April 6 coronavirus news

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told reporters that the state is running dangerously low on personal protective equipment, also called PPE.

Gov. Whitmer said that there are less than three days left until face shields run out and less than 6 days until surgical gowns run out at all three of those health systems. She added that these data points do not include private donations that are going straight to hospitals.

“We are doing everything that we can at the state level to secure more personal protection equipment. Today we will begin distributing 1.2 million surgical masks that the state has procured on the open market,” Whitmer said. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has sent 400 ventilators, 1.1 million surgical masks, 232,000 face shields and 2 million gloves. “FEMA will be shipping 1 million more N95 masks to Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties this week,” the governor said. 

The state is working with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan National Guard to get the TCF Convention Center in Detroit up and running to see patients by Friday.

The governor added that Ford and the United Autoworkers have donated thousands of face shields to Michigan hospitals and the state issued the purchase of 1 million face shields from Ford to be delivered over the next 3 weeks. 

“We’re making some progress, and that is a good thing, but we need more PPE to continue fighting this virus,” Whitmer said.

The 149th edition of The Open Championship, one of the four men's annual golf majors, has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Royal & Ancient, which plans and organizes the event, announced today. 

It is the first time that golf’s original and oldest championship, first played in 1860, has been canceled since World War II.

The event was scheduled for July 16 through 19 at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England.

“I can assure everyone that we have explored every option for playing The Open this year but it is not going to be possible,” he added.

Slumbers confirmed that The 149th Open will now be played at the historic Sandwich links in July 2021, with the Old Course at St Andrews now hosting The 150th Open in July 2022.

The championship is the first men's golf major of 2020 to be cancelled outright. In March, both The Masters and the PGA Championship were postponed with a new date for both events yet to be announced.

The US Open, though, is still set to be played from June 18 through June 21 at Winged Foot in New York.

There are at least 337,971 cases of coronavirus in the US and at least 9,654 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases in the United States.

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as all repatriated cases. Wyoming is the only state or territory that is not reporting a death from coronavirus.

 Find the latest Johns Hopkins University U.S. numbers here.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon used his annual shareholder letter to detail just how bad he thinks the US economy can get from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Dimon expects a "bad recession," he wrote in the letter released Monday.

In the most adverse scenario — which he said he hopes is unlikely — gross domestic product could plunge at a 35% annual rate in the second quarter and that a downturn would last through the rest of the year. The unemployment rate would spike as high as 14% in this environment. 

But Dimon added that "this scenario is quite severe and, we hope, unlikely." And even if the worst case situation bears out, JPMorgan Chase still plans to lend an additional $150 billion to its customers. 

Still, he said there will be a "major recession."

Dimon stressed that the bank is in solid shape and has a "fortress" balance sheet. That is allowing JPMorgan Chase to step up lending to small businesses and consumers in this time of crisis.

The bank is now accepting applications for the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program loans after a rocky start to the process Friday morning. 

Dimon praised the Federal Reserve and other global central bankers — as well as lawmakers — for taking quick action to try to stimulate the economy with lower rates and fiscal support for those in need. 

"We applaud the speed with which the federal government and the Federal Reserve ... put together a stimulus package and other funding benefits to help individuals, businesses, and state and local entities across the United States and beyond," Dimon said.

Admiral Dr. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services, said Monday that New York, New Jersey and Detroit will see peaks in hospitalizations and deaths due to coronavirus this week — and it will happen in other US cities in the weeks to come.

In an interview on "Today," Giroir said "all our predictions, all our models, and we know from the data we see and health care workers we talk to is — for New York and New Jersey and Detroit, this week is going to be the peak week."  

Giroir explained peak "reflects infections that occurred two or three weeks ago, adding, "we may be seeing the worst upon us right now in terms of outcomes." 

Giroir said other parts of the US, such as New Orleans, will see a peak in hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks. "We'll see some rolling peaks across the country as the next few weeks unfold," Giroir told NBC's Savannah Guthrie. 

CVS, in partnership with government agencies, is adding two drive-through coronavirus testing sites less than a week after CNN reported on the anemic progress of a program President Trump touted as part of his solution to expand testing. 

The retailer announced it’s using a new rapid coronavirus test, which can provide results in less than 15 minutes and was approved by US Food and Drug Administration under an emergency authorization last week, according to a company press release.

Its two new locations — in Georgia and Rhode Island — will utilize licensed health care providers from its MinuteClinic, the company’s retail medical clinic, to oversee the testing, said the press release. The retailer made clear that the sites will not be located at CVS Pharmacy or MinuteClinic locations.

Some background: Under fire for the lack of testing, the Trump administration on March 13 announced a public-private partnership between the government and major retailers including CVS, Target, Walmart and Walgreens. Vice President Mike Pence said the program "laid the foundation" to help meet the nation's testing needs by giving a "little bit of their parking lot so that people can come by and do a drive-by test."

But the administration’s celebrated announcement hasn't come close to being fulfilled.

While these retailers have approximately 30,000 locations combined, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed last week that only five locations from these major retailers were offering drive-thru testing — and none are open to the general public at the time. Instead, the sites were only testing healthcare workers and first responders. The one site CVS previously opened in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts was also testing senior citizens with symptoms. 

After CNN’s story on March 31, Walmart announced a plan to open a drive-thru coronavirus testing site for first responders and healthcare workers in Arkansas — it’s third location in the U.S. 

For its two new locations, CVS will not be using its parking lot. Instead it worked with local government officials to identify parking lots that are easily accessible and able to accommodate multiple lanes of cars at one time: one at a multi-level parking garage at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The other — in Rhode Island — will be located at Twin Rivers Casino.  

Unlike previously opened testing drive throughs, the new CVS locations will be testing a broader population. People who meet US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria, in addition to state residency and age guidelines, are eligible for testing. Patients will need to pre-register in advance online at CVS.com in order to schedule a same-day time slot for testing, said the release. 

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report

France is heading for the worst economic downturn since World War II, the country’s Minister of the Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire says.

In a Senate hearing today, he said the economy’s worst year since the war was during the 2009 financial crisis when it contracted by 2.9 percent.

“We are likely to be well beyond -2.9% this year,” Le Maire said.

He had previously warned that the economic shock from the coronavirus pandemic would be brutal.

US stocks rallied at Monday’s open following some encouraging data that showed a slowdown in coronavirus infections in multiple countries.

Here's what happened at the opening:

 This is a shortened week, as exchanges are closed for Good Friday.

A US Navy official tells CNN that 173 crew members of the USS Theodore Roosevelt have now tested positive for coronavirus. 

About 61% of the crew has been tested. Approximately 2,000 people have been evacuated from the ship and moved ashore. 

Remember: The Navy said it wanted to move 2,700 ashore by Friday so they are still behind schedule.