Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has ended for the day. Get the latest updates from around the globe here.

The Transportation Security Administration is working to put in place a plan to check temperatures of passengers as they go through security at a number of American airports, a federal health official confirmed to CNN.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the plan and said the TSA would take temperatures at about a dozen unidentified airports. It said the program could begin as soon as next week.

The federal health official emphasized to CNN the plan was not yet final.

The TSA would not confirm it was planning on enacting such a program.

“At this time, no decision has been made regarding specific health screening measures at airports. TSA continues to rely on the health expertise of HHS and the CDC. Ongoing discussions with our DHS and interagency colleagues, as well as our airport and airline partners, will enable the agency to make informed decisions with regard to the health and safety of the aviation environment. The safety and security of the traveling public and our employees will always be our top priority,” the agency said in a statement.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was not supportive of temperature checking.  

“I cannot find any law that gives TSA the authority to perform temperature checks as reported,” he said. “The health and safety of our Transportation Security Officers have already been put at great risk the past few months. The administration should not put these frontline workers in further danger in order to provide passengers a potential false sense of safety.”

North Dakota officials released guidelines for large gatherings and mass gathering events, such as banquets, ballrooms and event venues, Gov. Doug Burgum announced at a news conference Friday.

The governor amended an executive order to “strongly encourage the adoption of the large gathering protocols by recreational and sports arenas and music and entertainment venues,” which had previously been closed under the order, effective immediately.

The state is now using a five-level risk model to determine what businesses and places can reopen and how they can operate, the governor said.

The levels are red/critical risk, orange/high risk, yellow/moderate risk, green/low risk and blue/new normal, Burgum said.

“The phases will be implemented if all industry guidelines are adhered to, all health criteria is met, and there is no increased risk of exposure or uncontrolled transmission,” according to the guidelines.

Right now: The state is currently operating at the “moderate risk” level, meaning there is heightened risk for exposure but if transmission is controlled in the area and health criteria is met, gatherings in facilities can be up to 50% occupancy, according to the guidelines.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Friday allowing counties to enter into the state’s full phase one reopening plan.

The order gives amusement parks in Florida, like Walt Disney World Resort, the green light to submit their plans to reopen, according to the executive order. 

The plan must include a proposed reopening date, guidelines that ensure guest and staff safety and a letter from the local mayor confirming approval of the effort. 

In an attempt to remedy some of the disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic to the agricultural industry, the United States Department of Agriculture on Friday announced a new program to deliver billions of dollars of produce and other farm products to nonprofits and local food banks.

The “Farmers to Families Food Box” program will distribute $3 billion worth of agricultural goods to non-profit organizations across the country that might have gone to waste.

“It was horrifying to hear about vegetables having to be plowed under because of no markets. Milk having to be dumped, animals potentially having to be euthanized because we had broken the supply chain,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Friday at a ceremony marking the program’s launch. “This is a simple program that will help to feed people in need.”

More than 200 companies nationwide were awarded contracts by the USDA to provide boxes of fresh produce, meat and dairy products.  

House Democrats on Friday approved a rules change to allow lawmakers to vote while away from Washington during the coronavirus pandemic, a move that will allow the chamber to operate remotely for the first time in its more than 200-year history.

Democrats approved the resolution over Republican opposition with a vote of 217-189.

How it works: Under the new rules, lawmakers who cannot or do not want to travel to the Capitol for legislative business will be able to cast votes in the House through a proxy. Members would give a colleague specific instructions for how they would vote on a measure, and the proxy must vote in accordance with their instructions.

Members will be limited to acting as proxy for only up to 10 members.

Why this matters: The resolution is a significant rules change for the chamber. Republicans urged against the change, arguing instead for the House to return in person to conduct its work. 

The resolution will expire after 45 days, although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be able to extend the provisions if the pandemic is still happening or if there is a resurgence.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will lift capacity restrictions for restaurants and retail stores in most of the state starting next week, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

The new guidance applies to large attractions, such as racetracks, waterparks, amusement parks, theaters and auditoriums. Those facilities can reopen on May 22.

“Tennesseans have worked incredibly hard to do their part and help slow the spread of COVID-19 so that our state can begin to reopen. Thanks to their continued efforts, we’re able to allow restaurants and retail businesses to operate at greater capacity and large attractions to open in a safe and thoughtful way,” Lee said in a statement.

Businesses must still adhere to social distancing guidelines.

The changes apply to 89 of the 95 counties in the state.

Davidson, Shelby, Knox, Hamilton, Madison and Sullivan counties are not included in the new guidelines. Those counties may continue to follow individual, county-specific reopening plans, the statement said.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union is “extremely disappointed by Kroger’s decision to end Hero Pay,” the union’s president Marc Perrone said in a statement.

Kroger announced Friday that the company would end Hero Pay for employees and provide a one-time bonus to its workers.

The Hero Pay program, which saw an increase of $2 per hour starting March 31, is set to end Sunday.

“The simple fact is that the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Social distancing continues,” the statement said. “Kroger workers are still required to wear masks. There is no vaccine.”

Perrone said that increased sales and profits made by grocery stores make the decision to end Hero Pay “more inexplicable.”

“The reality is that Kroger is choosing to ignore this pandemic,” Perrone said. “This is not how we treat heroes in America.”

More context: At least 65 grocery workers have died and at least 9,810 have been infected or exposed to the coronavirus, according to the UFCW statement. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear reacted to the news Friday saying he wants the additional pay to continue as the pandemic isn’t over.

“Kroger is suspending Hero Pay to workers effective Sunday, can I react to that news? Man, our grocery store workers have done incredible work. This virus isn’t gone, I would love to see that pay increase,” Beshear said. “Of course, it’s additional $2 per hour so I will tell you, I’d love to see that additional pay continue, even beyond this. I like to think that you ought to be able to support your family working just one job, and it’s been a really important job.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell outlined in a memo certain requirements teams must follow to reopen their facilities next week.

Here are the guidelines they must follow:

NFL teams may reopen their facilities beginning Tuesday provided they fit all requirements to do so, league commissioner Roger Goodell outlined in a memo dated Friday.

“Clubs may reopen their facilities beginning on May 19 if they are permitted to do so under governing state and local regulations, are in compliance with any additional public health requirements in their jurisdiction, and have implemented the protocols that were developed by Dr. Sills and distributed to all clubs on May 6,” Goodell wrote in the memo, which CNN obtained. “Clubs unable to meet these criteria on May 19 may reopen their facilities on the earliest date thereafter on which they are able to meet the criteria.”

The ”Dr. Sills” that Goodell references is NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills.

Goodell also writes that a certain amount of players may be permitted to return next month.

Travelers who refuse to wear a mask will not be allowed to travel by train on Amtrak or by bus on Greyhound.

Representatives from Amtrak and Greyhound Bus told CNN on Friday that passengers will be denied boarding if they are not wearing a face covering.  

Greyhound says it has given drivers prepackaged face masks to give to riders who do not already have a mask, but those who refuse to wear one “will be denied boarding if they do not wear a face covering.”

Amtrak is requiring that all customers on trains and inside stations wear masks.

This week, CNN obtained internal memos detailing major airlines’ mask policies. Most airlines said that passengers would not be allowed to board without a face covering. Most policies said that once on board, the job of flight attendants is to strongly encourage the use of masks and avoid confrontation.

It’s unclear how strictly Amtrak and Greyhound will enforce their mask policies once people are on board.

More than 5,300 members of the New York Police Department have returned to work full duty after testing positive for coronavirus, the NYPD announced.

There are 205 member of the NYPD still out sick with Covid-19. This figure includes 150 uniformed members and 55 civilian members of the NYPD.

So far, 5,552 members of the department have tested positive for Covid-19.

Roughly 1,157 uniformed members of the NYPD are still out sick, accounting for 3.2% of that force, the NYPD said.

It is almost 6:15 p.m. ET in New York and a lot has happened with the coronavirus pandemic. Catch up on the biggest headlines below:

Poll workers will be wearing masks at polling centers throughout the state in June and voters who arrive at centers without masks will be provided one and asked to wear it, New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said Friday.

