Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Multiple outlets, including the New York Times and ESPN, are reporting that Major League Baseball owners have agreed on a proposal to begin the 2020 season in early July with games being hosted in spectator-free home stadiums.

Reports of the proposal follow a Monday meeting between MLB executives and team leadership. The New York Times cited unnamed baseball officials while ESPN cited sources familiar with the situation.

According to the reports, the owners and league management have agreed upon an 82-game regular season, down from the traditional 162 games. Other details being reported are a second spring training starting next month, teams hosting games in their home stadiums as long as state legislation and health officials allow, use of the designated hitter in both the American and National Leagues, and expanded rosters which could utilize up to 50 players. 

All of these proposed ideas would need to be agreed upon by the Major League Baseball Players Association in order to proceed with this unprecedented season. That could prove to be difficult as lines are already being drawn regarding key financial terms previously outlined in a March agreement on how much players would be paid in a shortened season. 

Under the terms of the March agreement, MLB players received a $170 million salary advance. In exchange for that advance, the MLBPA agreed not to challenge the loss of the players’ 2020 salaries if the season were to be canceled and to accept prorated salaries if a partial season is played.

An excerpt of that March agreement, provided to CNN by a source with knowledge of MLB operations, indicates that if MLB games cannot be staged in teams' home stadiums in front of spectators, the MLB and MLBPA agree to hold good faith discussions about the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators or at neutral sites. MLB's position is that those discussions could include asking players to take further salary reductions.

The MLBPA is balking at the idea of reopening the discussion of players' salaries.

The potential financial snag could create a public relations nightmare for the sport at the worst possible time. As unemployment hits depression era levels, and the world economy struggles to reopen, this is not the kind of game that the fans want to see being played.

A separate source with knowledge of the MLBPA's position tells CNN that MLB owners are in no need of a financial bailout from MLB players. The source echoes Clark's position that the salary issue was previously settled in the March agreement, which provided the owners with flexibility to adjust their revenue sharing this season.

Multiple outlets are reporting that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred will present the proposal to the MLBPA this week, potentially as early as Tuesday.

CNN has reached out to MLB multiple times without a reply.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced today that close contact service providers, fitness and exercise centers, commercial gyms, and public or commercial pools will be able to open in a limited capacity on May 18.

The governor said Monday that he also wants some state employees to return to work.

He added the first group will return no later than June 1 and when there is enough personal protective equipment to go around on site. 

Restaurants are now open for limited dine-in services, he said in a statement on Monday.

The governor has also lifted restrictions on boating, short-term rentals, beaches, and visitors to the state.

There are at least 7,792 positive cases of coronavirus and 346 Covid-19-related deaths in South Carolina, according to the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control's website.

Even though the city’s Covid-19-related deaths are trending down, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said they will focus their efforts to stop the spread on people over the age of 60.

The Detroit Health Department is planning on sending teams into apartment buildings and facilities, "where people over the age of 60 are clustered” to test for the virus, the mayor said

Duggan said that in many instances, “it’s so much easier to go through the apartment building and take everybody’s swab and send them to a lab than to get all those folks to get into the car” and get tested.

Detroit’s Chief Public Health Officer, Denise Fair, added that “this is going to be a massive undertaking. We have about 10,000 units in the city of Detroit.”

Here are some of the top coronavirus headlines from this afternoon you may have missed:

Just moments after President Trump declared that his administration has "prevailed" on coronavirus testing, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey rejected the President's claim, saying "we have not prevailed" on testing. 

At the White House briefing on Covid-19 testing, Trump announced that his administration will allocate $11 billion from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to help states increase their testing ability. 

The Minneapolis mayor said that testing will be "critical" to reopening his city safely.

"It's got to be testing, followed by tracing, followed by isolating for those who have come back with positive tests," Frey said. "We hope to get up to 20,000 tests per day. Right now, we are hovering around 5,000. In order to do this properly, in order to do this with our eyes wide open and responding to the data, we're going to need more tests."

Watch:

The Vermont Department of Health is investigating a report of possible Covid-19 exposure at the Vermont School for Girls in Bennington, a residential treatment center for girls with special needs, Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said this morning.

Public Health Communication Officer Ben Truman said this doesn’t necessarily mean a widespread “outbreak” is occurring at the facility.

According to Levine, everyone at the school, including all students and staff, has been tested for Covid-19, as it is Vermont’s practice to conduct universal testing in any congregate facility, no matter how large, if a positive case is reported. 

“Working with the facility, our Epidemiology team conducted an investigation and recommended universal testing of staff and students. At each step, the school provided support and information for their students and staff, allowing our trained staff to conduct the specimen collection effort quickly, and for all concerned to receive appropriate guidance,” Truman said. 

Levine said a small number of people at the school tested positive for the virus, but in order to protect individual private health information, the Vermont Department of Health will not be releasing test figures.

The number of organ transplantations fell dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study published today.

In early April, the number of deceased donor organ transplants dropped by 51.1% in the United States and 90.6% in France when compared to a month earlier, the study said.

Kidney transplantations had the greatest decrease in numbers, but heart, lung and liver transplantations also had substantial reductions, the authors said. The study, published in the medical journal The Lancet, combined organ procurement data from federal agencies in the United States and France.

One explanation for the reduction could be concern that transplant recipients are more susceptible to infection, according to the researchers.

Another concern is that there aren’t enough resources in terms of staff or equipment in hospitals to care for patients after transplantation.

Decisions about how to use limited medical resources “could be especially devastating for the thousands of patients in need of an organ transplant,” the authors wrote. “While living donor organ transplants could presumably be rescheduled for a future date, deceased donor organs must be procured immediately or the opportunity is lost.”

There wasn’t a clear association between reductions in organ transplantation rates and Covid-19 hotspots, suggesting a global and nationwide effect beyond local infections, the researchers said.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak declared a “fiscal emergency” for Nevada, allowing him to tap into the state’s reserve fund to make up part of the difference

The governor’s budget office expects the shortfall in the current budget year could top $900 million. 

Sisolak advised state agencies last month to start planning cuts in their departments.

The non-partisan Tax Foundation says Nevada’s reserve fund – also known as the Rainy Day Fund – had nearly $400 million in it when the current budget was approved.

President Trump said he may mandate all nursing homes conduct coronavirus tests on their residents.

He added that he thinks all the states should be testing nursing home residents and that they have the capacity to conduct that testing.

Members of the task force: Earlier today, on a video call with Vice President Mike Pence, members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the nation’s governors, both Pence and Dr. Deborah Birx also addressed the issue.

Moving forward, Birx said, the administration is looking to test key areas, nursing homes in particular.

“We really believe that all 1 million nursing home residents need to be tested within the next two weeks as well as the staff,” she said, noting that there should be “probably weekly testing” after that.

Pence reiterated Birx’s comments, telling the governors that they should develop plans to test all nursing home residents whether their states have reached phase one reopening plans or not. 

“We are recommending very strongly that as you all have been rapidly expanding testing… is that you sit your teams down today and figure out a strategy to make sure whether you’re in phase one or not… we’re calling on states across the country, start now deploying those testing resources to test the residents and staff at your nursing homes as quickly as you can get up to weekly testing,” he said.