Why More and More Younger People Are Testing Positive for COVID-19 in the U.S.
We’re at the beginning of what is shaping up to be a very strange summer. Most Americans typically spend the warmest months at a string of social events—cramming into backyards for barbecues, travelling across the country for weddings, or reuniting with their extended families at the beach. This year, COVID-19 could be an uninvited guest.
COVID-19 doesn’t pose an equal threat to everyone, claiming lives mostly among the elderly and people with preexisting conditions. So, many young people are feeling tempted as the days get hotter to answer the siren-call of reopening bars, restaurants and gyms. However, the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed that the average age of people diagnosed with COVID-19 is shifting younger—a sign that younger people might not be less likely to get infected (though they do still seem to be less likely to suffer severe symptoms, and less likely to die from the infection). In part, this is likely a sign that expanded testing is working, catching cases in people who might not have been tested back in March and April.
“The more testing we do, the closer we get to the truth,” Natalie Dean, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida, tells TIME’s Jamie Ducharme.
Further, compared to national numbers, the average age of people infected with the disease is even younger in places like Florida and Arizona, where cases of COVID-19 have surged over the last few months.
Since they’re more susceptible to the virus, older people might be more cautious about going back to their normal lives as society reopens, Dean says. This might protect them from exposure, and possibly reduce the risk of a massive spike in hospitalizations.
But at the same time, if younger people stop taking the virus seriously, refusing to wear face masks and getting into close contact with other people, everyone will be at greater risk. If people give up on social distancing this summer, many of the sacrifices that Americans made to protect their communities in the spring might go to waste.
More than 9.43 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time yesterday, and more than 482,000 people had died.
Here is every country with over 190,000 confirmed cases:
The pandemic is getting worse globally, as the world is expected to hit 10 million infections and 500,000 deaths next week, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier today on a video conference with members of the European Parliament’s health committee. However, he said, it does seem to be subsiding in Europe.
Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program, which has been providing medical supplies and aid workers to fight the pandemic, will stop sending out planes in a month if it doesn’t get more money soon, executive director David Beasley told the Associated Press. He said that the agency has $150 million right now, but needs $965 million to pay for supply flights for the rest of the year.
Global health isn’t the only threat during the pandemic; it has also caused the spread of authoritarianism, according to an open letter signed by hundreds of former world leaders and nongovernmental organizations. “The COVID-19 pandemic threatens more than the lives and the livelihoods of people throughout the world. It is also a political crisis that threatens the future of liberal democracy,” the letter said.
The Eiffel Tower reopened in Paris today after being closed for 104 days—its longest closure since World War II.
The Situation in the U.S.
Nearly 2.4 million people in the U.S. had been infected with COVID-19 as of 11 PM eastern time yesterday, and almost 122,000 had died.
On June 24, there were 34,339 new cases and 751 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
There might be 10 times as many COVID-19 infections than have been reported in the U.S., meaning that more than 20 million Americans may have been infected with the disease, said CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield at a press conference today.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott declared that the state will “pause” its reopening as it faces a surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Many Texas businesses have already reopened, including gyms, movie theaters and bars. “The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses,” said Abbott in a press release.
More than 1 million people who received a COVID-19 stimulus check from the federal government won’t be able to spend them—because they’re already dead. A government watchdog said in a report to Congress that nearly $1.4 billion in stimulus payments went to the deceased.
Macy’s said today that it's laying off 3,900 corporate staffers, about 3% of its entire workforce. The department store chain has been reopening locations shuttered due to the pandemic, but the pandemic has hurt the stores’ sales and profits. The company had previously announced its plans to shrink; in February, it announced plans to cut 2,000 corporate jobs and close 125 stores.
The pandemic took down another company: CEC Entertainment, the parent company of two pizza chains, Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper. CEC said on Wednesday it will file for bankruptcy after the virus forced its locations to close and kept families away.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of June 24, 11 PM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Scheme Swapped Out “Medical Use Prohibited” Label on Face Masks
As demand for personal protective equipment has exploded, a shadow industry has emerged to sell counterfeit or ineffective face masks. A Silicon Valley investor hired workers in Texas to repackage KN95 masks in bags that omitted a “medical use prohibited” label, many of which were then sold to Texas’ emergency agency, which delivers gear to hospitals. Read more here.
Asian Americans Speak About Racism During the Pandemic
As President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the virus in xenophobic terms, calling it the “Chinese virus” or “kung flu,” Asian Americans have become the target of racist attacks. In a series of interviews, 10 Asian Americans spoke with TIME’s Anna Purna Kambhampaty about their own experiences—and their desire to fight all racism. Read more here.
Tesla Workers Who Stayed Home Received Termination Notices
One month after Elon Musk told Tesla employees that they could stay home if they worried about COVID-19, two workers told the Washington Post that the company sent them termination notices for “failure to return to work.” The employees and other workers had previously raised concerns about the failure to follow social distancing guidelines at Tesla’s facilities and a lack of transparency about infections. Read more here.
California’s Disneyland Puts Reopening on an Indefinite Hold
Disneyland California Adventure Park isn’t going to reopen in Anaheim on July 17 any more, as the company wasn’t able to get approvals from the state and its unions on time. However, the company is still forging ahead with its plan to reopen its Florida theme parks on July 11, despite concerns that the virus is spiking in the state. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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