Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has ended for the day. Get the latest updates from around the globe here.
Schools in Arizona will be able to bring kids back into classrooms in the fall, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said Thursday.
“We’re planning ahead,” Ducey said in a news conference, adding that exact guidelines will come out next week.
He said social distancing rules will be extensive at the beginning of the school year.
Youth sports leagues will be allowed to take place during the summer, but the state plans to issue guidelines limiting the number of spectators.
“I see him everywhere,” said Maura Lewinger of her late husband Joe, who died from Covid-19 two months ago.
“He’s everywhere. He’s in my children’s faces. He’s in every song that I hear. He’s in all my thoughts.”
Lewinger first joined CNN’s Erin Burnett for an emotional interview in early April, just days after Joe’s death. On Thursday, the pair reunited, and Lewinger talked of her coping.
“It’s hard to believe that it’s two months already. I explain how I get through the day by saying that I pretend. I pretend that this awful thing hasn’t happened to us and our family,” she detailed. “That’s the only way to get through the minutiae of the day.”
Joe Lewinger was 42 when he passed, and left behind his wife and three children. Maura revealed that the family speaks regularly about their loss and grief.
“We talk about him. Our family is based on communication. We just always talked about everything,” she said, telling Burnett that her three kids know that “listening to each other and supporting each other is the foundation of family and great relationships. So that continues.”
Shortly after his death, in a gut-wrenching conversation that touched many viewers, Lewinger described the final moments she spent with her husband, saying goodbye over FaceTime.
“I thanked him for being the most amazing husband, for making me feel cherished and loved every single day,” Lewinger told Burnett in April.
More than seven weeks since that interview, Lewinger said the outpouring from the community has been overwhelming.
“What is so striking is the messages from complete strangers. Whether they reached out on Facebook or through another friend or these connections and just getting their love and support to us has been amazing.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he believes the reason for the state’s recent spike in Covid-19 cases was from a large backlog of test results that were recently submitted.
Dr. Kathleen Toomey is Georgia’s public health commissioner.
“None of that is being caused by any one incident anywhere, we think it’s just because those tests were all dumped at one time. Our numbers continue to look good, they looked even better today,” Kemp said.
Georgia currently has 45,099 coronavirus cases and 1,963 deaths from the virus, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.
California is reporting the largest single-day increase in confirmed cases since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
California Department of Public Health data shows 2,617 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours. California’s previous high was 2,603 cases on May 5.
The total number of Covid-19 cases in the state is 101,697. The virus has claimed 3,973 lives in California alone.
New Mexico will allow businesses across the state to reopen on Monday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during news conference on Thursday.
She said restaurants may operate indoor dine-in service at 50% occupancy with social distancing.
Hair salons, barber shops, tattoo parlors, and nail salons may open at 25% occupancy.
Indoor malls may open at 25% occupancy with the food courts remaining closed, gyms may operate at 50% occupancy with Covid-safe practice, and hotels may operate at 50% occupancy, Lujan Grisham said.
The 14-day quarantine order for people arriving at the airport is amended for business and certain travelers. Bars will remain closed, mass gatherings are still prohibited, face coverings are still required in public and it is recommended to stay home as much as possible to minimize the spread of Covid-19, she said.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp asked anyone in the state who is planning to attend in-person services at place of worship “to heed the public health advice.”
“As you know here in Georgia, we never closed places of worship, but we encouraged congregations to hold online or drive-in services to mitigate the risk of exposure. Now many churches and religious institutions are beginning to reopen their doors for traditional services, and we ask that Georgians continue to heed the public health advice if they decide to attend in person,” he said.
He also thanked faith leaders who “have answered the call and held remote services,” and said their “leadership has literally saved lives in our state.”
Dr. Chris Murray, a researcher behind an influential coronavirus model from the University of Washington, said Thursday that he still see “many deaths coming,” despite the coronavirus model projecting 132,000 deaths – which is 11,000 fewer than it forecasted a week ago.
“The major difference here is that we’ve been expecting the upsurge in mobility that started at the end of April,” Murray told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.”
