By Ben Westcott, Jenni Marsh, Angela Dewan, Fernando Alfonso III and Amir Vera, CNN
From CNN's Kristina Sgueglia
New Jersey saw at least 1,503 new confirmed positive cases of Covid-19, bringing the statewide total to approximately 138,532, Gov. Phil Murphy said.
“We’ve tragically lost 140 more lives, pushing our total to 9,255 lives lost,” Murphy said in a tweet Sunday.
By the numbers: Of the confirmed cases 4,308 patients that are in hospitals, 1,338 of them are in critical or intensive care and 994 are on ventilators.
Read Murphy's tweet:
From CNN's Dana Bash and Nicky Robertson
All of the administration witnesses at the Senate Covid-19 hearing on Tuesday, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, will now testify remotely, Sen. Lamar Alexander, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, announced today.
As of Saturday night, Fauci and one other witness, Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Brett Giroir, were going to testify in person while two others were going to testify by teleconference.
Fauci was planning to wear a mask during the hearing.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn had already worked it out with the committee to testify remotely after deciding in the last few days they would self-quarantine once they had been exposed to the Vice President’s press secretary, Katie Miller, who testified positive for Covid-19 on Friday.
The hearing is titled: “Covid-19: Safely Getting Back to Work and Back to School.”
“After consulting with Dr. Fauci, and in an abundance of caution for our witnesses, senators, and the staff, all four Administration witnesses will appear by videoconference due to these unusual circumstances,” Alexander said in a statement.
Alexander said he consulted with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Saturday about making a change to administration policies. The administration has previously opposed having its officials testify remotely.
The Washington Post first reported the latest witness shift.
From CNN Arman Azad
The CEO of biotechnology company Regeneron tells CNN that’s he’s optimistic about an artificial antibody treatment for coronavirus that could enter clinical trials next month – but says it’s too soon to know whether it will help prevent or treat infection.
“We should be optimistic about this approach, but we have to get real data. In this environment, there’s nothing that can substitute for real science and real data,” Dr. Leonard Schleifer, CEO of Regeneron, said.
Unlike a vaccine, which triggers the immune system to develop antibodies, lab-made antibodies are infused directly into the blood, providing temporary immunity.
“Our approach takes advantage of what’s been known about the immune system for more than 100 years,” Schleifer told CNN.
The body naturally produces antibodies after being exposed to a virus, he said.
“Our approach is to generate these human antibodies artificially, so to speak, and give people those antibodies to either prevent them from getting infected if they’re at higher risk, or treat them," Schleifer said.
The company is hoping to enter clinical trials next month and might have hundreds of thousands of doses available by the end of summer, according to Dr. George Yancopoulos, Regeneron’s chief scientific officer.
Yancopoulos described the therapy as an “important stopgap” until a vaccine is available and said they would be complementary, he said on ABC.
“Vaccines can provide permanent immunity to much larger numbers of people,” he said. “This is why we need all of these efforts.”
From CNN’s Rishabh Pratap
Indian Railways announced passenger services will partially resume in the country starting Tuesday.
The railways will start with special trains on 15 selected routes, including the New Delhi-Mumbai route, according to the Railways Ministry. Indian Railways will then start additional special services on other routes based on availability.
Priority will be given to 20,000 coaches for Covid-19 care centers and then up to 300 trains every day to bring home stranded migrant workers across the country, the statement added.
Only passengers with valid confirmed tickets – which can be purchased Monday afternoon – will be allowed to enter the railway stations and it will be mandatory for the passengers to wear a face cover and undergo screening at departure. Only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to board the trains.
Some context: Indian railways stopped passenger services for the first time in last 167 years on March 24 after a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus was announced.
India has been in lockdown since March 24 and will continue until at least May 17.
From CNN's Elise Hammond
It's 1:00 p.m. ET in the US. If you're just tuning in, here are the latest coronavirus headlines.
From CNN’s Livia Borghese
A total of at least 30,560 coronavirus patients have died in Italy, the Italian Civil Protection Agency confirmed Sunday, marking an increase of 165 – the lowest rise in deaths since March 9.
The total number of active cases across Italy has once again decreased, falling from 84,842 on Saturday to 83,324, which is down by about 1,518 cases.
A total of at least 1,027 patients continue to receive treatment in intensive care units.
From CNN's Elise Hammond
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned that the federal government needs to have a plan in place that prioritizes getting American workers' jobs back as big corporations start to reopen.
"You will see corporations using this pandemic to layoff workers," he said at a news briefing on Sunday. "We're going to 'right size' during this period. What does that mean? It means they're not going to rehire the same number of employees so they're going to boost their corporate profits by reducing the number of employees."
Cuomo said the "government should not subsidize their reduction of employees" and suggested the Americans First Law as a possible solution. The law states that if a corporation does not rehire the same number of employees they had before the pandemic, they have to return any government money they received, Cuomo said.
"We're not going to subsidize you to layoff workers. If you can layoff workers and you're saving money by laying off workers – you don't need the American taxpayer to subsidize you. Otherwise, you will never get those employment numbers back because that's what's going to happen all across the country," Cuomo said.
From CNN's Kristina Sgueglia
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going "region to region across the state" to determine what parts can reopen when New York's close down order expires on May 15.
The state has a “clear” and “uniformed” set of criteria based on data and science, the governor said Sunday during a news conference.
Local governments should start to look into two factors, the governor said:
More will come this week as the May 15 date approaches, Cuomo said.
From CNN's Elise Hammond
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined new guidelines that nursing homes and hospitals must follow in order to protect the elderly.
Cuomo said nursing homes are "ground zero" for Covid-19.
"They are the vulnerable population in the vulnerable location. Today we're taking additional steps to protect seniors in nursing homes," he said at a news briefing on Sunday.
Here are the new safety measures nursing homes must follow:
Cuomo said facilities must transfer any residents that they cannot take care of.
"If a nursing home cannot take care of a person, we have facilities that can," he said. "If they have a Covid positive person and they can't treat a Covid positive person, they must transfer the person or call the state Department of Health and the state Department of Health will transfer that person."
Cuomo said hospitals will also not be allowed to discharge patients to nursing homes unless they test negative for Covid-19.
"We're just not going to send a person who is positive to a nursing home after hospital visit. Period," Cuomo said. "If there's any issue, the resident must be referred to the department of health which will find alternative care."
If nursing homes do not follow these guidelines, Cuomo said they will lose their license.
"That's harsh. No. Harsh is having a nursing home resident who doesn't get the appropriate care. That's what's harsh. Having someone's parent or mother or brother where they're in a facility. They can't get a visitor. They're isolated. They feel alone and they're not getting the appropriate care. That is what is harsh," he said.
