BitGou: Monday Morning Briefing: Florida records 9,300 new coronavirus cases, passes New York

What you need to know about the coronavirus today

Florida passes New York
Florida on Sunday became the second state after California to overtake New York, the worst-hit state at the start of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, according to a Reuters tally. Total COVID-19 cases in the Sunshine State rose by 9,300 to 423,855 on Sunday, one place behind California, which now leads the country with 448,497 cases. New York is in third place with 415,827 cases. Still, New York has recorded the most deaths of any U.S. state at more than 32,000 with Florida in eighth place with nearly 6,000 deaths. The surge in Florida has continued as the state’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has repeatedly said he will not make mask-wearing mandatory and that schools must reopen in August.

Track the spread of the virus with this state-by-state and county map.

Republicans to unveil aid plan
Senate Republicans are expected to unveil a $1 trillion coronavirus aid package hammered out with the White House, a starting point for negotiations with Democrats as unemployment benefits that have kept millions of Americans afloat are set to expire. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told reporters on Sunday that the plan just needed a few clarifications before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could unveil it on Monday afternoon. Meadows and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said their agreement in principle with Senate Republicans would include an extension of supplemental unemployment benefits that aims to replace 70% of laid-off workers’ lost wages. What's at stake in the battle over U.S. unemployment benefits in Congress?

Germany and France next for a UK quarantine?
Britain is watching coronavirus cases in Germany and France closely and continuously reviewing the situation in popular holiday destinations, a junior health minister said when asked about widening a quarantine for Spain. Britain slapped a 14-day quarantine on travelers from Spain on Sunday after a surge of cases in Catalonia and Murcia, heralding a summer of COVID-19 chaos for Europe’s holiday season. The decision upset the plans of hundreds of thousands of British tourists sunning themselves on the shores of the Mediterranean and raised the spectre of limits on more countries. A total of 9,835 flights are scheduled to leave the UK for Spain between July 26 and Aug. 31.

Second lockdown may be extended in Australian state Victoria
Australia’s Victoria state reported the country’s highest daily increase in coronavirus infections at 532 new cases, prompting the authorities to warn a six-week lockdown may last longer if people continue to go to work while feeling unwell. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the high number of new cases in Victoria showed how transmission of the illness among younger people, who were considered lower risk, could spread to aged care facilities through family members. Five of the latest deaths were people in aged care facilities, the authorities said.

Mass evacuation in Vietnam
Vietnam is evacuating 80,000 people, mostly local tourists, from the central city of Danang after three residents tested positive for the coronavirus at the weekend, the government said. The evacuation will take at least four days with domestic airlines operating approximately 100 flights daily from Danang to 11 Vietnamese cities, the government said in a statement. The Southeast Asian country was back on high alert after the government on Saturday confirmed its first community infections since April, and another three cases on Sunday, all in the tourism hotspot of Danang.

From Breakingviews - Corona Capital: Travel disruptions, Barbados, HDFC. Travel companies risk crash-landing, Barbados seeks to lure remote workers, and India’s veteran bank boss cashes out. Catch up with the latest financial insights.

Reuters reporters and editors around the world are investigating the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

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U.S.

The United States might have more COVID-19 testing capacity than any other country. So why have we seen laboratories overwhelmed and many patients again waiting a week or more for results? At the heart of the crisis is a reliance by public and private labs on automated testing equipment that locks them in to using proprietary chemical kits and other tools made by a handful of manufacturers.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed four executive orders designed to reduce drug costs for consumers, in a bid to highlight his commitment to cutting prescription prices ahead of the November presidential election. The orders, which range from relaxing drug importation rules to cutting Medicare payments to drugmakers, are far reaching but experts say they are unlikely to take effect in the near term and in some cases lack specifics.

Many Chicagoans vehemently oppose Trump’s pledge to send federal officers to the city, after seeing camouflaged agents deployed in Portland tear-gas anti-racism protesters. But in South and West Side neighborhoods hit hardest by a recent spike in gang violence, some Chicago residents welcomed the move and said federal agents may be able to help solve crimes. Others were more cautious, saying they feared an increased federal presence would erode civil liberties in a city that has had long-standing problems with police brutality in poor, predominantly Black neighborhoods.

Republican Senator Martha McSally shows every sign of being an imperiled incumbent, trailing Democratic challenger Mark Kelly in money and polling as Trump’s electoral woes jeopardize Republican control of the Senate. But some strategists and pollsters say the former Air Force combat pilot’s best bet for retaining the Arizona seat once held by party giants John McCain and Barry Goldwater could be to cling to Trump and hope he can win the state again on Nov. 3, carrying her on his coattails.

COVID Science

Moderna said it has started a U.S. government-backed late-stage trial to assess its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in about 30,000 adults who do not have the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. The trial, named COVE, is the first to be implemented under the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed that aims to accelerate the development, manufacturing and distribution of therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19.

Evidence emerging around the world suggests that people who are overweight or obese are at increased risk of getting more severely ill with COVID-19. Scientists are still learning about which specific mechanisms might explain this link, but they say there are some likely factors.

Follow the money

Fed meeting expected to leave U.S. bond-stock relationship out of whack

The Federal Reserve’s whatever-it-takes approach to stave off economic calamity has kept interest rates near zero and helped drive U.S. stocks back to pre-pandemic record levels, while weakening the usual dynamic between safe-haven U.S. Treasuries and riskier equities.

5 min read