New York state monitoring rising coronavirus rates among younger people
From CNN's Elizabeth Joseph
e York state is monitoring rising coronavirus rates among younger people, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news conference Thursday.
A graphic presented during the press conference showed a 13.2% test positivity rate for individuals between the ages of 21 to 30, compared to 9.9% a week earlier, he said, calling the statistic “a significant increase in a short period of time."
"It's not hard to understand what is going on ... you get groups of young people - it's warm, they've been locked up for a long time and would like to socialize — I get it. You don't socially distance, you don't wear masks, the virus spreads, and it is happening," the governor said.
"This is not the time to fight for your right to party ... There's an attitude that young people are immune — you are not. 21 to 30, the virus can kill you. And if it doesn't kill you, you can bring it home and give it to someone inadvertently and it can kill them," Cuomo added.
Cuomo also announced a new ad campaign aimed at young people:
12:30 p.m. ET, July 23, 2020
Arizona's coronavirus deaths surpass 3,000
From CNN’s Gregory Lemos
Arizona has now lost over 3,000 people to Covid-19, according to data reported by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) on Thursday.
ADHS reported at least 89 new Covid-19 related deaths Thursday, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,083.
The state has a total of at least 152, 944 total cases, according to the state's dashboard.
Arizona is currently seeing a 42.61 death rate per 100,000 people and a 12.5% positivity rate.
12:34 p.m. ET, July 23, 2020
Florida's Broward County only has 9.8% hospital ICU beds available
From CNN's Randi Kaye and Melissa Alonso
A health worker greets people at Memorial Hospital Miramar on July 18 in Miramar, Florida. Johnny Louis/Getty Images
Florida's Broward County has 1,309 people hospitalized with Covid-19 currently, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).
Just 9.8% of their beds are still available in intensive care units, with 52 beds, Broward County health officials reported Thursday.
Broward is the second hardest hit county in South Florida, behind Miami-Dade, with 45,010 total Covid-19 cases reported, according to the state's Department of Health.
Last week, Broward instituted an overnight curfew from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. local time in an effort to control the surge there.
The county also has a mask mandate with fines of up to $500, CNN has reported.
12:31 p.m. ET, July 23, 2020
White House conceded to Senate GOP demands in key areas of recovery package, senators say
From CNN's Manu Raju
US Senator Roy Blunt speaks during a US Senate hearing in Washington, DC, on July 2. Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Republican senators say the White House conceded to Senate Republican demands during the negotiations — namely on money for contact tracing and testing, making funds available for schools that stay closed and dropping President Trump's demand for a payroll tax cut.
On school funding: After Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos warned that aid to schools would be withheld without them fully reopening, the Senate GOP pushed back and charted a different course.
According to Sen. Roy Blunt, a key negotiator in the GOP-White House deal, he said about half of the $70 billion for K-12 schools in the plan would be given regardless if they are open or not. The other half would "go out on the basis that you have more expenses if you’re back to school than you do if you’re not."
Blunt added: "But none of the college money and only half of the elementary and secondary money would be conditional on returning to school. And that doesn’t mean returning to five-days-a-week school."
On the payroll tax cut: The White House has acknowledged that it dropped the payroll tax cut, something that Republican senators indicated would do little to stimulate the economy.
On tracing and testing: And the White House agreed to ramp up testing to $25 billion after suggesting that there was already plenty of unspent money to use for testing and contact tracing. The GOP deal would provide $16 billion in new money, with an additional $9 billion redirected from the March stimulus law to spend on testing and tracing.
"We did get the $25 billion we wanted, but part of it was being sure they were gonna spend $9 billion that was not specifically allocated to testing on testing," Blunt said.
How this unfolded: Several Republicans pointed out that the White House had to move quickly in the GOP direction in order to get a deal together.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican up for reelection, contended he was not concerned that it took all week to get their party's proposal together, but noted the White House "moved in our direction."
"We had to resolve some of the conflicts with the administration," Tillis said. "They've moved in our direction, it's a normal part of the sausage factory."
Sen. Lamar Alexander, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said a key issue that the White House and Senate GOP agreed to was how to defer student loan payments. He said the two agreed to continue deferring student loan payments after October "if you don't have any income but once you start making the income, you'll never have to pay more than 10 percent of it on your student loan after you deduct, rent, mortgage and food."
Asked about Trump's claim that testing is "overrated," Alexander pushed back.
"I can give you my opinion on testing which is that testing is essential," Alexander said. "And I think probably the most important activity we have going on in the government right now in terms of identifying the disease, containing it, and creating confidence to go back to school and that work is the work Dr. [Francis] Collins is doing in the National Institutes of Health to create new ways to get a quick test so you can get a result within an hour."
Alexander added: "You can do that, then you can test whole classes, you can test teachers, you can test employees, there’ll be an oversupply of quick tests and I think all the discussions about testing with disappear."
CNN's Rebecca Grandahl contributed to this report
12:26 p.m. ET, July 23, 2020
Spike in Covid-19 cases may weaken the pace of economic recovery, analysts say
From CNN’s Alison Kosik
A man jogs past tourist shops on June 30 in Hollywood, California. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
Analysts at Moody’s Investors Service said a surge in the number of coronavirus cases and the expiration of federal relief measures will “imperil economic recovery.”
Though Moody’s expects “the recovery to continue over the second half of this year and unemployment to gradually decline, the worsening situation is putting the ongoing US consumption recovery at risk.”
The group’s analysis found that metro areas including Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas, where cases have spiked, together account for 26.8% of GDP. Despite retail sales having a strong “monthly pickup“ in May and June, the group said “the improving trend may not carry through July and the coming months.”
Moody’s said even without stringent lockdowns, fear of infection will likely cause consumers to voluntarily cut back on economic activities that require a high degree of person-to-person contact. The analysts also said a reduction in federal support from current levels would constitute a financial shock for many households and businesses.
12:00 p.m. ET, July 23, 2020
New York governor reports lowest hospitalization rate in months: "All good news"
From CNN's Elizabeth Joseph
NY1
There were at least 706 coronavirus-related hospitalizations Wednesday, the lowest number since March 18, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news conference today.
"All good news," Cuomo said about the data. Cuomo added that the state had climbed the "highest and hardest mountain" and they do not want to climb any more mountains related to the virus.
Meanwhile, at least 13 people across New York state died from the virus Wednesday.
Of the 69,698 Covid-19 tests administered Wednesday, 811 — or 1.1% — were positive for the virus.
12:02 p.m. ET, July 23, 2020
Nancy Pelosi on expected GOP stimulus plan: "What we have seen so far falls very short"
From CNN's Clare Foran and Haley Byrd
Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
Senate Republicans have yet to formally release their next Covid-19 stimulus proposal, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that “what we have seen so far falls very short of the challenge that we face in order to defeat the virus.”
Pelosi was joined by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer for her weekly news conference today.
“Democrats have waited for months for our Senate Republican colleagues to get serious about helping the American people who have suffered so much during this pandemic,” and said that Democrats are “still waiting for the Republicans to put together a partisan bill that will never become law just so they can muster up the courage to negotiate," Schumer said .
He said it is impossible to negotiate with Republicans as long as they have not shared their plan with Democrats. He called for a “specific proposal” because “the devil is in the details.”
“We don’t know what it is. We hear different things all the time from different people,” Schumer said.
Asked about unemployment insurance benefits, Pelosi said she is “all for the $600 because people really need it.” Republicans have considered a substantially lower number, as the provisions are set to expire at the end of the month.
Pelosi said she would not accept a short term, temporary extension of the unemployment benefits.
“No, no. This is the package. We cannot piecemeal this,” she said.
11:55 a.m. ET, July 23, 2020
More than 300,000 Americans could die of Covid-19 if trajectory doesn't change, former FDA head says
From CNN's Health Gisela Crespo
Former US Food and Drug Administrator Dr. Scott Gottlieb said the US could see upwards of 300,000 deaths from Covid-19 if the country doesn't change its trajectory.
"In the United States, probably, you know, by the end of the year, we could have upwards of 300,000 if we continue on the current trajectory. Right now, we have close to a thousand casualties a day, so if we don't change that trajectory, you could do the math and see where we are at towards the end of the year," Gottlieb said Wednesday during an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box.
Gottlieb explained that while in-hospital mortality from the virus has declined, "the problem is we're hospitalizing a lot of patients."
"Right now we're gonna break our old record in terms of the total number of hospitalizations, which was 60,000. We're at 59,000 now and we're gonna eclipse that in the next week. So even if we end up preserving more life in the hospital – which we’re doing – if we end up hospitalizing a whole lot more patients, you’re ultimately going to have a lot of casualties, unfortunately, from this virus," Gottlieb said.
11:44 a.m. ET, July 23, 2020
Florida reports a record 173 coronavirus deaths in 24 hours
From Rosa Flores and Denise Royal
The state of Florida is reporting 10,249 new cases of Covid-19 and 173 additional deaths on Thursday, breaking the previous record of 156 deaths on July 16, according to Florida Department of Health.
This brings the state's total cases to at least 389,868 according to the state department of health. The statewide resident death toll is now 5,518.
