Vice President Mike Pence has said supplies of personal protective equipment remain strong, but the Trump administration will still release guidance encouraging front-line health care workers to "preserve and reuse" PPE. He also urges states that have reported a recent increase in COVID-19 cases to do more to restrict public gatherings to slow the spread of the virus.

The US marked another record spike in COVID-19 cases Tuesday, logging 60,021 new infections, with California, Arizona, Florida and Texas accounting for nearly half of new cases in recent days. An analysis of COVID-19 data showed the number of cases has risen by at least 5% in 37 states during the last seven days, while hospitalizations have risen by at least 5% in 24 states.

A study in JAMA Network Open that followed nearly 300 infants known or suspected to have been infected with Zika in utero found developmental and neurological issues even among those born without microcephaly. Such children should be monitored continuously during their early years for possible developmental delays, study author Jessica Cranston says.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimates that more than half of new COVID-19 cases were transmitted by presymptomatic and asymptomatic patients, highlighting the role of silent disease transmission as a significant driver of COVID-19 outbreaks. The findings "underscore the need for mitigation strategies, such as contact tracing, that detect and isolate infectious individuals prior to the onset of symptoms," researchers said.

Taking proton pump inhibitors twice a day is associated with an increased risk for COVID-19, according to data from an online survey of more than 50,000 US adults published as a preprint manuscript in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. "This study does not mean that people on PPIs should just stop their medicines," said Brennan Spiegel, MD, the journal's co-editor-in-chief and the study's corresponding study author, who added that the benefits of PPIs are greater than the risks and that "the decision about whether, when and how to modify PPI dosing should be based on a thoughtful assessment of the risk-benefit ratio for individual patients." Read the study.

Researchers found that 83.9% and 46.8% of patients with confirmed COVID-19 had abdominal pain and nausea/vomiting, respectively, and most of them had multifocally distributed ground-glass opacities in lung base CT scans and elevated C-reactive protein and D-dimer levels. The findings, published in European Radiology, should prompt increased radiologist awareness of atypical manifestations of COVID-19, researchers wrote.

Experts at the World Health Organization are reconsidering guidance on how coronavirus spreads in the wake of emerging evidence from a group of scientists who say the virus could spread via airborne transmission, as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus notes the pandemic continues to accelerate. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged global leaders against focusing on either health or the economy in the virus fight, noting "we will either win on all fronts or fail on all fronts."

Cellphone location data can help fight the spread of the coronavirus by alerting health officials when crowds form in particular areas, Colorado State University researchers say. "All we have to do is perform the measurements using anonymous data that is already being collected for other reasons. We are not tracking individuals," explains Edwin Chong, a CSU professor.

Close to half of Americans have communicated remotely with a health care provider since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, but just 21% have talked with their provider about using health IT, researchers reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. That lack of dialogue might negatively affect patient-provider communications and patient engagement, said David Haggstrom, senior study author.

Almost 350 health care organizations, advocacy groups and health departments signed a letter urging HHS Secretary Alex Azar to increase efforts to shield the CDC from political interference. "We must amplify the unfettered voice of CDC, not stifle it," the letter said.

US lawmakers from both sides of the aisle agree that a fifth novel coronavirus pandemic stimulus plan is needed and should be passed before they leave Washington for their next recess, but they differ substantially on what the legislation should include. House Democrats have passed an almost $3 trillion bill, but Senate Republicans and the White House want a lower-cost proposal.

In a private call with US governors, HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Vice President Mike Pence strongly indicated that the administration will renew the public health emergency for COVID-19 before it expires this month, sources said. Pence said the administration is working on the extension, and Azar said he couldn't imagine any circumstance in which the declaration would not be renewed, the sources said.

Putting others first is second nature for nurses. But now more than ever, it's important they care for themselves, too. The American Nurses Foundation's Well-Being Initiative offers free support, tools, and resources designed to support the health and well-being of nurses during this difficult time. Explore the Well-Being Initiative here.