Air travel to Hawaii set to ease

In this April 21 photo, a man pushes a cart at the international airport in Honolulu.  Caleb Jones/AP

Travel to the nation’s most isolated state is set to become much, much easier in August.   

Hawaiian Airlines said Wednesday it will add hundreds of weekly flights to its schedule between Hawaii and the US mainland as the state government eases a strict quarantine. The restrictions have mandated a 14-day quarantine for nearly all travelers in and out of the state, as well as for travel between the state’s islands. 

Those rules made travel into the state “almost nonexistent” since April, according to a major airline industry group.  

Starting August 1, the state will allow travelers to avoid the quarantine by testing negative for coronavirus ahead of their travel, and presenting proof of that test upon landing. The state said it will not provide testing for travelers at the airport. Travelers will still be required to undergo temperature checks.  

Some background: Since late-March, Hawaiian has been operating only a handful of flights between the mainland west coast and Hawaiian islands to “support essential flights and critical cargo transportation,” the airline said. 

But as the new state policy rolls out, the airline will resume regular service between Hawaii and several non-west coast cities, including Boston, Las Vegas, New York and Phoenix, as well as Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. The airline is also adding service this month between the islands and Portland, San Diego, and Sacramento.

The airline said it will ultimately be operating 252 weekly flights between Hawaii and the mainland, and 114 daily flights among the islands.  

American travelers have been showing interest in two of Hawaii’s key features: sun and sand. Officials at United Airlines told reporters on Wednesday that it is “seeing strength in beach markets,” including the Caribbean.   

First responders load a patient into an ambulance from a nursing home where multiple people have contracted Covid-19 on April 17 in Chelsea, Massachusetts.  Scott Eisen/Getty Images

Testing only people with symptoms won’t control outbreaks of coronavirus in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It takes repeated, regular testing of all staff and residents to find and control the cases, the CDC said.

A CDC team and colleagues at the Detroit Health Department formed a rapid testing unit that visited 26 Detroit-area nursing homes and facilities when the virus started spreading there in March. By the time the outbreak ended, 1,207 out of 2,773 residents tested positive for the virus – an attack rate of 44%, the CDC-led team reported in the agency’s weekly report.

Only 55% of those who were infected had symptoms the first time they tested positive, the team reported. 

“Symptom-based screening in skilled nursing facilities is inadequate to detect SARS-CoV-2 transmission,” the team concluded.

Repeated testing helped the team identify cases and separate infected residents and staff from those who were not infected.

In the three weeks after they were tested, 37% of the Covid-19 patients were hospitalized and 24% of them died, the team found. Those who had symptoms were far more likely to die; 40% of the patients with symptoms died, compared to 5% of those with no symptoms.

The House is expected to pass an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program Wednesday night, according to a House Democratic aide. 

This would follow Senate passage and clear the bill for President Trump’s signature.

The extension would reopen the program, which closed last night, until Aug. 8.

Small business owners discuss Paycheck Protection Program:

Universal testing of all students and staff in K-12 schools is not being recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But the CDC said schools should test everyone who has had close contact with someone positively tested for Covid-19, as well as those showing symptoms.

Anyway, schools may lack infrastructure to support the testing and follow up, students, parents and staff may balk at getting tested, and testing could cause disruptions, the CDC said.

If schools do decide to implement a testing plan, the CDC said that they should work alongside other agencies, such as state and local health authorities, to work out what would be the best strategy for them.

The number of active duty military personnel with Covid-19 has more than doubled since June 10, according to figures published by the Defense Department. 

There are 6,493 US service members who currently have Covid-19. Since the pandemic began, 12,521 US service members have tested positive.

In the last two weeks alone, the number of cases in the Air Force has doubled. On June 15 there were 700 reported cases, but by June 29 it jumped to 1,366.  

Defense officials say the “uptick” in Covid-19 cases at military installations has happened “largely around where we are seeing it in the civilian communities so in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona, some parts of California,” according to Thomas McCaffery, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.

The Air Force in particular has report a "hotspot” in San Antonio where Lackland Air Force Base in located, according to an Air Force official. There is also concern around several Air Force installations in Florida, the official said.

McCaffery noted the uptick includes asymptomatic cases and that hospitalization rates remain low. He also claimed the uptick may be in part to doing more testing. But the uptick has come just as the nation is seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases. As a result of that, “right now our focus is on looking at the data we have with regard to our particular installations and health facilities in those areas where there are hot spots in the community and making determinations based on what’s happening on the ground,” McCaffery said. 

The Defense Department is now specifically looking at data to see if the uptick in cases at those installations might be attributable to interactions with members communities where there has been a large increase in coronavirus infection rates. 

Some context: At least seven Air Force bases have tightened restrictions in the last week.

At the Air Force Global Strike Command headquartered in Barksdale, Louisiana, Gen. Timothy Ray has ordered all military and civilian personnel to wear masks in any public spaces where social distancing is not possible. That goes beyond previous suggested guidance, the Air Force official said.

A patient returns his testing sample at a self-collection Covid-19 testing site on Monday, June 29, in Houston. David J. Phillip/AP

Texas continues to break its own record for highest cases of Covid-19 in a single day, with 8,076 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.

This is the state's highest number of cases in a single day, bringing the statewide total to 168,062, with 2,481 deaths. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has paused reopening of the state and signed an executive order to close all bars in the hopes that the effort will decrease the spread of Covid-19.

Gov. Roy Cooper listens to a question during a briefing at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh on Wednesday, July 1. Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP

North Carolina has reported the state’s highest single-day increase in cases since the pandemic began, said Mandy Cohen, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, during a news conference on Wednesday.

The department reported 66,513 cases of coronavirus and 1,373 deaths. There were 17,660 tests completed and 901 people are hospitalized.

That’s an increase of 1,843 new cases and 30 deaths in one day, according to the department.

Cooper has also delayed a decision on whether or not to reopen open schools in August.

The governor said he would make a decision “within the next couple of weeks.” 

Cooper said that he has given extra time to the state’s school districts to make a plan to reopen and to make sure teachers and staff are prepared.

The governor of the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, Carlos Moises, tested positive for Covid-19, the state government's press office announced Wednesday.

Moises is now under quarantine at his home. He has reported symptoms of cough, sore throat, and low fever. 

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, eight of 27 Brazilian governors have contracted the virus, Brazilian news agency G1 Globo reported. 

The state governors of Alagoas, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, Pará, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, and Roraima have also contracted the virus. 

What the numbers say: Brazil is nearing 60,000 deaths from coronavirus as of Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases. The country has the second most confirmed cases — behind the United States — with more than 1.4 million confirmed cases.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order today, closing indoor service at bars throughout most of lower Michigan “to protect the progress Michigan has made against Covid-19,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Bars statewide can however continue to serve customers outdoors and Michigan will now allow cocktails-to-go at bars, while restaurants and expand social districts are being given permission for more outdoor seating and areas for people to safely congregate while practicing physical distancing, the statement said.

Recently, health officials in Ingham County linked 107 confirmed Covid-19 cases to an outbreak in a single bar in East Lansing.