Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

Tuesday marked the deadliest day yet for the U.S. since the coronavirus outbreak began, as 2,400 more deaths were reported from COVID-19 and worldwide cases topped 2 million.

As of Wednesday evening, more than 632,000 people in the U.S. had tested positive for COVID-19, the respiratory disease causes by the novel coronavirus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 100,000 have been hospitalized and at least 27,000 people have died. About 50,000 have recovered.

Those numbers by far exceed any other country in the world. Spain has the second highest number of cases behind the U.S. with about 177,000.

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(MORE: Coronavirus Ripple Effects Will Impact Your Forecast)

New York remains the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., although officials there have said cases and deaths may have peaked. The state has confirmed more than 203,000 cases, or about a third of the count for the entire nation. New York City alone has reported more than 110,000 cases and some 10,000 deaths, according to state officials.

More than 2 million people worldwide have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 133,354 have died.

Latest Developments

United States

-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order Wednesday that requires people to wear mask in public places where social distancing is impossible, such as public transportation or crowded sidewalks.

-Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday that reopening the state's economy will be similar to how it was shut down in phases, only in reverse. "This transition will not be a light switch, on and off, it will be a dial," said Inslee, as reported by the Seattle Times. "And we will dial it up and down, as the data suggest and as our community responds." Washington's stay-at-home order will remain in effect through at least May 4, the report added.

-The College Board, which administers the competitive SAT college entrance exam, said it may switch to online testing in the fall. The organization canceled its June 6 exams, the latest in the board's series of test dates to be changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

-Schools in Louisiana will remain closed for the remainder of the school year.

-Kansas has extended its stay at home order until May 3.

-Stimulus checks have begun showing up in bank accounts as the debate continues over when and how to reopen the nation's economy. President Donald Trump backtracked on his insistence that the decision to ease social distancing measures was up to the president, after days of telling states that they didn't have that power.

-Defense Secretary Mike Esper told reporters Tuesday that a ban on all nonessential travel for U.S. military personnel would be extended. The "stop-movement" order has left military families in limbo ahead of the summer season, which is when most servicemembers transfer from one base to another. It also means those living overseas can't return to the U.S.

-California Gov. Gavin Newsom says start times could be staggered, classes cut in half and social distancing enforced when school resumes in the state. A date hasn't been set for California to begin lifting stay at home restrictions, but Newsom said on Tuesday several requirements must be met before that can happen.

-During a Tuesday evening press briefing, Trump told reporters that the U.S. will pause funding to the World Health Organization while his administration reviews how the agency responded to the coronavirus pandemic. Trump said the WHO mismanaged its response, blaming the agency for the rapidly rising number of coronavirus cases worldwide. He argued that the U.N. health agency sided with "political correctness" instead of supporting travel restrictions that could have halted the spread of the disease earlier.

Worldwide

-Some stores in Germany will begin to reopen next week and school is set to start again next month with reduced classes under a plan laid out Wednesday by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Washington Post reported.

-Chinese officials knew about the coronavirus outbreak in the city of Wuhan six days before they notified the rest of the world, the Associated Press reported. Some 3,000 people were in infected in Wuhan during that time, just as travel began for the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays. "This is tremendous," Zuo-Feng Zhang, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, told the AP. "If they took action six days earlier, there would have been much fewer patients and medical facilities would have been sufficient. We might have avoided the collapse of Wuhan’s medical system."

-Preschoolers and students up to fifth grade have been allowed to return to school in Denmark.

-National elections in South Korea went on as planned Wednesday, but voters wore masks and had their temperatures checked by poll workers.

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.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.