July 10 coronavirus news

By Nectar Gan, Steve George, Laura Smith-Spark, Ed Upright, Meg Wagner and Melissa Macaya, CNN

Updated 8:15 PM ET, Fri July 10, 2020
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2:44 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

Victoria records 288 new Covid-19 cases, highest single day rise in any Australian state

From CNN's Angus Watson in Sydney

Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews speaks to the media during the daily briefing on July 10, in Melbourne.
Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews speaks to the media during the daily briefing on July 10, in Melbourne. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

The Australian state of Victoria registered a record 288 new coronavirus cases on Thursday -- the highest any Australian state has reported in a single day since the pandemic began, the state's Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Friday.

The vast majority of the new cases have not yet been traced, Andrews said at a press briefing.

Speaking at the same event, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the latest rise is a “very ugly number” and warned that “we will get worse numbers to follow.”

"Our numbers are the numbers that the US gets every ten minutes, so we are still in a fortunate position and we have gone into this lockdown in order to prevent us from those sorts of pressures," Sutton added.

Premier Daniel Andrews also advised Victorians, particularly those in Melbourne, to wear masks whenever they are outside and maintain social distance.

“It is our request, it is not compulsory,” Andrews said. “If you can wear a mask when you can’t distance, that's what you should do”.

2:24 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

Australia to halve number of residents allowed to return from overseas

From CNN's Angus Watson in Sydney

Australia will slash the number of its citizens and permanent residents allowed to return home from overseas each week, in an effort to stem new Covid-19 cases, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Friday.

Currently 8,000 residents are allowed to fly into the country each week. That number will be reduced to 4,000, Morrison said.

There are no international flights currently allowed into Melbourne, which reintroduced strict lockdown measures this week as it grapples with a resurgence of coronavirus cases.

Returned travelers are subject to 14 days of enforced hotel quarantine.

Morrison said that the decision will be “damaging to our economy, that’s obvious, you don’t need modeling to tell you that,” but that the “news from Victoria remains very concerning. It is concerning. They have called for help, they are getting help.”

The Prime Minister thanked residents of Melbourne for complying with the six-week lockdown that came into force from midnight Wednesday.

“The whole country is with you, all the country is with you, the resources of the country are with you, to do what is necessary…but it will require your continued patience and continued discipline,” he said.
1:57 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

Mexico records more than 7,000 new Covid-19 cases, its highest jump since the outbreak

From CNN's Karol Suarez and Tim Lister

People queue to receive free food from a Motorcycle Organization in Mexico City on July 9.
People queue to receive free food from a Motorcycle Organization in Mexico City on July 9. Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

Mexico saw its third day of record highs in coronavirus cases over the past week, recording more than 7,000 cases in a single day.

The Mexican Health Ministry recorded 7,280 newly confirmed Covid-19 cases Thursday, bringing the country's total confirmed cases to 282,283.

The ministry also recorded 730 new deaths from the virus, bringing the nationwide death toll to 33,526.

A CNN analysis of figures from individual states and from World Health Organization shows that Mexico, among other Latin American countries, is at or close to its peak infection rate, as daily numbers are averaged over a week. 

In Mexico, the daily average of new cases in the week to July 8 was 6,176 -- the highest yet. A week ago, that average was 4,989, according to CNN's analysis of official data.

Deaths in Mexico from the coronavirus have fallen back from a daily average of 759 in the week to June 25 to 612 on July 8, but in recent days that daily average has begun to creep up again.

1:38 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

Japan sees 357 new coronavirus cases as Tokyo hits record daily high 

From CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki in Tokyo

People wearing face masks gather at the Tokyo railway station on July 2.
People wearing face masks gather at the Tokyo railway station on July 2. Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images

Japan recorded 357 new coronavirus cases Thursday, its health ministry said Friday. 

This is the first time the country has recorded more than 300 daily new infections since April 25, when it was still under a state of emergency over the pandemic. 

The majority of the new infections came from Tokyo, which reported 224 new cases on Thursday -- the largest single-day climb in the Japanese capital since the outbreak began. 

Tokyo's governor Yuriko Koike said Thursday the jump was due to increased testing. 

Koike said he expects the trend to continue and urged the public and businesses to stick to guidelines for infection prevention.

Japan also recorded a coronavirus-related death Thursday, the health ministry said. 

So far, the coronavirus has infected 21,431 people and claimed 995 lives in Japan.

1:38 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

CDC director says he stands by guidance on how schools can reopen this year

Dr. Robert Redfield
Dr. Robert Redfield CNN

Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discussed tonight guidelines schools around the country should consider before reopening during the pandemic.

These guidelines received added attention recently after President Trump, against the advice of some of the nation's top health officials, called for schools to reopen as coronavirus cases surge across the country.

Redfield said the guidelines "are to provide a variety of different strategies for schools to use to help facilitate the reopening of schools," he said tonight during CNN's global coronavirus town hall.

The CDC guidelines for schools to reopen contain steps to keep children safe, including keeping desks to be placed six feet apart and for children to use cloth face coverings. The CDC suggests the closing of communal areas like dining rooms and playgrounds and the installation of physical barriers like sneeze guards where necessary.

