Category: Corona Virus

"We will continue to work with the Senate and House on a bipartisan basis for a phase four relief package. I believe a bipartisan agreement still should be reached," Mnuchin said during a hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, adding that he hopes such an agreement would provide funding for schools, testing, vaccines, child care and other key priorities.

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and the chairman of the select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis, opened the hearing with a plea for further relief, saying that "additional fiscal stimulus is urgently needed," and that he hopes Mnuchin "will return to the negotiating table prepared to find common cause" on legislation.

Mnuchin said during the hearing that he is "prepared to sit down with the speaker at any time to negotiate," adding, "the President and I do support additional fiscal response and we've been working hard to try to get a negotiated agreement on a bipartisan basis."

The Treasury secretary later indicated that he would call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Tuesday in response to questioning from Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California, saying, "Can I tell her you suggested I call her right after the hearing? Done, I will call her right after the hearing."

Mnuchin indicated during Tuesday's hearing that he does not support the overarching price tag that Democrats are asking for, saying at one point, "I do not support $2.2 trillion."

"Unfortunately, Sen. Schumer and Speaker Pelosi do not want to sit down at the negotiating table unless we publicly agree on a top line. My own opinion is we should go piece by piece and any area of the legislation we can agree on, we should have the House and the Senate pass," Mnuchin said.

Democratic leaders have argued that any additional stimulus must be dealt with through a comprehensive package, and not on a piecemeal basis.

During Tuesday's hearing, however, Mnuchin said that he believes stand-alone action related to the Paycheck Protection Program would receive "overwhelming support" on Capitol Hill.

"We have over $130 billion left in PPP, which I believe if Congress was willing to take up a stand-alone action to repurpose this money for additional funds, I believe this would pass with overwhelming support in the House and the Senate and I would encourage the House to move forward with that," he said.

"As it relates to jobs, the area that has overwhelming bipartisan support that I believe would be easiest to pass on a stand-alone basis would be the PPP," Mnuchin added.

"Let's not get caught on a number. Let's agree on things we can move forward on a bipartisan basis now. I don't think the right outcome is zero. Nobody thinks the right outcome is zero," Mnuchin said later on.

During the hearing, Clyburn was critical of the Trump's administration's handling of the pandemic response, saying that Treasury Department "must improve its implementation of relief programs passed by Congress."

"So far, the administration has prioritized big businesses over small businesses and the American workers that Congress intended to protect," Clyburn said, adding, "The administration needs to refocus the Paycheck Protection Program, payroll support for the airline industry, and other relief programs to ensure that they are preserving jobs -- not lining the pockets of wealthy executives."

The chairman argued that the Treasury Department also needs to "improve oversight and accountability to ensure that taxpayers' dollars are not squandered."

Clyburn said that the panel is releasing a staff report, which raises "serious concerns about potential waste, fraud, and abuse in the Paycheck Protection Program," a program established under the CARES Act coronavirus relief legislation intended to bolster small businesses hard hit by the pandemic.

Mnuchin broadly defended the Treasury Department's efforts to mitigate the toll of the pandemic, saying, "For the last five months, Treasury has been working hard to provide fast and direct economic assistance to American workers and their families. We remain committed to making sure that every American gets back to work as quickly as possible."

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio defended the federal response to the crisis, saying, "What you have put in place, the programs you have recommended, the programs that the Congress approved -- they have worked."

"Democrats keep their states locked down, then they complain about unemployment," Jordan said, adding "Here's a novel idea, let people go back to work and I bet you'll get a lot less of it, you'll get stronger economic growth that will build on what we have seen in the last three months."

The hearing is being conducted as a hybrid of in-person and remote participation with Mnuchin and Clyburn appearing in person.

Mnuchin highlighted the actions taken by the President, saying, "When it became clear that previous negotiations were not moving forward, the President took executive action to provide critical relief to Americans through lost wage assistance and other important items."

He noted, however, "While we continue to see signs of a strong economic recovery, we are sensitive to the fact there is more work to be done, and certain areas of the economy require additional relief."

This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

CNN's Katie Lobosco and Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.

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Mnuchin says 'bipartisan agreement still should be reached' for new relief package amid impasse in talks - CNN

To help meet the relentless demand for COVID-19 diagnostics, Thermo Fisher Scientific has stood up a new, $40 million manufacturing facility in six weeks.

