July 15 coronavirus news

By Melissa Mahtani, Melissa Macaya, Meg Wagner, Fernando Alfonso III and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 0015 GMT (0815 HKT) July 16, 2021
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1:53 p.m. ET, July 15, 2021

US delivers 500,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses to Haiti 

From CNN's Jennifer Hansler

The United States delivered 500,000 Moderna Covid-19 vaccine doses to Haiti on Wednesday, the US Embassy in Port au Prince said in a statement Thursday. 

“In these difficult times, we remain a committed partner to the Haitian people in building a more stable and secure Haiti, including in its fight against COVID,” the statement said.

“The Government of the United States worked closely with the Government of Haiti to arrange the secure transfer of the Moderna vaccines to the people of Haiti – the first major international delivery of COVID doses to Haiti, with plans to share more doses soon,” it said.

The doses were delivered with support from the US Coast Guard, the embassy said, adding that the US government “through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Southern Command, is also providing more than $3 million in financial and equipment support to the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP).”

“This support allows Haiti to improve its logistics capability for storage and distribution of the vaccine and craft communications to address vaccine hesitancy in the population,” the embassy statement said. 

1:39 p.m. ET, July 15, 2021

US surgeon general calls on tech companies to do more to fight "misinformation superspreaders"

From CNN's Jacqueline Howard

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is urging technology companies — as well as everyday Americans — to do more to fight the spread of Covid-19 misinformation online.

"Modern technology companies have enabled misinformation to poison our information environment, with little accountability to their users. They've allowed people to intentionally spread misinformation, what we call disinformation, to have extraordinary reach," Murthy said during a White House press briefing on Thursday.

"They've designed product features, such as like buttons, that reward us for sharing emotionally charged content, not accurate content, and their algorithms tend to give us more of what we click on, pulling us deeper and deeper into a wealth of misinformation," Murthy added, in an apparent allusion to Facebook.

"We expect more from our technology companies. We're asking them to operate with greater transparency and accountability. We're asking them to monitor misinformation more closely. We're asking them to consistently take action against misinformation superspreaders on their platform," Murthy said. "We're also asking news organizations to proactively address the public's question without inadvertently giving a platform to help misinformation that can harm their audience."

Murthy also made recommendations for people who use social media or online platforms, asking Americans: "if you're not sure, don't share."

"We ask people to raise the bar for sharing health information by checking sources before they share to ensure that information is backed by credible scientific sources. As we say in the advisory. If you're not sure, don't share. Second, we're asking health organizations to proactively address misinformation with their patients," Murthy said. "We're asking educational institutions to help improve health information literacy. 

Murthy added that he has lost 10 family members to Covid-19 and it's "painful" for him to know that every Covid-19 death happening now could have been prevented.

"Health misinformation has cost us lives," Murthy said.

1:43 p.m. ET, July 15, 2021

US surgeon general says misinformation is a "very important" factor in slowing vaccination pace

From CNN's Betsy Klein

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy speaks during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 15 in Washington, DC.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy speaks during the daily news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on July 15 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who issued an unprecedented advisory on Covid-19 misinformation Thursday, said that misinformation is among the key reasons that the pace of American vaccinations has slowed.

“It's one of several reasons why people are not getting vaccinated, but it's a very important one, because what we know from polls, Kaitlan, is that two-thirds of people who are not vaccinated, either believe common myths about the Covid-19 vaccine or think some of those myths might be true,” Murthy said Thursday in response to a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during the White House press briefing.

He continued, “So we know that it's not the only driver that's leading people not to be vaccinated, but it is a very important one.”

Asked whether he believed public figures and companies that are helping spread misinformation should be held accountable, Murthy suggested that everyone, but especially those with large platforms, share accountability.

“All of us have to ask how we can be more accountable and responsible for the information that we share,” he said, adding that those with larger platforms “bear a greater responsibility to think about that."

Technology companies, Murthy said, also “have a critically important role,” issuing an urgent call for them to take “aggressive action.”

“We know that the dramatic increase in the speed and scale of spread of misinformation has in part been enabled by these platforms, so that's why in this advisory today, we are asking them to step up. We know they have taken some steps to address misinformation, but much, much more has to be done and we can't wait longer for them to take aggressive action because it's costing people their lives,” he said.

1:26 p.m. ET, July 15, 2021

This hospital in Arkansas is seeing an uptick in Covid-19 in pregnant women

From CNN's Tina Burnside 

A hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, has reached capacity due to the increased number of Covid-19 patients being admitted. 

The University of Arkansas Medical Center is currently treating 45 Covid-19 patients, 15 of which are in the intensive care unit, 12 are on ventilators and four are on life support, Leslie Taylor, University of Arkansas Medical Sciences spokesperson, tells CNN.  

Taylor says the patients they are currently treating are younger and sicker than those they saw in the first surge. 

Cam Patterson, chancellor with UAMS, tweeted on Tuesday that over 20% of Covid-19 inpatients at UAM Health are unvaccinated pregnant women. 

Taylor said there are emergency room patients and people with conditions other than Covid-19 who need to be transferred from other hospitals and are being turned away because there are no available beds for them at this time. 

University of Arkansas Medical Center is the only Level One Trauma Center in the state. 

12:32 p.m. ET, July 15, 2021

Experts say disinformation is largely to blame for unvaccinated Americans

From CNN's Alyssa Kraus and Madeline Holcombe

As the more transmissible Delta variant continues to spread and Covid-19 cases rise in the US, experts say the most effective way to stop the spread of the coronavirus is to vaccinate as many Americans as possible.

In 47 states, the rate of new cases in the past week are at least 10% higher than the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Of those, 35 have seen increases of over 50%.

However, only 48.2% of the country is fully vaccinated, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not to mention, the rate of new vaccinations is on the decline.

The reason for this, experts say, all boils down to disinformation.

As misleading information spreads, unvaccinated Americans are now seeing the largest impact of the pandemic.

"This is not just a matter of people expressing opinions that might be wrong, this is life and death," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

Data now shows that over 99% of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, Collins said. Therefore, those who are vaccinated have enough protection to prevent getting severely ill.

According to Collins, the data speaks for itself, proving that vaccines are effective.

"Why are we waiting folks? Let's roll up our sleeves if we haven't already done so," he said.

11:23 a.m. ET, July 15, 2021

Catch up: How Covid-19 is impacting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

People walk by the Olympic rings installed by the Nippon Bashi bridge in Tokyo on Thursday, July 15.
People walk by the Olympic rings installed by the Nippon Bashi bridge in Tokyo on Thursday, July 15. Hiro Komae/AP

The 2020 Olympic Games, which were delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, are kicking off next Friday in Tokyo. As the Games approach, vaccine rates have remained relatively low in Japan and daily cases have begun to spike in Tokyo.

Here's everything you need to know ahead of next week's Games:

Olympic medal ceremony: The Olympic medal ceremony is undergoing several changes in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19. According to the International Olympic Committee, some changes include mandatory masks for all participants and a modified podium with additional modules between medalists to allow for social distancing. There will also be no contact between participants and no group photo on the podium.

Spectators: Tokyo venues for the Olympics will no longer allow spectators, according to the Japanese Olympic Committee. This decision was made after Tokyo declared a coronavirus state of emergency from July 12 to August 22, a period which covers the 16-day Games. Tokyo 2020 chief Seiko Hashimoto said due to the pandemic, organizers have "no choice but to hold the Games in a limited way."

Covid-19 cases: Tokyo reported 1,308 new Covid-19 cases today, the second straight day with cases over 1,000. Daily cases have been increasing weekly for the past 26 days, according to public broadcaster NHK, and recent numbers are some of the highest reported in half a year. According to Yasutoshi Nishimura, the minister in charge of the country's pandemic response, the more infectious Delta variant now accounts for up to 30% of cases.

Vaccines: Japan has lagged behind Western countries in rolling out vaccines. Just less than 20% of Japan's population is fully vaccinated in comparison to nearly 48% of US citizens and almost 52% of people in the United Kingdom, according to CNN's global vaccine tracker.

CNN's Alyssa Kraus, Aleks Klosok, Junko Ogura, Chie Kobayashi and Nectar Gan contributed to this report.

11:21 a.m. ET, July 15, 2021

WHO: Covid-19 is still a public health emergency of international concern

From CNN’s Naomi Thomas

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said that the Covid-19 pandemic is still a public health emergency of international concern, in a WHO statement released Thursday.

