de Blasio said, adding “we want to double down on outdoor dining.” The city will be reaching out to every restaurant that has not yet applied to help foster this progress.

New York City moved into phase two of reopening last week, which allowed restaurants to resume dine-in service outside.

De Blasio also announced today that barbecue areas in parks will be open for this coming July 4 weekend.

#

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez said the reopening of beaches is not the reason for the spike in coronavirus cases in South Florida — it's "younger people basically disregarding the rules."

The mayor said he is closing the beaches for Fourth of July weekend to avoid the surge of people who are thinking about coming to the beach for the holiday. 

"I was afraid, though, of a surge of people coming in for the Fourth of July weekend, and our inability, possible inability to control that. That's why we closed the beaches for the Fourth of July," Giménez said.

The beach closures come as Florida is among at least 10 states seeing a 50% or more increase in Covid-19 cases compared to the previous week.

WATCH:

Bolivia reported a total of 1,014 deaths from Covid-19, according to figures released by the country’s Health Ministry Monday.

Bolivia now exceeds the 1,000-figure mark, with the addition of 44 new deaths reported in the last 24-hour period, according to the ministry’s statistics.

There are 848 new infections across Bolivia, bringing the total figure of confirmed cases to 31,524, Monday’s statistics show. 

Argentina reported 2,189 new Covid-19 cases as the total number of infections reached 59,933, according to data released by the country’s Health Ministry on Monday morning. 

The country’s death toll stands at 1,245, with 13 new deaths.

During the Ministry’s morning briefing Carla Vizzotti, Health Access Secretary, highlighted that almost 95% of the new cases reported belong to the Buenos Aires metro region (AMBA). 

On Friday evening, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández reimposed a lockdown in the metro area of Buenos Aires due to “cases growing exponentially.” Fernández announced that residents will have to stay at home unless they are performing essential work or purchasing necessary provisions from July 1 to July 17. 

The president said that “practically 97 percent” of the cases reported in the last few days had been reported in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. 

President Fernández himself has been in self-isolation due to the pandemic at his official residence Quinta de Olivos since June 17.  

The state of Maharashtra, home to the financial hub Mumbai and Bollywood film production, will continue with lock down measures until July 31 as the number of cases steadily rise. 

The state government has issued fresh guidelines for what it has named "Mission Begin Again." This includes movement for non-essential activities to be restricted within neighborhoods in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Only those going to work in offices and emergencies will be allowed unrestricted movement, the statement added.

"It is also directed that unrestricted movement will be permitted only for attending place of work and bonafide humanitarian requirement including medical reason.”

All essential shops, e-commerce activity for essential and non-essential items, all industrial units that are currently operational and home delivery of food will be allowed.

All essential and non-essential shops and market, except malls and market complexes, will be allowed to open from 9 am to 5 pm. 

Wearing of masks, social distancing and maintaining personal hygiene will continue.

Health officials have long called contact tracing — following and monitoring the contacts of a person infected with the coronavirus — a key to help stop the spread of Covid-19. Yet many of the hardest hit states still haven't built up contact tracing to meet what has been recommended. 

In April, the National Association of County and City Health Officials estimated that communities across the United States would need 30 professionals per 100,000 people in the community to be involved in contact tracing, given the magnitude of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now in eight Covid-19 hotspots emerging nationwide, there are far fewer contact tracers than that estimate, according to new data obtained by CNN from Nephron Research, an independent health care research firm that has been monitoring contact tracing across states. The group's latest data report shows that as of Monday:

"The majority of 'hot spot' states fall short on tracing," the Nephron Research report says. 

The only states in the nation that have at least 30 contact tracers per 100,000 people, according to the Nephron Research data, are:

When asked how the United States is doing with contact tracing, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN: "I don’t think we’re doing very well."

What the experts say: Instead of doing contact tracing just by phone, communities need to have "boots on the ground" and do it in person, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview with CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen that aired Sunday night as part of the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Fauci noted that it’s difficult to do contact tracing with coronavirus, since in hotspots, 20% to 40% of those infected are asymptomatic, and in those cases, "contact tracing doesn't work no matter how good you are because you don't know who you're tracing."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today calling for Republicans to negotiate for another round of Covid-19 relief.  

Beaches in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, popular with residents and tourists, will be closed Fourth of July weekend as officials keep a cautious eye on the rapidly rising number of new coronavirus cases in Florida.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez says all beaches and parks in the county will close from Friday, July 3, through Tuesday, July 7. He warned the closure could be extended if conditions don't improve and people don't follow rules designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Beaches in Palm Beach County, Florida, will also be closed for the Fourth of July weekend, Mayor Dave Kerner said.

"That community spread that would go with that amount of people on the beach — we're not in a position to handle that," Kerner told CNN's New Day.

Broward County cities will follow Miami-Dade County's example to close beaches ahead of July 4, the city of Fort Lauderdale said in a tweet. Beaches in Broward County will be closed from July 3 through July 5, according to the tweet.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis confirmed beaches would be closed from July 3 through July 5.

"The reason why we're doing this is because we feel that we will not be able to provide the necessary safe environment that everyone is entitled to enjoy when they come to our beaches," he said.

CNN's Randi Kaye reports the latest on Florida's Covid-19 cases:

At least 12 states have by now paused or rolled back plans to reopen, hoping the move will slow further spread of the virus.

In the past week, officials and state leaders have made repeated pleas to Americans to stay away from crowded spaces, keep their distance and try to stay at home as much as possible.

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee announced the counties that were preparing to enter into the fourth phase of reopening — with essentially no restrictions — will not do so just yet.

"We all want to get back to doing all the things we love in Washington during the summer, and fully open our economy, but we aren't there yet," the governor said in a statement. "This is an evolving situation and we will continue to make decisions based on the data."

In Texas and Florida — both of which have raised alarm among experts with a rapid rise in cases — bars were ordered closed for a second time after officials suggested they were a driving force behind cases of coronavirus.

In a similar move, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday ordered bars closed in seven counties: Los Angeles, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, San Joaquin and Tulare.

He recommended closing them in eight other counties, including Contra Costa, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Stanislaus and Ventura.

At least 31 states are now seeing an increase in new cases compared to the previous week, according to data from John Hopkins University.