The 120,000-square-foot plant at its Lenexa, Kansas site will be dedicated to producing viral transport media, the combination of buffering solution and plastic tubes that keep swab samples viable until they can be tested in the lab for the novel coronavirus.

Thermo Fisher was previously tapped by the U.S. government to provide large amounts of aseptic transport media, through a $381 million contract signed in May. That month, the company would ramp up production in Lenexa from 50,000 to over 1 million media-filled tubes per week.

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"We have a proven blueprint for high-quality VTM production in Lenexa and look forward to bringing significant new capacity on line as quickly as possible to continue the necessary testing ramp-up in the U.S.," Thermo Fishers chairman, president and CEO, Marc Casper, said at the time.

RELATED: Thermo Fisher, WuXi and Mayo Clinic to develop open-platform COVID-19 antibody test

The companys Lenexa site, located just outside Kansas City, previously manufactured a range of prepared media, collection and transport products, such as plates, bottles and tubes for biopharma and food laboratories.

The latest addition, with an official ribbon-cutting held August 28, brings on more than 300 full-time workers and has since increased production to 8 million units per week, the company said.

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Thermo Fisher builds $40M coronavirus test tube manufacturing facility in 6 weeks - FierceBiotech

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Utahs rate of new coronavirus cases was down slightly on Tuesday, but school outbreaks surged, with the biggest one-day rise in school cases since the fall term began.

There were five new school outbreaks reported in the past day, linked to 14 new cases and one new hospitalization, the Utah Department of Health reported. The state defines an outbreak as two or more cases within 14 days.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 121 patients infected in 25 school outbreaks, with a median age of 18. Seven of those patients have been hospitalized; none have died.

With 296 new coronavirus cases reported statewide on Tuesday, Utahs rate of new diagnoses declined slightly, staying under the governors target of fewer than 400 cases per day.

For the past seven days, Utah has averaged 374 new positive test results per day, UDOH reported on Tuesday, the deadline for Gov. Gary Herberts goal to get the state below 400 new cases per day. Utahs rate of new coronavirus cases dipped below 400 nearly three weeks ago.

Utahs death toll from the coronavirus stood at 409 on Tuesday, with two fatalities reported since Monday:

Hospitalizations were up slightly on Tuesday, with 126 Utah patients concurrently admitted, UDOH reported.

On average, 120 patients have been receiving treatment in Utah hospitals each day for the past week the same as Mondays average, and well below the peak average of 211 patients hospitalized each day at the end of July.

In total, 3,110 patients have been hospitalized in Utah for COVID-19, up 17 from Monday.

There were 4,666 new test results reported on Tuesday, below the weeklong average of 4,846 new tests per day. The rate of tests with positive results for the past seven days was at 9% on Tuesday, up slightly from Mondays 8.9%.

Testing demand has been dropping since late July, state officials and hospital administrators have said; in mid-July, the state was reporting more than 7,000 new test results per day, on average.

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Utah reports five new school outbreaks of coronavirus on Tuesday, but overall cases are down - Salt Lake Tribune

What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters? Mr. Biden asked. He is recklessly encouraging violence. He may believe tweeting about law and order makes him strong but his failure to call on his supporters to stop seeking conflict shows just how weak he is.

The latest social media outburst by the president came just days after he accepted the nomination for a second term in an election in which he has been trailing for months. Mr. Trump sought to capitalize on any momentum generated by the Republican National Convention, posting a series of tweets asserting that he is actually leading in polls.

A new poll by Morning Consult, however, showed that Mr. Trump had narrowed Mr. Bidens lead but that the president still trailed. The survey, conducted on Friday, the day after the conclusion of the Republican convention, found Mr. Biden ahead 50 percent to 44 percent, a six-point lead compared with the former vice presidents 10-point advantage a week ago after his own convention. Another poll by Yahoo News and YouGov likewise showed Mr. Bidens lead shrinking to six percentage points, down from nine points.

A post-convention bounce is typical in presidential years but it does not always last, and an ABC News-Ipsos poll showed that Mr. Trump did nothing to improve his own standing with voters, only 31 percent of whom reported a favorable view, roughly the same as before the Republican convention. Democrats, however, are growing more concerned that Mr. Trump is successfully using violence in the streets after police shootings of Black Americans to energize his own supporters and tar Mr. Biden and his party as weak on law and order.

