Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

COVID-19 has leapfrogged to become one of the top killers in the United States, behind heart disease and cancer, a national health expert says.

"COVID is now the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S. — ahead of accidents, injuries, lung disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's and many, many other causes," former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told CNN on Monday.

The U.S. averaged more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths a day over the past three weeks.

Frieden added that the COVID-19 death rate in the U.S. is higher than in many other countries.

"Last week, Americans were eight times more likely to get killed by COVID than were Europeans," he said.

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Nationwide, more than 5.4 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 170,586 have died from the disease, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University. In all, nearly 22 million people around the globe have been confirmed to have the disease and more than 775,000 have died.

Latest Developments

United States:

-Two other major universities moved lessen the number of students on campus, at least temporarily. Michigan State told students who planned to live in residence halls to instead stay home and take classes remotely, while Notre Dame replaced all in-person classes with remote learning for the next two weeks.

-Dr. Deborah Birx, head of the White House coronavirus task force, said lockdowns in the U.S. should have been more restrictive in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. "I wish that when we went into lockdown (in March), we looked like Italy," Birx said Monday. "When Italy locked down, I mean, people weren't allowed out of their houses (without a pass). Americans don't react well to that kind of prohibition."

-A 24-hour outdoor COVID-19 testing site at Mesa Community College in Maricopa County, Arizona, was destroyed by high winds Monday night, according to video posted to Facebook by Embry Women's Health, which runs the site.

-The University of North Carolina announced Monday it would shut down classes at its main campus in Chapel Hill effective Wednesday, due to clusters of coronavirus cases in dorms and at least one fraternity house. The move came about one week after students returned to campus.

-Ithaca College in New York announced Tuesday that classes will continue to be held remotely through the fall semester. In a letter to the campus community, Ithaca president Shirley Collado cited current health concerns as well as the possibility of the campus having to shut down again quickly if it did open.

-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order that requires travelers from certain states to fill out a health form before being granted access to their hotel rooms or short term rentals. New York state currently requires travelers coming from more than 3 states, plus Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, to quarantine for 14 days. Similar rules apply in neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut.

Worldwide:

-After five months of some of the strictest lockdown rules in the world, people in South Africa can once again buy liquor and cigarettes. The sales of both were banned in late March. Liquor sales were allowed again in June, but shutdown when virus cases began to surge. Residents, donning masks and practicing social distancing, lined up at stores across the country Tuesday to purchase booze and tobacco products, The Associated Press reported. South Africa’s number of new daily cases dropped from an average of 12,000 per day in July to less than 5,000 per day last week. In all, the country has reported 589,000 cases and nearly 12,000 deaths.

-Nearly every case in a recent surge in Australia are linked to travelers who returned from overseas, according to the AP. Officials say 99% of the current infections in Victoria state can be traced back to two hotels where returning travelers spread COVID-19 to staff and their close contacts. The surge in cases prompted renewed lockdowns in the city of Melbourne.

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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