LIVE: Bahamas warns of 'grave health crisis' over Covid

More than 2,100 anti-Asian, pandemic-related hate incidents have been documented and submitted to Stop AAPI Hate, a reporting center founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council since its launch in March.

Stop AAPI Hate has recorded incidents ranging from verbal harassment and physical assault to civil rights violations.

"This is not just a pandemic of health but a pandemic of hate that is attacking our AAPI communities around the country," said California Assembly member David Chiu during a Stop AAPI Hate news conference on July 1.

CNN previously reported that attacks on Asian people or people who appear to be East Asian have intensified after the coronavirus outbreak began in China.

Even the FBI has concerns. In April, in a letter to law enforcement officials, FBI Director Christopher Wray wrote that his agency remains "concerned about the potential for hate crimes by individuals and groups targeting minority populations in the United States who they believe are responsible for the spread of the virus.

Read the full story here.

A medical worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), center, speaks with a visitor from inside the Covid-19 safety booth in the walk-thru testing center at H Plus Yangji Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, on July 24. SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images

South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 113 new virus cases on Saturday, the biggest jump in daily new cases since March 31. 

Among the 113 new cases, 86 are imported and 27 are locally transmitted, according to the KCDC. 

Local health officials had warned that 293 South Korean workers from Iraq who arrived on Friday would contribute to a surge in new numbers and so far, 36 of them have tested positive.

As of Saturday, 928 people are in quarantine in South Korea, the country's death-toll, meanwhile remains at 298. 

The new cases brings the country's tally of infections to 14,092, with 12,866 having recovered according to the KCDC.

At least one man has been hospitalized in Delaware after 12 people were inadvertently given incorrect Covid-19 test results, according to state officials. 

“In partnership with Walgreens, 2,791 samples were collected for processing through the Delaware Public Health Lab in the first week of testing. In the process of results delivery, 12 persons who tested positive for COVID-19 were inadvertently given negative results by phone due to an internal DPH system error,” a statement from the Delaware Department of Health said. 

The Health Department said that while incorrect results were given over the phone, the correct test results were reported into their surveillance system and were included in statewide testing numbers and the state’s contact tracing system. The state’s health department also said they wanted to assure the public that this was not an error that occurred on site at the Walgreens testing sites. 

Former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Tom Frieden uses hand sanitizer during a hearing on May 6 in Washington. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The first concern with a vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection will be safety, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Thomas Frieden said Friday.

“This is the first time we've had an anti-vaccine movement before we've had the vaccine,” Frieden said in a podcast sponsored by the online news site Axios.

That makes it important to be honest and open with people about the risks, he said. 

One concern is a potential immune reaction to vaccination, he said. “Because some of the adverse outcomes from Covid-19 are immune-regulated, and that raises the theoretical concern that something like the Kawasaki-like illness that you're seeing in rare instances of childhood illness could be a rare adverse event of vaccination,” he said.

Frieden said if a coronavirus vaccine is approved, he’d get one. “If there’s enough vaccine enough to provide for essential workers and particularly health care workers first and it's demonstrated to be safe and effective, I'd be delighted to get vaccinated,” Frieden said.

“There are a lot of hurdles to get over before we actually have a vaccine available, proven to be effective, demonstrated to be safe and widely used,” he added. “First and foremost is safety and efficacy,” he said. “Does it work, how well, for whom, for how long and is it safe?”

So far 25 vaccines are in human trials around the world and 141 more are in preclinical trials, according to the World Health Organization.

But a vaccine will not be the only solution to the pandemic. “I think what we have to get past is the idea that there is one thing that’s going to make Covid go away,” Frieden said.

Lounge chairs sit stacked on a beach while temporarily closed in Nassau, Bahamas, on Friday, April 24. Melissa Alcena/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Following a warning of a “grave health crisis,” the Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis announced the country would go into an emergency weekend lockdown after a surge in Covid-19 cases since reopening on July 1. 

On Friday, the Bahamian Ministry of Health reported 42 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total so far to 316.

Minnis said that other than essential workers, all Bahamians would be required to remain in their homes through the weekend. Exceptions would be made for people to buy food and seek medical aid, he added.

All religious services, dining in restaurants and social gatherings are canceled through the weekend, Minnis said, adding that the Bahamas will likely continue to institute lockdowns during the weekends moving forward.

Minnis also announced he was reversing an order that went into effect Wednesday that banned commercial air travel from the US to the Bahamas.

Instead, he said, the Bahamas would not block tourists from any country but visitors would be required to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival and then test negative for the virus. 

Minnis urged Bahamians not to travel to coronavirus “hotspots” in “neighboring countries.”

Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of food and drugs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on June 30. Al Drago/Pool/Abaca/Sipa USA

The US Food and Drug Administration has authorized the first coronavirus test for asymptomatic Covid-19 cases and for those who don’t think they’re infected with the virus at all.

The agency reissued an emergency use authorization for a LabCorp Covid-19 RT-PCR test after the company provided scientific proof that the test was able to detect the virus in asymptomatic individuals. The RT-PCR test amplifies genetic matter from the virus so it’s detectable.

The emergency use authorization also allows the test to be used on pooled samples.

“Today's authorization eliminates the need for a provider to consider risk factors such as exposure or community spread when prescribing this test,” the FDA said in a statement.

The test could be a game changer for hospitals, businesses, schools and others, the FDA said.

The FDA’s emergency use authorization for the LabCorp test also allows the company to test pooled samples of up to five individual swabs at a time to help test more samples using fewer testing supplies, which are in high demand and short supply in some areas.

"By authorizing another test for use with pooled samples, we also further help increase the possibility that patients may be able to receive results sooner, while also conserving vital testing supplies, which are under increased demand during the pandemic,” Hahn said.

The test is only available through a prescription, the FDA said, and is only authorized for sample collection with LabCorp’s test kits or by a health provider.

The test first received an emergency use authorization in mid-March for testing only on people suspected of having Covid-19 and was not authorized for pool testing.

A health department worker collects patient data from people waiting in line for Covid-19 testing, at a mobile diagnostic tent in Mexico City on July 24. Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Mexico's health ministry announced 7,573 new Covid-19 infections on Friday, bringing the nationwide total to 378,285.

The ministry also reported 737 new deaths due to the virus, raising the country’s death toll to 42,645.

Despite the rising number of new cases, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reiterated his claim Friday that the coronavirus pandemic is "losing steam" in the country and attributed the new case numbers to an increase in testing capacity and a delay in updating the new cases.

“We need to find a balance between health and economic situation, reopening carefully, practicing all the protocols, but we can't stay immobilized. If we open and there's an outbreak, we will close again,” Obrador said.