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How TikTok changed fashion

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Nine Texas mayors wrote a letter to the states’ residents this week, urging them to wear masks. Coronavirus cases in Texas continue to surge and the number of hospitalizations has been climbing since late May.

“The virus is here,” says the letter, which San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg (I) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ron_Nirenberg/status/1274086084067065856" target=_blank>shared Friday</a>. “Infections are rising. Hospital capacity is filling up. This isn’t meant to scare you, but it is meant to be very honest. The virus doesn’t leave just because our collective urgency has gone away.”

“We’re not playing games or politics,” Nirenberg added.

As cases and hospitalizations rise in states across the South and West, new mask requirements are prompting faceoffs between officials who seek to require face coverings and those, particularly conservatives, who oppose such measures. Several studies this month <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/13/spate-new-research-supports-wearing-masks-control-coronavirus-spread/" target="_blank">support wearing masks</a> to curb coronavirus transmission, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover.html" target="_blank">recommend their use</a> as a protective measure.

The World Health Organization warned Friday that “the world is in a new and dangerous phase” as the global pandemic accelerates. The world recorded about 150,000 new cases on Thursday, the largest rise yet in a single day, according to the WHO. More than 8.5 million coronavirus cases and at least 454,000 deaths have been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/mapping-spread-new-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9" target=_blank>reported worldwide</a>.

Case numbers hit record highs Friday in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and South Carolina as infections continue to surge in the South and West. Tulsa County in Oklahoma — where President Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-arena-asks-trump-campaign-for-detailed-health-plan-as-oklahoma-supreme-court-hears-arguments-about-rally/2020/06/18/4e490308-b197-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_10">plans to hold a campaign rally Saturday</a> — also hit a record high Friday.

The CDC said Thursday that the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus could rise to as high as 145,000 by July 11, meaning as many as 26,000 Americans could die in the next few weeks.

Brazil exceeded 1 million coronavirus cases Friday as the country continues to battle the world’s second-highest number of confirmed infections, after the United States. Deaths officially related to covid-19 are quickly approaching 50,000 in Brazil.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-imposes-curfew-ahead-of-trump-rally-to-prevent-violent-protesting/2020/06/19/56d31058-b21f-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_13" target=_blank>rejected a legal bid to stop Trump’s Tulsa rally</a> over health concerns. The rally, which is expected to draw 19,000 people to the BOK Center in Tulsa, could worsen the pandemic in the city.

Capt. Brett Crozier’s removal from command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after he questioned the Navy’s handling of the outbreak on his ship <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/navy-upholds-firing-of-aircraft-carrier-captain-who-pleaded-for-coronavirus-help/2020/06/19/70b16642-b25a-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_14" target=_blank>has been upheld by Navy leaders</a>.

<a href="https://subscribe.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/#/bundle/health?method=SURL&amp;location=ART">Sign up for our coronavirus newsletter</a> | Mapping the spread of the coronavirus: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/coronavirus-us-cases-deaths/">Across the U.S.</a> | <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/mapping-spread-new-coronavirus/">Worldwide</a> | <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/states-reopening-coronavirus-map/">Which states are reopening</a> | Has someone close to you died of covid-19? <a href="https://hosted-washpost.submissionplatform.com/sub/hosted/5e7bd9faf362630035018215">Share your story with The Washington Post.</a>

Georgia Football

Over the past few weeks, thousands of college football players have returned to campuses across the country for socially distanced workouts, medical treatment and, essentially, to serve as test subjects as college sports officials try to figure out how to have a football season in the middle of a pandemic.

In interviews and news releases, athletic directors have pledged the safety and well-being of their athletes and employees is paramount, and their covid-19 safety policies will take all possible precautions. But already there are signs some schools are risking outbreaks on their football teams, jeopardizing the upcoming season two months before it’s scheduled to begin, a Washington Post review has found.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/19/testing-troubles-varying-policies-jeopardize-college-football-season-experts-say/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20" target="_blank">here</a>.

Will Hobson

TORONTO — Each summer for the past five years, Aaron has traveled from his home in Mexico to Canada as one of the tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers who seed, tend and harvest the crops that keep the country fed. This year’s journey was unique.

