Hurricane Isaias ripped shingles off roofs and blew over trees as it carved its way through the Bahamas early on Saturday and headed toward the Florida coast, where officials in Miami said they were closing beaches, marinas and parks.

Source: Florida closes beaches as Hurricane Isaias barrels through Bahamas | US news | The Guardian

The opening of the hospital comes a day after city leader Carrie Lam announced the postponement of upcoming legislative elections for a year, saying that the decision is purely protecting public health and has “nothing to do with politics”.

More than 2,000 new infections have been detected since the start of July – 60 per cent of the total since the virus first hit the city in late January.

The new makeshift hospital set up at the city’s AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition centre near the airport, will take in Covid-19 patients aged from 18 to 60.

“Our goal is to triage the patients from the community and provide them with appropriate treatment and hospitalisation arrangement,” Dr Larry Lee from the Hospital Authority told media, adding that around 20 to 30 patients are expected to be admitted on the first day.

Dr Lee said that arriving patients will go through X-rays as well as blood, saliva and heart tests. If found unstable, patients will be sent to hospitals while stable ones will get treatment and put under medical observation at the facility.

Source: Hong Kong opens makeshift hospital for Covid-19 patients, East Asia News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Store owners across the country have chosen not to comply with COVID-19 health instructions issued by the Health Ministry on Saturday and opened their businesses as usual. Police officers informed store workers and owners that they are in violation of the coronavirus regulations but no fines were issued, The Jerusalem Post‘s sister publication Maariv, reported on Saturday.

Source: Store owners ignore COVID-19 health restrictions, open businesses anyway – The Jerusalem Post

Abbott said local health authorities can’t shut down in-person instruction before school starts, but an outbreak on campus once students have arrived could prompt a closure.

Source: Gov. Greg Abbott outlines when Texas schools can shut down | The Texas Tribune

The SignatureCare charges shocked experts who study health care costs. Charging $2,479 for a drive-thru COVID-19 test is a “nauseating” example of profiteering during a pandemic, said Niall Brennan, president and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit organization that studies health care prices. “It’s one of the most egregious examples of giving the fox the keys to the henhouse I’ve ever seen and yet another example of the absurdity of U.S. health care pricing.

“Imagine a vendor in any other walk of life being allowed to bill a third party for whatever amount they wanted,” Brennan said.

Source: How a $175 COVID-19 test in Texas led to $2,479 in charges | The Texas Tribune

Nonye Imo, a resident physician in Dallas, said the state’s response had been terrible.

“The economy was prioritized over human life. The desire to make money was prioritized over human life,” Imo said. “That is terrible. The current people who are in charge who fumbled this response need to be voted out.”

Imo said she had already witnessed the toll the virus has taken on herself and her colleagues.

“I got assigned to the ICU the first month of my program. We have had to limit visitors so people cannot visit their family members who are critically ill,” Imo said. “But the attendings I work with in the Covid unit are bearing the brunt of it.”

Imo said it was an overwhelming time to be entering medicine.

“I have grown to think about medicine as a calling but it’s interesting for that idea to be tested so early in my career,” Imo said. “I’m willing to take the risk but I didn’t think I’d have to take it on so early.”

When asked about Texas’s outlook over the next few months, she said: “The community spread rate is so high. The word pandemic is not just being used to scare people. The media is not blowing it up. This is serious.”

Source: Texas ‘wide open for business’ despite surge in Covid-19 cases | US news | The Guardian

CREW says Miller violated the act while appearing “in his official capacity” for a Friday morning interview on the Fox News program Fox and Friends. During the interview, Miller spoke disparagingly about former Vice President Joe Biden and touted Trump’s accomplishments while standing in outside the White House.

“This administration continues to use its official powers improperly to assist the president’s re-election and to chip away at the checks and balances that preserve our democracy,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “It is well past time for those like Stephen Miller, who show an open disdain for ethics laws like the Hatch Act and who illegally use official resources to promote the president’s re-election bid, to be held accountable for their actions.”

Source: Stephen Miller Violated Hatch Act by Criticizing Biden, Watchdog Group Says

Lead researcher Professor Nikolai Petrovsky said the vaccine candidate had been shown to be safe and to induce antibodies that attack the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

“We’ve had no major side-effects in any of the subjects,” said Professor Petrovsky.

He said the vaccine had also shown positive results in trials on animals in the United States in protecting them from COVID-19 infection.

Source: South Australian coronavirus vaccine candidate shows positive results in phase one human trials – ABC News

Source: elon musk: ‘China rocks’, says Tesla CEO Elon Musk – Latest News | Gadgets Now