Coronavirus pandemic in the US

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has issued an executive order that will allow hospitals to begin providing general and elective surgeries. 

Hospitals can submit plans to expand general care starting on April 27, in what the governor said is part of early steps to reopen the economy.

On nursing homes: During his briefing Monday, Justice also said he’s directed the National Guard to test all 28,000 nursing home residents by the end of the week. At least 22,000 nursing home residents have already been tested.

That plan comes after 55 residents and 16 staff members at a nursing home in Jackson County tested positive for coronavirus. At least four residents died.

At least 24 people have died from Covid-19 in West Virginia.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ coronavirus response at a news conference Monday, following a question on protests advocating for the lifting of stay-at-home restrictions.

“His leadership has been wholly lacking in this pandemic,” Lightfoot said. “And then he re-opened the beaches. God help us all."

More on this: DeSantis was criticized back in March for his handling of spring break and not closing the beaches sooner. As a result, he issued a "Safer at Home" order that went into effect April 3 and is in effect until April 30. The order limits movement outside homes to providing or getting essential services or carrying out essential activities and applies to interaction with other people outside of residents' homes.

On Friday afternoon, beaches and parks in Jacksonville, Florida.

DeSantis supported the idea of reopening beaches, parks and other public spaces as long as social distancing is practiced, WJXT reported.

"You look at how this disease is transmitted, it's transmitted overwhelmingly when you are in close, sustained contact with people, usually in an indoor environment," DeSantis said. "Going forward, we got to be promoting people to get exercise, do it in a good way, to do it in a safe way."

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spoke today about plans for businesses to reopen in the state saying, “ if we expect anybody to go there, there's got to be some sense of safety.”

According to DeWine, Ohio is working with their business advisory group and different industries and retail establishments to make sure that when the order to reopen takes place, an assurance can be made to people that businesses have been made as safe as possible.

“If we do that, then the consumer confidence, will go up. If we fail to do that, and are inconsistent in doing that, then people are not going to have that back confidence,” DeWine said.

New York City has 9,101 confirmed coronavirus deaths and 4,582 probable coronavirus deaths, according to the city website.

The New York City Health Department defines "probable deaths" as people who did not have a positive Covid-19 laboratory test but their death certificate lists as the cause of death “COVID-19” or an equivalent.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus deaths and probable coronavirus deaths in New York City is 13,683.

There have been at least 132,467 coronavirus cases and more than 34,000 people have been hospitalized, according to the city.

The data is from the New York City Health Department and was updated today at 2:30 p.m. ET, according to the website.

North Carolina now has more coronavirus deaths in one month than flu deaths for the whole flu season.

The state currently has 179 coronavirus deaths, compared to 167 flu deaths, according to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen.

Cohen said the state has been keeping the flu tally since September of last year. The state had its first coronavirus death in March. 

She said the state has been effective at slowing the virus but that it is too early to tell when it will be safe to re-open the state. Cohen said North Carolina must increase its testing capacity before discussing reopening.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said while the coronavirus situation may be frustrating, that inconvenience "pales in comparison" to those who have died during the pandemic.

He was not addressing any particular person or group in making this statement at a ongoing news conference. He tweeted a similar message:

Murphy said reopening today would result in a spike in cases. He added that a second wave is possible even if the state does everything right.

Murphy added that he had a one-on-one conversation with the President today to relay his strong belief the US needs to direct cash assistance to states. Trump indicated it was his hope that that could be part of the next round of stimulus, the governor said. 

“We can’t wait another minute longer,” Gov. Murphy said. 

 Austin Beutner, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said he expects the coronavirus pandemic to cost the district an additional $200 million.

Beutner estimated the district's total spending is $390 million, but he added that he expects $191 million will be reimbursed from state and federal sources.

Safety and supplies are biggest additional expenditure, followed closely by meal service and technology. The district, the second largest in the nation, will make a $50 million investment in summer school in an effort to keep students on track.

“We owe it to every child to provide them with the education they deserve. The cost to children and society if we don’t, far outweighs the investment we need to make now,” Beutner said in a video conference posted to the school district website. 

Schools will reopen “as soon as we can, when it’s safe and appropriate,” Beutner said, noting that LAUSD schools were closed before there were any known cases of the virus in schools.

“It seems to have made a difference,” he said.

Despite the budget challenges, Beutner does not anticipate significant staff cuts for the coming school year.

The Republican National Committee, the Trump campaign and the host committee are moving “full steam ahead” in planning the GOP convention later this summer, but will determine in late June or early July if contingencies need to be made, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Monday. 

“We are full steam ahead planning a traditional convention, working with our team on the ground, (2020 Convention CEO) Marcia Lee Kelly, to conduct a traditional convention. We do not think at this time we have to switch to an alternative plan, but of course, we will monitor circumstances and adjust accordingly,” McDaniel told reporters on a briefing call. 

She continued,

The convention is currently scheduled for August 24-27 in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Asked whether campaign rallies would resume this summer, McDaniel said there were “no plans right now,” nor are any rallies being scheduled, but it is officials' hope that rally campaigning can resume. 

“We’re going to take into account the three phases of opening the government and make sure that everybody’s safety is in place and we’re following the guidelines with the federal government, the state government, the local governments are laying out. Hopefully we can rally again, hopefully we’ll get to a place where we can campaign again,” she said. 

Her comments come days after President Trump told reporters in the briefing room he also hopes to resume rallies but wouldn’t want to do so if 6-feet social distancing protocols needed to be followed: “It loses, to me, a lot of flavor.”

Earlier this month, Democrats announced they would push their convention, scheduled for mid-July, back to mid-August.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working with the World Health Organization since the pandemic started, WHO's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday.

"Having CDC staff means there is nothing hidden from the US. For WHO, it’s open we don’t hide anything. It’s open. Not only for CDC — them sending messages or others— we want all countries to get the same message immediately, because that helps countries to prepare well and to prepare quickly," he said at a media briefing in Geneva.

Tedros continued: "We have CDC personnel, but not only the US, all countries get information immediately. Of course their presence doesn’t give them more advantage than others because we’re open and we give information to everybody. Since our CDC colleagues also know we give information immediately to everyone, they also can pass information to their institution no problem."

Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said 15 US government employees had been embedded in the WHO's Covid-19 program since Jan. 1.

"We’ve had as I said a very close working relationship with many institutions around the world," he said.

Why this matters: US and international officials told the Washington Post a group of US officials working at the WHO headquarters transmitted real-time information about the novel coronavirus directly to the Trump administration.

The reported line of communication undercuts President Trump's assertion that the virus' spread in the US largely stems from a lack of communication from WHO.

A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Caitlin Oakley, confirmed to CNN on Sunday that 17 staff members from HHS were working at WHO in the outbreak's early days. In January 2020, she said, HHS had 17 staffers at WHO — including 16 from the CDC.

Some of these "embedded" experts, but not all of them, were working on Covid-19, Oakley said.

She pushed back on the Washington Post reporting, however, calling it "misleading."