babies Newborn tests positive for COVID, showing virus can infect before birth, doctors say Doctors have found several cases of newborn babies testing positive for the coronavirus, including triplets born recently in Mexico. But for the first time, researchers confirmed that unborn babies can contract the virus while they’re still in the womb, according to a new study. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, says a 23-year-old in France was just over 35 weeks pregnant when she went to the hospital and tested positive for COVID-19. Doctors did a cesarean section and found the baby also had the virus. The doctors reported they found coronavirus cells in the amniotic fluid and the placenta, proving that the baby contracted the virus while still in the womb. “Transmission is indeed possible in the last weeks of pregnancy, although we cannot exclude a possible transmission and fetal consequences earlier during the pregnancy, as there are no definite literature data available yet,” the doctors said. They said that there have been other cases where doctors suspected newborn babies contracted the virus from their mothers in the womb — but had not been able to find definitive proof that was the case. In this case, the doctors said they showed the coronavirus went through the placenta and into the baby’s bloodstream. The baby boy showed signs of brain inflammation likely caused by the virus. UK Masks Why has England changed its policy on face masks? Wearing a face covering in shops and supermarkets in England is to become mandatory from 24 July. The move will bring England into line with Scotland and other major European nations like Spain, Italy and Germany. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been seen wearing a mask in public for the first time recently in a seeming change of attitude about how they may reduce the risk of infection. Trisha Greenhalgh, a professor at Oxford University, explains how research has made many more see them as necessary, and BBC correspondent Rob Watson outlines how the British government have approached the issue.

CDC White House Orders Hospitals to Bypass CDC Even as Agency Director Prepares for ‘the Most Difficult Times’ The White House is now requiring hospitals around the country to change how they report data on COVID-19 patients in a move that effectively bypasses the nation’s largest public health agency. In a letter from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency mandated that hospitals send information on their COVID-19 patients directly to a database managed by HHS rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).