Coronavirus pandemic in the US

President Trump appeared to reverse course on the decision to wind down the coronavirus task force, instead rebranding it. He tweeted today that the task force will “continue on indefinitely” and shift its focus to “SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN.”

Trump touted his administration’s success in procuring personal protective equipment and testing, even though many experts say there is not nearly enough testing available.

 He also said that task force members may be added or subtracted “as appropriate” and will “also be very focused on Vaccines & Therapeutics.”

Here are his full tweets:

Some background: A senior White House official told CNN the task force will start to wind down later this month. And Vice President Mike Pence confirmed to reporters the White House is considering disbanding the coronavirus task force as early as Memorial Day.

"We're having conversations about that and about what the proper time is for the task force to complete its work and for the ongoing efforts to take place on an agency-by-agency level," Pence said, noting that the White House has begun to discuss a "transition plan with FEMA."

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said it was “disappointing” that some people were out in crowds celebrating Cinco de Mayo in the city yesterday.

“The governor made it very clear he's not willing to allow local cities to tweak his order,” she said in an interview with CNN’s John Berman, following Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s loosening of coronavirus restrictions. “…We will continue to ask people to please stay home.” 

“I feel like a broken record … We have to say it repeatedly,” she said. 

Bottoms said that enforcing proper social distance strains the city’s resources and law enforcement. 

The mayor added that the city and country need to keep assessing the racial disparities seen with coronavirus.

“I think the other layers that we have to continue to address are the health disparities and the living conditions that are making black and brown communities more susceptible,” she said. 

Watch more:

For the first time in its history, New York City deliberately shut down its entire subway system early this morning.

The reason: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) deep cleaned to avoid spread of the coronavirus.

"Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures," MTA Chairman Patrick Foye said. 

The New York City subway been shut down because of weather: Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. During the blizzard of 2015, the system canceled passenger service but equipment trains kept running. But this is the first planned shutdown. 

The cleanings will now be done on a nightly basis, from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m.

Subway officials warned New York residents there may be hiccups in executing the unprecedented closure. 

Subway ridership during the coronavirus crisis is down 90% from pre-pandemic times. But about 11,000 people still have used the subway from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. daily during the pandemic.

More than 80 MTA employees, including at least 50 who worked in the subway, have died from complications related to coronavirus.

Read more.

American private-sector payrolls fell by 20.2 million jobs in April, the worst month on record, according to the ADP National Employment Report.

ADP has been reporting private-sector payrolls each month since 2002.

The losses were broad-based across small-, medium- and large-sized businesses as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the country and forced companies to shut down. The services sector was hit the hardest: 16 million service jobs were lost last month.

The ADP report comes two days before the US Bureau of Labor Statistics' jobs report, which is expected to paint an equally bleak picture of the American labor market during the pandemic. 

By the time the US Department of Agriculture announced a $19 billion aid package on April 17, farmers were already dumping milk and destroying fresh produce as demand from restaurants evaporated.

It could be weeks longer before any of the money, most of which was appropriated by Congress in March as part of its $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package, gets to the farmers who need it.

What's more, family farmers likely missed out on getting loans from the small business program because it was unclear at first whether agricultural producers qualified.

The USDA is using the $3 billion in aid purchases to address that problem. It is partnering with private distributors who will buy a variety of food and package it into boxes that it will deliver to food banks. The USDA says it will spend $100 million a month on fruit and vegetables, $100 million on dairy products, and a $100 million on meat products.

In the meantime, states have tried to step in. Florida has created a system to help connect farmers directly with buyers, consumers, and food banks. Iowa and Minnesota have launched programs to connect pork producers with local processors as bigger plants shut down because their workers are getting sick.

Read the full report here.

Washington state governor Jay Inslee said he's become "infuriated " by President Trump's leadership during the coronavirus crisis, citing his state's continued shortages in personal protection equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and materials to test for the virus.

"We did not have enough PPE for nurses and many facilities and to some degree still don't," Inslee said in an interview with CNN.

The Washington state governor, who ran for the Democratic nomination for president last year, criticized the Trump administration for not widely invoking the Defense Production Act, which gives the government more control during emergencies to direct industrial production.