Redfield said that each school district should read the guidelines and see "how they can incorporate those guidances to make their school in a situation where they can reopen safely."

"We do continue to provide additional material and actually had planned for some time some resources or consideration documents to help better understand the guidance, particularly for communities that are opening K-12. We have another document for parents and caregivers how to plan for kids to go back to school," Redfield said.

Earlier today: Redfield said schools must reopen because if they were to stay closed, it would be a “greater public health threat."

“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."

"Having the schools actually close is a greater public health threat to children than having the schools reopen," he said.

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

12:59 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

Study finds evidence coronavirus can spread across the placenta to the fetus

From CNN's Maggie Fox

A new study from Italy suggests that coronavirus can cross the placenta from a pregnant woman to her fetus. 

Two babies born to women infected with Covid-19 were born infected themselves, Claudio Fenizia of the University of Milan and colleagues reported at a conference organized by the International AIDS Society.

They studied 31 women infected with coronavirus who were in late pregnancy during the height of the coronavirus pandemic in Italy. They thoroughly tested the women, their babies once they were born, the placenta, the umbilical cord, the mother’s vaginal fluids and breast milk. 

Two of the newborns had positive tests at birth, they reported.

“Our result strongly suggest and support that vertical transmission occurred in two cases out of the 31 studied,” Fenizia told a news conference.
“The virus was found in an at-term placenta and in the umbilical cord blood, in the vagina of a pregnant woman and in milk,” the researchers wrote in a summary of their work.
“This is the first ringing bell that should raise awareness about a topic that is not really well studied,” Fenizia said.

The placentas were inflamed, as well — a sign of infection. The umbilical cord blood of one of the newborns had antibodies indicating a recent infection. These antibody types are not usually transmitted from mother to baby, so they indicate the fetus was directly infected, Fenizia said.

Luckily, the women were infected late in pregnancy so it is unlikely the virus would have affected the babies’ development, he said. The Zika virus can pass from a pregnant woman to her unborn child, sometimes causing severe brain damage and a condition called microcephaly. HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — can also be transmitted at birth.

12:59 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

CDC director implores millennials and Gen Xers: Social distance, wear a mask and avoid bars

From CNN's Leinz Vales

Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appealed to young Americans Thursday, calling for millennials and members of Generation X to social distance and wear face coverings to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

"We have not been able to reach effectively the millennials and the Generation X," Redfield said at CNN's coronavirus town hall. "Tonight, I appeal to them. These are our tools. We're seeing the outbreak increase in number of states across this nation, in a number of metropolitan ares. The most important powerful weapon we have, please social distance. Please wear a mask in public. Please wash your hands. And please, basically, let's not be going to bars right now. It's just not the time for us to do that."

More on this: In June, officials in states across the South warned that more young people were testing positive for coronavirus.

12:59 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

Poor coronavirus surveillance has 'hamstrung' response efforts in US, new report says

From CNN's Maggie Fox

Surveillance for coronavirus is hit and miss in the US and needs to be coordinated so every state is reporting the same data, according to a new report from the University of Minnesota.

“The country’s approach to surveillance thus far has been lacking in consistent methods and strategy, which has hamstrung response efforts,” the report from the university’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) says.

“The lack of reliable and comparable national data on Covid-19 makes it difficult to develop, assess, and evaluate public health policies across the country. Much of this is the result of a patchwork of variable policies for testing and surveillance in different jurisdictions, despite recommendations from the CDC for standardized reporting,” it adds.

“For example, not all states report probable cases in addition to confirmed cases and deaths, and some states combine results of positive molecular tests with positive antibody tests, while others do not.” Plus, there is no consistent monitoring of who has antibodies against coronavirus, which would help efforts to tell how many people have already been infected.

“It would be very useful to also distinguish tests performed in people who have symptoms versus people who do not have symptoms,” the report adds.

The CIDRAP report finds a lack of uniform and consistent data makes testing information less useful than it should be.

“Testing is a key feature of an effective surveillance system, but the lack of consistent, widespread access to testing within and between states complicates the meaningful interpretation of data at the state and national levels,” it says. “State-level data do not always include critical elements, such as the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths, nor additional important demographic information such as age, gender, race/ethnicity and location.”

The report recommends a national standardized approach to coronavirus surveillance.

“With the fall influenza season approaching, federal, state, local and territorial health officials need to begin now to determine strategies for coordinating surveillance for both COVID-19 and influenza,” it says.

12:58 a.m. ET, July 10, 2020

US sees another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases

Healthcare workers move a patient in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on July 2.
Healthcare workers move a patient in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on July 2. Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images

The US saw a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day Thursday, with 60,646 new cases reported, according to Johns Hopkins University.

There are at least 3,115,345 cases of coronavirus in the US and more than 133,000 people have died from the virus, according to JHU’s tally. 

Thursday's total eclipses the previous high of new US cases reached on July 7, when 60,021 new coronavirus cases were reported across the country, according to Johns Hopkins data.