Coronavirus updates: WHO calls Oxford vaccine data 'good news;' Florida, Texas lead U.S. in daily new cases

A number of start-ups have been stepping in with new innovations to help detect and diagnose the virus, as the health-care industry works to combat Covid-19. —Karen Gilchrist

While prime office vacancy rates rise in China and sales fall, some commercial property developers are betting on three growth opportunities in the post-coronavirus economy: technology, finance and a category known as "cultural tourism" that typically combines scenic or historic elements with property development.

Increased digitalization is spurring market activity for the technology industry's demand for office space, as is China's relaxed ownership restrictions in the financial industry, according to Daniel Yao, head of research at JLL China.

Meanwhile, official data shows that in the first half of this year, deals and construction of domestic cultural, tourism and health care projects received more than 111.5 billion yuan ($15.9 billion) in investment. —Evelyn Cheng

A high-profile cricket tournament that was scheduled to take place in Australia between October to November has been postponed due to the pandemic. 

The International Cricket Council (ICC) said the decision to postpone the ICC Men's T20 World Cup was taken after "careful consideration of all of the options available."

T20, also known as Twenty20, is a cricket format where the game's duration is shorter compared with the traditional format, where a match usually goes on for hours. 

As such, there will be back-to-back T20 tournaments held in 2021 and 2022. That would be followed by the men's cricket world cup — held in the game's 50-overs traditional format — in India in 2023, according to the sport's governing body.

ICC did not specify which country will host the 2021 tournament. — Saheli Roy Choudhury

The founder of Khan Academy told CNBC that online instruction cannot fully replace in-person class — but said there are ways to maximize the benefit for students. We're not going to be replicate school, even when the school is doing a perfect job so people shouldn't expect that," Sal Khan said on "Closing Bell." But for core subjects such as math, Khan said interactive video lessons and the right digital programs can provide real benefits to learning. —Kevin Stankiewicz

Close to 17,000 Southwest Airlines employees, or about 28% the Dallas airline's workforce, have signed up for partially paid extended leaves of absence or outright buyouts, CEO Gary Kelly said. Nearly 4,400 put their hands up for buyouts while close to 12,500 expressed interest in extended time off, Kelly said in a staff memo.

Airlines are urging employees to sign up for such options to lower their labor bills as the the Covid-19 pandemic dims hopes for a speedy recovery.

Airlines are prohibited from laying off or furloughing workers involuntarily until Oct. 1 under the terms of $25 billion in federal aid. Airlines for America, a trade group that represents Southwest, Delta, United, American and other carriers, said it supports efforts by airline labor unions to seek additional federal aid to save jobs through the end of March 2021, though a representative for the group says it is "not actively" seeking an extension of the funds. —Leslie Josephs

The World Health Organization applauded newly published data by Oxford University and AstraZeneca on a potential coronavirus vaccine. However, the agency cautioned that it's still early and further evidence of the vaccine's effectiveness is needed. 

"It is good news," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's emergencies program, said at a press conference. "In generating T-cell responses and generating neutralizing antibodies, this is a positive result. But again, there is a long way to go. We now need to move into larger-scale real-world trials."

The phase one trial had more than 1,000 participants. The researchers said the vaccine produced antibodies and killer T-cells, which combat the infection, that lasted at least two months. Though the update was promising, AstraZeneca's stock was down more than 3%.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the University of Toronto, said he was "extremely excited" by the new data. He said he doesn't know why AstraZeneca's stock is down on the news, adding, "I don't understand the stock market, but I do understand infectious diseases."  —Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

Twenty-eight U.S. states have statewide mask mandates after Arkansas' order took effect Monday, an analysis from CNBC shows. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend wearing face coverings to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Masks have become politicized, as some people have railed against requiring them while others have pushed for a federal mandate during the pandemic. An online survey from the CDC found about three-quarters of Americans saying they had adopted mask recommendations.

States' mandates vary, including whether to extend the orders to the outdoors and who is exempt from the mandate. Some cities, like Atlanta and Oklahoma City, have put mandates on themselves without statewide orders, and Ohio placed specific counties under a mask mandate but not the whole state. –Alex Harring

Warner Bros.′ has delayed "Tenet" for a third time, as coronavirus cases continue to spike in the U.S. This time, however, it doesn't immediately have a new release date.

The postponement of the spy thrilled is a massive blow to the exhibition industry, which had been using the film as an anchor for its reopening plans. 

Current expectations are for "Tenet" to be released overseas in countries that are able to fully open cinemas safely. The company is expected to announce its official plans in the coming days.

