Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

More people have now died from COVID-19 in New York City than during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 3,485 people in the city had died from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The 9/11 attacks killed 2,753 people in the city.

But officials there and in other hot spots such as parts of Europe hoped the latest figures point to them reaching plateaus in the pandemic.

Weather in your inbox

Forecast Location

Sign Up

By signing up you agree to the Terms & Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe at any time.

A revised model created by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington predicted that the United States may need fewer hospital beds, ventilators and other equipment than previously projected and that some states may reach their peak of COVID-19 deaths sooner than expected, the Washington Post reported. The revised model conflicts with many other models showing higher equipment shortages, deaths and projected peaks, the Post said.

Worldwide, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 1.4 million on Tuesday evening. More 81,000 people have died.

In the U.S., the number of deaths exceeded 12,000, and the number of infections reached more than 387,000.

Latest Developments

United States:

-Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly resigned Tuesday amid criticism over a speech he gave on board the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, where more than 170 crew members have tested positive for COVID-19. Modly traveled to Guam on Monday to speak to the crew about Capt. Brett Crozier, their former commander who Modly relieved of duty last week after an email Crozier sent was leaked to the press. The speech prompted criticism for its use of profanity and characterizing Crozier as "stupid."

-Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah has become the latest national park to close during the coronavirus pandemic. Several other major parks including Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountains and Glacier had previously locked their gates.

-New Jersey and New York each reported their highest one day death totals on Tuesday. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said that the state experienced 232 COVID-19 deaths, bringing the number of total deaths statewide to 1,232. Overall, the state has 44,416 positive coronavirus cases. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 731 more people had died. The total number of deaths in New York overall was 5,489. The total number of confirmed cases was 138,863.

-Major League Baseball is exploring a plan that could have all 30 teams playing games in Arizona, ESPN.com reported. The teams would use the Arizona Diamondbacks' Chase Field and spring training facilities in the Phoenix area, and they could stay at local hotels, according to ESPN. MLB issued a statement Tuesday saying that while the one-location plan has been discussed, "we have not settled on that option or developed a detailed plan."

-The National Guard is helping to run polling sites in Wisconsin after thousands of volunteers dropped out, fearing for their safety. Gov. Tony Evers had issued an executive order to postpone Tuesday's election, but the order was thrown out by the state Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court soon followed with a 5-4 ruling that overturned a lower court's decision expanding absentee voting.

-By the end of this week, more than 2 million coronavirus tests will have been completed across the United States, Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS.

-A crew member of the Navy's hospital ship Comfort has tested positive for the new coronavirus and has been isolated from patients and other crew members, a Navy spokesperson told CNN. The ship is docked in New York City.

-Black people make up 30% of the population in Chicago, but they account for 68% of the city’s 118 COVID-19 deaths and 52% of the roughly 5,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to data from the Chicago Department of Public Health. That means they are dying at a rate nearly six times higher than that of white Chicagoans, the Washington Post reports, and that disparity is starting to emerge in other major cities including Milwaukee, Detroit and New Orleans.

Worldwide:

-More than half of the 217 passengers on board a cruise ship off Uruguay, including many who are from the U.S., Europe and Australia, have tested positive for COVID-19, The Associated Press reported. The ship left on March 15 for a voyage to Antarctica and South Georgia. Aurora Expeditions, the company that operates the cruise, said none of the passengers had fevers or displayed any symptoms.

-For the first time since it began publishing statistics on the new coronavirus in December, China reported no new COVID-19 deaths over the past 24 hours Tuesday. Still, many experts remain skeptical of China's numbers.

-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 55, the world’s first known head of government to fall ill with the new coronavirus, was in stable condition and conscious at London's St. Thomas’ Hospital and was breathing without a ventilator or other assistance, said his spokesman James Slack. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was designated to run the country in the meantime.

-In New Zealand, which imposed a strict coronavirus lockdown, the number of new cases has fallen for two consecutive days, despite a huge increase in testing, the Post reported. After peaking at 89 on April 2, the daily number of new cases ticked down to 67 on Monday and 54 on Tuesday. The country had a goal of eliminating the new coronavirus, not just contain it. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern insisted New Zealand will complete four weeks of lockdown — two full 14-day incubation cycles.

-Spain saw a rise in the number of daily coronavirus infections and deaths for the first time in five days, but officials say they think it's just the result of a weekend backlog. With 743 new deaths in the last 24 hours, Spain’s death toll neared 13,800 since the beginning of the pandemic, Health Ministry data showed. The total of confirmed infections rose over 140,000, with 5,478 new ones on Tuesday.

-Parisians wishing to exercise outside will have to do it between 7 p.m. and 10 a.m. when “street crowd is at its lowest,” according to new rules from the mayor and police.

-The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are more than 10,000 coronavirus cases on the continent, The Associated Press reported. Fifty-two of Africa’s 54 countries now have the virus, with island nation Sao Tome and Principe the latest to confirm cases. Only the small kingdom of Lesotho and the island nation of Comoros have not confirmed cases. South Africa has the most cases on the continent with more than 1,600.

-Iran has seen a “flattening” of the number of new coronavirus cases, the WHO East Mediterranean Regional Office said in a press conference on Tuesday. Iran confirmed 133 more coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total to 3,872 according to Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur on state TV. The total number of cases is 62,589.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.