Vote counts but that only one vote counts. This is new day with Alisyn Camerota and john berman. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day, monday, august 17th. 6 00 here in new york. In the same actual room at the same actual time for the First Time Since march. I barely recognize you. Have i changed . No, you havent aged a day. Its so great to be back in the studio. Its just this moment of normalcy it feels like. Except i have to wear pants. Are you . Im wearing suit pants for the first time in five months. The good news is they still fit. The bad news is theyre desperately uncomfortable to the jeans ive been wearing every day without marching. You havent had the quarantine 15 . No, ive been managing to keep it off. I find light beer and vodka are not that caloric. Its just great that the numbers in new york are such that we can do this. You and i are six feet apart. Weve measured. So i hope this can last. Yes. Well, i think that depends on a large extent on what happens in the country and what everyone in the country does over the next several months. So this morning the coronavirus death toll in the u. S. Has surpassed 170,000. It took just 18 days to add the last 20,000 deaths. The u. S. Is now averaging more than 1,000 deaths a day and has been for three weeks now. And the last thing you want to see is this. An actual decrease in testing. 15 states are conducting fewer tests in the previous week in the sevenday average. Testing peaked in midjuly and dropped. Why on earth do less testing . One thing that may help or that the fda has approved a salivabased coronavirus test for emergency use. This could give americans a fast and inexpensive option to get tested and avoid the discomfort of the swab that goes up the nose and scrapes the brain. This could be a major development. Also nancy pelosi calling for lawmakers to return to washington this week for a vote to block the Trump Administration from defunding the u. S. Postal system. The trump appointed postmaster general already enacting a series of changes that have led to slower mail delivery. And hes warning states that mailin ballots will not be delivered on time for election day. President trump admits he is blocking Postal Service funding in order to stop mailin voting. Several states are this morning considering legal action. Meanwhile, its day one of the Democratic National convention so well tell you what to expect in this unusual year. We also have a new cnn National Poll to show you. It shows the race between President Trump and joe biden tightening up. So lets begin our coverage with cnns diane gne gallagher live atlanta with new developments on the pandemic. Alisyn, more than 40,000 new cases of covid19 were confirmed across the country on sunday alone. And while there were some places like here in atlanta where theyve got a brandnew testing site, up here overall, testing is down across the United States leading many to believe that we still do not know the full scale of infection in the United States. Growing concern that the u. S. Is testing less for coronavirus even as over 1,000 americans die daily from the disease. The average number of coronavirus tests per day dropping by more than 68,000. Compared to the last two weeks of july. Thats according to the covid tracking project. It may be testing fatigue or a sense that why should i get tested if the results dont come back for a week because theyre not useful. This virus is still spreading widely in the communities. Its not under control yet. Reporter as testing has slowed, pos tiitive rates incred in 36 states as of friday. According to Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource center. In california, nearly 8,000 new cases reported on sunday alone. The sevenday Positivity Rate nearly 7 . In illinois, the states governor announcing new restrictions will take Effect Tomorrow in an area across the border from st. Louis. The metro east region showing an eightday average Positivity Rate above 8 . And chicagos mayor warning her city is seeing a steady increase in cases fueled by people ages 18 to 29. Weve just got to break through the young people that theyre not immune to this virus. Reporter meanwhile, as schools and universities continue working on their reopening plans, several reporting outbreaks. If we want to have everything working and football and schools, we need to get the Community Spread of this virus down. Reporter in arizona, one School District is canceling inperson and online classes due to a large number of staff absences. The j. A. Combs unified School District does not know when instruction will resume. In georgia, Cherokee County shutting down a third school due to a cluster of cases. More than a quarter of the students at Creekview High School in quarantine. The university of North Carolina at chapel hill reporting a fourth cluster of cases. This one based in a residence hall. And at Oklahoma State university an offcampus Sorority House locked down after reporting 23 cases. This large gathering at an offcampus housing area near the university of north georgia going viral. Sparking concern because no face masks are visible. Masks are not mandatory in georgia. School outbreaks not concerning white house Senior Adviser and trump soninlaw Jared Kushner who has young children. We absolutely will be sending our kids back to school, and i have no fear in doing so. Reporter a bit of potentially promising news on the testing front. The fda has granted an emergency use authorization for a salivabased test. Its the same one the nba has been using in the bubble to test asymptomatic people. The nba helped fund the research on this. Whats key here is that it is not only quick but it is inexpensive because it doesnt use any proprietary items like the swabs or anything else making it easier to facilitate across the country. And we are going to be getting much more information about that during the program, dianne, thank you. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling lawmakers back early from their august recess to vote on legislation that would block changes the Trump Administration is making to the u. S. Postal service. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is calling on Mitch Mcconnell to do the same with the senate. Cnns Phil Mattingly is live on capitol hill with more. What have you learned, phil . Its a move that underscores how sharply the concern has risen amongst democrats about operational changes within the u. S. Postal service that have slowed deliveries over the last several weeks and months. The speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, calling the chamber back as early as saturday. Thats nearly a month before they were supposed to return from their august recess in between two national conventions. And underscoring that democrats right now believe and think that the white house, led by the president , are essentially rigging the Postal Service to try and slow down deliveries amidst the expectation of millions of mailin ballots. The speaker in a letter to colleagues last night saying, lives, livelihoods and the life of the american democracy are under threat from the president at a time of a pandemic, the Postal Service is election central. Americans should not have to choose between their health and their vote. Now the house coming back this weekend. The