Elective surgeries will resume in Virginia on Friday
From CNN's Melissa Alonso
Elective surgery and dental procedures in Virginia can resume on Friday when the state's public order expires, according to Gov. Ralph Northam.
Hospitals and dental facilities will restart non-emergency procedures safely, Northam said at a briefing Wednesday.
"These are safe, clean places to go," Northam said.
Northam has partnered with the governors of Maryland and Delaware following President Trump's act requiring meat packing facilities to remain open.
The governors in the tri-state area are working with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials to assess plants and "reconfigure spaces" to ensure "workers are able to be separated and protected," Northam said.
"The majority of these workers have low incomes and are from communities of color; these factors place them at a higher risk," Northam said. "If we declare that workers at meat processing plants are essential, then it is imperative that we continue to support their health and well being," Northam said.
Virginia has 14,961 total cases with 622 new cases and 30 new Covid-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, health officials said.
3:14 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
New York Times: FDA expected to issue emergency authorization for remdesivir
From CNN’s Arman Azad
The US Food and Drug Administration plans to announce an emergency-use authorization for remdesivir, according to the New York Times.
The authorization for the investigational coronavirus treatment could come as soon as Wednesday, the Times reported, citing a senior administration official.
In a statement to CNN, the FDA on Wednesday said it is in discussions with Gilead Sciences, the maker of remdesivir, about making the drug available to patients.
“As part of the FDA’s commitment to expediting the development and availability of potential COVID-19 treatments, the agency has been engaged in sustained and ongoing discussions with Gilead Sciences regarding making remdesivir available to patients as quickly as possible, as appropriate,” said Michael Felberbaum, an FDA spokesperson.
The FDA’s expected move comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, announced encouraging results from a remdesivir trial in a White House meeting with President Trump. When compared to patients who received a placebo, remdesivir was shown to shorten the duration of Covid-19, but there was no statistically-significant difference in whether patients died. The full study has not yet been released, and the research has not been peer-reviewed.
An emergency-use authorization would be notable because remdesivir is not currently approved to treat any disease – unlike some other drugs that have been used for coronavirus patients, such as hydroxychloroquine.
Watch:
2:40 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
More than 1,000 people have died of coronavirus in Detroit
From CNN's Anna Sturla
Detroit now has more than 1,000 deaths due to Covid-19, Mayor Mike Duggan announced at a news conference Wednesday
He said 1,008 residents have died due to complications related to the virus.
2:37 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
New York's transit system is launching a new cleaning plan in light of criticism
Chains separating the back half of a public bus from the driver's space hang to protect MTA bus drivers from COVID-19 exposure, on Friday, April 24, in the Bronx borough of New York. John Minchillo/AP
New York's Metropolitan Transit Association (MTA), which is responsible for public transportation in the state, said it will launch a new plan to clean more frequently. The plan will be delivered to the governor when it is complete.
Ken Lovett, the senior adviser to the MTA chairman and CEO, issued the following statement Wednesday:
“We fully agree that we must do everything we can to keep our system and trains and buses as clean and as safe as possible. Following on our aggressive plan of disinfecting our stations twice each day and our full fleet every 72 hours, we are completing a plan to further enhance and increase the frequency of our cleaning. We will deliver that plan to the governor as he requested.”
What is this about: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier today he told the MTA to come up with a plan by tomorrow on how to disinfect trains and buses.
“Any essential worker who shows up and gets on a train should know that that train was disinfected the night before. We want them to show up. We don't want them to stay home. We owe it to them to be able to say the train you ride, the bus you ride, has been disinfected and is clean,” he said.
During Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing, Cuomo called the state of subway cars "disrespectful.”
“To let homeless people stay on the trains in the middle of a global health pandemic with no masks, no protective equipment, you're not helping the homeless. Letting them endanger their own life and endanger lives of others is not helping anyone,” Cuomo added in today’s briefing.
When pressed further on a specific schedule for cleaning, Cuomo said the agency is responsible for that.
"I told the MTA, give me a plan whereby you will clean and disinfect every train every night so that I can say to the essential workers who are killing themselves for our state, we're keeping the subways open for you, and when you get on the subway in the morning or in the afternoon, know that that car was disinfected the night before," he said. "... I'm not going to do a cleaning schedule. I don't do that."
2:13 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
Fed leaves rates at zero but will use its "full range of tools" to help the economy
From CNN’s Anneken Tappe
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday left interest rates unchanged near zero and said it would deploy its "full range of tools" to support the US economy as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the US economy.
"The coronavirus outbreak is causing tremendous human and economic hardship across the United States and around the world," the committee said in a statement. "The virus and the measures taken to protect public health are inducing sharp declines in economic activity and a surge in job losses."
Policymakers agreed following their two-day meeting in Washington to maintain rates as they continued to see signs of a badly damaged economy.
The decision to refrain from dropping rates into negative territory, as some other central banks have done, had been widely expected by investors after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and several other Fed board members spoke out against negative rates.
2:14 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
New Jersey has lost more people during coronavirus than these wars and tragedies combined
From CNN’s Sheena Jones
Pool
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy took a brief moment of silence during today's news conference for the more than 6,000 people who have died from coronavirus across the state.
The governor said the 6,770 people who died from the virus in New Jersey is more than the number of residents who died in World War I, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, both gulf wars — Afghanistan and Iraq — Superstorm Sandy and 9/11 combined.
Murphy also announced the state will create its own face masks and gowns, and that the state has distributed more than 21 million pieces of personal protective equipment statewide.
New Jersey will send 200,000 surgical masks to New York and 50 ventilators to Massachusetts, the governor added.
2:08 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
Nevada governor says stay-at-home order will be extended
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak speaks during a news conference on the state's response to the coronavirus outbreak at the Grant Sawyer State Office Building in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 17. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak said that he is planning on easing some of the state's restrictions as part of his state's reopening plan today on an ABC special about the Covid-19 pandemic.
The governor said that his plan, Nevada United Roadmap to Recovery, will "ease some of the restrictions that we had previously as it relates to retail, curbside pickup, some of our outdoor activities."
However, Sisolak noted that "we're going to have to extend the stay-at-home order a little bit." He did not give details as to how long the order will be extended.
Sisolak also explained that the reopening of the state's casinos is still a long way off.
"The opening of the casinos and the gaming enterprises will probably come into third or fourth phase of what we're going to end up doing," Sisolak explained.
"We're just not quite ready yet to handle that type of a volume," he added.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has drawn attention and scrutiny with her calls to allow casinos and most other local businesses to reopen immediately.
"It's not something as simple as flipping a switch and suddenly everybody's going to come back to Las Vegas," Sisolak said after being asked about her remarks. "We've got to work on the travel part of this."
Sisolak said that he will formally unveil his state's reopening plan tomorrow.
2:10 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
There are more than 4,000 coronavirus cases in Washington, DC
From CNN's Alex Marquardt and Nicky Robertson
Pool
There have been 4,106 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Washington, DC, and 205 deaths, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced at a news conference today.
The DC government is also looking to hire contact tracers. Contact tracers use a variety of methods, including phone calls, emails and social media messaging.
Bowser announced last week that the city will likely eventually need up to 900 contact tracers. The three types of positions they are currently hiring for are: investigators, lead investigators, and program managers.
1:53 p.m. ET, April 29, 2020
Remdesivir is not a cure, but appears to help
From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed optimism regarding a study of the antiviral drug remdesivir for treatment of coronavirus.
CNN’s Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen cautioned: “This is not a cure.”
“Terribly sick people did not jump out of their hospital beds and start walking around. That didn’t happen. This is not a cure, but it does appear to help and it does appear to have a proof of concept and we can go from here to expand on that,” Cohen told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin.
According to the study, the mortality rate for patients on remdesivir was 8% compared to 11% to for those on a placebo.
The duration of illness was 11 days for those on remdesivir compared to 15 days for those on the placebo.
“Remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery,” Dr. Fauci said about the drug. “It is a very important proof of concept because what it is proving is that a drug can block this virus.”
About the trial: Pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences said today it is "aware of positive data emerging from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' (NIAID) study of the investigational antiviral remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19."
Remember: The World Health Organization said it’s too early to comment on the remdesivir trial results released today.
