www.zerohedge.com 
Summary:
- US cases climbed just 1.1% on Tuesday
- Houston set to run out of hospital beds in 11 days
- Houston infections should peak in mid-July, according to projections
- EU leaves US off list of countries allowed to travel to the bloc
- Cali reports another record jump in new cases
- French contact tracing app flops
- Fla Gov says there’s been an escalation in transission
- Dr. Fauci says he’s “disturbed” by surge in COVID cases
- Larry Kudlow says no chance of another lockdown
- Disney to reopen Disneyland Tokyo
- Arizona reports another record jump
- Cases reported in US last week climbed 25% compared with prior week
- Dr. Fauci testimony released
- Global case total tops 9 million
- Dr. Fauci prepares to testify
- Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic tests positive
- Arizona sees positives top 20%
- Georgia sees 7-day average climb toward records
- Arizona sees 20% positivity rate among all tests
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Update (1600ET): The CDC’s numbers released Tuesday afternoon point a more dire picture of the US outbreak, with Tuesday’s spike in new cases larger than the 7-day average by a margin of ~30 basis points.
U.S. VIRUS CASES RISE 1.6%, ABOVE PAST WEEK'S 1.3% AVERAGE… nobody cares
— FxMacro (@fxmacro) June 23, 2020
Meanwhile, the outbreak in Miami-Dade is getting really out of control.
So many people are testing positive for COVID in Miami-Dade that today’s share of positive test results (26%) is almost off the chart in county’s daily dashboard report. pic.twitter.com/mb6adDSzdF
— Doug Hanks (@doug_hanks) June 23, 2020
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Update (1500ET): JHU just reported that the US saw a 1.1% increase in COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, per BBG. Coronavirus cases increased by 24,774 from the same time Sunday, bringing the nationwide total to 2.29 million. The 1.1% increase was below both yesterday’s number and the average increase of 1.2% over the past seven days. Deaths, meanwhile, climbed 0.2% to 120,121.
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Update (1340ET): As Spain, Greece and a handful of other European countries begin opening their borders to foreigners in an attempt to jump-start moribund tourism industries, the NYT reports that Brussels bureaucrats will likely bar travelers from the US from entering the EU even after the bloc reopens its external border on July 1.
So far, two drafts of “the list” have been prepared: One list contains 47 countries and includes only those nations with an infection rate lower than the EU average. The longer list has 54 countries and also includes those nations with slightly worse case rates than the EU. That “case rate” figure represents the average number of new infections per 100,000 people over the last 2 weeks. In the EU, the figure is currently 16. In the US, it’s 107. Brazil’s is 190.
Once diplomats finalize the list, it will be presented as a recommendation early next week before July 1. Although Brussels can’t force members to adopt the list, EU officials have warned that any member who doesn’t stick to the list could cause borders to be reintroduced throughout the bloc, since travelers who can enter the Schengen area in one place can then travel elsewhere.
Existing restrictions on nonessential travel to all 27 member states plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein were introduced on March 16 and extended twice, with July set to see them expire.
Meanwhile, County officials have just warned that hospital ICU beds will likely reach capacity in 11 days, which could force the region to reimpose a local lockdown. As beds become scarce, the Texas Children’s Hospital has confirmed it is admitting adult patients to free up hospital beds across Houston as coronavirus cases surge.
A report in the Houston Chronicle claims the city will hit its peak infections by mid-July.
A surge in COVID-19 cases since Memorial Day could set the Houston area on track for a peak of 2,000 daily hospitalizations by mid-July, according to a model from a Baylor College of Medicine epidemiologist.
The region’s intensive care units would be overwhelmed by that number of patients, a nearly 50 percent increase from current levels, though thousands of general hospital beds remain available, said Dr. Chris Amos.
City of Houston Health Authority Dr. David Persse said several area hospitals already are at or over capacity and warned that shifting patients to facilities in other cities, a common practice in natural disasters, may no longer be possible.
“The difference this time is the hurricane, if you will, is infecting the entire state,” Persse said.
With government restrictions on business and travel removed, the epidemiologist and hospital executives from the Texas Medical Center said the only hope for the Houston area to avoid that outcome is for residents to practice social distancing, wear masks and avoid unnecessary contact with others.
