July 9 coronavirus news

A Massachusetts man has been arrested after he allegedly pulled a gun on another man during an argument over the victim not wearing a face mask inside a store, according to a statement from the Bridgewater Police Department.

The 59-year-old man from East Bridgewater was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, disorderly conduct, and disturbing the peace, the statement said.

The details: On July 3, around 5:20 p.m., Bridgewater Police responded to a call from the manager at a Walgreen’s Pharmacy, who reported that two men were arguing inside the store about one of them not wearing a face mask.

The argument continued into the parking lot, where one of the men allegedly pulled a gun from his vehicle and pointed it at the other man, who had not been wearing a face mask in the store. The suspect then got in his vehicle and left the scene, police said.

The victim, a 30-year-old Abington man, was not injured, according to Bridgewater Police.

Police later identified the suspect and arrested him at his home. He then complained of a medical issue and was transported to a local hospital.

According to police, his license to carry a firearm and firearms from his home were seized.

When 42 states and Washington, DC, implemented shelter-in-place orders in March and early April to help contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus, they may have prevented as many as 370,000 deaths by the middle of May, according to new research.

The study used models to examine Covid-19 death rates and hospitalizations during shelter-in-place-orders and evidence indicated they “helped reduce Covid-19 cases,” authors Wei Lyu and George L. Wehby said.

Not only did lockdowns help reduce coronavirus cases, the study found, but six weeks later, deaths were down by 6%.

The lockdowns also helped reduce daily hospitalization rates by almost 8.5% in 19 states with the mandates, the analysis found.

“This evidence suggests that shelter-in-place orders have been effective in reducing the daily growth rates of COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations,” the study concluded.

There were 120,000 deaths and 320,000 hospitalizations from Covid-19 by the time the study was peer-reviewed, up from 83,000 deaths and 198,000 coronavirus hospitalizations as of May 15 when the study ended, Lyu and Wehby reported.

Previous studies have also concluded that stay-at-home and shelter-in-place mandates have helped reduce infections and deaths from Covid-19.

Connecticut has 101 new Covid-19 cases and five new deaths due to coronavirus as of this afternoon, according to a statement from Gov. Ned Lamont.

The state now has a total of 47,209 confirmed coronavirus cases and 4,348 deaths. There are 90 people currently hospitalized with Covid-19.

To note: These figures were released by Lamont and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, will be receiving medical assistance teams to help deal with rising hospitalization rates, hospital spokesperson Robert Behrens told CNN on Thursday.

Earlier today, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson tweeted that federal partners are sending disaster assistance teams to their region.

“Our federal partners are sending Disaster Medical Assistance Teams to our region to bolster our medical staffing amid the rise in #COVIDー19 hospitalizations. For now, one hospital in the @CityOfDallas will receive staff,” the tweet said.

The latest statewide numbers: Texas reported at least 105 Covid-19-related deaths on Thursday, which is the highest single-day increase in coronavirus fatalities. This brings the total number of deaths in the state to approximately 2,918. 

Read Johnson’s tweet:

North Carolina has hired more than 480 contact tracers, which means there are more than 1,500 people working on contact tracing, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday. 

The agency also tweeted that it launched an initiative to deploy up to 300 new, no-cost testing sites in underserved communities that currently have limited testing options.

As of Thursday, North Carolina had a total of 79,349 Covid-19 cases and at least 1,034 people were hospitalized, the public health agency said. At least 1,461 people have died from the virus in the state.

Wisconsin reported at least 754 new cases on Thursday – its highest number of new confirmed coronavirus in a single day. 

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health’s website, the second largest increase of new coronavirus cases in the state was on July 4 with about 738 new cases.

In total, at least 33,908 cases of coronavirus have been reported statewide and at least 809 people have died from the virus, according to the health department.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services urged people to practice physical distancing and to wear a mask when appropriate. 

Note: These numbers were released by Wisconsin Department of Health, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is skeptical about the prospects of getting the Covid-19 pandemic under control without a vaccine.

“This virus, to our dismay, is spectacularly efficient in transmitting from person to person. So that makes me skeptical whether we would get permanent, sustained control of this without having a vaccine,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Thursday on Podcast-19, FiveThirtyEight’s weekly podcast on Covid-19.

He does think the pandemic can be controlled.

Despite the urgency, Fauci said regulators and vaccine makers are doing everything in their power to make sure it is effective and safe.

“We got to get it right. We really do,” Fauci said. “Because if we don’t, it might have a real negative impact in the long range, in the long term, on how people approach and respond to the need for vaccination, which is the reason why we’re taking so seriously that even though we’re doing this quickly, we’re not compromising the safety and nor are we compromising the scientific integrity.” 

As some European countries are starting to reopen their borders during the pandemic, the European Union will ban most travelers from the US for now.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he thinks that’s “understandable.”

“So right now, they have their infection rate very low, much lower than we do. So they’re looking at us and they’re saying the same thing that we said to them,” Fauci said on Podcast-19, FiveThirtyEight’s weekly podcast on Covid-19.

The US banned travel to the US from China, Europe, and the UK in March.  

Some background: The EU travel ban went into effect on July 1. The US has recorded more cases and deaths than anywhere in the world. Brazil, Russia and India – the three nations with the highest numbers of cases after the US – have also been excluded from the EU’s list of safe countries.

The decision is based on whether a country has a similar or better epidemiological situation than Europe, as well as comparable hygiene and containment measures.

Brazilian army soldiers disinfect the outside area of the presidential residence, Alvorada Palace, on Thursday, July 9, in Brasilia, Brazil.

Brazil is approaching nearly 70,000 fatalities from novel coronavirus after its health ministry reported at least 1,220 new deaths in the last 24 hours.

The nationwide death toll now stands at approximately 69,184.

The ministry also reported at least 42,619 new Covid-19 cases Thursday, bringing the total to approximately 1,755,779.

Some context: Brazil maintains the second highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths worldwide behind the US. On Tuesday, the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced he tested positive for the virus.

The president’s press office reported Thursday that Bolsonaro “is in good health” and “progresses well, without complications.”

Gov. Roy Coope

Gov. Roy Cooper announced that North Carolina reported the highest number of hospitalizations in the state and the second highest number of coronavirus cases.  

“We’re continuing to watch with concern as Covid cases and hospitalizations increase,” he said. “And though North Carolina isn’t a surging hotspot like some other states, we could be if we don’t stay strong in our fight.”

As of today, the state has at least 79,349 lab-confirmed cases of the virus, including approximately 2,039 new cases and about 1,034 people in hospitals, according to the governor. At least 1,461 people have died from the virus.

North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said the state is in a “critical period.”

On reopening schools: The governor said he will announce his plans for reopening schools next week. He said there are currently no plans to conduct pro-active coronavirus testing of K-12 students before they return to schools, but he encouraged the wearing of face masks, social distancing and frequent handwashing to reduce the virus’ spread.

“We have been working on this for quite a while. This is a tough call – how to open up schools is something that every single state, every single governor is struggling with,” he said.

“I think it’s really important that we separate all of the politics here and talk about what’s best for our children. We know that they need to get back in school and do it in a safe way. And that can be a combination of in-person learning and remote learning, depending on the circumstances, depending on the student,” he added.

Note: These numbers were released by the North Carolina Department of Public Health, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Some states have opened too quickly, allowing the coronavirus pandemic to come roaring back, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.

Fauci said that “some states skipped over those and just opened up too quickly.”

The nation’s leading infectious disease doctor said he thought in some respects, Florida and Arizona’s reopening plans have contributed to the uptick in cases in those states.

“Certainly Florida I know, you know, I think jumped over a couple of checkpoints,” Fauci said. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci said people would have to have “blindfolders” and be covering their ears if they didn’t think partisanship has something to do with why it is so hard to control the Covid-19 pandemic.

“You have to be having blindfolders on and covering your ears to think that we don’t live in a very divisive society now, from a political standpoint,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Podcast-19, FiveThirtyEight’s weekly podcast on Covid-19.

“I mean, it’s just unfortunate, but it is what it is. And you know, from experience historically, that when you don’t have unanimity in an approach to something, you’re not as effective in how you handle it. So I think you’d have to make the assumption that if there wasn’t such divisiveness, that we would have a more coordinated approach,” he said.

Fauci added that some parts of the country are doing “really well” at managing the pandemic, including communities where people follow the public health guidelines and have opened gradually. 

Texas reported 105 Covid-19-related deaths on Thursday, the highest single-day increase in coronavirus fatalities.

The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in the state is now 2,918. 

Texas reported 9,782 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 230,346.

