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New York City is currently reporting 56,289 coronavirus cases and 1,867 deaths, according to the city’s website.
Friday’s new totals mark an increase of 6,582 cases and 305 deaths since Thursday.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement Friday that they have obligated $1.1 billion in federal support to New York state.
New York has 102,987 confirmed coronavirus cases and 2,935 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Despite recent support from members of his coronavirus task force for a nationwide stay-at-home order, President Trump said Friday he’d “leave it up to the governors.”
As justification for this decision, Trump claimed the states currently without stay-at-home orders are “not in jeopardy.”
Facts First: It’s not true that the eight states without stay-at-home orders at the time of the President’s remarks are “not in jeopardy” or at risk from the coronavirus. Though they are not current “hot spots of the virus,” all of them are dealing with at least 100 reported cases and 1/4 of them have over 1,000 cases.
Missouri, South Carolina, Utah, Iowa, Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming did not have statewide stay-at-home orders in place as of Friday evening.
Although South Dakota, North Dakota and Wyoming are among the five states with the least amount of cases in the US, South Carolina and Utah have 1,554 and 1,095 cases respectively.
Missouri’s stay-at-home order goes into effect Monday. The state had at least 1,864 cases before Gov. Mike Parson issued the order Friday evening.
The USNS Comfort, a hospital ship docked in New York City, will now take patients aboard that are not showing symptoms of Covid-19, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency fact sheet on the ship.
Previously, patients had to have a negative test from their discharging hospital before being admitted on to the ship.
The change in procedure was done in an effort to bring more patients aboard the USNS Comfort.
Patients who are brought aboard the ship without symptoms of Covid-19 will be isolated and tested upon arrival. Any patient that tests positive for coronavirus will be transferred to a hospital that is treating Covid-19 patients, according to the FEMA fact sheet.
The USNS Comfort will also begin taking patients from the Javits Federal Medical Center so the Javits location can being treating Covid-19 patients.
President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both stumbled over medical details, and spread inaccurate information, while touting new coronavirus tests and potential treatments.
Trump mentioned anti-malaria drugs that are being tested as potential treatments, saying that the clinical trials are “having some good results,” even though public health officials say the results are months away.
Moments later, Vice President Mike Pence said the Food and Drug Administration had “approved” a new method to test the coronavirus, even though the FDA only granted emergency authorization for the test, which requires a much lower standard.
Facts First: Both comments overstate the medical realities a bit. For Trump, he has repeatedly touted and expressed unbridled optimism about the drugs, even without conclusive scientific data to back up his claims. For Pence, he oversold the FDA’s confidence in the new Covid-19 test.
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly touted two pharmaceuticals, chloroquine and the chemically similar hydroxychloroquine, as potential “game-changers” that could end the pandemic and save lives.
This is the continuation of a glaring messaging gap within the administration. Trump has breathlessly promoted the drugs while the public health officials are cautiously waiting for scientific evidence, and tamping down expectations, by saying that the information out there already is only anecdotal and not proven on a large-scale.
Later in the press conference, Pence brought up the new blood test for coronavirus antibodies. “And the big news, of course, over the last few days was that the FDA, once again, in near record time, has approved an antibody test developed by Cellex,” Pence said.
This isn’t quite accurate. The FDA uses very specific terminology about medical drugs, tests and equipment, and the FDA would likely disagree with the notion that it “approved” the test. These terms are important, as medical professionals need clarity to be sure their use of these items is safe for every patient.
What really happened was that the FDA granted “emergency use authorization” for the tests. This essentially means that the FDA will let health care providers use the tests during this crisis, even though it hasn’t gone through all the steps that medicines and medical tests usually go through before receiving a full “approval.”
President Trump said Friday that he could not assure the state of New York will have enough ventilators to deal with coronavirus patients, after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state is days away from running out of the lifesaving machines.
Asked during a White House press briefing whether he could assure that the state would have enough ventilators, Trump said, “No, they should have had more ventilators at the time.”
Trump added that the White House thinks Cuomo is “well served with ventilators. We’re going to find out, but we have other states to take care of.”
“I wish they did the original orders (for ventilators) three years ago. They would have had all the ventilators they needed,” Trump continued, before adding, “Although, even then they wouldn’t.”
Some context: On Monday, Trump told reporters that he thinks every American who may need a ventilator in the next few weeks will have access to one.
“I do think so, yes,” Trump told a reporter in the White House Rose Garden. “I think we’re going to be in very good shape.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills issued an executive order today mandating that travelers coming into Maine, regardless of their state of residency, self-quarantine for 14 days to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, according to a release from the governor’s office.
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) said it believes that when it comes to playing tennis, “it is in the best interest of society to take a collective pause from playing the sport we love.”
There are at least 273,880 cases of coronavirus in the US and 7,077 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases in the country.