This determination came after the eighth meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee regarding the pandemic, which happened on Wednesday.

“The Committee unanimously agreed that the COVID-19 pandemic still constitutes an extraordinary event that continues to adversely affect the health of populations around the world, poses a risk of international spread and interference with international traffic, and requires a coordinated international response. As such, the Committee concurred that the COVID-19 pandemic remains a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) and offered the following advice to the Director-General,” the WHO statement said. 

“The Director-General determined that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to constitute a PHEIC. He accepted the advice of the Committee to WHO and issued the Committee’s advice to States Parties as Temporary Recommendations under the IHR. 

Speaking about the Committee meeting during a news briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Tedros said “the committee has expressed concern that the pandemic is being mischaracterized as coming to an end when it’s nowhere near finished. It has also warned about the strong likelihood for the emergence and global spread of new and possibly more dangerous variants of concern that may be even more challenging to control.”

The Committee also “expressed deep concern” about the level of funding for WHO’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan for Covid-19, Tedros said, which constrains the ability of WHO to coordinate the global pandemic response, “particularly in terms of having the flexibility we need to move at the speed this virus moves.”

The advice of the committee to WHO included recommendations such as continuing to work with States Parties to implement public health social measures to control transmission; continuing to advocate for equitable vaccine access and distribution; expediting the work to establish means for documenting Covid-19 status of travelers; continuing to strengthen the global monitoring and assessment framework for variants; strengthening communication strategies at all levels and collecting information from State Parties on the uptake and progress in implementing temporary recommendations.

The committee’s temporary recommendations to States Parties include continuing evidence-informed use of public health social measures; implementing a risk-management approach for mass gathering events; achieving at least 10% of all countries populations vaccinated by September; enhancing surveillance of the virus and report to WHO; improving access to and administration of WHO recommended therapeutics; continuing a risk based approach to facilitate international travel and share information with WHO; no requiring proof of vaccination for international travel; recognizing all vaccines that have receive WHO emergency use listing and addressing community engagement and communication gaps at national and local levels.

11:17 a.m. ET, July 15, 2021

"We are having a wintertime season in the summer," Louisiana doctor says about Covid-19 rise

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

Dr. Catherine O'Neal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rogue, speaks during an interview on July 15.
Dr. Catherine O'Neal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rogue, speaks during an interview on July 15. CNN

A Louisiana hospital medical officer said it is "disheartening" to see "a surge happening again when we really have made [Covid-19] a preventible disease."

Dr. Catherine O'Neal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rogue, said that the current rise in cases that her hospital is seeing is different from other spikes in a few ways.

"Because we dropped our masking and our mitigation, we are having a wintertime season in the summer," she said.

"The cases are younger. They're largely unvaccinated, almost predominantly unvaccinated. And also people who made this choice. ... They have the knowledge in their hand, but they choose not to take the life raft that we've been throwing at them," she told CNN's Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto.

One of the five largest under-vaccinated clusters is in Louisiana.

O'Neal said she has conversations with patients about getting vaccinated.

"We have a lot of conversations about risk, about what it means for you, about what it means for the community. And in the end ... do you want to see a lot more death or do you want an end to the pandemic? Because the choice for vaccination right now ... really boils down to those two things: Either a lot more people will die because everybody is going to get this or we'll end the pandemic through vaccination," she said. "And which side of that do you want to be on? And how do you want to contribute to this process? And I hope we make the right choice."

10:42 a.m. ET, July 15, 2021

Cuba reports a record number of Covid-19 deaths for second day in a row

From CNN’s Patrick Oppmann and Larry Register

Cuba reported a record 67 Covid-19 related deaths on Thursday, according to the country’s health ministry.

The death toll in Cuba since the start of the pandemic is 1,726.

Additionally, the island nation added 6,749 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 263,356.

Cuba has seen the number of cases and deaths spike in recent weeks after controlling the infection rate for much of the pandemic.

Many Cubans have been critical of the governments Covid-19 response and the deep economic toll the pandemic has had on the country. 

Late Wednesday, the Cuban government announced it will lift restrictions on travelers bringing in food, medicines and hygiene products and custom duties on these products will not need to be paid. 

The announcement comes days after island-wide protests have occurred driven in part by chronic shortages in stores and the impact Covid-19 is having on the country.

The measure will stay in place for the rest of the year.