Outdoor recreational activities in Vermont allowed to reopen
From CNN's Carma Hassan
Hiking trail sign at Texas Falls in Hancock, Vermont on October 11, 2019. John Greim/LightRocket/Getty Images
Businesses and facilities like skate parks, tennis courts, ball fields, trail networks, and golf courses are allowed to reopen, said Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore.
“As Vermont’s winter transforms into a bright and green spring, many of us, myself included, are itching to get outside and go a bit further afield,” Moore said.
Residents are no longer being asked to stay within 10 miles of their homes, she said. However, Gov. Phil Scott said anyone who crosses the border is still required to quarantine for 14 days.
12:31 p.m. ET, May 6, 2020
Wendy's beef shortage will last a few more weeks
From CNN’s Jordan Valinsky
A sign posted on a walk-in entrance to a Wendy's fast food restaurant in Alhambra, California on May 5. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
Wendy's expects the beef shortage that's affecting about 1,000 of its US restaurants to continue for the foreseeable future.
CEO Todd Penegor said on an earnings call today that Wendy's will probably experience a "couple of weeks of challenging tightness that we'll have to work through" before getting back to normal.
Yesterday, Wendy's said some of its menu items might be "temporarily limited at some restaurants" because of the national meat shortage. Though its delivery schedule remains unchanged, supply has been tight because beef suppliers across North America face production challenges during the pandemic.
Analysts at financial firm Stephens scoured the online menus of Wendy's 5,500 US restaurants and found that one in five are not selling hamburgers or other beef items. Instead they're highlighting chicken sandwiches.
Penegor acknowledged that certain items will be removed from menus from "time to time" during the shortage.
"We do believe it is temporary, and we're close with our big supply partners," he added. "We have several of them on the fresh beef front, and we do believe we'll work through this in short order."
He also noted that while some restaurants aren't displaying beef on their online menus, it doesn't necessarily mean the restaurant is completely out of beef. Restaurants have the ability to customize their menus, and some have chosen not to display beef items to prevent dissatisfaction since supplies are low.
"It doesn't mean you're out of beef at the restaurant level, but you wouldn't want to really disappoint a consumer if they looked in mobile order and said you had beef, and then they drove to the restaurant and you are out," he said.
It's "hard to quantify" the material impact the shortage might have on Wendy's profits, Penegor added, because customers could be buying other menu items instead.
Still, Wendy's stock soared more than 6% in trading today after revealing that US same-store sales have been rebounding every week since hitting a low the first week of April. The company also said that its newly launched breakfast menu is exceeding expectations.
12:29 p.m. ET, May 6, 2020
Florida governor signals parts of south Florida could reopen soon
From CNN’s Rosa Flores and Sara Weisfeldt
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gestures during a coronavirus news conference on May 5, at the University Town Center mall in Sarasota, Florida. Chris O'Meara/AP
“We'll hopefully be able to go forward soon in southern Florida,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Miami Gardens.
DeSantis said he has been looking at the trends and even though the Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are not quite ready yet, he is optimistic that the region will be ready soon.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez echoed the governor’s tone, saying the county wants to open up as fast as possible while being as safe as possible.
“The governor already expressed some of the good news of the state of Florida. There are similar results here in Miami-Dade County. We have less than 100 people that are respirators today in Miami-Dade County,” Gimenez said. “We're formulating plans for how we can open up the economy here in Miami-Dade, and now of course that'll be given to the governor so we get his blessing, before we make any announcements.”
12:16 p.m. ET, May 6, 2020
Jet Blue will donate flights to 100,000 medical professionals, Cuomo says
A JetBlue Airways Corp. aircraft sits at a gate in Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York on April 9. Angus Mordant/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Jet Blue will give a pair of roundtrip flights to 100,000 medical professionals around the country, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
The airline is beginning with 10,000 workers from New York, he said.
Jet Blue is offering flights to medical workers to honor their efforts in battling coronavirus, Cuomo said.
12:10 p.m. ET, May 6, 2020
No states meet all the criteria for reopening, health scholar says
Dr. Caitlin Rivers, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security said to her knowledge, no state has met all the criteria laid out by the White House Task Force for reopening.
Speaking at the House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the United States' coronavirus response today, Rivers described the four criteria:
The number of new cases must decline for at least two weeks (She said "some states have met that criteria" but not the other benchmarks).
The state must have enough public health capacity to conduct contact tracing on all new cases.
There must be enough diagnostic testing to test everybody with symptoms.
There must be enough health care system capacity to treat everyone.
“To my knowledge, there are no states that meet all four of those criteria,” Rivers said.
President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, Dr. Tom Frieden said “open versus closed is not a strict on-off switch.”
“There are things that might be first to open: out of doors is way less risky than inside, low-risk businesses, take out from restaurants, outdoor recreation, even daycare if done very carefully and safely maybe lower risk,” Frieden added.
12:14 p.m. ET, May 6, 2020
New York survey shows many hospitalized coronavirus patients were not working or traveling
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo just announced preliminary results of a survey of new hospitalized coronavirus patients across the state.
Many of the patients....
Were not working or traveling
Are predominantly from downstate
Are predominantly minorities
Are predominantly older (that means 51 years old and older)
Are predominantly nonessential employees
Were predominantly at home at the time of infection (either working from home or not working)
"Much of this comes down to what you do to protect yourself … it comes down to personal behavior," Cuomo said, reiterating the importance of wearing a face covering, using hand sanitizer and social distancing – especially from vulnerable people and populations.
The initial results are drawn from surveys of approximately 1,000 patients from around 100 hospitals across the state over three days, he said.
Watch:
12:00 p.m. ET, May 6, 2020
Cuomo: New York is seeing "painfully slow" decline in hospitalizations
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today that the state's "total hospitalization rate is down again" today but added he would like to see a "steeper, faster decline."
"We would have liked to see a steeper, faster decline, but this is where we are, and it's a painfully slow decline. But it's better than the numbers going the other way," Cuomo said.
11:46 a.m. ET, May 6, 2020
At least 232 people died from coronavirus in New York yesterday, governor says
At least 232 people died across New York from coronavirus yesterday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference.
At least 207 of them died in hospitals and 25 died in nursing homes, Cuomo said.
That's up slightly from the 230 people who died on Monday and the 226 who died on Sunday.
"When people talk about how good things are going, and the decline and the progress, that's all true. It's also true that 232 people were lost yesterday,": Cuomo said.
He cautioned that the death totals may be "worse" when the final numbers are tallied. At home deaths may not be documented and the virus may have caused some deaths earlier than reported, Cuomo said.
Watch:
11:50 a.m. ET, May 6, 2020
White House coronavirus task force members are in the dark on the panel's future, source says
From CNN's Jim Acosta
Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a briefing on the administration's coronavirus response in the press briefing room of the White House on March 2, in Washington, DC. Standing with Pence, from left to right, Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Debbie Birx, White House Corona Virus Response Coordinator, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Stephen Hahn, commissioner of food and drugs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Drew Angerer/Getty Images
After all the back and forth on the White House coronavirus task force’s future, its members are unsure what's happening with the panel, according to a source close to the task force.
