Coronavirus pandemic in the US

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Thursday lifting air travel restrictions, a press release from his office announced.

The order immediately stops all restriction that mandated quarantines for travelers coming from several states, according to the release.

Separately, the governor also announced a phased reopening of drivers license offices in the state starting on Tuesday.

The four-phase plan includes regional reopenings of Northwest and West offices first, with the North and Southeast offices opening in June.

Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced today, that skills training for all sports, will be allowed to resume starting May 26, including contact sports like football, basketball, and lacrosse, as safety protocols can be followed. 

This includes, but is not limited to, weight training, agility skills and other types of conditioning, Husted said.

According to the Husted, this decision was a joint effort between the state’s working group, that was looking at these issues, and the Ohio High School Athletic Association.

“We do know that skills training and conditioning for student athletes is important to start now,” Husted said.  

However, tournaments, games, and competitions for contact sports will still not be allowed.

President Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Thursday that extending unemployment benefits to Americans impacted by the coronavirus pandemic might be a disincentive for people to return to work and get the economy reopened.

The latest numbers: Another 2.4 million Americans filed for first-time benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday.

In total, 38.6 million people have filed for initial unemployment aid since mid-March, when lockdowns began in full force across the country. That corresponds to 23.7% of the March US labor force.

President Trump and his top economic advisers have said that recovery is contingent upon a swift, but safe, reopening of the economy.

The President has applauded governors who have bucked the advice of medical experts and even the Center for Disease Control, who warn against a hasty reopening, and has advocated to jumpstart sectors that are critical to economic growth.

It's past 2 p.m. on the East Coast. Here’s what you’ve missed: 

Trump visits Ford plant in Michigan: The President is touring a Michigan Ford plant soon that has been repurposed to manufacture ventilators and personal protective equipment to help in the coronavirus response. Everyone at the Ford manufacturing plant will be required to wear a mask.

As he departed the White House for the state, the President did not commit to wearing a mask at the plant. “Well I don't know, we’re gonna look at it. A lot of people have asked me that question. I want our country to get back to normal. I want to normalize,” Trump said. 

California to reopen further: More than two-thirds of the counties in California are moving ahead with reopening further, including San Diego, Sacramento, and Santa Barbara counties. The 40 counties that have been approved will move ahead into "expanded phase two" of reopening, which allows dining in restaurants and shopping in stores.

Cases in New York are down, but governor says it's "still too early" to decide on schools reopening in the fall: New York Gov. Cuomo said today that the state’s coronavirus cases were down to levels before the “Covid-19 crisis hit us, and we started that spike.” The governor said the state is now starting contact tracing operations and noted that he’s waiting to see what developments are made in possible treatments and vaccines before making a call on school reopenings.

Another 2.4 million Americans filed for unemployment last week: It was the ninth week of claims in the millions, but the seventh week in a row that the number declined from the week before. Continued claims rose to 25.1 million for the week that ended May 9 –– a 2.5 million increase from the prior week.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday there is a “strong likelihood” that another stimulus bill will be needed to keep the economy afloat. 

With new labs reporting coronavirus tests for the first time, Louisiana’s newly reported positive Covid-19 cases saw a spike on Thursday.

Of the newly reported cases, 62% are from labs reporting for the first time with some tests dating back to March, according to the Department of Health. 

LDH posted on their dashboard that only 506 of the 1,188 new cases are actually new.

Over 305,000 tests have been conducted with the results of 19,411 tests being reported since Wednesday.

There are 21 new deaths, bringing the total to 2,506. Hospitalizations and ventilator usage continue to drop, with just 884 people hospitalized statewide and 107 total patients on ventilators.

Orleans Parish had just 21 new cases on Thursday while Jefferson Parish saw an increase of 47 new cases, bringing their totals to 6904 and 7175 respectively.

There were no deaths in Orleans Parish on Thursday while Jefferson Parish is reporting 1 since Wednesday’s report.

Facebook will begin ramping up remote hiring by focusing on advanced engineering positions first, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Entry-level hires will largely not be eligible for remote hiring, he said. 

Geographically, Facebook will focus first on areas close by to its existing offices, including Portland, San Diego, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Zuckerberg said. 

A second priority will be to create newer “hubs” of employees in areas where Facebook currently has less of a presence — beginning with Atlanta, Dallas and Denver, he said. 

Compensation in these areas could well be lower than in the Bay Area, Zuckerberg acknowledged.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said he is working with the Department of Education on a plan to allow students to attend their graduations, even if it means they wear masks and social distance. 

The Department of Education will be working with county superintendents to figure out “some form of graduation” and it may be delayed till mid-July, the governor said.

“…[W]here these kids and their families are able to come, maybe wearing masks, maybe spread out all over the place and doing all the social distancing and everything else, but they’ll be able to see these kids and these kids deserve it in every way,” Justice said.

Having access to rapid coronavirus tests “would be transformative,” Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and associate professor of emergency medicine at Brown University, told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Thursday.

Widely available testing in the community would also “make sure that people who are sick or isolating and not infecting others,” Ranney said.

That would help keep the curve of new infections flatter and prevent a flood of new patients from once again overwhelming hospitals. Testing could also help reassure patients who need help that they won’t be infected if they seek medical care.

“People are not coming to my hospital and to my ER, not because my ER is not safe – but because they perceive it as not being safe,” she said. 

President Trump is disputing a report from Columbia University that said if the US began social distancing one week earlier than it did, at least 36,000 lives could have been saved.

He said he believes the study is a “political hit job.”

Trump claimed he “was so early” in acting on coronavirus with his “ban on people coming in from China.”

He then attacked Columbia University, which conducted the study, saying it is “an institution that is very liberal.”

“Columbia is an institution that is very liberal. It’s a, I think it's just a political hit job, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said.

Some context: It is the latest instance of Trump disputing a study he disagrees by claiming without evidence that it was politically biased. 

Earlier in the week the president called a study that found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine a “Trump enemy statement.”

He called that study a "phony study" and said it was done by "obviously not friends of the administration" who wanted to "make political points."

CNN found that claim to be false. Fact check here.