Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Pools, splash pads, water parks, and swim beaches in Arkansas will be allowed to open on May 22, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday. 

People who enter the areas will be screened and those with a fever or who have had contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 will be turned away, Hutchinson said.

The governor said pool chemistry should be tested twice a day, and high-touch areas should be disinfected "frequently." 

Slides, diving boards and any other areas where people form lines should be marked with notices about the 6-foot distancing.

Arkansas is reporting 3,747 confirmed coronavirus cases and 88 deaths, said Dr. Nate Smith with the Arkansas Department of Health.

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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced today that the state is on track for a phase one reopening on May 15 but cautioned “if our trends change, we will adjust that date as needed.”

Northam said that the stay-at-home order that had been in effect will now become a “safer-at-home order” and detailed what restrictions would be lifted in a phase one reopening.

Here is what would be allowed in phase one:

Here's what won’t be allowed to reopen in phase one:

"We are not opening the floodgates here, we're not flipping a light switch from closed to open," he said. “We will move forward cautiously with science and with data and safety as our criteria.”

Northam said he expects phase one to last at least two weeks but “it may last longer depending on what the data shows.”

The restaurant industry has lost more than three decades of jobs in the last two months, according to analysis from the National Restaurant Association, a leading industry group.

Eating and drinking places lost 5.5 million jobs in April which followed a net decline of nearly a half-million jobs – three times more jobs than any other industry, according to the group.  

“It is critical that Congress provide targeted relief for the restaurant industry and its employees,” Kennedy added.

The federal government ignored longstanding recommendations for how to handle a pandemic, and President Trump further undermined efforts, Florida Rep. Donna Shalala said Friday.

“Boy, we weren’t ready,” Shalala, a Democrat who is also former Health and Human Services secretary, said at a meeting of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense.

The commission, an independent group put together to advise on potential pandemic and bioterrorist dangers, has been warning for years about the lack of US preparedness.

Shalala, a former member of the commission, said the White House did follow one recommendation made in a 2015 report offering guidance about handling a pandemic. That was the appointment of Vice President Mike Pence to head the response. 

Trump named Pence coronavirus coordinator on Feb. 27, but for weeks continued to himself front White House briefings on the pandemic.

“If the President had gotten out of the way, the vice president would have done just fine because he had just the right tone about working with state and local governments,” Shalala said.

Pence, she said, had shown he would listen to advice from the US National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and other medical experts.

“He never second-guessed their opinions,” she said.

Hospitals across the United States are seeing fewer stroke patients coming to their facilities for care — and a new paper ties that trend to the coronavirus pandemic.

The paper, published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine as a letter to the editor, suggests that the number of patients in the United States undergoing imaging for stroke evaluation has decreased by 39% since before the pandemic.

"These are stroke patients who need to be treated," said Dr. Greg Albers, director of the Stanford Stroke Center and professor of neurology at Stanford University, who was an author of the letter. 

Albers called the 39% drop in stroke patients "unheard of."

In the letter, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Stanford University in California wrote that they examined data on 231,753 stroke patients who underwent neuroimaging in 856 hospitals in the United States from July 1, 2019 through April 27.

The data showed that the number of patients who underwent imaging decreased from 1.18 patients per day per hospital in February to 0.72 patients per day per hospital in late March and early April.

"We were very surprised to see that many people of all ages, and even those with severe strokes, were not presenting to the hospital for evaluation and treatment. Even in states with few Covid cases, patients were hesitant to be seen in ERs," Albers said.

US stocks rallied all day Friday in spite of the worst monthly jobs report on record.

The market has brushed off bleak labor market data, including the staggeringly high weekly jobless claims, over the past weeks. Friday was no exception.

The April report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the US economy lost 20.5 million jobs, bringing the unemployment rate to 14.7%. It was the worst monthly report in history, in terms of both jobs lost and the unemployment rate.

Here's where things stand:

Remember: As stocks settle after the trading day, levels might still change slightly.

Indiana has 675 new positive coronavirus cases, bringing the statewide total to 23,146, according to State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box.

There were 33 new confirmed deaths announced today for a total of 1,328, plus 119 total suspected but unconfirmed deaths, Box said.

Intensive care unit and ventilator capacity is holding steady in the state, Box noted.

Delta Air Lines said it is temporarily halting service at 10 airports in an effort to reduce health risks for its employees. The airports are in metropolitan areas with other airports nearby, the airline said in a statement Friday.

While Delta said the move is to protect its frontline employees at those airports, like all airlines, it has seen a major reduction in passengers during the pandemic. 

Routes will be shuttered to airports such as Chicago Midway. The airline will instead funnel passengers through the O’Hare International Airport.

“Delta will continue providing essential service to impacted communities via neighboring airports,” the statement said.

Delta is the world’s second largest airline. The airline on Monday began mandating that passengers wear face coverings on flights.

The airline said it still may suspend service to other airports as well, citing a request that the Department of Transportation is still reviewing to suspend operations at nine more airports.