Coronavirus pandemic in the US

North Carolina had one of its highest days of reported deaths and hospitalizations since the Covid-19 crisis began, Gov. Roy Cooper said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.  

The 33 new deaths bring the state’s total to 827 while there are 708 patients hospitalized across the state. The hospitalization rate has continued to rise throughout the week.

Some context: The number of confirmed cases are also going up as the state has increased testing, Cooper said. There are 25,412 confirmed cases in North Carolina. 

The Department of Health and Human Services launched a radio and video campaign on Wednesday to share important messages across the state about the virus to populations that make up a “disproportionate number of our state’s lab confirmed cases and deaths compared with their percentage in the population."

The state senate wants to pass legislation to open bars and while he said there will be a time when they can reopen, now is not the time, Cooper said.

President Trump is “feeling perfect” after concluding his use of hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic against coronavirus, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Thursday. 

McEnany said she asked Trump about how he’s feeling just prior to the White House press briefing. She said he told her "he’s ‘feeling perfect," "he’s feeling absolutely great after taking this regimen" and that he "would take it again."

McEnany went on to promote research suggesting there are benefits to using the drug to prevent the contraction of coronavirus. 

“It’s important, of course, always, if taking hydroxychloroquine, get a prescription from your doctor. Doctors are the ones that need to be prescribing this,” she added, before claiming that there had been hyperbole regarding the drug’s safety.  

Some context: The drug is only FDA-approved to treat or prevent malaria or to treat autoimmune conditions such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. While so-called off label prescribing of the drug to treat other conditions is legal, it has not been found by the federal government to be safe or effective for any other uses.

And CNN previously reported this week that the World Health Organization temporarily halted studying hydroxychloroquine as a potential Covid-19 treatment on Monday due to safety concerns.

The decision came after a publication in the medical journal The Lancet on Friday suggested that seriously ill Covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were more likely to die.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced today that the state will remain in Phase 1 of its reopening for a minimum of another week in order for the state to continue to collect more health data. 

The governor said however, that the state’s trends are encouraging as more people are being tested and the percent of positive tests continues to trend downward.

The governor did announce, that as of tomorrow, all public beaches in Virginia will be allowed to reopen to recreational activities, with guidelines including social distancing, sanitation, and no large gatherings of more than 10 people, no tents, no alcohol, and no group sports.

Virginia is also revising orders today, to allow NASCAR and horse race tracks to run single day events under strict guidelines starting tomorrow. These events will not be open to the public, and no spectators will be allowed, the governor said.

New York City has 16,673 confirmed and 4,742 probable coronavirus deaths as of May 28, according to the most recent data on the city website.

The New York City Health Department defines probable deaths as people who did not have a positive Covid-19 laboratory test, but their death certificate lists as the cause of death “Covid-19” or an equivalent.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus deaths and probable coronavirus deaths in New York City is 21,415.

More data: There have been 198,255 coronavirus cases and 51,449 people have been hospitalized due to the virus, according to the city.

The data is from the New York City Health Department and was updated on May 28, according to the website.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters on Thursday that the state is ready to hold the Republican National Convention in a safe way.

Conversations are ongoing with the RNC over how to safely host the event this August in Charlotte, Cooper said. The RNC was asked to submit plans but they have not received anything yet.

Some context: President Trump had threatened to pull the convention out of North Carolina earlier this week.

"They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not, we will be reluctantly forced to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site," Trump tweeted.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced today that the 2020 Boston Marathon will be canceled.

The Boston Athletic Association has determined that the traditional one day running of the 124th Boston marathon will not be feasible this year, he said during a news conference.

Walsh called this a “difficult adjustment," but said that “meeting tough challenges is what the Boston Marathon is all about.”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said President Trump takes the number of US deaths from Covid-19 “very seriously” as she defended how long it took him to address the country hitting 100,000 deaths from the virus.  

Pressed by CNN’s Jim Acosta about why it took Trump 13 hours to comment on the landmark number of deaths, McEnany said that Trump “takes it very seriously.”

She said the President has called it the “hardest part of his presidency,” and “something no one wanted to see happen.” 

Brian Sims, a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State House, said a fellow Republican colleague withheld results of a positive coronavirus test.

GOP State House Rep. Andrew Lewis tested positive for coronavirus on May 18 and Democratic members were not told until a week later, CNN’s Brianna Keilar reported.

Lewis’ last day in the state Capitol building was May 14.

Sims, who is immunocompromised, slammed it as a “coverup” and said it put the lives of lawmakers, families and constituents in “grave risk.”

House Majority Leader's press secretary said in statement that the reason behind not informing members of Lewis’ test results was because of medical privacy laws

Sims added that the Pennsylvania legislature has probably met in-person more than any other legislature in the country during the pandemic, going against the advice of health experts.

Watch full interview here:

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said 105 inmates have tested positive for Covid-19 at Huttonsville Correctional Center.

He said the state has the testing capacity it needs to deal with the outbreak. 

Jeff Sandy, secretary of the state's Department of Homeland Security, announced plans to test all 13,966 inmates, employees, and contractors who work in correctional facilities.  

Justice said the state will be offering free testing over the weekend in Huttonsville so "we don't have a situation where we are leaking out into the community and having additional positives."  

The governor also highlighted a tweet that came from President Trump just moments before the news conference began announcing that he would be extending the National Guard's Title 32 orders through mid-August "so they can continue to help States succeed in their response and recovery efforts." 

"[Trump] has done a fabulous job in every way and I love him to death," Justice said. "I'm tickled to death that he listened to a lot of people including his little buddy here in West Virginia so we got that extension until mid-August."  

Justice also announced there were no new deaths in his state.  

"So that's great, that's just great," Justice said.