Voters are encouraged to cast their votes either by mail or ballot drop off, Oliver said.

People who have to vote at a center will be provided sanitized pens and masks. Each voting booth will be sanitized between uses, she said.

The state’s primary election is set for June 2.

State parks in Kentucky will be allowed to reopen on June 1, Gov. Andy Beshear said.

The reopening includes lodging, cabins and golfing, he said.

The plan excludes state parks that have been designated to help provide temporary housing for some Covid-19 patients.

“Obviously tourism is an incredibly important business in Kentucky. We’re taking a big revenue hit from it, but that’s not the reason that we’re reopening it now,” he said. “It’s that we believe we can do it safely with social distancing, as long as Kentuckians continue to buy into the rules, to know that this virus is still out there. Then we’ve got an opportunity, especially this summer, for people to travel in state, where it’s safest.”

The state will also be resuming auto or dirt track racing, fishing tournaments, and reopening aquatic centers and bowling alleys on June 1, he said.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, said the department’s forecasting models predict deaths from Covid-19 exceeding 100,000 by June 1.

He tweeted: “CDC tracks 12 different forecasting models of possible #COVID19 deaths in the US. As of May 11, all forecast an increase in deaths in the coming weeks and a cumulative total exceeding 100,000 by June 1.”

His tweet comes after researchers at the University of Washington revised the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation model on Tuesday — often cited by the White House — upward to 147,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by August 4.

As of 5:40 p.m. ET on Friday, Johns Hopkins University counts 87,184 coronavirus deaths in the United States.

There are at least 1,439,231 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 87,184 people have died, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. 

Johns Hopkins on Friday reported 21,457 new cases and 1,286 deaths. 

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said today that sports are not over, but watching the games on television may last a while. 

“I think we are going to be a new normal for quite a while,” the governor said. “People can watch the games on television, not in person. That may have to be how we operate for a while.”

Whitmer also stressed the “need a vaccine.”

“And we need to have mass quantities available, or we need to be able to test and acknowledge that we’ve got some immunity that’s built up. We’re not there yet,” she said.

The governor said the organizers of leagues understand how important it is to act responsibly. 

“We can have sports, just the way we observe them may look a little different,” Whitmer added. 

The governor also addressed recent threats against her, saying, “It is never acceptable to make threats of violence to anyone, but our officeholders as well. And so we take them very seriously.”

“I’ve never felt unsafe because I know that the State Police is a serious organization that is incredibly professional and has got my safety at the center of some of the work that they do,” Whitmer added. 

By the numbers: Michigan has a total of 50,079 Covid-19 cases and 4,825 deaths.

All retailers in New Mexico — with the exception of those in three counties — can operate at 25% of their fire code capacity starting Saturday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Friday.

Cibola, McKinley and San Juan counties are not included in the new guidance because case counts are still too high in that region, Lujan Grisham said.

Retailers are considered any business that sells good directly to the consumer. Entertainment venues, such as movie theaters, concert halls and amusement parks, are not considered retail businesses, Lujan Grisham said.

Houses of worship are also allowed to operate at 25% capacity, she said.

Other nonessential businesses, such as office spaces and call centers, can also operate with 25% of pre-crisis staffing levels, according to the new guidance.

Cases of coronavirus are still “too high” in New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a Friday news conference.

Lujan Grisham said that she will “do whatever it takes” to protect vulnerable communities from increased spread. 

She warned that another shutdown could be possible if people don’t work to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. 

There are 223 people who are hospitalized with coronavirus and 49 of them are on ventilators, Lujan Grisham said.

So far, 253 people have died in New Mexico from coronavirus, Lujan Grisham added.

The coronavirus is nothing like the flu, and continued comparisons are misleading, a senior American Heart Association official said Friday.

Covid-19 is new, people have no immunity to it, there’s no vaccine to prevent it and no good treatment for infection, Dr. Eduardo Sanchez said in a commentary on the American Heart Association website.

Plus, the new coronavirus is more dangerous in several ways, Sanchez said.

“Covid-19 seems to be more contagious,” he wrote.

“Both diseases spread from person to person through respiratory droplets produced when a sick person coughs or sneezes,” he added. “Available information suggests that SARS-CoV-2 is spreading more efficiently than influenza. It spreads easily and sustainably, meaning that it goes from person to person without stopping.”

And despite constant references to how many people are killed by seasonal influenza every year, Covid-19 has killed more people, faster, said Sanchez, who is chief of the American Heart Association’s Center for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

“(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) estimates that 24,000 to 62,000 flu deaths occurred during the 2019-2020 flu season (October 1, 2019 through April 4, 2020). This is a wide range because flu is not a reportable disease in most areas of the country, and the estimate is derived from a mathematical model based on flu-associated hospitalizations,” he wrote.

Covid-19 deaths are counted one by one, Sanchez noted. More than 86,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University, and they have died in the span of just three months.

“Our understanding of the virus is rapidly evolving, but so far, COVID-19 appears to pose a greater risk to the public’s health than the flu,” Sanchez said.

At a ceremony honoring “the hard work, heroism, and hope that Americans from all walks of life have exemplified during the Covid-19 pandemic” this afternoon, President Trump asked a nurse how she was able to avoid catching coronavirus.

The nurse, Amy Ford, thought it was because of personal protective equipment.

Ford is a nurse from West Virginia who is working in New York City during the pandemic. She described holding a phone up to her patients so they could hear from family they weren’t able to see in person.

She called it one of the “most emotionally challenging things” she’d ever been through. 

As Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the country, prepares to end it’s “hero pay” for employees, the company announced on Friday it would provide a “thank you pay” bonus to its frontline grocery, supply chain, manufacturing, pharmacy, and call center associates. 

The one-time bonus will be $400 for full-time associates and $200 for part-time associates.

Kroger is set to end its “hero pay” program on Sunday. The $2 per hour bonus went into effect on March 31. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has urged Kroger to extend the program.

Final appreciation pay will be given to employees by May 23. 

Mississippi is implementing a two-week plan to test all nursing home residents and staff for Covid-19, Gov. Tate Reeves announced in a news conference.

Reeves said that over the past two weeks, most deaths in the state have occurred with patients from nursing home facilities.

The state has reported 10,801 coronavirus cases and 493 deaths.

The New Jersey Transit has been awarded $1.4 billion in funding from the CARES Act, according to a statement provided to CNN from President and CEO Kevin Corbett.

But that still might not be enough.

In his statement, Corbett said NJ Transit is requesting an additional $1.2 billion on top of the $1.4 billion that was just awarded to “help plug looming the gap in its operational budget due to staggering losses in revenue.” 

“While NJ TRANSIT is grateful for the initial round of funding, the COVID-19 crisis has significantly worsened and so has its financial impact on the agency,” Corbett said in the statement.

“This much needed federal relief package is an investment in the future of public transportation in the Garden State. This funding allows NJ TRANSIT to continue providing service to essential workers who are on the front lines of the coronavirus response and rely on public transit to get to work,” the statement continued.

Earlier today, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said, “That was welcome news as you could imagine,” when discussing the federal funding relief package. 

The Office of the Vice President has announced five new members of the coronavirus task force.

The new members are:

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced today $595 million in additional relief fund distributions towards care facilities, non-profits, small businesses, childcare, frontline workers and higher education.

The state is doubling the amount allocated to health care organizations by increasing the Emergency Fund by $50 million, bringing the total to $100 million.

Sununu said the funding will help facilities “keep their lights on and provide critical services to those in need.”

New Hampshire is also putting forward $60 million to help its non-profits in mitigating the critical public health and economic impacts of the pandemic on residents who rely on them.

The state is also committing $25 million in emergency funding for the Early Childhood Care and Education System to support urgent childcare and family support needs.

Sununu said the Main Street Relief Fund is the state’s most substantial investment to date, with an initial round of $400 million designated for small businesses to get through the economic disruption caused by Covid-19.

“We have heard loud and clear from mayors and local officials worried about the tax base in their cities and towns. This funding will empower small business owners to make decisions for themselves. They can pay off their property taxes, pay off a loan, or recoup their losses,” the governor said.