To note: These figures were released by the Texas Health and Human Services and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The positivity rate in Los Angeles stands at 9%, with about 1.24 million tests having been conducted to date, according to Health Director Barbara Ferrer. Most key metrics are trending upward, she said.

Los Angeles is reporting 50 additional deaths today, which is well above the seven-day average of 24 fatalities. Approximately 1,777 additional coronavirus cases were reported, bringing the county’s total to almost 125,000. 

Hospitalizations are also up slightly today. More than 2,000 patients are in the hospital with Covid-19 –– far more than the average of about 1,400 seen just four weeks ago.

Ferrer addressed what she calls the false narrative that younger people shouldn’t worry as much because they don’t tend to get as sick.

“We are tied together as a community of human beings in what happens here. This isn’t the time for people to say, ‘I’m going to take the risk,’” Ferrer said. “It doesn’t work that way. It’s not just you that’s taking the risk. You’re creating a risk for other people.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has canceled all large events across the city through September 30, according to a statement from his office.

Events that do not conflict with “open streets” or “open restaurant” areas can still apply for a permit, the statement said.

De Blasio said large events means things like street fairs, concerts and parades.

“Things that here in the city can mean not just thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. It’s just not time for that,” he told CNN on Thursday.

When asked if people would be able to gather to protest, de Blasio said that was an area of sensitivity.

“We understand at this moment in history, people are talking about the need for historic changes,” he said. “This is a historic moment of change. We have to respect that, but also say to people the kinds of gatherings we’re used to – the parades, the fairs – we just can’t have that while we’re focusing on health right now.”

At least 1,018 new Covid-19 cases were reported in Illinois, bringing the total to approximately 150,450, according to the state’s Department of Public Health.

The state also reported 20 new deaths – bringing the total to at least 7,119. 

Today marked the highest testing day since the pandemic began, with 36,180 tests returned on Thursday. More than 1.8 million tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic, the health department said.

Additionally, there are about 1,507 people in the hospital and 317 patients in intensive care due to the virus, according to the health department. 

Note: These numbers were released by the Illinois’ public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear puts on a face mask after speaking to reporters at the Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky, on May 11.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order mandating that people must wear a face covering or mask in public in certain situations.

The order goes into effect Friday at 5 p.m.

According to the governor, the order requires all customers in retail facilities to wear a mask, customers in grocery stores must wear a mask, and customers in most forward facing businesses have to wear a mask if they are indoors.

Additionally, if someone is outside and cannot be six feet away from another person, they also need to wear a mask.

The order will be in effect for 30 days, according to Beshear.

“I want to see how well we can do in 30 days,” the governor added. “Our future and what we can do in the state, how our economy rebounds, how safe people are going to be, the health and the lives of Kentuckians all depends on our ability to wear one of these.”

The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention views the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to rebuild a better public health care system.

“In every crisis there is an opportunity,” Dr. Robert Redfield said during a virtual summit hosted by the Hill. “I think this Covid crisis is an opportunity.”

The pandemic provides a chance to “finally make the commitment it needs to make” to prepare the public health system to work better in the US, he said.

The higher hospitalizations and deaths from Covid-19 among the Native American, Alaska Natives, African American, Hispanic and Latino communities, he said, is not due to anything intrinsic.

“It’s actually a marker of the health disparity that exists in this nation for far too long,” he said. Statistics show these communities suffer more from health issues including diabetes, lung disease, heart and kidney disease and obesity. Poverty also plays a large role in these chronic inequities, he said.

“Clearly, you know, it’s a wake-up call to say are we serious about trying to truly impact health disparities so that there’s equity in health in this nation,” Redfield said.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said the key to the economic recovery in the state is for people to wear a mask.

Polis ordered all bars and nightclubs to close again last week for the month of July. He said that they won’t see the impact from those closures for another week or two. 

During a news conference, he reiterated multiple times how important it is to wear a mask. He said that wearing one will not only save lives but also the economy. 

“The bottom line is the key to greater economic and social activity is wearing a mask,” Polis said. 

He said that while the state has the ability to enforce the business level requirements for mask wearing, he is relying on local partners to enforce them in their cities and counties. 

The Big Ten Conference has announced all fall sports, including football, will participate in a conference-only schedule due to health and safety concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement released on Thursday, the conference outlined its reason for the decision by saying, it “will have the greatest flexibility to adjust its own operations throughout the season” while allowing for fluid decision-making based on the most current medical advice. 

In addition, summer athletic activities will continue to be voluntary in all sports currently permitted. Student-athletes who decide not to play citing Covid-19 concerns will have “their scholarship honored by their institution and will remain in good standing with their team.” 

Other sports included in this model are men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. No decision has been made on any other sports at this time.

The conference-only football schedule means that games like Ohio State at Oregon and Michigan at Washington, both scheduled for this fall, are canceled.

Gov. Mike DeWine

Many counties in Ohio are seeing an increase in cases and hospitalizations due to Covid-19, Gov. Mike DeWine announced in a news conference Thursday. 

DeWine reiterated the mask mandate announced earlier this week for Ohio counties in the “red” zone, which indicates they’re experiencing an increase in cases and hospitalizations. 

Testing in several counties has shown a significant increase in contraction from “non-congregate” settings, which DeWine said means there’s an uptick in community-spread transmission.

On reopening schools: DeWine said his administration will encourage high levels of testing and provide additional funding to both public and private institutions to aid in the expense attached to taking additional precautions against the virus.

DeWine said he is working with legislators to approve the allocation of $200 million to higher education institutions and $100 million to K-12 schools from federal CARES act funding granted to Ohio. 

Dr. Robert Redfield

Schools must reopen, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield said Thursday.

If schools were to stay closed, it would be a “greater public health threat,” Redfield said.

“I cannot overstate how important I think it is now to get our schools in this nation reopened,” Redfield said during a virtual summit hosted by the Hill. “The reason I push it is because I truly believe it’s the public health benefit of these kids.”

The virus is not much of a threat to most children, Redfield said.

“I don’t think we should go overboard in trying to develop a system that doesn’t recognize the reality that this virus really is relatively benign to those of us that are under the age of 20,” Redfield said. “The greatest risk this virus causes is if there was an individual that was vulnerable in that group, like my grandson, or if there was an individual that was vulnerable like a teacher and this is why in the process we need to protect the vulnerable.”  

Redfield said his grandson has cystic fibrosis. He said he is confident schools can reopen safely and they must reopen.

Redfield said the CDC will work with states and local jurisdictions to make sure schools can follow the CDC’s school reopening guidelines.

“I’m firmly committed to do this and work with local jurisdictions that do this safely,” Redfield said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced today that a Scott Circuit Judge ordered Gov. Andy Beshear to cease issuing or enforcing executive orders related to Covid-19, unless the orders meet specific criteria for an emergency as outlined by state law, a statement from the attorney general’s office said.

According to the statement, the judge stated that in order to issue and enforce executive orders related to Covid-19, the governor has to “specify the state of emergency that requires the executive order, the location of the emergency, and the name of the local emergency management agency that has determined that the emergency is beyond its capabilities.”

“The Governor cannot issue broad, arbitrary executive orders apart from the requirements of state law, and the Judge agreed by today issuing a statewide temporary restraining order,” Cameron said in the statement.

Some background: Last week, the attorney general joined the lawsuit, which challenges Beshear’s use of executive power during the pandemic and was initially filed by Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and Evans Orchard and Cider Mill, LLC, an agritourism business. 

In a league-wide memo sent to the 32 teams on Wednesday night and obtained by CNN, the National Football League has outlined specific game day protocols for the upcoming preseason.

With the exception of players and coaches, everyone on the sideline bench area will be required to wear a mask. Those players not substituting into the game are strongly encouraged to wear a face covering. The league says it will provide disposable masks within the bench area.

The cover letter accompanying the 11-page memorandum states that the NFL Players Association has agreed to the game mandates. It also acknowledges that the protocols surrounding the screening and testing of players has yet to be finalized.

On Tuesday, union president and Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter tweeted, “The NFLs unwillingness to follow the recommendations of its own experts will put this season and the safety of all players at risk.”

Here’s what else was included in the guidelines:

Some players reacted to the protocols on social media – specifically the ban of jersey exchanges. 

The San Francisco 49ers Richard Sherman tweeted on Thursday, “This is a perfect example of NFL thinking in a nutshell. Players can go engage in a full contact game and do it safely. However, it is deemed unsafe for them to exchange jerseys after said game.”

Philadelphia Eagles Darius Slay posted Thursday, “So we can tackle each other for 60min but can’t exchange jersey that takes 2 mins.”

