July 10 coronavirus news

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the state had its second-highest total of new Covid-19 cases ever today.

The state reported 426 new Covid-19 cases for a cumulative total of 18,670. Beshear said Kentucky currently has a positivity rate of 4.5%, up from 2.87% last week.

According to the governor, there are a lot of children under the age of 5 among the new cases.

Kentucky also reported eight new Covid-19 related deaths.

To note: These figures were released by the state’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The US reported 63,247 new Covid-19 cases nationwide yesterday, a single-day record, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The new high comes as many states set their own records in infection rates and hospitalizations.

The three most populous US states — California, Texas and Florida — continue to see a surge in coronavirus cases:

Here's a look at how new cases have progressed in the three states over time, according to data from Johns Hopkins University:

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced additional social distancing measures for 13 counties identified as Covid-19 hotspots in order to limit transmission in communities, his office said Friday.

“Governor Reeves signed a new executive order establishing additional restrictions for those thirteen counties to slow the spread of COVID-19, including requiring people to wear masks when at public gatherings or in a shopping environment and limiting social gatherings to no more than 10 indoors and 20 outdoors,” his office said in a statement.

Coronavirus infections in Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed 3 million this week, according to Johns Hopkins University data, with Brazil, Peru and Chile reporting the highest number of infections. 

Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), expressed concern about unsafe working conditions and the lack of protective equipment for frontline health workers in much of the region. She reiterated the need for better tracing of the virus and said its impact had been worsened by inequality, political division and under-investment in health care.

Three heads of state have announced they have tested positive for the virus: Bolivian Interim President Jeanine Añez, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was hospitalized after being diagnosed in June. 

Furthermore, in Bolivia, in addition to the interim president, six more high-ranking government officials have also tested positive, including several ministers.

These are the countries with the highest number of Covid-19 infections in the region, as of July 10, according to latest figures from the countries' health ministries:

CNN's Ingrid Formanek, Tim Lister, Claudia Rebaza, Chandler Thornton and Taylor Barnes contributed to this report. 

Georgia plans to reactivate a makeshift hospital at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta amid a rising trend of Covid-19 cases, the governor’s office said Friday in a news release.

The move comes as the state "is negotiating new solutions to increase its own capacity to process specimens, and we will provide more details as those plans are finalized," the statement said.

The state will use its assets, comprising of hospital beds and medical equipment, and also “plans to leverage a new contract for enhanced bed capacity with a metro-Atlanta area hospital,” Gov. Brian Kemp’s office said in a statement.

“In addition to the increased bed capacity developed in-house at hospitals in recent months, this new contract is expected to add nearly 100 med-surg and ICU beds to existing infrastructure, coupled with ‘standby’ beds at GWCC should additional needs arise,” the governor’s office said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday that the state will provide on-site same day Covid-19 testing and results for assisted living facilities and nursing homes throughout the state. 

"These test sites help enable a goal of processing up to 100,000 tests in the first month alone," the statement added.

The testing in assisted living facilities began yesterday, and state testing teams completed testing of all nursing home staff and residents in June, according to the statement.

Omnicare is set to begin testing in nursing homes next week. 

California will release an estimated 8,000 people incarcerated in the state’s prison system early after growing outbreaks inside the facilities caused thousands of infections and more than two dozen deaths.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation today said the action was being taken to “maximize available space to implement physical distancing, isolation, and quarantine efforts.” The department estimated the 8,000 prisoners could be eligible for release by the end of August under the new measures. 

At San Quentin Prison in Northern California, the site of the worst coronavirus outbreak in the state’s prison system, more than 1,300 inmates have tested positive for Covid-19 and seven have died. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office did not immediately return a CNN request for comment. 

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said today that 751 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the state, with 149 of those from correctional facilities.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in the state now stands at 26,803. 

Hot Springs County has shown the highest return on positive cases over the past two days, Hutchinson said in a news conference Friday afternoon. 

A majority of the new cases being reported in the county are from the Ouachita River Correctional Unit, according to Dr. Nate Smith, director of Arkansas Department of Health.

Many of the newer positive cases were from people who previously tested negative but later developed symptoms and were retested, Smith said. 

More data: The state has conducted more than 5,200 tests over the past 24 hours. The average time to get test results back from a commercial lab is 2.5 days, up from a low of 1.6 in April.

"That's something that concerns us because we need quick results that helps us to manage the outbreak, to control it, to isolate people that need to be isolated," Hutchinson said. "We want to watch that and, hopefully, with national support, we can get more resources in our commercial labs so we can get a quicker response time. That will help us in states like Arkansas."

The governor said while he's not concerned with having enough testing materials, he is concerned with the increased number of tests the labs outside of the state are doing, which results in delayed reporting. 

To note: These numbers were released by Arkansas Department of Health, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Utah has reported a record high number of new Covid-19 cases — 850 — over the last 24 hours, state health data shows.

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

The previous record for new Covid-19 cases was 729 reported on June 8.

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 countrywide mandates, according to CNN affiliate KSTU. There is also a new mandate for masks to be worn in K-12 schools.

The governor challenged his state’s residents to get Utah’s seven-day rolling average below 500 cases by August 1 by, in part, wearing masks.