Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates from around the globe here.
Former MLB star Alex Rodriguez says he hopes Major League Baseball will return in July despite the pandemic.
“I know that Major League Baseball officials are working around the clock,” Rodriguez told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “I think they will let science lead the way.”
The former Yankees star remains optimistic that Major League Baseball will return in the summer, but said it’s not just players that officials need to think about before the start of the season.
Rodriguez continued to lay out what would need to occur for national baseball to return in the middle of a pandemic.
“The 30 owners and the players association have to come to an agreement on what is going to be the payment.,” he said. “Will there be additional concessions with those people in the stands, without any fans? And those are going to be big issues that are being talked about right now. After they come up with an agreement, hopefully July is the right time.”
Burnett discussed baseball games underway in Taiwan where fans are sitting apart from one another and in South Korea, where the stands are empty. Asked if the former MLB star could imagine playing without fans, Rodriguez said, “no.”
“The game is all about fans,” Rodriguez said. “They’re the shareholders. They’re really owners of our game. We have the privilege to play, or manage or broadcast in my case now, but fans are a big part of it. The fans come out to the stadium, but they also watch at home. And America’s never been hungrier for sports and baseball. It is America’s favorite pastime, and I do think America needs its comfort food and that’s baseball.”
Contact tracing was performed inside the White House after Vice President Mike Pence’s press secretary Katie Miller tested positive for coronavirus, a senior White House official said.
Everyone who Miller came in contact with tested negative including her husband, Stephen Miller, senior adviser to the President.
More on this: The White House is making sure staff wears masks in the residence. And Covid-19 tests and temperature checks have been boosted throughout the West Wing.
The official also said the entire West Wing is being sanitized more frequently. The official said “it’s not perfect” but they are trying to boost measures to be an example to businesses around the country on how to deal with the virus.
North Dakotans are now permitted to travel to other states without having to quarantine for two weeks when they get home, Gov. Doug Burgum said Friday.
State Health Officer Mylynn Tufte on Friday amended the previously issued order that required anyone returning to North Dakota to quarantine for 14 days.
“Although the travel quarantine order now allows for domestic travel, the NDDoH (North Dakota Department of Health) continues to strongly recommend that North Dakotans limit travel to essential errands, travel necessary for essential work and to provide medical or home care to others,” Tufte said.
Those traveling for essential work or for essential supplies and services were and continue to be exempt, according to the orders.
A new study is starting to see if adding an anti-inflammatory drug to the antiviral drug remdesivir can help coronavirus patients recover more quickly.
The US National Institutes of Health said it was beginning a randomized, controlled clinical trial of remdesivir plus baricitinib, usually prescribed to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
Remdesivir has emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for use against Covid-19. One NIH-sponsored trial showed it reduced the duration of illness by a few days. The hope is that adding another drug will help patients improve even more quickly.
Researchers hope baricitinib, sold under the brand name Olumiant, can help control a condition called a cytokine storm in which the body’s immune system overreacts causing severe inflammation. It causes some of the organ damage and failure seen in severe cases of Covid-19.
The agency said it expects to enroll more than 1,000 people in the double-blind study in the US and internationally.
Half the participants, who must be hospitalized with serious cases of Covid-19 to take part in the study, will receive baricitinib orally and remdesivir intravenously. The other half will receive placebo tablets and remdesivir through an IV, the NIH said.
Researchers are will try and determine if the drug combination leads to a shorter recovery time. They’ll also look for secondary outcomes between the two groups, the NIH said, including death.
A combination of three antiviral drugs plus an immune system boosting drug seemed to help patients recover more quickly from coronavirus infections, doctors in Hong Kong reported Friday.
They said the approach needs more testing but it could offer another treatment possibility for Covid-19 patients. Currently the only authorized treatment is the experimental drug remdesivir, which also shortens the duration of illness but which is in limited supply.
Kwok-Yung Yuen at Hong Kong University and colleagues tested the HIV drug combination of ritonavir and lopanivir along with the general antiviral drug ribavirin and a multiple sclerosis drug called beta interferon.
The patients all had mild to moderate symptoms. Some doctors think treating patients earlier in the course of the infection might be better.
Yuen’s team gave some patients only the HIV drugs, often sold under the brand name Kaletra. Others were randomly assigned to receive the ritonavir/lopanivir combination plus the antiviral drug ribavirin and beta interferon.
The patients who got the cocktail tested negative for coronavirus after seven days on average. Those who just got the HIV drugs were positive on average for 12 days, the team reported in the Lancet medical journal.
The patients given the cocktail also felt better quicker.
“Early triple antiviral therapy was safe and superior to lopinavir–ritonavir alone in alleviating symptoms and shortening the duration of viral shedding and hospital stay in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19,” the researchers wrote.
According to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases in the United States, at least 77,126 people have died from coronavirus.
The first known US coronavirus-related fatality was Feb. 6, which was 92 days ago.
Kansas now has 6,501 positive coronavirus cases, which represents an increase of 357 from yesterday.
The state also has 152 coronavirus-related deaths, which includes five new deaths from Thursday, said Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Kansas is currently monitoring 76 clusters that account for nearly half of the total number of state’s Covid-19 cases, Norman said Friday.
Washington state is allowing five of its 39 counties to move on to the second phase of the reopening plan.
