August 19 coronavirus news

Mexico recorded 5,792 new cases of Covid-19 and 707 new deaths on Wednesday, according to the Health Ministry.

The total number of confirmed infections in the country now stands at 537,031, with 58,481 deaths.

Mexico has reported the third-highest number of deaths in the world from coronavirus, following the United States and Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Only Brazil and Peru have recorded more Covid-19 cases than Mexico in Latin America, according to JHU.

CNN is tracking worldwide coronavirus cases here:

Indigenous protesters block a highway near Novo Progresso, Brazil, on Monday.

Indigenous Brazilian protesters removed their barricades from a key highway in Brazil’s Amazon Wednesday to allow for trucks loaded with grains to pass through.

The Kayapó Mekragnoti people warned they will block the route again on Thursday morning to continue their protest against the government’s lack of Covid-19 relief.

The Indigenous Brazilians defied a court order on Tuesday and blocked a key highway for the second time in 24 hours, after reopening it with federal police earlier in the day.

Why they are protesting: The protesters are demanding health assistance, medical supplies and food to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, and the end of deforestation and illegal activities in their territories, according to the Kabu Institute, an NGO created to manage indigenous villages and inspect the region’s forests. 

Why they chose the highway: Indigenous leaders argue that proximity to the road brought coronavirus to their villages, the Kabu Institute told CNN Monday.

The first coronavirus cases among the Kayapó Mekragnoti occurred as a result of their contact with urban populations and the presence of illegal miners in their reserves. 

At least 21,000 indigenous people in Brazil have been infected with Covid-19 and more than 600 have died, according to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB).

President Donald Trump speaks during a White House news conference on Wednesday.

United States President Donald Trump highlighted New Zealand’s fresh coronavirus outbreak for the second time this week, while claiming the US has done a good job of containing the virus.

New Zealand is currently grappling with a reemergence of cases, which came shortly after the country went more than 100 days with no local transmissions.

On Monday, Trump called New Zealand’s surge in Covid-19 cases “terrible.”

“Even New Zealand, did you see what’s going on in New Zealand? ‘They beat it, they beat it.’ It was like front page, they beat it, because they wanted to show me something,” he said.

In response, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she didn’t see any real comparison between her country’s current cluster and the tens of thousands of cases that are reported daily in the US.

New cases: New Zealand recorded five new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, Director-General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield said on Thursday.

That raises the country’s total to 1,304 confirmed infections – 101 of which remain active. New Zealand has also reported 22 coronavirus-related deaths.

The US has recorded at least 5,527,306 Covid-19 cases, including 173,114 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Travelers stand in line for a security check at the Sharm El Sheikh International Airport in June.

Egypt will require all travelers arriving in the country to present a negative Covid-19 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) lab test result starting September 1.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly made the announcement in a news conference on Wednesday, according to the state-run Al-Ahram news agency.

Madbouly said the decision to require the test for all travelers came due to “increasing infections in some countries,” according to Al-Ahram.  

Egypt shut its airspace in March but resumed regular international flights gradually from July 1, Al-Ahram reported. 

Foreign tourists are currently allowed entry only into the three coastal Egyptian governorates with the lowest coronavirus infection rates in the country – South Sinai, Red Sea, and Matrouh, according to the news agency. 

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said it is using a new, fast saliva test for coronavirus under an Emergency Use Authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The university’s test is similar enough to one developed at the Yale School of Public Health to allow authorization, Dr. Marty Burke, associate dean for research at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, told a briefing Wednesday.

The FDA authorized Yale’s test, called SalivaDirect, last week.

It gives results in about three hours, a University of Illinois spokeswoman said. Students, faculty and staff have been getting tested twice weekly to keep a handle on the spread of the virus, she said, with more than 50,000 tests done since July.

The university tested 10,000 people on Monday alone, a spokesperson said.

“It’s one of the least expensive and potentially most effective now on the market,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at the briefing.

Cemetery workers in Buenos Aires carry a person's remains to the section of the Flores Cemetery where Covid-19 victims are being buried.

Argentina reported its highest daily number of Covid-19-related deaths on Wednesday, with 282 fatalities.

The coronavirus death toll in the South American country now stands at 6,330, according to the Health Ministry.

Argentina also reported 6,693 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 312,659.

Argentina has reported the sixth highest number of cases in Latin America, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The College Board announced that 178,600 out of 402,000 students who signed up to take the SAT and SAT Subject Tests on Aug. 29 will not be able to do so.

The College Board cited the closure of local test centers and the need to reduce capacity as a result of social distancing as the reason for a significant number of students being unable to take the test on their previously scheduled date.

As of Tuesday, 54% of test centers initially scheduled to administer tests in August remain open. Of the 54% of test centers that are open, 46% are at capacity.

“We know this is a challenging time for students who want to take the SAT,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, the College Board vice president of College Readiness Assessments. “We are working with local communities to help ensure as many students who want to test have the opportunity to do so, safely, during next week’s SAT administration and those that follow each month this year.” 