“We see it in the cellphone data and has continued all the way through May. We thought that would have translated into much more transmission of the virus by now, and we’re seeing that in some states but not most. And so it’s a bit of a surprise we haven’t yet seen transmission take off.”
Blitzer asked Murray if it was too early to start thinking about coronavirus projections in the fall.
Murray cited three factors that may impact where the US will be with the virus in the fall.
Murray went on to say that the US “should expect transmission to start to go back up in September and then really pick up speed towards January.”
Watch:
Texas is set to allow outdoor sporting events to host spectators up to 25% capacity starting on Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday.
Abbott signed the expansion to his phase two order last week and will allow outdoor pro sporting events to host spectators at 25% capacity, becoming the first state in the United States to do so.
With the exception of some counties, leagues throughout the state will have to apply to state health officials in order to be approved.
The PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab on June 11-14 in Fort Worth, Texas, will be the first major sports event in the state, but have announced they will not allow fans.
The signed order does not include high school and college sports.
Tyson Foods announced in a statement that more than 20% of its employees at the Texas Sherman plant have tested positive for Covid-19.
“Of the 1,604 team members who work at the facility and were tested, 326 tested positive,” the company’s statement Thursday said.
Tyson said it would disclose verified test results at other plants where it is conducting facility-wide testing to health and government officials, team members, and stakeholders.
Gov. Gina Raimondo announced today that phase two of Rhode Island’s reopening will begin on June 1.
The governor said everything will be posted for general business, retail, personal services and indoor dining on the website reopeningri.com later today.
The governor said there would be major changes. Among them, relaxing retail rules so more people can go into stores, allowing indoor dining, opening gyms, barbershops and salons.
The governor explained that indoor dining rules would include allowing 50% capacity, taking reservations and prohibiting self-service style food.
Personal services effected would include hairdressers, barbers, hair-braiders, nail salons, tanning facilities, tattoo parlors and probably many other categories, Raimondo added.
The governor said personal services would also have a capacity limit, and things like waiting rooms should not be used.
Movie theaters and bars in Idaho will be allowed to open earlier than first planned under a new order from Gov. Brad Little.
Those businesses will be included in Saturday’s start to the state’s phase three plan, the governor said Thursday. That’s two weeks sooner than originally announced.
Gatherings of up to 50 people also will be allowed, but all businesses must follow social distancing requirements.
New data on cancer patients who were sick with Covid-19 finds those treated with the controversial combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin were more likely to die than those who weren’t.
Early data published in the medical journal The Lancet on Thursday showed that patients treated with the two drugs, once strongly promoted by President Trump, were nearly three times as likely to die within about a month. The researchers found no significant increase in risk for patients given either drug alone.
The researchers from across North America and Europe looked at data on 928 cancer patients who also were infected with Covid-19 in March and April. Overall, 121 patients total — or 13% — died during the study period and within 30 days of being diagnosed with Covid-19.
“Right now, we’re working to quickly get information about why some patients with cancer become infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and identify the factors that affect disease severity and death,” Warner said. “We’re also interested in the effects of treatments that are being used to treat patients with cancer who have COVID-19.”
Other studies have also found a higher risk of death among coronavirus patients treated with the drugs. One is an antibiotic and the other is a malaria drug also approved for inflammatory diseases such as lupus.
There have been 24,767 positive cases of coronavirus and 1,135 deaths since the pandemic began in the Colorado, according to the state’s department of public health and environment.
CDPHE’s website said 4,196 people have been hospitalized and 160,796 tests have been conducted.
At least 273 workers have tested positive for coronavirus at JBS meat processing plant in Greeley, according to CDPHE’s website. Five workers have tested positive and one worker has died from the coronavirus at JBS’ corporate offices, said CDPHE.
Restaurants have reopened at 50% for in-person dining, according to a statement on Gov. Jared Polis’ website.
The state’s restaurant guidelines for reopening include:
The governor added that people at risk of getting coronavirus, such as the elderly, should not go to restaurants.
Researchers are learning more about the risks cancer patients face if they become sick with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has swept the world.
Patients whose cancer was getting worse or spreading were more than five times more likely to die in the space of a month if they caught Covid-19, researchers told a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology this week.
