May 5 coronavirus news

A senior United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) official acknowledged Monday night that the US has evidence to support both leading theories of where the Covid-19 outbreak originated.

One theory is that the virus came from an accident in a lab in Wuhan, China, and the other is that the outbreak started in a market in the city.

This comes in response to an assessment by Western officials that it’s “highly likely” the virus originated in the Wuhan market. That contradicts the lab theory being pushed by the Trump administration. 

That assessment -- which has the support of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the US' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases -- is gaining support in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing coalition, which the US is a part of.

What happened Thursday: US President Donald Trump contradicted a rare on-the-record statement from his own intelligence community by claiming that he had seen evidence that gives him a "high degree of confidence" the novel coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. Trump declined to provide details to back up his assertion.

Those comments undercut a public statement from the ODNI issued just hours earlier which stated no such assessment has been made. It said it continues to "rigorously examine" whether the outbreak "began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan."

Read more:

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Trump contradicts US intel community by claiming he's seen evidence coronavirus originated in Chinese lab

More than 3.58 million people around the world have been infected with Covid-19, including at least 251,500 deaths. If you're just joining us, here's the latest:

South Korea recorded three new imported cases of coronavirus on Monday -- the lowest figure for 77 days, according to a news release from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's the lowest daily number reported since February 18, when South Korea reported one new coronavirus case. The following day, the country reported 20 new cases.

The national total now stands at 10,804 cases.

On Monday, South Korea also reported two additional fatalities, raising the national death toll to 254.

Another 66 people have been discharged from isolation, bringing the national total of recovered patients to 9,283 -- nearly 86% of cases.

This post has been updated to reflect that the count is the lowest since February 18.

Bradley Bunn, 53, was arrested by the FBI this weekend after a search warrant executed at his Northern Colorado residence revealed that he was in possession of pipe bombs and other illegal destructive devices, according to a statement from the District of Colorado United States Attorney’s Office.

A law enforcement source familiar with the case says investigators believe that, prior to his arrest, Bunn and his associates discussed attending one of the coronavirus anti-shutdown rallies at the Colorado state capitol building.

The source said their discussion included openly carrying firearms as a show of force, similar to what another group of protesters did at the state capitol in Michigan last week.

According to a criminal complaint obtained by CNN, FBI agents discovered four pipe bombs, two one-pound containers of .308 caliber cartridge reloading gunpowder in Bunn’s vehicle and additional bomb components in his home, including galvanized steel pipes, end caps, shotgun primers, fuses, and several bottles of smokeless powder. 

Bunn was charged with the possession of destructive devices. If convicted he faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison, and up to a $250,000 fine. CNN attempts to reach Bunn or a legal representation went unanswered.

Coronavirus can spread “like wildfire,” especially when people are packed together, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the United States' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci cited the “explosion” of cases that quickly developed on the USS Teddy Roosevelt aircraft carrier and on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Cases can take off again if people don’t maintain social distancing and other measures to reduce the spread of the virus, Fauci said.

The model from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation was updated Monday and now projects 134,475 total deaths in the US from the novel coronavirus by August 4.

Fauci said he is very sensitive to the downsides of physical distancing and the economic crisis these policies have caused.

But he said mitigation efforts work and are still key to keeping the numbers of cases and deaths down, even if people disagree with the need for physical distancing. 

He said he knows people are going to make their own choices.

New Zealand has reported no new coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day.

The country's number of probable and confirmed cases fell to 1,486 yesterday after a probable case was reclassified as negative, according to the country's Director-General of Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield.

Some 1,302 people have recovered from the virus, according to Bloomfield.

The country's total number of confirmed cases is 1,137, including 20 deaths.  

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The United States Food and Drug Administration said Monday it had warned two websites to stop selling drugs that they falsely claimed would treat coronavirus infections.

There’s currently no approved drug or treatment for coronavirus, although the FDA has given emergency use authorization (EUA) to the infused drug remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences. EUA doesn’t require the full approval process.

But the FDA says there are many websites offering unproven and unauthorized treatments for the virus. It warned two of them -- Foxroids.com and Antroids.com. The two sites, which are similar, were offering HIV and influenza drugs for treating coronavirus, the FDA said.

Lopinavir and ritonavir are sold to treat HIV. They were tested against Covid-19, but were found to be ineffective in March.

Antroids.com offered an identically-named product, the FDA said.

Both also offered oseltamivir, approved to treat influenza and usually sold under the brand name Tamiflu, as a treatment for Covid-19. Tamiflu maker Roche said the drug is also ineffective against the coronavirus.

The two sites, which also offer drugs such as steroids for online sale, appear to have removed their coronavirus offerings after the FDA warning. Neither immediately answered emails from CNN.

The United States Food and Drug Administration said Monday it had authorized the first new Covid-19 antibody test that had independent validation from the federal government.

The test, made by New Jersey-based EUROIMMUN US Inc., looks for antibodies to the novel coronavirus to see if people have been infected and recovered.

What is an antibody test?: Antibody tests look for evidence that someone has been infected with a virus, usually in the past. They can be used to see how many people in the population have been infected, even if they did not show symptoms. The tests could also reveal if people develop any kind of lasting immunity to the virus.

Antibody tests are different from the tests usually used to detect current infections. Those tests look for evidence of the virus itself in a patient.

Questions over inaccuracy: Public health experts have complained that most of the antibody tests now on the market are inaccurate. Even a test that claims to have 95% accuracy can miss up to half of the cases if the virus is not very common in the population being tested.

A total of 1,180,332 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the United States, including at least 68,920 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

On Monday, Johns Hopkins reported at least 22,291 new cases and 1,238 deaths.  

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.

CNN is tracking US coronavirus cases here:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US