Hong Kong confirms 38 new coronavirus cases

A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks in Hong Kong's Central district on July 9. Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

Hong Kong confirmed 38 new coronavirus cases on Friday as the number of confirmed locally transmitted infections continues to rise in the city.

Of the newly confirmed cases, 32 were locally transmitted infections according to Dr. Chang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP). 

Chuang warned that “there is a possibility of a community outbreak" in Shui Chuen O public housing estate, as 11 of the new cases are linked to a cluster there.

The announcement of the new cases comes shortly after the Hong Kong government announced that all schools will shut on Monday in a bid to slow the spread of the virus.

Authorities in Hong Kong, a city lauded for its quick and effective response to the pandemic, warned earlier this week of potential "exponential growth" in new Covid-19 cases after the surge in local transmissions in the global financial center.

Of 34 locally transmitted cases reported Thursday, most were linked to elderly care homes, some were linked to previous cases and a small number were linked to taxi drivers, according to Chuang.

"It is possible there could be a major outbreak," Chuang said Wednesday. "There could be a sudden exponential growth of cases."

The CHP also announced the tightening of social distancing measures Thursday, to deal with the fresh outbreak.

Cars line up as drivers wait to be tested for Covid-19 at the Hard Rock Stadium parking lot in Miami Gardens, Florida, on July 6. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Officials in Florida's Miami-Dade County reported a staggering 33.5% Covid-19 positivity rate on Thursday, according to data released by Mayor Carlos Gimenez's office. 

The positivity rate -- that is, the percentage of people who test positive for the virus of those overall who have been tested -- is tracked daily by the county. 

Gimenez's office has said the goal is to not exceed a positivity rate of 10%. The county has exceeded the 18% mark for the past 14 days. The current 14-day average is 24%, the data shows.

Over the past 13 days, hospitalizations in Miami-Dade County have gone up by 76%, the number of ICU beds being used has increased by 86% and the use of ventilators has soared by 124%, according to the latest data from the county government.

Some context: As more and more people are being tested, the focus is shifting to the positivity rate -- how many of those tested are actually infected.

A lot of officials, including Gimenez, point to a rising positivity rate to counter arguments that the increase in case numbers is simply the result of more people being tested.

Nurse Efe Obiakor photographed on July 7, in Harrow, London. Matt Brealey/CNN

Nurse Efe Obiakor stood at the front of the crowd, looking up proudly as her 18-year-old daughter Ada took center stage at a Black Lives Matter rally in central London.

"Let's use this opportunity to have a community heal," Ada told protesters as they poured into a sunny Hyde Park.

Obiakor was there to support her daughter, the lead organizer behind the June 20 anti-racism demonstration, but also to advocate for herself.

A practice nurse with 12 years' experience, Obiakor, from London, says she has long faced discrimination and harassment in the UK's public health care system, known as the National Health Service (NHS).

And she's not alone.

CNN interviewed a dozen Black nurses across the UK's healthcare sector. From students to medics with decades of experience, they work in different roles and different settings -- hospitals, care homes and clinics -- up and down the country.

They all say they have experienced racism in the workplace -- and that it has gotten worse amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Read the full story here.

Authorities in Kazakhstan have denied a report published by Chinese officials that the country is experiencing an outbreak of "unknown pneumonia" potentially deadlier than the novel coronavirus.

On Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan issued a warning to citizens living in the Central Asian country that the pneumonia had killed more than 1,700 people.

"Kazakhstani Health Department and other agencies are conducting comparative research and have not defined the nature of the pneumonia virus," the statement said.

New cases of the unidentified pneumonia have been increasing significantly since mid-June across the country, said the embassy, adding that in some places, authorities are reporting hundreds of new cases a day.

In a statement later on Friday, the Kazakhstan health ministry acknowledged the presence of "viral pneumonias of unspecified etiology," but denied that the outbreak was new or unknown.

"In response to these reports, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan officially declares that this information does not correspond to reality," the statement read.

It added the "unspecified" pneumonia classification followed World Health Organization guidelines "for the registration of pneumonia when the coronavirus infection is diagnosed clinically or epidemiologically but is not confirmed by laboratory testing."

According to the embassy, the rise was concentrated in the regions of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent, which together have almost 500 new cases and more than 30 critically ill patients.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday that Beijing needed more information from Kazakh authorities.

"For the specifics, I will refer you to the relevant authorities in Kazakhstan, we would also like to get more information,” a spokesperson said Friday.

Read more here:

Autopsies on people who died of the coronavirus are helping doctors understand how the disease affects the body -- and one of the most remarkable findings concerned blood clotting, a pathologist says. 

Dr. Amy Rapkiewicz, the chairman of the department of pathology at NYU Langone Medical Center, spoke to Erin Burnett on OutFront Thursday night.

Some Covid-19 patients are known to develop blood clotting issues, but the degree and the extent to which that occurs was described as "dramatic" by Rapkiewicz.

In the early stages of the pandemic, bedside clinicians noticed a lot of blood clotting "in lines and various large vessels," she said.

Rapkiewicz's study outlining her findings was published at the end of June in The Lancet journal EClinicalMedicine.

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Hong Kong announced Friday the suspension of all schools in the city, following a surge in locally transmitted coronavirus cases.

Summer holiday for public school students was originally scheduled to begin in late July.

The announcement comes after Hong Kong reported 42 coronavirus cases on Thursday, including 34 locally transmitted infections.

The Hong Kong government has tightened social distancing measures in a bid to contain the fresh outbreak.

Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong, said on Twitter that the "effective reproductive number" -- the average number of people each coronavirus carrier goes on to infect -- for local infections is now close to 3, which will take "a lot of effort to bring down."

That number was estimated to be around 2 during the previous wave of outbreak in late March, Cowling said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing mounting pressure to release inmates as corrections officials scramble to contain coronavirus outbreaks at state prisons. 

The cluster at San Quentin State Prison, where more than half of the Covid-19 cases in state prisons have been reported, has claimed the lives of at least seven incarcerated people, according to a tally from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The prison had escaped the early months of the pandemic unscathed until cases began soaring in late May after a transfer of detainees from the California Institution for Men in Chino.

Several advocates and lawmakers gathered outside San Quentin on Thursday, calling for the release of medically vulnerable and older detainees. 

Authorities in California have been releasing prisoners who are close to finishing their sentences since March due to the pandemic. In San Quentin, more than 500 detainees have been released due to both expedited and natural releases, the CDCR has said.

Inside prison and jails, the pandemic couldn't feel more palpable as detainees were forced to live, work and eat in close quarters. Correctional facilities across the country have become major hotspots for the virus in the past months and San Quentin is just the latest.

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A new "unknown pneumonia" that is potentially deadlier than the novel coronavirus has reportedly killed more than 1,700 people this year in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan, according to a warning issued by Chinese officials Thursday.

New cases of the unidentified pneumonia have been increasing significantly since mid-June across the country, said the embassy, adding that in some places, authorities are reporting hundreds of new cases a day.

The rise has so far been concentrated in the regions of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent, which together have almost 500 new cases and more than 30 critically ill patients, said the embassy statement, citing local media.

The disease has killed 1,772 people this year, some of whom were Chinese citizens, according to the embassy. 628 of those deaths took place in June alone.

The number of pneumonia cases in the capital city Nursultan have more than doubled this June from the same time last year, according to Kazakhstan's prominent news agency Kazinform, which cited official data. 

CNN has been unable to independently verify the Chinese Embassy report and has reached out to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Healthcare for further details.

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A day after announcing a new Covid-19 outbreak in one of its bases on Okinawa, the US Marine Corps is imposing new restrictions on its thousands of personnel on the Japanese island.

Effective immediately, the Marine Forces Japan said its personnel may not use non-military public transportation; go to any off-base establishment that does not provide an essential service such as a grocery store, medical office, bank or gas station; or dine in any off base restaurant -- although take out will still be allowed.

“These changes are motivated by the current spread of COVID-19 and have been implemented to protect our forces, our families, and the local community,” a statement from Marine Forces Japan said.

A day earlier, the service said several personnel on Camp Butler on the island had been diagnosed with Covid-19. Those personnel are now in isolation, the Marines said.

“We are taking all prudent measures to prevent the further spread of COVID-19,” a statement said.

The Marines did not give specific numbers on the Covid-19 cases, citing US Defense Department guidelines and national security concerns.

About 19,000 Marines are on Okinawa.