July 21 coronavirus news

Five new novel coronavirus patients have been identified at US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on the Japanese island of Okinawa, authorities there said.

Several clusters of Covid-19 tied to the US military have emerged in Okinawa in recent days. Public health officials in Okinawa prefecture have recorded 145 cases of the virus tied to US military bases since July 1.

Nearly 200 people have also been tested that are connected to Camp Hansen, which is located to the north of Futenma. Among those tested were people likely to be in contact with American service members -- those working in restaurants, nightclubs, barbershops and taxi drivers. Authorities said all the tests came back negative.

Local employees at thees US military bases work under "indirect employment" contracts, where they are employed by the Japanese Defense Ministry and work under the supervision of the US military, according to the Okinawa government.

China's Civil Aviation Authority announced on that anybody planning to board a flight to mainland China must provide authorities with proof that they tested negative within five days of their flight. 

Foreign travelers will need to apply for a health certificate from the Chinese embassy in the country of origin, while Chinese passengers will have to present a QR code to prove their eligibility to board the flight.

China has recorded more than 85,300 cases of Covid-19 since the novel coronavirus first emerged in the city of Wuhan late last year, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

After almost five days of fraught discussions, European Union leaders have agreed on a 750 billion euro (almost $858 billion) stimulus plan to help fund Europe's recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

The deal would focus on providing funding across three pillars: creating reforms to help businesses rebound from the pandemic, rolling out new measures to reform economies over the long haul, and investing to help protect from "future crises." It would provide hundreds of billions of dollars in grants and loans to member states.

The agreement came after days of deadlock and fractious talks that were described as some of the most bitterly divided in years.

"We did it! Europe is strong. Europe is united," European Council President Charles Michel said at a press conference Tuesday. "This is a good deal, this is a strong deal, and most importantly, this is the right deal for Europe right now."

Michel described the occasion as the first time that members of the European Union were "jointly enforcing our economies against the crisis."

The commission also agreed to a core budget of 1.1 trillion euro (nearly $1.3 trillion) from 2021-2027.

Read more about the deal here:

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EU leaders agree on landmark economic stimulus plan

A total of 56,750 cases of Covid-19 and 372 virus-related deaths were recorded in the United States on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

To date, at least 3,830,010 coronavirus cases have been identified in the US since the pandemic began. More than 140,900 people have been killed. 

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

It’s hard to draw many conclusions at this point from the vaccine data published Monday by the University of Oxford, said Dr. Peter Hotez, professor and dean of Tropical Medicine at the US' Baylor College of Medicine, during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Hotez predicted it will take until the middle of next year to find out if the vaccine actually works.

“Looking at the data coming out of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, in a single dose, the vaccine did not seem to do all that much. The levels of virus neutralizing antibody, which many think is a good indicator of whether the vaccines are going to work, were not very high,” Hotez said. “In two doses it seemed to be better, but there were only 10 patients who got the two doses.”

“So, it's really hard to conclude, very much from this,” he said.

Hotez said the results suggest a larger trial is needed.

“And that’s the idea behind Operation Warp Speed. All of these vaccines will start entering phase 3 clinical trials at various times over the next year and then it’ll take a year to accumulate all the data showing the vaccines actually work, as well as that they’re safe ... But keep in mind the first vaccines may not be our best vaccines, added Hotez.

“It’s looking like many of them are just partially protective, potentially preventing people from getting very sick, but not interrupting transmission. So, even then we’re still going to have to maintain ongoing public health control.”

There are 23 Covid-19 vaccines currently in clinical trials globally, according to the World Health Organization.

While the surge in coronavirus cases in the United States has amplified the need for timely testing, diagnostic companies continue to grapple with turnaround times of multiple days or more for coronavirus test results. 

Some labs have attributed the longer waits to extreme demand and strain on testing supply chains. There are now more than 3.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, with tens of thousands of new infections every day.

Quest Diagnostics said in a statement Monday that average turnaround time has increased to seven days or more for the general population, and that a “small subset of patients” may experience wait times of up to two weeks.

Prioritized patients, such as symptomatic healthcare workers and those who are hospitalized, get results in two days on average, the company said. Quest says that’s longer than the one-day average wait time priority patients had a week ago. 

On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Quest to use its Covid-19 test with pooled specimens, where samples from multiple patients are tested together, which the company said should help increase capacity.

But Quest also said the biggest factors they face now are the limits of the complex machines that perform the tests, as well as limited supply of reagents, the chemicals used to perform the tests.  

US Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir said on CNN’s “New Day” Monday the average turnaround time for tests in most states is longer than three days, though in 18 states the average is two to three days.  

After five days of fraught discussions, the leaders of the European Union have agreed on a landmark 750 million euro ($858 billion) deal to fund the bloc’s recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

Announcing the agreement on social media, European Council President Charles Michel simply said, “Deal!”

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed it as a “historic day for Europe.”

The package, which will be used to assist countries hit hardest by the virus, comes alongside an agreement on the EU’s overall budget -- an unprecedented 1.82 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion).

In response to the Brussels summit, Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes said that the European Union had "never before decided to invest so ambitiously in the future."

Argentina has reported 92 new coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours -- its highest single-day death toll to date, health ministry officials announced Monday. 

The health ministry also registered 3,937 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the country's total to 130,774 infections and 2,373 deaths. 

It comes as Argentina on Monday launched a partial re-opening in the city of Buenos Aires, where over 90% of the reported cases are located.

In a series of tweets published on Monday night, the Republican governor of Maryland questioned the Trump administration's commitment to dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

Governor Larry Hogan said on his official Twitter that the United States was at a "critical juncture" in the epidemic.

Hogan called for the Trump administration to extend the public health emergency, which expires on Saturday.