Coronavirus updates: CDC chief says masks could halt outbreak in 4-6 weeks; more stimulus checks possible; vaccine candidate shows promise

Coronavirus updates: CDC chief says masks could halt outbreak in 4-6 weeks; more stimulus checks possible; vaccine candidate shows promise California updated its testing guidelines. Best Buy and some Starbucks will require face masks. France plans to reopen school. Here's the latest news. John Bacon and Jessica Flores USA TODAY

USA Today  July 15, 2020

The coronavirus outbreak surging across the nation could be controlled in 4-6 weeks if people were disciplined about wearing masks, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

While the comments from Robert Redfield and encouraging news about a top vaccine candidate were fueling some optimism Wednesday, struggling California was tightening restrictions on testing in an effort to improve turnaround time for results in overwhelmed labs. The state's Department of Public Health released new guidelines that say people without symptoms and not in essential jobs won’t be prioritized for testing until results can be turned around in less than 48 hours. 

A USA TODAY study found almost half of all states are spiking at a faster rate than they had been in the spring. In Texas, officials once again reported a daily record-breaking number of 10,745 new cases on Tuesday. The previous record was 10,351 on Saturday.