Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has ended for the day. Follow the latest developments from around the globe here.
Some antibody tests, which check for prior Covid-19 infection, had high rates of false positives in screenings performed by a consortium of California laboratories, according to a recently released report.
A false positive means someone would be told they’d already had coronavirus when they had not – a potential danger as people could then think they were immune to the virus when they’re actually still vulnerable.
Of the 12 antibody tests that were studied by the COVID-19 Testing Project, one of the tests gave false positives more than 15% of the time, or in about one out of seven samples. Three other tests gave false positives more than 10% of the time.
“That’s terrible. That’s really terrible,” said Dr. Caryn Bern, one of the authors of the study that looked at the 12 tests. She said while it’s unrealistic to think all tests will be 100% accurate all the time, their false positive rates should be 5% or lower, or ideally 2% or lower.
The COVID-19 Testing Project is a consortium of researchers and physicians at the University of California San Francisco, the University of California Berkeley, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, and the Innovative Genomics Institute.
America’s largest meatpacking union warned that without increased safety measures for workers, food supply itself is at risk.
The union’s warning comes after news that President Trump is expected to order meat processing plants to stay open.
Marc Perrone, the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said the union wants daily testing for both workers and their communities, access to the federal stockpile of personal protective equipment, enforcement of physical distancing at plants, and paid sick leave for infected workers to keep employees safe.
The union urged the Trump administration to lay out “clear and enforceable safety standards,” including constant monitoring by federal inspectors and ensuring worker access to representation.
These workers “put their lives at risk daily to keep us fed,” the UFCW said.
“Simply put, we cannot have a secure food supply without the safety of these workers,” Perrone said.
“We share the concern over the food supply,” he said, ending with a call to leaders at all levels: “All of our country’s elected leaders — federal and state — must work together to ensure that we keep these essential workers safe and our country’s food supply secure.”
Three meatpacking facilities in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area now account for over half of all the confirmed coronavirus cases in that county.
Of the total 920 confirmed positives in Brown County, 503 of them are either employees at or linked to JBS USA, American Foods Group, or Salm Partners, according to the county health department.
All three facilities were inspected by county, state, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, and passed inspections, according to the Brown County Health Department. JBS chose to voluntarily shut down their Green Bay plant on Sunday prior to President Trump’s executive order.
The Brown County Health Department said they are not able to prove these outbreaks are a result of conditions at the facilities and said they cannot prove that is where the spread is occurring.
US officials were part of the World Health Organization delegation that traveled to China in the early weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak, but they were not part of the group that traveled to Wuhan, a State Department spokesperson said.
It is unclear why the US officials did not travel to the city at the center of the outbreak. CNN has reached out to the State Department for clarity.
While in Wuhan, the WHO delegation visited the airport, a hospital, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, including one of their labs.
They did not visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to a WHO visit summary. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in mid-April that “we still have not had Western access to that facility so that we can properly evaluate what really has taken off all across the world and how that began.”
Although the State Department acknowledged that Americans were part of the WHO delegation, Pompeo has repeatedly called out China for denying requests from the Trump administration to allow American scientists on the ground.
“This President and this administration worked diligently to work to get Americans on the ground there in China, to help to the World Health Organization try to get in there as well. We were rebuffed,” Pompeo said on Thursday. “The Chinese Government wouldn’t let it happen, indeed just the opposite of transparency.”
In less than three months, more Americans have died from coronavirus than the number of US service members killed in the Vietnam War, according to updated numbers from Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday afternoon.
The American death toll in the Vietnam War was 58,220, with the fighting stretching out for more than 10 years.
According to Johns Hopkins’ tally of cases in the United States, at least 58,365 people have died in the US from coronavirus in just 82 days.
The first known US coronavirus-related fatality was Feb. 6.
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Minnesota’s Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen said he wasn’t surprised by President Trump’s proposed executive order to work to keep meat processing plants open.
Petersen said Minnesota farmers are facing a “very sobering situation” as they try to keep their plants open.
Minnesota started “depopulating” its hog and turkey populations — about 70,000 animals each week, he said.
Petersen said the state is open to anything that would get processing plants running again, but it has to be done in a way that makes workers feel safe.
Out of the 24 hog, poultry and turkey plants operating in Minnesota, only four of them have been closed, according to Petersen. The problem is that most of their hogs go to two of the plants that were closed in South Dakota, he said.
Wyoming will allow gyms and personal services business like hair and nail salons to reopen Friday under tight restrictions.
Under the new rules taking effect May 1, gyms and salons will have to maintain social distancing and also keep contact information of all their customers to allow for contact tracing in case of a future outbreak. Gatherings of 10 or more people are prohibited, including inside businesses.
In-person dining will continue to be prohibited and restaurants can only allow up to five people at a time indoors to wait for their food to be picked up. All employees in a retail businesses must wear masks.
Some businesses in North Dakota are set to reopen on Friday, Gov. Doug Burgum announced today.
Qualifying businesses, such as bars and restaurants, recreational facilities, health clubs and athletic facilities, cosmetologists, salons, barber shops, tattoo studios, tanning and massage facilities, will be asked to adhere to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and recommendation from the North Dakota Department of Health.