The College Board said it will work with test centers that need to close or reduce their available seats because of new safety measures.

Cemetery workers bury an alleged coronavirus victim in Medellin, Colombia, as her relatives watch from a safe distance on August 12.

Colombia surpassed the 500,000 mark in nationwide coronavirus cases Wednesday after the country registered a record 13,056 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to the country’s health ministry.

This brings the country’s total case count to at least 502,178. 

There were also 360 new deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, raising the national death toll to 15,979, the ministry reported.

This comes after Colombia’s health ministry approved a plan this morning to partially resume domestic flights from 10 cities.

Colombia joins Brazil, Mexico and Peru to become the fourth country in Latin America to top 500,000 total Covid-19 cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. 

Detroit Federation of Teachers President Terrence Martin, bottom, speaks during a virtual news conference on Wednesday.

The Detroit Federation of Teachers voted overwhelming Wednesday to authorize a safety strike over concerns about the school district’s reopening plan, union president Terrence Martin said.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Public Schools Community District said via Twitter that “teachers have options. No teacher is required to teach face to face,” and that “most students are selecting online learning.” 

“We are hopeful we can reach an agreement with the Detroit Public Schools about the reopening,” Martin said, adding that the union is seeking reassurances from the district about the safety measures that would be taken in schools amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The vote to authorize the safety strike received the support of 91% of the union members as negotiations with the school district continues.

The first day of the district’s school year is scheduled for Sept. 8.

Moncef Slaoui is head of Operation Warp Speed, the White House’s accelerated vaccine program.

Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui said he expects a coronavirus vaccine to be widely available sometime next year – perhaps between April and June, according to a new report. 

Slaoui, in an interview Wednesday with Business Insider, said he expects most of the US’s “high-risk population of around 70 or 80 million people will have been immunized” by then. Much depends on whether a majority of the six vaccines backed by Operation Warp Speed demonstrate efficacy, he said.

“I feel pretty confident we will be there,” Slaoui said.

High-risk individuals include the elderly and those with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, kidney and heart disease.

Some context: Slaoui, an immunologist who formerly headed up GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine program, told CNN late last month that there might not be enough vaccine available for all Americans until the end of next year. He said there would be enough vaccine for all Americans “ideally” by the middle of 2021, but possibly not until the end of 2021.

The head of Operation Warp Speed, the White House’s accelerated vaccine program, also told Business Insider that he expects critical information on late-stage vaccine trials currently underway by Moderna and Pfizer to be available soon and that the trials are moving along “very well.” AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson are expected to begin trials shortly, too.

“I would not be surprised if we have data before the end of the year,” Slaoui said, but he was unable to give a more precise time on when the government might know if one of the vaccines works. 

This aerial photo shows the Vila Formosa Cemetery, on the outskirts of São Paulo, Brazil, on August 6.

Brazil has confirmed 49,298 new Covid-19 cases and 1,212 deaths in the past 24 hours, the country’s health ministry reported Wednesday. 

At least 111,100 people have died in Brazil from coronavirus, according to the ministry’s data. The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases now stands at 3,456,652.

A top Brazilian health official said at today’s news conference that Covid-19-related deaths in the country have been on the decline.

Some context: As of last week, Covid-19-related deaths fell by 2% compared to the previous week, according to data released on Wednesday by the health ministry.

Brazil continues to trail only the United States in terms of the highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the world.

Health officials in Washington state – where the first US coronavirus outbreak was reported – say the rate of new cases is slowing down for a second time.

“I do honestly think that the face coverings have made a difference,” Secretary of Health Dr. John Weisman said Wednesday during a news conference.

Earlier in the week, the department issued a status report saying new cases are “plateauing” in Washington.

The statewide seven-day rolling average peaked nearly a month ago, but Weisman said case counts are only just now getting back down to where they were during the state’s first peak at the beginning of April.

“We’re both encouraged, and also still really cautious,” he said.

North Carolina State University has identified two additional Covid-19 clusters at two sorority houses on campus, according to a release on the school’s website.

The Alpha Delta Pi Sorority House has reported seven positive cases and the Kappa Delta Sorority House has six positive cases. 

All students who have tested positive will be isolated and residents of both houses are being quarantined, the release said.

On Tuesday: The school reported two other clusters, one among the Greek life system and another in off-campus housing. 

According to tracking data on the school’s website, the school reported 28 news cases of Covid-19 today, 27 among students and one employee.

Gov. Gavin Newsom

San Diego, Santa Cruz, and Placer counties are no longer on California’s Covid-19 monitoring list after meeting requirements for slowing the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced during a news conference on Wednesday.

San Francisco may come off the watch list as early as Thursday, Newsom added.

While 40 of California’s 58 counties are currently on the state’s watch list, Newsom said “we want this list to go down to zero.”