senate as you noted, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer calling on the senate to do the same. No answer from Mitch Mcconnell on whether he is willing to consider that, but something to Pay Attention to. This is not just a partisan issue. Republicans, as well, including Senate RepublicansSusan Collins of maine who faces a very difficult Reelection Campaign in november coming out in a tweet last night saying the senate should return and should address funding shortfalls. Many of the operational changes if not all of the operational changes that have been put into place are due to funding concerns, at least according to the postmaster general. When you mix those changes with what the president has said, much of which has been false or completely unproven up to this point, democrats believe there are Serious Problems here. They are bringing the chamber back to vote on legislation to block those changes, and there will be an oversight hearing as soon as next week. Still waiting to hear if the postmaster general and other usps leadership will attend but theyve been invited and democrats making clear theyll not change course any time soon. They view this as a serious concern. And it puts it front and center during Convention Weeks. Phil mattingly, thanks so much. So it is Convention Day in america. The Democratic NationalConvention Kicks off tonight in, well, wherever. Unprecedented doesnt begin to cover this. In many ways, this will be the most unusual convention we have ever seen. Cnns jessica dean is live in wilmington, delaware, with a preview. I just note that wilmington, delaware is nowhere near milwaukee, wisconsin. No it is not, john. We are nowhere near milwaukee, wisconsin. We are in wilmington because thats going to be kind of one of the anchor areas of this convention, as you mention, thats fataking place all acros america. Lets talk specifically about tonight. What can you expect on this first night of this 2020 Democratic Convention being produced remotely and across the country. Michelle obama, Bernie Sanders, john kasich, really explaining the spectrum of speakers that will be here, because tonights theme is we, the people. Theyre trying to make this message come through that they welcome everyone to support the biden harris takicket this year. We got information about what this might look like logistically. There are four set stages. One near wilmington, one in milwaukee, where the convention was originally supposed to be anchored with thousands of delegates yelling in a Convention Hall. Los angeles and new york. In addition to that, there will be a number of speakers spread out across the country. Theyll be at Historic Sites that are going to be tethered thematically to what theyre talking about, im told. And production kits sent to delegates, members of the party, people all across america who can set those up in their home and theyll be using that for the roll call. Again, something wed typically see in a Convention Hall. Theyll go to 57 different live shots on that one. And then also for reaction shots. So as the speakers are speaking, a truck thats located here in wilmington will be able to punch up hundreds of feeds from across the country and get those reaction shots. And to give us an idea of what this could look like being the key word, we did see that biden and harris had an allstaff meeting last week. One of the staffers tweeting out what that looked like. You can see how they brought in dozens and dozens of people remotely with biden harris in there. Looking ahead for the rest of the week, john, speakers that we would expect at the convention. That includes president obama, former president bill clinton, hillary clinton, last cycles nominee and Kamala Harris and joe biden who will be giving their acceptance speeches right here in wilmington. Jessica dean in wilmington. Michelle obama, Bernie Sanders tonight, but, of course, its worth watching because we never see anything like this before. We have no idea how its going to go. Its our new normal of seeing that huge screen of little dots of faces. I have some experience in tv with signals coming in from different places. How did that go . Sometimes strange things can happen. Sometimes. So its worth watching to see. New video just in to cnn showing this huge party near one georgia college. Just days before the start of the fall semester. New information on the impact of this, next. A lot of Healthy Foods are very acidic and theyre actually pulling out the minerals from the enamel. I like to recommend pronamel to my patients. Pronamel will help push the minerals back into the enamel, to keep the enamel strong. I know it works. And i hear nothing but great things from my patients that have switched to it. Guys guys safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him safe drivers do save 40 . Click or call for a quote today. 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First of all, let me congratulate both you and john on being back in the studio. Must feel good to get back to work in a familiar location. Thank you. It does everybody is congratulating everybody is so happy were six feet apart. Its fantastic. Its good news. The testing situation is not good in the United States. What were not picking up are people who are contagious. Thats the right word to use, contagious. Were probably missing 8 out of 10 people who are contagious. And any decrease in testing is worrisome because were already not doing well. And if you dont pick people out of a crowd who are contagious, the epidemic spreads, as you have reported and we have se. This emdemsick still spreading and we dont identify the people to help control their spread. Now one of the reasons that testing is decreasing is that supplies arent being shipped to places that can test. Its part of a strategy not to count how many people are infected. So that is one of the reasons. Another reason that you mentioned is that people may becoming more reluctant. If you dont catch people within a very short time of testing, they start going into a phase of the disease in which theyre no longer as contagious. You want to catch people right at the spot, not later. Its embarrassing. Its the exact wrong time to see a decrease in testing. This far into a pandemic to see a decrease in testing, its embarrassing for the United States. Now professor there is a development which some people look at and say may help in this which is the fda granting emergency use approval for this saliva test. We can get results back in as quick as three hours. It uses materials that are more accessible. How much hope do you put in this saliva test . Well, first thing to say it is promising because the data now shows that you can pick up the virus during the contagious phase in saliva. Thats really good. The second thing is it makes it much less uncomfortable. You dont have to put a swab deep into somebodys nose. Saliva is something that were familiar with all the time and so its not that difficult. This test is one good step toward ultimately what we will and should have and could have now which are very rapid tests available some places in the world where all you do is put a little bit of saliva on something equivalent to a pregnancy test and within 15, 20 minutes get a result. Thats going to make a sea change. The actual cost to produce those