May 16 coronavirus news

President Trump has not made a final decision on the restoration of funding to the World Health Organization, according to a tweet he sent Saturday morning.

This came in response to a report from Fox News that the administration was going to restore some funding to the WHO.

Fox obtained a five-page draft letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Friday that says the administration will "agree to pay up to what China pays in assessed contributions" to the WHO. A senior administration official told Fox that the President had agreed to the plan in the letter. 

Trump said the plan detailed in the report "is just one of numerous concepts being considered under which we would pay 10% of what we have been paying over many years, matching much lower China payments," adding that all funds to the WHO are still frozen.

Some context: Trump said Thursday that the White House will likely be making an announcement related to the WHO next week, after his administration sought to cast blame on the organization for not acting quick enough to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

In April, Trump announced he was halting funding to the WHO while a review would be conducted.

Read Trump's tweet:

Gatherings of large groups are beginning to happen again in the US but they may not look the way they once did and experts question if the public is ready for them at all.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said teams may open their facilities as soon as Tuesday — so long as it is permitted in their state and teams follow staffing restrictions. Players and coaches, however, won't start to return until next month.

In North Dakota, large gatherings like concerts, weddings, carnivals and graduations will soon be allowed to resume, with adherence to new guidelines, Gov. Doug Burgum announced Friday. Those guidelines include contactless payment, two seats in between patrons and disinfection between uses of equipment.

Florida amusement parks, like Walt Disney World, may soon be opening their doors as well. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order allowing counties to enter phase one of reopening and parks to submit re-opening proposals.

As those reopening plans continue, the 12 forecasting models tracked by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are predicting an increase in deaths in the coming weeks that could bring the nationwide death toll to 100,000 by June 1.

Currently, more than 1.4 million coronavirus cases and 87,000 deaths have been reported in the US.

It about 9:00 a.m. ET in the US. If you are just waking up, here are some of the top coronavirus headlines to get you caught up:

The president of the Madrid regional government has criticized the Spanish government's decision to delay the easing of anti-coronavirus restrictions in the country’s capital, she said in a statement on Saturday. 

Isabel Diaz Ayuso, elected from the Popular Party (PP), said the Socialist government’s decision to postpone Madrid’s re-opening a "political attack towards the community of Madrid,” calling the decision arbitrary and saying that no reason was given for the postponement. 

She also announced that a formal request will be sent to the Ministry of Health “to know the criteria used to deny Madrid from starting the next phase,” assuring that Madrid complies with all criteria needed to reopen the city. 

The Spanish government, led by the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), has been at odds with opposition parliamentarians and regional governments over the de-escalation strategy in recent weeks. 

Madrid remains the region most affected by the novel coronavirus in Spain with 8,826 deaths and a total of 66,210 diagnosed cases. 

Spanish health authorities reported the lowest daily increase in coronavirus deaths since mid-March on Saturday, as the number of new cases continues to slow down.

According to data from the Spanish Health Ministry, 27,563 have now died from Covid-19 in the country, an increase of 104 in the past 24 hours. It is the lowest daily increase since March 17.

"While it is painful that people continue to die from coronavirus, the numbers are favorable," Dr. Fernando Simon, Spain’s Director for Health Emergencies, said of the number of new deaths at the daily coronavirus briefing. 

The number of coronavirus cases rose to 230,698, an increase of 539 in the past 24 hours. It showed an increase of 0.2% on the previous day, continuing the deceleration trend seen in the past few weeks.

“Until now, we haven’t currently detected an active outbreak in any of the regions,” Simon said of the infections, while cautioning that Spaniards need to remain vigilant.

Simon made the remarks as the Spanish Health Ministry announced its testing capacity had increased by 18% in the past seven days, having conducted nearly 2 million tests since the outbreak began. In addition, more than 1 million rapid antibody tests have also been carried out.

Its health ministry also reported a total of 50,723 health workers have been infected with the virus since the start of the outbreak in the country, 268 more cases since Friday.

While the Spanish government has not given an official number of deaths among health workers, the General Council of Official Medical Colleges, the Spanish doctors’ professional body (CGCOM), reported 48 doctors have died victims of Covid-19 in the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday released a scientific brief on the multisystem inflammatory syndrome seen in some children and teens with Covid-19.