Flights were limited. There were temperature screenings and questionnaires before he took off and after he landed. On arriving in British Columbia this month, he was checked into a hotel for a 14-day quarantine.

“I trust that everything will be fine,” said Aaron, a 31-year-old husband and father from Guanajuato state who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But in this year of the novel coronavirus, the precautions have not kept all of Canada’s migrant farmworkers safe. At least 600 have contracted the coronavirus, and at least two, both Mexicans, have died.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/migrant-farmworkers-die-in-canada-and-mexico-wants-answers/2020/06/18/2e419766-b00a-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_26" target=_blank>here</a>.

Amanda Coletta

Juneteenth Dallas

Nine Texas mayors wrote a letter to the states’ residents this week, urging them to wear masks as coronavirus cases there continue to surge and the number of hospital patients swells.

“The virus is here,” says <a href="https://twitter.com/Ron_Nirenberg/status/1274086084067065856" target=_blank>the letter</a>, which San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg (I) shared Friday on Twitter. “Infections are rising. Hospital capacity is filling up. This isn’t meant to scare you, but it is meant to be very honest. The virus doesn’t leave just because our collective urgency has gone away.”

Daily case totals have been increasing in Texas since late May, and state health officials reported 3,454 new infections on Friday. They also announced 35 new deaths and 3,148 current hospitalizations, up from 2,947 on Thursday.

The mayors urged residents to continue social distancing, wash their hands frequently, wear face coverings in public, stay home when possible and avoid crowds.

“If we want the economy to open fully and stay open, if we want to send our kids back to school from pre-k to college, if we want to watch and play sports with people in the stands, if we want to attend cultural arts events like concerts and theatre, if we want banquets and parades in the fall, if we want our lives back as Texans, we need to take this seriously,” the mayors wrote. “Very seriously.”

In addition to the San Antonio mayor, the letter was signed by the mayors of Laredo, Houston, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Austin, Sugar Land, Lubbock and El Paso.

On Tuesday, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/16/texas-mayors-greg-abbott-face-masks/" target=_blank>Texas news outlets reported</a> that the mayors of the state’s nine biggest cities asked Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to grant local officials the authority to “set rules and regulations” mandating masks in their cities. Abbott clarified <a href="https://www.kwtx.com/">to KWTX</a> on Wednesday that despite his executive order barring punishments for not wearing a mask, local officials can tell businesses to require face coverings.

<a href="https://wapo.st/virusletter"><i>Stay safe and informed as the United States reopens with our free Coronavirus Updates newsletter.</i></a>

Samantha Pell

Kids Can Go to the YMCA With Some Restrictions

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — As the school year comes to an end amid an easing of stay-at-home orders, millions of U.S. parents face the nerve-racking decision whether to send their children to day care and summer camp. And they must do so without any clear data or large studies to guide them about the risks.

The Y, to its own surprise, has had few positive cases and no known outbreaks among its 1,000 locations and 40,000 children in care over the past three months.

Still, some states report worrisome numbers: 14 clusters in Maryland have been linked to child-care centers. But health officials in a half-dozen other states said they have seen no clusters in the centers. That forces parents to make choices on their own.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/06/19/summer-camp-during-coronavirus-will-look-little-different/?itid=lk_inline_manual_42" target="_blank">here</a>.

Ariana Eunjung Cha

Virus Outbreak Aircraft Carrier

Navy leaders have upheld the firing of an aircraft carrier captain whose handling of a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_1&itid=lk_inline_manual_45">coronavirus</a> outbreak raised concerns about the military’s vulnerability to the highly contagious disease and generated a personnel crisis for the Navy.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/another-deployed-navy-warship-the-uss-kidd-copes-with-a-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/04/24/e482f76c-8644-11ea-ae26-989cfce1c7c7_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_3&itid=lk_inline_manual_46">A two-month naval investigation</a> concluded that the dismissal of Capt. Brett Crozier, who was fired in early April after a letter in which he warned of the risk the virus posed to his crew abroad the USS Theodore Roosevelt was made public, should not be reversed, Adm. Michael Gilday, the chief of Naval Operations, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.

