July 15 coronavirus news

In a campaign call with reporters, Vice President Mike Pence said that the upcoming Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida, next month “is a work in progress,” and “there's consideration being given to having the convention in an outdoor setting, and also putting the kind of measures in place that put the health of all of those that are participating, our delegates, visitors, and anyone else is present, we'll put the health of everyone participating first.”

As previously reported, the RNC Host committee has indicated they plan to test all those within the perimeter on a daily basis.

Pence went on to encourage Americans, “particularly in the impacted areas, to take those steps to heed state and local guidance, to wash your hands, practice good hygiene, wear a mask when it's indicated by state and local officials, and, and also to wear a mask when social distancing is not possible.” 

It’s worth noting that President Trump is currently in Georgia, where he’s conspicuously not observing Atlanta’s mask ordinance.

Retail chain Kohl's announced today that all its customers will be required to wear face masks beginning July 20. 

Associates have been wearing masks as a requirement and a statement from the company said that will continue.

"As Covid-19 cases continue to rise, face covering mandates have grown to apply to approximately 70% of our store base, therefore we’ve made the decision to take a consistent approach across our entire store fleet," the company said.

Kroger stores will require all customers in all locations to wear a mask when shopping starting July 22, joining its employees who continue to wear masks, according to a statement from the company.

It wasn't all good news for stocks Wednesday — the Nasdaq was negative for much of the day — but hump day ended on a positive note.

Excitement about a promising Covid-19 vaccine, tested by Moderna, and better-than-expected Goldman Sachs earnings helped boost stocks. That overcame continued fears about the coronavirus pandemic spiraling out of control and weighing on the economic recovery.

Here's how the market closed:

California reported its second highest single-day increase in coronavirus cases and deaths on Wednesday, with 11,126 new cases and 140 additional deaths, according to data from the state's Department of Public Health.

The new cases represent a 3.3% increase and the deaths reflect a 2% increase from Tuesday’s data.

The state recorded its highest single-day number of cases on July 7 with 11,694 cases and its highest single-day increase of deaths with 149 fatalities the next day.

Hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions in the state also reached new all-time highs Wednesday.

The state reported 41 new hospitalizations and 21 new ICU admissions on Wednesday. There are a total of 6,786 Covid-19 positive hospital patients and 1,907 patients in ICU.

Gov. Gavin Newsom warned last Wednesday that approximately 2,000 of the cases recorded on July 7 were from a backlog of cases from Los Angeles County.

As of Wednesday, there are a total of 347,634 confirmed coronavirus cases and 7,227 deaths in California.

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

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has asked the US Department of Homeland Security to keep the National Guard in the state through the end of the year to continue to help respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since March 20, more than 1,000 members of the Connecticut National Guard and members of the State Militia have been called up to respond to the pandemic, Lamont said.

An elementary school teacher in Orange County said teachers are “making plans for students and teachers dying” after the county Board of Education voted this week to return children to schools this fall without face masks or social distancing despite a surge in coronavirus cases in the state.

Bradford said teachers in her district are concerned about the possibility of becoming infected with the virus that has claimed more than 7,000 lives in California and said they can’t return to school until it's safe.

Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, who was part of the 11-person county Board of Education panel that voted for the school guidelines, said he thinks face masks should be “optional” for children at schools and that it’s a decision “each individual school district needs to make.”

Despite the vote, many of the county’s 28 school districts won’t adhere to the board’s guidance.

CNN reached out or reviewed information from all of the districts on Tuesday. Of the districts that responded or posted plans online — more than half — none said they would return children to school without masks or social distancing.

On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, compared Covid-19 to the 1918 flu pandemic, during a Georgetown University Global Health Initiative webinar.

“If you look at the magnitude of the 1918 pandemic, where anywhere from 50 to 75 to 100 million people globally died, that was the mother of all pandemics and truly historic. I hope we don’t even approach that with this, but it does have the makings of, the possibility of … approaching that in seriousness,” Fauci said.

On Wednesday, Fauci clarified his comments to CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Fauci said he was not suggesting that tens of millions of people will die of coronavirus, but that it is “historic” in the sense that it is also a highly contagious and lethal novel virus, for which there is currently no vaccine.

What is different in 2020 is that we have more tools at our disposal to combat the pathogen, as well as instant communications to warn and inform the public, Fauci said.

Hospitals in Laredo, Texas were at 100% capacity on Tuesday, Laredo Health Authority Dr. Victor Trevino told the Laredo City Council during a meeting on yesterday night. 

Interim fire chief and emergency management coordinator Ramiro Elizondo said during the meeting that a team from Federal Emergency Management Agency would be arriving in the city this week to convert a local hotel to a surge hospital site to treat Covid-19 positive patients.

Elizondo said the surge site would provide 106 beds and the capacity will help expand the hospital capacity for non-intensive care unit patients. The hotel would be fully staffed and funded by the team coming from FEMA, according to the city manager. 

Trevino said there is a still an issue in the area with ICU capacity that needs to be addressed. 

By the numbers: Laredo officials reported another 162 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 3,373 total positive cases, with 2,383 of those active.

They officials also said that there are 168 people currently hospitalized, 71 of those are in the ICU.