July 19 coronavirus news

Indiana recorded 927 new cases of the novel coronavirus Sunday, just below its highest daily increase since the outbreak, according to the state’s health department.

The state’s highest daily increase was recorded on April 26, when it recorded a daily increase of 946 cases.

Indiana’s total number of confirmed cases is 56,571.  

The state also reported two new deaths from the virus Sunday, bringing its death toll to 2,629.

This comes a day after Indianapolis Public Schools Board of Commissioners voted to push back the start date for public schools another two weeks to August 17.

Cancer has been added to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of underlying medical conditions that increase risk of severe illness from Covid-19. 

“Revisions were made on July 17, 2020 to reflect recent data supporting increased risk of severe Covid-19 among individuals with cancer,” the CDC website says. 

The increased risk applies to people of all ages. 

The other conditions included on the list include chronic kidney disease, obesity, serious heart conditions and Type 2 diabetes. 

They also list conditions that could lead to an increased risk of severe illness. These include asthma, cystic fibrosis and high blood pressure.

The CDC says it will continue to update information as more becomes known. 

Vermont has reported no new coronavirus-related deaths since June 19, maintaining 56 deaths in the state for more than 30 consecutive days, according to Johns Hopkins University data. 

Vermont has in total reported 1350 cases of Covid-19 since the beginning of the outbreak in March. 

CNN has reached out to the Vermont Department of Health for comment. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said cutting funding to the CDC would be like “cutting your nose to spite your face.”

“We are going to do everything we can to make sure that the CDC is fully funded in the stimulus package,” the New York Senator said Sunday, responding to a question from CNN. 

He earlier stressed the importance of keeping the data on Covid-19 public.

“We must keep the information about the number of cases and the number of deaths from Covid public through the CDC,” Schumer said.

Florida’s health officials reported 12,478 new cases of Covid-19 and 87 new deaths on Sunday, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health.    

This brings the state’s total cases to 350,047, DOH data shows. The statewide death toll is now 4,982, the data shows.   

Sunday marks the fourth time since the start of the pandemic that Florida has reported more than 12,000 cases in a single day. All four days have been in July, according to CNN’s tally.  

One thing to note: These numbers were released by Florida’s 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. 

The ability to distribute vaccines and the fear that the rush to make a vaccine may make it unsafe are significant concerns, according to Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. But, he said it’s important to look at the positive side. 

“This has been an amazing trajectory that we’ve been on,” Collins said, talking on NBC’s Meet the Press. 

Within a day or two of getting the virus genome sequence, he said that a vaccine was already starting to be designed. After 62 days, this was being injected into the first phase one trial participants. 

“That data which was just published looks extremely good,” Collins said. “So we’re on a good path here.” 

Collins also encouraged people to sign up for vaccine clinical trials, especially is places where the virus is spreading and people who are at higher risk. 

Speaking about reports that Russian cyber actors are targeting organizations involved in coronavirus vaccine development, Collins said it wasn’t entirely clear to him what it was all about, but that “most of what we do in science, we publish it, we put it out there, people don’t have to go hacking to find it. We’re all about transparency.” 

He also said he wasn’t sure that there was serious risk involved, “mischief, yes, but serious risk, I’m not so sure.” 

Pennsylvania reports 786 additional cases of Covid-19 and 8 deaths from the virus, according to a release from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

The state has a total of 101,027 cases of Covid-19 and 7,015 total deaths from the virus. 

One thing to note: The numbers listed were released by the state of Pennsylvania and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

“We Americans are individuals, and if given the appropriate information, and if it’s not sort of confused by a lot of other conspiracy theories, we’re capable of figuring out what to do,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. 

“If we want to see this current surge, and it’s a real surge, turn around,” he said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, “all Americans need to recognize it’s up to us.” 

Collins encouraged wearing a mask when outside the house, social distancing, not convening in large groups, especially indoors, and hand washing. 

Collins said that a good job was done in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and that steps that were put in place meant that those areas came down to close to zero. 