Gilday said the investigation had found Crozier made poor decisions as the number of crew members infected with the virus accelerated, saying that Crozier would not be eligible for future command but would face no further disciplinary action. Reuters first reported the result of the investigation.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/navy-upholds-firing-of-aircraft-carrier-captain-who-pleaded-for-coronavirus-help/2020/06/19/70b16642-b25a-11ea-a567-6172530208bd_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_48" target="_blank">here</a>.

Dan Lamothe

Missy Ryan

Paul Sonne

TULSA — The Oklahoma Supreme Court Friday rejected an appeal of a lawsuit <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-imposes-curfew-ahead-of-trump-rally-to-prevent-violent-protesting/2020/06/19/56d31058-b21f-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_50" target=_blank>attempting to block President Trump from holding an indoor campaign rally</a> Saturday in Tulsa that many feared could worsen the spread of coronavirus, paving the way for the event to go off as planned.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of local residents, business owners and a community center in the historically black neighborhood of Greenwood earlier this week had demanded that the arena adhere to social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or that the event be canceled. The Trump campaign has said it will take temperatures of supporters entering the 19,000-seat BOK Center and hand out masks, but face coverings are not required.

The plaintiffs had sought a temporary injunction against the ASM Global, the parent company of the entity that manages the BOK Center, “to protect against a substantial, imminent, and deadly risk to the community,” according to a copy of the complaint. Paul DeMuro, an attorney for the plaintiffs, had argued that it was “madness” to let the event proceed as new <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4&itid=lk_inline_manual_52">coronavirus</a> cases in Tulsa are spiking.

The court said that the state's June 1 reopening plan allowed business owners to use discretion over social distancing measures, and they were not mandatory as the plaintiffs had asserted.

The ruling came as thousands of Trump fans and protesters poured into this city in advance of President Trump’s first campaign rally in months, and authorities had imposed a curfew Thursday night as fears of potential violence mingled with anxiety about a spike in new cases of coronavirus.

Robert Klemko

Colby Itkowitz

Annie Gowen

Virus Outbreak Arizona Masks

A slew of the biggest cities and counties in Arizona and Texas have begun to mandate face masks after their Republican governors — facing mounting pressure — gave their blessing this week.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on Wednesday reversed course to allow mask requirements, while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) clarified the same day <a href="https://www.kwtx.com/">to KWTX</a> that local officials could tell businesses to mandate masks without running afoul of his <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/EO-GA-26_expanded_opening_COVID-19.pdf" target=_blank>executive order</a> banning civil or criminal penalties for those who do not cover their faces in public.

With hospitalizations and new coronavirus infections rising in both states, cities and counties had been clamoring to take stronger measures.

By Friday, at least 20 cities in Arizona had moved to impose some kind of mask requirement, according to statements by mayors and other officials <a href="https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/list-arizona-cities-with-face-mask-requirements" target=_blank>tracked by Fox 10</a>. Some of the new rules apply to specific settings such as <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19FQ7TT7iVwZ2aubMuDaE3jLJHkOcXtQm/view" target=_blank>businesses and public buildings</a>, while others are more expansive. The city council in Phoenix, the state capital, <a href="https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/city-manager/1352" target=_blank>voted</a> 7-2 on Friday to mandate face coverings for anyone who leaves their home and comes within six feet of someone outside of their household, with some limited exceptions.

Several Texas counties, including the two most populous — Harris County, which includes Houston, and Dallas County — are requiring businesses to mandate face coverings for staff and patrons in most situations. So is the state capital, Austin.

A Dallas County judge <a href="https://www.dallascounty.org/government/comcrt/jenkins/covid-19.php" target=_blank>wrote</a> in an order Friday that people age 10 and older “shall wear” a face covering in public places where it is difficult to keep six feet away from others. Consistent with the governor’s rules, however, there are no legal penalties for not following the recommendation. 

Hannah Knowles

Juneteenth New Jersey

New Jersey officials are starting to identify uncounted coronavirus-related deaths in the state and will soon begin to report the backlog of those fatalities, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced Friday.

