Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Study subjects who received Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine had positive early results, according to a press release issued Monday by the biotech company, which partnered with the National Institutes of Health to develop the vaccine.

These early data come from a Phase 1 clinical trial, which typically study a small number of people and focus on whether a vaccine is safe. The information has not been peer reviewed, nor published in a medical journal.

Race for a vaccine: Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of eight developers worldwide already doing human clinical trials of potential vaccines against the novel coronavirus, according to the World Health Organization. Two others, Pfizer and Inovio, are also in the United States, one is at the University of Oxford in the UK, and three others are in China. 

"All eight initial participants" in the Moderna trial developed neutralizing antibodies to the virus at levels reaching or exceeding those seen in people who have naturally recovered from Covid-19, according to the press release.

Neutralizing antibodies bind to the virus, disabling it from attacking human cells. The presence of such antibodies at the levels of people who have naturally had the infection is an important indicator in vaccine studies

The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared the company to begin Phase 2 trials, which typically involve a larger number of people, and the company expects to begin Phase 3 trials in July. Phase 3 involves large-scale testing of the vaccine, typically in tens of thousands of patients.

The length of such trials varies greatly, and the press release doesn't indicate how long they might take, or when the vaccine might be available to the public.

At the highest dose, three participants had "the most notable adverse events," which resolved, and no serious adverse events were reported, the company said, not specifying what the adverse events were.

The company indicated that the Phase 3 trials will be done with lower doses. 

Jerome Powell, the chair of the US Federal Reserve, delivered some straight talk to the American people on last night's episode of "60 Minutes."

The Fed chief said he was optimistic that the US economy would start to heal in the second half of this year. But he warned the road to recovery could be very long. And a second wave of coronavirus cases would be devastating.

"This economy will recover," Powell said. "And that means people will go back to work. Unemployment will get back down. We'll get through this. It may take a while. It may take a period of time. It could stretch through the end of next year. We really don't know."

"60 Minutes" is a big stage that's rarely utilized by the central bank. When Ben Bernanke appeared on the program in 2009, during the global financial crisis, it was the first on-air TV interview with a Fed chief in two decades.

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The recovery from coronavirus could take years

The novel coronavirus has infected more than 4.7 million people, killing at least 315,000 worldwide. Nearly 1.5 million cases have been reported in the US, where the death toll is approaching 90,000. If you're just joining us, here's what you may have missed:

Two of US President Donald Trump's top officials are now pointing the finger at the administration's own scientists and Americans' pre-existing health conditions to explain the country's world-leading Covid-19 death toll.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar suggested Sunday that underlying health conditions, including among minorities, were one reason for the high American death toll -- nearly 90,000 as of Sunday evening. And Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro added the government's own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to its list of scapegoats alongside China and the Obama administration.

The White House has been escalating its effort to recast the narrative of its own chaotic response to the crisis as it aggressively pushes to reopen the country, a process vital to the fortunes of millions of people who have lost their jobs in lockdowns and its own political prospects in November.

The effort follows Trump's repeated early denials that the virus would be a problem for the United States and claims that his administration had it under control months ago.

The US accounts for about 4.25% of the world's population, but currently has about 29% of the confirmed deaths from the disease, and models used by the White House suggest the tragic toll could rise to around 147,000 by early August.

Read the full analysis: Trump officials deflect blame for US death toll, escalate reopening push

Governors across the United States are navigating a balancing act as they try to reopen their economies without triggering a second spike of coronavirus cases. 

By now, all but two states have loosened restrictions in place to help curb the spread of the virus. Some began allowing limited gatherings, while others have allowed restaurants and some businesses to reopen their doors with caution.

While many parts of the country have expressed hope about their number of cases seemingly slowing, other states have reported hikes.

In Texas: Officials reported the highest single-day increase in new cases over the weekend, but the governor has attributed it to more testing. Restaurants, movie theaters and malls have been open for a little more than two weeks, and the governor is expected to announce the next step in the state's reopening Monday.

In Florida: Health officials reported 777 new coronavirus cases, adding the state's testing also increased in the past week, according to a statement Sunday. On Monday, the state will enter into its first full phase of reopening, which will allow restaurants, retail stores and gyms across Florida to reopen with certain restrictions. 

And in California: The state is now in the second of Gov. Gavin Newsom's four reopening phases. Newsom said that while he was empathetic to residents' concerns, he wanted to move forward safely.

Read the full story: Governors perform balancing act to reopen US as nationwide death toll inches toward 90,000

As coronavirus cases began spiking in New York City in March, officials worried that the city's notorious jail system on Rikers Island could become a powder keg inside the epicenter of the pandemic.

