April 7 coronavirus news

Two of Nevada’s Native American nations are enforcing mandatory curfews for their members in an attempt to avoid the spread of coronavirus.

The Reno-Sparks Indian Colony near the California border is requiring all members to stay in their homes from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., except for people who have an essential task to do or need emergency medical treatment. 

Even a first-time offense can result in a $500 fine. The third violation could result in jail time. The curfew is set to expire on April 30, but may be extended.

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, located 35 miles northeast of Reno, established its own curfew effective today, which begins each night at 10 p.m. Violations of that law will result in a $100 fine. The curfew does not have an expiration date.

The two jurisdictions have a total of approximately 2,500 tribal members.

Colorado is extending its statewide "stay at home" order for another two weeks, said Gov. Jared Polis in a televised state address today.

The extended order is now planned to end on April 26.

"If there is any way to safely end it sooner, I will. And likewise, if Coloradans are not staying home and the number of dying or dead continues to pile up, it could go longer," Polis said.

At the start of the national outbreak, Colorado was seeing its cases double every one and a half days. Now, it has slowed to doubling every six or seven days.

"That means the spread of the virus is beginning to slow," Polis said.

As infections spike in the United States, hospitals are running out of space, beds, and equipment like ventilators.

To address the issue, some states are instead turning to other spaces as alternative medical sites.

In Alaska, the Alaska Airlines Center sports arena is being fitted with more than 150 hospital beds to prepare for a possible surge in patients. The center is located at the University of Alaska-Anchorage, and can typically seat 5,000 people.

The similarly-sized Carlson Center in Alaska's Fairbanks is also being prepared to admit patients.

Meanwhile in New Orleans, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has been turned into a medical monitoring station with 1,000 beds.

The facility frees up ICU beds in hospital. All patients will arrive directly from hospitals and there will be no walk-up admission.

This coming week is critical to the pandemic's path forward, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has warned.

Los Angeles saw a 7% increase in coronavirus cases Monday -- the first time this daily increase percentage has been in the single digits since March 14, Garcetti said.

There were 420 new confirmed cases in LA County today, the public health department announced. That brings the county total to 6,360 infections.

Garcetti called the reduced rate of increase “good news,” but cautioned that data releases on Mondays have historically been lower than other days of the week.

“But this is good news, it shows that what you are doing is working,” the mayor added.

The United States now has at least 367,507 cases of the coronavirus and 10,908 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Some 29,887 new cases and 1,265 deaths were reported on Monday alone, according to JHU.

The total 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 not yet reporting a death from coronavirus.

CNN is keeping track of coronavirus cases across the US and an interactive map can be found here:

RELATED

Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the world. Here's a recap of the biggest developments of the past few hours.

Colombian President Iván Duque announced that he will extend the nationwide isolation order until April 26. 

In a tweet, Duque said the measures taken to slow the spread of coronavirus "have been positive.”

The order for “mandatory preventive isolation” took effect on March 25 and was initially scheduled until April 13.

All 10 million residents in Los Angeles County are now eligible to apply for a coronavirus test.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference today that there are “no longer any limits” on who can apply for the testing. Patients don’t have to be over age 65, have underlying medical conditions, or have a weakened immune system, as was previously required. 

Garcetti said that doesn’t mean officials immediately have a test for everyone in the county -- the most populous in the US -- but it means that the capacity of tests is now greater than the number of cases they’ve been receiving under the previous guidelines.

LA County residents can register for testing at https://corona-virus.la

If North Carolina stops social distancing at the end of April -- as President Donald Trump and administration officials have pushed for -- there could be 750,000 state residents infected by June, said state health officials.

The North Carolina-specific modeling forecast showed that if the state stopped social distancing by the end of this month, there is more than a 50% probability that the state will outstrip ICU bed capability and acute care capacity -- even as early as May.

On the other hand, if social distancing stayed in effect, it could cut the number of infections by half a million cases -- down to 250,000.

North Carolina now has 2,870 cases and 33 deaths, said Cohen.