This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. All times below are in Eastern time. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks.
Frustrated by local authorities holding up the reopening of Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, Elon Musk said this weekend that his company will “move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately.” The disagreement over safety, commerce and public health between Tesla and California is playing out across the U.S. as states continue to relax stay-at-home orders and reopen businesses.
As the country reopens, Trump administration officials are under quarantine with multiple White House staffers testing positive for Covid-19 in recent days. This comes as the AP reports top White House officials buried CDC advice and guidance for reopening the country.
- Global cases: More than 4 million
- Global deaths: At least 279,609
- U.S. cases: More than 1.3 million
- U.S. deaths: At least 78,794
The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
12:32 pm: Italy reports lowest daily death toll, number of new cases since early March
Italy reported 165 new deaths from Covid-19, the lowest daily death toll since March 9, the Civil Protection Agency said, according to Reuters.
New cases fell to 802 and were under 1,000 for the first time since early March, according to Reuters.
The agency now reports 30,560 dead from coronavirus since the outbreak came to light and 219,070 total infections, according to Reuters. —Chris Eudaily
11:52 am: Schumer questions VA about use of Trump-promoted malaria drug on vets
Bottles of Prasco Laboratories Hydroxychloroquine Sulphate are arranged for a photograph in the Queens borough of New York, U.S., on Tuesday, April 7, 2020.
Christopher Occhicone | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said the Department of Veterans Affairs may have put coronavirus patients at unnecessary risk by allowing the use of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven drug, on veterans, the Associated Press reported.
Schumer is asking for additional information from the VA about an order for $208,000 worth of the drug, which President Donald Trump has heavily promoted, without evidence, as a treatment for Covid-19, according to the AP.
“There are concerns that they are using this drug when the medical evidence says it doesn’t help and could hurt,” Schumer told the AP.
Former Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority Rick Bright, who was removed from his post in April and has filed a whistleblower complaint, alleged that the Trump administration wanted to “flood” hot spots in New York and New Jersey with the unproven drug, the AP reported. —Chris Eudaily
11:15 am: The pandemic has rocked the travel industry
A Delta Air Lines Inc. employee cleans a counter at the check area at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, April 2, 2020.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A road trip may never be the same.
A recent study found that 82% of travelers polled changed travel plans for the next six months, but the lasting effects on the travel industry will likely stretch well into the future.
“Tourism recovery typically begins locally,” Elizabeth Monahan, spokeswoman for TripAdvisor.com, told CNBC’s Kenneth Kiesnoski. “Travelers tend to first venture out closer to home, and visit their local eateries, stay local for a weekend getaway or travel domestically before a robust demand for international travel returns.”
How will a typical family vacation change once travel and tourism begin again post-pandemic? Travelers are likely to prefer domestic destinations that you can reach by car and stays at private rentals instead of hotels and resorts. —Chris Eudaily
10:42 am: States prepare to hold fall elections amid the pandemic
A sign reminds voters to practice social distancing during the election between Democrat Kweisi Mfume and Republican Kimberly Klacik to fill the remainder of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings term at Edmondson High School in Baltimore, Md., on Tuesday, April 28, 2020.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
Though the 2020 presidential election is months away, states are preparing for the pandemic to change the way they run polling locations and voting operations.
State voting officials told CNBC’s Yelena Dzhanova they are preparing for elections with social distancing guidelines still in effect.
States like North Carolina, Hawaii, Delaware and Alabama are planning to step up cleaning at poll centers. Other states are anticipating how to run polling centers if older workers and other volunteers who fear exposure do not show up to work.
Multiple states have already moved to expand voting by mail, and other states are looking at ways to make in-person voting safer. —Chris Eudaily
10:23 am: US unemployment could reach 20%, White House advisor says
White House advisor Kevin Hassett told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the U.S. unemployment rate could soar up to 20% as the coronavirus pandemic brings the country’s decade-long economic growth streak to an abrupt halt.
“This is the biggest negative shock to an economy that we have ever seen in our lifetimes. It hit an economy that in January was about the strongest economy we’d ever seen,” explained Hassett on “State of the Union.”
