US coronavirus live: number of daily Covid tests drops in threat to contain pandemic
It’s not exactly clear what the point of this briefing is, apart from for Trump to tell America how great a job he thinks he is doing, while he trails Joe Biden in the polls.
Talking of Biden, he says China “will own the United States” if Biden becomes president. He then says he wants college football to come back after several large conferences cancelled their seasons due to Covid-19. He then gives an in-depth analysis of the Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. It’s true that Trevor Lawrence is very good at football, but quite how Trump’s scouting report helps the thousands of people who have had their lives devastated by Covid-19 is beyond me.
He then takes a shot at the NBA, which has allowed players to kneel during the anthem. He then returns to Lawrence, who he reminds us is good at football (FACT CHECK: Lawrence is indeed good at football).
Trump is early to the podium, which must be a first.
He says there has been a “steep decline” in Covid-19 cases across the US over the last week. The man who once suggested injecting disinfectant could be a good cure for Covid-19 then says Americans should use “common sense” treatments for the virus. He insists on calling the Covid-19 the “China virus” as is his tiresome and racist custom.
He also says that the US economy is experiencing the “fastest” recovery in history. He says retail spending is at an “all-time”. Economists have said that the US economy is far from back to normal and won’t be for some time.
“Jobs for more-skilled workers in business/professional services are making little headway overall and are declining in computer services, management and advertising,” Sophia Koropeckyj, economist at Moody’s Analytics, wrote in an investor note earlier this week. “These are the secondary effects of the stressed economy.”’
There was relatively good news on the jobs front. The latest figures from the US labor department showed 963,000 people filing claims after 20 weeks of claims above 1m. Claims still remain historically high. Before the pandemic, claims were averaging about 200,000 a week and the previous record for claims was 695,000, set in 1982.
Republican senator Lindsey Graham said the United States security council made a “major mistake” when it rejected a US request to extend an arms embargo against Iran on Friday. Only two countries – the US and the Dominican Republic – voted for the motion, while 11 abstained and two voted against.
“The United Nations Security Council overwhelmingly rejected an extension of the Iranian arms embargo. This was a major mistake by the UN. It also makes a major conflict with Iran much more likely as they build up their military arsenal,” tweeted Graham on Saturday.
Among those who abstained were traditional allies of the US such as the UK and France. Iran’s president said the result was a humiliation for the US.
“I don’t remember the US preparing a resolution for months to strike a blow at the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it garners only one vote,” Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech. “But the great success was that the US was defeated in this conspiracy with humiliation.”
Donald Trump’s scheduled 5pm press conference from his Bedminster golf club has been moved to 5.30pm (or in roughly 20 minutes), per the man himself.
It’s unclear whether it’s related to the delay, but the Secret Service tells NBC News it is investigating a small plane that violated the restricted airspace around Trump National. The plane landed as directed after US military aircraft were launched when it didn’t respond to radio.
Nine University of Oklahoma football players tested positive for coronavirus after returning from a break in preseason camp.
Head coach Lincoln Riley said he was “disappointed” by the news in a Zoom call with media on Saturday.
“We did conduct a Covid test as planned with our players last night, got the results this morning we had nine players tested positive for Covid. We had a couple of other that have been isolated due to contract tracing,” Riley said. “Disappointed by the news. We’ve done such a tremendous job this entire time. You know when (you) give players time, there is risk in that. This isn’t the NBA, we don’t have a bubble. We all have to continue to work to do a better job by all accounts. We’re still confident in the plan that we have.”
The entire program had returned only one positive result since the start of workouts on 1 July until Riley announced the one-week break on 8 August. The coach gave players the option of returning home, though most stayed on campus.
An Oklahoma source told the Athletic that “the majority of those who tested positive were players that remained in the local area/community”.
The Sooners are part of the Big 12, which is one of three major conferences that said this week they intend to move forward with fall football seasons.
The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday granted emergency use authorization to Yale School of Public Health’s saliva test to detect Covid-19, after a trial on National Basketball Association players and staff.
