“We now have really clear evidence that wearing masks works — it’s probably a 50% protection against transmission,” Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, or IHME, at the University of Washington, told CNN late Tuesday.
President Donald Trump has foregone face coverings in public while his presumptive rival Joe Biden has worn one, staking their ground in the partisan debate over whether masks are a paranoid restriction or a necessary precaution.
Illinois appears to be entering a “downward trend,” with the week ending May 16 being the first with a lower number of coronavirus deaths than the week before, Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said at a news conference.
New York, the hardest-hit state for the virus, reported Monday that 73 residents died in a single day, the lowest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic in the US, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.
The state has reported 99,810 cases and 3,826 deaths, but hospitalizations have been declining slightly over the past two weeks, and the number of those in ICU beds remains stable, the governor said.