New Hampshire will also be providing $15 million in support of farm and food industries, with $4.5 million for the state’s dairy farmers and an additional $1.5 million towards farmers in other industries.

An additional $4 million will go towards emergency grants to ensure stability in the food supply chain, Sununu said.

Massachusetts reported 1,239 new coronavirus cases Thursday and 110 new deaths, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The state now has a total of 83,421 confirmed cases and 5,592 deaths, according to the state health website.

The state recorded a peak number of 3,079 new coronavirus cases on April 23 and one day later, the state had 195 coronavirus deaths, a high.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced today that her administration is creating a new council to start planning what the path to reopening schools in the state will look like.

“Today, I’m announcing a process for how we can begin planning for when and how students and staff can be safely returning back to school buildings in the fall,” Whitmer said.

“I’m asking this group of state leaders to work together to develop a road map and framework for helping us decide when it is safe to return and what that return looks like. They’re incorporating all of the public health data that we have, and all that we have learned and have continued to learn about this virus,” she added.

Whitmer said the plan “will provide scenarios for what school opening might look like with recommendations based on the public health reality on the ground. And it will provide guidance to our school leaders about what actions must be taken to ensure that our students and educators are safe.”

The panel will be comprised of 21 to 25 administrators, educators, health experts and community stakeholders.

She said residents can apply to be on the task force. The task force will also partner with a national nonprofit organization called Opportunity Labs.

Whitmer first established a task force on education on March 3.

US stocks rallied into the close, rebounding from steep losses earlier in the day.

Stocks kicked off in the red Friday, following yet more dire economic news including a record drop in retail sales.

 Here’s where things closed:

Even so, all three indexes recorded a loss for the week as a whole.

The Dow slipped 2.7%. The S&P registered a 2.3% loss, and the Nasdaq fell 1.2%.

There has been a “significant groundswell of support” from the 3D printing community to help address shortages of medical supplies including swabs, face shields and surgical masks, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday. 

Matthew Di Prima with the FDA Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories said the FDA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Veterans Administration have been working together to capitalize on the support from 3D printing companies to address Covid-related shortages.

Since March, Di Prima said they have been trying to “create a way for legally marketed products to be presented to the community and then to ultimately connect manufacturers with those clinical needs.”  

NIH has “received almost 460 designs – of which 18 have passed a clinical assessment and 14 other designs have been found appropriate for community use,” Di Prima said.  

The NIH 3D Print Exchange website provides downloads for approved items such as face shields and parts as well as surgical face masks and straps. The items approved for community use include various types of masks and a hands-free door handle.  

The website has seen a spike in page views, Di Prima said.

“A total collective view of all models has exceeded 1 million views. And the top 10 designs have been downloaded over 70,000 times,” he said.

Dr. Beth Ripley, director of the Veterans Health Administration 3D printing network, said “unanticipated disruptions in supply chains can leave health care systems vulnerable.”

“We have a larger general interest in the concept of digital stockpiling of device designs that can be called on during the current or future crises,” she added.

Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced Friday that the state has seen 2,432 new cases of Covid-19 and 130 additional deaths.

This brings the total number of cases to 90,369, including 4,058 deaths, Ezike said.

Some context: As of Thursday night, 4,367 individuals were in the hospital with Covid-19. Of those 1,129 patients were in intensive care and 675 were on ventilators, according to Ezike.

As of Friday, 538,602 tests have been performed in the state; this includes 26,565 reported over the last 24 hours, Ezike said.

Delaware Gov. John Carney has released the state’s economic reopening guidance for phase one, which is targeted to begin on June 1. 

This comes a day after Carney announced that beaches and community pools will reopen to residents on May 22 at 5 p.m. as part of a rolling reopening plan. 

The out-of-state quarantine and ban on short term rentals remains in effect.

Carney said in a news conference on Friday the state is focused on making accommodations to protect public health while responding to the imperative of a strong and working economy.

The state used feedback from a variety of entities, including the business community and Delawareans across the state, to assist in developing guidance for phase one. 

“Now is the time to be careful, practice appropriate personal hygiene and continue to lean into the efforts to protect yourselves and the broader community,” Carney said. 

Face coverings are still being required in public settings and residents and businesses must adhere to strict social distancing requirements while following basic hygiene practices including frequent hand washing.

Delaware has 7,373 total cases and 271 deaths. The governor said on Friday that 3,210 have recovered while 269 are hospitalized due to the virus. 

At least 65 grocery workers have died from coronavirus and approximately 9,810 workers have tested positive for or been exposed to the virus, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, citing internal data. 

The grim update comes as the UFCW President sent a letter to 49 CEOs of major grocery store chains-like Walmart, Costco, Publix, H-E-B, Whole Foods and others urging them not to end “hazard pay” for employees.

“Over these past weeks, many of your respective companies have likened to calling your grocery store and food workers ‘heroes.’ Some of you have used advertising and social media to highlight the critical difference they have made in our lives and communities,” Perrone wrote in the letter.

“Now, it has come to our attention that each of your respective companies are actively planning to end what some of you have called ‘hazard pay,’ ‘appreciation pay,’ or even ‘hero pay,’ sometime over the next few weeks,” the letter continued.

The letter said workers, including many frontline employees of these large grocery stores, are still dying.

“Every one of your grocery workers are still being asked to risk exposure to this virus and work in dangerous conditions that require them to wear protective equipment on the job. You are suggesting that frontline workers should work for less because the threat has diminished even as you and your entire executive teams continue to work from home,” the letter said.

What we know: CNN has previously reported that Kroger, the country’s largest supermarket chain, is ending its “hero bonus” this weekend. 

The “Hero bonus” is a “a $2 premium” above an employee’s standard base rate of pay implemented on March 31, according to the company.

“In the coming months, we know that our associates’ needs will continue to evolve and change as our country recovers,” the spokesperson told CNN last week. “Our commitment is that we will continue to listen and be responsive, empowering us to make decisions that advance the needs of our associates, customers, communities and business,” they added.

Wegmans told CNN today, “As a thank you to our employees who are working tirelessly to serve the needs of our customers, we originally announced increasing their pay by $2 an hour during the months of March and April and have since, extended that throughout May.” 

Asked whether that extra $2 per hour would go beyond May, a Wegmans representative said, “We assess it every month, so we will be having another conversation.”

CNN is reaching out to the other national grocery retailers about the status of their “hazard pay” programs. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his “full phase one” begins Monday and it includes increasing restaurant capacity to 50% and reopening gyms.

Restaurants were initially operating with outdoor seating 6 feet apart and indoor seating at 25% capacity.

Gyms will be allowed to reopen Monday as well. DeSantis stressed social distancing when working out. 

“I would say for some of these places like CrossFit that do outdoor training, that’s great, the outdoor stuff. Again, that’s a lower risk environment and an outdoor than if you’re inside a stuffy room in a gym,” DeSantis said. 

Most of Florida began reopening on May 4 in “phase one,” the governor said.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany pushed back against reports that the administration threw out a pandemic response plan left by the Obama administration, saying the the Trump administration simply replaced it, during a press briefing Friday afternoon. 

“Some have erroneously suggested that the Trump administration threw out the pandemic response playbook left by the Obama-Biden administration,” McEnany said, holding up a packet of papers. “What the critics failed to note, however, is that this thin packet of paper was replaced by two detailed, robust pandemic response reports commissioned by the Trump administration.” 

McEnany then held up two binders. It wasn’t possible to compare the binders to the documents she held up previously, which were not in binders. 

“So we exchanged this one… for these two pandemic response plans,” she added. 

One binder was a 2018 pandemic crisis action plan, McEnany said, and the other was the “Crimson Contagion 2019 after-action report,” which “exposed… the shortcomings in legacy planning documents which informed President Trump’s coronavirus response.”

But McEnany was short on the details when it came to the reports.

Asked about Crimson Contagion, an exercise that gamed out the US response to a pandemic, and if it recommended early and widespread testing in the event of the pandemic, she said she didn’t know.

“What it basically did was say to us, look, some of the previous iterations of plans have put HHS in the lead, HHS of course plays a critical role in our response, but one of the things that was identified was you need a whole of government response from the highest levels,” she answered. 

