July 10 coronavirus news

After Dr. Anthony Fauci said that new coronavirus hotspot Florida opened too soon, Gov. Ron DeSantis said "there was no justification to not move forward." 

DeSantis defended the move to reopen, saying Florida had a "very low prevalence" of Covid-19 in May and early June, "particularly in the 64 counties outside of southern Florida." 

"We did put southern Florida on a different pathway," DeSantis said at a Friday news conference in Orlando. 

DeSantis said cases are on the rise in other parts of the country as well, not just Florida. Across the Sunbelt, "this is something that we're dealing with," said DeSantis.   

The governor did not mention Florida's 11,433 new positive cases reported today during the news conference. This marks the second time the state's single-day tally of cases topped more than 11,000, according to CNN's count.

Florida health officials reported 11,458 cases on July 4, according to CNN's tally. 

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association jointly announced in a statement Friday that 1.8% of team personnel have tested posted for coronavirus in the final intake screening through the end of July 9.

According to the statement, there were 66 positive tests out of 3,748 total samples tested. At least 58 were players and eight staff members, and 27 of the 30 teams had an individual test positive.

With the intake process completed, individuals have moved on to monitoring testing, which will test tier one individuals every other day and tier two individuals multiple times per week. 

More about the intake screening: A total of 7,401 monitoring samples have been collected and tested to date. Seventeen samples, which is 0.2%, tested positive. Thirteen of the 17 positives have been from players, four were staff members.

Since the beginning of intake screening on June 27, there have been 83 positive tests (0.7%) out of 11,149 samples. Among the 83 positive tests, 71 were players and 12 were staff members. 

At least 28 different teams have had an individual test positive in intake screening or during monitoring testing.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, speaking at a news conference today, said he plans to reopen schools this fall.

Public Health Director Dr. Joan Duwve said 15% of the 50,458 confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Carolina have occurred in people ages 20 and under, and 42% of the state’s total cases have been reported in the past two weeks.

“Please think about that. Nearly half of the Covid-19 cases in the state of South Carolina have occurred in the past two weeks and think about what those numbers are going to look like two weeks from now," Duwve said.

The governor said the state cannot enforce a mask-wearing provision with 5 million residents, but encouraged people to wear masks, socially distance and wash their hands frequently.

“Wear your mask, wear your mask, wear your mask,” he said. “Wash your hands, keep that distance. Follow those rules and we’ll get through this.”

Asked about the increased risks that come with opening schools, McMaster said, “Our plan is to have the schools open and a lot of discussion’s going on about that right now.” 

He said of the state’s students, “We need to get ‘em back in. People have to go to work. Parents have to go to work. Teachers want to go to work. Everybody wants to get the schools started. But we have to be sure that we’re doing so safely.”

It is unlikely that the world can eradicate or eliminate coronavirus any time soon, a World Health Organization official said on Friday.

"We’ve seen countries who’ve managed to get to zero or almost zero re-import virus from outside. So there’s always a risk — either from within or from bringing disease back in — and therefore, it is a given that there is always a risk of further cases," Ryan said. "The transmission that occurs in that situation can be single, sporadic cases, which can be relatively easily isolated and quarantined. A more worrying pattern is large clusters of cases that could occur in association with super spreading events — events in which large crowds gather."

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for coronavirus response and head of its emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, also said in Friday's briefing that "this is something we all need to anticipate — that there's the possibility that there could be a resurgence, there could be these small outbreaks."

The American Apparel & Footwear Association sent a letter to President Trump requesting that the administration institute federal face mask guidelines to assist retail stores as the country continues efforts to safely reopen.

The organization, which represents hundreds of clothing and footwear companies and their suppliers, added that “with differing standards throughout the country, out members are facing situations where their employees need to educate customers on what is required to enter their stores, or even turn customers away.

One simple, consistent standard at the federal level, mandated and enforced at the state and local level, would go a long way in addressing this confusion and keeping the economy open.”

Versions of the letter were also sent to the heads of the National Governors Association, National Association of Counties, and the US Conference of Mayors.

The World Health Organization said Friday it will keep a close eye on the impact of Covid-19 during pregnancy, as some recent studies point to pregnant women with underlying health conditions being at higher risk of getting severely ill from the virus.

Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for coronavirus response and head of its emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said during a news briefing that pregnant women "don't seem to develop a different type of disease than women of the same age who are not pregnant."

In a recent report, the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said pregnant women who get infected with novel coronavirus are more likely to be hospitalized, admitted to an intensive care unit and put on a ventilator. While the CDC said the study included the largest cohort of pregnant women with lab-confirmed coronavirus, it's not clear whether the pregnant women who were hospitalized were in the hospital because of complications related to Covid-19 or for pregnancy-related reasons.

"We need to ensure that we keep a close eye on [this] and ensure that pregnant women have the right care throughout their pregnancy," Van Kerkhove said at the briefing.

The Jacksonville Jaguars announced they will only seat about 25% capacity for all 2020 home games due to Covid-19 concerns. 

The team revealed their decision — which complies with state and local health authorities — in a statement to season ticket holders on Friday. Updates on new health protocols put in place prior to the season were also included in the announcement. 

Here's what to expect this season: 

All season tickets will be returned and paid funds will be credited to those associated accounts. Members will have the chance to “apply credited funds towards the purchase of tickets this season or in 2021.” 

TIAA Bank Field seats 67,167 fans at max capacity. The Jaguars average attendance during the 2019 season was 63,085, according to ESPN.

Jacksonville’s first home game of the 2020 is scheduled for August 29 against Washington. 

Florida has allocated 550 contact tracers to Miami-Dade County, according to Alberto Moscoso, a spokesperson for the state's Department of Health. 

This comes after reporters grilled Gov. Ron DeSantis on contact tracing early this week and a group of mayors in Miami-Dade County demanded Thursday that the state provide at least 500 contact tracers.

Mayor Carlos Giménez announced Thursday that he signed a contract for 250 contact tracers. According to Moscoso, Miami-Dade already had 300 contact tracers allocated to the county by the state.

Arizona only has 993 inpatient hospital beds remaining today as it fights off a surge of Covid-19 cases, state health data shows.

This is the lowest number of available inpatient beds the state has had available, according to records that go back to late March.

The previous record for the lowest number of beds available was 1,057 reported yesterday.

Currently, 6,955 of the state’s inpatient hospital beds are in use – 88% of its capacity, state data shows. About half of those patients, 3,432, are being treated for Covid-19, the data shows.

The state also continues to set records for ventilator usage, with just more than half of the state’s ventilators in use all of this week. Today, 615 — or about two thirds of all the state’s ventilators — are being used to treat Covid-19 patients, state data shows. This is a record high for the state.

Arizona has led the nation for over a month with the highest seven-day average of new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.