By Meg Wagner and Veronica Rocha, CNN
From CNN's Greg Wallace
Southwest Airlines will begin requiring customers to wear wear masks aboard its planes starting May 11.
“It is highly encouraged to bring your own hand sanitizer and mask, and to wear your mask while traveling. Face coverings or masks will be required for Customers starting May 11. If you forget your mask at home, one will be available for you," the company said in an update to travelers.
This means each of the largest US airlines are or will soon require customers to wear masks.
From CNN's Lauren Fox
Five days into the relaunch of the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program, it’s unclear exactly when the money will run out.
The SBA has not officially sent out numbers on how many loans have been processed and in what amount since Wednesday. Industry sources say they have no idea exactly how much money is left either and have been asking. Unlike last round, the burn rate has ebbed and flowed because of controls SBA has put in place. It’s making it hard to just estimate when money will be gone based on typical day to day numbers.
Remember: On Monday, larger institutions with more than 5,000 applications ready to process could submit them directly to SBA. Many of those larger batches have been processed, according to one industry source. We don’t know when those numbers will be added to the total, but when they are, the amount of money that has gone out the door could increase rapidly.
The uncertainty is creating some issues for lenders who are unsure if they should keep lending or filling their rolls given they don’t know if SBA is going to run out of money soon.
From CNN's Amanda Watts
The Infectious Diseases Society of America said the January timeline for developing and deploying a vaccine is a lofty goal — but one we should try to attain.
“I think that may indeed be very accurate; that would be a goal that we all try and attain,” adding, “I think that a number of processes are in place to go forward in an expeditious, but safe way," Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a fellow with the IDSA, said.
The FDA needs to continue “working with manufacturers for diagnostics and all kinds of things to make sure that the obstacles and regulatory obstacles are not are not prohibitive,” Edwards added.
Dr. Walter Orenstein, another fellow with IDSA said, “Everything has to go well, if we're going to get something in January. That may not be the case, then we need to bear for it being longer if we don't get the data we need on safety.”
Orenstein laid out one of the biggest hurdles: ”Can we incentivize companies to make product, even though it is unlicensed yet and going through trials?”
“This is a risky effort,” he said, “because if you go through a phase three trial in the vaccine is either unsafe or ineffective or both, and you would have to destroy that what you produced.”
States across the country are moving toward reopening today as federal social distancing guidelines expired.
Here's a look at how some states are easing some restrictions today:
Remember: As these measures loosen, the CDC has put together a series of instructions for states to safely relax prevention measures. Read more here.
At least 202 people in New York City died from coronavirus and another 2,637 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed yesterday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press briefing this morning.
"These numbers, when we look at them compared to where we were a few weeks ago, maybe we feel a little better, but we can't forget that each and every one of these cases, each and every one of these numbers is a human being," he said.
"We can't for a moment forget what we would have thought about this — if I said these numbers to you three, four months ago, it would have been staggering, that that's what happened in a single day in New York City, it would have been staggering. We can't get numb here," he added.
The death toll and positive cases show us that there's still "a fight ahead," the mayor said.
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
A new report from a group of infectious disease experts says that coronavirus could keep spreading in the US for up to two years, until 60-70% of the population is infected.
Once that threshold is reached, it’ll bring about herd immunity, the group’s director, Dr. Michael Osterholm, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
“This is going to continue to be a rolling situation throughout the world, not just our country, for the months ahead,” he said. “Expect many more New Yorks to occur. It’s very likely they will.”
New York has been one of the major epicenters for the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. More than 304,000, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.
Osterholm said that leaders need to better communicate that Covid-19 could make a substantial rebound in the fall.
“This is the only disease in the last 100 years that has gone from not being in the top 75 causes of death to becoming the number one cause of death in this country every day,” Osterholm said.
He said that having a vaccine by early next year is aspirational, but not realistic.
“I like to count on having a vaccine, but we have to plan as if we might not have one because that surely is an option on the table for now,” he said.
Watch more:
From CNN's Amanda Watts
As researchers rush to find a vaccine for the coronavirus, the Infectious Diseases Society of America warned safety is paramount.
“If we didn't care about safety, we’d be using these vaccines today,” Dr. Walter Orenstein, a fellow with IDSA, said. “The real issue is getting proof of safety and effectiveness. And we don't know what's going to work and what's not going to work.”
Dr. Kathryn Edwards, another fellow with IDSA said, “making sure that we test vaccines for safety has always been a major priority, and will continue to be a priority.”
With many vaccine candidates currently in development, Edwards said, “Each of these studies will have what we call a data safety and monitoring board which are experts in vaccine safety to assess each of these reactions.”
She added, “the safety part must be done meticulously and will be done meticulously.”
From CNN’s Sarah Boxer
The Javits Convention Center field hospital in New York City has treated 1,093 patients and is still treating eight more as of this morning, according to Northwell Health spokesperson Terry Lynam.
The eight remaining patients “will be discharged home or transferred to another facility by around 4 p.m.,” Lynman said.
Earlier this week, the Defense department said the US military field hospital at the Javits Center would end its mission "on or about May 1."
The Army Corps of Engineers converted the Javits Center to treat coronavirus patients but the field hospital had been operating significantly below capacity as the absence of hospital bed space had not been as much of a challenge as was originally anticipated.
From CNN’s David Goldman
US stocks opened lower today after President Trump hinted that there could be new tariffs imposed on China as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak. Trump said late Thursday that the trade deal with China is now "secondary to what took place with the virus" and made the unfounded claim that the novel coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.
Here's where things opened today:
Remember: Stocks fell yesterday but still posted sizable gains in April. It was the best month for the Dow and S&P 500 since January 1987. Investors were also weighing uncertain outlooks from tech giants Apple and Amazon and weak results from oil titans Exxon Mobil and Chevron.
You can follow live updates on the markets here.