Coronavirus updates: Colleges could reopen if they test students every 2 days; Fauci ‘cautiously optimistic’ for vaccine this year – USA TODAY

At-home testing could transform the fight against the novel coronavirus. USA TODAY

In itsbiggest coronavirus vaccine deal yet, the U.S. said Friday it will pay French pharmaceutical company Sanofi and Great Britains GlaxoSmithKline up to $2.1 billion to test and produce 100 million doses of an experimental coronavirus vaccine.

The deal is part of Operation Warp Speed, a White House-led initiative aimed at getting a vaccine to stop SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

On Capitol Hill,Dr. Anthony Fauci testified Friday before a special House panel. He told the committee that he's "cautiously optimistic"that by late fall or early winter a vaccine now being tested would be deemed safe and effective.

Also in Washington, the extra $600 in federal unemployment aid that helped many Americans stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemicis expiringas plans for additional stimulus stalled in a deadlocked Senate.

Here are some significant developments:

Today's numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 152,000 deaths and over 4.4 million cases of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been over 671,000 deaths and 17 million cases.

What we're reading:Kids' mental health can struggle during online school. Here's how teachers areplanning ahead.

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After winding down operations at the end of May, a temporary hospital at one of the nation's largest convention centers will reopen and begin receiving COVID-19 patients next week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.

The Georgia World Congress Center will reopen with a total capacity of 120 beds and will house an initial surge of 60 beds.

"These additional hospital beds will provide relief to surrounding healthcare facilities while providing top notch care for patients," Kemp said in a statement.

More than 3,700 people have died and more than 186,000 people have tested positive for the virus in Georgia, which was the first stateto begin reopening businesses at the end of April.

A study out a Chicago childrens hospital Thursday found that children younger than 5 years with mild to moderate COVID-19 had high amounts of virus in their noses and throats as compared with older children and adults, suggesting that young children "can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the general population."

However, more virus doesn't necessarily mean more transmission, scientists say. Young children still appear to be less likely to transmit, get infected and be symptomatic, said George Rutherford, head of infectious disease and global epidemiology at the University of California-San Francisco.

"Its obviously something that is counterintuitive to the prevailing narrative,"said Rutherford, who is also a pediatrician.

Elizabeth Weise and Grace Hauck

Florida sheriffs who had attended a conference this week with a COVID-19-infected colleague met Friday afternoon with President Donald Trump.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood reported his positive test just hours before more than a dozen other sheriffs stood with Trump on the Tampa International Airport tarmac.

Chitwood had attended the Florida Sheriff's Association conference earlier this week in Bonita Springs. Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and law enforcement officers from around the state were also at the conference.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who hosted the conference and whose agency polices Bonita Springs, stood behind Trump along with 14 other sheriffs as Trump praised them and announced he had received "dozens" of their endorsements. Neither Trump nor the sheriffs wore masks. Two of the sheriffs said they had been rapid-tested for COVID-19 before meeting with Trump.

The U.S. may see more than 20,000 more COVID-19-related deaths in the next three weeks, according to aforecast published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Friday.

The ensemble forecast, which combines projections from 32 modeling groups, projects 173,000 total COVID-19 deaths by August 22, with a range of 168,000 to 182,000 total deaths. The forecast suggests weekly reports of newdeaths may increase over the next month, with 5,000 to 11,000 new deaths reported during the week ending August 22.

It could be safe for students to return to campus this fall if colleges conduct rapid coronavirus screening every two days, according to a study published Fridayin the Journal of the American Medical Association by researchers at Yale, Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.

The researchers created acomputer model to simulate amedium-sized college with about 5,000 students all younger than 30 years, nonimmune and living in a congregate setting and initially assumed that there were 10 undetected, asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 on campus.

The model found that by screening every two days with a rapid and inexpensive test even if not always accurate coupled with "strict behavioral interventions," a college could maintain a "controllable number" ofinfections at a cost of$470 per student per semester.

About 260 people at an overnight Georgia summer camp including 51 kids 10 years and younger tested positive for the coronavirus after the camp did not implement several precautionary measures, providing further evidence that children of all ages are susceptible to infection and "might play an important role in transmission,"according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report Friday.

Among 597 people at the camp, test results were available for 344 attendees, and 76% of those tests were positive. Among campers aged 6-10 who provided test results, 51% were positive, along with 44% of those aged 11-17 years, and 33% of those aged 18-21 years.

The camp implemented "most"of the CDCs recommendations for reducing the risk of transmission such as requiring all participants to provide documentation of a negative test before arriving but did not mandate face masks for campers or open windows and doors for increased ventilation in buildings.

"These findings demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 spread efficiently in a youth-centric overnight setting, resulting in high attack rates among persons in all age groups, despite efforts by camp officials to implement most recommended strategies to prevent transmission. Asymptomatic infection was common and potentially contributed to undetected transmission," the authors wrote.

The United States announced Friday it will pay French pharmaceutical company Sanofi and Great Britains GlaxoSmithKline up to $2.1 billion to test and produce 100 million doses of an experimental coronavirus vaccine.

More than half of the money will support further development and early-stage clinical trials to ensure it is safe and effective. The rest will pay for the first 100 million doses, with an option on 500 million more. The majority of the $2.1 billion will go to Sanofi, which made the vaccine candidate. GlaxoSmithKline made a booster that improves how the body responds to it.

The deal is part of Operation Warp Speed, a White House-led initiative aimed at getting a vaccine to stop SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Trump administration initiative has now spent more than $8 billion on experimental vaccines that may or may not make it across the finish line.

Elizabeth Weise

A video shared by a Florida school district showing examples of what reopening its schools will look has gone viral on TikTok and other social media, with parents and critics decrying it as an "apocalyptic" and "heartbreaking" viewing experience.

The two-minute clip, shared by the School District of Manatee County on its Facebook page July 21, shows students wearing masks and social distancing in classrooms, lunch lines and cafeteria spaces as a protective measure against COVID-19.

"I'm not gonna lie, it looks a little apocalyptic,"saidTiffany Jenkins, a Florida comedian and public speaker with three children who attend another district in the area.

Joshua Bote

Vietnam on Friday reported its first-ever death of a person with the coronavirus as it struggles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days with no local cases.

The Health Ministry said a 70-year-old man died after contracting the disease while being treated for a kidney illness at a hospital in Da Nang. More than 100 new cases have been confirmed in the past week, more than half of them patients at the hospital.

Da Nang is Vietnams most popular beach destination, and thousands of visitors were in the city for summer vacation. Across the country, authorities are rushing to test people who have returned home from the coastal city and have reimposed virus restrictions.

Associated Press

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Friday that experts are "cautiously optimistic" that by late fall or early winter a COVID-19 vaccine now being tested would be deemed safe and effective. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the vaccine began Phase 3 testing last week involving 30,000 individuals that will lastseveral months.

"We hope that at a time we get into the late fall and early winter we will have a vaccine that we can say would be safe and effective," he said."No one can guarantee the safety or effectiveness unless you do the trial, but we are cautiously optimistic that this week be successful because of the early studies on humans."

Fauci, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, and Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services,appeared before the House select subcommittee on national coronavirus strategy.

In the span of a few months, Gov. Ron DeSantis has gone from one of the most admired state leaders in America to one of the most disparaged, with an approval rating that has dropped precipitously as coronavirus cases surged.

A pair of recent polls indicate more Floridians now disapprove of the job DeSantis is doing than approve. The latest was released Friday by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy. It shows that 49% of Florida voters disapprove of the governors job performance, compared to 45% who approve. Thats a 17 percentage point drop from the 62% of Florida voters who approved of DeSantis in a Mason-Dixon poll from last year.

As the virus has raged out of control, DeSantis has closed bars but taken few other steps to contain the virus. He repeatedly played down the explosion of new cases, at first attributing it to more testing and then arguing that the big increase in cases isnt such a big deal because many of those infected are younger and less likely to get seriously ill.

Zac Anderson,Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced Friday that the government will postpone highly anticipated legislative elections by one year, citing a worsening coronavirus outbreak in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

The postponement is a setback for the pro-democracy opposition, which was hoping to capitalize on disenchantment with the current pro-Beijing majority to make gains. A group of 22 lawmakers issued a statement ahead of the announcement accusing the government of using the outbreak as an excuse to delay the vote.

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing Muslim families worldwide to readjust their celebrations this week for Eid al-Adha, the second of two major Muslim holidays,as families scale back travel and adhere to face social distancing guidelines.

Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the hajj, or pilgrimage, season, is a three-day celebration in Muslim-majority countries. In the United States, most observe just one day.

This year Saudi Arabia suspended travel to Mecca for the annual hajj. Worldwide, many gatherings will take place online this year, unlike big celebrations such as a gathering of 30,000 people in a football stadium in Minnesota.

Jordan Culver

Nearly half of more than 250 law enforcement agencies surveyed this month say they already being hit by stiff budget reductions because of the coronavirus pandemic and the national movement to defund the police.

The report slated for release this week by the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonpartisan research organization, finds few agencies, regardless of size, are being spared. Deep reductions have been ordered or proposed in Los Angeles; New York; Seattle; Baltimore County, Maryland; Tempe, Arizona; and Eureka, California.

Much of the funding is being pulled from equipment, hiring and training accounts, even as a number of cities also are tracking abrupt spikes in violent crime, the report concluded.

Kevin Johnson and Kristine Phillips

A weekly USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Thursday shows six states set records for new cases while nine states had a record number of deaths. New case records were set in Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma and Oregon, and also Puerto Rico. Record numbers of deaths were reported in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Oregon.

Mike Stucka

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz unveiled a reopening plan Thursday that includes an equationfor districts to use to decide whether to reopen with in-person class, distance learning or a hybrid option dependent on the viral activity in the surrounding county andthe district's ability to meet mitigation requirements.

Experts from the health and education departments will partner with school districts and charter schools to help determine which learning model they should use at the beginning of the year. School districts will announce separately which learning models they will be using.

With this approach, we are pairing the knowledge anddata from our departments of health and education with the expertise of our local schooldistricts to make the best decisions for our students across the state," Walz said.

The announcement comes a month after state health and education officials asked districts to prepare for the three scenarios and be prepared to switch between the options based on local spread of the novel coronavirus.

Jenny Berg, St. Cloud Times

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursdayhe expects to extend the mask mandate, bar closures and other COVID restrictions beyond Aug. 7 when hiscurrent order is set to expire.

"People should not expect us to be making major changes every two weeks," Edwards said during a public press briefing. "I don't want people thinking there are going to be major changes. That doesn't seem likely based on current data."

Edwards will officially announce his decision next week, but sent a clear signal that the modified Phase 2 of reopening order will remain in place. Though the governor said thereare hopeful signs of a plateau in the infection based on a three-day run of fewer hospitalizations, "We remain No. 1 among states in per capita cases."

Greg Hilburn, Monroe News-Star

A deadlocked Senate on Thursday exited Washington for the weekend without acting to extend a $600 per-week expanded jobless benefit that has helped keep both families and the economy afloat as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the country.

Friday's expiration of the $600 jobless benefit sent Republicans controlling the Senate scrambling to respond. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell made a procedural move to make it easier to reach a potential compromise next week that would extend the bonus unemployment benefit while talks on a broader COVID relief measure grind on.

"We're so far apart on a longer-term deal right now, that even if we said 'yes' to a longer-term deal you could (have) weeks of negotiation without getting to common ground," said White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Andrew Taylor, Associated Press

Buddy the German Shepherd has died. He was the first pet dog in the United States to test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. After months of him being ill, his owners and vet made the difficult decision to euthanize him,according to an exclusive report by National Geographic. The beloved dog died July 11 in Staten Island, New York.

Buddy first exhibited symptoms of the virus in mid-April, right before his seventh birthday. He was struggling to breathe, lost weight and became increasingly lethargic. After multiple visits to three different veterinarians, heart medications, steroids and other medical interventions, Buddy was tested for COVID-19 on May 15. But it wasnt until June 2 the New York City Department of Health called the Mahoney family to tell them that their dog had indeed contracted the virus.

Adrianna Rodriguez

Bryan Cranston is revealing that hehad coronavirus. Now, he says he's using his antibodies in hopes of helping others. "I had COVID-19 a little while ago,"Cranston, in a mask, tellsfans in an Instagramvideo posted Thursday. In the post's caption, he writesthathe got the virus despite strictly following protocols.

"I'm very lucky," he says, "very mild symptoms." Text at the bottom of Cranston's video describes the Emmywinner's symptoms as including a slight headache, chest tightness and loss of taste and smell.

Since recovering, Cranston explains thathe has started givingplasma at the UCLA Blood and Plasma Donation Center, "because I have the antibodies." Text on the selfievideo reads that doing so "will help people recover faster and be used in scientific research studies about this virus."

Carly Mallenbaum

For the second time this month, the European Union extended its travel ban on Americans on Thursday, as COVID-19 infectionscontinued to rise across the United States. The EU first startedlifting its travel restrictions outside the bloc on July 1, welcoming visitorsfrom 14countries, including Canada, South Korea and Australia. The U.S. was left off that initial list, and theEU extended its ban onAmericansvisiting the bloc on July 16.

The announcement, by the European Council, came after EU officials conducted their biweekly review oftravelrestrictions, examiningcoronavirus trendsand containment measures in each country to determine whether to add or narrow the list of permitted travelers.The key measurement: The pandemic outbreak in a given country needs to be equally contained or better than in the EU.

Curtis Tate and Deirdre Shesgreen

Based on a seven-day rolling average, daily cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. have fallen to 65,266, down about 3% from a week ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Researchers prefer to see two weeks of trending data, but University of Florida biostatistician Ira Longini said he thinks "the direction is real."

More good news: The percentage of positive tests nationwide dropped from an average of 8.5% to 7.8% over the past week. Still, Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the University of Nebraska College of Public Health, warns that yet another boom in cases is possible. This disease will continue to hopscotch around until it finds tinder susceptible individuals like any good fire, Khan said.

John Bacon

For the third consecutive day, the Florida Department of Health reported a new daily record for COVID-19 deaths Thursday. The 253 fatalities represented a jump of almost 20% from the record set the previous day. The total death toll among Florida residents now stands at 6,586, almost half of them in July.

A USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data through late Wednesday shows seven states set records for new cases while eight states had a record number of deaths. New case records were set in Arkansas, Hawaii, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico and West Virginia. Record numbers of deaths were reported in Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas.

Mike Stucca and Cheryl McCloud

Herman Cain, one-time presidential hopeful and former CEO of Godfathers Pizza, died Thursday after being hospitalized in Atlanta for coronavirus treatment a month ago, according to his website and social media.

"Herman Cain our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us has passed away," wrote Dan Calabrese on Cain's website.

Calabrese said Cain, 74, was "pretty healthy" in recent years but that his history with cancer landed him in a high-risk group for the coronavirus. Cain recently joined Newsmax TV and was working toward launching a weekly show.

Newsmax said Cain had attended a rally for President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, less than two weeks before he was diagnosed. Newsmax said it was not known where Cain, chair of Black Voices for Trump, was infected.

Nicholas Wu and Jeanine Santucci

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