Remember: CNN fact-checked claims from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Obama didn’t leave Trump a pandemic “game plan.”

McConnell falsely accused the Obama administration of failing to leave the Trump administration “any kind of game plan” for something like the coronavirus pandemic.

Appearing Monday in a Trump campaign online chat with Lara Trump, the President’s daughter-in-law and campaign senior adviser, McConnell slammed Obama for criticizing Trump’s coronavirus response as an “absolute chaotic disaster” on a private call last week with former staffers.

As Trump has done repeatedly during the pandemic, McConnell also laid undeserved blame at Obama’s feet.

“They claim pandemics only happen once every hundred years but what if that’s no longer true? We want to be early, ready for the next one, because clearly the Obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this,” McConnell said.

“That’s exactly right,” Lara Trump responded.

It was the opposite of right.

Facts First: Obama’s White House National Security Council left the Trump administration a detailed document on how to respond to a pandemic. The document, whose existence was publicly revealed by Politico in March, is called the Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.

“We literally left them a 69-page Pandemic Playbook…. that they ignored,” Ronald Klain, a campaign adviser to Democratic candidate Joe Biden and the former Obama administration Ebola response coordinator, wrote on Twitter.

Ex-Obama official tells CNN: We left Trump detailed pandemic playbook

At Friday’s press briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany repeated President Trump’s claim that he inherited a “bare cupboard” of medical supplies to fight coronavirus from the Obama administration. 

Facts First: This argument has some truth to it, but it’s also somewhat misleading. While Trump isn’t wrong to suggest he inherited a depleted stockpile of some medical supplies —the stockpile of masks, for example, was depleted and not replenished by the Obama administration — the cupboards were not completely “bare”; he inherited significant quantities of other supplies. And Trump had three years in office to build depleted stockpiles back up.

The Strategic National Stockpile was not empty before the coronavirus pandemic. For example, the stockpile contains enough smallpox vaccines for every American, among other medical resources. However, critical supplies that could be used to combat coronavirus were drained and not replenished. 

Ultimately, both Trump and former President Barack Obama ignored the warnings of experts and failed to restock masks and prepare other supplies to fight a potential pandemic. 

Here’s the backstory:  A 2010 report from a federally-sponsored task force recommended that national stockpiles of masks and other medical equipment be replenished after the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, and identified potential supply chain issues in the event of a pandemic. 

Additionally, a 2012 study from the US Department of Health & Human Services reported that 75% of the national stockpile’s N95 masks were used during the H1N1 outbreak, and said an “ample supply” should be made available for use during a pandemic. The HHS study also warned of potential future ventilator shortages. 

The supply of N95 masks in the national stockpile was never replenished. In a spending bill signed by Obama in December 2011, after the swine flu outbreak had passed, spending for the national stockpile actually decreased. The Obama administration had initially requested increased funding for the national stockpile but made concessions and ultimately, funding for the stockpile was cut for years after. 

This February, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress that the national stockpile contained over 10 million N95 masks. That’s far short of the billion-plus masks that the government projected in 2015 would be needed in the event of a flu-like pandemic — and well short of the 7 billion needed in a worst-case scenario. 

In 2010, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials wrote a report sponsored by the CDC, titled “Assessing Policy Barriers To Effective Public Health Response In The H1N1 Influenza Pandemic.” The report concluded that in the aftermath of the Swine Flu outbreak, “there should be a central repository of N95s which is replenished for future events,” and that “various healthcare providers, including EMS, should enhance their current PPE stockpiles, including N95s.” 

The group also recommended that “supplies should be purchased in advance of an emergency, rather than essentially limiting the national supply chain in the midst of an emergency.” 

In addition, a 2012 HHS study on the H1N1 response reported that “75 percent of the SNS’s N95 respirators… were deployed for use in healthcare settings” during the Swine Flu outbreak. Critically, the report also identified risks of future ventilator shortages.

In the report, titled “2009 H1N1 Influenza Improvement Plan,” HHS issued this prescient warning: 

“If a large proportion of the U.S. population were to become severely ill during a pandemic and required mechanical ventilation, the healthcare system would quickly become overwhelmed. The number of respiratory-compromised patients is likely to easily surpass the number of available ventilators and trained personnel by severalfold.”

Vice President Mike Pence is staying out of some of the events with President Trump today out of an abundance of caution, a White House official said.

The official noted Pence is still leading a coronavirus task force meeting today at the White House.

The vice president is looking to be back in front of the cameras next week, and is in good health, the official said. Pence did a radio interview today and talked to Rush Limbaugh, the official said.

CNN reported earlier in the week that Trump and Pence would be keeping their distance from one another “for the immediate future.”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany reiterated on Thursday that Pence is healthy. And a separate staff member told CNN that his staff is healthy as well.

All retail stores in Arkansas will be open for business starting Monday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced at a news conference.

“We are open for business here, and ready for business in Arkansas,” Hutchinson said Friday. “While we take the virus very seriously, we recognize the need to work and make a living. We want to continue to the next phase to continue to lift restrictions on businesses and activities in Arkansas.”

Bars will remain closed but an announcement on a timeline for their reopening will come next week, Hutchinson added.

Country music star Keith Urban held a private concert for more than 200 first responders at a drive-in theater outside Nashville last night.

He told CNN’s Brianna Keilar that although there wasn’t the same crowd energy from a regular concert, “there was just various car horns and headlights and cheers…we had such a great time.”

“The idea of playing to people in vehicles is a bit of a no brainer,” the grammy winner said, adding that figuring out how to scale up in a safe, socially distanced way, is the challenge.

Urban and his team spent a month planning the concert to play with a minimal crew.

“I didn’t really have a live band on stage. I had two players, but they were 8 or 10 feet away from me. And some ways, it was like glorified karaoke. There was a guy playing tracks and then keyboard, sort of his laptops of tracks and I’m singing live and playing but it meant that we had very limited crew. All the crew had masks on,” he said.

“It was a way to see what this could look like and it’s definitely a potential,” Urban added.

Restaurants, retail stores and salons can reopen Monday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Mayor Dean Trantalis said in a statement on Friday.

Restaurants and retail stores will be allowed to reopen at up to half their normal capacity, the statement said.

Barbers, hair salons and nail salons can open, as well as museums and drive-in theaters.

Condo associates were earlier allowed to reopen pools and can now reopen gyms, community rooms and other amenities, according to the statement.

Employees and customers must wear face coverings and hand sanitizer must be available throughout workplaces.

Regular and intense cleaning will be required, particularly in high-traffic areas and bathrooms. Social distancing will continue to be mandatory.

However, beaches will not be open yet.

“We made a collective decision that we did not want to risk reopening the beaches here at the same time as reopening restaurants and retail. Too much is at stake. We must get this right,” the statement said.

“Our expectation is to allow passive recreation on the beach within the next couple weeks,” the statement added.

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) is considering year-round classes via distance learning as an option for students due to the interruptions tied to the coronavirus pandemic, interim superintendent Grenita Lathan said Friday.

Any change to the district’s academic calendar needs to be approved by the HISD Board of Trustees.

“We are prepared to continue the HISD at-home platform if required for the 2020-21 school year, or if future school interruptions occur,” Lathan also told reporters in Houston.

The district estimated that 35% of homes do not have internet access and HISD has issued internet hotspots and laptops to further support students, according to Lathan.

The district purchased 25,00 devices and 14,000 devices provided to students since mid-March, Lathan said.

New York City has at least 15,422 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 5,054 probable coronavirus deaths as of May 15, according to the most recent data on the city website.

The New York City Health Department defines probable deaths as people who did not have a positive Covid-19 laboratory test, but their death certificate lists as the cause of death “COVID-19” or an equivalent.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus deaths and probable coronavirus deaths in New York City is at least 20,476.

There have been approximately 187,848 coronavirus cases in the city and at least 49,580 people have been hospitalized, according to the city.

Palm Beach in Florida will reopen beaches to everyone, not just residents.

Palm Beach County Commissioners voted today to reopen public, municipal and private beaches, including beach parks, in the county with restrictions starting Monday.