“Meanwhile the rest of this country, perhaps imagining this was just a New York problem, kind of went about their business, didn’t really pay that much attention to CDC’s recommendations about the phases necessary to open up safely and jumped over some of those hoops,” said Collins. 

People began congregating, not wearing masks and “feeling like it’s over and maybe summer it’ll all go away.” 

Collins said that we now have not only 70,000 cases almost every day, but a quite concerning number of hospitalizations, in his perspective, which are almost as high as they were in April. 

“We’ve got to really double down here,” said Collins. “We Americans are pretty good at rising to a crisis, we got one now, let’s see what we can do together.” 

Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley on Sunday said the nation should not be in a rush to reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic and called for Congress to “lead in the absence of this Trump administration.”

Pressley continued that teachers “have already proven themselves to be courageous and dedicated educators.”

“We are now asking them to be caseworkers and in some instances martyrs. And that is unconscionable. Again, we need to pass the HEROES Act which is sitting on the desk of Mitch McConnell which makes massive federal investments to support the reopening of our schools when it is safe and this virus is under control.”

More on this: President Donald Trump and members of his administration have pushed for schools to reopen in coming weeks even as the number of coronavirus cases has surged. Some schools districts have announced they would continue remote learning in the fall and some have said they would implement a combination of remote learning and in-person instruction.

Read more here.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms once again slammed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for the lawsuit against her and members of her city counsel, implying that it could be because she is a woman or her city’s demographics while on CBS’ Face the Nation.

Calling it “bizarre,” she pointed out language from the suit filed Thursday, that asks the judge to stop Bottoms from telling the press in releases and interviews that she has the authority to impose measures outside of ones issued by Kemp himself. Bottoms has accused him of trying to silence her.

“There were other cities in our state who instituted mask mandates and he did not push back then,” she said. “I don’t know if perhaps they were led by men or if it’s perhaps because of the demographic in the city of Atlanta. I don’t know what the answers are. But what I do know is that the science is on our side.” 

Bottoms cited the unreleased report from the White House that showed her state was declared a red state for the surging Covid-19 cases. And she pushed back that protests for equality led to spikes in Covid-19 cases. Bottoms says her police do have the ability to enforce her mandates requiring masks and pushing the city back to phase one, as if they were issuing a citation for seatbelts. And she slammed the governor who talks about local control for abusing her own.

“At the end of the day, the party that speaks of local control has taken away local control and attempting to silence our voices in this state,” she said.

Some more context: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday he is suing Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms over the city’s mask mandate, claiming the measure violates his emergency orders.

The mayor also tweeted about Kemp’s lawsuit today:

Allegheny County, PA — which includes Pittsburgh and surrounding areas — reports 138 new Covid-19 cases, one new hospitalizations and one additional death from the virus, according to a statement from the Health Department. 

“In the newest cases, ages range from 11 months to 93 years old with the median age being 40. Positive results are from tests that span July 3 through July 18,” the release says.

Allegheny County has a total of 6,263 cases of Covid-19.

One thing to note: The numbers listed were released by the Allegheny County Health Department and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Sunday said that the administration has been engaged in discussions on the next stimulus bill for the past week, but negotiations will start “in earnest” Monday on Capitol Hill. 

“As we’ve started to engage with our Senate and House colleagues up on Capitol Hill, those will start in earnest starting tomorrow, Monday,” Meadows said in an interview on Fox News.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will meet with President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, “to actually start to fine tune it,” Meadows added. 

Some context: The White House and Senate Republicans are at odds over the amount of funding that should be given to the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention in the next round of stimulus spending, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN on Saturday. 

He outlined the administration’s priorities for the next stimulus package: expediting warp speed for treatments and keeping people employed, and making sure there are “protections for the American workers and those that employ individuals.”

“Whether it’s a payroll tax deduction, whether it’s making sure that unemployment benefits continue without a disincentive to return to work,” Meadows noted. The issue of continuing unemployment benefits has been a sticking point for Democrats in negotiations. 

“It looks like” the bill will be in the trillion dollar range, Meadows stated. 

Meadows added, “bluntly we are looking at a number of areas to look at manufacturing, bringing some of those critical manufacturing jobs back from overseas.” 

The Chief of Staff announced that there will be “multiple initiatives” coming out this week, including one on schools. 

Meadows said that the President has “already authorized to work Congress” over 70 billion dollars for schools, and that “you will see a very broad five to six points in terms of what we will be doing in terms of making sure that our schools are safe.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that five US Navy teams will be deployed Sunday to areas in South and Southwest Texas “to help combat the spread of Covid-19.”

The teams will assist at various hospitals in the cities of Harlingen, Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Rio Grande City, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

“These teams consist of medical and support professionals which are being deployed to help meet medical needs in hospitals throughout the state,” the press release says.

“The average test delay is too long,” said Dr. Francis Collins on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday. “And that really undercuts the value of the testing, because you do the testing to find out who’s carrying the virus and then quickly get them isolated so they don’t spread it around.” 

This is hard to do when there is a long delay in the testing, said Collins, director of the National Institutes for Health. 

Collins said that the science of this is critical and that NIH was “deeply engaged” with in efforts to try to develop an additional array of point of care tests. 

He also pointed out that this week, around seven or eight hundred nursing homes will be getting sent FDA approved point of care tests, so that people who are in a high risk environment will be able t find out if they have the virus in less than an hour, according to Collins. 

“That the kind of thing that I personally, along with many others and other parts of the government, are working on night and day to try to do a better job of this,” he said. “You’re right, we have to come up with a better turnaround time.” 

“It is bizarre that we have turned the mask wearing into something political,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. 

Using an analogy of an alien coming to the planet Earth and looking around at mask wearing, Collins said that they would be astounded, puzzled and amazed. 

“You’d wonder what is going on here? How could it be that something as basic as a public health that we have very strong evidence can help, seems to attach to people’s political party,” he said. “For starters, could we just walk away from that and say this is about all of us?” said Collins. 

He said that Americans are pretty good at rising to challenges and crises, that they have done it before during wartime.

“This is not a war, but in a certain way it is against the enemy which is called the virus, and that virus is very sneaky and stealthy,” Collins said. “Our best chance is for all of us to get together and do the right thing and stop fighting so much about the divide between different political perspectives which is just getting in the way.” 

Collins made a point to wear his mask as his interview started, explaining that he had been wearing it since he left his house, and was removing it because the only other person with him in the NIH studio was ten feet away. 

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he would have issued a statewide mask mandate “a long time ago,” if he believed it was the best way to save lives in his state.

CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed the governor on “State of the Union” on why he had issued a mask mandate for only 13 out of 82 counties in Mississippi. Reeves told Tapper, “my view is the best way for me to get my constituents to adhere to those simple things. If we will do the little things, we can make a difference in slowing the spread of this virus. The best way to do that is to highlight those counties where it’s most needed.”

Reeves went on to say, “it’s not about the words you write on the page. It’s not about these words like mandate. It’s about how do you get the majority of your citizens to actually adhere to doing what’s right?”

He said wearing a mask, social distancing and not gathering in large crowds is the “right things to do” to combat the spread of the virus.

President Donald Trump defended his relationship with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, but called him “a little bit of an alarmist” as he answered questions about the White House’s relationship with him during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

During this back and forth, Trump ultimately admitted that he himself had made some mistakes in the coronavirus response, but said he would “be right eventually” in reference to his past prediction that the virus would go away.

When asked about the White House providing documents outlining Fauci’s errors early on in the pandemic and efforts by some administration officials to discredit the nation’s top infectious expert, the President did criticize him when he used the term “bit of an alarmist” and noted that Fauci was wrong on a series of events surrounding the coronavirus pandemic including his original stance on masks.

Fauci early in the pandemic had asked the public not to go out and buy the N-95 masks because they were needed by health professionals. He has now strongly advocated for people to wear some type of face coverage.