Too many residents, they said, appear to have mistaken the end of Harris County’s stay-at-home order as a cue to resume normal life, while the virus poses a greater threat today than it did May 1.
“The alarming situation could be that we have rampant COVID spreading throughout our society,” Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom said. “If we don’t take control, it takes control for us.”
Elected officials and their public health experts are grappling with the idea that Harris County may have squandered much of this spring’s success in slowing the growth of the virus during the six-week stay-home period.
The shutdown dealt severe damage to the economy, including half a million lost jobs. Since Gov. Greg Abbott began reopening the state in May, however, the Houston area has set new records for cases and hospitalizations.
Texas hospitals admitted 302 new COVID-19 patients in the past 24 hours, the biggest one-day influx since June 4, according to health department data released on Tuesday. The total number of virus-linked hospitalizations lingered at 3,711. The state’s positivity rate ticked higher to 9.51%, the highest since April 20 and more than double its average rate from late May.
New cases climbed by 2.9% to 114,881, lagging the seven-day average growth of 3.5%.
Finally, as daily new cases in France continue to decline, a much-heralded new phone app for tracking coronavirus cases has only alerted 14 people that they were at risk of infection since its launch three weeks ago, the digital affairs minister said Tuesday, while roughly 500,000 have uninstalled the app.
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Update (1240ET): As Gov Ron DeSantis insists that there’s been an “escalation” in COVID-19 transmission, California has reported another record jump in new cases as the reopening continues. Yesterday, Gov Newsom noted that more than 35% of cases reported in the state have been reported in the past 2 weeks.
The state reported more than 6,000 cases over the past 24 hours, according to data released Tuesday. That’s roughly 1,500 higher than the previous record.
Here’s more from SFGate:
California shattered its single-day record for most new coronavirus cases Monday as the number of people hospitalized statewide due to the virus also reached record levels.
As of Monday evening, county health departments had reported more than 6,000 new cases, with several counties still yet to report, according to data compiled by The Chronicle. California hadn’t exceeded 4,515 new cases in a single day previously, according to the state’s health department.
Monday’s number included some counties reporting multiple-day totals after not updating their case counts over the weekend, and state officials note that daily case counts might not represent true day-over-day change due to lags in reporting of results.
However, officials in Los Angeles County, which reported a record 2,545 new cases Monday, noted that total reflected not just testing but a higher rate of tests coming back positive.
“Today marks the third day in a week that we have reported 2,000 or more cases of COVID-19,” county health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. “And while some of the increases are due to test reporting issues, it is clear that much of the increase represents more community transmission.”
Officials said Los Angeles County’s average 8.4% positive rate over the last seven days is higher than its overall 8% rate and up from a seven-day average of 5.8% just 10 days ago.
“Throughout our recovery journey, we have said that it is likely that the number of cases will increase as more people are out of their homes and around other people,” the county health department wrote in a series of Twitter posts. “It is very important to watch how this increase in cases translates into hospitalizations over the next few weeks.”
In California, where many counties have eased shelter-in-place orders and eased economic and social restrictions over the past few weeks, the state health department reported its four highest one-day case totals last week. The state has recorded more than one-quarter of its total confirmed cases – more than 46,000 – in the last two weeks.
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Update (1155ET): After mostly reiterating comments from his last round of Congressional testimony – he voiced optimism about the possibility of a vaccine by year end, though he’s “concerned” the increase in community spread – Dr. Fauci took his criticism a step further during Tuesday’s testimony, and said he was concerned about the “disturbing surge” in coronavirus infections in Texas, Florida and Arizona seen in recent weeks. The situation in the US is very much a “mixed bag,” he said, and and the next two weeks will be “critical” in the fight against COVID-19.
In other news, the latest numbers out of Italy just hit.
JUST IN: Italy reports 122 new cases of coronavirus and 18 new deaths.
Total of 238,833 cases and 34,675 deaths.
— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) June 23, 2020
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Update (1120ET): As Dr. Fauci’s testimony begins before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, President Trump is heading to Arizona where he will visit Phoenix and Yuma.
