August 19 coronavirus news

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy began his regularly scheduled coronavirus briefing on Wednesday by sharply rebuking the lawsuit filed by President Trump's reelection campaign over the state's decision to use a hybrid voting model for November's election.

“Let me begin by making an unequivocal — our democracy is stronger and fairer when all voters have the right to not just cast a ballot but to cast that ballot in confidence. The President's campaign is putting itself on record as wanting to delegitimize our November election instead of working with us to ensure that voters rights are upheld alongside public health,” Murphy said. 

Murphy went on to say that vote-by-mail has been used extensively across the country and in New Jersey, and added that it needs to be done to keep people safe from the coronavirus pandemic. 

“If vote-by-mail is good enough for the President, it is good enough for all of us,” he added. 

He said that the state will continue with their plans and defend them “vigorously.” 

“So as they say, bring it on,” he said. 

The nation's leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said health care professionals need to continue to “make recommendations and policy based on data and evidence.” 

“Speculations, anecdotal, those kinds of opinions, really need to be put aside,” he said while speaking during a George Washington University webinar on Wednesday. 

Fauci said he and his public health colleagues do this every day, holding true to their ethical principles.  

"You don't change your ethics because of the situation you are in," he said. "There are certain things that are constant; science, data and really good evidence are constant," he said.  

"If the situation changes, the data may change and you make your decisions. What doesn't change are ethical principles. They are clear and immutable."

Gov. John Bel Edwards signed an executive order declaring that an emergency exists for Louisiana’s November election because of Covid-19, according to a release from his office.  

"I do not believe the Secretary of State’s current plan goes far enough, because it does not take into account the seriousness of this global pandemic and the health and safety of the voters," said the release.  

According to Edwards, Secretary Kyle Ardoin's plan "does not provide for absentee mail-in voting options for people who are at high risk" for coronavirus. 

The emergency order signed Tuesday "allows the state to move forward with emergency plans to support the election," according to the release.  

CNN has reached out to Ardoin's office but has not heard back.  

Dr. Anthony Fauci said understanding the long-term effects of Covid-19 is “a work in progress.” 

“We are learning, literally, every week and every month,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said during a George Washington University webinar on Wednesday. 

Many coronavirus survivors have reported weeks and even months of symptoms after the first onset of infection.

“If you look at the people who were sick, but didn’t require hospitalization,” Fauci said, “when you look at the percentage of them — that actually recover, and recover within two to three weeks – a substantial proportion of them don’t feel right.”

Common complaints are often fatigue, muscle aches and brain fog, along with more “subtle, insidious” effects on the cardiovascular and nervous systems, he said. 

“We need to follow that,” he added.  

Watch part of Dr. Fauci's conversation with George Washington University: 

The University of Notre Dame is now reporting 222 positive Covid-19 cases, with an additional 73 positive cases added Tuesday.

This is slightly down from the 82 cases the school reported on Monday.

The 73 new cases were out of a total of 355 tests conducted, for a 20.5% positivity rate.

Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins announced Tuesday that all undergraduate classes will be remote for the next two weeks.

Spain reported 3,715 new coronavirus infections within the last day, the health ministry said on Wednesday. The latest reports mark the highest increase in Spain’s Covid-19 daily coronavirus cases since the end of the country’s lockdown in late June.

Until Wednesday, Spain’s record number of new cases since the lockdown ended was on Aug. 14, with a total of 2,987 new cases — making the latest figures a significant increase of 728 cases in comparison to the previous record.

Spain's cumulative case number, which includes antibody tests on people who may have already recovered from the virus, rose by 6,671 to 370,867.

Italy has recorded 642 new Covid-19 cases within the last day, bringing the total to at least 255,278, according to Italian Ministry of Health data released Wednesday. This represents the highest daily increase in cases since May 23. 

Among these coronavirus cases, 15,360 are actively positive, 204,506 have recovered and 35,412 have died.

According to the Italian Ministry of Health, 66 Covid-19 patients are in intensive care, an increase of 8 patients in ICU within the last day. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants all New York state school districts to look at their reopening plans to see how they would handle a coronavirus outbreak similar to the one currently seen at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Cuomo wants to know if school reopening plans would be able to catch the spread before an outbreak can get as big as the one currently seen at Notre Dame. 

“if you can’t answer yes then there is a problem,” Cuomo said. 

During a call with reporters, Cuomo suggested that an outbreak in a K-12 school would be more problematic than an outbreak at a college. 

“Frankly, on a college it’s not as bad because the student is infecting other students. K-12 if you have 130 students positive, it’s not 130, it’s 500 because a student would have gone home and dealt with people In their immediate family,” Cuomo said. 

“The basic point is opening schools is risky and problematic,” Cuomo added. 

Some more context: Notre Dame is seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases since students returned to campus on Aug. 3. As of Tuesday, 147 students have tested positive, according to the school's online health dashboard. There were 80 positive cases of 418 tests administered Monday, meaning there was a 19% positivity rate.

On Tuesday, the university announced it was suspending in-person classes for two weeks.

New York reported 631 out of 80,425 people tested were positive for Covid-19, for a positivity rate of .78%, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced during a call with reporters. 

There were six deaths due to Covid-19, Gov. Cuomo announced. 

There are 548 New Yorkers hospitalized, 131 people in the ICU and six people currently intubated.

NOTE: The numbers listed were released by the New York Governor’s office and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.