With "Tenet" dropping off the calendar, Disney's "Mulan" is set to be the first major blockbuster to be released. It will arrive in theaters Aug 21. Although, it's likely that film, too, will move from its current release date. —Sarah Whitten

Airline executives are getting more bad news: air travel demand is starting to fall during the crucial summer season as coronavirus cases spike and states implement new restrictions aimed at keeping the disease at bay. 

The Transportation Security Administration says in the week ended July 19, 4.65 million people passed through checkpoints at U.S. airports, down more than 4% from a week earlier and the first weekly drop since April. 

Some airlines, including Delta Air Lines and United, have dialed back their expansion plans for August as the higher cases cool demand for flights.

United is set to report results after the bell on Tuesday, while American and Southwest Airlines are scheduled to report quarterly results before the market opens on Wednesday.

More airline employees are signing up for buyouts, leaves of absence and early retirements as the threat of furloughs looms.

Close to 17,000 employees or about 28% of Southwest's workforce has signed up for extended leaves of absence or buyouts, the company's CEO Gary Kelly told employees. Close to 4,400 put their hands up for buyouts while nearly 12,500 expressed interest in extended time off, Kelly said in a staff memo.

The window for Delta pilots to apply for early retirement packages closed Sunday and 2,235 of them signed up, according to their union.

"The voluntary early-out program participation exceeded our expectations, which is positive," said Air Line Pilots Association spokesman and Delta pilot Christopher Riggins.

Delta last month said close to 2,600 pilots would be warned about potential furloughs when the terms of federal aid expire this fall, and said more than half of the carrier's more than 14,000 would be eligible. Pilots accepted to the early retirement programs would get partial pay for up to three years and extended health insurance coverage.

Delta last week proposed pilots agree to reduce their minimum hours by 15%, a plan that the airline says would avoid involuntary furloughs for a year, CNBC first reported. —Leslie Josephs 

CNBC's Jim Cramer criticized the U.S. response to the coronavirus, contending it pales in comparison to how nations such as Japan and South Korea have handled it. 

"I'm trying to figure out what kind of disaster that our country has had that's ever been as bad as this that's been self-inflicted," Cramer said on "Squawk on the Street." 

Cramer referenced the low death rates per 100,000 people in those nations, while also referencing how the health crisis was handled in Vietnam, which has reported no deaths linked to Covid-19. In addition to the strong adoption of face masks, Cramer complimented how they have developed contact tracing programs. 

"Those are big, big countries, and they're faring so much better," Cramer said,. "They're also disciplined and we're unruly. This may go down as us being, I'd say, a lesser developed country versus those countries." —Kevin Stankiewicz

Congress heads back to Washington this week as it tries to figure out how to buoy a health-care system and economy reeling from a coronavirus pandemic still rampaging through the country. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., met with President Donald Trump on Monday as the GOP prepares to release an opening offer in relief bill negotiations. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the lead White House negotiator on previous pandemic aid plans, said he plans to start outreach to Democrats. 

Lawmakers face a tight timeline to resolve key differences and craft a proposal that can pass both the GOP-controlled Senate and Democratic-held House. The $600-per-week enhanced federal unemployment benefit expires at the end of the month, which would leave millions of Americans facing a sudden income plunge as the unemployment rate stands above 11%. The GOP wants to revise or reduce the assistance for jobless people, while Democrats want to extend it — at least until state unemployment rates fall. 

The parties will have to hash out an agreement on other issues, including liability protections for businesses, funding for state and local governments, direct payments to individuals and rent and mortgage assistance. Democrats have already criticized a broad shield from lawsuits proposed by Republicans, while the GOP does not want to spend as much on aid for states, municipalities and individuals as their counterparts do. 

Congress will also contend with a president who has repeatedly downplayed the severity of the virus as his struggle to contain it jeopardizes his bid for a second term in the White House in November. —Jacob Pramuk

As many school systems continue online learning or move to a hybrid approach for the fall semester, parents who are going back to in-person work are being put in a difficult position when it comes to child care.

Of the companies that already have employees back in the office, 42% do not have a plan to help parents balance child care with work, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's research. CNBC's Megan Leonhardt reports that only 32% of employers planning to return to work have child-care plans.

The South Carolina-based disinfecting supplies maker Contec created a version of a paid leave program, allowing Contec employees who have worked there for at least six months the possibility of six weeks of pandemic emergency child-care leave. This leave will pay employees two-thirds of their salary, up to $5,000, through the end of the year. Employees who have worked for a year or more can receive 12 weeks of leave. Contec also allowed employees to change swifts with each other so parents can be home during the day and work at night.