A week ago, the commissioners voted to reopen beaches to residents only. That stipulation was removed today, therefore no residency restrictions will apply to the reopening of beaches.

The following conditions and restrictions will apply, per county government:

While President Trump appeared to hedge on the year timeline for a vaccine, Defense Secretary Mark Esper made a few more declarative comments.

“Winning matters, and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and our partners abroad. You know, the Department of Defense has been in this fight since day one, going back to January,” he said.

He later added, “We look forward to this next greatest phase of this fight against the coronavirus. We were all in then, we are all in now, and we will be all in in the future. And we will deliver on time.”

“We will deliver, we will win this fight… We will get the job done.”

Earlier today: Moncef Slaoui — the ex-head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines division who was appointed by Trump to lead the US’s coronavirus vaccine effort – said that based on early clinical trial data, he was confident they could deliver “a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020.”

President Trump suggested Friday that he doesn’t have concerns about the coronavirus tests being administered in the White House, following a recent study showing the test may frequently miss Covid-19 cases.

The White House has frequently highlighted their use of the 13-minute test from Abbott Labs. But this week, CNN reported that a new study from researchers at NYU Langone Health in New York indicated that the test was so inaccurate that it was “unacceptable” for use with their patients.

“No, Abbott’s a great test. It’s a very quick test and it can also be very rapidly double checked. If you’re testing positive or negative, it can always be double checked,” Trump said during a Rose Garden event to announce leadership for the administration’s initiative to develop a coronavirus vaccine in record time.

He also called the test “very portable” and “very quick.”

Watch:

If you’re just tuning in, read up on the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic: 

The College Board responded Friday to technical issues that prevented some students from successfully completing their Advanced Placement (AP) exams, taken remotely nationwide starting this week.

During the first four days of the two-week testing period, the College Board said AP students took 1.64 million exams, and an additional 289,000 exams today, according to a statement.

“After the first few days of testing, our data show the vast majority of students successfully completed their exams, with less than 1 percent unable to submit their responses,” the statement said.

The College Board said it is working to understand the technical issues or other reasons why some students were unable to complete their exams in advance of the June makeup exams, and said any student who encountered an issue will be able to re-test.

Most New Jersey residents will cast their ballots by mail during the state’s primary election on July 7.

All Democratic and Republican voters will automatically receive a paid vote by mail ballot, Gov. Phil Murphy announced at a press conference today.

All non-affiliated and inactive voters will receive a vote by mail application.

In-person voting will be reduced to 50% capacity in each county, and at least one in-person voting facility must be open in each municipality.

Social distancing rules will be in effect at in-person voting facilities, and any touchscreen voting machines will be sanitized between voters, Murphy said.

The latest numbers: New Jersey reported at least 1,297 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases in the state to at least 143,905, Murphy said.

About 201 new deaths were reported on Friday.

“With that we have crossed 10,000 fatalities, 10,138 to be precise. Think about that for a moment that is a staggering number,” Murphy said.

The Trump administration is winding down its effort to expedite critical medical supplies from overseas, known as “Project Airbridge,” in the coming weeks, US Navy Rear Admiral John Polowczyk told reporters today.

President Trump repeatedly heralded the initiative, calling it an “amazing success.” But over time, the effort became a point of contention between the Trump administration and states desperate for supplies because of limited visibility into where supplies were ultimately going.

Its success, therefore, has been difficult to measure. 

“We are looking at a process to ramp down the Airbridge as we go through May into June. We believe we’ve gotten the volume that we’ve needed to effectively, what I call, prime the pump to get more supplies here to beat the ocean-going method,” Polowczyk said, adding that there may be items needed in the future that they’ll consider flying in on an individual basis.  

The volume of supplies, cited by Polowczyk, includes all the ways personal protective equipment has been procured by the federal government and the private sector, combined, FEMA explained. 

Some context: In late March, the Federal Emergency Management Agency partnered with six major medical distributors to shore up supplies in the US by helping the companies bring in supplies abroad at a faster pace on chartered flights, and then directing a portion of those supplies. 

But while the supplies are flown in by FEMA, the allocation of supplies is split between the administration’s designated hotspots and the distributors’ customers, some of whom might also be in those critical areas. 

 FEMA has not provided details on allocation or prioritized hotspots, though, in recent weeks, states began receiving breakdowns of where supplies were delivered. 

There have been at least 1,426,716 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tally. 

At least 86,228 people have died in the country from the pandemic. 

Johns Hopkins on Friday reported 8,942 new cases and 330 deaths.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

President Trump said he believed the US would have access to a possible coronavirus vaccine even if China was the first country to develop one.

During a news conference, a reporter asked: “What happens if China is the country that develops the vaccine? Will the U.S. Still have access to that vaccine?” 

Trump responded:

Seeking to reassure the public on the progress of a vaccine, he said many countries would work together to develop one.

“We’re working together with many different countries, and again, we have no ego, we have no ego. Whoever gets it, great. We’ll work with them and they’ll work with us.”

Remember: Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic, claiming Beijing could have prevented it.

President Trump underscored Friday that the United States will rebound regardless of whether or not a coronavirus vaccine is developed.

Announcing new leadership for a “Warp Speed” initiative to develop a vaccine, Trump said, “I just want to make something clear. It’s very important. Vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back. And we’re starting a process.”

“In many cases they don’t have vaccines and a virus or a flu comes and you fight through it,” he continued during a ceremony in the Rose Garden.

“People sometimes, I guess, we don’t know exactly yet, but it looks like they become immune — at least for a short while. It may be for life. But you fight through it,” he added.

However, the President added that he’s hopeful a vaccine can be developed by the end of the year.

Watch:

President Trump said the truck horns that could be heard during his Rose Garden remarks on vaccine efforts were not a protest, but a “sign of love” to support his presidency.

“You hear that outside, that beautiful sound. Those are truckers that are with us all the way. They’re protesting in favor of President Trump as opposed to against. There’s hundreds of trucks out there. That’s the sign of love, not the sign of your typical protests. I want to thank our great truckers. They like me and I like them,” Trump said. 

Trump added that his administration and the truckers are “working on something together.”

The horns could be heard as other officials took the podium to speak.

More on this: Despite Trump’s assertions that the truckers were honking to support him, a letter from the Independent Drivers Association, obtained by CNN, says that the truckers were actually lobbying Congress to change federal regulations on transparency by brokers, “to help truckers know they are being compensated fairly.” 

This was the second time the President had suggested truck drivers were in town to support him. “They’re not protesters, they’re supporters of me because we’re getting things for the truckers… they’re really very thankful that I’m President,” he said during an interview with Maria Bartiromo that aired Fox Business Thursday.

Earlier Friday, CNN caught up with a group of truck drivers in Washington to protest.

“He lied on national television,” one trucker said, in response to the President’s remarks. “Let’s make a big sign – ‘yes we are a protest,’” another exclaimed, with another trucker chiding, “And remind him that this is an election year.”

Watch:

Moncef Slaoui — the ex-head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines division who was appointed by President Trump to lead the US’s coronavirus vaccine effort — said he is confident a vaccine will be developed by the end of 2020.

“I have very recently seen early data from a clinical trial with a coronavirus vaccine and this data made me feel even more confident that we’ll be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020 and we will do the best we can,” he said at a news conference with Trump on Friday.

In addition to a vaccine, he said operation “warp speed” will also focus on the development of medicines for those who are already infected as well as improving and “optimizing” diagnostic tests.

“It is a great honor to serve our country and the world in this remarkable endeavor,” Slaoui said.

Watch:

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, President Trump said his administration and its “Warp Speed” initiative to develop a coronavirus vaccine are working under the assumption of having one “in the relatively near future” adding that he hoped it would be before the end of the year.

Trump continued: “Typically pharmaceutical companies wait to manufacture a vaccine until it has received all the regulatory approvals necessary, and this can delay the vaccine’s availability to the public as much as a year, even more than that. Our task is so urgent that under Operation Warp Speed the federal government will invest in manufacturing all the top vaccine candidates before they’re approved so we’re knowing exactly what we’re doing before they’re approved.” 