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said he is mandating masks be worn in K-12 schools in his state but is not mandating a similar measure statewide.

Herbert tweeted that he is “mandating that all students, faculty, staff and visitors in all K-12 school districts and charter schools will wear a mask in buildings and on buses.” 

Districts need to have reopening plans in place by August 1, Herbert said, adding that “some flexibility will be given to school boards and principals to accommodate younger children.”

“We call on those local leaders to use common sense in the flexibility they use,” he said.

Herbert noted that “as restrictions have eased, many of our residents have become complacent.”

Gov. Asa Hutchinson

Arkansas has moved its back-to-school date from August 13 to August 24, but that date will not be pushed beyond August 26, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Thursday.

In their decision, state officials wanted to give “school districts more time to make necessary adjustments for the blending learning environment. We are committed to schools, on-site instruction,” Hutchinson told reporters in Little Rock, before adding that “we believe this is the right decision.”

The governor also presented a three-prong approach to respond to infections in schools, ranging from a limited to a critical response. 

The latest numbers: The state recorded at least 802 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number to approximately 26,052, Hutchinson said.

The new daily “case number is high but predictable,” the governor said.

With four new deaths reported Thursday, there have been a total of at least 309 people who have died from the virus, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

California has reported 149 Covid-related deaths, the most recorded in a single day for the state since the pandemic began.

With more than 7,000 new confirmed cases, Newsom warned that single-day numbers don’t always show a clear picture of trend lines. 

Using a seven-day average, the positivity rate in California stands at 7.1%, and the average case increase is just more than 8,000. 

Hospitalizations climbed 4% in the past day, but are up 44% over the past two weeks, Newsom noted. 

To note: These figures were released by Newsom in association with the Department of Public Health and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database, which is drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Two people were asked to leave the site of a roundtable with Vice President Mike Pence after they tested positive for Covid-19, according to reports from the press pool traveling with the vice president.

Two people associated with the event had no symptoms of illness, a spokesperson for the campaign said. The spokesperson said it was part of routine testing of everyone who will be around the vice president during such events.

Pence is expected to speak at a roundtable to discuss the reopening of America. 

More than 3 million cases of novel coronavirus have been reported in the US, including at least 132,803 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

If you’re just joining us, here are the latest developments:

Tom Lackey

A California assemblyman has been hospitalized with complications from Covid-19 after working in the state Capitol where several other lawmakers were infected with coronavirus.

Assemblyman Tom Lackey, a Republican from Palmdale, tested positive for coronavirus and has been hospitalized at Palmdale Regional Medical Center, his chief of staff George Andrews said in a statement.

Lackey’s last day working at the state Capitol in Sacramento was on June 26, Andrews told CNN. That’s the same day Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, a Democrat from Marina Del Rey, said she was exposed to the virus at the Capitol building and later tested positive for Covid-19.

At least six people linked to the outbreak at the state Capitol have tested positive, and all of them “work within the Assembly,” according to the assembly speaker’s office.

It’s unclear if Lackey is included in that number, or where he was exposed to the virus. The Capitol building remains closed until further notice for “cleaning and sanitizing.”

The US Food Drug Administration has issued a warning to Ionogen, LLC, for selling a solution for hands and skin that the company claims kills the virus that causes Covid-19. 

In a letter sent Tuesday, the FDA said the company wrote on its website that the product “Ionopure Skin & Hands” meets the standard for killing coronavirus.

“Which of your products kill COVID-19 (Coronavirus)? The World Health Organization has stated that any chlorine-based solution of at least 500 ppm FAC will kill COVID-19. Ionopure Skin & Hands… meet[s] this standard,” the agency said Ionogen claimed on its website.

The FDA said these products have not been approved by the agency and asked the company to review its website, product labels and promotional materials “to ensure that you are not misleadingly representing your products as safe and effective for a Covid-19-related use.”

The FDA also said that until the company takes corrective action, it will be on a list of firms and websites that have received warning letters from the FDA “concerning the sale or distribution of Covid-19 related products.”

On Thursday, the Ionopure website included the following below the description of the various Ionopure Skin & Hands products: “These statements are not intended to substitute the advice given by a licensed healthcare professional. Ionopure products have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition or disease.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference about the coronavirus held at the Pan American Hospital on July 07, 2020 in Miami, Florida.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he “would not hesitate” sending his own kids to school when the academic year begins. All of his three children are below the age of four and not of school age.

“Educating our kids is absolutely essential, we have put them to the back of the line,” he said at a news conference this afternoon in Jacksonville.

When asked about safety precautions for the Republican National Convention, DeSantis supported hosting the convention in an outdoor space, citing safety for all of those in attendance. DeSantis said no plan had officially been submitted to host the convention in an outdoor space. 

On the state of Covid: DeSantis said staffing was proving to be an issue statewide. He alluded to seasonal shortages as part of the reason. Hundreds of contract nurses are expected to be deployed statewide in addition to 100 additional nurses being sent to the Tampa area as well as another 100 nurses to Miami-Dade. 

The governor announced antibody testing in Jacksonville is available for the general public. DeSantis said the state is moving forward contracting with self-swabbing vendors to expedite the test results. Currently, testing results are taking longer than 48 hours. 

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Education building in Washington, DC on July 8.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday described the global race to develop a coronavirus vaccine saying, “It’s a very tight international collaboration here; we’re all working towards a common goal.”

Azar explained that the United States currently has four major investments in vaccine candidates that work in three different ways: the Moderna vaccine, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine and the Novavax vaccine.

“And phase two, three clinical trials for many of them will be beginning just later this month, probably,” he added. “I like to say the return on investment for a vaccine is almost infinite in terms of the investment that you would make.”

Azar said that while some trials and the manufacturing will occur in the United States, other countries won’t be shut out.

“We’re investing in US manufacturing and US fill-and-finish capacity so that we’re not dependent on any movement of product across borders from outside the United States. But in no way would we do anything to preclude development for the rest of the world,” he said. 

A man and his dogs seen in front of a sign that reads "Park Closed' at the gates of Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo, Brazil on March 21.

Gyms in the Brazilian city of São Paulo will start reopening along with 70 of the city’s municipal parks starting Monday, the city’s Mayor Bruno Covas said Thursday.

Two of the city’s biggest parks, Ibirapuera and do Carmo parks, will operate Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time. Other parks will be open between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and all parks will be closed on weekends.

The parks will have controlled entry and will operate at 40% capacity, while the gyms can only operate six hours a day at 30% capacity. Masks are required in gyms and parks.

Some context: Last Monday, the city reopened bars, restaurants and beauty salons with restrictions, and extended the hours of operation for street commerce, malls, real estate agencies and car dealerships.

The state of São Paulo has 8,350 new cases of Covid-19 as of Thursday, according to state health secretary data, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 349,715.

The state recorded an additional 330 deaths on Thursday, bringing the state’s death toll to 17,118, more deaths than in all of Peru.

Chelsea Alionar, 37, has been battling coronavirus since March 9.

“This is far and above the toughest thing that I have ever had to go through,” she told CNN’s Brianna Keilar.

Alionar said that she started experiencing symptoms in March, but was unable to get tested or meet testing criteria until April 10. That’s when she tested positive for Covid-19.

She said early symptoms included headaches, a mild fever and cough.

Alionar said she quarantined herself until she was able to get tested and has remained in quarantine except for doctor and hospital visits.

“I have remained quarantined and have really not left my home, except for doctors appointments and a hospital visit just a couple of days ago. I’ve had symptoms of loss of hearing and difficult breathing,” she said.

Alionar added that she also experienced “Covid brain” where she “really can’t recall short-term memory.”

Other symptoms she said she experienced are; dry mouth, adrenaline running throughout her body like she “drank a shot of espresso,” internal shakes, rapid heart rate and insomnia.

“I thought at 120 days, I was past the worst of it,” Alionar said, but said she’s still struggling.

Watch the full interview:

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC on July 9.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany could not explain the discrepancy between Vice President Mike Pence and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield on whether there would be a revision on CDC’s guidelines for schools reopening, telling reporters that the administration is on the “same page.” 

Earlier this week, said the CDC would be soon issue a new “set of tools” on the topic of reopening schools. But today, Redfield said that the guidelines would not be revised, although additional reference documents will be provided.

“Our guidelines are our guidelines, but we are going to provide additional reference documents to aid basically communities that are trying to open K-through-12s,” Redfield said on Good Morning America Thursday. “It’s not a revision of the guidelines; it’s just to provide additional information to help schools be able to use the guidance we put forward.” 

When asked about the contradiction to the Pence’s comments, McEnany repeated that “the CDC director noted there would be additional guidance. The vice president noted that as well.”

McEnany continued: “I think Dr. Redfield was noting he doesn’t plan to rescind the current guidance that’s out there. It will be supplemental guidance, but these are not requirements and not prescriptive. It was the way he characterized the initial guidance — and he said this guidance should not be used as a reason for schools not to reopen. We all have the same goal here. It’s for schools to reopen because the health of the child absolutely depends on it.”

When asked whether the White House would provide an additional document with guidance, McEnany said there were “none in the works but doesn’t mean it won’t happen.”

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott speaks about reopening the state's economy in Austin, Texas on May 5.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation today suspending elective surgeries in hospitals in all counties located in the 11 trauma service areas (TSA) in the state.  

The suspension already includes hospitals found in Bexar, Cameron, Dallas, Harris, Hidalgo, Nueces, Travis and Webb counties.

Abbott’s proclamation adds 105 of the state’s 254 counties to the original executive order, bringing the total number of counties to 113 that must suspend elective surgeries.   

Metro Nashville Public Schools will not return to in person learning on August 4 and will instead fully implement virtual learning through “at least” Labor Day, Dr. Adrienne Battle, the director of the Metro Nashville Public Schools, said today. 

Last month, Nashville announced plans to offer parents two choices; a physical or in-person return for families who wanted to pursue that route, as well as the option for families to continue virtual learning.

However, given the latest coronavirus data in the area, officials concluded that schools should not return to the in-person model as scheduled on August 4, Battle said. 

“This is not the way I wanted things to go,” she added.

Two students are seen leaving their campus with baggage at Harvard University premises in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 08.

The US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s top business lobbying group, called the Trump administration’s new policy not allowing foreign students to take online-only courses “ill-conceived,” warning that it will have a “chilling effect” on the American economy. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday said international students studying the US will have to leave the country or face deportation if their universities switch to online-only courses. Many schools across the country are beginning to make the decision to transition to online courses as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

US Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas J. Donohue said the move would “inflict significant harm” not just on American colleges and universities, but all US businesses.

International graduates from American college and universities “are a critical source of talent for American businesses and the Chamber will consider its legislative and legal options should this policy remain in place,” Donahue said in a statement. 

Yesterday, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration over the new guidance, calling it “cruel” and “reckless.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on June 30 in Washington, DC.

The variability and “striking” transmissibility of Covid-19 makes the virus the “perfect storm,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“Not to be hyperbolic about it — it really is the perfect storm and [an] infectious disease and public health person’s worst nightmare. It’s a spectacularly transmissible virus. The efficiency with which this transmits is really striking,” he said at an event hosted by The Hill.

Fauci explained that the range of people it affects — from those with no symptoms to those who end up in intensive care or die — make the virus “a very complex situation to really get control of.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the nation will see the Covid-19 pandemic through.

“I’m gonna see it through and the country’s gonna see it through,” he said Thursday during an interview with The Hill.

Fauci said that despite political divisiveness, he hopes the nation will realize “we are all in this together.”

The NIAID director called on young people to take personal responsibility for preventing the spread of the virus, noting that this population can also get severely ill from the virus.

“You can’t assume that you’re in a vacuum, and it’s only about you,” Fauci told The Hill’s Steve Clemons.

The World Health Organization on Thursday released a new scientific report detailing how coronavirus can pass from one person to the next — including through the air during certain medical procedures.

The report also notes that there are still many unanswered questions around airborne transmission and how exactly the virus spreads.

The report comes just days after the publication of a letter Monday signed by 239 scientists that urged the agency to be more forthcoming about the likelihood that people can catch the virus from droplets floating in the air. 

Still, “current evidence suggests that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs primarily between people through direct, indirect, or close contact with infected people through infected secretions such as saliva and respiratory secretions, or through their respiratory droplets, which are expelled when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks or sings,” the report said. “Respiratory droplets from infected individuals can also land on objects.”

The report also said that “there have been reported outbreaks of COVID-19 reported in some closed settings, such as restaurants, nightclubs, places of worship or places of work where people may be shouting, talking, or singing. In these outbreaks, aerosol transmission, particularly in these indoor locations where there are crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces where infected persons spend long periods of time with others, cannot be ruled out. More studies are urgently needed to investigate such instances and assess their significance for transmission of COVID-19.”

In general, according to WHO, airborne transmission refers to any time an infectious pathogen that causes illness disseminates in the air and remains infectious when suspended in the air over long distances and time.

Dr. Benedetta Allegranzi, WHO’s technical lead for Infection Prevention and Control, said during a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that the agency has discussed and collaborated with many of the scientists who signed the letter claiming WHO hasn’t been forthright about airborne transmission. 

“We acknowledge that there is emerging evidence in this field, as in all other fields regarding the Covid-19 virus and pandemic, and therefore we believe that we have to be open to this evidence and understand its implications regarding the modes of transmission, and also regarding the precautions that need to be taken,” Allegranzi said.

For some time, “we have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission, as one of the modes of transmission of Covid-19,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for coronavirus response and head of its emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, previously said during a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

Empty player seats are seen before the match against between Nashville SC and Atlanta United on February 29 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Nashville SC has been forced to withdraw from Major League Soccer’s on-going, season-opening tournament at Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando, Florida, due to nine players testing positive for coronavirus, MLS announced Thursday in a statement.

Nashville SC’s opening night match of the MLS is Back Tournament against the Chicago Fire FC was postponed Wednesday.

On Monday, MLS withdrew FC Dallas from the tourney after 10 players tested positive for the virus.

As a result of the withdrawal of Dallas and Nashville, MLS has reconfigured the groups into six groups, each consisting of four teams, as well as updated the qualification for the Knockout Stage.

There are currently 48 hospitals, in 26 counties, in Florida that have reached their capacity in their intensive care units and show zero ICU beds available, according to data released by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA). 

Another 52 hospitals show ICU bed availability of 10% or less, according to the AHCA data.

Health official on Thursday reported 8,935 new Covid-19 cases and at least 120 Covid-19-related deaths.

This brings the current total cases to more than 232,000, according the health department. There are now more than 4,000 Covid-19-related deaths in Florida.

Healthcare workers move a patient in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on July 2

The US is better prepared for a virus than it was 10 years ago, but needs “to take it a step even further,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Thursday.

Fauci was asked during a live event hosted by The Hill if the US should be more proactive when it comes to viruses that transmit from animals to humans by devoting more money and resources. 

Fauci said work done in previous years allowed the US to enter into the development of a vaccine for Covid-19 “at an absolute record speed.”

But the nation’s top infectious disease expert said more work still needs to be done.

Here’s how he put it:

Yale and Harvard compete in an NCAA college football game at Fenway Park in Boston in 2018.

Ivy League sports, including football, will be postponed this fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ivy League Council of Presidents Executive Director Robin Harris said that while there is “tremendous disappointment” among athletes and coaches at its colleges — which include Harvard, Princeton and Yale — there is also an acceptance about the threat of Covid-19.

The Ivy League is the first Division I conference to drop out of the upcoming college football season. 

Harris said that she expects other college conferences to follow suit in the future. 

Watch the interview:

President Donald Trump attends a roundtable discussion on the safe reopening of America's schools during the coronavirus pandemic, at the White House on July 7 in Washington, DC.

The Trump administration’s efforts to pressure the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into revising school reopening guidelines, and threats to withhold funding from school districts that do not reopen, could have deadly consequences, said American Public Health Association Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin.

In a statement released Thursday, Benjamin said the Trump administration’s actions “wrongly makes educators, students and parents political pawns and could have deadly consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The CDC has recommended that schools reopen cautiously, calling for physical distancing, physical barriers and proper cleaning. On “Good Morning America” Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said that the guidelines for reopening schools will not be revised, but that the agency will provide additional reference documents to help guide schools in their decisions.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in-person learning will take place in schools as planned unless there are case increases that require the state to move back into phase three.

The state is currently in phase four of reopening. Whitmer planned to move to phase five ahead of the Fourth of July but then chose not to due to the increased case numbers.

If the state returns to phase three based on case information, schools will be distance learning, Whitmer said. In phases four, five and six, in-person learning will take place. 

Districts are still writing their plans for reopenings, Whitmer said. 

The United Nations has called on Brazil to end all evictions during the Covid-19 pandemic, almost one month after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed efforts by the Congress to do so.

In a statement on Thursday the UN Special Rapporteur on housing Balakrishnan Rajagopal called on Brazil “to end all evictions during the Covid-19 crisis, after more than 2,000 families were thrown out of their homes. Thousands more are at risk of evictions in cities and in the countryside in São Paulo state.”