In that vein, many of Mr. Trumps Sunday morning tweets focused on the violence in Portland, where the shooting death of a man exacerbated an already tense situation. The man was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in the Portland area that has clashed with protesters before.

Mr. Trump repeatedly assailed Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland for resisting federal help and delighted in showcasing a peaceful protest held at the mayors own home on Friday, even retweeting a post accusing the Mr. Wheeler of committing war crimes. Rather than calling for calm, Mr. Trump seemed to justify aggressive action against demonstrators by his supporters.

The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing, Mr. Trump wrote, as he retweeted a journalists post reporting that Trump supporters were firing paintballs and pepper spray, including at the reporter. The people of Portland wont put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!

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Trump Embraces Fringe Theories on Protests and the Coronavirus - The New York Times

In the battle for Colorados precious water resources, there turns out to be no contest: Between drought and pandemic, drought wins every time.

While two of the largest water providers in Colorado noticed big drops in certain kinds of water use early on in the coronavirus pandemic, those savings are now overwhelmed by residents and business owners trying to keep their parched grass thriving with irrigation.

Commercial use of Aurora Water Departments flow dropped more than 14% from March to April, as coronavirus work and travel restrictions truly kicked in, according to department statistics. Restaurants and other heavy retail water users also emptied.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. Average irrigation use in Aurora jumped nearly 30% in the first seven months of 2020 when compared to the average use in 2015-19, department officials said. Some of that may be from bored, work-at-home gardeners dousing the back yard as a respite from bad news. But the vast majority of it comes from the relentless impact of a near-record number of plus-90 degree summer days in the Denver metro area.

Auroras daily water use chart has been spiking high above normal levels nearly every day since about May 1.

Denver Water, the largest Colorado water utility with 319,000 metro customers in 2019, saw industrial use drop 8% through July, and office building use drop 11%, spokesman Todd Hartman said. Restaurants were down a whopping 30%.

As in Aurora, though, any differences in how people used Denver water amid the pandemic were obliterated by the larger forces of southwestern drought. The months of April to July were the fifth-driest on record in Colorado, and were the second-driest on record for the southwestern climate region of Colorado-Utah-Arizona-New Mexico, the Four Corners, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor operated by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

MORE: Nearly all of Colorado is under some drought status. A year ago, almost none of the state was parched.

Denver meteorologist Chris Bianchi has tracked 68 days at 90 degrees or higher this year, the second longest tally on record. He said he believes theres a decent shot of reaching or beating the record of 73 days of 90-plus in 2012.

While there was an uptick in indoor residential use due to the stay-at-home orders, the high water use can be explained primarily by the warm, dry weather that we have been having, Hartman wrote, in an email.

The short story from our perspective is that we are seeing higher use this watering season because of very hot, dry conditions, he wrote. This year is tracking at the 80th percentile, which means that it is hotter and drier than 80% of years that we measure against.

MORE: The most thrilling commute in Colorado: How Grizzly Reservoirs caretakers keep water flowing

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This is where the large western water systems get to brag only when prompted, of course about the forethought and wisdom of their pipes-and-buckets storage system that that moves and collects runoff for Colorado cities when nature takes the summer off. Denver Waters reservoir system, from Dillon Reservoir to Cheesman and Gross and beyond, were 91% full on Aug. 24, slightly below the average of 93% at this point in the summer. Last year, with more precipitation and cooler temperatures, Denver Water was at 97% in late August.

Aurora is in good shape for the remainder of 2020, said Greg Baker, manager of public relations for Aurora Water. Reservoirs operated by Aurora including Quincy, Spinney Mountain, Rampart are at 83% of capacity. In May 2019, after a previous period of drought in Auroras catchment basins, capacity was at 61%.

Post-traumatic tics from the bad years are never far below the surface Baker mentioned how in March 2003, after the notorious drought and wildfires of summer 2002, Aurora was at 26% of capacity. That constituted only a nine-month supply for Auroras customers.

In a sign of this years drought actually biting into current water flows, though, water officials in northwest Colorado announced last week that users on the upper part of the Yampa River now have restrictions in order to send more to downstream rights holders.

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How coronavirus and drought have combined to affect Colorado's limited water supply - The Colorado Sun

The Jefferson County racetrack that health officials took to court for violating social distancing requirements at its events is hosting a Stop the COVID Chaos rally Tuesday, renewing concerns from the county health department about public safety amid a pandemic.

Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville and right-wing activist Michelle Malkin are slated to attend the evening rally at Bandimere Speedway, according to a statement on the racetracks website.

Attorney Randy Corporon, who has represented the racetrack, and members of the Bandimere family will also attend the event, which will include speeches and a presentation on why public health orders regarding coronavirus precautions are unconstitutional, according to the statement.

Malkin and Neville filed a lawsuit against Gov. Jared Polis earlier this month in which they asked the state Supreme Court to strike down the statewide mask mandate on the grounds that the governor and health departments overstepped their authority. The court on Friday declined to hear the case.

Corporon, John Bandimere III and Neville did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Ashley Sever, a spokeswoman for Jefferson County Public Health which previously took the racetrack to court to enforce social distancing requirements at the speedways events said in a statement that the department was concerned about the rally.

People have a right to express their opinions and grievances, and we fully respect freedom of speech and expression, the statement said. At the same time, we are concerned about public health and safety.

Under current county public health orders, the health department must pre-approve large events, and masks must be worn in outdoor settings when social distancing cant be maintained, according to the statement. The health department has notified Bandimere Speedway of its requirements under the law, the statement said.

The racetracks announcement made no mention of enforcing social distancing, limiting crowd size or taking any other coronavirus precautions during the event.

It did say the rally may include some casual racing, with all local media personalities invited to attend and challenge one of the co-hosts to a safe, supervised run down the race track in one of Bandimeres challenge cars, according to the statement.

The rally will end with a photo of attendees on the racetrack, according to the statement, which encouraged attendees to wear red, white and blue clothing.

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Bandimere Speedway to host rally in protest of coronavirus precautions, sparking concern with public health officials - The Denver Post

A Detroit resident is tested for free for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and antibodies at the Sheffield Center in Detroit, Michigan, April 28, 2020.

Rebecca Cook | Reuters

Coronavirus cases in the Midwest are beginning to increase following warnings from top U.S. health officials that the country's heartland could be vulnerable to new outbreaks.

Coronavirus cases were growing by 5% or more, based on a weekly average to smooth out daily reporting, in 21 states and Washington D.C. as of Saturday, according to a CNBC analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University, an increase from 12 states on Monday.

Several Midwestern states were among those reporting growing cases Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota.

Nationally, however, cases continue to decline, though at a slower pace than reported in previous days.The U.S. reportedan average of 41,638new infections a day over the last week, a decline of more than 5% compared with the prior week, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins' data.

Sun Belt states that have spent the summer months grappling with outbreaks are showing signs of improvement. Texas, Florida, California and Arizona all reported declines greater than 15% compared with a week ago.

The nation's top health officials, including White House coronavirus task force members Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, have warned that hotspots could arise in the Midwest, which hasn't witnessed the worst of the nation's outbreak so far.

In July, Fauci pointed to theso-called positivity rate, or the percentage of tests run that are positive, that appeared to be rising in those states an early indication that the outbreak is worsening.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield toldDr.Howard Bauchnerwith the Journal of the American Medical Association last week that there are worrying signs in the middle of the country where cases appear to be plateauing but not falling. The area "is getting stuck," which is a concern as seasonal influenza threatens to overwhelm hospitals and cause preventable deaths, he said.

"We don't need to have a third wave in the heartland right now," Redfield said. "We need to prevent that particularly as we're coming to the fall."

The virus is likely to spread in rural America, which has been"largely unaffected to date" by the worst of the nation's coronavirus outbreak, and "every community is vulnerable," former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr.Scott Gottliebtold CNBC last week.

"Really, an outbreak can happen anywhere," he said.

State officials have taken some action to prevent further spread. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine ordered K-12 students to wear face coverings when they return to school and limited the events at the state's county fair. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered bars to close in some of the states most populated counties on Thursday and continued to urge residents to wear face coverings, though they're not enforced.

The troubling hotspots in the Midwest come as universities try to return students to campus this fall, though some have reported hundreds of cases and students in quarantine only a few weeks into the semester.

"People need to understand that there are going to be cases of Covid when you have 50,000 people together,"said Dr. Preeti Malani, chief health officer and professor of medicine and infectious disease at the University of Michigan.

"It's a matter of if you have the infrastructure in place to identify cases testing, surveillance, random testing of asymptomatic people, quarantine, contact tracing, isolation and you have done what you can to reinforce public health mitigation efforts," she said.

