August 7 coronavirus news

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.

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.

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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.

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:

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.

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.

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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. 

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. 

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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:

Libya reported 404 new coronavirus cases Thursday, a record high for the country.

Libya has a total of 4,879 confirmed cases and 107 deaths, according to its National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and Johns Hopkins University, but officials fear the case count could be much higher due to the country's extremely limited testing capability.

Last week, local authorities in the port city of Misrata declared a state of emergency after a significant increase in the number of cases there.

Libya’s UN-backed Government of National Accord extended a curfew for all areas under its control by another ten days, starting on Friday.

The daily curfew will be from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time, with a 24-hour curfew on Friday and Saturday. 

On Thursday, the government announced new preventative measures, including making the wearing of masks mandatory in public places and on public transport.

Businesses have been ordered not to accept customers without face masks and must have clear social distancing instructions.

Firms that do not comply with these measures or the curfew hours will face fines and suspension of licenses for repeated violations, the government said.

Two schools in northeast Germany have closed due to coronavirus infections, state authorities announced on Friday. Both schools, the Ostsee elementary school and the Goethe High School, are in the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. This was the first German state to re-open for classes, at the beginning of this week following the summer holidays.

In one of the schools, the Goethe High School, a teacher tested positive for the virus but had not yet given any lessons to students, the district of Ludwigslust-Parchim, where the school is located, announced on its website.

The school will remain shut until next Wednesday and all 55 teachers will be also be tested, local authorities said.

In the second school, the Ostsee Elementary School in the district of greater Rostock, a student tested positive for Covid-19, according to local authorities.

Rostock district said in a press release that all students and staff will be quarantined.

On Thursday the German government voiced concern over a recent spike in infections across the country, and urged citizens to follow pandemic rules like social distancing, mask wearing and sanitizing more closely.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 19 million people worldwide and caused more than 715,000 deaths. Here's the latest on the pandemic: