May 3 coronavirus news

Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic has moved here.

President Donald Trump said Sunday night that he was first briefed about coronavirus on January 23 and indicated the US intelligence agencies would be issuing a statement in the coming days.

While Trump claims he was told that “there could be a virus coming in,” that January 23 briefing came three days after the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the United States.

The President was also briefed by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar about the threat of the coronavirus during a January 18 phone call, according to multiple reports.

Trump also said that at the time the US intelligence community was not “competently run.”

“And the intelligence agencies, which have now – now, now – because before they weren’t, which are now very competently run with some great people … the intelligence agencies will tell you that tomorrow,” Trump said.

CNN and other news outlets have reported that the President’s daily intelligence briefing included information about the coronavirus outbreak in China and its potential to spread to the United States as early as January 3. It is not clear whether Trump – who infrequently reads the President’s Daily Brief compiled by intelligence officials – read the information at the time or whether officials briefing the President in person raised the issue.

A total of 373 employees and contract workers at Triumph Foods, a pork processing plant in Buchanan County, Missouri, have tested positive for coronavirus despite showing no related symptoms, according to a press release from the Department of Health and Senior Services.

The department encouraged anyone experiencing symptoms to reach out to their health care provider, the release said.

The latest numbers come after the the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced Thursday more than 120 employees tested positive for Covid-19.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told reporters Sunday that the state’s Covid-19 cases were “at the worst” plateauing.

He commended Kentucky residents for sticking to the state’s guidelines.

“You are saving thousands of lives,” he said. “I’m very proud to be your governor.”

Saying that he took yesterday off in order to recharge, Beshear gave both Saturday and Sunday numbers for cases and deaths.

Saturday’s report showed an additional 173 cases, with 5 deaths. Sunday’s report showed 80 new cases and zero deaths, but Beshear himself cast doubt on those numbers, saying there had been a lull in testing.

“This is why we average,” he said. “No day right now just has 80.”

He added that a report will come out tomorrow on cases in Green River State Prison.

“We believe they are going to be tough numbers to see,” he said.

Beshear also responded to yesterday’s protest over pandemic measures by calling it “reckless.”

“All I asked that folks did if they disagree is to do it safely,” he said. “What I have heard is that speakers, and leaders, and even state representatives or state senators asked people to take off their masks, told people that social distancing is optional, and one even said they’re not going to take the vaccine when it’s created. That’s just reckless.”

Beshear said more test kits will be arriving in the state in the coming week, and that over the course of the next few days he will be focusing on preparing businesses for phased reopenings.

France will not impose a 14-day quarantine on travellers from the Schengen Area of the European Union and the UK, Elysée Palace confirmed to CNN on Sunday.

This is regardless of the nationality of those traveling to France.

Sunday’s statement appears to be a direct contradiction of Health Minister Olivier Véran’s statement a day earlier of a proposed measure to quarantine all people entering France from “abroad, Corsica and other overseas territory.”

The French government will move to extend a state of emergency over coronavirus for around two months in a set of measures to be proposed to Parliament on Tuesday.

The Schengen Area is a zone of 26 European countries that do not have internal borders and allow people to move between them freely, including countries such as Spain, France, Greece, Germany, Italy and Poland.

Elysée Palace would not comment on whether travellers from the US would be subject to quarantine measures if entering France.

The President of Peru, Martín Vizcarra, approved a supreme decree to reactivate the country’s economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a statement released by the Office of the Presidency Saturday. 

Speaking at the Council of Ministers, Vizcarra said “we must begin economic activities and seek balance to generate jobs,” according to the statement,    

Vizcarra explained the decree has been analyzed by health experts and is based on studies. It will be carried out gradually and has four phases. Each phase will last approximately one month starting in May and ending in August.  

The Peruvian president also announced that because of coronavirus concerns, he has signed an early release pardon to non-violent prisoners that are pregnant and mothers who are in prison with their children.  

A vial of the drug Remdesivir.

The federal government will begin shipping “tens of thousands” of courses of remdesivir early this week and will decide where the medicine goes, according to Daniel O’Day, chairman and CEO of Gilead Sciences, the maker of the investigational drug.

In early results from a trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, remdesivir was found to shorten the duration of illness in patients with severe Covid-19, but it had no statistically significant effect on whether patients died.

CNN has reached out to the US Department of Health and Human Services for comment on how the drug will be distributed.

Brazil surpassed 100,000 cases of Covid-19, according to the latest figures released by the Health Ministry Sunday.

The number of confirmed cases increased by 4,588 in a 24-hour period, bringing the total to 101,147. 

There are at least 1,154,340 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 67,447 people have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases in the United States.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and US territories, as well as repatriated cases and those in the US military, veterans’ hospitals and federal prisons. 

CNN has an interactive map tracking coronavirus cases across the country.

Sunday marks the lowest recorded day for ventilator usage in Georgia since the pandemic began, according to a tweet from Governor Brian Kemp.

Hospitals began submitting data on ventilator usage on April 8, the tweet said.

Kemp also said that 964 ventilators were in use Sunday and that another 1,916 ventilators remain available.

There are a total of 2,880 ventilators in the state, according to the tweet.

County Library Service employee Stephen Duran hands out unemployment paperwork at the Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library in Tampa, Florida.

More than 1 million Florida workers have filed for unemployment benefits, according to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO) website.  

The state has received 1,025,657 unique unemployment claims for the period between March 15 and May 2, the DEO site says.  

Miami-Dade County leads the state with 66,842 unemployment claims filed. The hospitality industry has been hit the hardest with 115,313 claimants in “accommodation and food services” filing for unemployment throughout the state, the DEO website says.

To date more than $700 million has been paid to claimants, about 60% of which was funded by the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program.

The state of Illinois has reached an agreement with a handful of banks that will allow residents without bank accounts to cash their stimulus checks free of charge, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a Sunday news conference.

One in five Illinois households are either underbanked or unbanked, Pritzker said.

The partnered institutions include Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, US Bank, Fifth Third and First Midwest Bank, Pritzker said.

Other banks are welcome to join the agreement, Pritzker said. 

A person walks through a nearly empty terminal at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on March 30.

Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington has announced that American Airlines will only use the center concourse at the airport, or gates 23-34, beginning Monday. As result, due to reduced activity, the airport will temporarily suspend flight operations from Terminal C, Gates 35-45.

This closure will include gate 35X, American’s commuter gate that required passengers to be bused to and from their planes.

Schumer speaks during a press conference in Washington on April 21.

New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling for the federal government to stop predatory lenders from preying on people who are in desperate need of emergency funds as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause economic hardship for millions of Americans, in a press release issued Sunday.

He said that “loan sharks” will stop at nothing to drown everyday consumers and small businesses “in a cascade of debt that could far outlast the coronavirus itself.”

“Interest rate loans that can hover around 800% aren’t just eye-popping –– they’re downright shameful,” the release said. 

Schumer wants the nation’s federal regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to act and stop rolling back regulations that enable predatory lenders to prey on people.

There were 19,417 new coronavirus tests conducted in Illinois within 24 hours, which is the highest number ever performed in a single day, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said during a Sunday afternoon news conference.

Pritzker said that 2,994 new coronavirus cases were reported Sunday for a total of 61,499.

An additional 63 deaths were reported for a total of 2,618 coronavirus deaths, Pritzker added.

Scams on the rise: Officials in Illinois have heard of several coronavirus-related scams including door to door sales of testing kits and fake products to treat the virus, Pritzker said.

There have been instances of people soliciting donations for fake charities and fraudulent efforts to obtain stimulus checks, according to Pritzker.

The state Attorney General will use the power of his office to hold people accountable for their actions during the coronavirus pandemic including attempts to scam people, Pritzker added.

Most ninth-grade girls worry about schoolwork, friends and crushes. Lately, however, Valerie Xu has focused on face masks.

The 15-year-old from Addison, Texas, says she wanted to do something about the lack of protective gear for medical workers during the coronavirus pandemic. She also wanted to combat stories stigmatizing Asian Americans during the outbreak.

Armed with resourcefulness and a teenager’s urge to fit in, Xu raised donations and delivered 10,000 protective masks to a Dallas medical center.

Some background: The donation drive started with a conversation Xu had with a family friend, a Florida emergency room doctor who was forced to wear the same protective mask for several days.

Since Xu wanted to make a local impact, she launched a GoFundMe to purchase masks for the UT Southwestern Medical Center, the largest facility near her home.

So far, it has raised more than $3,800. Xu researched vendors in China and picked two suppliers, donating $1,200 of her own money to the cause.

She said her campaign so far has collected a total of 11,200 masks –– 10,000 surgical and 1,200 FFP2 masks, which are equivalent to N95 masks in the US.

Read more about Xu’s impact.

People exercise in Granada, Spain, on May 2, during the hours allowed by the government to exercise for the first time since the beginning of a national lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Some businesses will start to reopen in Spain on Monday as the country starts “Phase Zero” of loosening coronavirus restrictions.

Following eight weeks of strict confinement since a country-wide state of emergency was declared on March 14, the process of transition in Spain will be gradual. 

The four phases will be determined by a “series of indicators, such as the strategic capacities available in the healthcare system,” officials say.

Some of these indicators include being able to test and identify sources of contagion and the ability to isolate and control those sources.

Some other context: Spain’s Ministry of Health said another key to reopening the economy is the availability of hospital beds.

For every 10,000 residents, hospitals have to be able to add between 1.5 to 2 intensive care unit beds, and between 37 to 40 beds for severely ill patients, as outlined by the Ministry.

Across Spain, masks will be mandatory on public transport as of Monday.

Here are some of the reopening guidelines for businesses:

Asset management company and hotel group Ashford Inc. announced on Saturday that it will return all funds provided by the Small Business Administration due to the agency’s recently changed rules, according to a press release. 

Calling the federal guidance “inconsistent,” the company defended itself and said that Congress designed the Paycheck Protection Program to allow companies that own multiple hotel properties to obtain separate loans for each property. 

Ashford said that they could not have known that appropriations would be insufficient to cover other businesses.  

Asset management company Ashford (AHT) and its related luxury hotel REITs received more than 56 loans totaling nearly $59 million, SEC filings show.

The Wall Street Journal and the Dallas Morning News first reported the news on Ashford.

Connecticut closed 11 state parks Saturday as limits were reached for proper social distancing, according to the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

Sleeping Giant and Southford Falls state parks, both near New Haven, were among those closed early. All these parks were reopened Sunday morning.

DEEP has only closed two state parks indefinitely, both because geographic features made it difficult to maintain a safe distance.

If the crowds at parks continue, there may be indefinite closures, Healey said.

“That’s an option that’s on the table,” Healey said. “We want to keep them open during this public health crisis, but we want to do it as safe as possible.”

Afghanistan released 98 Taliban prisoners from Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul on Saturday evening as part of the government’s efforts to contain coronavirus, according to a statement from the National Directorate of Security.

The release is in line with a decree Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed on March 11 to release Taliban prisoners as the peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban began.

The prisoners were released based on their health conditions, age and length of remaining sentence.

So far, 650 Taliban prisoners have been released since March 10, and the government will release 850 more, the statement added.

“The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan remains open continuing joint technical work with the Taliban in order to advance the peace process,” the statement read.