Even if their cancer wasn’t spreading, coronavirus infection nearly doubled risk of dying, according to the early data, published in the medical journal The Lancet on Thursday.
The researchers from across North America and Europe looked at data on 928 Covid-19 cases from between March and April.
Overall, 121 patients total — or 13% — died during the study period and within 30 days of being diagnosed with Covid-19.
The new study comes with limitations. More research is needed to determine whether similar findings would emerge among a larger group of patients, and there are questions about whether Covid-19 impacts patients with certain types of cancer differently.
“This is early and evolving data, and more time and analysis will be needed to confirm and expand on these findings,” Warner said in a statement.
Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry appeared Thursday on CNBC, where he said a decision to resume the National Basketball League’s season could happen next week.
Lasry, co-founder of Avenue Capital, said on CNBC’s “Halftime” that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will present multiple options to resume the NBA season at the league’s board of governors meeting on Friday. Lasry said that the board could then take the weekend to consider the options and meet again early next week to vote on the proposals.
“I think at the end of the day, we’ll be in Orlando at Disney. The question is going to be will we have all 30 teams there or will we have 24; whatever the number will end up being. But hopefully, by the middle of July, we start playing again,” Lasry said.
Michigan has 56,014 Covid-19 cases and 5,372 deaths related to the virus in the state, according to Department of Health and Human Services Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun.
Khaldun said that the cases are continuing to decline, and that Michigan is able to perform about 14,400 Covid-19 tests per day. If the positive trends continue, she said, then they will be able to continue to reopen.
Khaldun also said that by the end of this week, the state will have trained 500 contact tracers.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer listed some of the expenditures from the last 10 weeks, including $251 million spent on personal protective equipment, $25 million on hospitals and $22.8 million on direct care workers. She also said that approximately $8.5 billion dollars was paid in unemployment.
Need for federal funds: Whitmer called on the federal government for more financial support to get through the current budget crisis.
While the state is well-managed, she said, Michigan needs additional funds to pay for essential services like schools and public safety.
According to Chris Cole, the state’s budget director, the state has lost approximately $6.2 billion in revenue for this fiscal year.
Cole said that this crisis is “as bad, if not worse than the Great Recession, and the only way we can made it through that recession was with direct support from the federal government.”
Whitmer announced that she has taken a 10% pay cut for the rest of the calendar year in an effort to help the state budget. Her cabinet has taken a 5% pay cut, she said.
The latest Basketball Hall of Fame class, which includes the late Kobe Bryant, may still be enshrined in 2020 despite the original ceremony date being postponed.
Basketball Hall of Fame President John Doleva announced on Thursday that the enshrinement scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 28 was postponed but left the door open for a possible October event.
Doleva says that the Hall of Fame will make a final decision on the 2020 enshrinement the week of June 15.
US stocks closed lower on Thursday, dragged down by losses in the energy and consumer sectors.
The S&P 500, the broadest measure of the US stock market, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite both snapped three-day winning streaks.
Investors also had to reckon with more dire economic data released Thursday. Another 2.1 million people filed for first-time jobless claims last week, and first-quarter GDP was revised down to an annualized -5%, from -4.8% before.
Here’s where the markets closed:
The Florida Board of Governors approved the State University System of Florida blueprint for reopening campuses in the fall during a virtual board meeting on Thursday.
The blueprint is comprised of five categories: a healthy campus environment, a healthy community environment, Covid-19 virus testing, contact tracing and surveillance and academic program delivery.
This blueprint will be used as a framework for the 12 universities within the state university system of Florida as they make their individual plans, which will be presented during the next board meeting on June 23.
The decision about reopening for the fall and what that looks like will be left to each individual university. The entire system includes more than 350,000 students.
“The blueprint is to provide system guidance with clear expectations for each university, but also then to develop an individualized university plan to reopen its campus. So you know, this blueprint is the first stage,” Kitson added.
Chancellor Marshall Criser, who presented the blueprint at the meeting, echoed the need for flexibility from each university.
He continued: “We want to have plans that will ultimately ensure that we are able to continue to pursue our academic mission, and at the same time, understand how we can best create a healthy environment for our students, our faculty, and our staff.”
