Coronavirus pandemic in the US

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced Tuesday that the city would reopen in a "very slow" manner starting May 16. 

"We have peaked, we have come down significantly, and the experts say to watch that trend over a period of 14 to 21 days. We're well over 21 days of a downward trend," Cantrell said. 

In phase one, Cantrell said, the city is mandating residents to wear face covering in public. 

Churches will be allowed to open at 25% capacity or at 100 people. 

Gyms can open under 25% occupancy without group activities. Personal training is approved in this initial phase, Cantrell said. 

As for restaurants, the mayor emphasized the importance of contact tracing. She said restaurants would need reservations, so they can have a log for contact tracing.

"They will be required to have reservations, and ... if someone walks in, they have to treat it as a reservation, meaning name and phone number," she said.

Close contact businesses, such as spas, massage parlors and tattoo shops, will not be allowed to reopen in phase one, Cantrell said. 

There are at least 1,366,350 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 82,105 people have died from the virus, according to a Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

Johns Hopkins on Tuesday reported 18,962 new cases and 1,423 deaths. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said the Department of Public Health "plans to have 1,000 staff deployed in the weeks ahead."

He said there's "nearly 250 staff in the field today" contact tracing..

Kemp announced an online tool that officials are calling the "Healthy Georgia Collaborative," which will "streamline contact tracing across the state." The tool will allow "Georgians to identify contacts and monitor symptoms."

Kemp encouraged anyone who is contacted by Department of Public Health staff to participate.

"We need your help to defeat this virus. Together, we can continue to take measured steps forward in the days ahead," Kemp said. 

Kentucky is now aware of two patients who have been diagnosed with Covid-19-related pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, Health Commissioner Dr. Steven Stack said.

One case is a 10-year-old and is critically ill in the intensive care unit, and the second patient is a 16-year-old, who is doing well and is in a regular medical bed, Stack said.

The teenager was admitted to the hospital out an abundance of caution and to be monitored closely, the health director said.

Stack said the 10-year-old patient is showing signs of improvement.

“The children who get sick with this can have cardiovascular collapse and require supportive measures to maintain their blood pressure, or respiratory collapse requiring breathing support with a mechanical ventilator,” Stack said.

USA Gymnastics has announced Tuesday that it will not hold this year’s US Gymnastics Championships, in addition to other events scheduled for 2020.

According to a statement on its website, the deferred events include the GK US Classic, the US Gymnastics Championships (for women’s and men’s artistic gymnastics) and the USA Gymnastics Championships (for rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics).

USA Gymnastics is in the process of rescheduling events leading up to the Olympic Games in 2021 and plans to announce new dates for Olympic Trials in the coming weeks, the website statement says.

The US Gymnastics Championships, previously scheduled for June 4-7, 2020, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, will take place in the original venue June 3-6, 2021.

A key coronavirus model often cited by the White House has again raised its coronavirus death projection, now predicting 147,000 deaths in the US by August 4.

That’s an increase of about 10,000 deaths compared to the model’s estimate from this weekend, which was already higher than earlier projections.

On Sunday, Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, tied the earlier increase to “explosive increases in mobility in a number of states.”

Compared to Sunday, the model now projects about 2,450 additional deaths in New York, 2,000 additional deaths in Massachusetts and 1,700 additional deaths in Pennsylvania. Other states saw sizable increases as well. North Carolina, for example, is now expected to see about 3,200 more deaths, and Maryland about 1,200 more.

Some states saw decreases in projected deaths, however, including Georgia, which is now expected to see 1,500 fewer deaths. The model’s projection for Indiana has also gone down by 1,600 deaths.

On its website, IHME said exact reasons for the changes vary by state. But the institute pointed to “epidemiological indicators and key drivers of viral transmission,” like changes in testing and mobility.

IHME also pointed to the easing of social distancing policies, but said “the full potential effects of recent actions to ease social distancing policies, especially if robust containment measures have yet to be fully scaled up, may not be fully known for a few weeks due to the time periods between viral exposure, possible infection, and full disease progression.”

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Washington state is starting a contact tracing program to keep track of the spread of coronavirus as more businesses open up. 

“This initiative is a transition from one strategy to another," Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday afternoon. 

Inslee said people who test positive for Covid-19 will be contacted by a “professional interviewer” to identify other people who could have been exposed. Those contacts may be asked to test and self-quarantine until they get a negative result.

He said hundreds of members of the National Guard will be used as part of the contact tracing group, but they will not have law enforcement power to compel people to comply. 

He added keeping infected people from spreading the virus is the key to getting life back to normal. 

“This virus doesn't have any legs,” Inslee said. “It can't travel without us.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk defied Alameda County's shelter-in-place orders and reopened a Tesla factory this week amid coronavirus concerns — igniting an ongoing riff between the billionaire and California officials who argue his business operations continue to disregard workers' safety.

Musk threatened to move his company out of the state and refused to halt operations at the Freemont, California, plant despite countywide orders that only allow essential businesses to operate at this time. Musk also tweeted, "If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me."

"We should be outraged by a billionaire that has gotten so much from its partnership in California, but continues to put workers in unsafe conditions, continues to union bust, continues to wave his finger at California [as if] we're supposed to allow that and let him throw his temper tantrum," Gonzalez said on CNN Tuesday. 

Gonzalez, a Democrat from San Diego, has remained vocal on social media against Musk's defiance of public health orders.

Over the weekend, she shared a colorful and direct message on Twitter: "F*ck Elon Musk"

On Tuesday, Gonzalez tweeted to her followers: "Who is tired of billionaire companies that get to break labor laws, worker safety standards and stay-at-home orders without accountability while small mom & pop businesses are required to play by the rules?"

She followed the message with a raising hand emoji in agreement.

CNN previously reported county health officials ordered Musk to cease operations at the plant Tuesday. Tesla is also expected to submit a site-specific plan to Alameda County today for review, according to an email sent to the vice president of health and safety at Tesla.

President Trump also joined the conversation on social media Tuesday tweeting, "California should let Tesla & Elon Musk open the plant, NOW. It can be done Fast & Safely!" 

Musk replied to the President, "Thank you!"

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Mayor Eric Garcetti said there will be "no radical changes "coming to Los Angeles in the next week or so."

Garcetti emphasized the plans in Southern California will proceed slowly with reopening so restrictions don’t need to be tightened.

On schools: Garcetti said the county needs to be doing about 15,000 tests a day in order to possibly reopen schools in September or August.

He said it is going to be important to test students multiple times.

"There's no question we're going to have to have our young people not just testing once and you're good to go to school, but at least weekly if not more frequently to make sure nobody infectious is going to school even if they don't have symptoms," he said.

In higher education, the California State University system announced plans to cancel nearly all in-person classes through the fall semester to reduce spread of coronavirus earlier today.

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