The President also claimed that Fauci told him not to ban travel from China, but later told the President that the decision “saved tens of thousands of lives.” Early in the pandemic Fauci did raise some questions about how effective such a ban might be. 

Fox’s Chris Wallace then pressed Trump on his own mistakes, to which the President responded, “I guess everyone makes mistakes,” and went on to add that he would “be right eventually” on the pandemic. 

When Wallace asked if his errors discredited him, the President said he didn’t think so because he has “been right probably more than anybody else.” 

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves appeared on CNN’s State of Union with Jake Tapper today where he was asked about the state’s record-high hospitalizations from coronavirus.

Reeves told Tapper the number of people hospitalized in the state has nearly doubled in just over three weeks.

He added: “We haven’t quite doubled. But we are seeing significantly increased hospitalization.”

Reeves said that the state is working with its hospitals to “surge capacity” for ICU beds.

“Our goal in Mississippi is that every single Mississippian that can get better with quality that, they receive that quality care,” he said.

Covid-19 hospitalizations continue to drop across New York State and health officials are seeing a new low since March 18 as hospitalizations are down to 722.

The number of hospitalizations is down from 743 reported yesterday, according to a release from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. 

The state reported 502 additional Covid-19 cases as of yesterday and 13 additional deaths from the virus, the release says. 

New York has a statewide total of 406,807 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 25,048 deaths from the virus, the release says. 

One thing to note: The numbers listed were released by the state of New York and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

President Trump sparred with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace over the US mortality rate for Covid-19, at one point stopping the interview to demand White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany bring him charts showing the mortality rate figures he was citing.

Pressed by Wallace on why the US has the seventh-highest mortality rate in the world, Trump interjected to say the US has a much lower rate.

“When you talk about mortality rates, I think it’s the opposite. I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world,” Trump said.

He soon called for McEnany, who was off camera, to bring charts. 

“I hope you show the scenario because it shows what fake news is all about,” Trump said.

Wallace later noted he was citing Johns Hopkins University numbers, while Trump was reading from European CDC numbers that showed a different ranking for the US listed.

The data cited by the White House did not include all of the countries included in the Johns Hopkins numbers..

People line up outside a Kentucky Career Center hoping to find assistance with their unemployment claim in Frankfort, Kentucky, on June 18.

The end is near for the $600 federal lifeline for millions of unemployed Americans – even though the economy is still far from recovered from the coronavirus pandemic and new layoffs are being announced regularly. 

When does it expire: The coronavirus relief program technically doesn’t expire until July 31, but this coming week will be the last for which benefits are paid – because payments are only provided for weeks ending on either Saturday or Sunday.

Jobless Americans will still get state unemployment benefits, but the sunset of the Congress’ $600 enhancement – part of the $2 trillion economic aid package passed in March – will leave more than 25 million people thousands of dollars poorer each month. And it will expose more of the real pain of mass unemployment, just as many states are reimposing shutdowns.

What happens next: Congressional lawmakers are beginning to work this week on the next economic stimulus package. But it’s unlikely they’ll agree on – much less approve – the next step to help unemployed Americans before the payments lapse.

Read more about this here.

Buckingham Palace has released photographs from the private wedding of the UK’s Princess Beatrice, who married real estate developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi on Friday in a ceremony at Windsor Castle attended by Queen Elizabeth II.

Beatrice, who is ninth in line to the British throne and a granddaughter of the Queen and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was walked down the aisle by her father, Prince Andrew, Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Saturday.

Photographs released by Buckingham Palace Saturday show the princess standing at a distance from her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, and grandfather, Prince Philip.

Beatrice and Mapelli Mozzi have been engaged since last September but the coronavirus pandemic interfered with the original wedding date of May 29.

“The couple decided to hold a small private ceremony with their parents and siblings following the postponement of their wedding in May,” the palace said in a statement Saturday, adding that the ceremony took place at The Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor.

“Working within government guidelines, the service was in keeping with the unique circumstances while enabling them to celebrate their wedding with their closest family,” the palace said.

Read the full story here.

Protesters chant slogans as they march during an anti-government demonstration in Jerusalem, on July 18, 2020.

Demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Saturday night, protesting both the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, as well as calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign over his corruption trial.

Police say 13 people were arrested in Tel Aviv for causing public disturbances and throwing objects at police, while 15 people were arrested in Jerusalem for public disturbances and blocking roads.

They are the latest in a series of demonstrations against Netanyahu and took place just hours before the resumption of his trial on bribery and breach of trust charges. The PM has not entered a plea, but has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.

A judge at Jerusalem’s district court wrapped the trial’s second day of procedural hearings by deciding that the hearing of evidence and the calling of witnesses would begin in January 2021, with three days of hearings a week. The 70-year old Israeli leader was not required to attend Sunday’s hearing.   

Weekend lockdowns imposed as infections hit highs: Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus infections continues to hit new daily records. On Thursday, Israel recorded a new daily high of 1,929 coronavirus cases, breaking the previous record set one day earlier.

The surge in cases has prompted the government to impose weekend lockdowns, shuttering many places where people can gather, including museums, zoos, stores, and malls. Beaches will be closed starting next weekend.

Hong Kong will tighten social distancing restrictions further amid a rising number of confirmed coronavirus cases, the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, said Sunday, confirming that more than 100 new cases had been recorded over the past 24 hours. 

According to officials from Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection, 108 new cases have been recorded as of midnight Sunday local time – the highest daily increase in the city’s record. 

The total number of cases now stands at 1,886, the Center for Health Protection confirmed. 

Restrictions tightened: The surge in cases has led to the tightening of restrictions on citizens, including new work-from-home guidance for civil servants. 

According to Chief Executive Lam, all non-essential civil servants will be required to work from home from Monday for the duration of the week, with exceptions only for those providing emergency and essential services, including police and health care workers. 

The government is also expected to expand the mandatory use of face masks to include all enclosed public places, in addition to regulations already in place for public transport, Lam said. 

Meanwhile, limitations on indoor dining – which took effect on July 15 – will be extended for a further seven days, Lam added. 

English health officials are carrying out an urgent review of coronavirus statistics after it was revealed they may have included those who tested positive long before their death.

The UK government’s daily coronavirus death toll update was “paused” by the Department of Health, after Health Secretary Matt Hancock called for an “urgent review” into how Covid-19 deaths in England are counted.

“Currently the daily deaths measure counts all people who have tested positive for coronavirus and since died, with no cut-off between time of testing and date of death,” an update on the Department’s website said on Friday.

“There have been claims that the lack of cut-off may distort the current daily deaths number,” the update also said. 

The UK’s Mail on Sunday has reported that the way fatalities are recorded may have exaggerated England’s death toll by more than 4,000.

Ian Diamond, the UK’s National Statistician at the Office for National Statistics told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “It’s really, really important to recognize that different statistics are used for different things.”

Diamond said that while daily death data could be used to spot trends over the course of a few days, ONS data should be used for “accurate” data.

Speaking on the the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, the BBC’s Health Editor Hugh Pym said it had emerged that “Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, have been recording deaths in one way – everybody who tested positive and died within 28 days of the test was said to be part of the daily reported deaths figures from Covid. But England through Public Health England was saying anyone who tested positive, maybe going back a couple of months, and subsequently died – even if it was from another cause – was included in these daily reported figures.”

UK’s infection rate “basically flat”: The UK is “basically flat” when it comes to the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus, Diamond said Sunday.

When asked by Sky News’ Sophy Ridge whether the government’s gradual easing of lockdown restrictions had led to an uptick of people testing positive, Diamond said: “No we haven’t – we’re basically flat over the last few weeks.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves after a meeting of an EU summit on a coronavirus recovery package at the European Council building in Brussels on July 18.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that EU leaders may fail to reach a final agreement on a joint economic recovery fund, adding in a statement on Sunday that there are “many positions” on the issue.

European Union leaders arrived in Brussels on Friday to discuss proposals for a multi-billion euro recovery package to counter the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron said his country stands by Merkel and is prepared to compromise to reach a final agreement. 

“We are united with Chancellor Merkel for an unprecedented recovery plan, in terms of the crisis we are going through,” Macron tweeted. 

“We are ready to compromise without giving up ambition. Everyone must take responsibility. Let’s keep moving forward together,” he added.

There have been at least 3,711,413 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases in the United States. At least 140,119 people have died in the U.S. from coronavirus. 

On Saturday, Johns Hopkins University reported 63,698 new cases and 853 new deaths. 

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

Keep track of Covid-19 cases across the US with CNN’s interactive map:

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a media briefing on coronavirus in Downing Street, London, Friday, July 17.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed his reluctance to implement a second national coronavirus lockdown, likening the measure in a newspaper interview to a “nuclear deterrent.”

“I can’t abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent. But it is like a nuclear deterrent, I certainly don’t want to use it,” Johnson told the Sunday Telegraph, adding that he does not believe the UK will find itself in need of a second national lockdown. 

“It’s not just that we’re getting much better at spotting the disease and isolating it locally, but we understand far more which groups it affects, how it works, how it’s transmitted,” Johnson said. 

“We’re genuinely able now to look at what’s happening in much closer to real time, to isolate outbreaks and to address them on the spot,” he added. 

The PM’s comments come just days after the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Patrick Vallance, warned that a second wave of the virus could emerge, encouraging the continued enforcement of social distancing measures. 

“All we’ve done is suppressed the first wave and when you take the brakes off you would expect it to come back,” Vallance told the House of Lords Select Committee on Thursday.

“My view on this – and I think this is a view shared by SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) – is that we’re still at a time when distancing measures are important,” he added. 

A doctor wearing personal protective equipment, conducts a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in the Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, Japan, on July 18.

Japan reported 664 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, but no deaths, according to the country’s health ministry.

At least 25,354 people have been infected in Japan, where the death toll is 998.

In the capital, 290 cases were confirmed on Saturday, the third consecutive day that the city surpassed 200 new cases. On Friday, Tokyo reported 293 infections, which was its highest single-day rise.

Tokyo has reported 9,223 cases during the pandemic.

President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn at the White House, on Thursday, July 16, in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump has said he will not consider a national mandate on mask wearing in an interview with Fox set to air Sunday. 

When asked whether he would consider instituting a mandate, Trump responded: “No, I want people to have a certain freedom, and I don’t believe in that, no.”

During the hour-long sit-down, Trump also said he disagrees with the assessment by Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that “if all of us would put on a face covering now for the next four weeks, six weeks, we could drive this epidemic to the ground.” 

In the early days of the pandemic, public health officials asked people to not wear masks to save supplies for frontline workers, but now both Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, have repeatedly called upon Americans to wear masks in public.

Read the full story:

Related article Trump doesn't think US needs a national mask mandate

Artist Michael Gittes holds a canvas featuring paintings from his "Strangers to No One" series

A hospital in Brooklyn received a special delivery this week: 1,800 paintings representing a flower – or one for every employee.

The paintings were created and donated by Los Angeles-based artist Michael Gittes, whose works have been shown at The National Portrait Gallery in London, the Park Avenue Armory in New York, and the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

Gittes enlisted Bronner to help him find the perfect hospital for the donation. 

Based on Gittes’ specifications, it had to be a non-profit hospital in an underserved community, with an intensive care unit treating coronavirus patients. It had to be small enough for Gittes to be able to paint a unique, original painting for every single staff member, from the doctors and administrators to the janitors, security guards and cafeteria workers, Bronner said..

They decided that Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood would be the perfect fit for the project.

Read the full story.

India recorded 38,902 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday morning and 543 deaths, according to its Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

That marked the highest single-day increase in cases since the pandemic began, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 1,077,618, including 26,816 deaths. 

There are a reported 373,379 active cases in India and 677,422 patients have recovered.

In India, patients with mild and moderate symptoms are considered no longer active after 10 days of symptom onset if they meet certain conditions. A test to confirm they no longer have the virus is not required. Severe cases can be discharged after one negative test.

The western state of Maharashtra, which includes the financial capital Mumbai, remains the worst-hit region of the country by sheer numbers, with 300,937 confirmed cases and 11,596 deaths. 

India had conducted 13,791,869 coronavirus tests as of this morning.

Read more about how the world’s second most populous country hit 1 million cases:

Related article India's coronavirus outbreak explained in four graphics

Professional diver Emiliano Pescarolo contracted coronavirus in March and spent 17 days in hospital in the Italian port city of Genoa, before being discharged on April 10.

Now, three months later, the 42-year-old still experiences breathing difficulties. “Once back home, even after weeks I couldn’t see any progress: if I took a small walk, it was like climbing Mount Everest. I was out of breath also just for talking. I was very worried,” he said.

Pescarolo is one of dozens of former Covid patients receiving care at a rehabilitation clinic in Genoa – and says he is starting to see some progress.

For much of Europe, the peak of Covid-19 infections has passed. But while hospitals are no longer awash with acute cases, there are thousands of people who had either confirmed or suspected Covid and, weeks or months later, say they are far from fully recovered.

In the United Kingdom, communities of “long Covid” sufferers have spring up online, as people try to manage what appear to be long-term effects of a virus about which much remains unknown. Meanwhile, health authorities in the UK and Italy, two of the European nations worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, are starting to offer rehabilitation services to Covid-19 survivors.

These will likely need to be wide-ranging, since research now indicates that coronavirus is a multi-system disease that can damage not only the lungs, but the kidneys, liver, heart, brain and nervous system, skin and gastrointestinal tract.

Dr Piero Clavario, director of the post-Covid rehab institute attended by Pescarolo in Genoa, said his team had started contacting several hundred Covid-survivors treated by hospitals in the district in May. Of those, they have now visited more than 50.

“They are not only those that were in ICU and intubated because of Covid, but also patients that spent not more than three days in the hospitals and then went home,” he said. “We investigate aspects that escape standard virological and pulmonary exams.”

Related article Brain fog, fatigue, breathlessness. Long-term symptoms linger on for many coronavirus victims

The Department of State building in Washington, DC.

The State Department has released a 2018 diplomatic cable noting that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had “a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory.”

Contents of the 2-year-old cable, which were leaked earlier this year, provided fodder for unproven allegations from members of the Trump administration and Congress that the coronavirus may have escaped from the lab at the epicenter of the virus.

The January 2018 cable, obtained by the Washington Post after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, noted that ties between the WIV and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston could help alleviate the shortage and that, reportedly, the US-based institution was training technicians to work at the WIV.

A second cable about the WIV from April 2018 cited a French official who said that “French experts have provided guidance and biosafety training to the lab, which will continue.”

Parts of both cables are redacted.

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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews wears a face mask as he walks in to the daily briefing on July 19, in Melbourne, Australia.

Face masks will be mandatory in parts of the Australian state of Victoria from midnight on Wednesday as cases in the region continue to rise.

Daniel Andrews, Premier of Australia’s Victoria State, said Sunday that people within metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire would be fined 200 Australian dollars ($140) if caught not wearing a face covering.

Andrews said Victoria had recorded 363 new Covid-19 cases Saturday, bringing the state’s total to 5,696 cases.

“We are going to be wearing masks in Victoria, and potentially in other parts of the country for a very long time,” Andrews said.

“There is no vaccine to this widely infectious virus. And it’s a simple thing but it’s about changing habit and it’s about it becoming a simple part of your routine.”

A sanitation worker wearing personal protection equipment cleans and disinfect the checkpoint at Manuel Márquez de Léon International Airport on July 17, 2020 in La Paz, Mexico.

Mexico’s health ministry reported a record 7,615 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, bringing the country’s total to 338,913.

