Coronavirus Watch: Kids can carry, spread COVID-19
Can children carry the coronavirus and spread it?
"I think the answer is conclusively, without a doubt – yes," said Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, chief of critical care at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Surveillance screening, which is testing all children admitted to the hospital, has revealed a higher percentage of them carrying the virus and not showing any symptoms, she said.
The trend is consistent with data from Florida. About one-third of children tested in the state for coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, returned positive results, which is higher than the overall statewide positivity rate of 11%, according to state data. Read more here.
It's Friday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's the most significant news of the day, as of 1:15 p.m. ET:
- The U.S. again set a daily record Thursday, reporting more than 77,000 new cases, and Florida and Texas both set records for new daily deaths. The U.S. has more than 3.6 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and more than 138,000 deaths have been confirmed, according to John Hopkins University data. See the numbers in your area here, and check out where cases are rising here.
- Worldwide, there are more than 13.8 million confirmed cases, and more than 592,000 people have died. On Friday, Brazil surpassed 2 million cases, and India surpassed 1 million.
- The U.S. border closures with Canada and Mexico have been extended into late August as COVID-19 cases surge in America.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is banning U.S. cruises until October.
- Chicago Public Schools will plan to start the school year with a hybrid in-person and at-home learning model, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Friday.
- Arkansas and Colorado instituted face mask mandates Thursday, joining a majority of states that require face coverings in public. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, meanwhile, filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Atlanta City Council and the mayor to block the city from enforcing its face mask mandate.
What went wrong in Florida's COVID-19 response? Two months after Gov. Ron DeSantis boasted about proving the experts wrong by flattening the curve and getting COVID-19 under control, Florida has become the state that other states don’t want to become.
Do you have questions about the coronavirus? You can submit them through this form, and we'll answer them. Arline from Greenbackville, Virginia, asks: Since recent indications are that COVID-19 antibodies may not last long, will a vaccine really be effective?
All the participants of a recent vaccine trial showed evidence of an immune reaction, which is the goal of immunization, but COVID-19 is so new that it's not clear how much of an immune reaction will be needed to protect against infection.
"It looks like their vaccine was able to induce a virus neutralizing antibody, which is positive," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "But it's hard to know if the level of virus neutralizing antibody will be sufficient to induce protective immunity, or if it compares favorably with other (vaccine) candidates."
Learning whether the vaccine is protective will require a much larger study. Read more here.
Remember, you can see which states are pressing pause on reopening here, and which states require people to wear face masks in public here.
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– Grace Hauck, Paste BN breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck