By Ben Westcott, Adam Renton, Rob Picheta and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN
New York state saw a slight drop in coronavirus-related deaths Tuesday, according to remarks from Gov. Andrew Cuomo moments ago during a news conference.
"Lives lost yesterday, 752, which is the painful news of our reality day after day, and they are in our thoughts and prayers. You see 707 in hospitals, 45 in nursing homes," Cuomo said.
The state recorded 778 deaths on Monday, Cuomo added.
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From CNN's Sonia Moghe
New York City’s MTA is partnering with Northwell Health, a large private healthcare provider in New York, to prioritize Covid-19 testing for frontline workers who run the city’s public transportation system, the two entities announced Wednesday.
The testing would be made available at Northwell Health’s 52 urgent care locations in the New York City area and would be prioritized for symptomatic workers.
“We remain relentlessly committed to doing everything we possibly can to keep our frontline workers safe,” MTA Chairman and CEO Patrick Foye said. “We will continue working to identify any and all solutions we can deploy to help protect our employees. The region simply cannot function without the essential and heroic workers of this pandemic.”
From CNN Health’s Arman Azad
People might be most infectious with the novel coronavirus before they show symptoms, according to a study published Wednesday.
The research, published in the journal Nature Medicine, adds to a growing body of evidence showing that seemingly-healthy people are spreading the virus.
“We observed the highest viral load in throat swabs at the time of symptom onset, and inferred that infectiousness peaked on or before symptom onset,” the researchers wrote.
They found that viral shedding – when people may be able to infect others – could begin two to three days before symptoms appeared. The amount of virus given off, though, appeared to decline after people began feeling sick.
Researchers warned that people may be spreading the virus before they show symptoms, public health interventions – such as contact tracing – will need to be adjusted.
Not only will investigators need to identify those who were exposed to symptomatic people, but they may also need to look retroactively – tracing contacts from when people still felt healthy.
“More inclusive criteria for contact tracing to capture potential transmission events 2 to 3 days before symptom onset should be urgently considered for effective control of the outbreak,” the researchers wrote.
More details: The study did have limitations. Namely, it relied on patients’ memories of when their symptoms first appeared, which could have been fuzzy.
Still, the research is consistent with other findings, which suggest that people who don’t feel sick are in fact contributing to the spread of the virus.
Based on that growing body of evidence, the White House has recommended that healthy people wear face coverings outside to reduce the risk of infecting others.
From CNN's Elizabeth Joseph
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $170 million initiative to battle food insecurity, an existing problem in the city amplified by economic woes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“People are literally asking 'where's my next meal coming from?' That's something painful to consider in the greatest city in the world but it's what's happening," he said Wednesday, noting, “somewhere in the neighborhood of a half million New Yorkers have lost their livelihood in just the last few weeks.”
De Blasio added: “We are dealing with an unprecedented challenge in terms of people needing food, so we're going to create an unprecedented response. Today, I'm announcing $170 million initiative to make sure every New Yorker gets what they need and no New Yorker goes hungry."
The mayor mapped out his plan to tackle the city’s food insecurity which includes accounting for 10 million meals in April for people who need them.
There are at least 609,995 cases of coronavirus in the US and 26,069 deaths from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases in the country.
On Wednesday, Johns Hopkins reported 755 new cases and 36 reported deaths.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases.
##Health
From CNN’s Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi
The group of 20 major world economies agreed on debt-relief procedures for the poorest nations hit by the coronavirus pandemic starting immediately, the G20 said in a statement on Wednesday.
The procedures are to last for one year, the statement said.
“We support a time-bound suspension of debt service payments for the poorest countries that request forbearance,” a statement by the group read.
Following a virtual meeting by the G20 Finance Ministers, Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Al Jadaan said that debt-suspension has been agreed on by G20 countries unanimously with the aim of giving developing countries "breathing space" due to the pandemic.
The debt-suspension only requires countries to work with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and will provide more than $20 billion of immediate liquidity, Al Jadaan said.
G20 countries have injected $7 trillion into the global economy, Al Jadaan added.
“We support the further adoption and swift implementation of a strong financial response to help countries in need and to uphold global financial stability and resilience,” the G20 said in a statement.
From CNN Health’s Arman Azad
Amnesty International, a global human rights group, called on the US Congress to stop President Trump’s plan to halt funding to the World Health Organization amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The U.S. administration should immediately reconsider its suspension of funding. Congress should also take immediate action to halt any measures which reverse the US’s longstanding commitment to protecting international public health,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International, in a statement on Wednesday.
Trump on Tuesday announced he was halting funding to WHO while a review is conducted over the agency’s “role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus.”
Guevara-Rosas said this decision distracts "from criticisms of his own administration's response" and undermines "global efforts to protect people from one of the worst health crises in over a century.”
The novel coronavirus does not respect borders, she added, and “President Trump’s proposal to slash [WHO’s] resources at this moment of crisis will undermine efforts to save lives and halt the spread of the virus.”
From CNN’s Drew Griffin & Arman Azad
Abbott Laboratories announced the release of an antibody test Wednesday that could detect if people have been infected with the novel coronavirus and recovered.
The test could help individuals determine if they had Covid-19 in the past, and could more broadly help determine how widespread the infection is in the United States.
While the test has not been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration, Abbott is legally allowed to distribute it under regulatory flexibilities issued by the agency.
Abbott, which said it is shipping 1 million of the tests to customers immediately, plans to produce and ship up to 20 million tests by the end of June.
The specifics: In a press release, Abbott claimed its SARS-CoV-2 (novel coronavirus) IgG test identifies the IgG antibody, which is a protein that the body produces in the late stages of infection and may remain for months and possibly years after a person has recovered.
That’s in contrast to the Cellex antibody test that has been authorized by the FDA; that test can also detect another class of antibodies called IgM antibodies, which are present earlier in infection.
Still, all antibody tests may miss some recent infections, since antibodies are our body’s response to an infection – which can take time.
Abbott's IgG antibody test will initially be available on its ARCHITECT i1000SR and i2000SR laboratory instruments. More than 2,000 of these instruments are in use in US laboratories. These instruments can run up to 100-200 tests per hour, according to the company.
Abbott is making the test available as part of the FDA notification without an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) pathway outlined in Policy for Diagnostic Tests for Coronavirus Disease-2019 during the Public Health Emergency.
But the company says it plans to file for emergency use authorization with the FDA.
From CNN Health's Jacqueline Howard
The World Health Organization "is getting on with the job" to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in wake of President Trump's announcement to withhold funding, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
"WHO is grateful to the many nations, organizations and individuals who have expressed their support and commitment to WHO in recent days, including their financial commitment," Tedros said. "We welcome this demonstration of global solidarity because solidarity is the rule of the game to defeat Covid-19. WHO is getting on with the job. We’re continuing to study this virus every moment of every day, we are learning from many countries about what works and we are sharing that information with the world."
WHO is assessing exactly how its programs will be affected by the loss of funding from the United States, Tedros said.
"We will do the assessment and then announce it officially," Tedros said during the briefing.
"We will continue to work with every country and every partner to serve the people of the world, with a relentless commitment to science, solutions and solidarity," Tedros added. "WHO has been fighting the pandemic with every ounce of our soul and spirit. We will continue to do that until the end."
Some context: Trump announced Tuesday that he is halting funding to the WHO while a review is conducted.
Trump said the review would cover the WHO's "role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of coronavirus."
Trump's announcement comes in the middle of the worst global pandemic in decades.
