 Welcome to the Coronavirus Weekly Brief. We're your hosts. I'm David Sturman. And I'm Melissa Sallick-Virk with New America. Here are the headlines you need to know. Over the weekend, Beijing closed Sinfidae Market, the city's largest fruit and vegetable market, and locked down neighboring housing districts, as dozens of people connected to the market tested positive for coronavirus. The new infections have raised concerns across China for resurgence, and Beijing is taking aggressive measures to slow the virus Local officials reported Saturday that of 500 samples and tests gathered from the market, to 45 people who tested positive did not show symptoms. On Sunday, China recorded more than 50 new cases, all linked to community spread from the market. On Monday, a health official said that more than 76,000 people linked to Sinfidae Market had been tested, including almost 13,000 of the roughly 29,000 who had recently visited the market. Zhu Hishan, a spokesperson for the Beijing government, discussed the new cases, quote, we would like to warn everyone not to drop their guard even for a second in epidemic prevention control. We must be prepared for a prolonged fight with the virus. We have to stay alert to the risks of imported cases and to the fact that epidemic control in our city is complicated and serious and will be here for a long time, unquote. The new cases resulted in China reporting its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in two months. The new numbers also included China's first locally transmitted cases in almost two months. A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that wearing a face mask may be the central variable that determines the spread of the coronavirus reports for us. According to the journal article, the researchers from Texas A&M University, University of Texas at Austin, California Institute of Technology and University of California San Diego quantified the effects of face covering by projecting the number of infections based on the data prior to implementing the use of face masks in Italy on April 6th and New York City on April 17th and found that face masks reduced infections in Italy between April 6th through May 9th by over 78,000 and in New York City by over 66,000. Further, the paper notes, quote, the inability of social distancing, quarantine, and isolation alone to curb the spread of COVID-19 is also evident from the linearity of the infection curve prior to the onset of the face covering rule in Italy on April 6th and in New York City on April 17th, unquote. Between March 1 through May 9, the researchers found that there was a sharp increase in cases in the United States and New York City in late March to early April but a slower increase after stay-at-home orders began. In summary, the report notes, with social distancing, quarantine and isolation in place worldwide and in the United States since the beginning of April, airborne transmission represents the only viable route for spreading the disease when mandated face covering is not implemented. Hence, the unique function of face covering to block atomization and inhalation of virus-bearing aerosols accounts for the significantly reduced infections in China, Italy, and NYC. Indicating that airborne transmission of COVID-19 represents the dominant route for infection. This paper reiterates what other research has indicated regarding the ability of aerosolized particles to dissolve or disperse outdoors, making transmission less likely. According to one of the research authors, Mario Molina, quote, our study establishes very clearly that using a face mask is not only useful to prevent infected coughing droplets from reaching uninfected persons but is also crucial for these uninfected persons to avoid breathing the minute atmospheric particles aerosols that infected people emit when talking and that can remain in the atmosphere tens of minutes and can travel tens of feet, unquote. Block and other minority communities are likely to face a new crisis as the federal moratorium on evictions promulgated in response to the pandemic is set to expire on July 31st, reports Politico. While the expiration will have broad effects, it will hit blocks in Latinos particularly hard as they are about two times as likely to rent as whites. As for the number of people facing evictions, the Department of Housing and Urban Development stated that it does not have those numbers available. Many people will not be able to afford rent and thus face eviction once the moratorium lifts as a result of the spike in unemployment due to the virus, a spike that has also disproportionately affected minority communities. U.S. states continue to grapple with managing rising coronavirus cases while reopening their economies. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new set of state coronavirus forecasts on Friday indicating several states will have new mortality numbers that will, quote, likely exceed the number reported over the last four weeks, unquote. Those states include Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, North Carolina, Utah, and Vermont. According to Harvard University professor of global health, Dr. Ashish Jha, quote, we really never quite finished the first wave, unquote, adding, quote, and it doesn't look like we're going to anytime soon, unquote. The peak of new coronavirus cases in the United States hit an average of close to 31,000 on April 10th. The current daily count of new cases is close to 22,000 and has hovered around this number since the middle of May. Still, more than 800 Americans die each day due to COVID-19 reports NPR. Further, NPR notes that additional deaths by October 1st could range between 56,000 to 90,000, according to two estimates. The CDC began releasing some coronavirus case and death estimates in April by a model created by Yu Yang Gu, an independent researcher. Gu's model projects that by October 1st total U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 could be 198,560. The University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, IHME, model projects 169,890 deaths by October 1st. The IHME model was often used as a reference during the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefings. Part of the United States problem is the reproduction number or R value of the virus. The R value identifies the average of how many people an individual can spread the virus to once infected. Any value above one can lead to exponential growth, writes Reuters. If only half of a given population wore a mask, the R value would be less than one. NPR notes that if the R value is higher, such as two, quote, then one person goes on to infect two others. Those two people go on to infect four others. Those four go on to infect eight, then 16, and so on. If you assume, say, a six-day interval between each new round of infections, in just over a month, that one initial person will have launched a chain that has infected 127 people, unquote. Because of states' stay-at-home orders, the R value reduced to 0.91, according to GU. However, as states' economies are reopening, the R value was hovering just above one. According to IHME head Chris Murray, quote, we start to see a powerful increase that will be driven by seasonality starting in early September, and these numbers will intensify through till February, unquote. Deaths from the coronavirus will likely decrease in the hot summer months of June and July, stay constant in August, and then rise sharply in September, reports CNN. As we have covered in previous daily briefs, lockdown orders in the United States prompted debates over access to abortion services, and whether abortion constituted an essential service, or could be restricted as some Republican-led states sought to do. These tensions, however, are not restricted to the United States, as explored in a Sunday New York Times report. In Poland, for example, abortion is illegal under most circumstances, but many Polish women would leave for other European countries to seek an abortion, a method that became impossible as borders closed to prevent the pandemic's spread. Meanwhile, even where abortion is legal in Europe, many countries did not categorize it as an essential service. Among those countries were Germany, Austria, Romania, Croatia, and Slovakia, yet other European countries saw loosened restrictions. The Times reports, quote, France, Ireland, and England, Scotland, and Wales in Britain all loosened restrictions and permitted at home abortions with medication administered by prescription and the guidance of a medical professional over the phone or online. In the New Delhi region, 500 train carriages, 40 hotels, and 77 banquet halls will be converted into makeshift hospitals for COVID-19 patients. Over the weekend, Home Minister Amit Shah met with Delhi's Chief Minister, Arvind Kedrival, to discuss the pandemic, particularly in the New Delhi area, and announced plans to use 500 train cars for hospital beds. This will increase the number of available beds in the Delhi area to 8,000, reports Reuters. In addition, the Delhi government will use, quote, 40 hotels and 77 banquet halls as makeshift hospitals, unquote, reports the BBC. At least 9,195 Indians have died from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data. And India has at least 320,922 confirmed coronavirus cases, reports the BBC, and its daily count of new cases is nearly 12,000. According to the Hindustan Times, Delhi's case count is now 41,182, increasing by 2,224 new cases, which is, quote, highest ever single day spike so far, unquote. By the end of July, Delhi's number of coronavirus cases will likely reach more than 500,000. To see our daily brief, go to the address in our show notes and follow us on Twitter at New America ISP. And tune in next Monday for our next episode.