July 15 coronavirus news

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A nurse plays the violin for patients infected with Covid-19, at a hospital in Santiago, Chile on July 9.

Latin American and Caribbean countries have now recorded more than 3.5 million Covid-19 cases and more than 150,000 deaths, according data from Johns Hopkins University.

The 33 countries in the region have reported a total 3,524,908 cases and 150,973 deaths.

The following 33 countries are included in this region:

Brazil, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Panama, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Uruguay, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Belize, Saint Lucia, Dominica, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP

Congressman Rick Allen, from left, President Donald Trump, Congressman Doug Collins, Senator David Perdue, and Senator Kelly Loeffler greet each other at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on July 15.

The White House said Wednesday evening that President Donald Trump followed guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during his trip to Atlanta, after the city’s mayor accused him of breaking the law by not wearing a mask at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Trump was spotted not wearing a mask during his visit to Atlanta on Wednesday, and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN that Trump broke the law.

Hartsfield-Jackson airport is owned and operated by the city of Atlanta and thus included in her executive order requiring masks, Bottoms said.

When asked for a response, the White House did not directly address Bottoms’ accusation and said Trump was instead following CDC guidance.

“The President takes the health and safety of everyone traveling in support of himself and all White House operations very seriously,” deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement to CNN.

“When preparing for and carrying out any travel, White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office, to ensure plans incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible.”

An administration official added that the President and all those in close proximity to him are tested and he also never left the airport.

Read more here:

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Moderna Therapeutics headquarters is seen here in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Moderna’s chief medical officer said Wednesday that he’s “cautiously optimistic” about the biotechnology company’s Covid-19 vaccine developed in partnership with the National Institutes of Health.

“We believe that the chances of this working are pretty good,” said Dr. Tal Zaks, chief medical officer for Moderna. “And the reasons are that the ability to neutralize antibodies to mediate the right immune response I think has been demonstrated for other similar viruses and in preclinical models.”

The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday, showed that the vaccine worked to trigger an immune response with mild side effects — fatigue, chills, headache, muscle pain, pain at the injection site — becoming the first US vaccine candidate to publish results in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Zaks insisted that an independent body of experts will continue to monitor the study as it enters a large phase three trial — the final trial stage before regulators consider whether to make the vaccine available.

“I feel very confident you’re not going to have to trust me on this, there will be the right appropriated body of experts that will look at the data as it emerges to ascertain indeed the benefit risk profile warrants deployment,” Zaks said. 

New Mexico reported its second-largest single-day Covid-19 case increase today, according to a tweet from New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Hospitalizations in New Mexico have gone up 37% in the last two weeks, she added. 

The New Mexico Department of Health announced 330 new Covid-19 cases totay for a total of 15,841 cases statewide, according to a news release from Lujan Grisham’s office. There have been six additional deaths to bring the total to 557 deaths.

There are currently 174 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the state.

To note: These figures were released by the New Mexico 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.

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Crematorium workers place the body of a person who died of COVID-19 into the oven to be cremated at the San Isidro Crematorium in Azcapotzalco, on Wednesday, July 15, in Mexico City.

Mexico’s health ministry recorded 6,149 newly confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Wednesday, bringing the country’s total to 317,635.

The ministry also reported 579 new deaths from the virus, bringing Mexico’s death toll to 36,906.

Some context: On Wednesday, Latin American and Caribbean countries surpassed more than 3.5 million Covid-19 cases and more than 150,000 deaths, according to a CNN tally based on data from Johns Hopkins University.

Javier Torres/AFP/Getty Images

People queue outside a Health Ministry van to be tested for COVID-19 in Santiago, Chile, on July 10.

Chile’s Ministry of Health reported 1,712 new cases of novel coronavirus Wednesday, its lowest daily increase since May 12, when the country reported 1,658. 

Wednesday’s daily increase rate of 0.54% is also the lowest percentage since early May, according to CNN’s tally of cases. 

Chile’s total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases now stands at 321,205. 

Health authorities also reported 117 new deaths from the virus on Wednesday, bringing the nationwide death toll to 7,186. 

“The variation of confirmed cases nationwide continues to decrease. It decreased 14% in the last 7 days and 36% in 14 days. The positivity rate is 16% and the number of deaths in the last days –the moving average, is 88. This is the lowest number of deaths in the last 32 days,” Chile’s Minister of Health Enrique Paris said during Wednesday’s news conference.

Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP

Gov. Brian Kemp

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is extending the state’s emergency coronavirus restrictions, but is not requiring citizens to wear a mask.

The order, which was signed Wednesday, also continues to prevent local governments from enacting rules that are stricter than the state’s restrictions.

“To flatten the curve, I urge all local elected officials to enforce the terms of this order,” Kemp wrote on Facebook. Without the extension, state guidance would have expired at the end of the day Wednesday.

Under Kemp’s order, face coverings are recommended, but not required.