The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, has reported more than 500 cases since the beginning of this month. The university nearly sent students homebeforedeciding on Fridayto allow students to return to class once its positivity rate declined from above 10% to nearly 6%.

The University of Iowa reported 130 cases after the first week of class for a positivity rate of 13.6%, though the university said it still has "adequate isolation and quarantine housingavailable."

Kansas State University reported an outbreak at four sorority houses on Friday, resulting in more than 20 cases, according to the Riley County Health Department. The university canceled all sorority and fraternity events until Sept. 10.At the University of Kansas, the sorority and fraternity community reported 270 cases for a 10.01% positivity rate, according to an update Friday, though the university said the total cases so far are manageable.

Correction: 21 states and Washington D.C. are reporting rising coronavirus cases. A previous version of this story misstated the number of states.

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Coronavirus cases climb in the Midwest as more states report growing outbreaks - CNBC

Jos spent three months in the hospital being treated for COVID-19. "All of the nurses clapped for me as I was leaving the hospital," he says. But now he faces a long recovery at home. Eddie Quiones for NPR hide caption

Jos spent three months in the hospital being treated for COVID-19. "All of the nurses clapped for me as I was leaving the hospital," he says. But now he faces a long recovery at home.

In early August, Jos came home to the Chicago apartment he shares with his wife and five children. He'd just spent three months in the hospital after contracting the coronavirus.

"We were all so happy," says his daughter Alondra, describing that day. "Everybody in the hospital was like, he was about to die. There was no more hope for him. ... So now we're like, 'Thank God, he's still here with us.' "

Jos, who is from Mexico, is undocumented. His children were all born in the United States and have U.S. citizenship. NPR agreed to use just first names for him and his family.

Once Jos was home, it fell to his family, and especially Jos's wife, to take care of him. He came home on a portable ventilator and needed to use a feeding tube.

Latinos are more likely to deal with a more severe illness from COVID-19 and when they're undocumented, they're less likely to be able to get the medical care they need to address it. It's hard to track how many undocumented immigrants get COVID-19. But they are high risk, says David Hayes-Bautista, who directs the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Not only do they often lack health insurance, many live in crowded homes with multiple generations of families. And many work in jobs where exposure to the coronavirus is high as aides in nursing homes, as farmworkers or in meat-packing plants or, like Jos, in restaurants.

And, like many people with COVID-19, Jos faces a long recovery. There is growing evidence that a significant number of people perhaps even hundreds of thousands of Americans will experience long-term complications from COVID-19. Many of these people, sometimes referred to as "long haulers," will need continued medical care, and that means the ability to recover could be even harder for the nation's 10.5 million to 12 million undocumented immigrants.

In late April, when Jos started feeling sick with a cough he was afraid to go to the hospital. He'd heard that people with COVID-19 died in hospitals. He was also afraid that, without insurance, his family would get a large bill for his care.

Then came shivers, fever and eventually so much pain that Jos could no longer avoid seeking medical care.

In the three months Jos was in the hospital, his family couldn't visit. The hospital, in line with hospital policies across the country, had banned visitors to control the spread of the virus. Instead, the hospital staff helped Jos with video phone calls to his family.

From the perspective of his family, the doctors and nurses seemed pessimistic about his prognosis as he lingered on a ventilator. "We were about to lose hope," says his daughter Alondra, 24. "We were praying and praying."

Then things changed. Jos got better. He moved from the ICU to the rehab wing. "Thank you very much to the hospital," he says, praising the doctors, nurses and staff who cared for him. "For me, kisses. Besos for the people. Thank you."

Now that he's back home, Jos spends his days propped up on pillows in a hospital bed. A bandage on his neck covers the spot where a surgeon cut a slit into his neck to insert a tube for the ventilator.

Jos came home initially still using a portable ventilator to help him sleep and breathe. His wife, trained by the hospital, managed it. She learned how to connect the tubes and other pieces to the machine and to adjust his mask so the air did not leak. He stopped needing the ventilator after several days.

A feeding tube lies underneath his dark blue polo shirt. His wife learned how to do the feedings, first checking that his stomach was empty and moving him into the proper sitting position so there would be no dangerous reflux into his esophagus and filling a syringe with the nutrients to send through that tube connected to his stomach.

