Coronavirus daily news updates, June 22: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world – Seattle Times

Soaring infections in Yakima County led Gov. Jay Inslee to announce Saturday that he would order that areas residents to wear masks in public places.

Several operating room staff members at Seattles Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle have tested positive for COVID-19.

Statewide, another 455 coronavirus cases were confirmed on Sunday, bringing official state totals to 28,680 diagnoses out of 474,938 tests administered, meaning a 6% positive test rate including 1,270 deaths, according to the state Department of Health.

Throughout Monday, on this page, well post updates from Seattle Times journalists and others on the pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest and the world. Updates from Sunday can be found here, and all our coronavirus coverage can be found here.

A Seattle entrepreneur who marketed and sold an unauthorized coronavirus vaccine has agreed to settle a lawsuit by the Washington state Attorney Generals Office by repaying his customers and permanently refraining from similar activity.

Johnny Stine on Monday signed a legally binding consent decree to repay up to 30 people hedallegedly soldhis COVID-19 spike protein vaccine to for $400 each. He also agreed to pay the Attorney Generals Office $8,500 in legal fees; $30,000 in potential fines will be suspended as long as he complies with the agreement.

Stine had faced a maximum fine of $2,000 for each of the 30 counts of allegedly selling the purported vaccine and for allegedly touting his scientific credentials and the benefits of his concoction to those questioning its legality on social media.

No COVID-19 vaccine has attained Food and Drug Administration approval, and developing one is expected to take at least until next year.

Read the full story here.

Geoff Baker

Visitors are able to enter the White House complex without having their temperatures checked for the first time since mid-March, although several other coronavirus precautions remain in place.

Those who come near the president will still undergo temperature checks and testing for the virus.

Over the past three months, those seeking to access the White House complex first had to get their temperatures checked and answer a question about whether they had experienced any symptoms associated with COVID-19. The White House said Monday it was scaling back complex-wide temperature checks as the District of Columbia enters phase two in its reopening.

Read the story here.

The Associated Press

Indias coronavirus caseload has risen to 425,282 as infections soar in rural areas to which migrant workers fleeing major cities have returned in recent weeks.

Indias health ministry on Monday reported 14,821 new cases and about 300 new deaths, bring the toll of fatalities up to more than 13,000. The coastal state of Goa reported its first COVID-19 death.

India is the fourth most-affected country globally after the United States, Brazil and Russia.

China reported 18 new cases of the coronavirus, including nine in Beijing and two in neighboring Hebei province.

South Korea has reported 17 new cases of COVID-19, the first time its daily jump came down to the teens in nearly a month. Its 40 to 50 cases per day increases over the past two weeks have occurred as people increased their public activities amid eased attitudes on social distancing. An increase in imported cases has prompted authorities to halt providing new visas for travelers from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Read the story here.

The Associated Press

A camera trap photo of an injured tigress and a forensic examination of its carcass revealed why the creature died: A poachers wire snare punctured its windpipe and sapped its strength as the wound festered for days.

Snares like this one set in southern Indias dense forest have become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families.

Authorities in India are concerned this spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive.

It is risky to poach, but if pushed to the brink, some could think that these are risks worth taking, said Mayukh Chatterjee, a wildlife biologist with the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India.

Since the country announced its lockdown, at least four tigers and six leopards have been killed by poachers, Wildlife Protection Society of India said. But there also were numerous other poaching casualties gazelles in grasslands, foot-long giant squirrels in forests, wild boars and birds such as peacocks and purple moorhens.

Read the story here.

The Associated Press

The restrictions on travel and business imposed to stem the coronaviruss spread wiped out nearly all travel revenue for Greece in April, according to Bank of Greece figures.

Provisional figures show travel receipts stood at 7 million euros in April, compared with 544 million euros in the same month last year, or a drop of 98.7%, Greeces central bank said Monday.

The fall in travel receipts resulted from a 96.2% decline in inbound traveler flows and a 62.2% decrease in average expenditure per trip, the Bank of Greece said in a statement.

