July 10 coronavirus news

A gym owner filed a class action lawsuit against New York state Thursday arguing its business is “essential” and should be allowed to open as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are lifted. 

The suit seeks to represent about 2,500 fitness business owners, said attorney James Mermigis, who spoke at a news conference flanked by gym owners Wednesday before filing the suit. 

Mermigis said these businesses employ between 65,000 and 75,000 people across the state and that not being able to open means they have lost “hundreds of millions” in profits. The suit was filed in New York state court.

Mermigis said that because New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the state has some of the lowest infection rates in the country, it’s time to open them.

“I think gyms are very essential for your health, mind, body and soul. We think they’re an important part of everyday living,” Mermigis. 

Jason Conwall, a spokesperson for Cuomo, said his office has not reviewed the suit but that the actions taken by the governor were intended to, and did, curb the rise of infection in the state, and allowed the state to avoid subsequent spikes of infection. 

“Reports show that infections are spiking in 38 states, and that officials in those states have been forced to reclose businesses and other parts of the economy that were opened too early,” Conwall said in a statement to CNN. “Every public opinion survey has shown an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers support our re-opening approach. I understand some people aren’t happy – but better unhappy than sick or worse.”

The suit claims that the named plaintiff, Thousand Islands Fitness center, and other gyms in the state, have “conformed” their fitness centers to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, as gyms in other states that have been allowed to reopen have done. 

Texas reported 9,765 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 240,111.

The state has also reported 3,013 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began. Texas reported 95 new Covid-19-related deaths on Friday. 

The positivity rate is down nearly one percentage point from yesterday to 14.46%.

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

At least 1,327 new cases of coronavirus were reported in Illinois on Friday, according to a statement from the Illinois Department of Public Health. 

That is the largest daily case count since June, according to information on the department's website.

On June 2, there were 1,614 new Covid-19 cases.

There are currently a total of 151,767 cases, including 7,144 deaths, according to the statement.

The preliminary positivity rate for tests taken between July 3 and July 9 is 2.9%, the statement said.

People who were 65 or older, men and people of color who were younger than 65 make up disproportionate shares of Covid-19 deaths in the United States, according to a report released Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Among the 52,166 Covid-19 deaths reported to CDC from February 12 to May 18, more than 55% were men, nearly 80% were older than age 65. The median age of the people who had died was 78 years old.  

Information reported to CDC was missing data about underlying health conditions for about 59% of people who died, so the agency collected supplemental data for about 10,000 deaths. 

Among those, 60.6% were male and nearly 75% were 65 years or older. Thirty-five percent were White, 24.9% were Black, 24.4% were Hispanic, 6.3% were Asian, 2.9% were multiracial or another race and .1% were American Indian or Alaskan natives. The median age of death was 71 among Hispanic people, 72 among nonwhite and non-Hispanic people, and 81 among White people.

Among people younger than 65 who died from Covid-19, the percent who were Hispanic and nonwhite – 34.9% and 29.5%, respectively – were more than twice that of White people, 13.2%. The CDC called this difference “notable.” The CDC said more research is needed to understand why there is a difference, but one potential factor may be that more Hispanic and nonwhite people are in the service industry and other essential industries that make it difficult to be physically distant from others.

Among the 10,647 cases with supplementary data, more than 76% had at least one underlying medical condition. For people younger than 65 years old, underlying health conditions seemed to play an even greater role; more than 83% had an underlying medical condition. 

The most common underlying health conditions reported among those who died was cardiovascular disease. More than 60% of those who died had some form of heart problems, nearly 40% had diabetes, more than 20% had chronic kidney disease, and just over 19% had chronic lung disease. Diabetes was the most common underlying condition among people younger than 65 – nearly half in that age group had diabetes. 

Most people died in hospitals, rather than at home. The median time from the start of the illness to death was 10 days. 

Among people younger than 65 years, 7.8% died in an emergency department or at home.

“These out-of-hospital deaths might reflect lack of health care access, delays in seeking care, or diagnostic delays,” the report said. “Health communications campaigns could encourage patients, particularly those with underlying medical conditions, to seek medical care earlier in their illnesses. Additionally, health care providers should be encouraged to consider the possibility of severe disease among younger persons who are Hispanic, nonwhite, or have underlying medical conditions.” 

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.