Rajagopal expressed concern that Bolsonaro vetoed an effort by the Brazilian Congress to limit the impact of evictions. Congress has not yet voted on a broader bill that would suspend all judicial or administrative evictions during the pandemic.”

On June 11, Bolsonaro vetoed an article — which was part of a larger piece of legislation — that suspends, until October, evictions due to a delay in paying rent or end of the vacancy period.

Another law specifically about suspension of evictions during the pandemic was presented to Brazil’s Congress on March 18 and is awaiting a vote.

Rajagopal said evictions pose a health risk due to the Covid-19 pandemic and added, “some courts are suspending eviction orders until the health crisis is over, others continue to issue new orders.”

CNN has reached out to the Brazilian government for comment.

The UN Special Rapporteur’s statement comes as Brazil’s total number of Covid-19 cases tops 1.7 million and the country saw its highest weekly death rate on July 8 — averaging 1,047 in the seven days since July 1.

A week ago, by comparison, the average was 972 fatalities.

A customer walks by a Starbucks Coffee store on June 10 in Corte Madera, California.

Starbucks said it will require all customers to wear facial coverings when visiting any of its US locations starting on Wednesday.

As cases of coronavirus surge across the country, Starbucks said it made the decision to prioritize the health of its employees and customers.

Customers who do not want to wear a mask can still order at the drive-thru. They can also place orders for curbside pickup or delivery, the company said.

Gyms, outdoor pools, beauty salons and outdoor arts performances will allowed to reopen in England under a further easing of coronavirus restrictions, according to the UK’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden. 

Starting Monday, beauticians, tattooists, spas, tanning salons and other close-contact services will be able to reopen, he said. 

Indoor gyms, swimming pools and sports facilities will reopen starting on July 25, but Dowden urged the public to do their part to ensure the new freedoms don’t compromise the country’s coronavirus strategy.

“All of these measures we are taking are conditional and they are reversible,” he said. “And we will not hesitate to impose lockdowns where there are local spikes as we saw in Leicester.”

When it comes to vaccine safety, Dr. Anthony Fauci said “the government is making the investment in order to save time — not to cut down on safety, but to save time.” 

Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said on SiriusXM radio, “If it turns out that you have a candidate that is safe and effective, you gained multiple months by jumping ahead and already starting to manufacture.”

“If it turns out it’s not safe and effective, and you’re not going to use it, then you’ve lost a lot of money,” he said. “And if you lose out, you lose out money, but we feel it’s worth the risk.”

Fauci hopes this “head start” will help them reach “the timetable that hopefully we will know by the end of the year, the beginning of 2021, whether we have a safe and effective vaccine. If we do, we’ll be able to already start distributing it.”

States seeing a large increase in Covid-19 cases don’t have to resort to shutting down in order to contain the spread of the virus, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

States can instead pause on their reopening process, he said while speaking Thursday at an event hosted by The Hill.

These fresh remarks come after he told The Wall Street Journal states with a coronavirus problem “should seriously look at shutting down.”

“I would hope we don’t have to resort to shut down. I think that would be something that is obviously an extreme. I think it would not be viewed very, very favorably, even by the states and the cities involved. So rather than think in terms of reverting back down to a complete shutdown, I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process. Looking at what did not work well and try to mitigate that,” Fauci told The Hill’s Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons. 

Fauci explained that California, Arizona, Texas and Florida — states that account for about 50% of new infections — need to start by implementing measures to keep people socially distanced such as closing bars and avoid congregations with large numbers of people.

A man gets tested for coronavirus on July 7 in Austin, Texas.

Arizona has led the nation with the highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people for more than a month, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

On June 7, Arizona overtook the top spot with a per capita rate of 13.84 per 100,000 people. Today, the state is averaging 48.10 per 100,000 people — that’s more than triple the rate from a month ago.

Florida has held onto the second spot every day since June 26, according to Johns Hopkins data. Their current rate is 43.08 per 100,000 people. 

The United States currently has a seven-day average of new cases per 100,000 people of 16.00.

While California, Arizona, Texas and Florida are being hit badly by Covid-19 right now, we need to keep an eye on states that border them, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said.

These border states are starting to show “a slight increase in the percent positivity” and that this is the sort of thing “that would have you at least put a red flag up to watch them,” Fauci said. 

What can border states do? What to do in these situations has been discussed at White House coronavirus task force meetings, according to Fauci. He said measures such as mask wearing, social distancing and handwashing need to be intensified. He also suggested that authorities in those states could do things such as consider shutting down places like bars “before you wind up seeing a really bad spike.”

Florida health officials on Thursday reported 8,935 new Covid-19 cases, according to data posted on the Florida Department of Health website. 

The state is also reporting at least 120 Covid-19-related deaths — a new single-day record for the state. The previous high was on April 28, when 83 new deaths were reported, according to CNN’s tally. 

This brings the current total cases to more than 232,000, according the health department. There are now more than 4,000 Covid-19-related deaths in Florida.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prepares to testify before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on June 30 in Washington, DC..

The United States still has not gotten out of the first wave of Covid-19, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on SiriusXM radio.

“The thing that confuses people — not only in our own country but throughout the world — we have a very large country and it is very heterogenous. I mean, the New York metropolitan area is very, very different from Casper, Wyoming, or a town in Montana or a city in the Southwest,” Fauci added. “So things happen at different paces and different things really evolve.” 

Fauci went on to explain how the metropolitan area of New York City was hit badly early on the pandemic and is now doing well — with cases, hospitalizations and deaths going down — compared with other regions of the United States.

“I believe that they will be successful. What we’re seeing now in some of the southern states that you really had kind of a variability in how it was handled. Some states actually decided to open up, but did it probably prematurely and not adhering to the guidelines of a gateway to phase one to phase two. Other states actually did it well, but the people in the state took an all or none attitude,” Fauci said.

Doctors attend to a coronavirus patient in the intensive care unit at Ricardo Palma Hospital on July 7 in Lima, Peru.

The latest figures from several major Latin American states show that the rate of infection and deaths from the coronavirus are hitting new peaks.

A CNN analysis of figures from individual states and from WHO shows that Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are at or close to peak infection rates, when daily numbers are averaged over a week. (Averaging daily reports over seven days helps to establish trends and even out daily anomalies.)

Here’s what the data shows:

Other Latin American countries are also showing little sign of being past the peak of infections and deaths, but both Uruguay and Paraguay continue to have very low infection rates.

However, Chile, which saw a spike in infections last month, has shown a consistent decline in its weekly averages of both deaths and new infections. CNN’s tally of official statistics show that the average of new infections has fallen to 2,968 from 3,947 a day (in the week to July 8); deaths have fallen from 146 to 117 a day in the same period.

A TSA agent assists travelers at Love Field airport in Dallas, Texas, on June 24.

More than 1,000 Transportation Security Administration employees have now tested positive in the US for coronavirus, according to agency data released Thursday.  

That includes just over 900 frontline TSA officers who screen passengers at airports around the country.  

At least six TSA employees have died due to the virus, the agency said.  

Remember: The agency recently improved its protocols for screening officers, including requiring them to wear face shields and to change or clean gloves between each passenger they handle. The changes came about after a whistleblower complaint and are intended to better protect officers and prevent cross-contamination between passengers.  

TSA officers screened 2.7 million people over the Independence Day holiday weekend.  

Goldman Sachs says states containing over 40% of the population have now put reopening on hold, and states with another 30% have already reversed part of their reopening.   

The analysts also note that over the past few days, Connecticut, Ohio and Washington have delayed reopening plans or placed re-openings on hold. Goldman also notes that several state governors have also issued new executive order instituting specific social distancing and other requirements. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks as she arrives at the European Parliament on July 8 in Brussels, Belgium.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that “lies and disinformation” have emerged during the coronavirus pandemic and warned against allowing hatred to spread as the world battles the virus.

She added the virus has highlighting the limits of ”fact-denying populism,” saying, “The limits of populism and denial of basic truths are being laid bare.”  

Merkel went on to say, to applause, ”democracies need truth and transparency. This is what Europe sets apart and this is what Germany will stand up for during its EU presidency.”

She urged the European Union to agree on the bloc’s Covid-19 recovery plan before the summer. “There is no time to lose. Only the weakest will suffer,” Merkel said.  

Watch the moment:

Two days before reopening two theme parks to the public during the height of a Florida coronavirus spike, Disney resumed the sale of new 2020 theme park tickets and hotel reservations for Walt Disney World. 

Guests who purchase new tickets are required to select the dates they would like to visit and reserve their attendance in advance.

Annual passholders and people who had purchased tickets before the parks closed in March were able to reserve attendance before today. 

Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom theme parks are currently holding annual passholder previews Thursday and Friday, and reopening to the public on Saturday at reduced capacity. 

The resort’s two remaining theme parks — EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios — will reopen next week.

Bulgaria is closing indoor nightclubs and will ban spectators at sports events due to the recent increase of coronavirus cases, the press office of the Health Ministry confirmed Thursday to CNN.

According to the order from the health minister, starting tomorrow, indoor discos, night clubs, piano bars and other similar venues will be closed to the public, the press office said.

Visits to outdoor discos, bars and pubs will be allowed but only with up to 50% of the total capacity. 

Outdoor and indoor group celebrations are not allowed with more than 30 people, including weddings.

All group and individual sporting events of training and competitive nature, for all age groups, outdoors and indoors, will be held without an audience, the order reads.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho speaks with CNN on July 9.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said schools will not reopen at the end of August unless the county moves to phase two. 

“We need a phase two to be able to reopen schools,” he told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. 

“We are in phase one and should we transition to phase two, then we have a plan to bring students back to school five days a week while offering other options to parents as well,” he added.

Carvalho said that, despite the state order for schools to reopen, he was encouraged that federal officials said that districts facing limitations will be able to implement different strategies.

The superintendent added that he thinks the state Department of Education will fight for federal resources that his schools require. 

“I think it would be quite unfair for children in Miami-Dade, 73% of whom live at or below the poverty level, a huge number of them are still English-language learners, who have been in crisis to begin with, to be deprived of the necessary resources,” Carvalho said. 

Watch the interview:

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on world health stretch far beyond “the suffering caused by the virus itself,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an address to member states in Geneva on Thursday.

The pandemic is affecting areas such as vaccinations for children, medication for diseases, refugee health and world hunger.

Tedros said there are hundreds of millions of children who are at risk of missing routine vaccinations for diseases such as tuberculosis and measles. Many countries are also running low on HIV medications.

Refugees, who already face limited access to shelter, water and nutrition, he said, are among the most vulnerable.“Covid-19 could push them over the brink,” he said.

He also said that many people are now going hungry, and that poverty has become more visible during the time of the pandemic, citing estimates from the World Food Programme that global hunger could increase to more than 270 million people.

Countries are facing “a delicate balance between protecting their people and maintaining essential health services while minimizing social and economic damage and respecting human rights,” Tedros said.

Another 1.3 million people filed first-time claims for unemployment aid last week in the US, according to the Department of Labor.

Weekly jobless claims have been falling for more than three months since their peak in the last week of March. That’s a good sign, because it means fewer people are finding themselves newly in need for benefits. But the claims remain stubbornly high and aren’t trending downward as quickly as economists would like.

Continued claims, which count workers who have filed claims for at least two weeks in a row, stood at 18.1 million.

Economists have shifted their focus to continued claims earlier this summer, saying it’s a better indicator of how many people are returning to work versus staying on benefits. But again the number is trending down slowly, and that doesn’t bode well for the economic recovery.

Reopening plans: On top of that, many states have paused their economic reopening schedules following a rise in Covid-19 infections. That might keep people at home for longer, when they would have otherwise returned to work in later reopening phases.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s latest CFO survey found that the average surveyed business didn’t expect to get back to its pre-pandemic employment level until the end of 2021.

An empty classroom in seen at Kent Middle School on April 1 in Kentfield, California.

A day after Vice President Mike Pence said said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would revise its existing guidelines for reopening schools, the agency’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield, said it would not edit them.

Redfield, however, did say that additional reference documents will be provided alongside the current guidelines.

Here’s what the current guidelines, which were last updated on the CDC website in May, say:

WATCH:

Tanna Ingraham speaks with CNN's Miguel Marquez at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

An ICU nurse who cared for coronavirus patients became sick with Covid-19 and spent 12 days in her intensive care unit. 

Tanna Ingraham, a nurse at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, is recovering from coronavirus at home. She said it’s been a painful and scary experience, as the virus attacked her joints. She said she had shortness of breath, loss of taste and smell, and a “barking, hacking cough.” 

She said that being in her own ICU unit “made it harder” because of what she had seen firsthand. 

Ingraham, who has two daughters, has been quarantined from them and they will not be reunited until July 25.

Watch the interview:

Custodian Tracy Harris cleans chairs in a classroom at Brubaker Elementary School on July 8 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the guidelines for reopening schools will not be revised, but additional reference documents will be provided.

In response to comments about the guidelines being too tough or impractical, Redfield said this depends on how the guidelines are put together.

“Right now, we’re continuing to work with the local jurisdictions to how they want to take the portfolio of guidance that we’ve given to make them practical for their schools to reopen,” he said.

Redfield described the guidelines as “intentionally non-prescriptive,” and said that the range of guidelines given were to offer schools the option of what will work best for them.

Redfield said the CDC would work with any local jurisdiction on how best to use the guidelines to reopen their schools in the safest way, and that it would “personally sadden” him if people were to use the guidelines and concerns about them as a reason to stay closed.

“It’s a critical public health initiative right now to get these schools reopened and to do it safely,” Redfield said.

Some context: Redfield’s comments come a day after President Trump tweeted Wednesday that he disagreed with CDC guidelines for safely reopening schools because they are “very tough” and “expensive.”

During a press briefing a few hours later, Vice President Mike Pence said the CDC would issue new guidance on reopening schools next week. Both he and the CDC’s director said the agency’s recommendations should not be viewed as a barrier to returning children to classrooms.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on June 30 in Washington, DC.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said states facing steep increases in new Covid-19 cases “should seriously look at shutting down.”

Fauci said some states “went too fast” in their reopening, while others followed the guidelines, “but the people in the state didn’t listen and just threw caution to the wind.”

The nation’s top infectious disease expert said simple public health measures such as closing bars, spacing out seating at restaurants, avoiding crowds and wearing masks will curb the increase in cases.

“Guarantee you’re going to see that curve come down,” Fauci told Kate Linebaugh, co-host of “The Journal” podcast.

Pedestrians walk past a line of taxis on March 18 in Liverpool, England.

High-risk workers with no coronavirus symptoms will be tested for the infection in England, the UK Department of Health announced Thursday.

“A new pilot to evaluate the effectiveness of asymptomatic testing for people in high-contact professions has launched today in England,” the department said in a statement.

This pilot scheme will include a select group of staff such as taxi drivers, cleaners and retail assistants, “to see if there is demand for testing amongst these kinds of workers, and how they are affected by the virus.”

A targeted swab testing will take place in partnership with four local authorities, as well as businesses representing high-contact professions, with tens of thousands of tests offered to selected groups, the Department said.

Pedestrians wearing face masks are seen at the Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, on Thursday, July 9.

Tokyo recorded 224 new coronavirus cases Thursday, the largest single-day increase since the outbreak began, according to city governor Yuriko Koike.

Three quarters of the new cases were young people in their 20s and 30s. The governor said the spike could be attributed to the young population in Japan’s capital partying and dining together.

Koike said a sizeable number of new infections were workers from night entertainment businesses.

The 224 new cases represent a sudden increase in cases after the city reported only 75 cases on Wednesday, after reporting over 100 cases for six days in a row.

However, Koike added that the jump in infections could be partly attributed to increased testing in Tokyo, saying that 3,400 tests were conducted in the city on Thursday alone.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate hearing in Washington on June 30.

The fall could look a lot like March and April in terms of US coronavirus cases if the country doesn’t get a handle on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, has warned.

To prevent the outbreak from spinning out of control, US residents must focus on controlling crowds, wearing masks and doing a better job at physical distancing, Fauci told the Wall Street Journal in a podcast Wednesday.

The US reached more than 3 million coronavirus cases this week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. At least 33 states as of Thursday morning have seen an upward trend in average daily cases – an increase of at least 10% – over the last week.

Read the full report here.

A pedestrian passes a boarded up Sur La Table retail space in Pasadena, California, on March 23.

Sur La Table, the nearly 50-year-old purveyor of upscale kitchenware, has gone bankrupt.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Wednesday, announcing in a press release that it’s putting itself up for sale and will close a substantial number of stores so it can “prosper in the current retail environment and position the company for a vibrant future.”

Roughly half of its 120 US stores will close permanently, according to a spokesperson. Sur La Table, like other retailers, was temporarily forced to close its locations’ doors in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sur La Table also known for its in-store cooking classes, which have also been discontinued because of local laws limiting indoor dining or gatherings.

CEO Jason Goldberger said the sale process “will result in a revitalized Sur La Table, positioned to thrive in a post Covid-19 retail environment.”

Read the full story here.