Greeces economy depends heavily on tourism, which directly and indirectly accounts for around 20% of annual gross domestic product. After an early lockdown imposed in early March kept coronavirus deaths and serious illnesses at low levels, the country is reopening to visitors from abroad, with the government hoping to salvage what it can from the lucrative summer tourist season.

Read the story here.

The Associated Press

It began with a dry cough, weakness and back pain. For Reagan Taban Augustino, part of South Sudans small corps of health workers trained in treating COVID-19 patients, there was little doubt what he had.

Days later, hardly able to breathe, the 33-year-old doctor discovered just how poorly equipped his country is for the coronavirus pandemic: None of the public facilities he tried in the capital, Juba, had oxygen supplies available until he reached South Sudans only permanent infectious-disease unit, which has fewer than 100 beds for a country of 12 million people.

It took more than an hour to admit him. I was almost dying at the gate, he told The Associated Press from the unit last week.

The pandemic is now accelerating in Africa, the World Health Organization says.

South Sudan, a nation with more military generals than doctors, never had a fighting chance. Five years of civil war and corruption stripped away much of its health system, nearly half of the population was hungry before the pandemic, and a locust outbreak arrived just weeks before the virus.

Read the story here.

The Associated Press

Whats all this talk about a second wave of U.S. coronavirus cases?

In The Wall Street Journal last week, Vice President Mike Pence wrote in a piece headlined There Isnt a Coronavirus Second Wave' that the nation is winning the fight against the virus.

Many public health experts, however, suggest its no time to celebrate. About 120,000 Americans have died from the new virus, and daily counts of new cases in the U.S. are the highest theyve been in more than a month, driven by alarming recent increases in the South and West.

But there is at least one point of agreement: Second wave is probably the wrong term to describe whats happening.

When you have 20,000-plus infections per day, how can you talk about a second wave? said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. Were in the first wave. Lets get out of the first wave before you have a second wave.

Read the story here.

The Associated Press

Infectious disease experts expressed alarm Sunday over the pace of new coronavirus infections in several states in the South and Southwest, with one likening the spread in parts of the country to a forest fire.

At the same time, President Donald Trumps surrogates insisted he was joking on Saturday when he told rally-goers he had ordered a testing slowdown because the results painted an overly dire picture of the pandemic.

With the United States now reporting a quarter of the worlds coronavirus cases, and daily new-infection counts exceeding 30,000 nationwide on at least two recent days, eight states California among them last week hit single-day new-case highs, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Read the story here.

Los Angeles Times

Nearly 26% of parents with children 6 months to 18 years old say they are hesitant to have their children get a flu shot, according to research published in the journal Pediatrics.

It found that the parents reluctance stems not from concerns about safety but from doubts about the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine. By contrast, just 6% of parents question the effectiveness of routine childhood vaccines, such as those for measles, mumps and whooping cough.

Public health experts are particularly concerned that people of all ages get flu shots this year, given that the flu season and an expected second wave of cases of the new coronavirus are likely to coincide this fall and winter, severely stressing hospitals and the health-care system generally.

Read the full story here.

The Washington Post

NEW YORK Tour promoter Live Nation has announced its first-ever drive-in concerts series in the U.S. for July, months into the live music industry's lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The entertainment company on Monday announced Live from the Drive-In a set of nine shows to take place July 10-12 in Nashville, Tennessee; Maryland Heights, Missouri; and Noblesville, Indiana. Performers include Nelly, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker and Jon Pardi.

Concertgoers will be able to drive into the parking lots of the amphitheaters a maximum of four people per car and will have two empty parking lot spaces in between each vehicle so fans can watch and party from their designated individual tailgating zones.

Read the full story here.

The Associated Press

Hot, sunny weather is on the way, but with restrictions in place and an anxiety-provoking start to 2020, the usual summery sense of ease may be hard to find.

It might seem easier to stay hunkered down. But this is, perhaps, when we need summer most of all.

Amid the interruption in our physical rhythms and daily lives, a psychiatrist has practical recommendations for taking care of yourself.

Christine Clarridge

Katherine Long

Kris Higginson

Seattle Times staff & news services

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Coronavirus daily news updates, June 22: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world - Seattle Times