May 15 coronavirus news

The United States could see its homeless population increase by 40% to 45% this year, according to an analysis by an economics professor at Columbia University.

The report was published by Community Solutions, a nonprofit organization to end homelessness.

More than 800,000 Americans will experience homelessness by this summer if it follows unemployment trends -- the way it did in the earlier part of the century, said Professor Brendan O'Flaherty, also a former aide to Newark Mayor Kenneth Gibson.

"If the projections of unemployment being made now turn out to be accurate, and the relationship between unemployment and homelessness follows the historical pattern, and no other major changes occur, that's what we can expect to happen."

How he calculated this analysis: O'Flaherty made this projection using data on homelessness and unemployment from 2007 to 2009. According to the report, it found that for every 1% increase in the unemployment rate, homelessness per 10,000 people increased by 0.65.

The baseline number of people experiencing homelessness was drawn from the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, and his model drew on projections for unemployment published by the Economic Policy Institute, according to the report. 

China reported four new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, according to the country's National Health Commission.

The new cases come from Jilin province in the northeast of the country, where a recent cluster of local infections has raised fears of a second wave and prompted fresh lockdown measures.

Jilin borders both Russia and North Korea, and concerns have previously been raised over imported cases from overseas causing a renewed outbreak.

There are also 11 new asymptomatic cases nationwide, which are counted separately from symptomatic cases, the NHC said today. Two of those were imported.

That raises mainland China's total to 82,933 infections since the start of the pandemic, and 4,633 related deaths. These totals don't reflect current active cases; so far, 78,209 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospital, according to the NHC.

The first known Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Bangladesh's refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, the United Nations said on Thursday, citing the Bangladeshi government.

The camps at Cox's Bazar are home to nearly a million Rohingya refugees, many of whom fled across the border to Bangladesh to escape violence in neighboring Myanmar. 

One of the confirmed cases was a Rohingya refugee, and the other was a Bangladeshi citizen who lives in the surrounding area of the camps, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

Bangladesh currently has at least 18,863 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 283 deaths, a tally from Johns Hopkins University shows.

Government response: The Bangladeshi government suspended most of the services within the densely populated camps in late March, including educational programs and other advocacy work.

Health officials have now begun to treat both patients while isolating and testing other refugees in the camps, the agency said.

Covid in the camps is "a nightmare": “The first positive case of Covid-19 in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh is the realization of a nightmare scenario,” said Daniel P. Sullivan, a senior advocate for human rights with the US-based organization Refugees International.

Sullivan also stressed the importance of the Bangladeshi government’s efforts to ensure open communication as well as more medical resources within the refugee camp to prevent and prepare for further spread.

CNN has reached out to the Bangladeshi government for a comment.

Mike Bowen, executive vice president of Prestige Ameritech, a medical supply company in Texas, said today the US dependence on foreign masks has been a national security issue for years.   

Bowen made the remarks today before a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

Foreign dependence: Bowen said the issue of US dependence on China for masks is “not some multibillion dollar problem.” The issue, he said, amounts to “people trying to save pennies across the whole United States.”

Bowen said to help end over-reliance on foreign suppliers, the US government should say it is a national security problem. "It requires the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), telling America's hospitals 'you’re dependent on foreign made masks’ and put them in legal liability. They have to protect their patients and staff," he added.

China controls most of the world’s mask supply, Bowen said. China sells a box of masks for $1, he said, while he sells them for about $5. “Their prices are so cheap that they've captured most of the world's mask market,” he said.

“Their masks cost less than the materials. If I take my labor costs totally out, I'm still nowhere near the cost of their products,” Bowen said.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has announced an “unprecedented” 18 billion euro ($19.4 billion) plan to support the country’s tourism industry.

Under the plan, tourism businesses will be eligible for grants of up to 10,000 euros ($10,800). There are also government-guaranteed loans totaling 6.2 billion euros ($6.7 billion).

Philippe said cafés and restaurants in green zones -- where the coronavirus epidemic is not as bad -- would reopen on June 2 as long as the situation doesn’t deteriorate.

For Paris and other areas in red zones, a decision to reopen cafés and restaurants would be made during the week of May 25.

He also thanked the tourism industry for guaranteeing that full refunds would be given for cancellations related to coronavirus. 

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro warned that more restrictive social isolation measures would break the country and said there wouldn’t be enough money to pay public sector workers.

Brazil reported its highest daily spike in new cases on Thursday, with nearly 14,000 infections.

Bolsonaro said quarantine measures already introduced by many governors across the country were making the crisis worse. “Brazil is turning into a country of poor people.” He warned, “there won’t be enough money to pay public sector workers.”

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil has risen to nearly 203,000, according to the country’s health ministry.

Brazil has the sixth highest number of coronavirus cases in the world. It stands behind the US, Russia, UK, Spain, and Italy, according to Johns Hopkins University.

At least 302,025 people have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tally of deaths across the world.

A total of at least 4,437,442 people have been infected with the virus globally, JHU data shows.

See CNN's global case tracker here:

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Tracking coronavirus' global spread

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Brazil has risen to at least 202,918, according to the country’s health ministry.

For the second day in a row, Brazil recorded its highest daily spike in new cases with 13,944 reported.

There were 844 new deaths registered in the past 24 hours, according to health ministry data. The total number of deaths in Brazil from Covid-19 is now at least 13,993.

What we know: Brazil is currently among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest number of coronavirus cases, ranking sixth, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It is the country with the most cases and deaths in Latin America.