At his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmHbNDkDzRo&feature=emb_title" target=_blank>daily coronavirus briefing</a>, Murphy said the state will start releasing the new numbers next week. He did not mention whether officials would combine the previously uncounted deaths with the existing fatality total or keep them separate.

As of Friday, New Jersey had reported 12,835 deaths. The state has been among those hardest hit in the pandemic, but cases have been declining there since late April.

“We know that there are many others who have died throughout this pandemic who have not been counted, officially, among our covid-19-related fatalities,” Murphy said, referencing the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The governor said the deaths may not have initially been counted for “a number of reasons, including that a covid-19 test was never performed, even though the underlying symptoms and causes of death point to the fact that an individual did, in fact, have covid-19.”

While New Jersey is trying to identify coronavirus-related deaths, some states are trying to remove them from their fatality totals.

Washington state health officials have been counting the deaths of anyone who tested positive for the virus, but they said Wednesday that they will <a href="https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus" target=_blank>now only count fatalities</a> where “covid-19 caused or contributed to the death.” On June 17, the state started removing deaths from the health department’s daily count.

TULSARACE


The historic church that once sheltered black Tulsans escaping one of the deadliest massacres in U.S. history has shut its doors for the Juneteenth holiday weekend, said the Rev. Robert Turner. It will provide only “essential services” such as feeding the hungry and serving people’s spiritual needs.

Hosting President Trump, he said, is not essential.

The president arrives in Tulsa Saturday for his first campaign rally since much of the nation locked down in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The event has drawn outrage from black Tulsans, who say it will stoke tensions — in a city still trying to make amends for the 1921 attack on a historic black community — during a weekend that celebrates freedom for enslaved black people and amid nationwide protests over racism in policing.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/06/19/black-leaders-tulsa-are-outraged-by-trumps-planned-rally-during-pandemic/?itid=lk_inline_manual_78" target="_blank">here</a>.

DeNeen L. Brown

Outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Sao Paulo

Brazil exceeded 1 million coronavirus cases Friday as the country continues to battle the world’s second-highest number of confirmed infections, after the United States.

Deaths officially related to covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are also quickly approaching 50,000, <a href="https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN23Q35G" target=_blank>Reuters reported</a>. Brazil has averaged 1,000 deaths and 25,000 new cases per day in the past week.

Experts, however, caution that the real number of infections and fatalities due to the coronavirus is probably far higher.

“That number of 1 million is much less than the real number of people who have been infected, because there is under-reporting of a magnitude of five to ten times,” Alexandre Naime Barbosa, a medical professor at São Paulo State University, told Reuters. “The true number is probably at least 3 million and could even be as high as 10 million people.”

Elsewhere in the world, Guatemala’s president replaced the country’s health minister on Friday amid pressure over his handling of the pandemic.

Former health minister Hugo Monroy had faced accusations that he was not spending enough to contain the outbreak, <a href="https://apnews.com/b21e0d03af8dc529b2f70f6ce1755865" target=_blank>the Associated Press reported</a>. Doctors at public health facilities have resorted to protests over allegedly unpaid salaries, while under-resourced hospitals have struggled to care for rising caseloads of patients, according to the AP.

Guatemala has reported roughly 11,800 cases and 450 deaths, according to a tracker maintained by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

Peru, which this week overtook Italy as seventh in the world for confirmed cases, is probably heading toward its worst economic decline in a century, the country’s central bank reported Friday, <a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/peru-central-bank-predicts-worst-economic-fall-in-100-years-after-pandemic-2020-06-19" target=_blank>according to Reuters</a>. Peru has more than 240,000 confirmed cases — Latin America’s second highest — and has had more than 7,000 covid-19-related deaths.

Miriam Berger

The U.S. Small Business Administration and Treasury Department announced Friday that they would release a dataset showing which businesses received many taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program loans, walking back an earlier stance that all of the business names would remain hidden because the Trump administration considered them proprietary.

The disclosures will pertain to firms that borrowed more than $150,000 as part of the program<b>.</b> Borrowers who obtained loans of less than $150,000 would not have their identities disclosed, the agencies said in a joint statement.