SalivaDirect, the fifth saliva test approved by the FDA for the disease, requires no swab or collection device and uses spit from people suspected of having the coronavirus, the agency said.
FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn called the test “groundbreaking” in its efficiency and in being unaffected by crucial component shortages.
SalivaDirect is seen as a cheap, simpler and less invasive testing method that requires no extraction of nucleic acid and can use several readily available reagents.
The NBA has used the test in a program involving asymptomatic players, coaches and staff from various teams, after partnering with Yale in June, the school said in a separate statement.
“We simplified the test so that it only costs a couple of dollars for reagents, and we expect that labs will only charge about $10 per sample,” Nathan Grubaugh, assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health said.
The FDA said the test could lower the risk to healthcare workers from collecting samples as it is self-collected under the observation of a healthcare professional.
The number of known coronavirus tests administered daily in the United States has fallen for the first time in an alarming trend that threatens to undermine the nation’s efforts to contain the pandemic.
An estimated 733,000 people have been tested each day this month on average, down from nearly 750,000 in July, according to the independent Covid Tracking Project.
“We’re clearly not doing enough,” said Dr Mark McClellan, the director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under former US president George W Bush, told the New York Times.
Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed the United States is the “envy of the world” when it comes to testing, which public health experts have described as an essential measure toward reining in the coronavirus in absence of a vaccine.
A former Minneapolis police officer involved in the arrest of George Floyd admitted he could have been “more observant” as he worked crowd control during the nearly eight minutes his partner held his knee against Floyd’s neck.
Tou Thao, one of four former officers charged in Floyd’s death, described himself as a “human traffic cone” in a newly released video interview with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension conducted eight days following the 25 May incident.
The AP reports:
“I don’t want anyone to die,” Thao told an investigator who asked what his reaction was to Floyd’s death. “It was kind of a somber moment, especially for me. My heart kind of sank.”
Thao voluntarily participated in the 1hr 40min interview with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension eight days after Floyd’s death. He said that as the bystanders got louder, he became worried they might rush Chauvin and two other officers who were holding Floyd on the ground.
Thao and Chauvin had responded to the scene to help two officers, Thomas Lane and J Kueng, who were attempting to arrest Floyd for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a convenience store.
While they were on the way, Thao said that dispatch canceled the backup call. But Thao, who was driving, said he felt compelled to respond because Lane and Kueng were new officers and the intersection was known to be “especially hostile” to police.
Thao said Floyd appeared to be on drugs, resisted arrested and used his legs get out of a squad car. As the officers restrained Floyd on the ground, Thao said he heard Floyd say he couldn’t breathe, adding, “but then he was obviously yelling and talking”.
Thao also said he has never used the maneuver that Chauvin used to pin Floyd to the ground.
Although a woman who identified herself as a Minneapolis firefighter approached Thao and demanded that officers check Floyd’s pulse, Thao told investigators that his job was securing the scene and that he couldn’t “be in two places at once”.
Thao, Lane and Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter. Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. All four officers were fired and are scheduled for trial in March.
The St Louis Cardinals returned to action for the first time in 17 days on Saturday after their season was derailed by a coronavirus outbreak.
The reigning NL Central champions have played just five games since Major League Baseball started its shortened 60-game season last month.
Star catcher Yadier Molina and infielder Paul DeJong were among 10 players and 18 members of the Cardinals organization overall with confirmed coronavirus cases. The team traveled to Chicago in 41 rental cars ahead of today’s game against the White Sox as an added precaution.
“Today feels very much like opening day for the St Louis Cardinals, and there’s a lot of excitement right now in that clubhouse,” said John Mozeliak, the team’s president of baseball operations.
The pandemic forced MLB to delay and truncate the familiar 162-game, six-month season to a 60-game, 67-day sprint with a number of rule changes designed to speed up the game and protect the players and umpires.
Tommy Edman of the St Louis Cardinals puts the ball in play during the fourth inning of Saturday’s game against the Chicago White Sox. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP
Anyone can get a coronavirus test at the CentroMed clinic in San Antonio, but on a recent day, the drive-thru was empty, the Associated Press reports.