“The fact, though, is with all of the aggressive bipartisan action to toss maybe as much as $9 trillion at this sort of bridge to the other side, we see things like the jobs report on Friday — almost everybody who declared themselves unemployed said they expect to go back to work in six months,” he added.
The U.S. economy lost an unprecedented 20.5 million jobs in April as the unemployment rate soared to 14.7%, up from 4.4% in March, according to the monthly employment report, released Friday by the Department of Labor. —Amanda Macias
10:14 am: Kudlow says White House in talks with Congress about more coronavirus relief
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said that the Trump administration is in informal talks with U.S. lawmakers from both parties about the next coronavirus relief package.
The White House has paused formal negotiations with Congress until late May or early June as it waits for more information about how state re-openings and the previous round of relief impact the economy.
Senate Democrats and Republicans have a conference call scheduled on Monday with Kudlow and White House economic adivsor Kevin Hassett to discuss next steps. Kudlow and Hassett held a conference call with 50 members of the House on Friday to discuss the coronavirus response. —Emma Newburger
9:55 am: China responds to ‘lies’ from US politicians
Chinese President Xi Jinping, waves to residents who are quarantined at home and sends regards to them at a community in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, March 10, 2020.
Pang Xinglei | Xinhua via Getty
The Chinese foreign ministry rejected “preposterous allegations” by U.S. politicians that China withheld information about Covid-19, including the origins of the virus, Reuters reported.
In a 30-page, 11,000-word article posted on the ministry website, China refuted U.S. accusations that the virus was created or leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to Reuters. The ministry said evidence shows Covid-19 is not man-made and that the institute could not synthesize a new coronavirus.
Challenging accusations that the country was slow to sound the alarm to the international community, the ministry said China provided information in a “timely,” “open and transparent” manner, Reuters reported.
The ministry article also responded to criticism of China’s handling of the 34-year-old doctor who tried to raise the alarm over the outbreak in Wuhan, Li Wenliang, who later died from the virus.
The ministry said Li was not a “whistleblower” and he was never arrested, Reuters reported. —Chris Eudaily
9:12 am: US set to reach Trump’s 100,000 ventilator goal in July, while demand for the breathing devices has decreased
Donald Trump looks at an assembly line during a tour of Honeywell’s facility manufacturing protective face masks for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Phoenix, Arizona, May 5, 2020.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
The U.S. spent nearly $3 billion to manufacture ventilators after President Donald Trump said in late March that his administration would have 100,000 of the breathing devices within 100 days, according to the Associated Press.
The AP analyzed federal contracting data that showed the Department of Health and Human Services will exceed the president’s target by July 13, which is a week later than the 100-day goal set by Trump.
HHS looks to be getting nearly 200,000 new breathing devices by the end of 2020, according to the AP, which would more than double the number of estimated ventilators that were in U.S. hospitals before the pandemic.
But the ventilator push may be too much, too late.
The demand for the devices has dropped over the last month as the U.S. death toll from the virus nears 80,000, according to the AP. Doctors changed the way they used ventilators on patients after observing unusually high death rates for coronavirus victims put on breathing machines. —Chris Eudaily
CORRECTION: This entry has been updated to correct the U.S. death toll, which is nearing 80,000.
8:37 am: Boris Johnson readies five-tier warning system for easing UK lockdown
Two families maintain social distancing while talking to each other outside a home in Hampstead, north London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Victoria Jones | PA Images | Getty Images
The United Kingdom is changing its flagship “stay at home” slogan to “stay alert,” Reuters reports.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce a five-tier warning system in England as part of the government’s roadmap for easing lockdown measures, according to Reuters.
Johnson is scheduled to announce the updates in a televised address, which will include a push for people who cannot work from home to get back to work, and easing the limit on allowing people to exercise only once a day, according to a government official and British media, via Reuters.
“We need to have a broader message because we want to slowly and cautiously restart the economy and the country,” Housing Minister Robert Jenrick said in an interview, according to Reuters. —Chris Eudaily
Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Russia cases top 200,000
Source: CNBC
