Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Vice President Mike Pence made the decision to stay away from President Trump, after Katie Miller, the vice president's press secretary, tested positive for the coronavirus, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said today. 

CNN reported earlier on Tuesday that Pence is "maintaining distance [from Trump] for the immediate future" after consulting with the White House medical unit, a senior administration official said. 

Trump said yesterday that he has not seen Pence since Miller tested positive on Friday, a fact that was underscored by the vice president's absence from Trump's news conference Monday. 

Trump noted that he could speak with Pence by telephone. Pence was spotted arriving at the White House wearing a mask this morning.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that House Democrats’ new coronavirus relief bill is “dead on arrival” in the Senate.

The 1,815 page bill announced today has a price tag expected to be more than $3 trillion — an amount that would stand as the largest relief package in history. 

New York City has at least 15,101 confirmed coronavirus deaths and approximately 5,136 probable coronavirus deaths as of May 10, according to the most recent data on the city website.

The New York City Health Department defines probable deaths as people who did not have a positive Covid-19 laboratory test, but their death certificate lists as the cause of death “COVID-19” or an equivalent.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus deaths and probable coronavirus deaths in New York City is at least 20,237.

There have been 184,319 coronavirus cases in the city and approximately 48,939 people have been hospitalized, according to the city.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf denied claims that he is infringing on people’s rights by not reopening the state as fast as others want.

“We're all trying to do the best we can and admittedly, with information that is limited by the lack of experience, this is the first time we've ever faced a pandemic like this," he added.

Wolf said the state had nearly 4,000 deaths in two months and tens of thousands of cases coronavirus.

“That's huge…We have got to fight this to the end and make sure that we're doing everything we can to keep people safe,” the governor said.

When questioned whether he was concerned about the growing division in the state, Wolf said, “I'm frustrated.”

“What I'm trying to do is keep people safe and I think that should be something that everybody in Pennsylvania should rally around, including politicians. And to the extent that they don't, I think they're doing a disservice to the people they serve,” the governor said.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker filed a supplemental budget bill Tuesday to authorize $1 billion in spending to cover the costs incurred by the state during the pandemic, he said.

The money will be used to fund purchases of personal protective equipment, rate adjustments for essential human service providers, temporary field hospitals and shelters and the state's contact tracing program.

Baker said he anticipates the majority of the funding will be reimbursed by the federal government through reimbursement and other federal funding sources including the CARES Act.

The state of New Jersey is planning to develop a community contact tracing core that could employ 1,000 to 5,000 people, New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said at a news briefing Tuesday.

A contact tracing job could pay up to $25 an hour, according to Gov. Phil Murphy.

New Jersey is planning to work with higher education institutions and universities in the state to build out the contact tracing core.

Murphy announced an executive order during the press conference that said the state of New Jersey will use the CommCare data collection platform owned by Dimagi to ensure state officials all work on the same platform for contact tracing. 

“The combination of expanded testing and contact tracing increases our ability to identify new cases and take immediately health measures to interrupt the transmission of the virus," Perischilli added.

Massachusetts crossed the 5,000 death threshold after reporting another 129 deaths for a new total of 5,108, according to Gov. Charlie Baker.

The governor said Massachusetts had 669 new positive cases yesterday — that is about 12% of the people who were tested yesterday.

There are at least 1,356,037 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

At least 81,571 Americans have died.

Johns Hopkins has reported 8,649 new cases and 889 reported deaths on Tuesday. 

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today that New York needs about $61 billion in federal support or the state will have to reduce spending.

Cuomo delivered these remarks after House Democrats introduced a new coronavirus relief bill this afternoon. The 1,815-page bill has a price tag expected to be more than $3 trillion –– an amount that would stand as the largest relief package in history.