With hundreds of deaths reported each day, students returning to class, and football teams charging ahead with plans to play, Texas’s leaders who have grappled with testing shortages for much of the pandemic are now facing the opposite problem: not enough takers.
“We’re not having enough people step forward,” Republican governor Greg Abbott said.
The number of coronavirus tests being done each day in Texas has dropped by the thousands in August, mirroring nationwide trends that have seen daily testing averages in the US fall nearly 9% since the end of July, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
The dropoff comes as the US has surpassed 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and is closing in on 170,000 deaths.
It threatens to put the US even further behind other countries that have better managed the pandemic, in part through more aggressive testing.
The trend worries health experts: Texas embarked on one of the fastest reopenings in the country in May, but retreated weeks later in the face of massive outbreaks, ultimately leading Abbott to impose a statewide mask order after previously saying he wouldn’t.
A young man watches as an ambulance prepares to take away his mother, whom family members found unresponsive in their home on 14 August, 2020, in Houston, Texas. With more than 90,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases, Houston’s Harris county has the highest number of coronavirus cases in Texas. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
At one point, one overwhelmed hospital on the Texas border was airlifting Covid-19 patients hundreds of miles north in search of open beds, and Houston this month began threatening $250 (£190) fines for not wearing face coverings in an effort to drive down infection numbers.
In recent weeks, things have improved, including a nearly 40% drop in hospitalisations since July’s peak.
But deaths remain high, and doctors in some parts say they’re still stretched.
Texas has been averaging more than 210 reported new deaths a day over the past two weeks, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
On Friday, it reported 313 deaths. Overall, the state has recorded more than 9,600 fatalities.
The rolling average of people who test positive for the virus in Texas is stubbornly elevated at 16%, a figure that itself could be a sign of insufficient testing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said a positivity rate under 10% is an indicator that a state has robust testing.
Abbott has said that unless Texas gets below that number, bars are likely to stay shut.
Other states in the South clobbered by the virus this summer are also seeing improvements, including Alabama.
Intensive care units remain frustratingly full there, but the average number of new confirmed cases each day has dropped below 1,000, from 1,800 in mid-July.
It was a warning that America chose to ignore, but a moment remembered long after the speeches of career politicians were done and forgotten.
Four summers ago, in the lead-up to the pivotal 2016 US election, Khizr Khan stood before the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia and told how his son, an American Muslim and army captain, died in Iraq. He had a question for Donald Trump, the Republican nominee threatening to ban Muslim immigrants.
“Have you even read the United States constitution?” he demanded, holding a copy aloft, as he delivered a seven-minute tour de force that became the emotional heart of one of the biggest weeks of the election campaign.
When Democrats convene for their 2020 convention next week, albeit virtually, Khan will again be taking part. His darkest fears about Trump and the mortal threat he poses to the constitution have been realised, he says. But he retains faith in America and finds hope in Joe Biden, the Democratic presumptive nominee, who understands what it is to endure the death of a child.
“Losing a family member creates a hole in the parents’ and family’s hearts which never fills,” the 70-year-old lawyer told the Guardian in a phone interview from his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, as he recalled he and his wife, Ghazala, meeting the former vice-president. “We could see that he could feel the hole in our heart and we could feel the hole in his heart, and that connection has been everlasting.
“The president of the United States is a father figure, a figure that must be compassionate to the suffering and pains of the nation. Joe Biden has that element. He has that character. To our disappointment, the current president does not. We had hoped that Trump would find somewhere along the way that element of character. Alas, that never happened, but Joe Biden has that element.”
You can read the full article below:
Illinois governor JB Pritzker has paid tribute to Jim Thompson, who served as the state’s governor from 1977 to 1991, and has died aged 84.
“On behalf of the entire state of Illinois, [my wife] MK and I offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of former Governor Jim Thompson,” he said in a statement posted to Twitter. “As the longest-serving governor in Illinois history, ‘Big Jim’ was known to treat people he encountered with kindness and decency. He dedicated himself to building positive change for Illinois, and he set an example for public service of which Illinoisans should be proud. He will be remembered and revered as one of the titans in the history of state government.”
