Domestic Updates
- An internal report from the White House, written by the CDC and FEMA projects the fears of public health experts; reopening will lead to an increase in daily # of cases and deaths. The report predicts that the US will see around 200,000 new cases each day by the end of May, up from about 25,000 cases now and that deaths will hit 3,000 a day by June 1.
- Chicago and LA are reporting a steady growth in cases and in rural America, Logansport, IN., South Sioux City, NE., and Marion, OH., have surpassed New York City in cases per capita, (mainly due to mass outbreaks in meat processing plants).
- After reopening, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas are all seeing an increase in daily case #’s. Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and Arizona, who are planning to more or less fully reopen soon, are also seeing a rise in case #’s. Click here to check out a state-by-state tracker.
- Tensions flared in NYC over the weekend as social distancing seemed to only be enforced by the police on non-white New Yorkers. Pictures and videos of swarms of predominately white New Yorkers disobeying social distancing were released, (with no police presence nearby). In contrast, videos were released of police using excessive force on non-white New Yorkers who were not disobeying social distancing. An NYPD officer has been placed on desk duty and stripped of his badge, pending an IAB investigation.
- The # of deaths have dropped in both New York and New Jersey. 226 people in New York died yesterday, the lowest one-day death toll in 5 weeks.
- Following NY and PA, Gov. Murphy announced that all public and private schools in NJ will remain closed for the rest of the school year.
- Following reports that antibody tests have been faulty, The FDA announced that all companies selling antibody tests must submit data proving accuracy and apply for emergency authorization within the next 10 days, or their test will be removed from the market.
- The state of Florida, besides Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, will reopen most businesses today, although restaurants and retail spaces can only open at 25% capacity.
- According to the CEO of Gilead Sciences, the federal government will begin shipping “tens of thousands” of courses of remdesivir early this week and will decide where the medicine goes.
- Carnival Cruises says that it hopes to resume operations in August, and JCrew has filed for bankruptcy.
Global Updates
- As nations around the world begin to reopen their societies, social customs are changing. Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney, and Taipei can be looked to as examples of what life may look like until a vaccine. No hugging or shaking hands, limited capacity at restaurants and public spaces, required masks in schools and public transport, sports with no fans and regulations for players, temperature checks and staggered start times at schools, and COVID tracking apps are just some of the ways that life is changing around the world.
- South Korea has started to lift its restrictions, and authorities released a 68-page guide offering advice on what to do in different public situations and how to approach reopening for offices. On May 13, high school juniors will return to school in order to prep for college decisions. All other students will return to school by June 1.
- 4 Chinese companies have already started clinical vaccine trials on humans.
- Only high school seniors will return to school in Wuhan, China starting on Wednesday, in order to prepare for the university exam. Schools around China have reopened with many precautions and preemptive measures in place.
- Australia and New Zealand are considering a “travel bubble” where citizens of both countries could travel back and forth, with no quarantine required.
- Australia, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore agreed to a similar travel bubble that will loosen restrictions for “essential travel” between the countries.
- The UK reported the lowest daily increase in death toll (288 fatalities), since the end of March.
- Italy will reopen some of its airports, construction sites, and factories today, and Italians will be able to travel to visit their families. In addition, parks and public gardens have reopened for the first time in 8 weeks.
- Spain began their “four-stage” reopening plan today, with most of Spain entering “phase 0” which will see some small businesses reopening. Spain recorded its lowest death-toll since its lockdown began with 164 fatalities in 24 hours. The islands of La Gomera, La Graciosa and El Hierro, and Formentera in the Balearics are moving to “phase 1”, which will ease restrictions on movement and allow up to 10 people to gather.
- Germany recorded the lowest increase in 24-hour death toll since March 25. Merkel will meet with the German ministers this week to discuss reopening schools, bars, and restaurants as well as a plan for sporting events.
- Mosques in Iran reopened today in 132 cities and Friday prayers, which the gov’t banned in early March, will also resume in low-risk areas.
- The African Union and the Africa Centers for Disease Control have launched the “Partnership to Accelerate COVID-19 Testing” (PACT), which focuses on tracking, testing, and tracing and aims to roll out around 1 million tests in 4 weeks across the continent.
- For the first time since mid-March, New Zealand reported no new cases, signifying that the strict lockdown imposed by PM Ardern helped to control the outbreak. Prime Minister Ardern said a decision would be made next Monday regarding further reopening plans.
- Japan will extend its state of emergency until May 31. Areas with high-infection rates such as Tokyo and Osaka will continue to reduce social contact by 80%, but the rest of the nation may begin easing restrictions.
- Russia reported another spike in cases, with 10,581 new infections confirmed on Monday, bringing the total number of officially confirmed cases to 145,268.
- In low-risk zones around India, gatherings of less than 50 people are now permitted and some low-risk retail has reopened. Travel by air, metro, or road, except for special circumstances, is still banned throughout India, and schools, malls and theaters remain closed for all zones.
- Israel agreed to allow around 40,000 Palestinian workers, mostly in construction and agriculture, into Israel. In the past, these workers have migrated in and out each day, but the new agreement will order employers to house the migrant workers in Israel for up to 3 weeks.
This list has been curated by @jamieplancher