Coronavirus daily news updates, July 7: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world – Seattle Times

Paid on-street parking and hourly parking enforcement will resume July 13, the Seattle Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.

Drivers will pay $0.50 per hour in all zones.

That rate will be in place for “at least a month” as the department reviews parking data and commerce activity in neighborhood business districts. Further rate increases could come later this year.

Seattle temporarily eliminated paid and time-limited street parking rules on April 3 in the wake of Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-at-home order, to facilitate “access to essential businesses” and “prevent residents from worrying about accruing tickets while they remain at home.”

In some neighborhoods, like First Hill, parking had cost $5 in the evening prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city planned to phase paid parking back in as the stay-at-home restrictions eased.

Seattle also installed temporary vehicle loading zones near businesses to allow customers to pick up takeout orders, and suspended its 72-hour parking rule during the pandemic.

The city converted some on-street parking spaces near restaurants into loading zones intended for meal pickups and offered free on-street parking to staff at several hospitals in Seattle. Towing, the city said, would be limited to “situations which create safety hazards, block access or create other major issues.”

Starting Monday for two weeks, parking enforcement officers will focus on education about the reinstated parking rules, SDOT said.

The Trump administration has awarded a contract worth $1.6 billion to a Maryland biotechnology company to develop a coronavirus vaccine, the largest bet yet by the federal government on an individual vaccine to combat the pandemic.

The deal with Novavax, a publicly traded company based in Gaithersburg, will pay for late-stage clinical trials and secure 100 million doses of the vaccine to be used by the United States, the company said Tuesday. Novavax already has an ambitious manufacturing plan underway and said it expects to have 100 million doses ready for distribution in late 2020 and early 2021, if clinical trial data shows the vaccine is safe and effective.

Novavax is among multiple companies pushing ahead with manufacturing plans without yet knowing whether their vaccines will work, a strategy designed to speed a vaccine to the population as rapidly as possible.

The Novavax contract award via President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccination effort eclipses the $1.2 billion deal struck with AstraZeneca in May for 300 million doses of the vaccine. The government also has vaccine development contracts with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson that each fall in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The government is funding the development of multiple vaccine candidates based on an assumption that some may not work. Of those that are effective, more than one vaccine probably will be required to inoculate billions of people in the United States and around the world against the virus.

Read the full story here.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro says he has tested positive for COVID-19 after months of downplaying the virus’s severity.

Bolsonaro confirmed the test results while wearing a mask and speaking to reporters in capital Brasilia.

“I’m well, normal. I even want to take a walk around here, but I can’t due to medical recommendations,” Bolsonaro said.

The president has often appeared in public to shake hands with supporters and mingle with crowds, at times without a mask. He has said that his history as an athlete would protect him from the virus, and that it would be nothing more than a “little flu” were he to contract it.

Read the full story here.

The personal protective gear that was in dangerously short supply during the early weeks of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. is running low again as the virus resumes its rapid spread and the number of hospitalized patients climbs.

A national nursing union is concerned that gear has to be reused. A doctors association warns that physicians’ offices are closed because they cannot get masks and other supplies. And Democratic members of Congress are pushing the Trump administration to devise a national strategy to acquire and distribute gear in anticipation of the crisis worsening into the fall.

Read the full story here.

Thousands of Australians got just an hour’s notice before the government banned them from leaving home.

Now, after a new wave of coronavirus infections, officials are imposing restrictions on some 5 million more people in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city.

Blame is flying in the state of Victoria, a giant exception in one of the world’s most successful countries at containing the coronavirus.

Read the full story here.

Florida’s top school official issued a sweeping executive order Monday requiring all schools in the state to reopen their buildings for in-person instruction for the coming school year, even as coronavirus cases in the state continued to rise.

Read the full story here.

Dina Pupera got misty-eyed packing up her salon, Columbia City Cuts. But then she was on to her next business model: mobile haircuts and styling services. See her story, enjoy the photos and check our breakdown of what you can do as each county reopens, from getting haircuts to taking fitness classes.

Starting today, Washington businesses must turn you away if you’re not wearing a face covering. (Here’s what researchers have found about the most effective non-medical masks, and how to wear a face mask properly.)

Washington state confirmed 1,087 additional coronavirus cases yesterday, noting the numbers were not just from the previous 24 hours.

The U.S. is on a harrowing coronavirus seesaw. Restaurant and gym doors slammed shut again yesterday as hospitals across the Sunbelt neared capacity with COVID-19 cases, and Atlanta’s mayor was stunned by her positive test. Big retailers are begging governors to mandate masks.

The CDC quietly added to its list of COVID-19 symptoms. Here’s what it says, and our updating list of where to get tested in the Seattle area.

Two Tom Douglas restaurants are permanently closed. Bravehorse Tavern and Trattoria Cuoco are in the heart of Amazon turf, an uncertain place to be these days.

“I’m not ready to go back to restaurants. Is anyone?” New York Times restaurant critic Tejal Rao writes about the consequences we’re seeing as restaurateurs are left to make life-changing decisions that affect public health. Health officials recommend diners know the risks and take precautions. Here’s our updating list of the Seattle-area restaurants offering takeout, delivery and — for those who are ready — dining-room service.

Kanye West, the Girl Scouts and hedge funds: All of them got PPP loans under the federal program that aimed to minimize layoffs at small businesses amid the pandemic. When you look at the newly released list, seven unlikely recipients jump out. High-priced law firms and lobbyists also raked in the dough.

Close contact: South Dakota’s governor joined President Donald Trump on Air Force One on Friday after hugging Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, who had tested positive for the virus. Gov. Kristi Noem didn’t wear a mask as she chatted with the president.