July 14 coronavirus news

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President Trump, defended Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday after the White House made a concerted effort to discredit the infectious disease expert this past weekend.

“Getting in a contest with Dr. Fauci about whether he was right or wrong, doesn't move the ball forward,” Graham added. 

The South Carolina lawmaker went on to say that it’s more important to focus on where the US is as a nation right now.

"The infection rate is going up. We shut the whole country down. It’s time to open up smartly… We have to deal with reality that we’re not as prepared as we need to be, but moving in the right direction," he said.

Graham said the US needs “better testing” and urged the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force “to do whatever they can to ramp up the components of testing” because it will be critical, particularly, if schools reopen in the fall.

He also raised the question of whether the Defense Production Act should be used differently than it’s being used today in order to achieve this testing goal. Because Graham said, “The shortage in testing, is the shortage in the reagents you need to perform a reliable test.”

“We don’t have enough testing in real time for the population as a whole,” he said, pointing to possibly including an incentive for pool testing in the next Covid-19 relief bill.

On masks, Graham said, “Whether or not you need to mandate masking, does that turn the corner? I don't know, but I do know this: if people would take this more seriously it would help us much as in any single thing I can do.”

Watch here:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez agreed at a news conference in Berlin on Tuesday that an agreement in Europe is needed “as soon as possible.” 

Merkel acknowledged that “the differences in opinions persist” but said that “we have to find a solution” and urged that “time is running out."

“It is important to invest in the future, in the digital transformation, in climate change,” she added.

Sanchez insisted that “July is the month of the agreement."

“I know we have a difficult negotiation ahead of us, but union has never being achieved through vetoes, but through dialogue, and that is what we are called to do on the 17th and 18th of July, if we delay the agreement the crisis will worsen,” he said.

There are 993 new Covid-19 cases today in Oklahoma, bringing the total to 21,738, according to the state's Department of Health.

This is a record high of reported cases, according to data release by the health department. 

Oklahoma also reported an additional four deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities in the state to 428. 

Tulsa County has 5,448 total cases, up 181 from Monday, while Oklahoma County, which includes Oklahoma City, is reporting an additional 273 cases for a total of 5,259.

Note: These numbers were released by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project. 

Dr. Robert Redfield, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the CDC is working to “deploy point of care tests to every nursing home in this country.” 

He said this new technology is something the CDC is “in the process of deploying.”

Hopefully the deployments will begin later this week or early next week “so they can start doing their own testing,” Redfield said during a webinar with the Buck Institute on Tuesday.

He said the long-term goal is to allow for the return of visitors to nursing homes.

Maintaining human interaction is particularly important for people in long-term health care facilities.

“When you do remove that, there is a clinical consequence,” he added.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discussed the importance of wearing masks during a webinar with the Buck Institute for Research on Aging on Tuesday.

“These face coverings, simple face coverings, really do work in interrupting this transmission,” he said. “And I think the American public is getting closer to accepting face coverings.”

Redfield said that “we’re not defenseless” when it comes to Covid-19.

Wearing masks, social distancing and washing your hands are all things that can help when it comes to transmission. When social distancing, he noted that masks are the most important thing.

He described masks as a powerful tool.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said in a news conference today that there are 111,827 cases of coronavirus in the state and 8,330 people have died due to Covid-19. That is an increase of 230 cases and five deaths since yesterday in Massachusetts. 

In Boston, the mayor reported 13,723 total cases of Covid-19 and said the city has been averaging about 16 new cases per day, with 50 new cases reported since Friday.

Walsh said 9,710 people in Boston have fully recovered from the virus and 715 people in the city have died from the virus in total, with no new deaths reported this week. 

One thing to note: These numbers were released by the Boston mayor’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.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said "a majority of counties in this country" are in a place where they can reopen their schools.

He added that he thinks a majority of counties would meet the criteria to reopen, as long as teachers, administrators and parents had the confidence to do so.

“It has to be done safely. It has to be done with the confidences of the teachers. It has to be done with the confidence of the parents,” Redfield said. 

One of the things the CDC has tried to do, he said, is “allow people how to understand how to do their own risk assessment” – something that is very important as local school districts are going to have to make their own decisions. Remember: The CDC has released guidelines for schools as they reopen.

While Redfield said he didn’t want people to overestimate the risk of serious illness for children, he did point out there needs to be ample considerations to vulnerable individuals – for example, teachers or students who have existing co-morbidities. 

“I’m of the point of view, and I weigh that equation as an individual who has 11 grandchildren, that the greater risk is actually for the nation to keep these schools closed,” Redfield said, highlighting that many children get mental health and nutritional services along with the teaching method and social aspect.

Moderna, an American biotech company, expects to start their largest study yet of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate on July 27, according to details released Tuesday on a government database that tracks clinical trials conducted around the world.

Here is how the vaccine trial will work:

The study will be conducted at 87 locations across the United States.

Remember: Moderna’s vaccine candidate is one of 23 in clinical trials around the world, according to the World Health Organization.

Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine candidate is expected to be the first in the United States to begin phase three trials.

Vice President Mike Pence has arrived in Louisiana, where he was greeted Gov. John Bel Edwards, Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, and Rep. Steve Scalise, among others. Everyone wore masks.

Pence is expected to deliver remarks at the State Emergency Operations Center at 1 p.m. ET and receive a coronavirus briefing after that. While in Louisiana, he will also participate in a roundtable on higher education and hold a press briefing.

Coronavirus cases have been increasing in Louisiana: Last week, Edwards said the gains the people of Louisiana made against Covid-19 in June had been wiped out in a matter of weeks.

The state has reported almost 80,000 cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began. Here's the parish-by-parish look of where those cases have been recorded: