Arkansas records its most deaths in one day since pandemic began, governor says

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson speaks during a press conference on August 19 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Staton Breidenthal/The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP

Arkansas is seeing an uptick in active cases of coronavirus, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.

The state is reporting an increase of 887 cases of coronavirus and 22 deaths within the past 24 hours, Hutchinson said during a news conference today.

The governor said this is the largest number of deaths recorded since the pandemic began, and the fourth highest day of Covid-19 cases in the state, Hutchinson said.

The governor reminded residents that “we are not back to normal” and urged them to remain vigilant.

By the numbers: Arkansas has reported 55,652 total cases of coronavirus and 663 deaths since the pandemic started, according to Hutchinson. 

To note: These numbers were released by the Arkansas 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.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu tweeted Friday that effective immediately, all restaurants in the state can go to 100% capacity for indoor dining. 

Tables will still be required to be six feet apart, and all other public health guidelines remain in effect, Sununu said.

Read the tweet:

Paraguay will institute a social quarantine in the country’s capital Asunción and its central region on Monday due to the increase of Covid-19 cases in the country, Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni announced on Friday. 

The social quarantine will be accompanied with restricted movement for the population during the night, limited long distance transport during the weekends as well as a ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages, the health ministry said in a statement on Friday. 

Physical activities will only be allowed on an individual basis, according to the statement. 

Mazzoleni said the measures were created to limit community activities where most of the transmission happens. 

“The pandemic will continue, but we need to stop the speed of transmission and stabilize the number of cases,” Mazzoleni said. 

As of Friday afternoon, the country reported a total of 11,817 Covid-19 cases and 170 deaths. 

The latest numbers: The number of deaths from coronavirus in Paraguay has more than doubled in 10 days, according to figures released by the country's health ministry. The total number of cases has risen by nearly 25% during this same period.

Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana Shutterstock

At least 36 students at Purdue University in Indiana were suspended this week after attending an off-campus party that violated the school’s social distancing rules.

The number of students suspended was confirmed by Tim Doty, the school's director of public information and issues management.

Doty said the students "may appeal the interim suspension, and the ultimate sanctioning decision will be made later after a full hearing process."

"The University will move that process forward expeditiously,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Katie Sermersheim, associate vice provost and the dean of students, said the school has been "clear and consistent" in its messaging to students

Sermersheim said the university is asking to put on hold large gatherings in confined spaces for now, and that the university is calling upon its entire community of faculty, staff, and students to work together to "meet our collective health responsibilities."

Earlier this week, Purdue said in a news release that it was adding violation of the Protect Purdue Plan to its code of conduct regulations — meaning that students who violate the code could be subject to disciplinary action.

"If you don’t abide by rules, there is no place for you here,” Sermersheim said. 

Purdue announced its plan Friday for continued surveillance and testing of its nearly 40,000 students. According to the plan, all on-campus employees must undergo required weekly testing and random testing will take place for all students throughout the semester.

Classes are scheduled to begin on Monday.

After two days of witness testimony, closing arguments in the temporary injunction hearing in the Florida Education Association v. Gov. Ron DeSantis were presented Friday, bringing the virtual court proceeding to a close.

Florida Judge Charles Dodson instructed the parties in the case to provide him with briefs, no more than 15 pages long, by 5 p.m. today. 

The details of the case: The lawsuit was filed on July 20 by the FEA, the largest teacher’s union in Florida, in an effort to stop the implementation of the emergency order issued by Florida’s Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, which requires school districts to reopen for in-person instruction five days a week.

The FEA argued that the emergency order is “arbitrary and capricious” and therefore in violation of the state’s constitution. The teachers union said the decision to reopen schools safely should be up to local school boards and should not be arbitrarily made by the governor and the education commissioner, who decided that all schools should be ready to reopen by Aug. 31.

They also said that the reopening time-table should be based on recommendations by medical experts, who say the positivity rate should be 5% or lower and no county in Florida has less than 5% positivity rate. Not following the emergency order, the FEA argued, results in losing funding. 