So far on Friday, 28,667 new cases and 1,094 deaths have been reported, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins.
The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.
Wyoming is the only state not reporting a death from coronavirus.
When asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta about the level of preparedness for a pandemic like Covid-19, President Trump said while he knew pandemics were “one of the worst things that could happen … most people thought it wouldn’t and most people didn’t understand the severity of it.”
Trump was responding to Acosta’s question about Department of Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar saying in April 2019 that a “pandemic flu” is what kept him up most at night.
Trump said he didn’t think Azar “was speaking about a specific pandemic,” adding, “I always knew that pandemics are one of the worst things that could happen.”
“Most people thought it wouldn’t and most people didn’t understand the severity of it,” Trump said. “I assume he was talking about the possibility.”
When pressed by Acosta on why the administration doesn’t have enough PPE supplies, Trump blamed it on previous administration, and once again repeated the false claim that the Obama administration left the military with no ammunition.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Friday issued a statewide stay-at-home order effective Monday, April 6 until Friday, April 24, 2020.
The order stated individuals living in Missouri must avoid leaving their homes or places of residence unless necessary.
Like many state’s stay-at-home orders, it does not prohibit people from going out for “essential services,” such as grocery stores, gas stations, banks or outdoor recreation, as long as precautions are taken and social distancing requirements are met.
Most US states and DC have some kind of stay-at-home order in place.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said his state has limited personal protective equipment.
“We try to buy. It’s really hard,” he said. “The federal government buys most all of it.”
He said that while the state is trying to manufacture PPE, he also asked residents of his state to donate any available PPE supplies.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that he has had extensive conversations with Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Defense on how to respond to the growing number of deaths in NYC.
De Blasio said more than 100 federal personnel, including members of the military, have been sent to NYC with necessary equipment to “help deal with this crisis on the mortuary side.”
De Blasio also said they will hire more personnel as needed to “address this very painful reality.”
Some public health experts at the US Centers for Disease Control felt “pressured” by the White House to draft recommendations that all Americans wear masks or facial coverings while in public, according to a senior federal health official involved in discussions.
A source told CNN the “CDC was under intense pressure to do this quickly.”
“It was more than we were comfortable with, the source added. “Things were done very fast. It’s a credibility risk to the agency. It’s not fabulous for credibility. There is a real worry that this will provide a false sense of security to the public. Also, up until now the CDC has been telling people it’s okay not to wear a mask, and it’s going to be recommended that we do. It runs the risk of confusing the public.”
President Trump again signaled his resistance to issuing a national stay-at-home order to slow the spread of coronavirus, despite comments from Dr. Anthony Fauci this week questioning why such an order has not been issued for all states.
The majority of states have issued orders for their residents to stay in their homes, but the federal government has not mandated people do so.
“I guess we’re close to 90 percent anyway,” Trump said of the number of people mandated to stay home. At least 41 states and the District of Columbia have issued stay-at-home orders.
“States that we’re talking about are not in jeopardy,” Trump said, referring to the handful of states that have not yet issued these orders.
“I like that from the standpoint of governing, and even from the standpoint of our Constitution,” the President said of his inclination to allow states to make their own decisions about ordering people not to leave their houses.
The federal government has issued guidance recommending that people stay home to the extent possible and avoid gathering in groups larger than 10.
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The US coronavirus death toll reached 7,077 on Friday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The increase of 1,094 deaths today is the most number of deaths in a single day.
The previous record for the most new coronavirus deaths added in a single day as reported by CNN was 946 on Wednesday.
Five infants have tested positive for coronavirus in Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan said at a press conference Friday afternoon.
The youngest of the infants is just one-month-old, Hogan said.
New York’s Central Park field hospital is already at half capacity on its third day treating Covid-19 patients, according to the director of the facility.
There are currently 34 patients being treated there, including four in their ICU, and it’s expected the pop-up hospital will reach its 68-bed capacity in the next few days, according to Dr. Elliott Tenpenny, director of the international heath unit for Samaritan’s Purse.
Tenpenny says that while all the patients are adults, they are comprised of all ages, and many of them have severe shortage of breath and a need for oxygen.
The patients are from Mt. Sinai hospitals in Brooklyn and Queens, whose emergency rooms were overrun with patients with nowhere to go.
Tenpenny says the patients will likely take 2-3 weeks to recover.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson defied calls to put his state under a stay-a-home order, one of only nine states remaining without such a directive.
He argued that his “targeted approach” is “a good approach for Arkansas.”
“It’s understandable that (Dr. Anthony Fauci) looks at that as a solution, a nationwide shutdown order. What’s important is that has not been given. The (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) — I watch their guidelines regularly — and they have not indicated that’s an appropriate or necessary step across the country. And so we’ll continue to look at those guidelines that’s offered from the federal level.”
Arkansas currently has at least 687 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 12 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
