July 7 coronavirus news

Airline travel is bouncing back — but so are American coronavirus cases. That spike could put the aviation rebound in reverse.

United Airlines presented sobering facts to employees Monday that bookings are tumbling as Covid cases soar. Also hurting travel demand: regulations in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that mandate travelers from the pandemic's US hotspots quarantine themselves for 14 days. The Wall Street Journal first reported the memo.

Near-term bookings at United's hub in Newark were only 16% of 2019 bookings through July 1. Just a few weeks earlier, United's bookings were down "only" 33% from a year earlier. Although United would not release the details of the briefing being given to its employees this week, it confirmed the facts detailed in the Journal's report. 

Delta Air Lines confirmed to CNN that its booking trends in the New York area are similar to United's, although it did not release statistics.

Other airlines aren't commenting on their bookings. But other airlines' bookings are probably also falling as Covid-19 cases increase, said Philip Baggaley, chief credit analyst for airlines at Standard & Poor's.

He said travel to the New York area, as well as Florida, Texas and Arizona will be particularly hard hit.

Read more here.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry was notified this past Sunday that he had come into contact with someone who had tested positive for Covid-19 last week, according to Jacksonville Director of Public Affairs Nikki Kimbleton.

Curry was immediately screened for the virus and tested negative, Kimbleton tells CNN.

Major League Soccer's MLS is Back Tournament match between Nashville SC and Chicago Fire FC has been postponed, the league announced in a statement Tuesday.

Five Nashville players have tested positive for coronavirus since arriving in Orlando, Florida, last week. Two players received positive results last weekend and the other three received positive results Monday night.

Four other players have received test results that were inconclusive and require more testing.

The two clubs were scheduled to play Wednesday as the league kicks off the season-starting tournament at Disney World's ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando, Florida. The now-postponed game was scheduled to be one of two matches played on the first day of the tournament, according to the league''s official lineup.

The league will evaluate the Nashville SC's participation in the tournament after the results of additional testing. Further details regarding when this match will be played will be announced at a later date.

On Monday, MLS withdrew FC Dallas from the tournament after 10 players and one staff member tested positive for the virus. The MLS Players Association acknowledged the complex nature of hosting a tournament during the pandemic.  

In a statement posted to Twitter on Monday, the union wrote, "The removal of FC Dallas from competition in Orlando is a reminder of how difficult the circumstances involving returning to work remain across all sports amidst this pandemic."

CNN has asked the MLSPA for comment following the Nashville SC news.

Since Mexico entered its "new normal" phase of reopening on June 1, the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths have almost tripled in the country.

According to official data tallied by CNN, the number of coronavirus cases in Mexico have risen by 180% since June 1, and the number of deaths have also increased by 206% during the same period of time.

On June 1, Mexico entered the new Covid-19 phase, reopening certain sectors of the economy under what they deemed the “new normal.” Meanwhile, the country reported 93,435 cases and 10,167 deaths that day. 

On July 6, Mexico reported 261,750 cases of coronavirus and 31,119 virus-related deaths, according to official data.

Iraq on Tuesday recorded 2,426 new coronavirus cases, according to the country's health ministry.

Iraq now has a total of 64,701 cases of coronavirus.

The health ministry also reported 118 new Covid-19-related fatalities, bringing the total to 2,685 deaths across the country.

There are at least 2,953,423 cases of coronavirus in the US, and at least 130,546 people have died from the virus in the country, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

So far on Monday, Johns Hopkins reported 17,346 new cases and 261 deaths. 

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

New data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 16,233 Covid-19 cases were confirmed in meat and poultry processing facilities across 23 states through May 31. 

Of the confirmed cases, 87% were among racial and ethnic minorities. There were also 86 Covid-19-associated deaths among workers in these facilities. 

There are an 525,000 workers within the animal slaughtering and processing industry across 3,500 facilities in the US, the report says. Because of missing data and asymptomatic and unrecognized cases, the prevalence of Covid-19 in the workforce is likely underestimated. 

Covid-19 has been known to spread rapidly in congregate settings where social distancing is not possible. Because of this, meat and poultry processing facility conditions often pose “distinctive” risks for workers. The CDC stated prolonged, close contact with other employees during 8- to 12-hour shifts in these facilities may increase transmission. Other risks include shared work spaces, transportation and housing. 

Of the 239 meat and poultry processing facilities in the report, common efforts to mitigate coronavirus transmission included mandating face coverings and adding hand hygiene stations and physical barriers between workers. 

Lina Hidalgo, judge of Harris County, Texas, which includes the city of Houston, is advocating for a stay-at-home order in her county as coronavirus cases rise. 

Hidalgo, the chief administrator of the county, said that she doesn’t want to shut the economy again, but a patchwork method won’t quell coronavirus in the long run. 

“A long-term solution based on data instead of wishful thinking is what's going to put our economy in the position to succeed,” Hidalgo told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. 

Texas has more than 200,000 Covid-19 cases, and Harris County has more than 37,000 cases so far. 

Hidalgo said that a mask mandate will not solely bring the number of cases down, which is why she’s looking for a stay-at-home order as well. 

“We can’t just put our head in the sand and hope that somehow it’s going to go differently over here,” she said. 

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World Health Organization scientists and experts are scheduled to travel to China this weekend to investigate the origins of the novel coronavirus, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Tuesday.

"The experts will develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission. The mission objective is to advance the understanding of animal hosts for Covid-19 and ascertain how the disease jumped between animals and humans," Tedros said. "WHO will continue to communicate the latest scientific advances to the media and general public as we have them." 

Specifically, experts will be seeking to trace the narrative of how the coronavirus might have spread from the wild to possibly farm animals to humans, said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's Health Emergencies Program.

"It takes time," he said on Tuesday.

"There is the wild animal kingdom, there is the farmed animal kingdom, there are interfaces with humans," Ryan said. "So we need to understand the track of this virus."