Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Erin Bromage, an epidemiology expert and biology professor, joined CNN’s "New Day" to discuss how to safely celebrate the Memorial Day holiday. 

Can people have a safe barbecue?

“We can do it safer, but never safely enough,” Bromage says. 

Some tips from him:

Are masks needed at a backyard gathering?

“If you’ve got loud friends, yes,” Bromage says.

“Again, if you can maintain the distance while you're outside, you are fine without masks unless you're in an area that is a bit of a hotspot at the moment. Have them with you. … The more households you have, then you may want to think about having masks.”

Can guests go inside your house to use the bathroom?

“Indoors [is] the most risky environment we have for transmission of this virus. But … there's things that you can do to make it just a little bit safer," Bromage says.

He shared these tips:

Can people go in the pool?

“Pool water that is properly maintained — and that is important, properly maintained — will be safe,” Bromage says, adding that social distance with people from other households should be maintained in the water too.

Alcohol complicates things

“When we drink a little, we get a little closer, we get a little more touchy … We just need to be careful with that,” Bromage says. He warns that there should be a plan for getting rid of bottles and other garbage quickly after a barbecue to minimize the risk of transmission. 

Watch:

A new report found that at least 151,964 Americans died due to alcohol, drugs or suicide in 2018 and it warns Covid-19 could exacerbate the so-called “deaths of despair.” 

The study by Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust showed deaths due to alcohol and suicide rose, while drug overdose deaths declined from the previous year.  

In 2018, alcohol deaths rose 4% for the year and suicide deaths were up 2%. Death rates for opioids declined, but the death rates for synthetic opioids such as fentanyl increased, as did death rates for methamphetamine, ecstasy and prescription stimulants. 

The report said that drug-induced deaths among American Indians, Asians, blacks and Latinos all increased from 2017.

“The profound racial health disparities seen in these data show that many ethnic minority groups are being left behind in our response efforts,” said Dr. Benjamin Miller, chief strategy officer with Well Being Trust. 

Remember: Well Being Trust, a national public health group, also sounded the alarm earlier this month saying as many as 75,000 American’s could die because of drug or alcohol misuse and suicide as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Economic downturns, stress due to isolation and a global pandemic could significantly increase these types of deaths, it said.

The Transportation Security Administration said it is making some changes to its security screening procedures at airports, but did not include passenger temperature screening in its list — something a federal official has told CNN the agency is considering.

The changes include several ways to prevent officers from handling travelers' belongings and travelers from handling shared X-ray bins.

The agency said passengers should hang onto their boarding passes, rather than handing them to TSA officers, to prevent cross contamination. Instead, officers will visually review the boarding pass.

The TSA also said that when a bag does not pass X-ray screening, passengers may be responsible for unpacking the bag and sending it through the X-ray machine again, rather than an officer searching through it by hand.

The agency is encouraging travelers to pack food items in a clear plastic bag to make it easier for officers to check them. Food items sometimes require further inspection by TSA.

Read more here.

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 5 million people worldwide and killed at least 328,000. If you're just tuning in, here are the latest headlines:

The Supreme Court and courts across the country will see an increasing number of pandemic-related disputes in the coming weeks concerning prison conditions and whether prisons are violating the constitutional rights of inmates by failing to adequately protect them against the coronavirus.

Inmates are raising concerns about what they call the deliberate indifference of prison officials during a serious public health crisis and asking for home confinement or appropriate resources to improve hygiene and block the spread of Covid-19. For their part, state and federal officials are pushing back hard arguing that they are trying to respond to evolving risks while battling an unprecedented global pandemic.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor sent up a flare up this month after inmates argued that their prison conditions amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

The issue is further complicated by the fact that federal law that governs prison conditions requires an inmate to exhaust a grievance process set up by correctional officials before turning to litigation.

That system was put in place to keep frivolous litigation out of courts and give prisons the chance to remedy a problem before a lawsuit. But it never envisioned a pandemic like Covid-19 that is ripping through prisons filled with at-risk inmates.

Read more here.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has lashed out at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo amid a growing war of words between Beijing and Washington.

Zhao also questioned the US response to the coronavirus pandemic, asking “why didn’t the US government take any prevention measures from January through til March, why did it advise people not wear masks for so long, why did it fail to stem the spread of virus[?].”

Tensions over the pandemic and trade have reignited tensions between the US and China in recent weeks.

The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it had approved another potential arms sale to Taiwan.

Zhao said in response: “China is firmly opposed to the US arms sales to Taiwan and has made solemn representations to the US. We urge the US side to strictly abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three Sino-US joint communiques, and stop arms sales to Taiwan and military links between the United States and Taiwan to avoid further damage to Sino-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

President Trump criticized China's response to the pandemic in a series of tweets posted late Wednesday night, accusing Beijing of "trying desperately to deflect the pain and carnage that their country spread throughout the world."

He claimed the Chinese government "could have easily stopped the plague, but they didn’t!"

A series of US states have been combining two different types of coronavirus test results in their total numbers, potentially providing a muddled picture of the pandemic as the nation eases restrictions.

Virginia, Texas, Georgia, and Vermont have said they've been adding two numbers to their daily totals: viral test results and antibody test results.

Why this is a problem: Combining the two types of tests overstates a state's testing ability, a crucial metric as nearly all states ease coronavirus restrictions. Experts have consistently emphasized that for states to reopen, there has to be adequate testing and tracing.

States' response: Texas, Virginia and Vermont said they've recognized the data issue and moved to fix it in the past few days.

Georgia health officials said they've been adding both tests to their daily totals since April in line with the methodology from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more here:

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At least 4 states have combined results from viral and antibody tests. That's potentially misleading as states reopen

As the world slowly eases its way out of the Covid-19 lockdown, we're on the verge of a new era in air travel.

We could soon encounter armies of robotic cleaners patrolling airport concourses, disinfecting check-in counters and ticket kiosks. We might see passengers wafting through security and baggage checkpoints without touching anything.

And we might be boarding aircraft where hand gestures and eye movements open overhead stowage bins and navigate our inflight entertainment screens.

Everything could become touch-free. Out go the tailored uniforms, in come astronaut-style anti-Covid-19 flight attendant suits.

Most of these concepts are trials but could soon morph into realities that become as ubiquitous as the biometric gates and body scanners to which we've already become accustomed at airport terminals.

Read more here.

At least 93,439 people have died in the US from coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University's latest tally.

There are at least 1,551,853 cases of the disease in the country. The US has the highest number of cases in the world.

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

CNN is tracking coronavirus cases across the US here.