New Zealand election delayed four weeks over coronavirus

Brazil has reported 23,101 new Covid-19 cases and 620 deaths in the past 24 hours, the country’s health ministry reported Sunday. 

The total number of confirmed coronavirus infections now stands at 3,340,197. At least 107,852 have died from coronavirus in the country, according to the ministry’s data.

Brazil’s hardest-hit state by the coronavirus, São Paulo, reported 2,113 new cases and 72 new deaths on Sunday.

Coronavirus-related deaths are on the rise again in São Paulo after it saw a steady decline in daily deaths since the final week of June.

This week, the average daily death toll hovered around 79, a 33% jump compared with the previous week when it registered 59 daily deaths. This week’s average, however, remains lower than the week leading up to June 23, when São Paulo was averaging 100 daily deaths.

Brazil continues to trail only the United States in the highest number of coronavirus infections and deaths in the world.

New Zealand’s election has been delayed by four weeks, to October 17, because of concern over the spread of coronavirus in the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced.

“Clearly as a government our current priority is getting the Covid outbreak under control and removing restrictions on New Zealanders as soon as possible," Ardern said, speaking on Facebook Live post.

The Prime Minister said the country’s “resurgence plan is in full swing” with high levels of testing and contact tracing, alongside restrictions on the community.

“However, it is clear that the reemergence of Covid in Auckland at the beginning of the formal campaign period has been cause for concern,” Ardern said.

New Zealand reported 12 locally transmitted cases on Friday as the country tackles a fresh outbreak that ended an enviable run of more than 100 days without any locally transmitted infections. The new cluster has prompted the country to extend a lockdown on its most populous city, Auckland, as authorities scramble to trace the source of the outbreak.

The country had already spent five weeks under one of the world's strictest lockdowns, which closed most businesses and schools, and saw people stay at home. Ardern has warned she expects to see more cases. New Zealand has reported a total of 1,271 coronavirus cases and 22 deaths.

Ardern said Parliament will reconvene Tuesday and will be dissolved on September 6. She added that she does not intend to change the election date again.

The multibillion-dollar effort to get a coronavirus vaccine on the market could see delays because researchers haven't recruited sufficient numbers of minorities to join the clinical trials.

Of the 350,000 people who've registered online for a coronavirus clinical trial, 10% are Black or Latino, according to Dr. Jim Kublin, executive director of operations for the Covid-19 Prevention Network.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, gave the Moderna trial, the first in Phase 3 in the United States, a "C" grade for recruiting minorities.

Study subjects in trials are supposed to reflect the population that's affected. Research shows that more than half of US coronavirus cases have been among Black and Latino people.

If not enough Black people and other minorities enroll, the panel of experts who monitor the trials could force a delay until they get the numbers they need.

"That's something that's been actively discussed," said Dr. Nelson Michael, coordinator of community engagement activities for Operation Warp Speed, the government's effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine. "There's a lot of concern."

Pfizer and Moderna started their Phase 3 vaccine clinical trials on July 27 and expect to have them fully enrolled in September. Other vaccine trials will soon follow, and Operation Warp Speed aims to deliver 300 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine by January. That’s a speed unheard of in the history of vaccine clinical trials.

A school district in Arizona canceled its classes on Monday after a “high volume of staff absences” created insufficient staffing levels, according to a statement from the district’s superintendent.

The J.O. Combs Unified School District in San Tan Valley, Arizona, previously announced last week it would resume in-person instruction on Monday, but since that announcement, the district “received an overwhelming response from staff indicating that they do not feel safe returning to classrooms with students,” Superintendent Dr. Gregory A. Wyman wrote.

The subsequent “high volume of staff absences” the district received led to staffing levels that did not allow the resumption of classes on Monday. All virtual learning classes have also been canceled.

“At this time, we do not know the duration of these staff absences, and cannot yet confirm when in-person instruction may resume,” Wyman wrote, adding that an update would be shared no later than 5 p.m. Monday.

Wyman said in his statement that school officials are “acutely aware of how polarizing this issue is, and how challenging these ongoing developments are for our entire community” and said they would work closely with staff and families to find solutions for a safe return to school.

Nashville officers enforcing mask requirements have issued nearly 3,000 warnings, 25 citations and arrested one person so far this weekend, according to a series of tweets from Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).  

More than 30 MNPD officers, working extra duty, were in Nashville's famed entertainment district over the weekend as part of the department's enhanced mask enforcement initiative, the tweets said. 

On Saturday, officers "gave more than 1,900 warnings & issued 16 citations," the tweets said. On Friday, they issued "more than 1,000 warnings, issued 9 citations and made one mask-related arrest," MNPD said. 

"Why are MNPD officers working to enforce our city's mask requirement? Because you or someone you know don't want to be in the hospital," the agency tweeted.  

Officers also cited two businesses, Los Paisanos and The Rusty Nail, for operating in violation of health department orders, according to an agency tweet.

France announced 3,015 new cases on Sunday, according to France's national health agency. It's the second-highest daily jump in cases since mid-May.  

On Saturday, the health agency reported 3,310 new cases within 24 hours, the biggest daily increase since the country's lockdown lifted on May 11.

The health agency also registered one coronavirus death on Sunday, making France's total coronavirus death toll 30,410. 

Additionally, coronavirus hospitalizations increased only slightly with three new patients admitted. The number of patients in ICU stands at 376, the health agency said.

Ohio reported 40 Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, marking the state’s highest number of deaths reported since July 31 at 47 deaths, according to data from Ohio's Department of Health.

Saturday's death count was well above the state’s 21-day average of 25 deaths per day, the state’s Department of Health reported.

Ohio also added 1,117 new Covid cases on Saturday. The state's total number of deaths is currently listed as 3,826, with 108,287 total cases, the data shows. 

Only two Covid-19 deaths were reported on Sunday. A week ago, Sunday's reported number was one death. 

The Department of Health’s updated data also showed that 82 additional people were hospitalized and 12 people were admitted to the ICU on Saturday. Both of these numbers are under the 21-day average. There are a total of 12,236 hospitalizations and 2,771 ICU cases reported to the state.  

Percent positivity for the state was 4.5% as of Friday, which is under the 4.8% seven-day average, according to state data. 

NOTE: These numbers were released by the Ohio 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.

A fourth coronavirus cluster has been identified by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The latest cluster was identified at Hinton James Residence Hall, the university said in a statement posted to its verified Facebook Sunday.

A cluster is defined as five or more cases that are in close proximity in location, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Service, the statement said.

On Saturday, the university announced a cluster at Sigma Nu fraternity, and on Friday, it announced clusters in Ehringhaus Community, a residence hall and Granville Towers, a private apartment complex that serves as a housing option for come students.

A third Cherokee County school will temporarily end in-person learning after more than a quarter of its students were quarantined and 25 people at the school tested positive for Covid-19, according to a letter sent to parents from the school district and obtained by CNN.

The tentative reopen date for in-person learning is Aug. 31, according to the letter.