Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

Some 1,500 deaths from COVID-19 were recorded across the United States on Wednesday, the highest in a single day since May.

It was the 17th straight day that the seven-day average reports of new deaths topped 1,000, according to numbers tracked by the Washington Post.

A grim milestone was also reached internationally, as worldwide deaths topped 750,000.

The news comes as communities across the country grapple with restarting school, sports competitions and other activities, and the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention warns that the U.S. is facing the "worst fall ... we've ever had."

In an interview with WebMD, CDC director Dr. John Redfield implored Americans to follow the agency's guidelines on wearing face masks, social distancing and avoiding large crowds.

“I’m not asking some of America to do it – we all have to do it,” Redfield said.

In all, at least 166,000 people in the U.S. have died of COVID-19 and more than 5.1 million have been infected, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, more than 20.6 million people have been stricken with the disease.

Health experts believe the number of infections is much higher than reported due to challenges with testing and other issues.

Latest Developments

United States:

-Redfield told WebMD he is “very cautiously optimistic” about potential vaccines. Six vaccine candidates are moving forward, he said, including three that started clinical trials two weeks ago. Results of the trials could come as early as the end of October. “No one can predict scientific success, but we think from a scientific threshold, developing a COVID vaccine is not as complex as … an HIV vaccine,” he said. “I’m very optimistic that we’re going to have one or more vaccines available.”

-Authorities in North Carolina shut down about 20 parties over the weekend connected with East Carolina University, including one that drew 400 attendees. Lt. Chris Sutton, who heads the campus police department, told McClatchy News that most of the parties happened between Aug. 6 and 9 and coincided with students' first weekend back on campus. The parties violated rules on large gatherings, police said.

-Schools in Seattle will start the year with remote classes only, the Seattle Times reported. The school board voted unanimously on the plan Wednesday, although details remain to be worked out. The board also directed the superintendent of schools to explore the idea of outdoor classes in the future.

-Officials in Hillsborough County, Florida, are at odds with the state's education commissioner over reopening schools. The county, which includes Tampa, is the eighth-largest school district in the nation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The school board voted Aug. 6 to start the year remotely on Aug. 24, only to be told that they risk losing $23 million in state funding for violating an order by Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran that states schools must offer an option for in-person classes, the Tampa Bay Times reported. As of Wednesday, the board had not yet decided if they would change the plan.

Worldwide:

-Testing is so backlogged in Germany that about 900 people who recently came up positive for COVID-19 have yet to be notified, the Associated Press reported. The positive cases were found in 44,000 tests conducted over the past two weeks among people entering Germany, mostly at highway rest stops. The state of Bavaria has been offering free voluntary tests to travelers since the end of July, and the program proved more popular than expected.

-Hospitalizations are ticking up again in Spain. Rafael Bengoa, the former health chief of Spain’s Basque Country region and international consultant on public health, told the AP that some regions handled the pandemic better than others. “The numbers are saying that where we had good local epidemiological tracking, like [in the rural northwest], things have gone well,” Bengoa said. “But in other parts of the country where obviously we did not have the sufficient local capacity to deal with outbreaks, we have community transmission again, and once you [have] community transmission, things get out of hand.” The pandemic is still largely under control in Spain, health officials said. The country remains one of the hardest hit in Europe with nearly 330,000 confirmed cases and more than 28,500 deaths.

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.

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