August 18 coronavirus news

The Chicago Department of Public Health announced today that Iowa and Kansas have been re-added to the city’s travel quarantine list. The city also said Wisconsin was removed from the list.

Last week, Iowa, Kansas and Utah were taken off the list, but now people coming from Iowa and Kansas will have to quarantine again as positive case numbers trend higher in those states. 

The order says travelers and Chicago residents coming into the city from 20 states and territories must quarantine for 14 days. The states are designated by case rates greater than 15 new cases per 100,000 resident population per day over a 7-day rolling average. 

Chicago Department of Public Commissioner Allison Arwady said today that Arizona and North Carolina are likely to be dropped from the list next week as their numbers improve.  

Chicago updates its emergency travel order on Tuesdays. The initial order went into effect on July 6.

The University of Notre Dame reported an additional 80 positive cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases to at least 147 since Aug. 3.

The 80 positive cases from Monday were out of a total of about 418 tests administered –– thats a 19% positivity rate.

Some background: Students are returning to college campuses across the US, and several universities are already detecting cases of coronavirus.

At Notre Dame, the spike started on Aug. 10, when 4 out of 197 people tested positive. On Sunday alone, 15 of the 30 tests were positive.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said today that all sports will go forward this fall, even contact sports.

During a news conference Tuesday, DeWine said the order, likely to be issued in the next 24 hours, will lay out guidance for sports to be played as safely as it can be played in the year of Covid-19. 

According to the governor, some school superintendents have requested contact sports be moved to the spring and he will give them the OK if that’s what they choose.

Under the order, spectators will be allowed as long as they’re family members or someone very close to the child.

The order will apply to all athletes and all teams in the state.

CNN's Anderson Cooper pressed MyPillow founder Mike Lindell on his promotion of the use of Oleandrin as a potential therapeutic for coronavirus. Lindell could not cite a single published peer reviewed study about the effectiveness of the therapy.

Lindell repeatedly pushed a study that allegedly tested the therapeutic on 1,000 people, but failed to properly cite who the study was conducted by when asked multiple times during the 20-minute interview.

Cooper: "Where is the test? Show it to us." 

Lindell: "I don’t have the test on me."

Cooper: "Name where it’s from. Who did the test? What university? What doctors?"

Lindell: "I guess you’d have to have Dr. [Ben] Carson and then the company ... that all the tests that were done, on your show."

Oleandrin is an extract from the plant Nerium oleander. The raw oleander plant is highly toxic, and consumption of it can be fatal.

Last week, Lindell was added to the board of Phoenix Biotechnology, which makes Oleandrin, and received a financial stake in the company.

Lindell insisted that his promotion of the therapy was not about personal profit.

"I don't care about the money ... This company wanted me because I help people. That's my passion and I can scale things to get it out to everybody to save our country, to save lives," he told Cooper.

Lindell also said that the US Food and Drug Administration has the studies backing his claim, but Oleandrin has not been approved by the FDA.

The agency generally does not approve dietary supplements, but says it is the company's responsibility to make sure its products are safe and claims are true.

FDA has gone after hundreds of products for making false claims about diagnosing, preventing or treating Covid-19.

Additionally a member of the White House coronavirus task force told CNN this has never been brought up during a task force meeting — even those attended by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who is a member of the White House coronavirus task force, with whom Lindell said he shared his findings.

Watch the interview here:

Florida health officials are reporting at least 3,838 new coronavirus cases and approximately 219 new Covid-19 related deaths among Florida residents on Tuesday, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health (FLDOH). Florida’s highest number of deaths in a single day—276 deaths—was reported on August 11. 

This is the tenth time Florida has reported more than 200 coronavirus related deaths in one day.  

The state is reporting at least 573,811 coronavirus cases among Florida residents and approximately 9,758 deaths, according to FLDOH data. Florida health officials report at least 579,932 total cases across the state.

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

Pennsylvania will roll out a Covid-19 contact tracing app for residents in September, Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine announced Tuesday. 

The app, COVID Alert PA, will use Bluetooth technology and notify Pennsylvanians if they spent 15 minutes or more in close proximity to another person who later tested positive for the virus. The app is voluntary, and will protect user's identities and locations, Levine said. It will alert someone to exposure without comprising the identity of the person with the virus.

The state has worked with researchers at MIT on the product, but it does not replace contact tracers.

Some more context: More than 125,570 Pennsylvanians have contracted Covid-19 and almost 7,500 people have died from the virus, according to Levine.

Note: These numbers were released by the state 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.

A coalition of labor unions in Nevada, the “Save Our Jobs” Coalition, launched a campaign on Tuesday to save jobs lost due to the pandemic and secure the “right to return” for workers in hospitality, convention and trade shows, airport, entertainment, and hospitals in Nevada’s Clark County. 

The coalition called on the Clark County Board of Commissioners to consider the “Right to Return” ordinance which would require employers to allow workers to return to their jobs in several industries throughout the county if the employee had been laid off or furloughed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We realize that not all of [the jobs] are going to open right now, or right away, but when they do, we’re asking that you consider an ordinance to allow them to go back to the work they had before this pandemic hit,” he said.

Some more context: The coalition comprises of about 87,000 workers in Nevada, according to a statement from the Culinary Workers Union.

According to the Culinary Union, more than 98% of its members were laid off due to the pandemic.

Famed college basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said the NCAA cannot afford to cancel another March Madness.

While appearing on ESPN Radio on Tuesday, Coach K acknowledged the huge financial strain that needs to be mitigated by hosting a postseason tournament, no matter when it takes place. 

Krzyzewski, the all-time winningest coach in college basketball explained, "We're the thing that the NCAA is most concerned about because men's college basketball and the tournament pays for something like 98% of the, it produces 98% or more of the money for the NCAA." 

"We need to have the tournament. We can't have it where two years in a row you do not have the NCAA tournament," he continued.

Some context: In March, the NCAA canceled the annual postseason tournament due to concerns about the spread of coronavirus. The men's Division I championship had been played every year since its inception in 1939.

Krzyzewski believes the NCAA should look to model the example set by the so-far successful, isolated Disney campus the NBA is utilizing this season.

"Make sure you have the tournament. It doesn't make any difference when it is. Because we don't even know when the NBA season is going to be next year. And we should look at them to see how they navigate the waters going forward. They've navigated them really well with the bubble," Krzyzewski said.

The upcoming season will be Krzyzewski's 41st at Duke. The Hall of Fame coach has won five national championships leading the Blue Devils.

The US is collaborating with health authorities and scientists from across the world to try to manage the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday.

Fauci said that he and his colleagues from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention join a weekly call sponsored by the World Health Organization to share insights.

“Essentially, the health authorities and scientists from every country in the world, practically, that gets involved with Covid-19,” Fauci said during a town hall with Healthline.com.

There are scientific collaborations with colleagues in Europe, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Mexico, he said. Plus drugs and vaccines are being tested in South Africa, Brazil, Chile and Peru.