July 21 coronavirus news

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Juan Hernández waters the grave of his brother Mario who died of COVID-19 on July 16, in Hermosillo, Mexico.

Mexico surpassed 40,000 Covid-19 deaths Tuesday, after the country’s health ministry reported 915 new deaths from the virus.

The country’s death toll now stands at 40,400. 

The ministry also reported another rise in infections, with 6,859 newly confirmed cases bringing Mexico’s total number to 356,255.

Almost 900,000 new Covid-19 cases and nearly 22,000 deaths were reported last week in the Americas, with Brazil, Mexico and the United States reporting most of the new cases and deaths, Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization said on Tuesday.

The US’s 3,000 counties expect this year’s coronavirus pandemic to hit their budgets to the tune of $202 billion, meaning cuts in services, jobs and infrastructure projects, according to a survey published Tuesday.

Already, 71% of counties have cut or delayed capital investments such as infrastructure and economic development projects, the US’ National Association of Counties (NACo) said in its report. And 68% reported they have cut services such as public safety and health services.

“Counties anticipate (a) $202 billion impact to budgets through FY2021, with widespread economic consequences,” the report reads.

The group said counties employ 328,000 hospital workers, 374,000 law enforcement officers, 93,000 firefighting staff and 200,000 public health workers. Jails, airports, 911 call centers, child and domestic protective services and services for the elderly could all be impacted.

Medical staff wraps a deceased patient who died of Covid-19 in blankets at the United Memorial Medical Center on June 30, in Houston, Texas. 

Tuesday’s reported deaths from coronavirus have topped 1,000 in the United States for the first time in two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

As of 9:45 p.m. ET, 1,056 deaths have been reported, along with 62,752 new cases of the virus. On July 7, the death toll was 1,195 – the only other time in July that threshold has been crossed. Today’s death count will not be finalized for a few more hours.

So far this year, one-quarter of all days (59 out of 202) have seen a death toll from the virus exceeding 1,000.

A health worker collects a swab sample from a detained man to be tested for the new coronavirus, at police station in Cali, Colombia, on July 21.

Colombia’s health ministry reported 7,033 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the country’s total to 211,038 cases. 

The ministry also reported 239 new fatalities, bringing the nationwide total death toll to 7,166. 

Despite the growing number of cases, Health Minister Fernando Ruiz defended Colombia’s strategy not to impose a nationwide lockdown and instead try to isolate the hotspots across the country. 

Speaking on television on Tuesday, Ruiz said, “This approach is much more effective than shutting down the whole country.” 

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi talks to reporters during her weekly news conference in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center on July 16 in Washington.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday responded to President Trump’s briefing earlier in the day, in which he warned the pandemic would probably get worse before it gets better, saying he had realized his early actions and rhetoric were in error.

“If he had said months ago ‘let’s wear a mask, let’s socially distance’ instead of having rallies…. then more people would have followed his lead,” Pelosi added. “He is the President of the United States.”

In today’s briefing that lasted around 30 minutes, Trump again said he believed the virus would disappear and insisted the American response to the pandemic was “much better” than in other places.

But he also offered more realistic projections that his advisers hope will make him appear like a sober-minded leader.

“It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better,” Trump said, echoing a prediction he made at the start of April of a “rough” two weeks ahead.

Pelosi suggested that Trump ought to have taken the tone he took today in March, instead of waiting until the virus surged across the country.

“If it’s important to wear a mask now, it would have been important to wear it in March instead of telling us that by April, we would all be going to church together,” she said. “I wish that were the case.”

The 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 26, 2019 in Indiana.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials announced Tuesday that fan attendance of approximately 25% of capacity will be allowed at the 2020 Indianapolis 500, and all attendees will be required to wear face coverings.

Race officials originally announced in late June a planned attendance of 50% of capacity, but said Tuesday that policies and procedures put into effect by Indianapolis Motor Speedway led to this new reduced attendance.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, Indy 500 organizers were hoping to draw more than 300,000 attendees this year. Twenty-five percent of that total would still make the 2020 Indy 500 the most attended sporting event in the US since the onset of the pandemic.

The race is scheduled for August 23 after being postponed from its original date of May 24.

Race officials plan to unveil a nearly 100-page plan of guidelines and protocols for how the race will be run on July 22.

UC Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley will begin fall semester with “fully remote instruction,” the university announced in a statement to its faculty and staff on Tuesday.

Citing trend lines and the increase in coronavirus cases across California and Alameda County, the university said a “dramatic reversal in the public health situation” is unlikely before the semester begins on August 26.

