Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has moved here
General Motors in partnership with Ventec Life Systems are collaborating to produce respiratory care products, including ventilators, to fight Covid-19.
Ventec will use GM’s logistics, purchasing and manufacturing expertise to build more of their “critically important ventilators” to help save lives.
“We are working closely with Ventec to rapidly scale up production of their critically important respiratory products to support our country’s fight again the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Mary Barra, GM chairman and CEO. “We will continue to explore ways to help in this time of crisis.”
An annual tradition for both Washingtonians and tourists are to see the cherry blossoms bloom every Spring.
But the threat of spreading coronavirus has prompted the city’s public transit system to take additional steps to its already altered scheduled to discourage people from using the public transportation system to go see them during peak bloom.
Trains will be running on a 30-minute operating schedule, and buses will operate on a Sunday schedule, system officials announced in a Friday statement.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority also reminded riders two of its stations — Smithsonian and Arlington Cemetery — close to the Tidal Basin where much of the cherry blossoms bloom will remain closed.
Of course, people continue to show up and look at the bloom, including somebody who broke one of the fragile trees, according to the National Park Service.
Organizers of the National Cherry Blossom Festival had already announced last week it would be canceling its annual event due to the coronavirus outbreak.
For people who are stuck in the nation’s capital or otherwise can’t get to DC, the National Mall has a webcam to view the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin.
The US Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it is closely watching the market and will take appropriate action against firms claiming to offer fraudulent coronavirus tests, preventions and treatments.
The FDA said it is starting to see unauthorized home tests being marketed by some companies. The FDA has not authorized any home test, although the agency said it is working with test developers to create one.
The FDA said it has already sent warning letters to companies that were selling and promoting coronavirus related items that were fakes. The agency said it is also stepping up enforcement at ports of entry, including at international mail facilities. In a separate investigation, US Customs and Border Protection services seized fake test kits at the Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday.
There are 18,170 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, and 241 people have died of the virus, according to CNN Health’s tally of US cases that are detected and tested in the United States through US public health systems.
The total includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced on Friday that the country will be closing its borders to everyone attempting to enter the island, with the exception of residents of the communist-run island.
The measure will go into effect on Tuesday and will last 30 days, the President said during a live televised address to the nation.
Commerce would still continue with other countries. However, tourism will no longer be permitted for at least 30 days, and all foreign visitors who are not residents need to depart the island, Diaz-Canel said.
Cuban health authorities have reported 21 cases of coronavirus and one death.
Yosemite National Park in California is now closed until further notice.
Visitors are not permitted inside the park, and the closure will be enforced around the clock, according to the National Park Service.
Most national parks have announced facility closures, but this is the first full closure of a park.
The NPS attributes the closure to a request from the local health department.
Known for its towering granite cliffs, Yosemite is one of the country’s most treasured national parks. Established in 1890, it was the country’s third national park.
New numbers from the Covid-19 outbreak in Italy show more men are dying from the virus than women, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator told CNN.
“This new data about the male-female ratio is really quite striking,” Dr. Deborah Birx told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday evening.
Birx stressed the importance of underlying and pre-existing medical conditions when it comes to coronavirus infections.
“In Italy, again, most of the individuals who succumb to this disease had three other prior existing medical conditions,” she said.
Epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public Health are being deployed to Albany in southwest Georgia to investigate multiple cases in the area, the health department said in a statement.
Dougherty County, where Albany is located, has 38 cases of coronavirus with six confirmed deaths, the statement said.
The team of experts will focus on investigations at Phoebe Putney Hospital and long-term care facilities in the area, according to the statement.
Albany is about 90 miles north of Tallahassee, Florida.
Parts of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort have closed, a member tells CNN.
Club members have been getting daily briefings via email this week. The latest email, sent on Friday, said the main house, spa, and gym are closed.
The beach club is open, but serving at half capacity, according to the member.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered all beaches in Palm Beach County to close, although it’s unclear if that applies to private beaches and whether there will be a new update Saturday to reflect that information.
Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, a separate resort where the President often golfs, remains open.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization would not confirm that Mar-a-Lago was affected, but said in a statement, “various facilities are temporarily closed given local, state and federal mandates.
“We anxiously await the day when this pandemic is over and our world-class facilities can reopen,” the statement said.
Gov. Kay Ivey has authorized the activation of up to 100 Alabama National Guardsmen on an as needed basis in response to novel coronavirus, a statement from her office said.
The activation was done as a preparedness measure, the statement read, and that the guard had no “determined need for formal assistance” right now.
All hotels in Miami Beach have been ordered to shut down, and a new city-wide curfew will soon take effect, according to a city statement.
Hotels and commercial lodging establishments have also been ordered to evacuate all guests and renters from their premises by 11:59 p.m. Monday, the statement said.
A city-wide curfew will also go into effect starting Tuesday from 12 a.m. until 5 a.m. until further notice, the statement said.
Neither President Donald Trump nor Vice President Mike Pence had close contact with somebody in the vice president’s office who has tested positive for coronavirus, Pence’s press secretary said Friday.
Watch:
The city of Nice in France will impose a curfew beginning Saturday night to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Bernard Gonzalez, prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, told CNN affiliate BFM TV the curfew will be imposed to “stop the gathering of people in the streets.”
“But this is essentially to stop gatherings of people in the streets, even tonight in the center of Nice we are still seeing gatherings of young people. “
Gonzalez added the curfew will start at 11 p.m. local time (6 p.m. ET) and run until 5 a.m. (12 a.m. ET).
The Department of Homeland Security, citing the effort to curb the spread of Covid-19, shut down the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers on Friday.
The academy trains thousands of future officers and agents for 90 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies around the country. This means thousands of agents training to join DHS and other agencies, including Postal Inspection Service, ATF and others, are going home.
It also poses a potential problem as agents and officers for those agencies retire and aren’t replaced by new people who the agencies were counting on.
US officials are looking into a number of options to increase hospital capacity and ease the strain on protective gear like gowns and masks, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force response coordinator, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Friday.
Hospitals may consider “creating Covid wards,” similar to what has happened abroad. They are checking the availability of Veterans Affairs hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers.
In addition to utilizing industrial N95 masks, Birx expressed interest in developing an option for people to “self test” for the virus.
If that becomes a reality, “then we could really eliminate the amount of personal protective devices needed in the testing arena,” she said.
Watch:
Andy Cohen, a television producer and host of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” announced in an Instagram post on Friday that he’s tested positive for coronavirus.
In recent years, Cohen has also served as co-host of CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper.
Read his full post:
A 76-year-old Lucas County man is the first death due to Covid-19 in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine and Health Director Amy Acton announced Friday.
There are currently 169 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ohio.
DeWine ordered on Friday all of Ohio’s senior centers and adult day care services to stop providing care in settings, where more than 10 people, including staff and providers, are in a confined space.
The United States may have tested roughly 170,000 people so far, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force response coordinator, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Friday.
“I know that in general our positivity rate is between 9 and 11%,” Birx said. “If 90% are negative, you can do the calculation of how many tests we have done.”
There are currently more than 17,000 confirmed cases in the United States.
On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters that “tens of thousands of tests are being performed every day.”
On Friday, President Trump said, “We have now a great system. And it’s almost fully in gear, but it’s able to test millions of people.”
Currently, testing occurs through a variety of channels, including public health labs, hospitals and commercial labs. US health officials have said they are working on a system to share that data with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as required by law.
Birx said she expects numbers to rise sharply over the coming days as labs run through a backlog of tests, as well.
Watch:
The XFL, an American football league in its inaugural season, has announced on its website and on Twitter on Friday that the rest of the 2020 season has been canceled.
The league had completed five weeks of its 10-week season.
Commissioner Oliver Luck and president and COO Jeffrey Pollack posted a letter to fans with the news and thanking them for support.