Harvard Crimson offensive lineman Spencer Rolland (72) blocks during a college football game between the Harvard Crimson and Princeton Tigers, at Princeton Stadium in New Jersey, in October 2019.

A growing list of universities are reporting new coronavirus cases among students in their athletic programs. Now, there’s a growing list of universities canceling their competitive sports for the upcoming semester.

As colleges continue to plan for how best to educate and house students during a pandemic, some have already decided it’s not worth the risk to add sports to the mix.

The Ivy League Council of Presidents announced Wednesday all fall sports will not be played at its colleges.

The University of Massachusetts Boston, Maine’s Bowdoin College and Morehouse College in Atlanta have also canceled fall seasons.

And the Centennial Conference, which includes universities like Johns Hopkins University and Washington College, said this week it is suspending inter-collegiate sports competitions scheduled for the fall.

Read the full story here.

A 23-year-old man was executed in China on Thursday for fatally stabbing two epidemic prevention and control workers in February, according to a statement from the country’s Supreme People’s Court. 

This is the first known death penalty case in China related to Covid-19 containment measures.   

“The Supreme People’s Court concluded that Ma Jianguo deliberately and illegally deprived others of life, and his action constituted intentional homicide,” the court statement read. 

“His crime caused great harm and its consequences are extremely serious,” it added.  

Ma stabbed the government workers at a health checkpoint in a village in the southwestern province of Yunnan on February 6, when a fellow passenger in his car tried to remove roadblocks set up by local authorities and got into a dispute with staff on duty. 

He was sentenced to death on March 1. Ma, who was previously imprisoned for assault, committed his latest crime within five years of release, resulting in harsher punishment, according to the court. 

A worker sprays disinfectant at a residential block in Hong Kong on July 8.

Hong Kong reported 42 new coronavirus cases Thursday, including 34 locally transmitted infections, as the city reimposed some restrictions in response to the rising case count.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) announced the tightening of social distancing measures to deal with the fresh outbreak.

Health officials said that from midnight on Friday, restaurants would not be allowed to operate at more than 60% capacity and no more than eight people will be allowed per table, while at clubs and pubs people will not be allowed to gather in groups of more than four. 

The new restrictions will remain in place until July 24.

Of the 34 locally transmitted infections, 23 were linked to elderly care homes, nine were linked to previous cases and three were linked to taxi drivers and their families according to Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan of the CHP. 

Chuang added that the health officials are exploring options with telecommunications companies in the city to search for passengers who took taxis with infected drivers.

“Fluctuations of cases in Hong Kong are within expectations,” said Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan, who added that the virus will not disappear before a vaccine is made available.

A member of the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital staff works near a patient in the hospital's Covid-19 division, on April 3, in Bergamo, Italy.

The main hospital in the city of Bergamo, which was at the heart of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Italy, has had the first day without any Covid-19 patients since February 23, a spokesperson for the Papa Giovanni XXIII told CNN Thursday.

Italy was one of the first countries in Europe to report coronavirus cases and became one of the hardest hit, with its current death toll standing at almost 35,000. 

Lines of healthcare professionals are seen entering the North Melbourne Public Housing tower complex in Melbourne, Australia, on July 8.

A Melbourne apartment block that has been identified as an epicenter of the city’s new coronavirus outbreak will remain in a “hard lockdown.”

The building at 33 Alfred Road in North Melbourne and eight other public housing towers have been subject to strict restrictions since Saturday, with a total of 3,000 residents unable to leave their homes for any reason.

33 Alfred Road is the only block that will remain under the hardest measures, the Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said Thursday.

“We’ll continue to support these Victorians with food, back to school resources, and any other kind of assistance they might need as they stay home and stay safe,” a statement from Andrews’ office said. A police presence will remain at all towers, to assist in managing the restrictions.

Health authorities have now tested all residents of the nine towers. Of the 2,515 tests conducted, 158 came back positive.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian is pictured at a media briefing in Beijing, on April 8.

China’s Foreign Ministry has accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of “making up all sorts of fake news” to smear China and damage the country’s international relations.

Zhao’s comments come after Pompeo said on Wednesday that “Beijing claimed for months that it reported the outbreak of the virus to the WHO. Now we know that’s not true, too.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a news conference at the State Department in Washington on July 8.

Pompeo also said China’s ruling Communist Party “has an enormous credibility problem, They failed to tell the world the truth about this virus, and now hundreds of thousands of peoples all across the world are dead.”

Zhao said that China informed WHO of the latest information about the virus outbreak at the earliest possible opportunity.

He also urged Pompeo to “correct his mistakes,” and “stop spreading political viruses before he becomes a laughing stock of the international community.”

China recorded nine new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said.

This was the ninth consecutive day in which mainland China only record a single-digit number of cases.

Out of the new cases, three were reported in Liaoning, three in Shanghai, two in Guangdong and one in Sichuan, according to the NHC. 

There were no new cases reported in Beijing on Wednesday for the third day in row. The Chinese capital was forced into a partial lockdown last month when a cluster of new cases linked to a wholesale food market emerged.

Six new asymptomatic cases were also registered in the country, the NHC said. A total of 112 asymptomatic patients are still under medical observation.

Authorities take food to residents in a locked-down public housing estate in Melbourne, Australia, on July 9.

The Australian state of Victoria recorded 165 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the state’s health department announced today.

Of the new cases, 30 have been linked to known outbreaks – while 135 remain under investigation, the department said.

The announcement came just hours after Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city and the state capital, went into lockdown. The state border with neighbouring New South Wales has also been shut to stop the virus from spreading further.

Victoria has had 3,098 Covid-19 cases with 22 related deaths since the pandemic began.

New South Wales recorded 13 new cases on Wednesday, the state’s Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Thursday.

From English pubs to the Spanish seaside, local lockdowns are cropping up all over the world as countries ease restrictions only to encounter new coronavirus outbreaks.

After months of closures, governments are eager to reopen schools and businesses to allow people to get on with their lives. But fresh clusters of infection have forced leaders to reimpose restrictions in some hotspots – even as rules are eased elsewhere in the same country.

Beijing re-entered a partial lockdown in mid-June after a new coronavirus outbreak linked to a food market in the Chinese capital, while at least 24 states in the US are pausing or rolling back their reopenings as cases accelerate, amid fears that earlier restrictions were relaxed too fast.

The threshold for imposing new lockdowns – as well as their size and scope – varies dramatically between countries, from a single building in Italy, to several Rwandan villages, to a community of 200,000 in Spain’s northeast and a coastal area of 70,000 in its northwest, to the whole of Israel.

There are hopes this approach could minimize the economic damage of large-scale shutdowns. In Portugal, for example, 19 boroughs on the outskirts of Lisbon have shut down, while the capital’s downtown area has continued its reopening, along with the rest of the country.

Read more:

Women hold signs outside housing commission apartments under lockdown in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday.

Related article Coronavirus spikes again in rush to reopen. But lockdowns are more complex second time around

A large bottle of hand sanitizer near a pool in Spring Township, Pennsylvania, on June 13.

The US Food and Drug Administration has added more types of hand sanitizer to its growing list of products that are either confirmed or potentially contaminated with toxic methanol.

More than two dozen hand sanitizer products sold by Mexico-based 4E Global – many carrying the Blumen label – contain high levels of methanol and have been recommended for recall, the agency said.

The FDA said it has seen an increase in products containing ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, that tested positive for potentially poisonous methanol contamination.

Methanol can be life-threatening if ingested and toxic if absorbed through the skin. States have also reported cases of blindness, hospitalizations and deaths in adults and children after drinking hand sanitizer products tainted with methanol, the FDA said.

Methanol, or wood alcohol as it’s often known, is used in antifreeze and fuel production. Exposure can also cause nausea, headaches, dizziness, agitation, amnesia, coma and seizures, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC advises people to frequently wash their hands with soap and water to avoid contracting the novel coronavirus. If soap and water are not available, the CDC recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% ethanol.

The FDA is urging consumers to check their hand sanitizers to find out if they are on the list of bad products posted on the agency’s website and to report any adverse events or quality problems.

Cloth masks made by Fort Bend County Jail inmates in Richmond, Texas.

Cloth masks are better than nothing at protecting wearers and the people around them from disease, but they are not equivalent to medical-grade masks and shouldn’t be recommended for health care workers, researchers said Wednesday.

The researchers, from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said their results showed cloth versions don’t work as well.

 “In 2015, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to compare the efficacy of cloth masks with that of medical masks and controls (standard practice) among healthcare workers in Vietnam,” Dr. Abrar Chughtai, an epidemiologist, and colleagues wrote in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. They checked the workers for influenza-like illnesses, which include a range of respiratory infections.

