Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has ended for the day. Follow developments from around the globe here.
Teen drivers in Georgia who were issued driver’s licenses during the Covid-19 pandemic without a road test will have to take the driver’s test after all, according to a new executive order signed today by Gov. Brian Kemp.
A previous executive order signed by Kemp allowed for teens who met certain qualifications to upgrade their permits into licenses without taking a road test. Kemp said the new order will supersede the previous order.
The new order says the Department of Drivers Services shall provide a process for drivers who have been awarded a driver’s license without completing an on-the-road test to complete the on-the-road test no later than September 30.
The on-the-road test may be administered by examiners riding in the vehicle with the applicant during the test or by remote means, the order said.
The Georgia Department of Drivers Services on May 6 said that nearly 20,000 teenagers had received their driver’s license without a road test.
Plans from several major US airlines on how to enforce their mandatory mask requirements, obtained by CNN, reveal that for the most part they will rely on passenger cooperation rather than strict enforcement.
American Airlines: Separate memos American Airlines sent to its pilots and flight attendants shows that customers may be denied boarding for not wearing a mask, but once on the plane “the face covering policy will become more lenient” and “the flight attendant’s role is informational, not enforcement,” the pilot memo reads. It was first obtained by Reuters.
The American Airlines flight attendant memo describes how they should handle customers who don’t comply with the policy: “please encourage them to comply, but do not escalate further. Likewise, if a customer is frustrated by another customer’s lack of face covering, please use situational awareness to de-escalate the situation.”
United: Like the American Airlines’ policy, United makes exceptions for a variety of reasons including medical conditions. Its policy also points to avoiding confrontation.
“If for some reason this policy causes a disturbance onboard, we’ve counseled our flight attendants to use their de-escalation skills, and they do have the flexibility to re-seat customers on the aircraft as needed,” United said in a statement.
JetBlue suggests workers at airports tell customers the following, “To help keep us all safe, customers and crewmembers are now required to wear face coverings.”
The airline says there will be “challenges” to enforcing its policy.
In a nod to how charged wearing masks has become, the policy says:
Its policy also reminds workers that they aren’t allowed to make people leave the terminal for not wearing a mask.
CNN has reached out to Delta and Southwest as well.
Semester at Sea, a college study abroad program, announced that it is canceling its program in the fall of 2020 due to coronavirus concerns and travel restrictions.
“We have the responsibility to cancel the Fall 2020 Voyage,” Semester at Sea CEO Scott Marshall said in a statement Tuesday.
About a month ago, it was announced that half of the fall session would be on the ship and half online, but as the number of coronavirus cases around the world increased, the program was canceled completely, the statement said.
Marshall said the only other time Semester at Sea was canceled was in 1977 due to low enrollment.
“We are confident that this is both the right decision and the best path forward for Semester at Sea,” Marshall said in the statement.
The statement also said the program lost nearly $2 million, including $1.4 million in refunds, when the spring voyage was cut short at the beginning of the pandemic.
“We have taken prudent and significant cost-saving measures to reduce our overhead, including a tiered compensation reduction for all leadership and staff, and significant decrease in travel, materials, and business operations,” Marshall said in the statement.
He also said the company received a loan from the Payment Protection Program as part of the CARES Act.
Read the statement:
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued a new order that live performance venues, bars and nightclubs must remain closed through May 31.
The order will also allow 10 people per 300 square feet in a public space, such as restaurants and dining rooms, and allow the size per table from six to 10 people.
The order will also allow the increase of a childcare facility from “10 to 20 people so long as the staff-to-child ratio set by the Department of Early Care and Learning are also maintained,” he said.
“(Georgians) must continue to follow social distancing and gatherings of more than 10 people remain banned unless there is at least six feet between each person,” he said.
He said shelter-in-place must remain for people who are “medically fragile” through June 12.
Kemp also announced that “starting May 14, summer day camps are allowed to operate if they can meet 32 minimum, mandatory criteria,” and that they “are not allowing overnight summer camps in Georgia at this time.”
Vice President Mike Pence tweeted a picture of the coronavirus task force meeting showing him, along with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, seated distanced from one another with all three in face masks.
Earlier on Tuesday, Fauci testified in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions via teleconference from his home.
In a joint statement released today, Fauci, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, all said they would attend meeting at the White House if needed, leaving their respective versions of quarantine after being exposed to a White House staffer who has coronavirus. Fauci has previously said that he will attend the White House if needed.
“Therefore, providing that they are asymptomatic, screened, and monitored for fever and other symptoms, wear a face covering, and maintain a distance of at least six feet from others, Drs. Redfield, Hahn, and Fauci can and will participate in meetings on the White House complex when their attendance is needed.”
On Monday, Birx and Pence both participated on a call with governors, but they were on video teleconference in separate rooms.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey will allow professional sporting events in the state starting on Friday.
So far, none of the major US sports leagues have announced when their events will resume.
A number of Major League Baseball teams have their spring training games in Arizona, and Ducey has previously said the state may be able to accommodate games for other teams that normally play elsewhere.
Gyms and fitness centers will also be allowed to reopen with special precautions starting Wednesday.
The governor also announced that the stay-at-home order will be allowed to expire on Friday, but residents are advised to continue social distancing.
“This is not a green light to speed,” Ducey said. “This is a green light to proceed.”
It’s almost 7 p.m. in the US. Here are some of the top stories you might have missed.
The researcher behind the influential model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington said on Tuesday that the United States is “speeding towards relaxing social distancing,” leaving the country on an “unfortunate trajectory” as states begin to reopen.
The model predicts that there will be 147,000 deaths in the US by August 4.
“When we started off making projections, we had assumed that all the states were going to sort of follow the New Zealand model, which is to keep social distancing in place until transmission gets to a very low level,” Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of the IHME, told CNN.
Explaining the increased death projection, Murray pointed to relaxed social distancing and increased mobility – essentially people moving around more, which may lead to more contact and transmission.
“We’re seeing upward trends in case numbers in a number of states, and big swings up in mobility,” he said.
Watch here:
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Tuesday that the city would reopen in a “very slow” manner starting May 16.
“We have peaked, we have come down significantly, and the experts say to watch that trend over a period of 14 to 21 days. We’re well over 21 days of a downward trend,” Cantrell said.
In phase one, Cantrell said, the city is mandating residents to wear face covering in public.
Churches will be allowed to open at 25% capacity or at 100 people.
Gyms can open under 25% occupancy without group activities. Personal training is approved in this initial phase, Cantrell said.
As for restaurants, the mayor emphasized the importance of contact tracing. She said restaurants would need reservations, so they can have a log for contact tracing.
“They will be required to have reservations, and … if someone walks in, they have to treat it as a reservation, meaning name and phone number,” she said.
Close contact businesses, such as spas, massage parlors and tattoo shops, will not be allowed to reopen in phase one, Cantrell said.
There are at least 1,366,350 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 82,105 people have died from the virus, according to a Johns Hopkins University’s tally of cases.
Johns Hopkins on Tuesday reported 18,962 new cases and 1,423 deaths.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the Department of Public Health “plans to have 1,000 staff deployed in the weeks ahead.”
He said there’s “nearly 250 staff in the field today” contact tracing..
Kemp announced an online tool that officials are calling the “Healthy Georgia Collaborative,” which will “streamline contact tracing across the state.” The tool will allow “Georgians to identify contacts and monitor symptoms.”
Kemp encouraged anyone who is contacted by Department of Public Health staff to participate.
“We need your help to defeat this virus. Together, we can continue to take measured steps forward in the days ahead,” Kemp said.
Kentucky is now aware of two patients who have been diagnosed with Covid-19-related pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said.
One case is a 10-year-old and is critically ill in the intensive care unit, and the second patient is a 16-year-old, who is doing well and is in a regular medical bed, Stack said.
The teenager was admitted to the hospital out an abundance of caution and to be monitored closely, the health director said.
Stack said the 10-year-old patient is showing signs of improvement.
“The children who get sick with this can have cardiovascular collapse and require supportive measures to maintain their blood pressure, or respiratory collapse requiring breathing support with a mechanical ventilator,” Stack said.
USA Gymnastics has announced Tuesday that it will not hold this year’s US Gymnastics Championships, in addition to other events scheduled for 2020.
According to a statement on its website, the deferred events include the GK US Classic, the US Gymnastics Championships (for women’s and men’s artistic gymnastics) and the USA Gymnastics Championships (for rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics).
USA Gymnastics is in the process of rescheduling events leading up to the Olympic Games in 2021 and plans to announce new dates for Olympic Trials in the coming weeks, the website statement says.
The US Gymnastics Championships, previously scheduled for June 4-7, 2020, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, will take place in the original venue June 3-6, 2021.
A key coronavirus model often cited by the White House has again raised its coronavirus death projection, now predicting 147,000 deaths in the US by August 4.
That’s an increase of about 10,000 deaths compared to the model’s estimate from this weekend, which was already higher than earlier projections.
On Sunday, Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, tied the earlier increase to “explosive increases in mobility in a number of states.”
Compared to Sunday, the model now projects about 2,450 additional deaths in New York, 2,000 additional deaths in Massachusetts and 1,700 additional deaths in Pennsylvania. Other states saw sizable increases as well. North Carolina, for example, is now expected to see about 3,200 more deaths, and Maryland about 1,200 more.
Some states saw decreases in projected deaths, however, including Georgia, which is now expected to see 1,500 fewer deaths. The model’s projection for Indiana has also gone down by 1,600 deaths.
On its website, IHME said exact reasons for the changes vary by state. But the institute pointed to “epidemiological indicators and key drivers of viral transmission,” like changes in testing and mobility.
IHME also pointed to the easing of social distancing policies, but said “the full potential effects of recent actions to ease social distancing policies, especially if robust containment measures have yet to be fully scaled up, may not be fully known for a few weeks due to the time periods between viral exposure, possible infection, and full disease progression.”
Watch here:
Washington state is starting a contact tracing program to keep track of the spread of coronavirus as more businesses open up.
“This initiative is a transition from one strategy to another,” Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday afternoon.
Inslee said people who test positive for Covid-19 will be contacted by a “professional interviewer” to identify other people who could have been exposed. Those contacts may be asked to test and self-quarantine until they get a negative result.
He said hundreds of members of the National Guard will be used as part of the contact tracing group, but they will not have law enforcement power to compel people to comply.
He added keeping infected people from spreading the virus is the key to getting life back to normal.
“This virus doesn’t have any legs,” Inslee said. “It can’t travel without us.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk defied Alameda County’s shelter-in-place orders and reopened a Tesla factory this week amid coronavirus concerns — igniting an ongoing riff between the billionaire and California officials who argue his business operations continue to disregard workers’ safety.
Musk threatened to move his company out of the state and refused to halt operations at the Freemont, California, plant despite countywide orders that only allow essential businesses to operate at this time. Musk also tweeted, “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”
“We should be outraged by a billionaire that has gotten so much from its partnership in California, but continues to put workers in unsafe conditions, continues to union bust, continues to wave his finger at California [as if] we’re supposed to allow that and let him throw his temper tantrum,” Gonzalez said on CNN Tuesday.
Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, has remained vocal on social media against Musk’s defiance of public health orders.
Over the weekend, she shared a colorful and direct message on Twitter: “F*ck Elon Musk”
On Tuesday, Gonzalez tweeted to her followers: “Who is tired of billionaire companies that get to break labor laws, worker safety standards and stay-at-home orders without accountability while small mom & pop businesses are required to play by the rules?”
She followed the message with a raising hand emoji in agreement.
CNN previously reported county health officials ordered Musk to cease operations at the plant Tuesday. Tesla is also expected to submit a site-specific plan to Alameda County today for review, according to an email sent to the vice president of health and safety at Tesla.
President Trump also joined the conversation on social media Tuesday tweeting, “California should let Tesla & Elon Musk open the plant, NOW. It can be done Fast & Safely!”
Musk replied to the President, “Thank you!”
Watch here:
Mayor Eric Garcetti said there will be “no radical changes “coming to Los Angeles in the next week or so.”
Garcetti emphasized the plans in Southern California will proceed slowly with reopening so restrictions don’t need to be tightened.
On schools: Garcetti said the county needs to be doing about 15,000 tests a day in order to possibly reopen schools in September or August.
He said it is going to be important to test students multiple times.
“There’s no question we’re going to have to have our young people not just testing once and you’re good to go to school, but at least weekly if not more frequently to make sure nobody infectious is going to school even if they don’t have symptoms,” he said.
In higher education, the California State University system announced plans to cancel nearly all in-person classes through the fall semester to reduce spread of coronavirus earlier today.
Watch here:
The NBA has denied speculation that the league is engaging in discussions to host games at centralized locations.
On the day MGM Resorts released a reopening plan, NBA spokesperson Mike Bass remained steadfast in denying serious talks have taken place with MGM or other properties to host games.
A spokesperson for MGM tells CNN that “as far as the NBA is concerned, we don’t comment on rumors or speculation.”
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke to CNN’s Jake Tapper following a report that the county is likely to remain under some sort of stay-at-home order for months.
The mayor said he wants to “reassure” residents that this doesn’t mean “we’ll stay exactly as we are for three more months.”
Garcetti’s comments to CNN came after Los Angeles Health Director Barbara Ferrer said “with all certainty,” the stay at home order will be extended another three months. Restrictions will continue to be lifted, while the order remains, Ferrer explained.
Los Angeles County’s current order holds until May 15, but the stay-at-home order in California is open-ended.
Addressing the order, Garcetti explained, “There’s no radical changes in the next week coming.”
He continued: “That doesn’t mean three weeks from now, six weeks from now, two months from now, we won’t continuously edit that order and make sure we open up safely as much as we can, and if it gets dangerous, we may need to step back at times as well. I’ve always told people the hard truths.”
Watch here:
