August 5 coronavirus news

Texas reported fewer coronavirus cases on Wednesday with 8,706 new infections, down 461 from Tuesday and down 336 from a week ago, according to numbers released by the Texas' health department.

The positivity rate on Tuesday, 15.58%, jumped nearly two percentage points from Monday and is up more than three percentage points from a week ago. The positivity rate and testing data in Texas is reported one day behind new cases, deaths and hospitalizations. 

More details: Newly reported deaths remain high, with 235 reported Wednesday, and hospitalizations continue to drop compared to last week.

The state reported 8,445 hospitalizations, down 219 from Tuesday and down 1,140 from a week ago.

Brazil's health ministry reported 1,437 new Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the country's total to 97,256.

The country also recorded 57,152 new coronavirus cases, raising the total to 2,859,073, according to the health ministry.

Some context: This new data comes on the same day as one of Brazil's leading indigenous leaders, Chief Aritana Yawalapiti, leader of the Upper Xingu, died of Covid-19.

Six students and one staff member have tested positive for Covid-19, a spokesperson for Mississippi's Corinth School District told CNN. 

The student population in the district is 2,700. 

According to the spokesperson, 116 students who have been considered in “close contact” to a person who has tested positive have been sent home to quarantine for 14 days. 

Several cases of people getting sick after swallowing hand sanitizer have been reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in recent months.

Some people suffered impaired vision. Others had seizures. Four people died. 

A new paper, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Wednesday, described the cases of 15 adults in Arizona and New Mexico who were hospitalized for methanol poisoning after consuming alcohol-based hand sanitizers in May and June.

While an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing ethanol or isopropanol can be used to disinfect hands, the CDC warns against using hand sanitizer containing methanol and swallowing any hand sanitizer. In their new report, CDC researchers emphasize: “alcohol-based hand sanitizer products should never be ingested.”

A CDC spokesperson told CNN in an email Wednesday that previously, in June, the US Food and Drug Administration announced that methanol was found in some hand sanitizers distributed in the United States – and the new CDC report follows that announcement.

Some context: In late June, CDC received notification from public health officials and partners in Arizona and New Mexico about methanol poisoning linked with the ingestion of hand sanitizers, according to the new report. Methanol, a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through skin or ingested, can be found in certain hand sanitizers.

CDC researchers and their partners in Arizona and New Mexico reviewed 62 call records to poison centers from May through June to characterize cases that could be methanol poisoning from alcohol-based hand sanitizer. The researchers also obtained medical records for additional details. But the report does not provide information as to why exactly people were ingesting hand sanitizer.

The researchers found that, between May and June, 15 adults met their case definition of hand sanitizer-associated methanol poisoning. All of those adults, ages 21 to 65, were admitted to a hospital after ingesting alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Six of the adults developed seizures while in the hospital and three were discharged with new visual impairments, the researchers found.

One patient, a 44-year-old man, said that he drank an unknown amount of hand sanitizer in the few days before seeking medical care, according to the CDC paper. The man was hospitalized for six days for acute methanol poisoning, and when he was discharged, he went home with almost complete vision loss.

Overall, four of the adults in the CDC report died.

NCAA Division II’s seven fall 2020 championships have been canceled due to the operational, logistical and financial challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Presidents Council said today.

The council made the move after the NCAA Board of Governors directed each division to make a decision on its fall sport championships.

Some context: As of Wednesday, 11 of the 23 Division II conferences had announced they will not compete during the traditional fall season.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said the Wisconsin National Guard will assist as poll workers for the primary elections held on Aug. 11.

The announcement comes a week after Evers issued an executive order authorizing the activation of the National Guard to support the primary election and operate community Covid-19 testing sites across the state.

The release said the troops will report to duty on Sunday and will be released on Aug. 12, the day after the primary. The mobilized members will complete training provided by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, the release said.

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 3,817 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 201,713.

Georgia is the fifth state to surpass 200,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

The department reported 65 additional death on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths to 3,984.

There were 362 new Covid-19 hospitalizations, which brings the number of total to 19,788, the department said.

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.

Boston Public Schools is ruling out a full in-person return to school for the start of the 2020-21 school year, but a final plan on how schools will restart has not yet been decided upon, according to a draft of the district's plan.

Boston is one of just a few of the largest districts in the US that has yet to announce its back to school plan.

The district is still working to decide if it will start the school year with a hybrid plan or fully online.

According to the draft, the district is following instruction from the Boston Public Health Commission to determine when schools may safely reopen, and as with many other plans, once a decision is made, it could change.

Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius outlined the plans for the hybrid and online options during a press conference Wednesday, saying parents will be invited to participate in a survey online and over the phone over the next few weeks to discuss whether their preference is for their children to attend any school in-person, or keep them home for remote instruction.

"We're going to be designing this remote learning and it will look very different than it did in the spring," Cassellius said. 

More details: Cassellius said the hybrid model would include two days of in-person learning and three days remotely. Students attending school in-person would be in small classes of 10-15 students, maintain social distancing, wear a face covering, and engage in regular hand washing.

The draft of the plan said the hybrid model "is not perfect."

The rate of case growth in Kansas is higher in the counties with no mask mandate, according to Dr. Lee Norman, the secretary of the state's Department of Health and Environment.

“All of the improvement comes from those counties wearing masks,” Norman said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

There have been 841 new cases and three new deaths since Monday’s report. At least 62 cases have been tied to schools and daycares, Norman said. 

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