Coronavirus live updates: California and Florida hit by surging infections as Fauci warns of renewed shutdowns

The coronavirus pandemic continues to accelerate globally as the virus reaches new communities and countries struggle to get their outbreaks under control, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday.

“The virus can be brought under control,” Tedros said in his opening remarks to a member states mission briefing in Geneva. “But in most of the world, the virus is not under control; it’s getting worse.”

Many countries have managed to largely contain the virus to small clusters of infection that can be controlled, Tedros said, by using fundamental strategies like testing, contact tracing and isolating. 

Tedros also announced the formation of a new independent panel to evaluate the global coronavirus pandemic response, including the WHO’s actions. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response will be co-chaired by the former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark and the former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. —Will Feuer

Online shopping during pandemic hurting grocers’ bottom line

For grocers, the popularity of online shopping during the pandemic may seem like good news — but it’s actually hurting the bottom line.

In a new report, Bain & Co. says grocers are on the clock to fix their broken business model as e-commerce becomes a more meaningful part of their market. It urged companies to start charging fees, invest in automation and look for new revenue streams, like charging consumer packaged goods companies to put free samples in virtual baskets.

Online shopping accounted for 5.1% of grocery sales in the U.S. at the end of 2019 and rose to 6.6% as of April 12, according to Bain. It also increased in places including United Kingdom, France and Italy, according to the report.

Bain’s report played out different scenarios that could have an influence if the shift in consumer habits sticks or intensifies, such as when a Covid-19 vaccine is ready and if there’s a second wave this fall. Regardless, though, it said the pandemic’s effect resembles “someone pressing the fast-forward button on the industry by several years.” 

Steve Caine, one of the report’s authors, described the upward trend as “a wake-up call.”

“You can’t just run it at a loss,” he said. “You can’t ignore the fundamental economic equation any longer.” —Melissa Repko

As the coronavirus ravages the southern and western United States, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is calling for a narrower relief plan than the White House supported earlier this year.

In a CNBC interview Thursday, Mnuchin said the White House would support direct payments to individuals and a change to the $600 per week federal unemployment benefit set to expire at the end of July. He did not say at what income threshold he would want the checks to Americans to phase out, or how the Trump administration wants to structure ongoing relief to unemployed individuals. 

Mnuchin also cast doubts on sending more relief to state and local governments, saying he did not want to “bail out” states “mismanaged” before the pandemic. 

Congress will return from its Fourth of July break later this month and will only have two weeks to craft a new bill before its August recess. Democrats want sweeping relief including direct payments, hazard pay, money for states and municipalities and rent and mortgage aid as the rapidly spreading pandemic has killed more than 132,000 Americans. 

President Donald Trump has largely shrugged off the severity of the crisis as he cheers for an economic recovery ahead of the 2020 election. —Jacob Pramuk

California and Florida were among 12 states that hit a record-breaking, seven-day average for daily new cases on Wednesday, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Across the U.S., coronavirus cases grew in 40 states, as of Wednesday, based on a seven-day moving average, according to the analysis. Nationally, cases grew by more than 20% compared to one week ago. 

California had 7,697 new confirmed cases based on a seven-day moving average, which is more than 26% higher compared with a week ago, according to the analysis.

Florida’s seven-day average of daily new cases stood at 9,255 as of Wednesday — a nearly 30% jump since last week. 

Florida also saw a jump in the percentage of positive Covid-19 tests at 18.4% on Wednesday, after Vice President Mike Pence said the states so-called positivity rate was “flattening.”

The number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 also grew by 5% or more Wednesday in 25 states, based on a seven-day moving average, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project. Of the 25 states, 13 hit record highs in average hospitalizations. They include Arizona, California, South Carolina and Texas. —Jasmine Kim

American Airlines and United Airlines have called off service to Hong Kong after local health officials said they would require crews to undergo Covid-19 tests upon arrival, the latest hurdle to airlines’ plans to resume regular international routes.

The deep throat saliva samples would be collected when crews arrive in Hong Kong, the city’s health officials said this week. Airline crews would be subject to local hospitalization if they test positive.

American planned to resume flights to Hong Kong on Thursday after suspending them in February as the disease was spreading worldwide but said it would postpone them further, to Aug. 5. American’s pilots’ union, the Allied Pilots Association, said it discussed concerns about the testing requirements with management.

United said it was suspending flights through Friday and that the decision affects both passenger and cargo flights. —Leslie Josephs

States that are grappling with an expanding coronavirus outbreak should seriously consider shutting down, as the country did in March, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said.