Some background: The wartime-era law has been a point of contention between states and the Trump administration. While President Trump has invoked the law in some instances during the coronavirus pandemic, the shortage of critically needed supplies has fueled calls to use the law in its full capacity.

"There was only one person in the United States who can do that. That is the president of the United States. Governors cannot do that," Inslee said. "We do not have authority to do that. So we've had to rely on the president making this decision and as I've indicated, he refused to do so for weeks and weeks."

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized President Trump for “turning his back” on the country's largest city because of partisan affiliation. According to de Blasio, the city has lost $7.4 billion, and there is no guarantee of financial help from the federal government. 

De Blasio called for a fourth federal stimulus package to provide funding to cities and states.

“What we need is a stimulus that puts us all back on our feet so we can succeed together,” de Blasio said. “… If there is not a strong fourth stimulus for cities and state, there will not be a national economic recovery, period.”

If he doesn’t get it, the mayor said he could be forced to furlough or lay off people who have been at the heart of the coronavirus pandemic recovery — first responders, police, firefighters and teachers. 

“I’ve lost $7.4 billion already and my economy can't come back until I get that stimulus and get back to normal and provide the basic services. It's a Catch-22. No stimulus, no recovery,” de Blasio said. 

If the President announced that the country needs a fourth stimulus to help fund cities and states, de Blasio said, the Senate would fall in line and work on it immediately. 

While de Blasio also said he wants to see New York City kids back in school in September, the city is is no place yet to let up on social distancing guidelines yet.

De Blasio warned the rest of the country to continue to be vigilant.

“Right now, what I fear is there's a rush to reopen — in some places at least — that's going to end up with people losing their lives who didn't have to lose their lives,” he said. 

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Calvin Munerlyn, the security guard who was shot and killed in Michigan last week, was "loved everywhere," his widow told CNN. 

"He was devoted, loving, kind-hearted, courageous, brave, just committed," she said. "He was just loved everywhere," Munerlyn's widow, Latryna Munerlyn, told CNN's Don Lemon.

The 43-year-old guard was shot in the head after telling a customer at a Family Dollar store to wear a face mask -- which the state has mandated for all retail employees and customers, police say. He died at a Flint hospital.

Three members of the same family have been charged.

The family had eight children. "My children are very, very strong," she said. "They are strong, and I say that man instilled something in them that can't nobody take away. My babies are super strong. They have been trying to cope with this and my baby boy said, 'As long as he's with God he's OK.'"

Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said Munerlyn was "simply doing his job" to uphold the governor's orders. 

"My king always acted honorably," Munerlyn's widow said, "whether he was at that job, a club job, restaurant job, he was an honorable man. Period. They can't take that from him."

She says even though her husband is now gone, his legacy will "live on."

President Donald Trump wants to move on. "Wartime" leadership in a national crisis no longer fits his political timetable.

No matter that coronavirus cases are rising in many states and that governors are ignoring his guidelines about when it's safe to open. Trump is shrugging off warnings by scientists that the easing of restrictions across the country could cause tens of thousands of deaths.

The White House gave its clearest sign yet Tuesday, just less than six months from Election Day and as the US death toll topped 70,000, that it is moving from pandemic management to a message of revival and an aggressive pitch for a second term. And Trump is thwarting oversight efforts of how he and his administration responded to the pandemic that could reveal failures that worsened the outbreak. 

Vice President Mike Pence revealed conversations about scaling back the administration's coronavirus task force perhaps around Memorial Day at the end of the month. Officials said that advisers like Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx would remain on board. But closing the task force would make experts whose science-based arguments have sometimes contradicted Trump's overly optimistic projections far less visible.

Trump all but admitted that he was reconciled to the deaths that epidemiologists say would result from a premature effort to open the economy.

No one doubts the cataclysmic impact of the stay-at-home orders on the economy -- or the need to somehow find a way to resume daily life, even in some reduced form.

But Trump's White House is showing signs of moving toward the opening in exactly the same slapdash, politically polarizing manner that it used in the early months of the year, when the President was in denial about the problem.

Read more here.