July 27 coronavirus news

The Texas Department of State Health Services changed the method in which Covid-19 deaths are reported Monday. Covid-19 fatalities are now being identified through the cause of death on death certificates. 

"This method allows fatalities to be counted faster with more comprehensive demographic data. Using death certificates also ensures consistent reporting across the state and enables DSHS to display fatalities by date of death, providing the public with more information about when deaths occurred," the public health agency said Monday.

The death toll Monday stands at 5,713 fatalities. Compared to the 5,038 fatalities reported Sunday, the state accrued 675 Covid-19-related deaths on Monday; however, only 44 of these deaths are newly reported, according to the public health agency.

Note: These numbers were released by the Texas Department of State Health Services, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University.

If enough Americans get a coronavirus vaccine when one becomes available, it could end this pandemic, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday.

Some people don’t trust vaccines, Fauci said, and there is concern about the reluctance of many people to get a Covid-19 vaccine — or any vaccine for that matter.

People must understand that this is “extremely important for their own health and, importantly, for the health of the community and health of the nation because if we get a widespread uptake of vaccine, we can put an end to this pandemic and we can create a veil of immunity in this country, preventing the infection from coming back,” he said.

Fauci said it’s important to engage on the community level, not from Washington, to convince people a vaccine is safe.

Two companies are starting advanced coronavirus vaccine trials in the US. Moderna started vaccinating the first Phase 3 volunteers for its experimental vaccine Monday, and Pfizer and BioNTech said they would start a phase 2/3 trial of their vaccine globally and the US this week.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday described the GOP stimulus proposal as “a starting place,” acknowledging that Democrats will be needed to get anything to the President’s desk.

Asked by a reporter why there is no money in the bill for election assistance, McConnell responded, "We’ve already appropriated an awful lot of money for election assistance. What we're not going to do is federalize the American election system, which is basically conducted in every single state in very different ways. We provided plenty of financial assistance, but we're not going to tell them how to conduct their elections during the pandemic or in my view in the future either. That’s why there’s not additional money in there for election assistance." 

McConnell was asked about how the bill text includes $1.75 billion for the design and construction of a Washington, DC, headquarters facility for the FBI, and if it is possible that there could be a $2 billion provision included that he didn’t know about. 

The majority leader would not say if he supported its inclusion and instead said the administration insisted on that element. 

“Well, in regard to that proposal, obviously we had to have an agreement with the administration in order get started. And they will have to answer the question as to why they insisted on that,” McConnell said.

Asked if he supports it being in there, he said, “You’ll have to ask them why they insisted that be included.”

McConnell was first asked why the money for the FBI headquarters was in the bill.

He responded. “I’m not sure it is.”

An appropriations aide to McConnell then interjected and explained off camera to everyone in the room: “There’s a limitation to honing specifically to Covid-related matters, so we’ll get more information for you.”

Medical testing company Quest Diagnostics said Monday it is still struggling to handle the enormous demand for coronavirus tests, with top priority patients taking more than two days to get results back and all other people having to wait seven days.

“During the past week we surpassed 9.2 million COVID-19 molecular diagnostic test results delivered to date; received the FDA’s first emergency use authorization for the use of pooled specimens with a commercial molecular diagnostic test; and saw capacity slightly exceed demand for the first time since early June,” Quest said in a statement.

“We expect that as our capacity continues to grow, we will be able to return to average turnaround times in the range of one day for priority 1 patients and three days for most other patients. We have steadily added capacity since we began to provide services in early March, but it will take time to add more.”

Quest said it has the capacity to run 135,000 tests a day to diagnose coronavirus and is working to get that up to 150,000 a day. Pooling specimens might help increase that even more, the company said.

Closing bars, avoiding crowds, wearing masks, and practicing hand hygiene and physical distancing can make a difference in the spread of coronavirus in the US, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, expressed concern about the trajectory of deaths in the US.

Asked if tens of thousands of Americans could die in the next few months, he said, "Well, that is conceivable. I mean, that's something we hope to be able to avoid, but if you look at the deaths as they're occurring right now, about a thousand per day, unless we get our arms around this, get it suppressed, we're going to have further suffering and further death and that's the reason why as I have often said many, many times, there are things we can do right now in the absence of a vaccine that could turn us around."

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Brazil's health ministry recorded 23,284 new cases of coronavirus Monday, bringing the country's total cases to 2,442,375.

The ministry also recorded 614 new fatalities, bringing Brazil's death toll to 87,618.

This comes as the world races to secure a vaccine, with São Paulo state's Gov. João Doria on Monday saying that he expects Brazilians to receive vaccinations against the virus in January if the current trials are successful.

Meanwhile, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro officially returned to work on Monday morning at the Planalto Palace after testing negative for Covid-19 on Saturday.

In an interview on MLB Network, league commissioner Rob Manfred said that the Miami Marlins will not play their games that were scheduled Monday or Tuesday in Miami.

“We’re doing some additional testing,” Manfred said. “If the testing results are acceptable, the Marlins will resume play in Baltimore on Wednesday against the Orioles.”

Some background: A number of players and coaches on the Marlins tested positive for Covid-19.

The Marlins' home opener against the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees game at the Philadelphia Phillies, both scheduled for Monday night, have been postponed, MLB said, as the league conducts more coronavirus testing.

Eleven Marlins players and two coaches tested positive for the virus, ESPN reports. Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said the team is staying in Philadelphia, where it just played a three-game series, pending the results of a new round of testing. 

CNN's Wayne Sterling and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.

The Democratic National Convention Committee has begun circulating a “COVID-19 protocol” memo that lays out ways to try to minimize the spread of the coronavirus in Milwaukee next month, including daily coronavirus testing, banning visits to bars and restaurants, and even recommending the use of goggles and face shields in addition to masks in and around the convention site.

According to the memo, which was shared with CNN, the DNCC is mandating that all participants of the convention in Milwaukee follow a number of protocols, including:

The memo says that the “health and safety zone” will include the entire Wisconsin Center building and any workspaces in the immediate vicinity (which will be established by Secret Service). It also says that members of the media who are only working at the outdoor standup position are not subject to daily testing requirement, but will be required to do everything else.

A person familiar with convention planning also told CNN that the Covid-19 tests will be made available to anyone with a credential, including members of the press.

There will be two Covid-19 testing sites for participants requiring daily testing, according to this protocol memo — one inside this “zone” and another offsite. The memo says that attendees will need to release their test results to both the DNCC and the Milwaukee Health Department, and that they will not accept test results from other providers.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking at a news conference today, told residents to “wake up” to the reality of “how deadly this disease continues to be.”

“What more evidence do you need?” Newsom said as he referred to the state’s seven-day average of deaths, which is 109.

“Please, let's wake up to that reality,” he added.

California has the highest number of coronavirus cases across the nation with 460,550 confirmed cases. The state reported a total of 8,445 deaths on Monday.