July 28 coronavirus news

The US government's Operation Warp Speed is accelerating every aspect of vaccine development apart from the two most important: safety and efficacy, according to Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the operation's chief adviser, who explained how the program worked to develop, manufacture and distribute a successful vaccine, and to do all that quickly. 

Speaking during a prerecorded keynote interview for the Disease Prevention and Control Summit on Tuesday, Slaoui said that they are accelerating the process by “taking financial risk, running things in parallel and taking platform technologies that are predictable in their behavior, but not curtailing the understanding of safety and efficacy of the vaccine.”

Companies are modifying vaccine technologies that been tested already in people so they can move more quickly through the testing process, for instance. Plus, it is important to be able to speedily manufacture any new vaccine.

Secondly, the companies are “accelerating every single aspect of the development, except the two most critical ones, in terms of human safety and efficacy,” Slaoui said. 

All of this is being done for a portfolio of vaccines, Slaoui said, “because we want at least one of them to work. And, ideally, all of them to work.” 

The director of Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Annette Chambers-Smith, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to a statement released by the agency on Monday.

Chambers-Smith got tested on Friday after not feeling well during the week, the statement said.

Contact tracing is currently underway to identify any staff and personnel from the department that Chambers-Smith may have come into contact with, although the director has not physically been inside a prison since June 26, and has not been at the correctional facility’s Operation Support Center since last Tuesday.

Chambers-Smith is currently working from and managing her symptoms at home, which are mild at this time, the agency said.

Tighter coronavirus measures have been introduced in Oldham, a city in northern England, after a sharp rise in infections there, the City Council said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Residents are being asked not to receive social visits at home and to keep two meters apart from friends and family when seeing them outside, according to the statement.

Clinically vulnerable people whose shielding period was due to to end on July 31 are being asked to continue shielding until August 14, and care homes will not relax restrictions on visitors. Last week, some restrictions were dropped on care home visits in England, allowing one single visitor per resident.

The new guidance is being issued in order to avoid a local lockdown, the council said, after the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 increased from 26 in the week ending on July 17, to 119 in the week ending July 25, according to the statement. 

A "large number" of recent cases were in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities — just over 65% cases in the last seven days, the council said on its website.

“We’re urging residents to continue to take the risk of coronavirus seriously and to stick to the guidelines," said Councillor Arooj Shah, deputy leader of the Oldham Council.

“The best way to avoid infection is to limit contact with others as much as possible and to stay home wherever you can, including working from home. Limit contact with other people and respect social distancing where you do go out; keeping at least 2 meters from those not in your household and avoid shaking hands or hugging," Shah added.

"We know that people across Oldham desperately want to see their friends and family, and get back to normal. But these restrictions are essential if we are to stop the spread of Coronavirus and prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place, as we have seen elsewhere in the country."

The measures went into effect Tuesday and will continue for the next two weeks, the Oldham Council said in the statement. 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Tuesday that schools in her state should be open. 

Noem cited a number of reasons including mental and emotional health, the limitations of remote learning, child abuse and neglect, as well as data that shows “children are at far greater risk of critical illnesses from influenza than they are Covid-19.”

She quoted from Toronto Sick Kids saying, “The evidence is mounting that children may be less susceptible to this virus and may be less likely to transmit that virus to other. They also said the risks of infection and transmission in children, which appear to be minimal, need to be balanced with harms risks of school closure, which is impacting their physical and their mental health. On balance it is recommended that children return to schools.”

Noem reiterated her position that she is against a statewide mask mandate and again cited Toronto Sick Kids saying, “It is impractical for a child to wear a mask for the duration of the school day.”

She said the most efficient way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in children is for them to wash their hands. 

The governor said teachers who have underlying health conditions have options like social distancing, masking, washing their hands or teaching online. She said she is discouraging schools from setting case thresholds “because they will be calling off school all the time.” Noem said schools should instead focus on hospitalizations as they consider when cancellation may be necessary. 

Noem also said schools in her state can expect more state and federal dollars to better equip them as they re-enter the classroom in the era of Covid-19.  

The North Carolina Department of Health reported 1,244 new hospitalizations as a result of coronavirus infections, breaking the previous record of 1,228 cases on July 22, according to data released by the agency on Tuesday. 

In addition, the state recorded 1,749 additional Covid-19 infections, bringing the total to date to 116,087. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered Major League Baseball the option of playing games in New York state if they're having difficulty playing in other states, he said in his call with reporters Tuesday.

"Here's my suggestion — I understand the challenge they're facing. New York state could host any major league baseball game that any teams want to play and they could play those games in our stadiums," Cuomo said.

Noting that New York state currently has one of the lowest Covid-19 infection rates in the country, Cuomo proposed that teams could fly into the state in private airplanes, go from the airport to the hotel where they would be quarantined and tested upon arrival, and then they could play ball in stadiums in the state assuming that they test negative. Afterwards, teams could then get on a plane and return home.

"We have the ability to do it. We have the testing resources to do it," he said, noting it would be great for the state economy, as well as for New Yorkers and Americans.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott will issue an executive order later this week setting Sept. 8 as a universal start date for students to return back to school in the fall.

Scott said that he and Health Department Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine set a goal seven weeks ago to return to in-person instruction in the fall.  

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Levine said he is confident in opening schools.

The health commissioner said that if he were in Arizona, Texas, Florida or any other state facing high outbreaks of positive coronavirus cases, they would not be having the conversation about opening schools.

Levine cited studies carried out around the world showing no significant transmission of Covid-19 within schools, that younger children are less likely to transmit Covid-19 and that adults in a family are more likely to “be the index case in the affected family."

“It is the youngest children up to age 9, who are not only at lowest risk, but stand to reap the most benefit from the in-person learning environment,” Levine said. He emphasized that there is not a clear cut one-size-fits-all approach to how schools plan to open and explained that each schools will be customizing solutions to fit their specific classroom and student body needs.

In conjunction with the American Academy of Pediatrics Vermont Chapter, Levine issued a statement on Monday calling on schools in the state to prioritize in-person attendance for students in preschool through fifth grade.

Pennsylvania reported 1,120 new Covid-19 cases and 24 more deaths, according to data released Tuesday from the state's Department of Health. This brings the total case count to 109,384 and total death count to 7,146.

More than half the deaths in Pennsylvania have occurred in residents from nursing or personal care facilities to date. In nursing and personal care homes, there are 19,225 resident cases and 3,868 employee cases across 835 facilities. A press conference this afternoon aims to address testing initiatives in nursing homes. 

The health department is still seeing significant increases in the number of Covid-19 cases among younger age groups, particularly 19- to 24-year-olds

The health department also singled out case counts in specific counties including Allegheny, reporting an increase in 119 cases. This county previously took steps to counter a spike. Philadelphia county is reporting an uptick of 175 cases, and Delaware county is reporting an increase in 118 cases.

One thing to note: These numbers were released by the state’s public health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

The mayor of La Paz, Bolivia, Luis Revilla Herrero, has announced that he and his wife MariCruz tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday.

Revilla said they are doing well and have almost no symptoms. 

"We are going to follow protocols, I will be isolated and working from home until I am discharged. Take care of yourself and please follow all social distancing rules," Revilla tweeted.

Revilla has become Bolivia's 16th government official infected with the virus since the pandemic started, including interim President Jeanine Áñez who announced she has recovered on Monday evening. 

The latest numbers: Bolivia reported 71,181 Covid-19 cases and 2,647 deaths Monday, according to the country’s health ministry. The Santa Cruz and La Paz regions have been most affected by the pandemic, according to the same data.