August 9 coronavirus news

e York state has the lowest one day positive infection rate for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday during the state’s Covid-19 call.

New York has an infection rate of 0.78% which is normally around 1% or a little under, the governor said. 

At least 548 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 and seven New Yorkers died from the virus yesterday, the governor said. 

The intensive care unit number is the “lowest number of people we had in ICU units since the start,” Cuomo said. 

eate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized President Trump’s latest coronavirus relief efforts as being “unworkable, weak, and far too narrow.”

Only one of the actions signed by the President was an order – the rest were memoranda.

Schumer specifically criticized the payroll tax deferral, saying he has already talked to companies who will continue withholding payroll taxes in case they will be forced to pay them when the deferral expires in December. 

“Employers are just going to continue, withhold the money – I have talked to some – because they don't want their employees to be stuck with a huge bill in December," Schumer added.

The Senator from New York also criticized the policy for depleting Medicare and Social Security funds. 

“If you're a Social Security recipient or Medicare recipient, you better watch out if President Trump is re-elected,” Schumer warned.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday” that there would be no cuts in benefits, because there will be an “automatic contribution from the general funds to those trust funds.”

CNN's Nicky Robertson contributed to this report

Nine Covid-19 cases were reported at North Paulding High School, according to a copy of a letter sent from Principal Gabe Carmona to parents Saturday. 

A spokesperson for the Paulding County School District gave a copy of the letter to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

CNN is working to get its own copy of the letter to parents.

Some context: This news comes days after a North Paulding High School sophomore posted a photo on Twitter that showed her high school's hallways crowded with students and very few masks visible.  

The student, Hannah Watters, was later suspended for posting the photos but on Friday, the high school said in a statement that it had "rescinded" the suspension. 

The state of Florida has reported 6,190 new cases of Covid-19 among Floridians and 77 additional resident deaths on Sunday, according to data from the Florida Department of Health (DOH).   

This marks the thirteenth consecutive day the state has reported more than 6,000 cases in a single day, according to CNN's tally.    

There are now 527,036 cases among residents and 532,806 total cases in the state, which includes out of state residents, DOH reported. Florida has reported 8,186 resident deaths to date, according to DOH data. 

Note: These numbers were released by Florida's public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project  

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNN that Democrats will need to be the ones to make the next move if stimulus talks between the administration and congressional Democrats are to restart. He said Democratic leaders need to accept a lower amount of assistance for state and local governments. 

“Anytime they have another offer to make, they can either call me or I’ll go up and see them,” Mnuchin said. “But they have to compromise.”

“I think we’ve been very clear that they need to come back with a compromise on the state and local from their trillion dollars, and the unemployment benefits, and if so we’ll respond. I think the majority of the other issues, we’ve reached a compromise on,” Mnuchin added at the White House on Sunday. 

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Mnuchin said that although governors are asking for money, they do not need $1 trillion.

There are now at least 5,000,603 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 162,441 people have died in the country from virus, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The university recorded the first case of coronavirus in the US on Jan. 21. It took the country 99 days to reach 1 million cases on April 28. 

It then took 43 more days to reach 2 million cases on June 10, and another 28 days to surpass 3 million cases on July 8.

Most recently, it took the US only 15 additional days to surpass 4 million cases on July 23. It has taken the US 17 days to go over 5 million cases. 

On Sunday, Iraq’s Ministry of Health reported 2,726 new confirmed cases of coronavirus. This brings the total number of cases in Iraq to 150,115, the health ministry said. 

The health ministry also reported 82 coronavirus-related deaths. That brings the total number of deaths in the country to 5,392.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on CNN this morning that her advisers are telling her that President Trump's proposed executive actions are "absurdly unconstitutional."

Pelosi responded to comments made in an earlier interview on CNN with Larry Kudlow where the Trump economic adviser clarified that the President's proposal to give out-of-work Americans $400 a week is contingent upon states agreeing to provide $100. Kudlow said that the federal government would then kick in the additional $300.

Pelosi said these comments by Kudlow show the "weakness and meagerness in what the President proposed," adding that the states do not have this money.

President Trump’s directive regarding student loans seems to be the one executive action of the four he took Saturday which will deliver the results the administration hopes.

This is the only area of the four, the others being mortgage relief, unemployment aid and a payroll tax holiday, most under control of the Trump Administration and which doesn't need Congressional funding action, state governments or the private sector to fully implement.

The memorandum on student aid Trump signed Saturday directs the Education Department to extend the student loan relief granted in the CARES Act until the end of the year.

Some context: Currently, payments are paused and interest is suspended on federally held student loans until September 30.

Democrats have pushed for extending the relief for another year and making private student loans eligible.

In March, Trump waived student loan interest by executive order and the administration said borrowers could request a deferment on their payments. Congress later codified that policy into law and took it a step further by automatically suspending monthly payments.