When Jos came home, his wife took on his medical care. Jos still cannot eat solid food, so his wife trained by nurses uses a syringe to send formula through his feeding tube. Eddie Quiones for NPR hide caption

Nurses come by and check on him from time to time, Alondra says. Some hospitals got money in the CARES Act to provide medical treatment to the uninsured. But some hospitals say the rules are confusing and have had difficulty getting the funding, notes Hayes-Bautista, the UCLA professor who sits on the board of a hospital in East Los Angeles, the heart of the city's Latino population.

When someone comes home from the hospital after COVID-19, that's an overlooked but dangerous time, says Aida Giachello, a research professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

"Most of the research on COVID that is emerging is indicating a pretty high number of individuals are being released from the hospital with severe conditions," says Giachello, who studies health care disparities for Latino and Black patients.

"They cannot walk. They cannot talk. The virus impacts the brain and all the major organs. It's going to take a long time to recuperate in totality, if they ever recuperate in totality."

Bob Shea sees this all the time, too. He's co-founder of the nonprofit Devices 4 the Disabled. Along with a neighbor, Ed Kane, he started the nonprofit in 2015 to distribute durable medical equipment to people who couldn't afford it.

Alondra and her brother pick up medical equipment donated by Devices 4 the Disabled for their father's return home from the hospital. Juan Martinez/Devices 4 the Disabled hide caption

Alondra and her brother pick up medical equipment donated by Devices 4 the Disabled for their father's return home from the hospital.

"We see them all week, every week, now," says Shea. "Where people are getting discharged with scarred lungs, damaged heart, complete loss of mobility, neurological issues. They are still significantly limited. And then it's up to the family to somehow figure it out."

Both men got into this work from personal experience: Shea had dealt with Guillain-Barre syndrome and spent seven months in a hospital. Kane, who died in 2016 of ALS, discovered that even though he had private health insurance, it covered only $5,000 of a $30,000 wheelchair.

Now, many of the clients of Devices 4 the Disabled are undocumented immigrants in Chicago who don't have health insurance.

Shea says the group gets calls to help from hospital social workers or from the families of patients when they are discharged. In May, a hospital social worker called to alert him that the hospital was starting to release a wave of uninsured immigrants who'd been treated for COVID-19.

"For Jos and his family, just to get discharged to a bed is putting them at huge risk for pneumonia, for pressure sores that can turn into sepsis," he says.

For Jos, Shea's group donated equipment to help with that care a wheelchair, a hospital bed, a shower chair and other medical equipment. Those can cost thousands of dollars, Shea notes, especially if you don't have health insurance.

Or if you don't have a job.

Jos worked at a Chicago restaurant before he got sick. He'd like to work again, but he doesn't know when he'll have the strength. Eddie Quiones for NPR hide caption

Jos is out of work. There is an advantage to living in his multigenerational family: Jos's older children are working. For now, they're paying the rent. And they're buying his medicine. He would like to go back to working in a restaurant, but his old job is gone.

Meanwhile, he has months and months maybe longer to recover.

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Long-term Coronavirus Recovery Is Hard For Undocumented People Without Insurance - NPR

The more students who sign up, the more the university, which has also bought 27,000 thermometers and many thousands of masks, hopes it will be able to head off outbreaks.

If we have outbreaks of Covid, we will have to shut down and go digital, said Joyce Schroeder, a professor who heads the molecular and cellular biology department and helps lead the universitys contract tracing effort. They need to understand they want to be here and they can only do that if we dont have full outbreaks.

Melanie Furman, 19, a sophomore, said she was willing to sign on. Im a rule follower, she said, and I dont like getting sick. She said it was hard to predict how people would behave at parties that arent supposed to be happening anyway.

Versions of the app that do not bake in Dr. Masels extra algorithm have been introduced at the University of Alabama and the University of Virginia. Other colleges are exploring related technology developed by the M.I.T. Media Lab, said Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at the lab.

Weve talked to about 50 colleges and universities, Dr. Raskar said, adding that the M.I.T. technology, called PathCheck, is being pilot tested by at least three schools: Vassar College, Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University.

Updated Aug. 28, 2020

The latest on how schools are reopening amid the pandemic.

Dr. Raskar said colleges and universities were far ahead of local and state governments in adopting or experimenting with exposure-notification technology and other advanced tactics to fight the coronavirus.

All of them are trying different innovations, different ideas, home-brew solutions, he said.

He also cautioned that many well-intentioned experiments would probably not work. Some colleges are using systems that track and record the movement history of students through the badges that let them enter buildings. But if there is an outbreak, he said, that data might not sufficiently detail how close students were to a sick person, forcing the school to risk having to test too broadly.

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Looking to Reopen, Colleges Become Labs for Coronavirus Tests and Tracking Apps - The New York Times

Since classes started on August 19, 1,200 students at the University of Alabama have tested positive for the virus, the university system's website showed Saturday. Classes at the University of Dayton will continue online for at least two weeks after the school reported 116 case on Thursday and then another 148 on Friday, according to the university's website.

Providence College in Rhode Island has implemented policies to prevent the virus' spread, but 17 students have been placed on "interim suspension" for violating those measures, meaning they will not be allowed on campus or in classes until they attend a hearing, college spokesperson Steven Maurano told CNN Saturday.

"I am deeply disappointed by the selfish behavior of these students who defiantly chose to ignore our COVID-19 Code of Conduct," Fr. Kenneth R. Sicard, O.P., the college's president, said in a statement. "While I find no joy in having to endorse such strong sanctions, I know they are necessary if we are going to have a successful fall semester."

California surpasses 700,000 cases

California, which has more coronavirus cases than any other state, surpassed 700,000 cases on Saturday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The state has reported 12,894 deaths from the virus.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week that the state will implement a slower, more cautious approach to allowing businesses and activities to resume, after quick reopenings in the spring led to a dramatic rise in infections and deaths.

"We're going to be more stubborn this time, and have a mandatory wait time between moves," Newsom said Friday. "We didn't do that last time."

California saw a resurgence in cases in June, and Newsom began shutting down much of the economy for a second time. But in recent weeks, the average number of new daily cases has fallen, paving the way for a new reopening plan.

Part of going forward under coronavirus in the state will be a continued eviction moratorium, Newsom announced during a news conference Friday.

The existing moratorium -- accommodating millions of tenants who are at risk of eviction as well as landlords that are not able to pay their mortgages -- was set to expire September 1. Newsom did not provide details of the new agreement, but said he looked "forward to signing it very very shortly."

Louisiana worries about a drop in testing after Hurricane Laura

After part of his state was walloped by Hurricane Laura last week, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards is worried that the storm will lead to a decline in coronavirus testing in the state.

Southwest Louisiana has the highest ratio of positive tests and was hit the hardest by the hurricane, Edwards said at a news conference.

"We have tens of thousands of people from southwest Louisiana who are scattered all over the state taking shelter," Edwards said. "So we don't know exactly what this is going to look like" as far the spread of Covid-19, he added.

The governor said that 6,200 members of the National Guard were in the state assisting with recovery from the hurricane, but he was eager to get them back on the Covid-19 mission.

"Frankly we cannot afford to lose sight of our testing, because it was about three weeks ago that our schools came back. We have had students back on our college campuses," Edwards said. "So, this is a very bad week for us not to be doing robust testing."

Remdesivir extended to all hospitalized patients

This week brought hopeful news to those hospitalized with coronavirus.

The US Food and Drug Administration extended the emergency use authorization for a drug that has been shown to shorten recovery time for all patients hospitalized with coronavirus.

Remdesivir was originally authorized in May only for patients with severe infections who needed help breathing with extra oxygen or mechanical ventilation. But the emergency use now applies to a wider group of patients.

"The data show that this treatment has the potential to help even more hospitalized patients who are suffering from the effects of this devastating virus," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement.

Coronavirus continues to impact sporting events

MLB said additional testing and contact tracing will be conducted.

The game was to slated to be played at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

A tennis player scheduled to play in this week's US Open has also tested positive for coronavirus and has withdrawn from the tournament, United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced Sunday.

The USTA revealed the player is asymptomatic and has "advised" the player to self-isolate for at least 10 days, according to a statement. In addition, the USTA has begun conducting contact tracing to determine if anyone else will need to "quarantine for 14 days."

The 2020 US Open is set to begin Monday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

CNN's Evan SImko-Bednarski, Hollie Silverman, Rob Frehse, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jon Passantino and Devon Sayers contributed to this report.

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Colleges and universities work to control outbreaks as a new school year starts amid coronavirus - CNN