The U.S. reported 52,789 new COVID-19 cases July 1, the largest single-day total since the pandemic began, according to The Washington Post.
The July 1 tally marks the fifth record increase recorded in the past eight days as cases continue to surge across the U.S.
Six key updates:
1. At least 19 states have paused or rolled back reopenings as COVID-19 infections surge, CNN reports. California, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia all reported single-day records for new COVID-19 cases July 1, according to The Washington Post. Currently, the virus is spreading fastest in Nevada with a 1.48 reproduction rate.
2. Smell tests could supplement temperature checks, some experts say, according to STAT. Many workplaces and businesses use temperature checks to identify potential COVID-19 cases, though the virus can spread before an infected person has a fever. A new study at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic found that COVID-19 patients were 27 times more likely than others to lose their sense of smell, but only 2.6 times more likely to have fever or chills. "My impression is that anosmia is an earlier symptom of COVID-19 relative to fever, and some infected people can have anosmia and nothing else," Andrew Badley, MD, a physician who leads a virus lab at Mayo Clinic, told STAT. "So it's potentially a more sensitive screen for asymptomatic patients."
3. Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine generated an immune response in clinical trial participants, according to data cited by STAT. However, some patients developed fevers or had difficulty sleeping after receiving the vaccine, especially at higher doses. The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was published in the preprint server medRXiv.
4. The U.S. saw 122,300 more deaths from March 1 to May 30, potentially due to COVID-19, a new analysis suggests. The study, published in JAMA Network Open, used data from the National Center for Health Statistics to evaluate the numbers of U.S. deaths from any cause, along with deaths from pneumonia, the flu and/or COVID-19. These numbers were compared to those from the same period in previous years. Deaths due to all causes were 28 percent higher than the reported number of COVID-19 deaths, leading researchers to believe official COVID-19 death counts underestimate deaths tied to the pandemic.
5. Federal health officials are working to increase plasma collection from recovered COVID-19 patients, sources told The Wall Street Journal. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of HHS, is asking the American Red Cross and other blood donor organizations to collect 400,000 units or more of convalescent plasma to help treat current COVID-19 patients.
6. More than 1.4 million Americans filed initial unemployment claims for the week ending June 27, according to seasonally adjusted data released July 2 by the U.S. Department of Labor. About 55,000 fewer claims were filed this week than last week.
Snapshot of COVID-19 in the U.S.
Cases: 2,686,587
Deaths: 128,062
Recovered: 729,994
Counts reflect data available as of 8:05 a.m. CDT July 2.