These guidelines include maintaining 6 feet of distance, providing contactless payment systems and informing all employees and customers that they should avoid entering the facility if they have a cough or fever.
A Turkish military plane carrying thousands of donated medical supplies landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Tuesday evening.
The plane was met by Turkish Ambassador to the US Serdar Kılıç and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker.
In remarks on the tarmac, Kılıç said he would deliver a letter from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to President Trump.
He said the shipment was dispatched upon Erdogan’s instruction and “testifies to the Turkish people’s will to support our longstanding ally, United States, in its ongoing difficult fight against Covid-19.”
Reeker said the shipment was “an important demonstration of NATO unity and the strength of US-Turkey ties and our strong historic relationship.”
“On behalf of the Secretary, the President and the people of the United States of America, thank you for this generous gift to the United States,” he said.
According to the Turkish Presidency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the cargo contains 500,000 surgical masks, protective coveralls, 1,500 goggles, 400 N95 masks and 500 face shields.
The Turkish Presidency said that there were 2,000 liters of disinfectant also on board.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said gyms in 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties will be allowed to reopen on Friday, May 1.
Gyms must reduce capacity to 50%, utilize social distancing, and remove shared equipment, he said.
Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey also spoke at the news conference announcing the state has met the White House’s new testing guidance.
“President Trump asked last night for states to do 2% of their population of testing each month. We have already done that in the month of April, and we are making plans to do that going forward,” Piercey said.
“About 135,000 tests have been done this month. That’s about 2% of our state’s population,” she added.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said she worked with President Trump and the Department of Interior to ensure that a July 3 fireworks display at Mt. Rushmore National Memorial would happen.
“I want to thank the President and the Department of Interior for working with us to make it happen,” she added.
When asked about implications of a large gathering during the nationwide Covid-19 pandemic, Noem was unconcerned.
“We’ll continue to evaluate what the crowd looks like and how we’ll be able to facilitate that event but regardless of how many people will be there, the fireworks will go off and I can’t think of a better way for us to celebrate America’s birthday,” Noem said.
The White House coronavirus task force did not meet for a third day in a row, a source familiar with the schedule tells CNN.
This is rare given that until this weekend, the task force had met nearly every day since it was assembled, though there was a brief break on Easter weekend.
This change could be an indication of what’s to come.
CNN reported Monday that White House intends to scale back the large meetings. Smaller groups of members on the task force are still meeting, the source added.
The task force has its first meeting this week scheduled tomorrow.
Major League Baseball will allow teams to offer refunds on tickets for missed games beginning Wednesday, a source familiar with the league’s decision tells CNN.
This is not a league mandate, and each team will be free to make its own decision regarding ticket refunds.
MLB still considers all games missed so far this season as being postponed, not canceled.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned Americans could be in for “a bad fall and a bad winter” if the United States isn’t prepared for the return of the coronavirus.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged tonight a lack of coronavirus testing needed in order to safely reopen businesses across the country.
He continued: “We don’t yet have treatment, and we don’t yet have a vaccine. We’ve allocated $25 billion at that whole area of testing and treatment and vaccine in the bill that we just passed last week. That’s all part of reassuring everyone that they can safely go back to work.”
There are at least 1,008,066 coronavirus cases in the US, and at least 58,126 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said businesses must continue to try to telework where possible as part of a list of rules they must follow if they plan to reopen in the weeks to come.
He said there must be a phased return to work for businesses and they must be able to provide onsite temperature or health checks. Masks and any other necessary personal protective equipment will also be mandatory.
Beshear said businesses must close common areas such waiting rooms, cafeterias and break rooms, and will need to enforce social distancing, limit face-to-face meetings, and provide sanitizer or hand washing stations.
Businesses will be required to make special accommodations for those especially at risk and there will need to be testing plans in place if an employee starts showing symptoms, he added.
Bank of America sent 184,000 Payroll Protection Applications to the Small Business Administration on behalf of clients, but only 1,000 of those loans have been approved so far, according to a letter the bank shared with CNN.
Although the SBA didn’t immediately return CNN’s request for comment, a senior administration official defended the agency by citing the number of applications approved across all lenders.
The SBA has approved over 500,000 loans valued at over $55 billion as of Tuesday afternoon, the official told CNN.
Bank of America has “another 48,000 client applications ready for the SBA,” Athanasia wrote in the memo.
“On Monday – after a 10-day delay waiting for additional funding from Congress, and then developing the additional guidelines for the program – the SBA began accepting PPP applications again,” Athanasia wrote.
The memo added, “since they reopened at 10:30 am on Monday, we have been uploading these to the SBA through their slower, more manual process.”
The board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences issued new guidelines on Tuesday to make films that are only distributed digitally or on streaming platforms eligible for Academy Awards for the first time.
The change will apply to the 93rd Academy Awards, scheduled for February 27, 2021, only.
Previously, the Academy has required films to have a commercial theatrical run in order to be eligible for Oscars.
“The Academy supports our members and colleagues during this time of uncertainty. We recognize the importance of their work being seen and also celebrated, especially now, when audiences appreciate movies more than ever,” the statement continued.