Speaking at a Saturday evening press conference, Mexican health officials reported 578 new Covid-19 deaths, raising the country’s death toll to 38,888.

General view during a press conference at the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 3, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.

There were 259,848 new Covid-19 cases reported to the World Health Organization in the last 24 hours, according to a WHO situation report published Saturday. The total number of cases worldwide reported to WHO is now 13.8 million.

The rise in newly reported cases sets another record for cases reported to WHO within a 24-hour period. 

The previous record was set on Friday, with 237,743 new cases of Covid-19.

Saturday’s report noted there were 7,360 additional Covid-19 deaths reported to WHO in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths worldwide to 593,087.

Keep track of Covid-19 cases across the world with John Hopkins University’s interactive map.

Cemetery workers carry the coffin of Bruno Correia, whose family said he died of COVID-19, to his gravesite at the Campo da Esperanca cemetery in Brasilia, Brazil, on Friday, July 17.

Brazil’s health ministry reported 912 new Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, raising the country’s death toll to 78,772.

The ministry reported 28,532 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the country’s total to 2.07 million.

The ongoing outbreak is partly driven by a rise in cases in Brazil’s south and interior. That includes states like Santa Catarina, where the Gov. Carlos Moises announced new lockdown measures in several regions on Friday due to what he called “very grave” public health risk. In Mato Grosso, about 90 percent of ICU beds are occupied, according to the state government.

This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance for people who are isolating at home with Covid-19 to prevent transmission of the virus.

They offer one strategy based on time and symptoms, and another approach based on testing.

Someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 and has symptoms may discontinue isolation 10 days after the symptoms first appeared so long as 24 hours have passed since the last fever without the use of fever-reducing medications, and if symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath have improved.

People with Covid-19 symptoms isolating at home and with access to tests can leave isolation if a fever has passed without the use of medication, if there is an improvement in symptoms, and if tests taken more than 24 hours apart come back negative, according to the guidelines.

The revised guidelines were posed online Friday. The CDC also updated guidance for people who are in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19 but who don’t have symptoms. The agency recommended two options: a time-based strategy and a test-based strategy.

A person without symptoms can discontinue isolation 10 days after the first positive test and if they have not subsequently developed symptoms.

Viral shedding means a person can pass the virus to someone else.

If a person develops symptoms, then the symptom-based or test-based strategy should be used, according to the guidelines.

People who have tested positive for Covid-19 and are asymptomatic can also discontinue isolation if the results of two tests taken more than 24 hours apart come back negative.

The decision of ending isolation “should be made in the context of local circumstances,” the CDC advised. Health care workers who are in close contact with vulnerable populations and people who are immunocompromised — which could prolong viral shedding after recovery — are recommended to isolate for longer. 

The CDC noted the updated guidance may “appear in conflict” with the recommendations for people known to have been exposed to the virus. The agency recommends a 14-day quarantine after exposure, based on the time it takes to develop illness from the virus.

Previous guidance from May 3 had extended the home isolation period from seven to 10 days since symptoms first appeared or after the first positive test. The CDC said this update was made “based on evidence suggesting a longer duration of viral shedding.”

The agency warned these recommendations “will prevent most, but cannot prevent all, instances of secondary spread.”

“The risk of transmission after recovery is likely substantially less than that during illness; recovered persons will not be shedding large amounts of virus by this point, if they are shedding at all,” the agency said.

A healthcare worker gathers information from a patient at a United Memorial Medical Center COVID-19 testing site Thursday, July 16, in Houston.

For a fifth day in a row, Texas has reported more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Saturday’s 10,158 new cases bring the state’s total to 317,730 cases.  

The DSHS reported an additional 130 deaths, just a day after reporting highest daily total of 174 new deaths. Texas has reported 673 deaths over the past six days, bringing the total to 3,865 statewide. 

The number of hospitalizations rose slightly on Saturday to 10,658 Covid-19 patients. 

Keep track of Covid-19 cases across the US with CNN’s interactive map.