“We continue our preparations to implement hybrid and/or flexible modes of instruction as soon as public health conditions allow,” UC Berkeley said. 

The fully remote option is open for all students, according to the statement. UC Berkeley plans to continue with remote education after Thanksgiving, even if some in-person instruction becomes available.

UC Berkeley is the first among 10 campuses across the state to announce its decision to begin the semester entirely online.

A health professional takes a patient on a trolley at the Pedro Ernesto University Hospital (HUPE) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 15.

Brazil reported 41,008 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the total to 2,159,654, the country’s health ministry said.

The ministry also registered 1,367 new fatalities due to the virus, raising the total death toll to 81,487.

Earlier Tuesday, the Pan American Health Organization said Covid-19 “is showing no signs of slowing down” in the Americas.

“There have been a total of 7.7 million cases and more than 311,000 deaths reported in the region as of July 20,” PAHO Director Dr. Carissa Etienne said in Tuesday’s briefing.

Jair Bolsonaro President of Brazil looks on in front of the official residence in Alvorada Palace on July 18 in Brasilia.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said he took a second Covid-19 test since testing positive for the virus on July 7.

He made the statement to a crowd of supporters gathered in front of his presidential residence, video broadcast live on his Facebook page showed.

Wearing a mask and separated from supporters by a small water canal, Bolsonaro said he expects the result to come out soon.

“Tomorrow morning or late afternoon, God willing, it will be negative and I will return to normal. Then on Friday, I will travel to Piaui,” Bolsonaro said referring to a state in the northeast of the country, where he is expected to meet governors.

On July 15, Bolsonaro said he took another coronavirus test that again came out positive. 

This is the fourth consecutive day that the far-right president of Brazil left his residence in the afternoon for a walk outdoors to greet his fans.

During the interaction, a supporter asked if she could have breakfast with Bolsonaro on Wednesday but was reminded by the the his aides that she cannot get close, as the president may still be infected.

President Trump claimed governors are receiving “everything they need” from the federal government and that “tremendous amounts” of critical medical supplies are available for states that need them.

“The governors are working very, very hard and we are supporting them 100%, everything they need they get, and we are taking good care,” Trump said. “We have tremendous supplies and a great supply chain. Whether it’s ventilators or gowns or just about anything they need.” 

Facts First: Trump is overselling the federal pandemic response. Some governors have what they need, but others have said the Trump administration is falling short. And even though he says “tremendous supplies” are available, some hospitals and health care workers still don’t have enough protective gear, and experts say Trump’s slow decision-making is partially to blame.

The country is in better shape than a few months ago, but there are still reports of equipment shortages. Some frontline health care workers are still rationing their personal protective gear.

CNN previously reported the Trump administration has not fully utilized the Defense Production Act to spur manufacturing of critical supplies like masks, gowns and gloves. Some efforts are underway, but experts say it’s not enough and that the law was invoked far too late. Because of that, smaller physicians’ offices and assisted-living facilities are currently facing shortages.

Regarding the governors, Trump is exaggerating.

CNN reached out to governors’ offices across the country earlier this month, after Trump made a similar claim about governors having everything they needed. Democratic governors from Washington state, Colorado, Michigan and Illinois said they needed more supplies from the federal government. One Republican governor told CNN that Trump’s comment was accurate.

Trump is a repeat offender on this front. He also said in April that governors were satisfied with the supplies they received, even as governors from both parties said they faced shortages of medical equipment. 

Touting the actions his administration took to address coronavirus, President Trump claimed, “We closed the border to China, we put on the ban.” He later added, “I closed the borders from Europe.” 

Facts First: It’s misleading for Trump to say he closed the US border to travel from China and Europe because both policies contained multiple exemptions, including for US citizens and permanent residents; the Europe policy exempted entire countries. Only foreign nationals who had been in China, Europe’s Schengen area, the UK or Ireland within the past 14 days were outright banned from entering the US. 

You can read more about Trump’s travel restrictions here.

At Tuesday’s briefing, President Trump tried to shift blame for his administration’s delayed response to the coronavirus pandemic on his predecessor, claiming once again that he inherited “very empty cupboards.”

Facts First: The Strategic National Stockpile was not empty before the coronavirus pandemic. For example, the stockpile contains enough smallpox vaccines for every American, among other medical resources. And while the stockpile of some critical supplies that could be used to combat coronavirus was drained and not replenished, Trump had three years in office to build those depleted stockpiles back up.

