Facing a 3rd wave, Hong Kong tightens restrictions

Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk across a road in Hong Kong, China, on July 10. Roy Liu/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Hong Kong is tightening travel restrictions and social distancing measures as it battles a "third wave" of cases.

The city reported 52 new cases on Monday, 41 of which were local transmissions and the other 11 with travel history. This raises the total number of confirmed cases to 1,521.

The past seven days alone have seen 236 new cases -- an alarming surge in Hong Kong, which has been lauded for its quick and effective response to the pandemic. For many weeks before this surge, cases were down to single digits, and sometimes zero, every day.

Under the new restrictions announced Monday:

An aerial view of San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, California as seen on July 08. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

At least ten incarcerated people at the San Quentin Prison in Northern California have died from coronavirus complications, according to data from California's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

San Quentin is the site of the worst coronavirus outbreak in California's prison system, with nearly 1,400 inmates who have tested positive. 

The prison population is currently at about 4,000 inmates. It has been reduced by almost 10,000 inmates since March, through expedited transitions to parole and suspended intake from county jails, said CDCR.

There are 2,423 infected incarcerated people in California. There are also 755 CDCR employees who have tested positive across the state.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews speaks to the media in Melbourne, Australia on July 14. Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

The Australian state of Victoria recorded 270 new cases on Monday, according to Premier Daniel Andrews.

The state has been conducting mass testing in response to a spike in cases; it conducted 30,195 tests on Saturday, 22,943 tests on Sunday, and 21,995 tests on Monday.

The decline in cases could be due to stay-at-home order in the cities of Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, Andrews said. Melbourne's lockdown, imposed last Wednesday, will be in place for six weeks -- affecting almost 5 million people.

The state now has 1,803 active cases. Of the new cases discovered Monday, 242 are still being traced.

Fears are growing that the Victoria outbreak may have spread to the neighbouring state of New South Wales, where 13 new cases were reported on Tuesday. 

In the US state of Michigan, 43 new coronavirus cases have been linked to a large house party from early July in Washtenaw County, health officials said in a press release Monday.

Most of the new cases are young people between the ages of 15 and 25, said the release. The party is believed to have taken place between July 2 and 3.

Spread from the party has impacted people outside the county and even the Midwestern state, according to the release.

Health officials are now asking anyone who attended the party to self quarantine and monitor themselves for symptoms of the virus for 14 days.

There were an additional 66 people who are believed to have had face-to-face contact with a confirmed case. That number does not include family members who are immediate household contacts of the newly identified cases, the release said.

Read the full story here:

An Indian health worker collects nasal swab samples at a Covid-19 testing center in Gauhati, India on July 12. Anupam Nath/AP

More than 100,000 people in India have tested positive in just the past four days, said the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

The country recorded 28,498 new cases and 553 new deaths in the last 24 hours, said the ministry. That raises the country's total to 906,752 cases and 23,727 deaths.

Not all these cases are active: More than 571,000 have recovered from the virus, leaving 311,565 cases still active.

More than 12 million tests have been conducted nationwide, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Healthcare workers wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) administer tests at a Covid-19 drive-thru testing site in Tucson, Arizona on July 13. Cheney Orr/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Surging coronavirus cases across the United States are causing delays in getting test results from laboratories, according to Quest Diagnostics, a leading provider of diagnostic services.

“Soaring demand” for a Covid-19 molecular test is “slowing the time” the company can provide test results even after rapidly scaling up its capacity, Quest said Monday.

Increased capacity: The company has already doubled its testing capacity from two months ago, and now is able to perform 125,000 molecular diagnostic tests a day. By the end of the month, it expects to have the capacity for 150,000 tests a day.

Despite this increase in capacity, it's taking up to a day to process test results for its priority patients: hospital patients, pre-operative patients in acute care settings and symptomatic healthcare workers. For all other cases, it’s taking on average seven or more days, said Quest in a press release.

The company is facing challenges in trying to ramp up testing: Global supply constraints are still an issue, the company said. 

The lab network is trying to add new technology platforms and is considering an expansion of its lab referral program.

But the company cautioned that it can’t reduce its turnaround time on testing results as long as Covid-19 cases continue spiking across the country.

This winter, the coronavirus pandemic could create a perfect storm.

In many places, health care systems already struggle in winter; conditions such as asthma, heart attacks and stroke tend to worsen in colder temperatures, and some infectious diseases like influenza spread more easily.

Scientists are warning that countries need to prepare for a potential winter uptick in coronavirus cases that could be more serious than the initial outbreak.

Why winter could see a rise: In cold weather we spend more time indoors in poorly ventilated spaces — exactly the conditions that are likely to make the novel coronavirus spread more easily.

What's more, coronavirus cases will likely become more challenging to track and trace given Covid-19 symptoms are similar to those of winter respiratory bugs.

Expert forecast: As many as 119,900 people could die of coronavirus in UK hospitals between September 2020 and June 2021, warned the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences.

This projection, which the academy called a "reasonable worst-case scenario," is more than double the 45,000 deaths the UK has experienced so far.

This number does not include potential deaths in care homes, which have accounted for 30% deaths in England.

Read more here:

Health personnel care for a child infected with Covid-19 at the Intensive Care ward of the Felipe Urriola Hospital in on July 8 Iquitos, Peru. Cesar Von Bancels/AFP/Getty Images

Peru surged past 330,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases on Monday. It remains the country with the second highest number of cases in Latin America, behind Brazil.

The Peruvian Health Ministry reported 3,797 new cases and 184 new deaths in the past 24 hours.

This raises the country's total to 330,123 cases and 12,054 deaths since the pandemic began.

Volunteers spray disinfectant in an alleyway as a precaution against coronavirus on July 12 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Leo Correa/AP

Brazil has seen more than 260,000 new coronavirus cases in the past week alone, according to data from the Brazilian Health Ministry.

On Monday, the ministry recorded 20,286 new cases, bringing the country's total number of confirmed cases to 1,884,967.

261,683 of those cases came from the past seven days.

The nationwide death toll stands at 72,833.

President tests positive: Among the new cases recorded in the last week was Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who announced he tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.

Bolsonaro will take another Covid-19 test this week, the official doctor for the presidency told CNN affiliate CNN Brasil on Monday, and reported he is "doing well."

The President also announced that day he had taken hydroxychloroquine on the advice of his medical team and posted a video on his official Facebook page later showing himself taking what he claimed was a third dose of the drug.