Businesses in Columbia, Garfield, Lincoln, Ferry and Pend Oreille counties will be allowed to offer in-store retail services. Restaurants will also be allowed to serve dine-in customers, but with less than half of their normal capacity. Salons and pet groomers can also operate.
“We recognize COVID-19 is impacting some parts of our state in different ways and some counties will be ready to move forward earlier than others,” Secretary of Health John Weisman said in a written statement.
Although Washington state had some of the first hotspots in the coronavirus outbreak in the US, the five counties have fewer than three confirmed coronavirus cases, and no recorded deaths. Gov. Jay Inslee said he is considering requests from three other counties.
It’s almost 7 p.m. ET in the US. If you’re just tuning in, here are some of the top stories today:
Mississippi’s “safer-at-home” order has been extended two weeks until May 25, Gov. Tate Reeves said today.
The governor laid out strict social distancing guidelines and sanitation protocols for salons, barbershops and gyms to follow when they begin to reopen on Monday.
“Let’s all be honest. We are not doing this because there is no risk associated with you going there. There is risk every single time you leave your home. There will be risk if you choose to go to any of these businesses that have reopened. I’m doing this because we cannot allow these small businesses to fold,” Reeves said.
Mississippi has reported 9,020 positive cases of coronavirus and 409 deaths, state health officer Dr. Thomas Dodds said.
South Carolina will begin universal coronavirus testing of all 40,000 residents and staff at 194 nursing homes across the state beginning May 11, state epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said Friday.
Bell described the process as “a phased approach to this expansion of testing,” with 74 of the 194 facilities starting their testing on Monday.
The majority of those 74 facilities have volunteered to take part of this first round of testing, Bell said.
An antibody treatment being developed to treat rheumatoid arthritis will go into testing in patients with coronavirus later this month, developers said.
GlaxoSmithKline said the drug, called otilimab, might help calm down an immune system overreaction called a cytokine storm. Cytokine storms are blamed for some of the most severe symptoms of coronavirus infections and can lead to fatal organ damage.
The phase II trial will include 800 adults hospitalized with pneumonia from coronavirus, Glaxo said.
Otilimab is a monoclonal antibody – a natural immune system molecule that is targeted to neutralize an inflammatory compound known as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor or GM-CSF. In rheumatoid arthritis, the inflammation can cause joint damage and pain and studies indicate it may be involved in cytokine storms in patients infected with viruses.
Another treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, anakinra, showed promise in helping patients with severe Covid-19, according to a small study published in the journal Lancet Rheumatology on Thursday.
“We believe that otilimab may be able to help to block the effects of one of the types of cytokine (known as GM-CSF),” Kathleen Quinn, a spokesperson for Glaxo, said in an email. “We plan to start a Phase II clinical trial by the end of May.
The patients will all receive standard care for the novel coronavirus. Some patients will get a placebo and others will get the otilimab infusion to see if it improves their condition.
The trial is expected to run through December.
Kentucky is aiming to test every resident and staff member at all 286 skilled nursing facilities in the state, Health and Family Services Secretary Eric Friedlander said Friday.
He said he expects it will take a couple of months to get through all facilities.
Here’s a breakdown of cases and deaths at long-term facilities provided by Gov. Andy Beshear:
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced that restaurants across the state will be allowed to reopen May 11 for limited dine-in services.
Restaurant restrictions that will remain in place include, according to McMaster:
McMaster also announced that all boating restrictions put in place by an executive order on April 16 have been lifted, effective immediately.
There are at least 1,279,546 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 76,706 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases.
Johns Hopkins reported 22,523 new cases and 1,044 reported deaths on Friday.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
Pools, splash pads, water parks, and swim beaches in Arkansas will be allowed to open on May 22, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday.
People who enter the areas will be screened and those with a fever or who have had contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 will be turned away, Hutchinson said.
The governor said pool chemistry should be tested twice a day, and high-touch areas should be disinfected “frequently.”
Slides, diving boards and any other areas where people form lines should be marked with notices about the 6-foot distancing.
Arkansas is reporting 3,747 confirmed coronavirus cases and 88 deaths, said Dr. Nate Smith with the Arkansas Department of Health.
It’s almost 5 p.m. ET in the US. If you’re just tuning in, here are some of the top stories today:
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced today that the state is on track for a phase one reopening on May 15 but cautioned “if our trends change, we will adjust that date as needed.”
Northam said that the stay-at-home order that had been in effect will now become a “safer-at-home order” and detailed what restrictions would be lifted in a phase one reopening.
Here is what would be allowed in phase one:
Here’s what won’t be allowed to reopen in phase one:
“We are not opening the floodgates here, we’re not flipping a light switch from closed to open,” he said. “We will move forward cautiously with science and with data and safety as our criteria.”
Northam said he expects phase one to last at least two weeks but “it may last longer depending on what the data shows.”
The restaurant industry has lost more than three decades of jobs in the last two months, according to analysis from the National Restaurant Association, a leading industry group.
Eating and drinking places lost 5.5 million jobs in April which followed a net decline of nearly a half-million jobs – three times more jobs than any other industry, according to the group.
“It is critical that Congress provide targeted relief for the restaurant industry and its employees,” Kennedy added.