Trump has also previously claimed the US didn’t have any ventilators when he took office or when the coronavirus pandemic hit. However, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to CNN in late June that there had been about 19,000 ventilators in the national stockpile for “many years,” including 16,660 ventilators that were ready for immediate use in March 2020; the spokesperson confirmed that none of those 16,660 were purchased by the Trump administration.

Ultimately, Trump ignored the warnings of experts and failed to restock masks and prepare other supplies to fight a potential pandemic.

You can read a longer fact check on Trump’s claims about inheriting an empty cupboard of supplies here.

At Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing, President Trump repeated his false claim that his administration passed the Veteran’s Choice Act, which provided the Department of Veterans Affairs more resources to improve access for veterans and allow them to seek care from non-VA providers. 

“We got Veteran’s Choice, nobody thought that would be possible that’s been many decades they’ve been trying to get veterans choice,” Trump said.

Facts First: The Veterans Choice bill was a bipartisan initiative led by Sens. Bernie Sanders and the late John McCain, which was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014. In 2018, Trump signed the VA Mission Act, which expanded and changed the program.

This is among the President’s most repeated false claims. Since CNN started counting on July 8, 2019, Trump has repeated that claim more than 60 times. 

United Airlines lost $1.6 billion last quarter – a three-month outcome that was slightly better than analysts’ dire expectations.

Still, the company’s revenue was down nearly 90% compared with what it was bringing in a year ago. It’s just the latest evidence that the air travel industry is facing a devastating financial outlook with no end in sight as Covid-19 cases spike in some areas of the United States.

United emphasized in a statement that it’s been able to slow the rate at which it is burning through cash, even as many of its planes remain in storage and ticket sales have slumped. 

The airline is losing $40 million each day, United said Tuesday, down from $100 million in April.

United said it expects its daily cash burn to dip to $25 million during the next quarter. 

Moving forward: As new outbreaks across the US continue to delay the resurgence in air travel that carriers hoped to see, United is warning that tens of thousands of its workers could be furloughed in October. That’s when the ban on involuntary job cuts, tied to bailout money airlines received months ago, expires. 

Federal lawmakers are considering another stimulus package, but they remain divided over how it should be structured.

A Covid-19 outbreak of 23 cases has been reported at the Walmart Distribution Center in Umatilla County, Oregon, according to a news release from the state’s Health Authority.

Included in the outbreak case count are household members and other close contacts of an employee, the release said.

The investigation of the outbreak started on June 30, but was below the threshold needed for public disclosure.

State and county public health officials are working together “to address the outbreak and protect the health of workers,” the release said. 

Walmart started requiring all shoppers to wear a face covering on Monday.

President Trump said he doesn’t know of a time he’s taken more than one coronavirus test in a day, directly contradicting his press secretary in the first question of his press briefing Tuesday.  

“I don’t know about more than one,” Trump responded to a reporter who asked why he was tested more than once a day. “I do probably on average a test every two days, three days, and I don’t know of any time I’ve taken two in one day, but I could see that happening.” 

Some background: Earlier Tuesday, the White House said Trump receives multiple coronavirus tests every day.

Explaining his reluctance to wear a mask in public, press secretary Kayleigh McEneny described Trump as the “most tested many in America” who doesn’t risk spreading the virus to others.

“He’s tested more than anyone, multiple times a day,” she said. “And we believe that he’s acting appropriately.”

President Trump said Tuesday that he’d be OK with possibly expanding coronavirus testing funding. 

Asked during a press briefing if the US has a testing problem and if he’d be in favor for more funding for testing, Trump said, “They’re going to be making a presentation to me tonight and tomorrow on that. And, again, we’re leading the world (on coronavirus testing) … We’re going to be over 50 million tests.” 

Hospitalizations in Florida rose by more than a third in just the 12 days since the state started releasing daily hospitalization data.

Data made available via the Covid Tracking Project and the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration show a 37% rise in hospitalizations since data became available July 10. 

Florida reported at least 9,520 Covid-related hospitalizations Tuesday, compared to about 6,974 on July 10.

At a roundtable Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to insist “we’re turning this thing back in a good direction,” adding the state’s health care system is able to handle the surge, with 24% of hospital beds available statewide.

The pandemic in the US will probably get worse before it gets better, President Trump said in opening comments at a press briefing Tuesday. 

“You look all over the world, it’s all over the world,” Trump said, despite the fact that many countries have seen their Covid case numbers drop dramatically. 

The President has consistently had an optimistic tone over the course of the pandemic, often repeating that the virus will “go away.”

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