August 14 coronavirus news

Illinois' health department reported 2,264 new Covid-19 positive cases today, the highest daily number reported since May 24.

The state now has a total of 202,691 positive cases with a 4.1% positivity rate being reported over the past seven days, up slightly over the past couple of days’ report. 

The department reported a total of 7,721 deaths statewide.

Region 4, which includes seven counties east of St. Louis, Missouri, and the Mississippi River, is seeing increased positivity rates, according to the latest data.

The department said the region has seen six days of increased positivity. Region 4 has also surpassed the 8% positivity rate that would require additional mitigations measures implemented by the state if it experiences three consecutive days of 8% or higher positivity. 

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.

Argentina’s President, Alberto Fernández, announced his country’s quarantine measures will be extended with some changes until Aug. 30.

During a televised speech on Friday, Fernández admitted the number of Covid-19 cases has increased across the country. The areas where transmission has spiked will go back to phase one, the president added.

“The problem is not the AMBA region now (referring to metro area of the capital city Buenos Aires ), the problem has spread across the country,” Fernández said.

The president asked Argentinians to take individual responsibility in order to stop the spread of the virus, explaining that “the transmission of the virus occurs mostly in (social) gatherings." 

Fernández also announced that some activities will be able to resume such as individual sports. His government had announced the reopening of some economic activities between July 18 and Aug. 2 but it then had to extend quarantine measures until Aug.16.

Regions under the current quarantine measures are subject to a "mandatory, preventive and social isolation," where people can leave their homes only for essential needs such as food and medical services.

Argentina reported 7,498 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the total number to 276,072, according to the country’s health ministry. This comes a day after it announced a record number of 7,663 cases on Wednesday. 

Argentina’s health ministry announced 66 new deaths on Friday, with the death toll now reaching 5,428.

A postal workers' union has endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for president and vice president of the United States.

“Vice President Biden is – was – and will continue to be – a fierce ally and defender of the United States Postal Service (USPS), letter carriers, and our fellow postal brothers and sisters,” Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), said in a statement Thursday.

“Since coming to the Senate in 2016, Senator Kamala Harris has put letter carriers and working families first,” the statement continued.

The NALC represents 300,000 active and retired letter carriers.

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The Cherokee County School District reported 80 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,106 students and staff quarantined as a result of those cases, for the week.

That number is almost triple the number of students and staff that were confirmed Covid-19 positive the prior week and double the number in quarantine. 

In the first two weeks of school, the district has reported a total of 108 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among students and staff. Last week, 28 positive cases of Covid-19 were reported and 563 were in quarantine.  

On Wednesday, Woodstock High School announced it would temporarily close in-person learning after identifying 14 positive cases.

In-person classes are tentatively set to resume there on Aug. 31. In-person classes are also set to resume on Aug. 31 at Etowah High School, which also had to temporarily stop in-person learning on Tuesday. 

The St. Louis Cardinals will return to the baseball field on Saturday after a Covid-19 outbreak within the team forced a 16-day hiatus from games.

The Cardinals, who last played on July 29 and have had 19 games postponed this season, will play a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox Saturday at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.

The team will stay in town to play a three-game set against the Cubs at Wrigley Field in hopes of making up as many games as possible.

Most MLB teams have played 19 of the 60-game regular season. The Cardinals have played just five games.

The Cardinals have had 10 players and seven staff members test positive for Covid-19. Previously, President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak revealed one player and one staff member had visited a hospital, although neither was hospitalized.

Earlier this season, the Miami Marlins had 21 members of the team test positive for Covid-19, forcing the team to miss multiple games.

The United States has confirmed the US and Mexico and the US and Canada will extend shared border restrictions through Sept. 21, according to a tweet from Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

"We continue to work with our Canadian and Mexican partners to slow the spread of #COVID19. Accordingly, we have agreed to extend the limitation of non-essential travel at our shared land ports of entry through September 21," Wolf's tweet read.

Mexico's Foreign Ministry also tweeted about the extension earlier Friday saying, "After reviewing the spread of COVID-19, Mexico proposed to the US the extension for another month of non-essential land travel restrictions at the common border.”  

Some context: The announcement marks the latest extension of restrictions on nonessential travel after limits were initially put in place in late March. 

The restrictions have been in place since March 21 and prohibit non-essential travel. Essential travel includes individuals traveling for medical purposes, attending school or engaged in trade, like truck drivers, among others, according to a regulation notice published in late July.  

Some travelers are still permitted to cross, including, but not limited to, citizens returning home, those crossing for education or medical reasons, and those engaged in lawful cross-border trade. Thousands of people cross the US-Mexico border daily for work, school and other activities.

The US outpaces other countries in coronavirus cases, including Mexico and Canada, which have at least 505,751 and 123,194 cases, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The World Health Organization is signaling the importance of accessing internationally controlled medicines, such as sedatives and analgesics, for non-Covid-19 patients.

In a joint statement with The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), WHO said even during a global pandemic, “Non-Covid patients continue to require controlled medicines for the management of pain and palliative care, surgical care and anesthesia, mental health and neurological conditions, and for the treatment of drug use disorders.”

WHO said even before Covid-19, “patients faced barriers to accessing controlled medicines.” 

Now the problem is exacerbated: “The Covid-19 pandemic has further resulted in interruptions of the medicines supply chain, and it is critical that access to essential health services and medications not be forgotten or de-prioritised during this pandemic.”

The statement urges countries to take advantage of the “simplified control procedures” which were put in place during the pandemic, to export, transport and supply the drugs. WHO also lays out published toolkits and guidelines to help countries acquire the drugs. 

Seattle public schools will begin the school year with remote learning for most students, according to an update posted to the district’s website.

The choice, made by the school board Wednesday, means that more than 53,000 students will not be in classrooms when the school year starts on Sept. 2, according to the district website.

The district is the largest in the state of Washington.

Exceptions will be made “for students receiving special education services in alignment with Individualized Education Programs,” the announcement on the decision said.

Interim results of phase one and two trials published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest a coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm is safe and induces an immune response. 

However, researchers said more study is needed to know whether the vaccine protects people against the virus.

The phase one trial, conducted in Henan Province, China, involved 96 people given high, medium or low doses of the vaccine, or a placebo, which does nothing. The Phase 2 trial, involved 224 adults given the medium dose of the vaccine, or a placebo.

Within seven days after injection, adverse reactions were reported in 15% of trial participants. The most common adverse reaction was injection site pain, followed by fever. All adverse reactions were mild and did not require any treatment. 

In the phase two study, the vaccine prompted a neutralizing antibody response in 97.6% of participants. The researchers found that participants had greater neutralizing antibody responses when they were given the second dose of the vaccine three weeks after the first dose rather than two weeks after the first dose.

Some background: The US government is supporting six vaccine candidates so far through the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed program. Two have moved into large, phase three trials on tens of thousands in the United States.

There are 29 vaccines in clinical trials worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.