August 15 coronavirus news

Leaders at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were blindsided this week when President Donald Trump announced that the agency could deploy teams to assist schools with safely reopening in the fall, a senior CDC official told CNN, the latest example of a breakdown in communication between the agency and the White House.

The announcement left CDC officials scrambling this week to train staff to be able to deploy if they are called upon, the senior official said. 

The surprise statement by Trump was reminiscent of early on in the pandemic when the CDC Task Force regularly learned about assignments during presidential briefings, finding out in real time along with the public, a senior official said.

The CDC official said the agency is expected to come up with a vaccine plan for schools in at least four states by October, even though there is no realistic expectation that a vaccine would be ready by then. 

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he disagreed with CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield's warning that this fall could be one of the worst in US history from a public health perspective.

Redfield reiterated a warning this week that if Americans don't follow coronavirus prevention guidelines, like wearing masks and avoiding crowds, the country could be in store for "the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had." Redfield noted that the coronavirus pandemic has been the worst public health crisis in a century and said Americans could prepare for fall by getting a flu vaccine.

The President then praised Americans for taking the mitigation steps the CDC recommends, including wearing masks, though pointing out that views on masks changed during the pandemic. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, and Redfield both changed their guidance on the importance of regularly wearing face masks as new evidence emerged.

Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp issued a new Covid-19 executive order Saturday, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

The order extends the shelter-in-place order for the medically fragile, continues the ban on large gatherings and maintains health and safety protocols for Georgia businesses, Kemp said in his statement.

The order "protects Georgia businesses from government overreach by restricting the application and enforcement of local masking requirements to public property. While I support local control, it must be properly balanced with property rights and personal freedoms," Kemp said in the statement.

The order says local governments "who choose to impose a Local Option Face Covering Requirement" must not fine businesses, fine violators more than $50 or enforce masks at polling places, the order says.

Masks cannot be enforced on private property, the order says. Anyone who violates local mask rules must be warned about the health risks of not doing so before a citation is issued, according to the order. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a series of tweets Saturday that Covid-19 hospitalizations and positivity rates are down in the state, citing data from August 9.

South Korea and the United States have delayed their annual joint military drills, which were expected to run between August 16 and 28. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement on Sunday, which said the drills will begin two days later on this coming Tuesday.

A South Korean military official familiar with the US-ROK joint drills told CNN the postponement was due to a South Korean military officer testing positive for coronavirus on Friday. South Korean media widely reported that this officer was due to participate in the drills.

Brazil has reported 41,576 new Covid-19 cases and 709 deaths in the past 24 hours, the country’s health ministry reported Saturday. 

The total number of confirmed coronavirus infections now stands at 3.3 million. At least 107,232 have died from coronavirus in the country, according to the ministry’s data.

São Paulo state reported 11,408 new cases and 167 new deaths on Saturday, down from 11,667 and 289 the day before.

São Paulo has been the state hardest hit by the coronavirus in Brazil, with 697,530 total confirmed cases and 26,780 confirmed deaths.

President Donald Trump once again called for college football to "come back" during a news conference at his golf club in New Jersey on Saturday.

Trump again mentioned that he spoke to Clemson University quarterback Trevor Lawrence. who has been vocal about wanting to play this fall.

He congratulated the SEC, ACC and Big 12 athletic conferences for planning to play this fall and said he wished the Big Ten and Pac-12 would come back as well. The Big Ten and the Pac-12 each voted earlier this week to postpone college football and all their other fall sports seasons. The five conferences, known collectively as the Power Five, generate the most revenue in the NCAA.

The University of North Carolina issued an alert on Saturday afternoon saying a cluster of Covid-19 cases has been identified in the Sigma Nu fraternity.

This comes a day after the University said that clusters had been identified in the Ehringhaus Community and Granville Towers.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services defines a cluster by five or more cases in close proximity in a location, like a single residential hall or dwelling.

UNC says they will not release information about individual positive cases.

The Sigma Nu national headquarters has posted Covid-19 information and resources for members of the fraternity. CNN has reached out to the Sigma Nu headquarters for additional comment but has not heard back.

There were 294,237 new Covid-19 cases reported to the World Health Organization in the last 24 hours, according to a situation report published Saturday. The total number of cases that have been reported to WHO from around the globe is now 21 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 July 31 when 292,527 new cases of Covid-19 were reported.

Saturday's report noted there were 9,985 additional Covid-19 deaths reported to WHO in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths worldwide to 755,786.