More details: Counties are required to have fewer than 100 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents for two weeks and a 7-day positivity rate below 8% to stay off the state watch list, according to guidelines from the California Department of Public Health. Counties off the watch list for 14 consecutive days are eligible to apply for a waiver to open in-person classes for elementary schools.

In Los Angeles County, which has the most coronavirus cases and deaths in the state, the county’s public health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, said during a briefing Wednesday that the county is “doing better,” but “not doing well enough.”

While Los Angeles County has made “decent progress” with a test positivity rate below 8%, the county is still reporting about 245 cases per 100,000 residents, Ferrer said.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear speaks during a press conference on Wednesday, August 19.

More than half of Kentucky counties are in the White House “danger zone” designations when it comes to Covid-19 infections, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday.

Kentucky recorded 655 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours as well as 12 new deaths, Beshear told reporters during a news conference in Frankfort.

The governor also emphasized that among the new cases, 91 or 14% are children age 18 years-old or younger.

Kentucky now counts a total of 40,926 cases, including a total of 842 deaths, Beshear said. 

Massachusetts said Wednesday it would require all schoolchildren to get influenza vaccines to stay enrolled in public schools and daycares, making it the first state to require flu shots for children over the age of 5.

Most states require that children get the 16 recommended childhood vaccines to attend public schools, but the influenza vaccine, which must be given freshly every year, has been an exception.

Public health officials including US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield have been urging all Americans to get vaccinated against flu this year so the virus doesn’t further complicate the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“Students will be expected to have received a flu vaccine by December 31, 2020 for the 2020-2021 influenza season, unless either a medical or religious exemption is provided,” the Massachusetts health department said.

“Also exempted are K-12 students who are homeschooled and higher education students who are completely off-campus and engaged in remote learning only,” the department added.

The CDC estimates that 600 children died of flu during the 2017-2018 flu season.

“Every year, thousands of people of all ages are affected by influenza, leading to many hospitalizations and deaths,” Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director of the state’s Bureau of Infectious Disease, said in a statement.

“It is more important now than ever to get a flu vaccine because flu symptoms are very similar to those of COVID-19 and preventing the flu will save lives and preserve healthcare resources.”  

The Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz kneel before a first round playoff game on August 19 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Once again, no NBA players within the Disney World based campus have tested positive for Covid-19, the league reports. 

The NBA and the players union jointly announced zero positive Covid-19 test results from the 341 players tested this past week. 

The last time the NBA reported positive test results was on July 13, when 322 players were tested with two confirmed positives. 

The first round of the 2020 NBA playoffs are ongoing in Orlando, Florida. 

People walk past the New York Stock Exchange on August 3 in New York.

US stocks ended the day in the red and neither the S&P 500 nor the Nasdaq Composite reached new record highs.

The Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes reminded the market that the recovery remains fragile and that its path will depend on how well we deal with the virus in the future. That put a damper on things.

Adm. Brett Giroir testifies at a coronavirus hearing on July 31, 2020 in Washington, D.C.

Covid-19 cases are declining across the United States and it’s clear “trends are going in the right direction,” Adm. Dr. Brett Giroir said during a US Department of Health and Human Services telebriefing on Wednesday. 

Giroir says wearing a mask, staying a safe distance away, washing your hands along with testing “continues to yield results.”

But Giroir doesn’t want the news to lead to complacency because “this thing could turn around very quickly if we’re not careful. We saw that early on after Memorial Day, and the couple weeks afterward that sort of started the current outbreak, and it takes many weeks to get control over this once you institute measures.”  

Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at HHS, said new cases are down 22% since their peak in July – but noted that “tragically,” deaths are the lagging indicator and still remain flat.  

More data: Giroir said of the 56 US jurisdictions, 80% of them (45 out of 56) are currently in a declining pattern when it comes to new cases. Six of the 56 are flat. He said five are in an upward trajectory — Guam, Hawaii, California, Indiana and Vermont. 

Experts from Duke University shared advice on Wednesday on how to prepare for the possibility of facing a hurricane during a pandemic.

Dr. Cameron Wolfe, associate professor of medicine at Duke Division of Infectious Diseases and an infectious disease specialist at Duke Health, said that when it comes to storm preparedness, communities should be “thinking about ways of incorporating Covid-specific level care and planning for the logistics of that.”

That includes thinking about things like personal protective equipment and mobile testing capacity for places like storm shelters. 

One thing that could be easy to overlook, is the mental health and emotional impact of living in a hurricane-prone place, according to Lisa Campbell, a professor of marine affairs and policy at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

She said that places like schools and employers should be attentive to the levels of stress that people are dealing with because of this double layer. 

Dr. Andrew Godfrey, an emergency medicine specialist at Duke Health and a medical instructor in the Department of Surgery at Duke University School of Health, said that people should take the time while things are calmer to make plans for hurricanes and storms.

“What their plan would be if they were ordered to evacuate or if they needed to leave, and to try to pre-plan a little bit, as much as possible, given the constraints of Covid,” he said.