Thompson is survived by his wife Jayne and daughter Samantha.
“The Thompson family is mourning the loss of a wonderful husband, father and grandfather,” they wrote on a statement. “Jim Thompson’s love and devotion to his family mirrored his lifelong dedication to his beloved State of Illinois. His guiding principle in public and private life was to help people and do what he could so they could have an opportunity to succeed. In that process, he achieved big things for Illinois that matched the life he lived.”
As well as the US Postal Service, the climate and voting rights, it appears Donald Trump is dangerous to users of recreational drugs. The Press Association has more:
UK police have issued a warning about a dangerous high-strength batch of Donald Trump-shaped ecstasy pills.
A man in his 30s from Luton has been arrested on suspicion of supplying the orange tablets, which bear the likeness of the US president, said Bedfordshire police.
People in the UK are being warned against the so-called Donald Trump MDMA pills. Photograph: Bedfordshire Police/PA
DS Ryan Barnes said: “Criminals are constantly finding new ways to sell their drugs and make them more appealing.
“We have seen MDMA tablets created to look like a number of culturally popular items before and a recent example of this is the ‘Donald Trumps’.
“The Donald Trumps are dangerous tablets that contain extremely high levels of MDMA and could put anyone taking these in serious harm.
“If you come across these or any other type of drug, please do not take them for your own safety, as you can never be sure what these pills contain.”
Protesters have staged a demonstration outside the Washington DC home of postmaster general Louis DeJoy.
DeJoy is a major Trump donor and has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the US Postal Service, which could in turn affect November’s elections.
Kolbie Satterfield (@KolbieReports)
Protesters say they are outside Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s apartment building to protest his destructive leadership ahead of mass mail-in voting in the 2020 presidential election.@wusa9 pic.twitter.com/i2RXEESefO
August 15, 2020
Here’s my colleague Sam Levine on why anger is being directed at DeJoy:
In July, the Washington Post and other news organizations reported the agency was banning overtime and instructing postal workers to leave the mail behind if it delayed them on their routes. There are also reports of the USPS removing mail sorting machines from facilities, which could lead to a further slowdown.
Critics suggest Trump and DeJoy are deliberately slowing the mail to make it more difficult to vote by mail. DeJoy has strongly denied any political interference. But on Thursday, Trump openly admitted he was blocking $25bn in proposed aid to the post office because he wanted to make it harder to vote by mail.
Protesters march towards the apartment of postmaster general Louis DeJoy in Washington DC on Saturday. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
You can read more of Sam’s look at the problems at the USPS here:
While sports leagues, such as the NBA, playing in “bubbles” have managed to escape large scale disruption from Covid-19, Major League Baseball is still encountering problems.
MLB is playing a reduced schedule of games, but teams are still traveling between cities to face each other. The Miami Marlins and St Louis Cardinals have both had to call off a significant number of games after outbreaks among their staff, and now the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates have postponed their games against each other this weekend after a Reds player tested positive for the virus.
The Hill reports that Bill Mitchell, a pro-Trump pundit has been permanently suspended from Twitter.
“[Mitchell] has been permanently suspended for violating the Twitter Rules by using one account to evade the suspension of another account,” a Twitter spokesperson told the Hill in an email.
Mitchell is the host of YouTube show YourVoice America and is a purveyor of QAnon conspiracy theories. He is also an ardent supporter of the president, and was followed on Twitter by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr before his suspension.
Mitchell said on social media channel Parler that he had been suspended for his views on Covid-19.
“Twitter just suspended me for opposing masks. Who knows if I’ll ever be back,” Mitchell said. “I’m sure their decision wasn’t political at all.”
New York reports that there are 523 people in hospital in the state due to Covid-19, which NY governor Andrew Cuomo says is the lowest number since 17 March.
Of the 88,668 tests in New York on Friday, 734 were positive. Five people died from the virus in New York on Friday.
Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo)
Great news today:
Lowest number of hospitalizations since March 17.
8th consecutive day of an infection rate below 1%.