In the weeks since, correctional officials handed out masks. They increased cleaning. And with a focus on creating more space for social distancing, the city pushed through the release from its jails of more than 2,600 people considered at low risk to commit a crime and high risk to contract the disease, with many of the inmates gaining their release through court decisions argued by advocacy groups.

Despite these efforts, critics say there is still not enough sanitizing, social distancing and wearing of masks to stamp out an outbreak among 362 people currently incarcerated and more than 1,300 Department of Correction workers, according to data released by the Board of Correction on Friday.

Since March, three inmates and 10 correction officers have died, according to New York City's Department of Corrections.

Across 37 states, 88 inmates and 15 correctional staffers died from Covid-19 between January 21 and April 21, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. In all, 4,893 inmates tested positive, as did 2,778 correctional staff. 

"Jail is inherently not a place where you can socially distance. It's just not built that way," said Caitlin Miller, an attorney with Legal Aid Society's parole revocation defense unit.

Law enforcement officials say releasing inmates to curtail a public health crisis behind bars has increased the risk of crime, with the New York Police Department reporting about 150 people released from Rikers having been rearrested, some more than once. Some crimes were violent offenses, including domestic violence and attempted rape, police said.

Advocates and a watchdog agency for the jail system contend that while correction officers wear masks, inmates don't nearly as often. Correction workers also warn their jobs are more unsafe than ever, as the number of employees with the coronavirus continues to climb.

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CNN readers from around the world have asked more than 90,000 questions about coronavirus.

Here are the answers to some of the most popular questions:

Q: What’s so different about coronavirus that we have to shut down businesses? Why practice social distancing now, when we didn’t during the SARS and swine flu epidemics?

A: Unlike SARS and swine flu, the novel coronavirus is both highly contagious and especially deadly, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said.

“SARS was also a coronavirus, and it was a new virus at the time,” Gupta said. “In the end, we know that SARS ended up infecting 8,000 people around the world and causing around 800 deaths. So very high fatality rate, but it didn’t turn out to be very contagious.”

The swine flu, or H1N1, “was very contagious and infected some 60 million people in the United States alone within a year,” Gupta said. “But it was far less lethal than the flu even — like 1/3 as lethal as the flu.”

What makes the novel coronavirus different is that “this is both very contagious … and it appears to be far more lethal than the flu as well,” Gupta said. “So both those things, in combination I think, are why we’re taking this so seriously.”

Q: Can coronavirus be transferred by people’s shoes? How do I protect children who crawl or play on the floor?

A: Yes, coronavirus can live on the soles of shoes, but the risk of getting Covid-19 from shoes appears to be low.

A report published by the CDC highlighted a study from a hospital in Wuhan, China, where this coronavirus outbreak began.

The soles of medical workers’ shoes were swabbed and analyzed, and the study found that the virus was “widely distributed” on floors, computer mice, trash cans and door knobs. But it’s important to note the study was done in a hospital, where the virus was concentrated.

It’s still possible to pick up coronavirus on the bottoms of your shoes by running errands, but it’s unlikely you’ll get sick from it because people don’t often touch the soles of their shoes and then their faces. Because Covid-19 is a respiratory disease, the CDC advises wearing a mask while in public and washing your hands frequently– the correct way.

If you have small children who crawl or regularly touch the floor, it’s a good idea to take your shoes off as soon you get home to prevent coronavirus or bacteria from spreading on the floors.

Q: Can you catch coronavirus more than once? Or does a person become immune or have long-term immunity to the virus?

A: It’s too early to know for sure. But other coronaviruses, like ones that cause the common cold, might give us clues.

With “common cold coronaviruses, you don’t actually have immunity that lasts for very long, and so we don’t know the answer with this specific coronavirus,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the New York University School of Medicine.

“That’s actually going to be one of the challenges with designing a vaccine is how do you actually cause the immunity to last long enough to protect you.”

Georgia allowed restaurants to reopen on April 27. The three owned by Ryan Pernice are still shuttered.

The entrepreneur hasn't opened his restaurants, Table & Main, Osteria Mattone and Coalition Food & Beverage, since March 16. Pernice is worried about the health of his employees and customers, but there's another reason the restaurants are still shut down: They can't make a profit with social distancing rules in place.

Pernice has been forced to lay off or furlough 80 of his 120 staff. Around the world, millions more restaurant and bar workers have lost their jobs as countries impose strict lockdowns designed to contain the pandemic.

Some of those restrictions are now being eased, but restaurants and bars are not being prioritized for reopening because they are viewed as venues where the virus might spread.

Restaurant owners and managers are grappling with the brutal math that underpins their industry.

Margins are razor thin, forcing eateries and bars to pack in customers every night, and especially on the weekends, in order to stay afloat. In the toughest markets, that means multiple waves of guests, and tables that are pushed together as closely as possible.

It's a business model that is simply incompatible with social distancing.

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