August 16 coronavirus news

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves insisted that his state's Covid-19 cases are under control despite a 23% positivity rate, he said on CBS today. 

Reeves said his state had 1,391 cases on July 29, and they are now down to a 7-day rolling average of 728 cases.

Reeves was asked about the Mississippi's state health officer's comment this week stating that there are 11 hospitals in the state with no intensive care unit beds available.

Hospitalizations and fatalities are a lagging indicator, Reeves emphasized. 

"Do we have hospital capacity issues? We do," Reeves said. "[I]n our state and virtually every other rural state across America, we have ICU bed issues and hospital capacity issues even when there's not Covid-19."

There are 150 ICU beds available in Mississippi currently, according to Reeves. 

It's Sunday in the US, where more than 5.3 million cases of coronavirus have been reported since the pandemic began.

Here's what you need to know about the pandemic:

Florida health officials have reported 3,779 new cases of coronavirus and 107 additional deaths on Saturday, according to the state's health department.

This marks the first day since June 18 that Florida reported less than 4,000 cases in a single day, according to CNN's tally. 

The state has 573,416 total Covid-19 cases and 9,452 resident deaths, according to data from the department.

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  

House Democrats said Sunday they are “ramping up” their investigation of the Postal Service and as Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors Robert Duncan to testify.

The leaders said they want the officials to appear at a hearing a week from Monday to discuss what they call “recent, sweeping and dangerous operational changes at the Postal Service that are slowing the mail and jeopardizing the integrity of the election," according to a statement.

The Postmaster General and top Postal Service leaders "must answer to the Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions, just months before the election," the statement added.

Several House Democrats on Saturday called for the subpoenaing of DeJoy if he won’t appear voluntarily. 

Some context: Senate Democrats, including Sen. Gary Peters who have limited investigatory power because they are in the minority, started an investigation last week.

The statement said Senate Democrats are asking Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson to call DeJoy and Duncan for a hearing as soon as next week for what they call “vigorous and urgently-needed oversight.”

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN that he would be open to the idea of a standalone bill that contains only funding for the US Postal Service (USPS), despite President Trump’s calls in the last  week for more USPS funding to arrive only as part of a broader stimulus package. 

Congressional Democrats rejected efforts by White House negotiators and Republicans to separately pass just individual parts of the stimulus proposal, like an enhanced unemployment benefit, as standalone bills during two weeks of negotiations that ended in a deadlock. 

Meadows argued Pelosi would potentially support a bill just focused on the Postal Service now because “her whole political dynamic has changed.” A spokesperson for Pelosi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Meadows said members of Congress should return from their recess to take action on postal issues. 

Democrats proposed $25 billion in USPS funding in their version of the stimulus. Republicans floated $10 billion.

For the ninth straight day, New York state was under 1% positive for Covid-19 testing, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. 

There were 607 people who tested positive for Covid-19, and the state reported six deaths, including three in the New York City area.

The governor said that 7 million Covid-19 tests have been conducted to date in the state. 

Iraq recorded its highest ever daily record of new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, according to the country’s health ministry.

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported 4,348 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 176,931.

The health ministry also reported 75 coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday, bringing the total to 5,860 across the country.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN on Sunday that the US Postal Service will not dismantle any mail sorting machines between now and Election Day.

The Service has come under criticism lately for dismantling some and planning on more.

Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, previously told CNN that postal management had already taken out four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas.

Meadows told CNN that was not part of a new initiative but was part of a pre-planned re-allocation.

Documents obtained by CNN last week indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail are slated for "reduction" in dozens of cities this year. 

The Postal Service's own document called the move a "reduction" of equipment.

A letter sent Wednesday from the National Postal Mail Handlers Union to the Postal Service headquarters asked, "Why are these machines being removed?"  

CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Curt Devine, Bob Ortega and Paul Murphy contributed to this story.

The United States has reported more than 1,000 new deaths from coronavirus 16 out of the past 20 days, according to Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

On Saturday, Johns Hopkins University reported 1,029 new deaths.

As of 8 a.m. ET, there are 5,361,613 cases of coronavirus and 169,489 deaths in the US.