The brief described how clusters of children with the condition have emerged in Europe and North America, but an "urgent need" remains to collect additional data on the syndrome's clinical presentations, severity, outcomes and epidemiology.

The brief also provided a preliminary case of definition for the condition, noting that it is typically seen in children up to 19 years old who have a fever for at least three days and who have some symptoms including rash, hypotension or shock, myocardial dysfunction, diarrhea, vomiting or elevated markers of inflammation.

The brief also notes that cases would have no other microbial causes of inflammation, such as a bacterial infection, and that there would be evidence of Covid-19 or contact with someone with Covid-19.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on clinicians worldwide to "be on the alert and better understand this syndrome in children," in a post on Twitter on Saturday, which shared a link to the scientific brief.

Dozens of babies born to Ukrainian surrogate mothers are trapped in lockdown and unable to join their adoptive parents abroad as the country's borders remain closed, a prominent Ukrainian lawmaker said Thursday.

Lyudmila Denisova, the Ukrainian parliament's human rights ombudsman, said in a briefing on Thursday that she is working with the country's Foreign Ministry to help their parents get permits to enter the country, whose borders are shut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

BioTexCom, a reproduction clinic, said in a video posted online that 46 babies are currently in its care at the Hotel Venice, a facility in Kiev that parents from US, UK, Spain and other countries are hoping to reach so they can take home children born of surrogate mothers.

"We ask other countries to make an exception from their policy and to let their citizens to unite with their children," BioTexCom lawyer Denis Herman said in the video.

The clinic's video, which BioTexCom said was an attempt to raise awareness about the matter, has gone viral.

In total, around 100 babies are stranded in reproduction clinics across the country, according to Denisova, who visited the center. If borders in Ukraine remain closed, about 1,000 children could be stranded, she said in a Thursday briefing, citing BioTexCom estimates.

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Mexico reported an additional 2,437 coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest day-to-day increase for the country, according to a press conference by Mexico's General Director of Epidemiology Jose Luis Alomia.

Friday marks the second day in a row Mexico has reported more than 2,400 confirmed cases, bringing the case count to 45,032 across the country.

Despite mounting cases, a three-phased plan to re-open Mexico's economy beginning June 1 was announced this week.

No mass testing: Mexican health officials believe the outbreak will peak in this country no later than May 20, though some studies suggest it could arrive in late June, even as the country has one of the lowest testing rates in the world.

As of May 11, Mexico had only conducted 89 tests per 100,000 people, according to health ministry data. By contrast, the US tested at a rate nearly 32 times higher than that, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

But the lack of testing has prompted criticism that a dearth of confirmed data has left the government with, at best, an incomplete view of how bad the outbreak is just weeks before the country will start to re-open.

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A few days before Italy is set to lift restrictions across much of the country after being locked down since March 10, the streets of Venice are starting to spring back to life.

There are no tourists here just yet. Instead the noise is from vacuum cleaners and sanitation crews inside stores that are getting ready for the grand reopening on May 18.

But even as shop owners prepare for whatever post-lockdown Venice looks like, everyone here in this deserted tourist city is asking the same question: who are they reopening for?

Every year, as many as 30 million tourists from all over the world descend on Venice, pumping up to $2.5 billion into the local economy, according to the Italian tourism ministry.

But few are Italians, who have never been as enamored with the lagoon city as the rest of the world, according to Matteo Secchi, head of the tourist group Venessia, who says Venice has always attracted far more international tourists than national ones.

"When the city reopens next week, it will still be much like it looks today," he told CNN in an eerily empty Venice this week. "Tourists won't really start coming back until the borders are reopened and international travel is allowed."

Not everyone wants things to go back to business as usual.

Jane da Mosto, who heads non-profit group We Are Here Venice, has been fighting to get policy-makers to understand the advantages of sustainable tourism for the city by launching campaigns to keep massive cruise ships out of the historical harbor and studying the options for preventing flooding like the city endured last fall.

She sees the pandemic as a turning point for the city, and envisions a new Venice emerging in the post-pandemic world.

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