By Joshua Berlinger, Adam Renton, Zamira Rahim and Ed Upright, CNN
The state of Florida is reporting 7,686 additional coronavirus cases and 180 additional deaths, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health on Friday.
There has been a total of 518,075 cases in the state since the pandemic began, including out-of-state residents, the department said. Florida has reported at least 7,927 resident deaths to date.
From CNN's Jason Hoffman
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said President Trump could pick up "the slack" on unemployment benefits as stimulus negotiations in Congress are on the brink of collapse.
“The President is looking very, very carefully… about using executive authority to take up the slack” on unemployment benefits, a payroll tax cut, extending the eviction moratorium, and providing a benefit for reemployment, Kudlow said in an interview on Fox Business.
Trump said he could sign an executive order on these issues as early as this afternoon.
Specifically, Kudlow said a draft of a potential payroll tax cut “is basically completed,” and he believes Trump will use executive authority to implement it. A payroll tax cut has faced bipartisan opposition on the Hill.
Trump had been pushing for a payroll tax cut — which would reduce the amount taken out of workers' paychecks to fund federal programs including Social Security and Medicare — to be included in the congressional stimulus package. But many Republicans and most Democrats don't support it.
Kudlow said he can’t predict when federal unemployment benefits might be back due to the stalled negotiations on Capitol Hill. The $600 benefit expired last week.
From CNN’s Paul La Monica
The market opened lower Friday morning even though the US government reported a solid rebound in the labor market.
Continued fears about tension between the US and China may be weighing on sentiment after President Trump threatened to ban Tencent-owned WeChat unless it is sold.
Here's where things opened today:
About the jobs report: While the US economy added another 1.8 million jobs in July, it's a sharp slowdown from June and a small step for an economy that's still down 12.9 million jobs during the pandemic.
From CNN's Madeline Holcombe
More than 160,000 have died of coronavirus in the US so far and that number could nearly double by December, the director of a leading model said Thursday.
But consistently wearing masks could save nearly 70,000 of the 295,000 people projected to die of the virus by December 1, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) director Dr. Christopher Murray said on CNN's Global Town Hall.
"It's rare that you see something so simple, so inexpensive, so easy for everybody to participate in can have such an extraordinary impact in the US and also all over the world," Murray said.
The latest on masks in the US: At least 39 states as well as Washington, DC and Puerto Rico have implemented mask requirements of some kind. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear extended his state's mask mandate by 30 days yesterday, saying "It's working."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated mask recommendations on its website, urging people not use masks with valves or vents. While the one-way valve keeps people cooler by allowing air to escape, that also means respiratory droplets that carry the virus can escape and infect others.
Watch:
Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce his decision today on whether or not New York state schools can reopen this fall.
It will include New York City school district, which is the largest public school district in the country with more than 1.1 million students.
Some background: Last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said schools will reopen in the fall.
However, ultimately, the decision will be made by the state as to whether schools will open in the fall.
It is state law that governs the opening and closing of schools during the pandemic, not local government, Cuomo's communications director Dani Lever said in a statement.
From CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and Dana Vigue
New government public service announcements will use conversations between public health experts and actors, musicians and athletes to educate people about Covid-19.
Michael Caputo, assistant secretary for public affairs at the US Department of Health and Human Services, wouldn’t release the names of the celebrities who will be featured in the new PSAs.
He said there will be several government health experts involved, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.
Messages will be tailored to specific cities and communities. Here's how Caputo described the ads:
“Maybe a football player in Houston will sit down and talk about Houston’s problems with Dr. Fauci ... Or the surgeon general will be sitting on the Capitol Hill steps. We’ll have two cameras, one on him and one over his shoulder. He’ll be eating a sandwich. His iPad rings. He puts the sandwich down and he picks it up. And that rapper or football player or celebrity or rock and roll star or whoever it is will have two cameras on them in Atlanta, and they’ll ask Dr. Adams questions about Covid-19.”
The conversations will be 45 minutes to an hour long, and they will not be scripted. Several minute-long PSAs will be cut from each conversation and will be placed on radio, TV, online platforms and digital billboards.
“They will be conversations between trusted figures and trusted scientists,” Caputo said.
The topics will be varied and include prevention measures such as wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing.
The other public health experts featured in the PSAs will be...
“There will be no politicians. Zero politicians,” Caputo said.
From CNN's Anneken Tappe
The US economy added another 1.8 million jobs in July, a sharp slowdown from June and a small step for an economy that's still down 12.9 million jobs during the pandemic.
It was the third-straight month of improvement after the spring lockdown to stem the spread of the disease decimated the labor market. But the economy added far fewer than the 4.8 million jobs added in June.
The unemployment rate fell to 10.2%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, but remains above the Great Recession high of 10% that it reached in October 2009.
Hear more:
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
Restaurants in Baltimore will be allowed to reopen at 5 p.m. ET today, with indoor dining limited to 25%, despite White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx naming the Maryland city as an area of concern.
Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa said she herself wouldn’t advise going out to eat indoors at a restaurant, instead encouraging residents to eat outside or order takeout.
She said officials are facing “very tough” decisions to balance health and economic concerns.
“What I want to tell people is even with us opening these things, it is not at all a time to stop being cautious and to lose your vigilance,” she said, advising residents to wear their masks.
Dzirasa said the city’s Covid-19 positivity rate is at about 5.8%. “At the beginning of July, it was 5.1%, and it’s well above the state's average, which was around 4%,” she said.
Dzirasa attributed the rise to larger gatherings.
“I think that particularly in young people, which is where we're seeing this higher rate of cases and this higher positivity rate, they could be asymptomatic and getting together and potentially spreading it,” she said.
Watch:
The US has recorded more than 4,880,000 cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to the latest tally from John Hopkins University.
The country often records more than 40,000 new cases daily — and sometimes more than 60,000. That means the US is on track to soon surpass 5 million total cases.
Here's a look at new daily cases for the past two weeks:
