August 8 coronavirus news

California reported 7,371 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 545,787.

There were 178 new deaths, for a total of 10,189, the California Department of Health said.

The positivity rate across the state remained at 6% over the past 14 days, while the number of patients hospitalized dropped to 5,746.

Some context: Earlier this week, White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said California had moved into the "red category," with more than 10% of tests coming back positive. She also warned about significant movement of the virus in the state's Central Valley.

Note: These numbers were released by the California Department of 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 officials in Texas said the state's 7-day Covid-19 positivity rate has risen to 19.41% -- the highest average since the pandemic began.

The previous high of 17.43% was reported in July, according to data from the state's Department of State Health Services website.

At least 6,959 new coronavirus cases were reported on Saturday and 247 new deaths linked to the virus, health officials said.

There have been 481,483 cases statewide and 134,797 cases remain active. As of Saturday, 8,343 people have died due to the virus, the agency said.

Note: These numbers were released by the Texas Department of State Health Services, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN's database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and The COVID Tracking Project.

An official from a northeastern state run by a Democratic governor laughed on Saturday when asked about President Donald Trump's executive action asking states to pay 25% of the $400 unemployment relief.

"We don't have that money," the official said.

The official went on to say they were not given a heads up on this executive action and that in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, their funds are completely tapped.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that his administration was looking at additional income tax and capital gains tax cuts for American taxpayers besides the payroll tax holiday that would be instituted by his executive order.

The President did not provide further details.

President Donald Trump on Saturday signed executive actions, one of which would provide $400 a week in federal enhanced unemployment benefits after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach an agreement on a Coronavirus stimulus relief bill this week.

“I'm taking action to provide an additional or extra $400 a week and expanded benefits, $400. That's generous but we want to take care of our people,” Trump said at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Trump signed one executive order and three memoranda, one of which will enact a payroll tax deferment for Americans earning less than $100,000 a year. He also proposed to extend an eviction moratorium and defer student loan payments and forgive their interest.

Trump said the federal government will pay $300, leaving it up to the states to pay the remaining $100. He did not outline where the federal funds would be coming from. 

When asked by a reporter why $400 instead of the previous $600, Trump responded: “This is the money they need, this is the money they want, this gives them a great incentive to go back to work."

Trump went on to say, “there was a difficulty with the 600 number because it really was a disincentive.” 

Trump also took the opportunity to criticize the Democrats, saying, “We are doing that without the Democrats. We should have been able to do it easily with them but they want all of these additional things that have nothing to do with helping people.”

Democrats are likely to challenge the executive actions in court. Trump first laid out the executive orders at a hastily called news conference on Friday at his New Jersey golf club, where he said he wasn't concerned about the legality of the actions he promised.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife Fran DeWine have tested negative for Covid-19 for a second time after getting a false positive, DeWine said in a statement. 

Some context: On Thursday morning, following the testing protocol established to be able to greet the President, "DeWine took a rapid antigen test and the results reported back for that test were a false positive," the statement said. 

The state of Wisconsin saw its highest single-day number of new coronavirus cases Saturday with 1,165 reported, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Service website.

A graph of daily new cases and 7-day average shows the previous highest single-day increase in cases was on July 21 when 1,117 new cases were reported.

There are now a total of 59,933 confirmed positives reported in the state and a total of 996 deaths, according to a tweet from the state's health department.

Read the tweet:

Illinois' health department reported more than 2,000 new Covid-19 positive cases for the second day in a row.

The 2,190 new cases are the highest daily reported number since May 24, when the department reported 2,508 new cases.

There are now 192,698 total cases in Illinois and 7,631 total deaths, up 18 since Friday’s report, according to the department.

The positivity rate over the past seven days rose again, to 4.2%, while the number of patients hospitalized statewide due to the virus rose to 1,538 from Friday’s number of 1,486. 

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.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott extended his disaster declaration for all Texas counties in response to Covid-19, according to a statement released by his office on Saturday.

The disaster declaration, originally issued on March 13, provides the state a variety of resources to effectively mitigate the spread of Covid-19, the statement said.