July 30 coronavirus news

Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed an executive order extending protection for renters, while the state's positivity rate drops below 1%.   

As the Maine Supreme Judicial Court plans to reopen courts next week, "the risk right now is, in the coming months, there will be eviction proceedings" Mills said today.  

Rental assistance will be extended and provided to qualifying families for up to three months, Mills said. 

"I'm very concerned that Maine people may be facing a housing cliff" with federal unemployment benefits possibly being reduced, Mills said.

"The best thing we can do for our economic health, is protect our public health," the governor added. 

Some context: Maine's seven day positivity average is currently 0.95%, nationwide positivity stands at 8%, said Dr. Nirav Shah, director for Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention. 

Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays Manager Charlie Montoyo confirmed this weekend’s series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays has been postponed. 

The decision to postpone the series comes after two Phillies staff members tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, leading the team to cancel all stadium activities. 

The Phillies were scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Blue Jays on Saturday and another game on Sunday.

The team has not played since last Sunday and is now scheduled to resume play next Monday against the New York Yankees.

The UK has recorded its highest daily rise in Covid-19 cases in over a month, according to data from the Department of Health and Social Care.

On Thursday, 846 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed, the highest rise since June 28 when there were 901 new infections, according data from the department.

There were 38 deaths on Thursday, compared to 36 deaths on June 28, the department added.

The gap in access to testing between the NBA and the broader country shows that accessibility of testing has to improve for everyone, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was a guest on ESPN’s Daily podcast today.

The NBA has made the decision to operate in a bubble, or clean site, and play begins Thursday.

On Wednesday, the NBA said it had succeeded in keeping the virus at bay. The NBA says none of the 344 players who were tested for Covid-19 in the NBA Orlando bubble tested positive.

Fauci said he believes the "answer to the broad problem is to get more testing available for everyone."

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported at least 4,045 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, bringing the statewide total to approximately 182,286 cases.  

Georgia DPH also reported at least 30 new deaths. Approximately 3,671 people have died from the virus in the state since the beginning of the pandemic, Georgia DPH said.

There were at least 339 new Covid-19 related hospitalizations recorded, according to Georgia DPH. 

Note: These numbers were released by the Georgia Department of Public Health and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project

Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Admiral Brett Giroir disputed claims that there are significant, widespread delays in coronavirus testing results Thursday.

Giroir said that half the current coronavirus testing efforts are happening in point of care settings or hospital laboratories, which generally yield results in 24 hours.  

“Over the past month, the percent of tests that were completed within three days by commercial labs was 45%,” he added. “In the last seven days that's over 56%, so we're seeing an improvement week over week.”

Some context: Medical testing company Quest Diagnostics said Monday it is struggling to meet the demand for coronavirus tests, with turnaround times of more than two days for top priority patients and seven days for all other patients. 

Many health experts have disagreed that the administration’s testing response is adequate. 

In response to questions about when federal testing resources will meet the growing demand for tests, Giroir said, “The supplies absolutely satisfy the state testing goals now… we far exceeded the testing goals in June and we will far exceed the state testing goals in July.”

He also said the administration is preparing for the overlap of coronavirus with the upcoming flu season.

“Just about every test, whether it's molecular or point of care, is working on multiplexing, so that there could be flu and Covid tests, either on the same strip or certainly they could be done in the same machine within a couple of minutes,” Giroir said.

The Republic of Ireland reported 85 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, representing the highest daily increase in coronavirus cases since May 22, according to the latest data published by the Irish Department of Health.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ireland now stands at 26,027, according to the Department of Health. There was also one more death of a patient diagnosed with Covid-19, bringing Ireland's death toll to 1,763. 

Of the cases reported today, half are associated with outbreaks and 39% are associated with close contacts of a previously confirmed case, according to a statement from Ireland's National Public Health Emergency Team.

Acting Chief Medical Officer for the Irish Department of Health Dr. Ronan Glynn said in the statement, "Today’s figures demonstrate how quickly Covid-19 can reemerge in our country."

Philip Nolan, chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said, "Over a two-day period Ireland moved from a relatively stable epidemiology to a significant pattern connected to outbreaks. We now need to be really careful and adhere to public health advice so we do not further spread the virus. We must remain vigilant to the disease if we are to control it at this point."

World Health Organization officials looked back on the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic during a news briefing in Geneva on Thursday, the six-month mark of Covid-19 being declared a public health emergency of international concern.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, said that the global response can be characterized as mixed.

Countries that have had previous experience with infectious diseases, such as SARS, avian influenza and MERS, “really saw the threat, really knew the threat of this,” she said.

Countries that didn’t act as fast have also been able to turn things around, Van Kerkhove said, as have countries that had very difficult outbreaks, such as the Republic of Korea, Italy, Spain and Germany.

These countries were able to implement the comprehensive approach to public health measures, where it was “all of government, all of society, engaging their public, informing their public” and using tools that are known to suppress transmission and save lives if they are implemented.

“I think what we need to do going forward is look at how we can be more efficient in our response. How can everyone be more efficient in the tools that we apply, so that we don’t have to go into large lockdown, or so-called lockdown measures,” Van Kerkhove said. “That we can tailor the approach to the geographic area, and to the transmission area where it’s needed.”

In light of the recent Covid-19 cases identified among the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies, the NFL’s chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, said he is confident the league has the proper protocols in place.

Sills added that the Major League Baseball situation is still one that is unfolding.

“I think we’re still learning about that specific situation, and we still have some ongoing learning,” Sills said.

Asked if the NFL had any protocols to potentially postpone games because of Covid-19 outbreaks, Brian McCarthy, NFL’s vice president of communications, said that the terms will still being discussed.

“We are working on those details with the Union and also hand-in-hand with the Competition Committee,” McCarthy said.

Unlike the NBA – which is isolating the entire league in a “bubble” in Orlando – the NFL plans on hosting games in home stadiums across the country. 

Earlier today, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said that while he was excited to begin training camp for the upcoming season, managing the threat of Covid-19 involved not just monitoring what was on the field, but also off.

"What you’re talking about is conduct that is detrimental. That’s a term that is used often in our business, and appropriately so in this Covid environment. If you are not exercising discretion and being thoughtful about how you move, that conduct is detrimental to your cause and ours collectively. That is the message that I am delivering to those guys,” Tomlin said.