Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Chicago hopes to increase its testing capacity from 3,000 residents per day to 4,500 by the end of the month, Dr. Allison Arwady, the commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said Monday.

Arwady said the current rate of positive tests is 24.6% with over 100,000 people tested so far. Within Chicago, they have set a specific goal of being able to test at least 5% of residents in the city each month.

New test sites: Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Chicago will be launching six new coronavirus testing sites across the city starting later this week, which would help the city expand its testing.

One of the new sites will be specifically for first responders and health care workers, and the other five will be “located within communities disproportionately impacted by the disease,” Lightfoot said.

Actor Sean Penn’s non-profit CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort), which brings emergency medical supplies to areas in need around the world, will assist with the operation of the new testing network, she said.

“We are thrilled to announce that our first sites will launch later this week,” the mayor said, going on to say, “These new sites represent a major step in our city’s fight against COVID-19”

When an Asian-American White House reporter asked President Trump about him saying the US is testing for coronavirus more than any other country, he responded by asking her to ask China and then ended the news conference abruptly.

"You've said many times that the US is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing. Why does that matter? Why is this a global competition to you if every day Americans are still losing their lives and we're still seeing more cases every day?" the reporter from CBS, Weijia Jiang, asked Trump.

Trump responded: "Well they're losing their lives everywhere in the world and maybe that's a question you should ask China, don't ask me, ask China that question, OK? When you ask them that question, you may get a very unusual answer."

Trump then called on another reporter, but Jiang followed up: "Sir, why are you saying that to me specifically? That I should ask China?"

"I'm telling you. I'm not saying it specifically to anybody, I'm saying it to anybody who would ask a nasty question like that," Trump responded.

CNN's Kaitlan Collins then tried to ask Trump two questions but he cut her off and abruptly ended the news conference. Trump then immediately left the White House Rose Garden.

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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said discretionary funding to fight Covid-19 will not go to counties putting people at risk by “operating illegally.”

He said the funding put aside to help combat the crisis will go to those who “do their part.”

“That includes the CARES act funding which will be used to support counties that are following the orders to prevent the spread and medical communities," he said.

Wolf said other discretionary funding will not go to counties that “put us all at risk by operating illegally” and instead to those that are “doing everything they ought to do to keep their citizens safe.”

When asked about President Trump’s tweet from earlier in the day saying the people of Pennsylvania “want their freedom” and that the “Democrats are moving slowly all over the USA, for political purposes,” Wolf said, “I don’t know how you stay safe and move quickly. We’re trying to move deliberately.”

Surveillance video at a Target store in Van Nuys, California, shows two men assaulting an employee after they were confronted about not wearing masks, the Los Angeles Police Department told CNN. 

The two suspects, 31-year-old Phillip Hamilton and 29-year-old Paul Hamilton, have been arrested and face felony battery charges. Their bail was set at $50,000, the police department said.

The two suspects were escorted out of the store on the morning of May 1 after refusing to wear face coverings, according to LAPD officers. 

As they approached the exit, one suspect, suddenly without provocation, turned and punched a store employee, causing him and the suspect to fall to the floor. While on the ground, the store employee broke his left arm.

The Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics had to transfer the store employee to a local hospital where he was treated for his injuries.

President Trump said that Vice President Mike Pence has tested negative for coronavirus again today.

“The vice president first of all has been tested and he’s negative and he was tested yesterday, tested today and he is negative. He's in very good shape and I think that that's going to be fine,” Trump said.

Both Trump and Pence are now being tested for coronavirus daily.

Pence was at the White House today but was not at the Rose Garden event.

President Trump says he is the one requiring face masks at the White House, even as he defended his choice not to wear one on Monday.

Trump, speaking to reporters in the Rose Garden, was asked why he wasn’t requiring White House staffers to wear face coverings.

“If they’re a certain distance from me, or a certain distance from each other, they do. In the case of me, I'm not close to anybody. I would like to be close to these two gentlemen, they're hardworking, great men,” the President quipped, “but they just said frankly, let's keep it this way. Obviously I'm very far away from everyone."

“If you look at all those people over there, every one of them from what I see, these are White House staffers, they’re White House representatives, they’re White House executives and everybody has a mask on. Just about everybody I’ve seen today has worn a mask,” he remarked.

Asked if he was the one who required it, Trump answered that he was.

“I did,” he said, “I required that.”

Yale-New Haven Hospital is reporting three cases of the mysterious inflammatory syndrome seen in children that health officials believe could be linked to the coronavirus, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said.

Josh Geballe, the chief operating officer for the governor’s office, also noted that the state had been in touch with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the illness.

The latest numbers: Lamont said that the state’s overall trend lines are continuing in “a very positive direction,” saying that the percentage of those who have tested positive is now less than 10%, and has been for a few days.

The state reported 211 new cases, and 41 new deaths on Monday. The number of new hospitalization admissions also decreased from 273 a week ago to approximately 152 yesterday.

Lamont said that all of these numbers illustrate that the state is still on track for its targeted May 20 reopening.

He added the state received a new shipment of personal protective equipment and the anti-viral remdesivir from the federal government, and that new announcements about personal protective equipment and testing will be made tomorrow.

President Trump claimed that Americans are "dying" from social distancing measures while defending allegations he made that Democrats are keeping the states closed for political reasons to hurt his reelection chances.

“People want to go back. The numbers are getting to a point where they can and there just seems to be no effort on certain blue states to get back into gear,” Trump said. “People aren’t going to stand for it. They want to get back. They're not going to stand for it. They want our country open. I want our country open. I want it open safely.”

He said people are also dying from drug addiction and suicides because of social distancing measures, with no evidence to back up the assertion.

At least 80,087 people have died in the US from coronavirus. Last month, a Washington Post analysis found coronavirus to be one of the leading causes of death among Americans. 

“Don't forget, people are dying the other route,” Trump continued. “You can go with the enclosed route. Everything closed up, you're in your house not allowed to move. People are dying with that too. You look at drug addiction. You look at suicides. Look at some of the things that are taking place.”

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President Trump defended the White House response to diagnosed cases of coronavirus among staffers, continuing to insist it’s safe for businesses to reopen even as the administration struggles to keep its own employees healthy. 

During a news conference Monday, Trump was asked how the system broke down to allow staffers to expose others within the White House to the virus.

“It can happen,” he said. “It’s the hidden enemy, remember that. It’s the hidden enemy, so remember that.”

Trump added that “the one that tested positive,” the vice president’s press secretary Katie Miller, “will be fine.”

On reopening businesses: Asked how businesses should feel comfortable reopening when even the White House is seeing positive cases of the virus, Trump said the White House has seen low numbers of positive cases. 

Miller was the second White House employee diagnosed with Covid-19 last week, after CNN first reported that one of the President’s personal valets also tested positive. The President did not seem to acknowledge that employee’s diagnosis in any way. 

Trump said everybody coming into his office is tested.

“I felt no vulnerability,” he said.

The President later added that he thinks the White House is “really doing a very good job in watching it, and I think it’s very well contained.”