Around the world. I m alison kosik and this is cnn newsroom. Here is a snapshot of olympic medals awarded so far in tokyo. China the most at 9, the u. S. At 8. The u. S. Leads with five gold medals, japan with three and team usa with two. Coy wire is following the competition in tokyo. Americans used their advantage in the swimming pool to get on the board today. Tell me how they did it. Reporter: since munich, team usa was shut out of medals on the opening day of competition at the summer olympics. Things changed day two. American men finishing one and two in the 400 meter individual med lay. Chase kalicz wins his first gold and the first for team usa at the games in tokyo. He won silver in rio. When he was 8yearold he was on a ventilator and feeding tube for eight months as he fought an acute disorder of the nervous system. C k k kalisz says fell sps like the g. O. A. T. I don t know if everything has sunk in yet, not being in the water, not competing. A lot of emotions ran through m
They initially avoided getting vaccinated, but after ending up in the hospital for days there is a couple, one couple in particular, who is urging everyone to get the shot. They will be with us live. And gold standard. Cnn sitting down with olympic gold medal swimmer katie ledecky fresh off another big showing at this year s games. New day starts right now. Buenos dias. Good morning. Sunday, august 1st. Thank you for waking us with up. Christi, great being with you. I got to say, august 1st, where has the time gone? we are barreling through the summer. But that s okay because i m about ready for fall right now. It is hot. I know. And listen, we want to begin with a new month and new numbers that we re seeing. Numbers of covid cases we haven t seen in months. Yeah, it s because of that contagious delta variant that is erasing some of the progress made earlier this year in the united states. Look at the red on that map. The month of july ending with a daily rate of infections across the
Withdrawing from more olympic events. Announcer: live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom. With robyn curnow. Great to have you along. Thanks for joining us this hour. So the strain of the delta variant on america s health care system is already being felt in hospitals. A grim reminder of the darkest days of the pandemic. An average of 77,000 new cases are turning up daily and trending higher. A year ago, new cases were about the same level, but trending down. The centers for disease control says delta is as contagious as chicken pox and can cause severe illness and like earlier variants, a single case of delta has the potential to infect many more people. Health experts say unvaccinated are at most risk and right now that s about half of the u. S. The head of the cdc says people need to adjust their behavior, as we learn more about the disease. The science continues to change, and while that is neither simple nor easy to convey, it s my responsibility to keep the american people saf
It seems just like yesterday. One of our 100 day challenges is asking the american people to mask up for the first hundred days, the next 99 days. The mask is become a partisan issue unfortunately but it is a patriotic act, the fact is it is the single best thing we can do, more important than the vaccine, give it time to work. Laura: being goal knew that the hundred days appeal was just a shtick. The mask became a political symbol for too many left, they didn t want to give it up so soon. This emergency will never pass. Remember, it was 15 days to slow the spread, 100 days to mask up. They keep changing the rules of the game because that is what they do. Just as with 100 days of mask wearing there s always a catch, the good news always comes with the big fat but whatever marginal benefit we get from what cloth masks, they became a security blanket for democrats who wanted to get rid of trump and all the old traditions of america, bad actors inside and outside government perversely end
The cdc and the fda say not so fast. They issued a rare joint statement that says if you re fully vaccinated you don t currently need a covid booster shot. Much of the country may be ready to move on from coronavirus, but it remains a real and in many places a growing risk. The hypertransmissible delta variant is driving cases up in nearly half the country. The states you see in red where cases are rising the fastest. And they re the same states where vaccination rates are the lowest. Cnn s elizabeth cohen joins us now. Elizabeth, give us the information here about the booster shot. What do people need to know about whether they need it or not? right now i can just tell you that most people who are listening to this do not need a booster shot. That s very clear from a statement that the cdc and the fda put out. So let s talk about these boosters for a minute. First of all, so pfizer says that they re going to apply for authorization from the fda for a booster shot next month. I got to