The Friday afternoon announcement came after several weeks of tense negotiations with congressional leadership, in which members of both parties pressed for some form of disclosure. The plan announced Friday would amount to a compromise in which most loan recipients will be made public while specific details would be obscured.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/19/treasury-sba-ppp-disclosure/?itid=lk_inline_manual_93" target=_blank>here</a>.

Aaron Gregg

IRAQ-HEALTH-VIRUS-TESTING

BAGHDAD — On the front lines, Iraq’s doctors are contracting the coronavirus by the hundreds, as a rising wave of infections threatens to crush the country’s health-care system.

Medical staff who develop symptoms are tested and then ordered back to work, waiting a week for results, fearful that their continued presence is endangering colleagues and patients, hospital staff say. In laboratories that run <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_3&itid=lk_inline_manual_97">coronavirus</a> tests, staff are also falling ill.

“Our hospitals are meant to treat people. Instead, they’re breeding the infection,” said Abdulameer Mohsin Hussein, president of the Iraqi Medical Association, an independent body.

The total number of doctors with reported infections has jumped 56 percent since last week, raising the tally to 506 since the outbreak began in Iraq in March, according to the association. It estimates that the number of infected paramedics is even higher.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iraqi-hospitals-become-nexus-of-infection-as-coronavirus-cases-rise-dramatically-among-doctors/2020/06/19/970de5c0-af0f-11ea-98b5-279a6479a1e4_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_100" target="_blank">here</a>.

Mustafa Salim

Louisa Loveluck

South Carolina health officials on Friday reported a record number of new coronavirus cases — a figure that surpassed 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak began.

The 1,081 infections announced Friday were an increase from Thursday’s 982 cases, which was then a record. The state also reported 18 new deaths and 660 current hospitalizations.

South Carolina’s health department <a href="https://www.scdhec.gov/news-releases/dhec-warns-increased-cases-covid-19-youth-young-adults-latest-covid-19-update-june-19" target="_blank">warned </a>that the virus is increasingly affecting young people. Of the 22,608 confirmed infections in the state, officials said 18.4 percent have been in people ages 21 to 30. Another 7 percent of cases have been in teenagers.

The number of new infections in people ages 21 to 30 has increased by roughly 414 percent since April 4, and the number of new cases in people ages 11 to 20 has increased by 966 percent, health officials said.

“The increase that we’re seeing serve as a warning that young adults and youth are not immune to covid-19,” Brannon Traxler, a physician consultant for the state health department, said in a statement. “They also tell us that younger South Carolinians are not taking social distancing seriously.”

President Donald J. Trump

In early March, as the novel coronavirus made its devastation known, Vice President Pence declared that “the risk of contracting the coronavirus to the American public remains low.”

In April, as the virus’s death toll ticked upward, Pence said he hoped the pandemic would be “largely in the past” by early June.

And this week, with questions swirling about a potential surge in cases in parts of the country, Pence penned an op-ed with an optimistic headline: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/there-isnt-a-coronavirus-second-wave-11592327890">“There Isn’t a Coronavirus ‘Second Wave.’ ”</a>

The vice president has long been a happy warrior on behalf of President Trump. But for many public health experts, including some close to the administration, Pence’s Tuesday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal was cause for alarm — a 420-word opinion piece that, they fear, presents an overly rosy vision of a pandemic that has already killed at least 117,000 Americans — and indicative of the administration’s approach.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/public-health-experts-warn-pences-sunny-approach-to-pandemic-ignores-possibility-of-dark-days-ahead/2020/06/19/fe88eaf8-b17e-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_114" target=_blank>here</a>.

Ashley Parker

Yasmeen Abutaleb

Tulsa, Oklahoma Prepares To Host Trump Rally On Saturday

Most U.S. voters have a positive opinion of people who wear face masks and a negative view of holding large political events at this time, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-say-yes-to-face-masks-no-to-rallies" target=_blank>a Fox News poll</a> released Friday.

Eighty percent of voters surveyed said they support wearing face coverings, including 89 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans. Of voters who strongly approve of President Trump, 61 percent said they have a favorable view of people who wear masks.

Voters were more divided on whether holding a large political rally is currently a good idea, but there was still a 36-point margin between people who called it a good idea — 23 percent — and people who said they considered it a bad idea — 59 percent. Sixteen percent of voters said their opinion depended on the circumstances.

