Coronavirus Watch: Can you get COVID-19 twice?
Thinking about going out to a bar? Think again.
Recent reopenings and hasty reclosings of bars in Arizona, Florida and Texas and other states have raised questions about whether bars are hot spots for COVID-19 transmission.
We put together a visual explainer on why spending time in a bar can be dangerous.
It's Thursday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's the most significant news of the day, as of 12:45 p.m. ET:
- The European Union extended its travel ban on Americans Thursday, as coronavirus infections continued to spike across the United States.
- The U.S., Britain and Canada accused Russia of trying to steal vaccine research as companies around the world race to develop a viable vaccine.
- Face masks: Alabama and Louisiana recently mandated face masks. But in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp banned cities and counties from requiring masks despite the surge in his state.
- "Our state's life is now in danger": Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine addressed residents on statewide TV Wednesday, urging them to increase their vigilance to ward off the threat of COVID-19 infections sweeping the state.
- San Francisco and Sacramento have become the latest cities in California to announce that public school students will not return to classrooms when the new term begins because of surges in coronavirus cases and delays in getting test results back.
- Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 3.4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and more than 137,000 deaths have been confirmed, according to John Hopkins University data. Worldwide, there are more than 13.5 million confirmed cases, and more than 584,000 people have died. See the numbers in your area here, and check out where cases are rising here.
- About 1.3 million more Americans filed applications for unemployment insurance for the first time, the Labor Department said Thursday, pushing the total during the coronavirus-induced economic crisis to a mind-boggling 51.3 million.
Is your child starting online classes? Here are 9 questions to ask to vet your back-to-school choices.
Do you have questions about the coronavirus? You can submit them through this form, and we'll answer them. Susann from Kaneohe, Hawaii, asks: Is it possible for me to have had COVID-19 twice?
Hopes are dimming that "herd immunity" can help stamp out the tenacious global pandemic amid growing concerns that people can be reinfected with COVID-19.
"The possibility of reinfection is certainly real," Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told Paste BN. "And one that I am seeing repeatedly on the front lines."
How is that possible? Recovery from the disease provides antibodies to fight off the infection. The shelf life of those antibodies, however, may be insufficient to protect a patient for very long or promote long-term immunity across populations. Read more here.
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– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck