The latest on the coronavirus pandemic

Illinois Department of Public Health reported 1,941 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 178,837.

The public health agency also reported 21 new deaths for a total of 7,495. Nearly 2.7 million people have been tested in the state, and the positivity rate for the past seven days is at 3.9%, according to a news release.

As CNN reported on Thursday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a news conference that the state could be headed to a “reversal” of its reopening plan if positive cases continue to rise.

Note: These numbers were released by the Illinois 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. 

As students and teachers prepare for the upcoming school year, CNN's "Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction" podcast is dedicating a week of episodes to how kids and teachers may return to school safely.

In today's episode, one young student said she's nervous for the school year and asked, "What if I get the virus?"

Here's how CNN's education experts, Laura Jarrett responded:

You can listen to the full episode here.

The Salt Lake City School District will begin the school year in a remote setting, an announcement on the district’s website said. 

The district will begin school on Sept. 8 instead of the usual Aug. 25, the district added.

The extra time will be used to learning devices like laptops for students and for teachers to adjust plans and learn new online tools, the statement explained.

The district serves more than 23,000 students and employs around 1,120 teachers, according to federal data.

The National Institutes of Health announced Friday that it is investing $248.7 million in new technologies that should help ease some of the country’s problems with Covid-19 testing.  

The NIH launched the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) in April after it received an emergency supplemental appropriation of $1.4 billion from Congress. There was an “overwhelming response” to the department’s call for new technology, the NIH said. It received more than 650 applications.  

The initiative gives contracts to seven biomedical testing companies that should significantly increase the number and kinds of tests available as early as September. The demand for tests is estimated to be millions more per day than what is currently available, the NIH said. 

The seven companies that got the contracts use different approaches to testing. Four of the technologies should speed up and increase the capacity of lab testing, using next generation sequencing methods. Three of the technologies use platforms that should give more rapid results in point-of care-settings like in childcare centers, nursing homes, schools and workplaces. Some of these new tests should also be easier to use than the current nasal swab, and will use saliva instead.  

The seven companies that have been awarded contracts are Mesa Biotech, Quidel, Talis Biomedical, which all provide point-of-care tests, and Ginkgo Bioworks, Helix OpCo, Fluidigm and Mammoth Biosciences, which have laboratory tests. 

All the companies that have won these contracts either have emergency use authorization from the FDA for their technology or their applications are in process, according to the NIH. 

“This is an exciting milestone,” said Bruce J. Tromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and a leader of RADx Tech, said in a release.

For the fourth day in a row, the state of Florida is reporting a record number of coronavirus related deaths.

On Friday, the state reported 257 more deaths, breaking the previous record of 253 deaths, which was set yesterday, according to the Florida Department of Health. 

The state set previous records on Tuesday and Wednesday. The statewide resident death toll is now 6,843. 

Florida also reported at least 9,007 new coronavirus cases bringing the state total to more than 470,000.

Members of the St. Louis Cardinals have tested positive for Covid-19 forcing Friday’s game between the Cardinals and the Milwaukee Brewers to be postponed, according to MLB Network and ESPN. 

MLB Network was first to report the news. ESPN reports that multiple members of the team have tested positive.

When asked about the report, a MLB spokesperson said the league would address the situation in a press release later this morning. 

 The game was slated to start at 2:10 p.m. ET in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Covid-19 infection rate across New York City has to be below 3% for schools to reopen, Mayor Bill de Blasio said during the city’s daily Covid-19 news conference Friday.

New York City has been below that threshold for weeks, de Blasio said.

When schools reopen, face masks will be required along with social distancing, free Covid-19 testing will be offered, and all staff and students must have the necessary personal protective equipment to work in the classroom, de Blasio said.

Teachers will be required to get tested for Covid-19 in the days leading up to schools reopening and test results will be given to teachers within 24-hours of being tested, New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said during the same press conference.

If someone gets sick in the classroom that information will be communicated fast, Carranza said.

The goal is to keep kids in the same group as much as possible and limit movement for students and who they come in contact with throughout the day, de Blasio said.

“Everything we do is going to be focused on health and safety,” the mayor said.

If a student or teacher gets sick, that entire classroom will be required to quarantine for 14-days, Dr. Ted Long said.

Long, who runs the NYC Test and Trace Corps, said the corps will investigate each case of Covid-19 at a school and schools could close for a limited time during the investigation, or they could switch to remote learning, he said.

As students and teachers prepare for the upcoming school year, CNN's "Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction" podcast is dedicating a week of episodes to how kids and teachers may return to school safely.

In today's episode, one listener asked, "How can I get my kids to wear a mask?"

Here's how CNN's education experts, Laura Jarrett responded:

You can listen to the full episode here.

The President appears to be watching this morning’s coronavirus hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci and top health experts. 

Here's what he tweeted moments ago:

Trump has repeatedly argued that more testing is leading to more cases in the US. That is comprehensively inaccurate. 

Fact's first: Trump's own officials and his Republican allies have acknowledged it's not true that a rising number of tests is the reason the number of cases has skyrocketed over the last month. One telling piece of evidence that the spike is genuine: the percentage of people testing positive, a key measure of the true spread of the virus, has also spiked. As for his assertion regarding other countries — Countries like Germany have needed to do less testing over time because they were more successful at containing their outbreaks in the first place — by employing a strategy that involved aggressive early testing.

You can read more from CNN's Fact Check team here.