July 22 coronavirus news

Lowe’s Home Improvement says it will not require its employees to enforce a customer mask mandate at its stores across the country.

In a statement to CNN, Lowe’s spokesperson Steve Salazar said, “we will not ask our associates to put their safety at risk by confronting customers about wearing masks, so we are consistently requesting that customers wear masks for the safety of everyone in our stores.”

The home improvement chain says it’s added signs at its stores, requesting that customers wear masks for the safety of everyone. They’re also providing free masks to customers who need them.

Some background: Without a federal mask mandate, companies have had to step in and make their own rules.

CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Home Depot are among many companies not asking employees to enforce their mask wearing policies. 

CNN Nathaniel Meyersohn contributed to this report

“We are going as quickly as we possibly can” on vaccine development, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a webinar with the TB Alliance on Wednesday.

He said that the speed of the result of vaccine trials will always be determined by the level of infectious activity that is present.

“In other words, if you can get that vaccine trial going in the middle of a lot of viral activity, such as we are experiencing now in the United States, with 50 to 60 to 70 thousand new infections per day, that’s bad news for public health, but that certainly facilitates the development and the proving of the efficacy of a vaccine,” he said.

“So I think, Betsy, we are going as quickly as we possibly can now,” without jumping over important steps Fauci said.

Click here to catch up on the latest on the development of a Covid-19 vaccine.

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Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway attempted to shift blame for surging coronavirus cases to the nation’s governors, claiming that Trump’s somber message and shift in tone was “not a change,” but instead, a reaction to some states that reopened too quickly. 

“It’s not a change. The briefings stopped, but his work hasn’t stopped,” Conway said in response to a question from CNN.

Remember: Trump warned the coronavirus pandemic is likely to worsen before improving, during the first outing of his revived daily briefings on Tuesday. His tone was relatively sober and offered more realistic projections.

“I think what he added yesterday is him seeing that some of these states moved through our gated criteria, moved through some of our phases, and they opened up some of the industries a little too quickly like bars,” Conway said today of Trump's briefing.

Governors, she said, “wanted complete latitude” over reopening, but, Trump “also sees that if he provides information to the public as the President, he's also giving people guidance as to how to do our part to help flatten that curve and to help some of these cities.” 

She pointed to Georgia as an example of where the President pushed back on reopening phases.

Amid criticism of the President’s Tuesday remarks that the administration is “developing a strategy,” she said, “We do have a strategy,” but suggested that Trump was talking specifically about vaccine development and therapeutics and sheltering vulnerable populations.  

Conway said Trump was briefed on the testing matter by Dr. Deborah Birx and Jared Kushner and his team, but acknowledged, “We all think it’s gotta be better,” pointing to many Americans waiting days for results. 

She was also asked about the lack of public health officials at yesterday’s briefing and noted that they are frequently on television or on Facebook or, in a nod to Dr. Anthony Fauci, “throwing pitches.”

Trump and Fauci, she said, “don’t have a piece of tissue paper between him,” before pivoting to criticize Joe Biden. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday the world may not eradicate Covid-19 – but we may be able to control it with a vaccine and good public health measures. 

Speaking during a webcast hosted by the TB Alliance, Fauci explained that due to Covid-19's ability to transmit from human to human, he doesn't think it will disappear like SARS did.

"Whether it's this year or next year, I'm not certain ... but I think we will bring it down to such a low level that we will not be in the position that we're in right now for an extended period of time," Fauci added.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization also said it is unlikely that the world can eradicate or eliminate Covid-19 any time soon.

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Broward County, Florida, Mayor Dale Holness said during a news conference today that ICU beds in the county are 90% filled.

Holness said based on this data the county is taking extra enforcement measures to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

Additional measures include a countywide curfew, mask enforcement, and the closure of businesses who are not in compliance with county mandates, Holness said.  

Broward County has recorded at least 42,121 cases of Covid-19 with 2,839 hospitalizations according to the Florida Department of Health. 

FEMA administrator Peter Gaynor told a House Homeland Security Committee that personal protective equipment distribution in the US is “healthy” and that states have between 60 and 90 days of PPE stockpiled, but that the agency has “a ways to go” before it is sure there is enough. 

"Commercial medical grade PPE distribution is very healthy today," he added. But he told the committee that there may be “micro shortages” across the country. 

“Those frontline workers that have a shortage should work with their local emergency management director, their local public health director," he said.

Gaynor noted that the US is “in competition still for PPE around the globe,” and that “We have a ways to go on making sure we have enough PPE. This is not as simple as throwing a light switch and we magically make more. We still have many months to go before we start making enough” to meet the demand.

In Florida, 47% of all Covid-19 deaths are linked to long-term care facilities, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health. 

This comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the deployment of incident management teams to all long-term care facilities across the state. 

To date, at least 2,445 out of the 5,206 total reported deaths in Florida are associated to long-term care facilities.

US labs won't be able to cope with a surge in demand for Covid-19 tests in the fall during flu season, and time lags to process the tests will likely worsen, James Davis, an executive vice president at Quest Diagnostics, told the Financial Times.

In an interview published Tuesday, Davis said, “There is no way that PCR capacity is going to double in the next three months,” referring to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests – the most common and most accurate tests for determining whether someone is currently infected with coronavirus.

Where testing stands now: Quest said in a Monday news release Covid-19 test results are lagging by up to two weeks in some cases, as the company works to handle the increased load from surging cases. The average turnaround time for test results in priority patients is now more than two days compared to one day a week ago, the lab said.

The shortage of chemical reagents and testing machines is what is keeping Quest from being able to expand its testing capacities, Davis told FT. The Quest executive called for academic institutions and the industry to find other solutions to resolve testing problems. He added that pool testing and a blood test that detects a type of antibody early in the infection could help.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Saturday granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for Quest to conduct pool testing for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, LabCorp, another prominent diagnostic company, said in a news release Sunday that it is processing 165,000 coronavirus tests per day and is delivering results between 3-5 days from specimen pickup.

Speaking on CNBC's Closing Bell Tuesday, LabCorp CEO Adam Schechter said he is also concerned about the fall, when students go back to school, and called on states to do everything they can to control the spread of the virus.

“We’re continuing to increase capacity every single week over week,” Schechter told CNBC. “The problem is that the number of tests being asked to be performed each week is growing faster than the capacity that we can build.”

The commercial scale vaccine for Covid-19 is already being made and the supply chain is not a concern, according to US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

Azar said he is not concerned with the supply chain when it comes to manufacturing vaccines for Covid-19.

“We’re not concerned about the supply chain and it’s domestic manufacturing across the portfolio that we’re investing in,” he said.

 Azar also said that they have sufficient supplies for the vaccines once they are approved.

 “We – right at the beginning of Operation Warp Speed – worked to lock down fill-finish capacity, as well as syringes, needles and glassware, so we’ve secured that to be able to ensure that we’ll be able to vaccinate the American people once we get vaccines that are demonstrated safe and effective to the FDA’s gold standard of approval or authorization,” he said.

The partnership with the US Department of Defense is critical, Azar said, because “they bring just incredible logistics and procurement capabilities to the table for this historic effort.”