By Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Fernando Alfonso III and Veronica Rocha, CNN
From CNN's Amanda Watts
There are at least 1,684,173 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 99,123 people have died in the country from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.
On Tuesday, Johns Hopkins reported 3,260 new cases and 210 deaths.
The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.
From CNN’s Natasha Chen
The Florida Economic Recovery Task Force in Orange County has approved both SeaWorld and Disney World's reopening proposals.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings will now likely approve the plans and submit a letter of endorsement to the state of Florida the end of the day.
The details: Walt Disney World has proposed to reopen its Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks on July 11, and EPCOT and Hollywood Studios on July 15, in a presentation made by the company on Wednesday.
SeaWorld has proposed to reopen its Orlando parks for employees on June 10 and to the public on June 11.
Out of safety, both companies are also requiring patrons to wear face masks, among other guidelines.
From CNN's Nicky Robertson
Washington, DC will move into phase one of reopening this Friday, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced at a press conference this morning.
Bowser will sign an order today which will lift the stay-at-home order.
This comes as the District has had a 14 day decline in cases of community spread of coronavirus per the DC Department of Health’s calculations, one of the key metrics the District had for reopening.
“I want to clarify this, Covid-19 is still in our community, in our region, in our nation,” Bowser said.
The mayor warned that moving into phase one means more people can get exposed as more individuals are out in the community.
Here are some of the city's reopening guidelines:
Nonessential retail businesses can operate with:
Barbershops and hair salons may operate as follows:
Restaurants:
The public health emergency will still be in effect and gatherings of more than 10 people are still prohibited.
You can read the full phase one reopening guidelines here.
Latest numbers: As of today, there are 8,406 cases of coronavirus in the District and 445 have died.
From CNN's Greg Wallace
Boeing says its first round of layoffs, including voluntary departures, will involve approximately 12,290 employees — 6,770 will be involuntarily laid off.
The company said 5,520 employees accepted a voluntary layoff package.
Boeing announced plans in April to reduce its workforce by 10%, which is about 16,000 employees.
A Boeing spokesman said additional rounds of layoffs are ahead “over the next few months.”
“I wish there were some other way,” Boeing president and CEO Dave Calhoun wrote in a message to employees on Wednesday.
He said the company “will have to adjust our business plans constantly until the global pandemic stops whipsawing our markets in ways that are still hard to predict.”
From CNN’s Mark Morales
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city will enforce the rules of phase one when businesses start to reopen with a "light touch" that is "problem-solving focused."
“We see a problem we want the business to address it — we don’t want to penalize, we want to fix problems," the mayor said.
The city is communicating with a lot of businesses as it approaches phase one sometime during the first two weeks of June.
“We’re not there till we’re there,” de Blasio said, but as businesses come online, there will be heavy communications, inspections "as per usual” and making sure rules are being followed.
Some context: De Blasio noted that during the Memorial Day weekend, there were few issues between parks, bars and restaurants, adding “we just didn’t have a lot of problems.”
“Were not trying to be heavy handed, wer'e just trying to be present, and that has been working," he said.
The mayor did not provide the number of businesses that may not be returning as a result of economic loss due to the pandemic, however, he said anecdotally, much of what he has heard in conversations with businesses is that they want to come back and stronger.
From CNN’s Natasha Chen
Walt Disney World has proposed to reopen its Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks on July 11, and EPCOT and Hollywood Studios on July 15, in a presentation made by the company on Wednesday.
Here are more details on the reopening plan:
Field inspections by Orange County staff happened on May 26.
Staff inspected employee health screening and best practices, guest arrival and ticketing, restaurant operations, queue management, signage and communications and sanitation protocols.
What comes next: After the economic recovery task force votes today whether to approve the plan, the Orange County mayor will make his decision likely in 12 to 24 hours.
If Mayor Jerry Demings approves, he will then give his support with a recommendation to the state of Florida for ultimate approval.
From CNN’s Natasha Chen
SeaWorld has proposed to reopen its Orlando parks for employees on June 10 and to the public on June 11.
Here are more details on the reopening plan:
Field inspections by Orange County staff happened on May 26.
Staff inspected employee health screening and best practices, guest arrival and ticketing, restaurant operations, queue management, signage and communications and sanitation protocols.
More details: After the economic recovery task force votes today on whether to approve the plan, the Orange County, Florida, mayor will make his decision likely in between 12 to 24 hours.
If Mayor Jerry Demings approves the plan, he will then give his support with a recommendation to the state of Florida for ultimate approval.
From CNN's Aditi Sangal
As France banned the use of hydroxychloroquine in coronavirus treatments, Dr. Anthony Fauci said its lack of efficacy is evident in data even though he’s not sure if it should be banned.
Dr. Dara Kass, an emergency medicine physician at Columbia University Medical Center, says she’s seeing cardiac effects exacerbate in some coronavirus patients due to hydroxychloroquine.
“Which is why we always need to have really good studies before we introduce even an older medication into a new clinical scenario,” she said, adding that’s why France is banning the drug when treating Covid-19.
The Food and Drug Administration has previously issued warnings about the potentially harmful side effects of using hydroxychloroquine.
“We saw an uptick in patients requesting, demanding to be put on hydroxychloroquine after the President spoke about it publicly. We had to tell them no because we follow the science. Unfortunately, sometimes that's not the President,” Kass added.
From CNN's Greg Wallace
American Airlines is announcing new plans to inform passengers when flights are getting full and give them options to switch flights.
“As more people get back to traveling and loads are higher, American is deploying new tools to notify customers and allow them to move to more open flights when available, all without incurring any cost,” the company said in a press release.
Some context: Unlike the United Airlines program that specifies customers will be informed when planes are more than 70% full, American does not specify what the threshold will be for notification.
Likewise, American says it will continue to limit the number of passengers on each aircraft. Unlike Delta, which caps capacity at 60% or JetBlue, which promises not to sell middle seats, American is not being more specific about how and when it is limiting capacity.
American is among the airlines that have been criticized on social media for flights that were full enough that customers did not feel there was sufficient social distancing.
American is also extending the waiving of change fees that were set to expire at the end of May through June.