April 15 coronavirus news

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working hard to make sure testing, contact tracing and an expanded public health capacity is in place as the country begins talking about opening back up, director Dr. Robert Redfield said this morning on CBS.

Asked about the study saying Americans may need to social distance until 2022, Redfield said, “I think the mitigation steps that we’ve done are going to be an important component of it. I think it's really, really a moment to take a bow for the American public that really embraced the social distancing recommendations that we put forward.”

Redfield added: “It really is the American public's response to social distance and sacrifice, not for themselves but for the benefit of the most vulnerable. It's really a testament. I do think we're going to have some social distancing that's going to be a critical part of our strategy as we go forward while we await the fruits of the innovation of the different biological countermeasures to include a vaccine."

The United Kingdom believes the World Health Organization (WHO) has an “important role” to play in leading the global response to the coronavirus outbreak, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said, adding there are no plans to withdraw funding.

The comments put the UK at odds with President Trump, who has criticized the WHO’s response and announced a suspension of funding.

 “Coronavirus is a global challenge and it is essential countries work together to tackle this shared threat, the spokesperson added. “In terms of how we contribute to the WHO, that is an assessment of the WHO’s needs and is not based on other country’s funding.”

Some context: Earlier this week, the UK announced it would boost its contribution to the WHO by £65 million ($81 million).

The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is filling in for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, will participate in a G7 leaders conference call on Thursday.

According to the prime minister's spokesperson, Raab will underline the need for “global collaboration” to deal with the crisis, including the speed and scale of a vaccine and testing internationally.

“We will also discuss economic concerns and how to support struggling nations,” the spokesperson said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview Wednesday that the US is seeing a flattening out of new coronavirus cases.

Except for a few cities where cases haven't peaked yet, "there's no doubt what we've seen over the last several days is a flattening out," Fauci said.

"Hopefully that trend will continue. … As I say, I'm a very cautious person, but we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel," Fauci added.

Finland will lift restrictions on movement in its capital Helsinki and the surrounding region, Uusimaa, later on Wednesday, the government has announced.

The government said the legal grounds for continuing to restrict movement "are no longer considered to exist."

Despite the plan to lift movement restrictions, the Finnish government is still advising against all unnecessary travel.

Some context: Last week, the Finnish government announced that that restrictions on schools, museums, theaters enacted on March 16 would remain in place until May 13.

Finland has recorded 3,161 cases of coronavirus, and 64 deaths, according to the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare.  

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says experts "don't have all the answers" when it comes to antibodies.

In an interview on the "Today" show, Fauci was asked to comment on a report out of South Korea's CDC that found coronavirus had been reactivated in a number of patients thought to have recovered.

"We don't know how common that is," Fauci said. "It's likely an uncommon event and won't have a public health impact."

"The things that we don't know is that -- in general with viruses we deal with all the time -- when you develop an antibody after infection, it almost invariably means you're protected. We don't absolutely know that for sure yet," Fauci said.

He added there is also uncertainty about how long antibodies can protect a person.

"So are you protected for a month or two or three, a half a year or a year? We need to get experience to know that," Fauci said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that "there is going to be a great deal of variability" when thinking about relaxing social distancing guidelines.

Fauci was asked about President Trump's remarks about the possibility that some states could lift stay-at-home orders before May 1.

Fauci added that some states will do "nothing different because they are still in a really difficult situation, and you would not want to relax any of the physical separation guidelines, and others that would be doing really much better. So It's not going to be a one-size-fits-all."

New York City Bill de Blasio said social distancing restrictions are still necessary to contain the spread of coronavirus in the city and that everyday New Yorkers are key to making sure the virus doesn’t accelerate again. 

De Blasio also said that the federal government has still not provided enough testing kits.

“We're creating our own tests here in New York City. We just couldn't wait any longer," the mayor said.

De Blasio said “the next phase” of coronavirus is months away. 

“To get to the next phase literally means getting to the point where we know each individual person who has contracted the coronavirus, we're tracing all of their contacts, we’re doing isolation and quarantine for anyone who needs, we’re testing all the time,” he said. 

Some context: The New York City Health Department is now reporting more than 3,700 “probable” Covid-19 deaths of individuals who have not been tested for the coronavirus but are presumed to be positive.

“We've all gone through hell here,” de Blasio said. "We should be honest about the full extent of this. And that bluntly, should inspire us to really get it right. This disease is ferocious.” 

De Blasio also called for more help from the federal government for the country’s biggest city and encouraged Congress to pass another stimulus package. 

“We're one of the economic engines of the country. We're not going to be able to provide basic services and have a normal society if we don't get help from the federal government,” he said.

Watch de Blasio's comments:

CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield says the World Health Organization "has been a long-term and still is a great partner for us," despite President Trump cutting its funding Tuesday.

Here's what Redfield told CBS today:

 Redfield added that, "It's important at this point that we leave the analysis of what could have been done better and what maybe we did well to once we get through this and get through the outbreak, we get it over."

More than 400,000 people could die of Covid-19 in Japan if nothing is done to contain the virus, according to a report released Wednesday by the Japanese Health Ministry and reported by public broadcaster NHK.  

The report also says 850,000 patients would need ventilators.

"All Japanese must change the pattern of action and help us to stop this outbreak as soon as possible," he added.

Some context: Japan officially declared a state of emergency on April 7, months after the first domestic cases of the virus appeared. On Wednesday a public health emergency was issued for all of Japan by the commander of the US Forces Japan (USFJ) amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.