By Julia Hollingsworth, Ben Westcott, Adam Renton, Jack Guy, Fernando Alfonso III, Meg Wagner and Mike Hayes, CNN
From CNN's Elizabeth Hartfield
New Jersey has seen 3,088 new positive tests for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday in a press conference, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 47,437.
There have been 275 deaths reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the statewide total to 1,504.
New York. Gov Andrew Cuomo said all voters in the state will be able to cast their votes by absentee ballot this year.
Cuomo had previously moved the state's primary from April 28 until June 23.
"I've seen lines of people on television voting in other states. This is totally nonsensical," Cuomo said. "All New Yorkers can vote absentee on June 23."
Some background: Wisconsin held its primary as scheduled yesterday despite the pandemic. Long lines of voters, many of them wearing face masks, stretched for blocks through Milwaukee.
Republicans had insisted on keeping the election on schedule, winning two legal battles Monday, as the state Supreme Court blocked Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' bid to delay it until June.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state will make an additional $600 payment to all who filed for unemployment during the coronavirus crisis.
"The federal government says they will reimburse us for it, but people need money now in their pocket. So, New York will be doing that immediately," he said.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pointed out that the death toll in the state so far during the coronavirus crisis has far eclipsed the number of people killed during the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
Cuomo said that the 2,753 New Yorkers were killed at the World Trade Center, while 6,268 have died so far in the coronavirus pandemic.
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said more people died of coronavirus yesterday than any other day before.
There were 779 coronavirus-related deaths across the state Tuesday, Cuomo said in a press briefing today. This is up from 731 deaths on Monday.
He detailed how many people have died across the state over the past few days:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo started his daily news conference by saying he had both good and bad news to report.
While data shows that social distancing is helping to flatten the curve, the death toll is still going up. Yesterday, 779 people died across the state — the highest single-day death toll yet.
"Today is a day in the state of New York with very mixed emotions," he said.
"There is good news in what we're seeing, that what we have done and we are doing is actually working," Cuomo said.
Social distancing "is working," Cuomo said, saying the curve is flattening because New Yorkers are rigorous about social distancing.
Then, he reported the death toll.
"The bad news isn't just bad. The bad news is actually terrible," he said of the 779 people who died yesterday.
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From CNN's Amanda Watts
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed President Trump’s claims that WHO mishandled the coronavirus, saying right now, “the focus should be on fighting this virus.”
"Not only that we said we have been doing everything we can, but we will continue to do everything — day and night like we have been doing to save lives. We don’t want to waste time," Tedros said
Tedros said, when you’re confronted with a new and dangerous serious public health concern like coronavirus, WHO does an after-action assessment, “so we will do our assessment identifying the strengths and weaknesses,” WHO wants to learn from our mistakes and strength and move forward, Tedros said.
Some background: During the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing yesterday, President Trump said WHO had mishandled the coronavirus.
“We'll be looking into that very carefully. And we're going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO. We're going to put a very powerful hold on it and we're going to see,” he said.
Later in the briefing he clarified that he wouldn’t freeze funding, but “I said we’re going to look at it.”
From CNN's Manu Raju
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has started the process to move for quick passage Thursday of the $251 billion for additional small business loans — without including the list of Democratic demands outlined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, according to GOP sources.
McConnell has checked with senators to determine whether any of them will object to moving just the $251 billion package.
Democrats are expected to object to passing the $251 billion package if their demands aren't met. Those requests include hundred of billions of dollars for hospitals and state and local governments, according to Democratic sources.
That means we could see on the floor tomorrow morning dueling efforts by both sides to pass their bills — with both expected to fail, according to a source involved in the talks.
Talks are expected to occur today to see if any deal could be reached to avoid a stalemate.
There are 401,166 coronavirus cases in the United States, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Johns Hopkins is currently reporting 12,912 deaths in the United States from the disease.
