July 8 coronavirus news

Thirty-two percent of Americans did not make a full, on-time housing payment in July due to the continued economic fallout of the coronavirus, according to online rental platform Apartment List.

This is the fourth straight month of a "historically high" number of Americans unable to pay their full hosing bill, the survey released on Wednesday found, and up slightly from 30% in June. Missed payments continue to hit renters, young and low-income households, and residents of dense urban areas the hardest.

And as eviction moratoriums and unemployment benefits expire across the country, Apartment List says that Americans worry missed payments could lead to them losing their homes.

"As overdue bills pile up, there is growing concern that a wave of evictions and foreclosures will hit the housing market,” the survey showed. "While eviction protections today vary dramatically from place to place, our survey shows widespread and growing concern about housing insecurity."

Utah has reported a record-high number of new Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours — 715, state health data shows.

This is the highest daily case increase the state has reported, according to records that go back to early March.

Although the state has reported several sharp spikes in daily cases over the last few weeks, the state’s overall Covid-19 case trend is steady, according to both the state’s epidemic curve and CNN’s analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. 

Utah does not have a statewide mask order in place but at least two counties, Salt Lake and Summit, have been given permission by Gov. Gary Herbert to enact county-wide mandates, according to CNN affiliate KSTU.

Camp Ozark, a summer camp facility located in Mount Ida, Arkansas, has temporarily closed down after an outbreak of Covid-19, according to Dr. Nate Smith, the state's cabinet secretary for the Department of Health. 

Asked how the outbreak at the summer camp will inform his decision about reopening schools in the fall, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said “it simply means that whenever we reconvene, we’re going to have to adhere to those public health guidelines very strictly and not ignore, not that the summer camps did, but that we realize that when you have that congregation of people, it’s going to be a challenging environment that you’ve got to work with.”

Dr. Bruce Dart, executive director of the Tulsa Health Department, said that there was a 20% decline in new Covid-19 cases the week of June 28 through July 4. However, he said there are high numbers being reported this week —nearly 500 new cases in two days — and the trends are showing that those numbers will increase. 

Tulsa Health Department reported 266 new cases today, bringing the total number in the county to at least 4,571. 

When asked if the cases are going up due to the rally President Trump held on June 20, Dart said that there were several large events a little over two weeks ago, which is about right. "I guess we just connect the dots." 

Mayor G.T. Bynum said the rally along with the large "serious seven" events — such as weddings, religious events and more — informed an executive order that goes into effect tomorrow requiring events with more than 500 people to receive guidance from the health department to evaluate safety plans. Event organizers and health officials will work on a case-by-case bases to make safe decisions in relation to the event, according to the executive order. 

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Wednesday the expansion of the state's Covid-19 testing program to bring testing to areas most in need. 

The mobile testing sites would offer free drive-thru and walk-up tests to any Illinois resident who wants to be tested, according to the statement. The mobile teams are in addition to the already existing 11 free, state-run drive-thru and walk-up testing sites in the state. 

Additionally, the National Guard will transition state-run testing sites to contract workers, according to the statement.

"More than 500 Illinois National Guard (ILNG) members will conclude their missions at the eleven state-run testing sites this month, with contract staffers supporting those sites going forward," the statement read. 

Coronavirus hospitalizations in California are up 44% over the past two weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom said today in a news conference. That translates to about 6,100 patients.

The number of patients in intensive care has climbed by 34% in the past 14 days.

California has added 11,694 additional cases, but Newsom cautions that approximately 2,000 of those are from a backlog in Los Angeles County. This brings the total number of cases to nearly 290,000.

California’s seven-day positivity rate is about 8%, Newsom said, and the 14-day rate stands at 7.1%. The state is averaging more than 100,000 tests each day.

It could be impossible to operate schools safely in communities where coronavirus infections are out of control, Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said today.

Frieden is now CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, an advocacy and public health consultancy group that has put together a plan for how to reopen schools safely.

“The hard truth is that there is no route to zero risk of Covid-19 in the near future, but we can reduce the risk with careful planning and precautions,” Frieden said while speaking at a livestream event today. “But here’s the bottom line: The single most important thing we can do to keep our schools safe has nothing to do with what happens in schools -- it's how well we can control Covid in the community.”

He said that right now, because there are places around the country where the virus is spreading explosively, “it would be difficult — if not impossible — to operate schools safely there until the virus is under better control in those communities.” 

When the time comes to reopen schools, Resolve to Save Lives introduced an eight-point plan “designed to complement evidence-based guidelines, such as that from the CDC, and to help education leaders make important decisions for each state and school district,” Frieden said.

The eight points are:

“We don't live in an ideal world, and we don't have all the information we wish we had about how to protect our children's health and future. We need to use the best available information to continue to learn so we can figure out how to improve the safety of our children at schools, the robustness of our society and of our economy,” Frieden said. 

He said reopening schools is something we must do to more fully open our society and our economy.

“We can succeed if we take careful steps forward and respond rapidly to new information or cases. Our children's future depends on it,” he said.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed several points of a law aimed at protecting indigenous communities against Covid-19 on Wednesday, according to the government’s Official Gazette.

He vetoed points that assured access to drinking water, free distribution of hygiene products like soap and toothpaste, cleaning and disinfection materials for indigenous communities and mandatory emergency funds for indigenous people’s health.

Parts that dealt with the emergency provision of additional hospital beds and intensive care units to indigenous people, and the acquisition of ventilators and blood oxygenation machines were also turned down.

More on this: The law establishes an emergency plan to combat the pandemic in indigenous territories and asserts that indigenous peoples and other traditional communities are considered "groups in situations of extreme vulnerability" and at high risk for public health emergencies.

The text, approved by the country’s Congress on May 21 and by the Senate on June 16, still has to go back to Congress, which will decide whether to approve presidential vetoes.

The publication of the law with Boslonaro’s vetoes takes place on the same day Supreme Court judge Luis Roberto Barroso ordered the federal government to take measures to protect indigenous communities against Covid-19.

Barroso asked for the creation of a national emergency plan, the installation of sanitary barriers and the establishment of a "Situation Room" to manage the response to the disease in indigenous territories.

For isolated and recently contacted indigenous people, the judge ordered the removal of outsiders from indigenous lands.

The action, which mandates that all indigenous people must have access to the public indigenous health system, was initiated by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB)

The latest numbers: According to APIB, until June 7, more than 12,000 indigenous people were infected with novel coronavirus, and at least 445 died since the beginning of the pandemic in the country. According to the Brazilian Indigenous Health service (SESAI), 3,421 indigenous people were infected and 184 died of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

SESAI only counts indigenous people living in indigenous territories, not urban centers. 

Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, has announced the start of clinical trials for an inhaled version of the antiviral drug to treat Covid-19 patients who do not require hospitalization.

The trial will be comprised of 60 healthy individuals ages 18-45 in the US to determine the safety and tolerability of the drug in this format.

Remdesivir, which is currently administered intravenously through infusions, is the only drug that has an emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration to treat coronavirus infections.

“Additional clinical trials evaluating remdesivir in combination with anti-inflammatory medicines, in vulnerable patient populations and in outpatient settings are ongoing or planned to initiate in the near future,” the statement said.