The findings come a day before Trump is scheduled to hold his first political rally of the pandemic at an arena in Tulsa amid widespread criticism that packing thousands of people into an indoor space could hasten the spread of the coronavirus. The Trump campaign has said it will distribute masks to all attendees, but people will not be required to wear them.

Also on Friday, the White House announced that Trump again <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/white-house-says-it-will-again-host-fourth-of-july-event-despite-pandemic/2020/06/19/439e0856-b271-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_121" target=_blank>plans to host an Independence Day celebration</a> on the South Lawn of the White House and the Ellipse. U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) immediately criticized the announcement of the event, set to be a scaled-down version of last year’s celebration, for not including details about how the White House plans to keep attendees safe amid the pandemic.

Marisa Iati

JULY4

President Trump plans to host an Independence Day celebration again this year, despite the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_1&itid=lk_inline_manual_124">coronavirus</a> pandemic, with military demonstrations, fireworks, and a speech to “salute our amazing heritage,” the White House announced Friday.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump, along with the Interior Department, will host the 2020 “Salute to America” on the South Lawn of the White House and the Ellipse on July 4, the White House announced Friday.

The president has drawn fire recently for planning large gatherings, such as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tulsa-imposes-curfew-ahead-of-trump-rally-to-prevent-violent-protesting/2020/06/19/56d31058-b21f-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_4&itid=lk_inline_manual_126">rally expected to take place in Tulsa</a> on Saturday, in the midst of the coronavirus shutdown and social distancing restrictions.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/white-house-says-it-will-again-host-fourth-of-july-event-despite-pandemic/2020/06/19/439e0856-b271-11ea-8758-bfd1d045525a_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_127" target=_blank>here</a>.

Susan Svrluga

Julie Weil

Arizona reported another record single-day case count on Friday as the state’s infection rate and number of hospitalizations continued to rise.

The 3,246 cases announced Friday, out of 15,031 tests, represent an increase of more than 700 infections from the record set Thursday. Additionally, the number of hospitalizations rose from 1,667 on Thursday to 1,832 on Friday.

State health officials report the number of positive cases on a weekly basis. On June 14, they reported that 18 percent of recent diagnostic tests were positive. While the health department has not yet updated its website with the past week’s percentage of positive cases, the numbers of cases and tests reported Friday seem to indicate a 20 percent positivity rate.

The rate at which tests in Arizona come back positive has been climbing steadily since early May, when 5 percent of samples tested positive. The state defines its positivity rate as the percentage of people who received positive test results out of the number of people who have been tested in the state.

Arizona — as well as South Carolina and North Carolina — has reported a notable increase in coronavirus hospitalizations since Memorial Day. As of Thursday, 85 percent of Arizona’s inpatient hospital beds and 84 percent of its ICU beds were occupied.

Thailand in the third phase of the easing business and activity lockdown, Pattaya - 11 Jun 2020

The minks on Dutch fur farms first got sick in mid-April, <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.18.101493v1.full">showing symptoms</a> ranging from runny noses to severe respiratory distress. They had caught the novel <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/28/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2&itid=lk_inline_manual_136">coronavirus</a> from human handlers, the government later said, and soon farmed minks appeared to have <a href="https://promedmail.org/promed-post/?id=20200525.7375359">passed it back</a> to two other people, in the world’s first reports of animal-to-human transmission since the pandemic began.

The Netherlands has since <a href="https://promedmail.org/promed-posts/">culled</a> more than 500,000 minks from 13 infected fur companies. The goal of the grim task, set to continue until the farms are virus-free, is to snuff out the possibility of the animals becoming a reservoir for the virus that causes covid-19, which could stymie efforts to end a pandemic that has killed nearly half a million people worldwide.

Some researchers say that although the chances of that happening appear minimal, the implications are too grave to dismiss. In a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(20)30069-0/fulltext">commentary</a> published Thursday in the Lancet Microbe, researchers at University College London called for widespread surveillance of pets, livestock and wildlife. Studies on animal susceptibility have been small, limited and, in the case of pigs, conflicting, they wrote.

