COVID-19: UpdateU.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Hits 80,000 as Top Leaders Quarantine

The U.S. death toll due to COVID-19 surpassed 80,000 yesterday, according to a tracker maintained by The New York Times. At least 1,346,800 cases have been confirmed in the country, including 80,095 deaths.

The death toll has already surpassed the most optimistic epidemiologic model, the one produced by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and touted by the White House, which projected 64,000 deaths by Aug 1. That model has since been adjusted to take into account the easing of social distancing measures, and now projects 137,000 U.S. deaths by Aug 1.

The United States has the most reported deaths and cases of the novel coronavirus, which was first reported in Wuhan, China in December of 2019, in the world.

New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, and California are the hardest-hit states, but cases in the first three states are declining, and have remained mostly stagnant in recent days in Illinois and California.

Top Officials Self-Quarantine after Exposures
Over the weekend, Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joined Robert Redfield, MD, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Stephen Hahn, MD, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, as the latest top coronavirus officials to voluntarily self-isolate after being exposed to White House personnel who have tested positive for the virus in recent days.

Fauci has tested negative for the virus, but has had some contact with the infected staffers in recent days. Fauci will be working from home for the next several days and will continue to be tested for the virus.

Vice President Mike Pence, who has had at least two top staffers test positive for the virus, said yesterday that he will not self-quarantine and will be working as normal from the White House. Pence, along with President Donald Trump and select White House workers, is tested daily for the virus using a rapid results test, and has always tested negative for the virus.

Katie Miller, Pence’s press secretary, tested positive for the virus on Friday.

According to the Washington Post, the White House issued new guidance yesterday stipulating that Trump administration employees will be required to wear masks, but Trump and Pence will be excluded from the new rules. The internal memo states anyone entering the West Wing should wear a face covering.

Fauci, Redfield Set to Testify to Senate
CIDRAP notes that today, Fauci and Redfield testify, via video, at a Senate hearing on the coronavirus response. Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has mandated the hearing will take place remotely, as he is also self-quarantining after coming into contact with infected staffers.

The testimonies will be focused on how states should reopen economies after 6-8 weeks of sheltering in place mandates, which are still in place in about two dozen states. Though the CDC recommended states wait until 14 days of sustained case declines, many states have opened with case counts increasing to stave off further economic disaster.

Yesterday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said social distancing guidelines put in place in his state will ease on May 15 in some parts of upstate New York, but New York City should expect to stay mostly shuttered until June.

New York City Deaths Likely Undercounted
New York officially has 342,317 cases and 26,878 deaths from the novel coronavirus, in an outbreak that has accounted for much of the virus activity across the country. But according to a new study in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the death toll in that state, and explicitly in New York City, is likely an underestimate.

The CDC said 32,107 people died  in New York City from Mar 11 to May 2 this year, representing an increase of 24,172  deaths over seasonal averages.

“Included in the 24,172 deaths were 13,831 (57%) laboratory-confirmed COVID-19–associated deaths and 5,048 (21%) probable COVID-19–associated deaths, leaving 5,293 (22%) excess deaths that were not identified as either laboratory-confirmed or probable COVID-19–associated deaths,” the authors wrote.

The deaths may have been caused by untested COVID-19, or delays in accessing healthcare among non-COVID-19 patients who did not want to seek medical care during the pandemic, the authors said.

Yesterday, Cuomo also warned other states to be on the lookout for a rare inflammatory condition similar to toxic shock and Kawasaki disease in children who may have been infected with COVID-19. There are now 85 suspected cases of the condition in New York, including 3 deaths.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles also issued a new statement on what officials are calling pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS), and noted an increase in Kawasaki diagnoses made in the month of April. Serology tests have shown that three of those pediatric patients had antibodies  to COVID-19.