August 16 coronavirus news

The United States reported 47,913 new cases of Covid-19 and 1,029 new related deaths on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

This brings the national total up to 5,361,165 cases and 169,481 deaths. 

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned this week that if Americans fail to follow coronavirus prevention guidelines such as wearing masks and avoiding crowds, we could be in store for “the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had."

The grim figures come as schools and universities across the country are reopening, yet experts like US’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, have warned against a rushed reopening as cases soar in the country.

"To think that you can ignore the biologic and get the economy back, it's not gonna happen," Fauci told actor Matthew McConaughey in an interview on Instagram on Thursday.

"It's just not gonna happen. You gotta do both. You gotta get control of the biologic as you carefully open the country."

Follow CNN's live tracker of US cases here:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

A United Arab Emirates company called APEX National Investment has signed an agreement with Israel's Tera Group to develop a faster Covid-19 testing device, according to the UAE state-run news agency WAM.

The deal, a "strategic commercial agreement," was was signed in Abu Dhabi. It is "considered the first business to inaugurate trade, economy and effective partnerships between the Emirati and Israeli business sectors, for the benefit of serving humanity by strengthening research and studies on the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)," said Khalifa Yousef Khouri, chairman of APEX National Investment, in the WAM report.

This partnership comes after Israel and the UAE announced on Thursday that they’re establishing full diplomatic relations.

Schools or pubs? That's the choice some believe UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face when English students return to their classrooms next month.

On the surface, it might seem a straightforward case of weighing up which is more important: a quick recovery from the economic downturn caused by lockdown, or students avoiding the "generational catastrophe" that the UN Secretary-General predicted if schools are not reopened.

But this is not how the government sees it. According to numerous UK government sources who were not permitted to speak about policy yet to be announced, here's where Downing Street is currently:

In short, the government might try to do everything at once -- even though public health experts fear the country is still not in a position to guarantee doing any of this safely.

Read the full analysis here:

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Boris Johnson may be taught a cruel lesson by coronavirus in bid to reopen schools

Japan recorded 1,238 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the ministry of health announced today.

This is the third consecutive day the country has reported over 1,000 new daily cases and 385 of them were recorded in the capital, Tokyo.

The ministry also announced three more deaths.

Japan has now recorded 55,426 confirmed cases and 1,101 virus-related deaths.

Another coronavirus cluster has been identified at the University of North Carolina.

This time, the cluster, defined as five or more cases in close proximity, was discovered at the Sigma Nu fraternity, the university said in a statement on Saturday.

The news comes just one day after the university identified clusters at a residence hall and a private apartment complex that serves as a housing option for some UNC Chapel Hill students.

"The individuals in this cluster have been identified and are isolating and receiving medical monitoring," the statement said. All residents in the living spaces have been provided with information and next steps, the university added.

The Sigma Nu national headquarters has posted Covid-19 information and resources for members of the fraternity. The national fraternity did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp issued a new Covid-19 executive order Saturday, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

The order extends the shelter-in-place order for the medically fragile, continues the ban on large gatherings and maintains health and safety protocols for Georgia businesses, Kemp said in his statement.

The order says local governments "who choose to impose a Local Option Face Covering Requirement" must not fine businesses, fine violators more than $50 or enforce masks at polling places, the order says.

Masks cannot be enforced on private property, the order says. Anyone who violates local mask rules must be warned about the health risks of not doing so before a citation is issued, according to the order. 

New Zealand has recorded 13 new cases of coronavirus in the past day, health officials said Sunday, as the country maintains new restrictions amid a sudden Covid-19 outbreak.

Of the new cases, 12 were in the Auckland community, with none having traveled outside the region recently. All had close links to the existing outbreak; two of the new cases belonged to the same household as a previously confirmed patient.

The remaining case is a child in managed isolation who arrived in early August from Afghanistan.

New Zealand has recorded 1,271 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, said health authorities. It currently has 61 active cases, of which 49 were locally transmitted and 20 were imported from abroad.

Auckland under lockdown: On Friday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland -- the city of around 1.5 million people at the center of the new outbreak -- will remain under a level three lockdown for another 12 days, while the rest of the country stays under level two restrictions, meaning gatherings are limited to no more than 100 people.

The rules extend restrictions that came into effect earlier this week.

Just five days before then, New Zealand was marking an enviable milestone -- 100 days without any community transmission. But this week demonstrated how fast that can change, even in a country that been held up as a world leader for its handling of the virus.

Mexico’s Health Ministry has reported 6,345 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, bringing the country's total to 517,714 confirmed cases.

The ministry reported 635 new deaths, bringing the country's death toll to 56,543. 

On Thursday, Mexico’s government signed an agreement with biotech firm AstraZeneca to produce a Covid-19 vaccine in Mexico to be exported to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021.

Production for a Covid-19 vaccine could begin in 2021, Sylvia Varela, chief executive of AstraZeneca Mexico, said Thursday at a press conference in Mexico City.

Leaders at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were blindsided this week when President Donald Trump announced that the agency could deploy teams to assist schools with safely reopening in the fall, a senior CDC official told CNN, the latest example of a breakdown in communication between the agency and the White House.

The announcement left CDC officials scrambling this week to train staff to be able to deploy if they are called upon, the senior official said. 

The surprise statement by Trump was reminiscent of early on in the pandemic when the CDC Task Force regularly learned about assignments during presidential briefings, finding out in real time along with the public, a senior official said.

The CDC official said the agency is expected to come up with a vaccine plan for schools in at least four states by October, even though there is no realistic expectation that a vaccine would be ready by then.