Read more <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/06/19/humans-may-have-caught-coronavirus-mink-thats-wake-up-call-study-infections-animals-researchers-say/?itid=lk_inline_manual_139" target=_blank>here</a>.

Karin Brulliard

Auston Matthews, David Pastrnak

Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to the <a href="https://torontosun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/toronto-maple-leafs/maple-leafs-star-auston-matthews-tests-positive-for-covid-19" target=_blank>Toronto Sun</a>.

Matthews, 22, had been training in Arizona and has reportedly gone into quarantine in his Arizona home since he received the test result. He had also been training with several Arizona Coyotes players, the Sun reports.

The NHL has been allowing players to skate in small-group workouts at NHL facilities since June 8. Only six players were allowed on the ice at one time. The league has been planning to formally start training camps on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/11/nhl-training-camps-open-july-10-capitals-start-small-group-workouts/?itid=lk_inline_manual_144" target="_blank">July 10</a>, if safety conditions connected to the pandemic allow. The date of the league’s formal <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/05/26/nhl-ends-regular-season-will-open-with-24-team-playoff-an-undetermined-date/?itid=lk_inline_manual_144" target="_blank">resumption of play</a> has yet to be determined.

The report of Matthews’s positive test comes in the wake of the Tampa Bay Lightning closing its practice facilities in Florida on Friday after it was reported that three players tested positive for the coronavirus, in addition to other staff members. All of those players have been self-isolating, according to a <a href="https://twitter.com/TBLightning/status/1274069522660589568" target=_blank>statement</a> from the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday.

Arizona and Florida both reported record single-day increases in cases on Friday. Arizona recorded 3,246, while Florida announced 3,822.

World Health Organization expert Mike Ryan said Friday that further research is needed to determine the origins of China’s recent coronavirus outbreak in a Beijing market but that it was likely caused by human-to-human contact. His remarks came after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-seafood/china-finds-heavy-coronavirus-traces-in-seafood-meat-sections-of-beijing-food-market-idUSKBN23P20T" target="_blank">China earlier in the day released the genome</a> sequencing data of the detected virus and said it appeared to be a European strain.

“There are different strains circulating,” Ryan said during a virtual news briefing from WHO’s headquarters in Geneva. China’s sequencing data, which he said he had not yet studied, found that the virus originated outside Beijing, but “it’s not indicated that Europe is the origin of the [cluster of the] disease at all,” he said.

The outbreak stemming from a Beijing wholesale market last week prompted the Chinese capital to go into <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/beijing-carries-out-mass-testing-as-coronavirus-spreads-in-the-chinese-capital/2020/06/15/b5d2d8a6-aefd-11ea-98b5-279a6479a1e4_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_150" target="_blank">‘wartime mode’ and conduct mass testing</a> after authorities found more than 100 new cases following months of no local infections there.

Initial media reports posited that Norwegian salmon from Europe could have been the source of the new cluster. China consequently halted imports of the fish from Europe. By Tuesday, however, Norway and China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention had determined that the fish was not the source, despite the rumors continuing to circulate.

Ryan echoed this finding Friday. “My sense is that we are dealing with human origins for the outbreak,” he said. “Exactly when that virus arrived back in China remains to be determined.”

China’s CDC said Thursday that the low temperatures and high humidity in the market’s meat and fish sections, environments conducive to the virus, could be a factor as to why these areas were found to be so highly contaminated, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-seafood/china-finds-heavy-coronavirus-traces-in-seafood-meat-sections-of-beijing-food-market-idUSKBN23P20T" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.

TORONTO — Canadian public health officials have approved a plan from the National Hockey League that could see one of three Canadian cities become a hub city when the league resumes play, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Friday.

“I want to emphasize that it will be very important for the NHL and for players to continue to work very closely with public health officers and to follow all of their instructions,” Freeland said. “This is essential for the health and safety of the players, who I know we all have a lot of affection for, and also, for the health and safety of all Canadians.”

The plan was approved by Canada’s top doctor and her counterparts in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. The NHL is considering Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver for one of its two hub cities when play resumes later this summer.

As coronavirus surges across South and West, Texas mayors plead with residents to wear masks

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