Coronavirus pandemic in the US

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump are planning to visit Baltimore’s Fort McHenry on Memorial Day, but Mayor Bernard “Jack” Young hopes the President reconsiders, saying it sends a “bad message.”

The White House has responded to Young’s plea, saying: “The brave men and women who have preserved our freedoms for generations did not stay home and the President will not, either, as he honors their sacrifice by visiting such a historic landmark in our nation’s history.”  

Young said he is certain that the President could find another, safer way to honor the country’s fallen soldiers. 

“This has nothing to do with him personally. My city is seeing an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, and we don't want to spread it,” Young said. 

Young also said the White House did not give the city a heads up and now leaders are scrambling to prepare. 

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Miami-Dade County is planning to reopen beaches and hotels to guests other than essential lodgers on June 1, according to a news release issued by Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s office.

Gimenez is planning to review the proposed plan on Tuesday.

New Jersey will increase the number of people permitted to gather outdoors from 10 to 25 people, Gov. Phil Murphy announced in a news conference Friday morning.

Recreational campgrounds will open immediately, he added.

While the number of people allowed to gather in groups will increase, individuals are still expected to adhere to social distancing.

Hospitalizations, intensive care unit cases and ventilator intubations continue to decrease across the state, Murphy said.

New York City continues to meet two of the three thresholds it still needs to meet the state’s criteria to reopen the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

There are seven criteria needed in order to reopen. The city is already meeting four of those.

Officials would like to consistently stay under the threshold of 200 people being admitted into hospitals for Covid-19, de Blasio said.

The city is now at 76 people being admitted into the hospital for Covid-19.

New York City is also meeting the threshold for how many people are testing positive for Covid-19, de Blasio said.

Some more data: Officials would like to see that number below 15%. It is currently at 11%. That number is up slightly from the 9% announced on Thursday.

Intensive care unit admissions should remain under 375 people, de Blasio said. However, the city is at 451 people in ICUs in the public hospitals and not meeting that threshold.  

If residents continue to social distance and the numbers move in the right direction, the city expects to move to phase one of reopening in the first or second week of June, de Blasio said.  

All restrictions on youth activities in Florida, including summer camps, are being lifted immediately, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis in a press conference today.

While kids are not immune to Covid-19, he said, the state has recorded zero fatalities for those under the age of 25. 

There were 109 coronavirus-related deaths in New York on Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news briefing today.

"This number has been stubborn on its way down," he said.

Hospitalizations are down, as well as the number of new daily coronavirus cases, Cuomo said. He added that the level is lower than when the coronavirus crisis began 83 days ago.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in a press conference today that the regions of Long Island and Mid-Hudson could reopen next week under two key conditions:

You can see where the other regions are on reopening here.

Orange County, Florida Mayor Jerry Demings submitted a letter this morning to Gov. Ron DeSantis, giving his support to Universal Orlando’s plans to reopen its theme parks.

In the attached letter, Demings writes that an on-site inspection of safety procedures and protocols was conducted by a team of medical doctors and senior members of the Planning, Development and Environmental Services Department from both Orange County and the Florida Department of Health.

 Universal Orlando has presented a plan to begin a phased reopening of its theme parks on June 1, initially only for its own team members.

Here are some details on their reopening plan:

DeSantis said Wednesday regarding theme park reopening proposals, "Obviously I want to get to yes, so I think if you work with your local [officials], you'll be in pretty good shape."

Universal has theme parks in Orlando, Los Angeles, Japan and Singapore, all of which are temporarily closed. However, the CityWalk portion of Universal Orlando -- featuring shops and dining -- partially reopened on May 14.

More than 300,000 people passed through airport security checkpoints on Thursday, the first time that has happened since March.

This is also the first time in eight weeks that daily traffic at checkpoints was more than 10% of the number of people screened last year, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration. 

TSA said it screened 318,449 people on Thursday, and 2.7 million on the same Thursday in 2019.