July 22 coronavirus news

California has surpassed New York as the state with the most confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States.

The current total number of cases in California is 409,305 and New York stands at 408,181, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

California has seen a surge in cases over the past several weeks, while New York’s case count has slowed significantly. 

The number of cases per 100,000 people is starkly different between the two states, however, with California being home to roughly double the number of residents of New York. California is currently seeing about 1,036 cases per 100,000, while New York has 2,098 cases. 

A similar disparity holds true for Covid-related fatalities between the two states. New York saw a huge spike in deaths early on in the pandemic and has recorded well over 32,000 fatalities, a rate about eight times higher per 100,000 than in California where the surge happened much later, and has seen 7,888 deaths to date. 

Indonesia has reported 1,655 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases across the country to 89,869, according to the country's health ministry.

The country has now recorded 4,320 coronavirus-related deaths, the ministry said on Tuesday.

As of Monday, most confirmed cases were in Jakarta, East Java, South Sulawesi, Central Java, West Java and South Kalimantan, according to a situation report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

Starting from July 5, 2020, the Jakarta administration has gradually lifted restrictions and opened several public facilities at half capacity, including places of worship and outdoor sports courts, according to state-run Antara News.

Despite severe shortages in coronavirus testing supplies and lags in results, the Trump administration is still sitting on billions of dollars in unused funding that Congress allocated months ago. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have questions about why the money has not been used as testing continues to fall well short of the national need. 

As negotiations have ramped up between the White House and Senate Republicans in recent days on whether to include more funding for testing in the next round of stimulus, the White House pushed against more money over the weekend, arguing that billions remain unspent. 

But lawmakers and aides -- who estimate the remaining amount at about $7 billion to $8 billion -- say they've been unable to get a clear answer to why that money hasn't been touched in the first place. 

Read more here:

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Argentina's health ministry reported a record new 5,344 cases on Tuesday, bringing the country's total to 136,118. 

The ministry also reported 117 new deaths due to the virus in the past 24 hours, which is also the highest daily tally so far, raising the total death toll to 2,490. 

The coronavirus outbreak remains highly localized in Argentina, however, with over 90% of cases located in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, according to the ministry.

South American countries including Brazil and Peru have seen some of the world's worst coronavirus epidemics, with the region facing rapidly rising infection rates.

Mexico surpassed 40,000 Covid-19 deaths Tuesday, after the country's health ministry reported 915 new deaths from the virus.

The country's death toll now stands at 40,400. 

The ministry also reported another rise in infections, with 6,859 newly confirmed cases bringing Mexico's total number to 356,255.

Almost 900,000 new Covid-19 cases and nearly 22,000 deaths were reported last week in the Americas, with Brazil, Mexico and the United States reporting most of the new cases and deaths, Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization said on Tuesday.

The US’s 3,000 counties expect this year’s coronavirus pandemic to hit their budgets to the tune of $202 billion, meaning cuts in services, jobs and infrastructure projects, according to a survey published Tuesday.

Already, 71% of counties have cut or delayed capital investments such as infrastructure and economic development projects, the US' National Association of Counties (NACo) said in its report. And 68% reported they have cut services such as public safety and health services.

“Counties anticipate (a) $202 billion impact to budgets through FY2021, with widespread economic consequences,” the report reads.

The group said counties employ 328,000 hospital workers, 374,000 law enforcement officers, 93,000 firefighting staff and 200,000 public health workers. Jails, airports, 911 call centers, child and domestic protective services and services for the elderly could all be impacted.

Tuesday’s reported deaths from coronavirus have topped 1,000 in the United States for the first time in two weeks, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

As of 9:45 p.m. ET, 1,056 deaths have been reported, along with 62,752 new cases of the virus. On July 7, the death toll was 1,195 -- the only other time in July that threshold has been crossed. Today’s death count will not be finalized for a few more hours.

So far this year, one-quarter of all days (59 out of 202) have seen a death toll from the virus exceeding 1,000.

Colombia's health ministry reported 7,033 new Covid-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the country's total to 211,038 cases. 

The ministry also reported 239 new fatalities, bringing the nationwide total death toll to 7,166. 

Despite the growing number of cases, Health Minister Fernando Ruiz defended Colombia's strategy not to impose a nationwide lockdown and instead try to isolate the hotspots across the country. 

Speaking on television on Tuesday, Ruiz said, "This approach is much more effective than shutting down the whole country." 

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday responded to President Donald Trump's briefing earlier in the day, in which he warned the pandemic would probably get worse before it gets better, saying he had realized his early actions and rhetoric were in error.

"If he had said months ago 'let's wear a mask, let's socially distance' instead of having rallies.... then more people would have followed his lead," Pelosi added. "He is the President of the United States."

In today's briefing that lasted around 30 minutes, Trump again said he believed the virus would disappear and insisted the American response to the pandemic was "much better" than in other places.

But he also offered more realistic projections that his advisers hope will make him appear like a sober-minded leader.

"It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better," Trump said, echoing a prediction he made at the start of April of a "rough" two weeks ahead.

Pelosi suggested that Trump ought to have taken the tone he took today in March, instead of waiting until the virus surged across the country.

"If it's important to wear a mask now, it would have been important to wear it in March instead of telling us that by April, we would all be going to church together," she said. "I wish that were the case."