“What we are seeing is exponential growth. It went from an average of about 20,000 to 40,000 and 50,000. That’s doubling. If you continue doubling, two times 50 is 100,” Fauci said on a Wall Street Journal podcast. “Any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down. It’s not for me to say because each state is different.”

The U.S. continues to push new records of daily increases in new coronavirus cases. Arizona, California, Florida and Texas have accounted for nearly half of all new cases in the U.S. in recent days. The recent surge has overwhelmed some aspects of the U.S. response, including testing. Some labs have said turnaround time to process a diagnostic test could take six days in some areas.

“There still is a lag of time when you get the test back and if you’re going to do contact tracing and the tests come back in five to seven days, you might as well not do contact tracing because it’s already too late,” Fauci said. —Will Feuer

The CDC will issue additional information to help schools reopen in the fall but is not revising guidelines that President Donald Trump criticized as too tough and impractical, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told ABC’s” Good Morning America.”  

“It’s not a revision of the guidelines, it’s just to provide additional information to help schools be able to use the guidance that we put forward,” Redfield said.

On Wednesday, Trump threatened on Twitter to withhold federal funding from schools that do not resume in-person classes this fall. Vice President Mike Pence said five new documents from the CDC will contain guidelines that are not as “tough” as the current guidelines.

Those guidelines call for students to stay 6 feet apart and wear face masks, among other priorities.

“It’s not a question of opening schools versus public health,” Redfield told ABC. “My position is that the public health of the students of this nation is best served by getting these schools reopened.”

 Redfield also said the CDC puts out guidelines, not requirements, and that he personally and the CDC would be saddened if the guidelines were used to keep schools closed. –Suzanne Blake

Stocks opened slightly higher after data showed a larger-than-expected fall in weekly jobless claims. The S&P 500 gained 0.2% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded just above the flatline. The Nasdaq Composite outperformed, rising 0.7% to a fresh record high. —Melodie Warner

Walgreens Boots Alliance will cut over 4,000 jobs in its Boots UK business and shutter 48 of its optician centers in Britain, as the pandemic hurt sales and increased expenses.

The global drugstore chain reported its fiscal third quarter took a hit as it filled fewer prescriptions, spent more on staff and sanitizing and saw a drop in foot traffic. Its international business, in particular, dragged down its sales.

That steep drop means the company needs to cut costs through layoffs and other measures, the company said. Walgreens, which was already in the middle of a cost-cutting effort, has raised its goal to more than $2 billion in annual savings by 2022. —Melissa Repko

Weekly jobless claims were lower than expected last week as employees slowly returned to work in the wake of rising coronavirus cases, reports CNBC’s Jeff Cox.

The government said initial jobless claims hit 1.314 million last week, compared with a Dow Jones estimate of 1.39 million. The number marked a small decline from the previous week’s total of 1.43 million, but weekly claims have stayed above 1 million for 15 consecutive weeks. —Yun Li

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that schools and universities will reopen next week as he looks to ease restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported.

Sobyanin said schools, universities, cultural centers and summer camps are the next group of spaces to reopen in the city. Residents will also no longer be required to wear masks outside but will still be required to do so in stores, medical facilities and on public transportation, Sobyanin said.

Theaters, concert halls and sporting venues can open next month as long as they remain at half capacity, according to Reuters.

Russia reported 6,509 new coronavirus cases Thursday, bringing to total to 707,301, the fourth largest in the world, according to Reuters’ tally. Their tally also reports 10,843 coronavirus deaths in the country since the pandemic began. —Alex Harring

A prominent disease control body in Africa has urged countries across the continent to ramp up testing for the coronavirus, Reuters reported, shortly after the number of regional cases surpassed 500,000.

“The pandemic is gaining momentum,” John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a virtual news briefing. 

He urged countries to encourage citizens to wear face masks and carry out testing and tracing measures. 

To date, more than 522,000 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in Africa, with 12,206 related deaths, according to data compiled by Africa CDC. —Sam Meredith.

Hong Kong, hailed for its early and aggressive coronavirus response, is now grappling with rising cases for the second day in a row as the city reported 42 new cases on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Hong Kong has reported just 1,366 cases and seven deaths since the virus first spread there, Reuters said. Officials quickly stamped out the outbreak without having to shut down the city by testing aggressively, conducting detailed contact tracing and isolating anyone who might have been exposed to the virus. 

In light of the cluster of new cases, authorities said they will cap the number of people at each table in a restaurant to eight, and no more than four people will be allowed to sit at a bar together, beginning midnight on Friday, Reuters reported. —Will Feuer

Read CNBC’s previous coronavirus live coverage here: California ramps up hospital capacity as cases surge