Attorneys representing DeSantis agreed that “there’s no question” that failing to follow the emergency order results in a reduction of funding. 

The governor’s lawyers went on to argue that the governor and the state’s education commissioner have a duty, under the Florida constitution, to provide students with a high quality education.

What's next: Dodson said yesterday, he plans to review the briefs over the weekend and make a ruling early next week.

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield testifies at a House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing on Capitol Hill on July 31 in Washington, D.C. Kevin Dietsch/Pool/Getty Images

Rhode Island’s successful reopening of childcare centers is an example of how to limit the spread of Covid-19, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a briefing on Friday.

Redfield’s comments coincided with the early release of an analysis in the CDC’s weekly report about Covid-19 transmissions during June and July after Rhode Island reopened childcare programs. It found that possible secondary transmission was identified in only four of the 666 programs that had been allowed to reopen.

The CDC analysis documented what happened when Rhode Island reopened childcare programs on June 1, after a nearly three-month closure, through the end of July.

When childcare programs reopened, the state was experiencing low transmission relative to other US states, but community transmission of the virus increased during the last two weeks of July.

During that time, there were at least 33 confirmed and 19 probable infections. Of the confirmed and probable cases, 30 were children and 22 were adults, including 20 teachers and two parents. Three-quarters of the cases occurred in mid to late July, when incidence in the state was increasing.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he didn’t think that teachers needed to be officially declared essential workers.

Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Friday that the administration had designated teachers essential workers. He said this means, in part, that like doctors and law enforcement officers, teachers may continue to work even after exposure to a confirmed case of Covid-19, provided they remain asymptomatic. This designation is part of the administration’s aggressive campaign to pressure districts to bring students back this fall.

Redfield said infected teachers should be isolated and not be in the classroom.

“I do think it's very important to have a well thought out, step-by-step approach to a single case versus whether there's multiple cases in the same classroom, whether there's multiple cases in multiple classrooms, and to work for the schools to then respond to those in a measured way,” Redfield said.

Local communities should decide when it is safe to open schools, he said. And schools should follow CDC guidelines on removing and isolating anyone with a coronavirus infection in doing the appropriate contact tracing and cleaning.

“In order for schools to reopen and stay open, we have to have the confidence of teachers that it's safe for them to go back and do their job,” Redfield said. “I always said I want to reopen these schools, because it's in the best public interest of K through 12 so as I mentioned, but it's got to be done safely and sensibly, it’s got to be flexible and it's got to be done in concert with teachers and parents and students decisions having confidence in that reopening.”

Lebanese security force officers man a checkpoint to verify the compliance with restrictions on the first day of a reinstated lockdown to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases on August 21 in Beirut, Lebanon. Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty Images

As Lebanon’s latest curfew went into effect Friday evening, the country reported 628 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

This is a new daily high for the number of infections recorded since the beginning of the pandemic, the country’s Ministry of Public Health said.

The latest recorded cases brings the country's total case count to 11,580. There were also three new fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours, raising the national death toll to 117, the ministry said.

A new daily countrywide curfew went into effect on Friday starting from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time. This daily curfew is part of the latest lockdown restrictions. All but essential businesses must remain closed during the curfew.

Lebanon has seen the number of new Covid-19 cases more than double since the Beirut port blast on Aug. 4 which killed at least 180 people, wounded around 6,000 people and displaced approximately 300,000 people.

An empty classroom is seen inside the Mildred Avenue K-8 School building on July 9 in Boston. David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

Public schools in Boston will start the year remotely on Sept. 21 with a phased in approach to returning students to the classroom, Mayor Marty Walsh said Friday. 

The mayor also explained why the city made the decision to start the school year remotely.

“We feel this is the best approach to educate our children. It created a staggered approach for students to return to the classroom in a safe and careful way. It’s the best way to tackle the opportunity gaps in our city,” Walsh said.

As of yesterday, Boston had 31 new cases of Covid-19 for a total of 15,018 cases.