Health officials in the U.S. are concerned that the nationwide protests over George Floyd's death in police custody
could fuel a surge in new coronavirus cases.
Demonstrators in the past week have been seen in packed locations, not practicing social distancing. Many were without masks as they chanted, shouted or sang. The virus is said to be dispersed by microscopic droplets in the air when people cough, sneeze, talk or sing. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has
urged protesters to get tested for the virus.
Health officials' fears come amid
optimism in the treatment of coronavirus. Gilead Sciences said on Monday that remdesivir, the experimental drug being tested for COVID-19, showed that 65 percent of moderately ill patients had improvement after 11 days.
There is also
some cautious optimism in Colorado as officials on Monday reported no new deaths linked directly to the novel coronavirus for the second straight day. Coronavirus deaths in the Centennial State have continued to decline since peaking in mid-April, the Denver Post reported.
The city of Wuhan, China, where the COVID-19 outbreak first emerged, recently launched a campaign to test every one of its 11 million residents for the virus. Less than two weeks into the drive, the city has tested about 6.5 million residents, The New York Times reported May 26.
U.S. cities could adopt a similar "pooled testing" strategy to screen many residents at once and keep abreast of new waves of infection — but the approach only works as long as the overall prevalence of COVID-19 remains low, experts told Live Science.
And
cancer patients infected with COVID-19 had a much higher risk of dying within a month than non-cancerous COVID-19 patients, recent studies say.
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