August 6 coronavirus news

By Jessie Yeung, Adam Renton, Meg Wagner and Melissa Macaya, CNN

Updated 4:28 p.m. ET, November 23, 2020

6 Posts

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12:01 a.m. ET, August 6, 2020

China ramps up testing to 4.8 million tests per day

Workers drive a motorized tricycle carrying merchandise at the Xinfadi wholesale market in Beijing on August 5. Noel Celis/AFP/Getty Images

China reported 37 new symptomatic Covid-19 cases and 20 new asymptomatic cases on Thursday, according to the National Health Commission.

The NHC counts symptomatic and asymptomatic positive cases in separate tallies.

There were no new deaths recorded.

That raises China's total to 88,328 confirmed cases and 4,677 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Stepping up testing: China ramped up its testing in recent weeks, reaching 4.84 million tests conducted each day by the end of July, said Wang Jiangping, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Nationwide, almost 5,000 medical institutions and 38,000 technicians were on hand to carry out the mass testing blitz.

"A total of nearly 200 million copies of testing kits have been distributed to hospitals, disease control centers, customs ports, and third-party testing agencies across the country," Wang said.

11:58 p.m. ET, August 5, 2020

Mexico reports more than 6,000 new cases in one day, as President calls for moment of silence

From CNN's Karol Suarez in Mexico City and Maria Ramirez Uribe in Atlanta

A gravedigger digs a grave during a funeral at the San Miguel Xico cemetery in Mexico on August 5. Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

Mexico's Health Ministry reported 6,139 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the country's total number of cases to 456,100.

The ministry also registered 829 new fatalities, raising the death toll to 49,698.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced a minute of silence for Covid-19 victims, that will take place every day at noon across government offices and Armed Forces facilities in the country.

Mexico has recorded the world's sixth highest total number of confirmed cases and third highest total number of deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

11:48 p.m. ET, August 5, 2020

Twitter temporarily restricted Trump campaign's ability to tweet over false Covid-19 claims

From CNN's Rishi Iyengar, Donie O' Sullivan and Ryan Nobles

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 5. Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

Twitter said on Wednesday it had restricted US President Donald Trump's campaign from tweeting after its account shared a video containing false claims about the coronavirus.

The tweet, a video of Trump's interview with Fox News in which he said children are "almost immune" to the virus, "is in violation of the Twitter Rules on Covid-19 misinformation," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement.

"The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again."

The account appeared to have the ability to tweet following Twitter's statement, suggesting the campaign had complied with the order and removed the video.

Just hours before, Facebook removed a post from Trump's main page featuring the same interview for similar reasons.

Campaign's response: Courtney Parella, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said the President was "stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus," echoing the statement she shared after Facebook's removal.

Parella accused Silicon Valley of being biased against the President and said "social media companies are not the arbiters of truth."

Last week, Twitter imposed a similar restriction on the account of the President's son, Donald Trump Jr., after he posted a video featuring a doctor making false claims about coronavirus cures and stating that people "don't need masks" to prevent the virus from spreading.

Twitter said at the time that some of the account's functionality, including the ability to tweet, would be restricted for 12 hours.

11:58 p.m. ET, August 5, 2020

Fauci on coronavirus pandemic: "I don't think we're going to eradicate this from the planet"

From CNN's Shelby Lin Erdman

The world is not going to be able to eradicate the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US' leading infectious disease expert, said Wednesday in an interview with Reuters.

A vaccine can help get the pandemic under control, Fauci added.

“I don't think we’re going to eradicate this from the planet because it's such a highly transmissible virus that that seems unlikely,” Fauci said in the interview, posted on YouTube. “But what I think we can do with the combination of a good vaccine and attention to public health measures -- by attention I don't mean shut down, I mean things that are just prudent -- then I think we can get behind this."

After next year, the virus should be manageable, Fauci predicted.

“I hope and feel it's possible that by the time we get through 2021 and go around for another cycle that we'll have this under control,” he said. “Is it conceivable that we won't? Of course. I would be unrealistic to say that. Do I think we're going to have much, much better control one full year from this winter? I think so.”

8:37 p.m. ET, August 5, 2020

France records highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in more than 2 months

From CNN's Barbara Wojazer in Paris

France has recorded the highest daily rise in coronavirus infections in more than two months, according to figures published by the National Health Agency on Wednesday.

France reported 1,695 new cases in 24 hours, making this the biggest increase since May 30, when an increase of 1,828 cases was recorded.

The number of coronavirus patients in hospitals and in intensive care units has decreased in the past 24 hours, according to the Health Agency data.

The overall death toll in the country stands at 30,305.

Read more about the resurgence of coronavirus cases in Europe:

Germany's new virus cases fell to below 500 a day for weeks. Now they've topped 800

8:39 p.m. ET, August 5, 2020

Fauci: US will continue to "smolder" if there's no unified response

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US' leading infectious disease expert, warned that if the United States does not have a unified response against Covid-19, the country is at risk of continuing to "smolder."

Speaking to CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Fauci used the metaphor of a rowing team, noting that while watching matches of his daughter who was on a varsity crew team in college, he learned that to "win the race" all those on the boat must be "rowing in unison."

"The only way you're going to win the race is that when all eight are rowing in unison. You get one that catches a crab, as it were, with, an oar goes that way or you don't row, you don't win. So as long as you have any member of society, any demographic group who's not seriously trying to get to the end game of suppressing this, it will continue to smolder and smolder and smolder, and that will be the reason why in a non-unified way we've plateaued at an unacceptable level."

Fauci added that he thinks this lack of unity "is the problem."