April 8 coronavirus news

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a news conference today extending the state’s stay-at-home order and public accommodation order to May 4.

The governor said they plan to use the time to expand testing, and went on to say that “we have flattened the curve more than any other state.”

When asked about schools, the governor said, “It’s unlikely students will go back to school on May 4, but I won’t close the door on that.”

Walz said school is “likely done for the year.”

Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said there were 85 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, raising the number to 1,154. There were also five new deaths, for a total of 39.

Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said there was good news on the unemployment insurance front.

Grove said he believes Minnesota is the first, or among the first states, to process the $600 from the Federal Cares Act. The recipients could see that money as early as later this week, Grove added.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday that schools will continue to be closed statewide for the rest of the academic year. 

Brown, a Democrat, says all high school seniors who were “on track to graduate” before schools were closed will receive passing grades. 

“I refuse to punish students … because they could not attend classes for a little over two months,” Brown said in a press conference.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order Wednesday which allows furloughed employees to receive “Covid-19 Support Payments” from their employers and still qualify for unemployment benefits, his office said.

South Carolina has 2,417 confirmed coronavirus cases and 51 deaths, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina M. Raimondo announced that the courts extended their closure for all non-essential business through May 17. She also asked the people of Rhode Island to wear a cloth mask every time they leave their house. 

The governor explained today that eviction is a court procedure, saying, "you cannot be evicted anytime for any reason between now and May 17 because the court is closed."

The governor also spoke about people who are struggling to pay their full mortgage, saying, "we are working on ways to provide relief around that, and I hope to have an announcement in the next few day or next week to help you get some forgiveness. Because I know it is impossible to pay your mortgage if you and your family are out of work." 

As confidence grows that the state may be nearing its peak of new coronavirus cases, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday they are giving back a military field hospital that was intended to deal with a surge of patients. 

The hospital – set up at an event center adjacent to the CenturyLink Field sports stadium in Seattle – will be available to FEMA to be redeployed to another state.

"We requested this resource before our physical distancing strategies were fully implemented and we had considerable concerns that our hospitals would be overloaded with Covid-19 cases,” Inslee said in a statement. 

The decision to return it was made with the approval of the leaders of the Seattle and King County governments. Inslee said the state still has the ability to increase its hospital capacity by 1,000 beds quickly in case of a surge, even without the military hospital.

The decision comes three days after Inslee returned more than 400 ventilators the state received from the Strategic National Stockpile back to the federal government. At the time, Inslee said Washington had a sufficient supply of ventilators on its own, while states like New York faced a bigger immediate need.

170 Detroit police officers that have tested positive for coronavirus, Mayor Mike Dugan said today. 

Denise Fair, Chief Public Health Officer for the City of Detroit, said Detroit has 5834 confirmed cases and 240 confirmed deaths.

The city saw an increase of 333 positive cases and 26 deaths since yesterday.

At least 66 people died in Nassau County on Long Island in the last 24 hours, and while the number of Covid-19-related hospitalizations are hitting a plateau, the death rates continue to spike, according to Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.

A total of 566 people have died of Covid-19 complications in Nassau County, according to the state Department of Health.

Earlier Wednesday at a briefing, Curran said the county’s supply of ventilators is not as much of an issue as its need for protective equipment like masks and gowns. She said there have been more ventilators freed up as patients recover or pass away.

Data provided to CNN by Curran’s office shows health care workers are using 935,000 gowns per week. As of last night, the county’s stockpile had 1,200 gowns available to share with healthcare workers.

“We have a shortage of gowns and we need more right now,” Curran said in a statement to CNN.

California will utilize new technology from the company Battelle that allows for the sterilization and reuse of N95 masks as early as this week, Mark Ghilarducci, with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, announced today.

CNN's Julia Chatterley interviewed Battelle’s CEO, Lewis Von Thaer, Wednesday morning, who said that using hydrogen peroxide in vaporized form, “we proved that we could reuse these masks, basically decontaminate them for reuse up to 20 times with no degradation.”

“I'm very happy to report we're up and operating in Ohio today,” Von Thaer told CNN. “Just going online in Seattle and Stonybrook, Long Island, and we'll soon be online in Boston in the next few days… our goal is to set up regional systems and multiple hospitals come into that region because we can clean so many masks at one time.”

There are at least 419,975 cases of coronavirus in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally.

At least 14,262 people have died in the US from coronavirus. 

So far today alone, Johns Hopkins has reported 21,166 new cases and 1,367 deaths. 

Wyoming is the only state or territory that is not reporting a death from coronavirus.