Watch:

President Trump announced the two leaders of “Operation Warp Speed,” the effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

They are Moncef Slaoui, the ex-head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines division, and four-star Army General Gustave Perna.

Previously, CNN reported that Slaoui, who has been a venture capitalist since leaving the pharmaceutical giant in 2017, will act as the chief adviser to the vaccine effort. Perna will serve as the chief operating officer overseeing logistics, White House officials said. Trump said this week he would “rapidly” mobilize the military to distribute a vaccine when it is ready.

President Trump is speaking now from the White House Rose Garden. He’s expected unveil new details about a vaccine effort.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is also at the event, and is wearing a mask.

Iowa is reporting at least 374 new coronavirus cases on Friday, according to Gov. Kimberly Reynolds.

The use of ventilators and beds in intensive care units continues to go down, Reynolds said. So far, about 93,556 Iowans have been tested.

Iowan officials also said they have not encountered any case in the state involving the mystery illness tied to Covid-19 that appeared in children in many parts of the country and the globe.

For the first time, personal protective equipment will not be delivered across Iowa as the state’s stockpile is “in a good place right now,” Reynolds said.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott announced today that he is extending the state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic until June 15.

“We’re also relaxing the ‘Stay at Home, Stay Safe’ order by aligning it with the sectors and social activities were already allowed to open and with our restart strategy,” he added.

Scott said the last two months have felt like a year and it is “incredible” to think about all that has happened since early March. He went on to say that emotions are raw as they methodically reopen the state.

The governor said Vermont has the lowest three-day and seven-day growth rates in the country and their data shows they can continue slowly reopening.

“While our trends remain promising, we know we’re not out of the woods yet,” Scott said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his state — along with New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware — will all be opening beaches for Memorial Day weekend beginning Friday next week.

The states will have different, specific rules but “they’re all basically in the same ball park,” Cuomo said.

Here are the restrictions in New York:

With regards to municipal town and county beaches, local government can choose to open or stay closed. If they open, they must adopt the state requirements at a minimum. They are also allowed to impose additional requirements above and beyond, and must report their status by May 20 so the state can plan accordingly.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said 132 people died across the state yesterday, adding the number of deaths is down “but still painful.”

The number of deaths has dropped to levels recorded late March, Cuomo said.

Cuomo said total number of hospitalizations and intubations are down, which is the “way we like to see it.”

He said the number of new cases is up, but only “a tick.” Cuomo noted that the new cases are mostly coming from people who “are at home.”

Watch:

As five regions in New York begin reopening today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that there will be an increase in coronavirus numbers — and officials must be ready to roll back some reopenings if the rate gets too high.

“We’re starting to turn the activity valve,” he said. “Watch what happens to the infection rate, testing rate, hospitalization rate. If those numbers start to move, slow down on the activity level.”

He added: “You will see an increase. We expect to see an increase. But that increase has to monitored and has to be controlled.”

Some background: Cuomo announced yesterday that five regions in his state – Central New York, North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley – can begin “phase one” of reopening today.  

The regions met the state’s seven specific criteria for reopening, including 14-day declines in hospitalizations and deaths, hospital bed availability, testing capacity and contact tracing. 

Here are the industries that will resume operations in those regions: 

Watch:

With Ford set to reopen it plants across the country on Monday after nearly two months, about 71,000 workers will go back to work and there haven’t been any furloughs or layoffs, according to CEO Jim Hackett.

To reopen on Monday, Ford wrote a 70-page handbook on safety measures for its workers, he added.

“The idea is that we design the experience from the worker back,” he said. “We actually did role plays with people in terms of the kinds of questions they have as they come back to work, a day in the life of someone leaving their kids without any supervision because there’s no school, and they need to show up at work. We worked that whole thing end to end so that we could find what we needed to do to make this really work for everyone and that’s what made it 70 pages.”

Some of the safety measures at these plants will include social distancing, testing and the requirement to wear masks. Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, two workers would be inside the vehicle as it went down the assembly line. That will no longer happen, according to Hackett.

The automaker had kept some assembly lines open to produce personal protective equipment and ventilators, which will continue to be produced at the plant.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said hundreds of people have been trained to begin contact tracing, and they are set to begin their work soon.

Responding to a question from CNN’s Mark Morales, de Blasio said that the city will have 1,000 contact tracers by the end of the month.

The city plans to have up to 2,500 trained contact tracers by the end of June. He said the goal is to train as many as 5,000 to 10,000 people total.

He said the pandemic has presented a “bigger, more complex and a much greater operational challenge than anything we’ve seen in the history of contact tracing in this city.”

The effort is being led by NYC Health and Hospitals because they “are a huge operational entity – with all the operations to go with being a huge operational entity – but also an independent agency which allows them to do a lot of things, contracts and other things, much faster than a mayoral agency,” de Blasio said. 

Experts from the Department of Health are being brought in for “maximum impact,” he added.

The House of Representatives is set to vote today on a $3 trillion coronavirus relief package and a historic rules change to allow lawmakers to vote remotely during the pandemic.

For some members, the Friday vote could be the last in-person vote they will attend for some time.

House Democrats’ move to allow remote voting comes after weeks of talks over the possibility of changing House rules to allow committees to conduct business virtually and members to vote while away from Washington during the pandemic.

It will stand as one of the most significant rules changes the House has implemented in recent history. Here’s what it would change:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio laid out how the city will maintain proper social distancing particularly in light of the warm weekend coming up.

He said in the parks “we have definitely seen some places where overcrowding started to happen.”

The New York Police Department is limiting access to Sheep Meadow in Central Park and Hudson River Park, and Piers 45 and 46 and monitoring Domino Park in Williasmburg.

“We are going to create a monitoring approach,” he said, adding NYPD and “social ambassadors” will be there earlier.

De Blasio said 2,260 social distancing ambassadors and supervisors have been deployed.

At beaches, which are not open, the city will see enhanced patrols particularly in the Rockaways, Coney Island and Orchard Beach.

There is a dedicated car in each NYPD precinct to respond to 311 social distancing complaints.

On enforcement: De Blasio said he and New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea have been talking about how to apply a neighborhood policing approach –– the “strategy that has been working,” in the middle of a pandemic.

“Where we see the greatest danger to lives in terms of the coronavirus and the area where we can enforce is around gatherings particularly large gatherings, so that’s where we are going to focus,” he said.

He added: “If we never need to take any additional enforcement action other than the NYPD showing up and people leaving, that’s the ideal by far. Summonses are an available tool and will be given if people do not disperse.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, speaking about the city’s indicators to address the virus, said there has been “tremendous progress overall,” but the most recent “report not everything we want it to be.”

He said the city has been “consistently below” 100 hospital admissions for suspected Covid-19 cases for a “meaningful amount of time.” 

“That’s the good news, the less good news is today’s update,” he added saying that the admissions have gone up to 78 on Wednesday from 59 on Tuesday.

On top of that:

Finding a Covid-19 vaccine by January is a “credible goal,” Moncef Slaoui, the ex-head of GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccines division who has been tapped to lead the Trump administration’s “warp speed” effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine, told The New York Times on Friday.

Slaoui told the newspaper that developing and mass-producing a successful vaccine by January 2021 is a “credible objective,” but acknowledged it would be difficult.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has previously said that a coronavirus vaccine could take 12 to 18 months to develop, and finding a vaccine by January was possible.

The United States currently has the timeline of developing its vaccine by the end of the year.

“Frankly, 12-18 months is already a very aggressive timeline,” Slaoui told The New York Times. “I don’t think Dr. Fauci was wrong.”

But Slaoui said he was undaunted by the President’s goal.

“I would not have committed unless I thought it was achievable,” Slaoui said, adding that he told the President that when he met with him for the first time on Wednesday at the White House and Trump asked if the goal was realistic.

Soon: President Trump is scheduled to speak from the White House Rose Garden at noon ET today and make an announcement about coronavirus vaccine development.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said that while the government has, “already been dealing with the private sector,” President Trump will also discuss military partnerships at the event.  

During the first house procedural vote today, most members in the House were wearing masks. There are some exceptions, including GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas.

Meanwhile, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash told CNN he’s a no vote on the stimulus bill. He called it an “easy vote” and it’s a “convoluted bunch of programs.”

About the bill: The House will vote today on the stimulus bill and a historic rules change to allow lawmakers to vote remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The legislation — which provides funding for state and local governments, coronavirus testing and a new round of direct payments to Americans — sets up an immediate clash with the Senate, where Republican leaders have said another round of emergency funding is not yet needed.

There have been at least 1,419,863 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. At least 85,964 people have died.

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as repatriated cases.

Johns Hopkins has reported 2,089 new cases and 66 deaths on Friday.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city has identified at least 110 cases of pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, which may be connected to Covid-19.

The mayor said in 54% of those cases, the child tested positive for Covid-19 or antibodies. There has been one death in the city.

Some background: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory to thousands of doctors across the country yesterday, advising them to be on the lookout for the new syndrome.

So far it has been seen in children in Europe and in at least 18 states, plus Washington, DC.

New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is looking into the idea of having people make a reservation to ride buses and subways, chairman and CEO Patrick J. Foye said during an interview on Fox 5.

Foye said they are considering a reservation system “in an effort to protect the health of our customers and our employees and to deal with the increase in ridership that will occur when Governor Cuomo begins to lift New York on PAUSE downstate,” he told Fox 5.

But, he admitted “reservations would be a difficult thing to achieve.”

“But we think we’ve got an obligation to look at it and we’re going to look at everything that we think makes sense, including everything that is being considered or implemented at transit agencies in Asia, Europe and North America,” Foye added.

One thing that is certain is all passengers will be required to wear masks.

“It is going to be mandatory for our customers and employees to wear masks and we can’t emphasize how important that is,” he said.

Subway ridership has been down nearly 90% because of the pandemic.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a step-by-step guide aimed at helping officials decide if it is safe to reopen schools in their community.

“The purpose of this tool is to assist administrators in making (re)opening decision regarding K-12 schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to check with state and local health officials and other partners to determine the most appropriate actions while adjusting to meet the unique needs and circumstances of the local community,” the guide, that was released yesterday, said.

The guide asks three overarching questions:

The CDC recommends that schools complete all of the safeguards below each prompt in order to move to the next phase and ensure a safe reopening.

When schools are considering reopening, the decision tree asks: “Will reopening be consistent with applicable state and local orders? Is the school ready to protect children and employees at higher risk for severe illness? Are you able to screen students and employees upon arrival for symptoms and history of exposure?”

If the answer to any question is no, the CDC advises, do not open.

Here’s the guide:

Some background: Dr. Anthony Fauci warned against reopening schools and businesses too quickly during a televised congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Fauci suggested that schools open cautiously, and said in some places schools should remain closed in the fall.

Meanwhile, administrators are trying to figure out how to get kids back, with options including everyone wearing masks, staggering start times and canceling assemblies and sports.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that five regions in his state – Central New York, North Country, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley – can begin “phase one” of reopening today.  

The regions met the state’s seven specific criteria for reopening, including 14-day declines in hospitalizations and deaths, hospital bed availability, testing capacity and contact tracing. 

Here are the industries that will resume operations in those regions: 

About the reopening dates: Cuomo issued a new executive order yesterday extending the state’s “On PAUSE” order until 11:59 p.m. on May 28, unless a region hits all of the 7 reopening benchmarks which will enable them to begin phase one reopening, Rich Azzopardi, a senior advisor to the governor, told CNN.

Additionally, according to the Thursday order, the state of emergency that allows each of the governor’s previous executive orders to remain in effect was extended to June 13. 

“We are doing this in a calibrated way and monitoring the data, facts and metrics every single day and using the lessons we’ve learned from others who have already gone through this,” Cuomo said.

President Trump is scheduled to speak from the Rose Garden at noon today and make an announcement about coronavirus vaccine development.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said that while the government has, “already been dealing with the private sector,” President Trump will also discuss military partnerships at the event.  

“I think you’ll see Sec. Esper there for example, and General Mark Milley, because the military is involved as well,” she said, “and the military will do what it needs to do to help deploy this vaccine once it is ready to be deployed.”

“It’s a scientific, logistical and military endeavor all at once, and the President will reveal to the country the two people who will be helping to lead the effort on the science side,” Conway said. 

CNN reported earlier this week Moncef Slaoui, the former head of the vaccines division at GlaxoSmithKline, has been tapped to lead the “warp speed” effort to develop a coronavirus vaccine, according to a White House official. 

Another official said four-star general Gustave Perna has also been selected to help oversee OWS. Slaoui will be the chief adviser. Perna will serve as the chief operating officer.

White House economic adviser Peter Navarro blasted ousted Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority director Rick Bright’s testimony before Congress yesterday as “the height of irony” and a “circus thing.”

Navarro pushed back on Bright’s testimony that there is still no “master coordinated plan” to combat the coronavirus.

“What we’re doing is rapidly building up as much as we can. I can tell you that the stockpiles are going to be much bigger than they were. We’re replenishing them, we’re moving on this, and I think we’re going to be fine in the fall,” Navarro said.

Navarro said that more than 100,000 ventilators will be produced in the US by the end of June. 

“Don’t ever worry about ventilators again,” Navarro told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. 

More about Bright’s testimony: Bright criticized the Trump administration for failing to implement a “standard, centralized, coordinated plan” to combat the virus and questioned its timeline for a vaccine. His testimony came a week after filing a whistleblower complaint alleging he was fired from his job for opposing the use of a drug frequently touted by President Donald Trump as a potential coronavirus treatment.

What else Navarro said: This morning, Navarro also commented on today’s latest economic numbers. While US retail sales dropped 16.4% in April, according to the Census Bureau — the largest since the data series began in 1992 — the economy will be a lot stronger than the last 60 days, according to Navarro.

“What it suggests to me is that this has been a manufactured downturn that was done because we wanted to save lives,” he said. 

Stay-at-home orders need to be weighed along with reopening guidelines, Navarro said. While he admitted that he is not comfortable with seeing people gathering in bars in Wisconsin, he said he understands their frustration. 

“If you lock everything down, the direct deaths are less. However, if you shut the economy down, you also kill people through alcoholism, drug abuse, opioid overdoses, depression,” Navarro claimed. 

Watch more:

US stocks opened lower Friday after terrible retail sales numbers, giving up Thursday gains.

America’s retail sales collapsed 16.4% in April, the lowest level since the data series began in 1992, according to the Census Bureau. The unprecedented month-to-month drop was worse than economists had expected and shines a light on how fragile consumer spending is during the pandemic. 

Here’s where things opened:

 All three major indexes are on track for a weekly loss.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is expected to attend the vaccine event in the Rose Garden at noon ET today, CNN’s Jim Acosta reported.

Dr. Fauci — who testified before a Senate committee earlier this week — has not appeared alongside President Trump at the White House since April 29, when he delivered some good news on promising results of remdesivir clinical trials during a meeting in the Oval Office with Gov. John Bel Edwards.

However, he has been spotted at the White House multiple times, including in a Tuesday meeting with the Vice President and other task force members.

About the event: Earlier today, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters President Trump will announce a development in the race to develop a vaccine for coronavirus,

“He’ll have a great announcement in the Rose Garden around the lunch hour about this vaccination development update,” Conway said on the North Lawn of the White House. “He’ll be unveiling two professionals leading the effort, but that comes very quickly on the heels of the FDA cutting a ton of red tape and regulations to allow us to already be developing vaccines.” 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent a letter appealing to her caucus to vote for the HEROES bill today–– a $3 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that was announced by Democrats earlier this week.

The House will vote today on the stimulus bill and a historic rules change to allow lawmakers to vote remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pelosi said the bill will make “a tremendous difference not only in the budgets of the states but in the lives of the American people.”

She urged members to consider the younger generation and the well-being of their own constituents when they cast their vote this afternoon.

Some background: The legislation — which provides funding for state and local governments, coronavirus testing and a new round of direct payments to Americans, sets up an immediate clash with the Senate — where Republican leaders have said another round of emergency funding is not yet needed.

Sen. John Barrasso, a member of Republican leadership in the chamber, warned that the new bill is dead on arrival. “That will not pass. It’s not going to be supported,” he said of the new legislation.