 The team also reviewed 19 other studies of masks and found the fabric used is important.

The researchers said that for coronavirus, all frontline health care workers should wear medical masks or N95 respirators.  

Authorities in India have recorded more than 100,000 cases of Covid-19 in the last five days, according to figures released by the country’s health ministry.

The ministry announced Thursday it had identified 24,879 new cases in a single 24-hour period – India’s highest in a single day since the pandemic began.

A total of 767,296 cases have now been identified in the country. More than 476,000 people have recovered, while 21,129 have died after contracting it.

A steady rise: The total number of daily new infections has been steadily rising in India, with the country registering more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases daily in the past week.

On Monday, India surpassed Russia to become the world’s third-worst hit nation. Only the US and Brazil have identified more cases.

A total of 3,054,699 cases of coronavirus have been identified in the United States since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally. At least 132,300 people have died in the country after contracting the virus. 

On Wednesday, Johns Hopkins reported 58,601 new cases and 820 deaths. 

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

Track cases in the US here:

Five months into a still-raging pandemic that has killed more than 130,000 Americans, simmering tensions between President Donald Trump and the health experts who staff his government have escalated from private griping to open dispute.

The result, people at those agencies say, is a new sense of demoralization as they continue their attempts to fight a once-in-a-generation health crisis while simultaneously navigating the whims of a President who has shown little interest or understanding of their work.

That Trump does not trust nor follow the advice of experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, is hardly new. The President has not attended a meeting of his coronavirus task force in months and recently its sessions have been held outside the White House, including on Wednesday at the headquarters of the Department of Education. Fauci was told to participate in the meeting remotely by videoconference, preventing him from participating in a midday task force press briefing.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said later it’s a “decision for the task force” who appears at coronavirus briefings. Asked if the President still has confidence in Fauci, McEnany said Trump “has confidence in the conclusions of our medical experts.”

Still, the President has complained to aides in meetings for months that Fauci’s television appearances – which have been sharply curtailed by the White House – often seem to contradict his own message. As early as March, Trump was growing frustrated that Fauci’s forecasts for the virus seemed less optimistic than his own, but largely avoided public rebukes.

At the same time, many of Trump’s aides have viewed the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with deep skepticism for months, believing its role in early testing missteps to have been a critical failure and viewing more recent leaks of draft guidance from the agency as attempts to circumvent the White House.

Yet as cases surge across the country and Trump’s handling of the crisis causes his reelection prospects to dim, he is taking his quarrels with Fauci and the CDC public in striking new fashion.

Read more:

Related article Trump now in open dispute with health officials as virus rages

Authorities in Hong Kong, a city lauded for its quick and effective coronavirus response, are now warning of potential “exponential growth” in new Covid-19 cases after a surge in local transmissions.

Since Sunday, 65 patients have been diagnosed – including 31 locally transmitted cases in what has been dubbed a “third wave” of the pandemic in the global financial center.

Taxi drivers, restaurant workers, a medical clinic employee and a retirement home resident – some of the people most vulnerable to the virus and likely to spread it – have been diagnosed.

“It is possible there could be a major outbreak,” Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan, the head of Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection (CHP) Communicable Disease Branch said Wednesday. “There could be a sudden exponential growth of cases.”

Hong Kong has recorded only 1,324 coronavirus cases and seven virus-related fatalities since the pandemic began.

The city’s success in containing Covid-19 has been attributed to the government’s vigilant enforcement of quarantine for overseas arrivals, efficient contact tracing and residents’ willingness to practice good hygiene, wear masks and practice social distancing.

While the new caseload and total number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 is very low compared to the United States and Brazil, experts say the latest rise shows the virus still poses a threat despite even the most stringent anti-epidemic controls.

“This virus will find every chink in your armor,” said Dr. Sarah Borwein, a Hong Kong-based physician experienced in infectious diseases and epidemiology. “We’ve seen that in Beijing, in Singapore, in South Korea and now in Israel, Australia and elsewhere.”

Read more:

A photo taken through thick glass shows passengers (C) wearing face masks as a precautionary measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus as they receive quarantine tracking wrist bands at Hong Kongs international airport on March 19, 2020. - On March 18, Hong Kong authorities began ordering all arrivals from overseas to wear electronic bracelets, connected to an app to mark your location, and two weeks self-quarantine. (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP) (Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Authorities in Hong Kong warn of potential 'exponential growth' in coronavirus cases

As Australia shut the border between its two most populous states to contain the spread of the coronavirus, tens of thousands of people living close to the dividing line have found their community cleaved in two.

Located on each side of the Murray River separating New South Wales and Victoria, the twin cities of Albury and Wodonga, more commonly referred to as Albury-Wodonga, have long operated as one community and one economy.

Many of their 100,000 residents cross the border every day. The two cities even share the same hospital, located in Albury on the NSW side but covered by Victoria’s health system.

But that border was sealed on Wednesday, as authorities scrambled to prevent a second wave of infections spreading across the country. Over the past few weeks, Victoria has struggled to contain a sudden reemergence of coronavirus in Melbourne, as case numbers there continued to rise.

Authorities blocked major roads between Victoria and NSW after midnight – the first time the border has closed since the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago.

Read more:

ALBURY, AUSTRALIA - JULY 8: Police stop and question drivers at a checkpoint on July 8, 2020 in Albury, Australia. The NSW-Victoria border closed at midnight, Wednesday 8 July. It is the first time in 100 years the border between the two states has been closed and comes as Victoria continues to record high numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases through community transmission. NSW residents returning from Victoria will need to self isolate for 14 days, while Victorian residents are banned from travelling to New South Wales unless they have a permit. Special provisions will be in place for border communities such as Albury-Wodonga as well as freight operations and other critical services. (Photo by David Gray/Getty Images)

Related article Australian border community cleaved in two by coronavirus lockdown

Ohio Stadium, also known as the Horseshoe, at The Ohio State University.

The Ohio State Department of Athletics has announced that the school has paused all voluntary workouts, “following the results of its most recent Covid-19 testing of student-athletes.”

The school is not sharing infection data publicly because “it could lead to the identification of specific individuals and compromise their medical privacy,” the athletics department said in its statement.

The pause affects men’s and women’s basketball, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball.

Earlier Wednesday, the University of North Carolina suspended its football program’s voluntary workouts after 37 players and staff tested positive for Covid-19.

Coronavirus was probably spreading widely across the US in February, new modeling data suggests, and it only took a few imported cases from other countries to set off rapid spread inside the borders.

While direct imports from China and other countries may have been responsible for the early introduction of Covid-19 to the US, most spread was state to state, researchers led by a team at Northeastern University in Boston reported.

“We estimate widespread community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in February, 2020,” a team led by Northeastern’s Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Socio-technical Systems wrote on MedRxiv, a pre-print server. The work has not been peer-reviewed.

The US announced restrictions on travel from China on January 31. The researchers say their modeling study suggests the restrictions came far too late.

“Importations from mainland China may be relevant in seeding the epidemic in January, but then play a small role in the COVID-19 expansion in the US because of the travel restrictions imposed to/from mainland China after January 23, 2020,” they wrote.

The model contrasts with evidence from several studies that suggest there was already a significant number of infections in the US by the time the travel restrictions were announced on January 31, the researchers wrote.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on June 30.

The United States’ leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said White House coronavirus task force leader Vice President Mike Pence is doing “a very good job.”

Fauci and task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx regularly sound the alarm about the pandemic at briefings or in interviews, while Pence has touted what a good job the Trump administration is doing.

“He is trying in his role as the vice president to really, in a certain sense, also point out some of the things that are going well,” Fauci told the Wall Street Journal in a podcast Wednesday. 

“I look at the data, I analyze the data and I give my best opinion based on the evidence.”

Fauci said there are many facets to the task force discussions, and he and his colleagues are primarily focused on public health. Pence, he said, has other concerns.

“There’s the issue and the need, from an economic standpoint, to get open,” Fauci said. “So all of that goes into the mix and then you see the kind of recommendations that go out but you know as a member of the task force, I’m telling you that we have a serious situation that we really do need to address.”

Fauci said the public health and economic policies need to work in tandem. Other health experts worry that President Donald Trump has pushed his economic priorities at the expense of American lives. So far, more than 132,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. 

“We shouldn’t think of it as one against the other because once you start thinking there’s public health and there’s the economy opening it looks like they’re opposing forces,” Fauci said. 

“So, what we’re trying to do is to get the public health message, if heard and implemented, be actually a gateway to facilitate opening and an easier way instead of there’s guys are on this side and those guys and ladies are on the other side.”