Meanwhile, Target has offered its employees free back-up child care for family members through its partner Bright Horizons as the coronavirus has and will continue to affect so many families' routines. Kroger made $15 million available to provide financial assistance to employees facing Covid-19-related hardship, including the need for child care.

As companies move forward and continue to operate in the time of coronavirus, supporting child care could be one way to fuel long term economic growth and save money in productivity and preventing turnover.

"The pandemic is just magnifying how important child care is, and if we don't protect it now, we're really just in a bad place as a country. I mean, it will be a short term economic blow, and that will turn into a long term, bigger economic blow," Contec CEO Jack McBride said. –Suzanne Blake

Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that groups of young people congregating at New York bars and restaurants, especially in the New York City area, are "a threat" to the state's reopening. If local authorities don't ramp up their enforcement and people don't stop crowding, Cuomo said he could force the businesses to close down again. 

Cuomo said his office continued to receive reports of crowding and mask violations over the weekend in the New York City area, only days after he announced the state would ramp up enforcement of bars and restaurants. 

"Police departments have to enforce the law. That is the only line between anarchy and civilization. They have to enforce the law and they're not," Cuomo said at a press conference. —Noah Higgins-Dunn

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said during a "Squawk Box" interview that NBA players are "getting along great" and wearing masks at the league's "bubble" campus at Orlando's Walt Disney World, where the season will restart on July 30. Cuban said he could only speak for the Mavericks' situation.

The NBA has the "advantage" over the NFL, which is preparing to start training camps for its regular season in the fall, according to Cuban. Under its restart plan, NBA teams are bringing fewer players and staff, so the league can "keep everything under control" in one location, said Cuban — unlike the NFL, which is planning to play games at each team's stadium.   

"If people in the real world outside of the NBA follow the masking protocols the same way that NBA players are, we'd already be dealing with this virus and be way ahead of where we are now," Cuban said. —Michelle Gao

BioNTech and Pfizer's experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown to induce an immune response in patients in a safe way, according to new data, Reuters reported.

The results came from a trial in Germany of 60 healthy volunteers. Participants given two doses of the vaccine produced antibodies that neutralized the virus, according to the news service.

This vaccine is one of 150 around the world that are being developed to fight the coronavirus, Reuters reported. Many medical experts predict it will take 12-18 months for a safe vaccine to be ready. —Suzanne Blake

A potential coronavirus vaccine in development by the U.K.'s Oxford University, in connection with drug giant AstraZeneca, produced a strong immune response in an early-stage human trial consisting of 1,000 participants, data published in the medical journal The Lancet showed.

The experimental vaccine is called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, and combines genetic material from the coronavirus with a modified adenovirus that is known to cause infections in chimpanzees, CNBC's Lucy Handley and Berkeley Lovelace Jr. reported.

Professor Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University's Jenner Institute, told CNBC the strong immune response means the vaccine is more likely to provide protection against the virus, though it's not guaranteed. He said scientists hope to begin human trials in the U.S. in the next few weeks. —Terri Cullen

British pharmaceutical company Synairgen claimed its new respiratory coronavirus treatment has reduced the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients needing to be placed on ventilators.

The drug, SNG001, is a formulation of a naturally occurring antiviral protein called interferon beta, inhaled directly into the lungs via a nebulizer. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 101 patients between March 30 and May 27, the treatment produced a 79% lower risk of patients developing severe disease than those given a placebo. Synairgen also claimed that patients treated with SNG001 "were more than twice as likely to recover (defined as 'no limitation of activities' or 'no clinical or virological evidence of infection') over the course of the treatment period."

The study has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and the full data has not been made publicly available, but Synairgen CEO Richard Marsden said the trial could "signal a major breakthrough" in the treatment of hospitalized Covid-19 patients. —Elliot Smith

President Donald Trump said Sunday that White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is "a little bit of an alarmist."

In a wide-ranging interview with "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, the president said he had spoken with Fauci the day before the interview, which aired Sunday but was conducting earlier. Fauci previously said he hadn't briefed the president in months on the pandemic. During the interview, the president continued to downplay the recent surge in cases of the coronavirus across the country, attributing it to increased testing. 

"Dr. Fauci's made some mistakes, but I have a very good — I spoke to him yesterday at length — I have a very good relationship with Dr. Fauci," Trump said. "He's a little bit of an alarmist. That's OK." —Will Feuer

Correction: An earlier version incorrectly reported when Trump spoke with Fauci. 

Read CNBC's previous coronavirus live coverage here: California outlines strict guidelines to reopen schools; testing remains a challenge