America’s retail sales collapsed to a historic low last month, underscoring just how badly retailers are struggling during the coronavirus crisis.

An advance reading from the Census Bureau showed US retail sales plummeted by 16.4% in April, the largest since this data series began in 1992. It’s also significantly higher than the revised 8.3% sales drop in March.

As people continue to stay at home across much of the country, they’re spending more on food than before but little on other things. And with mass layoffs leaving millions of Americans out of work, discretionary spending has been crunched.

Excluding autos, the overall drop in retail sales was even steeper at 17.2%. Many Americans are putting big purchases like cars on the back burner.

Particularly weak were sales at clothing and accessories stores, which were down a whopping 89.3% in April.

Retailers have been forced to shutter hundreds of thousands of stores during the crisis. Several have filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks, including Neiman Marcus and J.Crew. JCPenney is expected to file for bankruptcy in the coming days.

Some chains, however, have bucked the trend. Walmart, Target, Kroger and others are growing sales, as they benefit from Americans buying more groceries and home essentials as they are sheltering in place. Online shopping for essentials continues to boost Amazon.

In the long-term, analysts expect the crisis to further widen the gap between the industry’s winners and losers. 

While all other counties in Florida have reopened restaurants at 25% capacity under phase one of the state’s reopening plan, restaurants in Broward County will be reopening at 50% capacity starting Monday, according to a press release from county government. 

Miami-Dade County will also reopen restaurants Monday at 50% capacity, Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced yesterday during a press conference alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Other businesses that will reopen in Broward County starting Monday include, retail stores, barber shops and drive-in movie theaters.

All establishments that will be allowed to reopen will have restrictions that will be enforced.

“County and Health Department officials will continue to closely monitor results of antibody testing to ensure that a quick response to hot spots. Law enforcement agencies as well as municipal law enforcement and code enforcement officers are authorized to enforce the requirements of the Emergency Order,” Broward County said in a statement.

Michigan’s Capitol was shut down yesterday as a few hundred demonstrators gathered around the building to protest the governor’s stay-at-home order — but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said their actions aren’t just about her mandate. 

“I think that these are not just citizens who are unhappy about having to stay home. This is a political rally, essentially,” Whitmer said. “When the big float rolls in that is about Donald Trump, when people are showing up with guns, when people are showing up with things like Confederate flags, it tells you that it really isn’t about the lockdown … It’s really an organized political statement.” 

In an interview with CNN’s John Berman, Whitmer said she has asked Vice President Mike Pence for assistance in discouraging the protests. 

“It was acknowledged that I had made the request. But I think that … anyone with a platform has a responsibility to try to encourage people to do the right thing and to stay safe,” she said.

While Whitmer said the state has been successful in bringing down coronavirus cases, there is still a need to practice vigilance to prevent a second wave.

“This is still a very real threat. This is still prevalent across our country and it could still could be unchecked community spread if we don’t continue to be vigilant,” she said. 

Whitmer said the state’s stay-at-home order is apolitical. 

“This is about the public health … Everything I’m doing is trying to save your life, keep you and your family safe,” she said. 

Watch more:

US retail sales dropped 16.4% in April, according to the Census Bureau. The dramatic decline was the largest since the data series began in 1992. 

Excluding cars and parts, sales declined by 17.2%.

As colleges and universities across the country decide if in-person classes will be held on campus in the fall, they will also have to decide if athletic programs will resume, NCAA President Mark Emmert said.

Emmert said the decision to restart college athletics will be up to each individual school, but he said he thinks at least some students must be allowed to return to campuses for some sports to be able to take place

“These are college students that are playing these sports. The one thing that we have been saying loud and clear is you can’t put a student athlete at any greater risk than you would a normal student,” he told CNN on Friday.

Emmert said the NCAA is working with medical advisors and experts to “try to set parameters that allow student athletes to return safely along with classmates.”

“They’re college students that were athletes on their campuses and so you have to have the campuses open in one fashion or another for students before you can have college athletics going on on those campuses,” he said.

Emmert, who is a former university president, acknowledges the challenges universities face and said there is going to be many different systems in place in the fall, both academically and athletically.

“I think that we’re going to see quite an array of openings this fall with schools opening in a variety of different ways. Some totally online, some partially online, some trying to do as much normal, if you will, as they can and mostly it’s going to be a hybrid of all of those things,” he said.

Watch:

Here’s the latest updates on the coronavirus pandemic to start your day:

The US appears to be changing its strategy from trying to completely eliminate coronavirus to reducing infection risks as the nation reopens, a health expert says.

With nearly all states easing social distancing, the nation has now shifted to harm reduction – which focuses on ways to reduce the risk if it cannot be removed entirely, said Dr. Leana Wen, an ER physician and the former health commissioner for Baltimore.

“We had a strategy before. That strategy was we would reduce the number of infections and at the same time build up our capabilities to do testing, tracing, isolation,” she said Thursday night during the CNN global town hall on coronavirus.
“We know that that’s what’s going to be effective, but we are reopening before those capabilities are in place. So in essence, we’re saying it’s too hard. We’re not going to be able to get there. And so we’re switching to a new phase. “

The new strategy includes ways to slow the spread of the virus such as social distancing, avoiding unnecessary gatherings, changing ventilation systems and increasing time outdoors, she said.

As of early Friday, more than 1.4 million people in the US have been infected with the coronavirus, and over 85,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Read more here.

China has called for stable bilateral ties to be maintained between Beijing and Washington after US President Donald Trump heavily criticized the country on Thursday.

“Maintaining stable development of bilateral ties serves the fundamental interests of both the Chinese and US people and is also conducive to world peace and stability,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said.
“Now China and the US should continue to enhance our cooperation against the novel coronavirus to defeat the virus as soon as possible and to treat patients and resume the economic development and production, but doing this also calls for the cooperation on the US side.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked China as coronavirus cases rise in the US.

The US has increased military pressure on China over the last few weeks, amid increased tensions over the South China Sea.

Washington has also accused Beijing of seeking to leverage the coronavirus pandemic to extend its sphere of influence in the region.

Restaurants in Nevada’s casinos are now permitted to reopen for business, the Nevada Gaming Control Board has said.

Most restaurants in the state were permitted to open for dine-in services with social distancing from May 9, under the first phase of the state governor’s reopening plan. But Nevada’s casinos remain shut under the state’s social distancing guidelines.

The casino restaurants will have to comply with the same industry-specific guidance the governor set forth for food establishments, the board said in a notice sent on Thursday.

Restaurants will need to inform the board “whether there is a separate entrance for the restaurant, apart from any entrance to the restaurant off the gaming floor,” according to the notice.
“If there is not a separate entrance for the restaurant, the licensee must articulate to the Board how it will ensure that patrons are only able to enter the restaurant from inside the property without traversing the gaming floor,” it added.

If there is no restroom inside the premises, restaurants will have to outline how customers can use a bathroom outside of the restaurant without stepping onto the casino’s gaming floor.

The business will also need to provide a plan on how it will prevent customers from congregating outside of the restaurant prior to entering, if they are located in a county with a population of more than 100,000.

At least 85,906 people have died in the US from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University’s latest tally of cases. There are 1,417,889 recorded cases of the disease across the country.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

CNN is tracking the spread of coronavirus across the US here.

In 24 states, the number of new coronavirus cases reported each day is generally going down.

In 17 states, the numbers are holding steady, according to an analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. And in nine states, the numbers of new cases are still rising.

But that doesn’t mean it’s time to celebrate and take off face masks in public.

As states remove more stay-at-home restrictions, it will take weeks to learn the health effects.

A poll shows most Americans aren’t yet ready to return to their regular routines.

And a new study reveals the virus can be spread just by talking, with airborne particles lingering for eight minutes.

As of Thursday, more than 1.4 million people in the US have been infected with the coronavirus, and more than 85,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins.

Rick Bright, who filed a whistleblower complaint after being removed from his position as head of the agency in charge of pandemic response, testified for just under four hours Thursday before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s health subcommittee.

Here are a few key points Bright made in his testimony: